The Rapture could happen at any moment — and Matthew 24-25 tells us exactly what the signs will look like for those who are left behind. This supplement helps you hold both truths simultaneously: imminence (the Rapture is always near) and readiness (the signs of the end are identifiable).

Many preachers continually declare to their congregations that such is the will of God. They're told this kind of experience must be God's will in order to keep them saved and train them in Christian graces.

Preachers give various reasons to prove their claim that the sufferings mentioned above must be God's will—otherwise, He wouldn't have allowed them. One preacher writes, "Our trials are not accidents which have come into our lives, neither are they calamities which will ruin us. Our trials are our opportunities from which we learn many lessons which better prepare us for the service of God... No Christian is exempt from trials."

This teaching is perfectly fine if applied to ordinary tests of faith, persecutions, suffering injustices for the cause of Christ, or simply because we live in a fallen world where ungodly people cause the godly to suffer in the course of life. But if this teaching is used to suggest that Christians must suffer sin, sickness, and pain as being God's will—that they must live in poverty to keep their salvation, or suffer failure in business—then such an argument is completely wrong.

The preacher mentioned above offers proof that Christians must suffer sicknesses and other afflictions because Abraham was tested to offer up Isaac (Gen. 22), Joseph was tested when he was put in prison for no personal wrongdoings (Gen. 39-41), and Paul suffered beatings, buffeting, dangers, perils, slander, distresses, hungers, nakedness, stonings, imprisonments, and shipwrecks.

As we've said before, if preachers would limit their doctrine to these kinds of sufferings and trials and not include sickness, sin, and failure in life—things Christ died to deliver us from here and now—there would be some truth to their doctrine of suffering for Christians.

Naturally, God did test Abraham to see if he would withhold Isaac from Him, and there's no doubt God will test every Christian in this respect to learn whether they'll submit to Him completely or not. It's true that Joseph suffered wrongfully, but this doesn't mean every Christian will go to jail sometime in their life. This doesn't mean God sent Joseph to jail to teach him lessons.

God did not send Joseph to jail at all. Wicked men caused this, but since it happened, God used it as a means of exalting Joseph. He could and would have exalted him otherwise if Joseph had never seen a jail.

It's also true that Paul suffered because of wicked men seeking to eradicate the gospel, but this doesn't mean God sent every trial upon Paul. God was not responsible for one stone thrown at Paul, nor for one stripe laid upon him. He did not directly send or will for such things to happen to Paul. God knew the first pioneers of Christianity would suffer, and He selected Paul because he had qualities that would go through any kind of suffering for the sake of the gospel and still remain true to God.

God uses all trials to teach us lessons, and He can turn our trials into great blessings for us and others. But this doesn't mean God sends the trials just to teach these lessons or to make us a blessing through such sufferings.

Think of it like this: If my son gets into trouble by committing sin or by being wrongfully accused, it's my duty to come to his rescue and help him out of trouble. Whether or not he sinned or is to blame is irrelevant—it's still my duty to teach him certain lessons and help him become a better man by helping him through his trouble. Without tribulations, some lessons might not have been learned. But it would be foolish to say I was responsible for getting him into these troubles just to teach him these lessons. That would be unjust, ungodly, and unlike a true parent.

So it is with God. He is never guilty of causing any of His children to get in jail, be stoned, beaten with rods, shipwrecked, defamed, hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, poverty-stricken, or suffer failure of any kind just to teach them certain lessons.

The lesson we must learn from Scripture is that God is not the direct cause of such suffering. He will stand by us and help us out of our troubles, regardless of how we got there. Or, as in the case of Stephen, James, and others, He will take us to eternal glory should we suffer death for the cause of Christ on Earth.