Through Tribulation - Chapter 2 - H.A. Baker

[Jim Watt]

“*TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES*

*Jim & Marie Watt*

*Tel: 253-517-9195 - Email: jmbetter at gmail.com*

*Web: www.2rbetter.org*

February 27, 2012


 *2012-02-26 - THROUGH TRIBULATION - Chapter 2 - H.A. Baker*


 *THROUGH TRIBULATION TO HEAVEN*

*THE UNVARYING PRINCIPLE OF REDEMPTION*


 *A. THE SAINTS, THE CHURCH, SHOULD NOT EXPECT TO ESCAPE TRIBULATION *

*BUT TO ENTER THE KINGDOM THROUGH GREAT TRIBULATION*

The true saints of the true Church should not expect to escape tribulation.
On the other hand, it is only through tribulation that they can enter the
blessings of the kingdom. They will be beaten and led to judgment before
kings and councils. Brother will deliver brother to death, and the father
his child. Unbelieving children will deliver their Christian parents to
death, and the true saints will be hated of all men. Beholding the
suffering and patience of the prophets, he who like them endures suffering
in patience “until the coming of the Lord,” will be blessed.


 The world hated Christ and persecuted Him. In the world we, too, will have
tribulation. The servant is not above his lord. Except a man bear a cross
and be willing to renounce all that he has - father, mother, sister,
brother, children - and willing to suffer and give his life in death, he
cannot be Christ's perfect disciple. He will be a joint heir with Christ in
glory if he now be a partaker with Him in suffering.


 After we have suffered with Him, then will we be perfected, established,
and strengthened to rejoice with Him at the revelation of His glory. This
path of entering the kingdom through suffering is the path that all the
saints of old have trod. It is the road over which all the saints of the
present must pass. Paul having been persecuted, scourged, stoned, and
dragged about; having counted all things but loss and desiring to be
crucified as was the Lord, was passing through trials on the way to the
glories of the resurrection life from among the dead.


 Paul said that “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of
God.” The saints of old, bound for the city whose builder and maker was
God, and on the way to the resurrection had trials of mocking and
scourgings, bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned and sawn asunder. They
were tempted and slain. They were destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, and
were driven out to wander in deserts and mountains and caves and holes of
the earth.


 Therefore we, their successors, encompassed about by all these witnesses
must enter their kingdom and share their glory by passing over the same
road of suffering they have gone. By the same process as the Lord used in
days of old will we be perfected in following the same Perfecter who, for
the joy set before Him, endured the cross and all shame and has now sat
down on the right hand of the throne of God.


 *Proof text: Take heed that no man lead you astray.*

*For they shall deliver you up to councils; ... you shall be beaten:*

*And when they lead you to judgment, ... brother shall deliver up brother
do death, and the father his child, and children shall rise up against
parents, and cause them to be put to death, ... you shall be hated of all
men for my name's sake: but he that endures to the end time shall be saved.
Mark 13:4, 5, 9-13.*

*- an example of suffering and of patience, the prophets ... them blessed
that endured. James 5:7-10, 11.*

*- in me, you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation: ... John
16:33*

*- some of them ... shall fall, to refine them, and to purify, ... to make
them white, ... to the time of the end. Daniel 11:35.*

*- Many shall purify themselves, ... make themselves white, ... be refined;
... Daniel 12:10*

*- the world hated you. ... A servant is not greater than his lord. If they
persecuted me, they will also persecute you. John 15: 19-20.*

*- any man ... take up his cross, ... whoever would save his life shall
lose it: Matt. 16:24-25.*

*- man comes ... hates not his own father, and mother, and wife, and
children, and brethren, and sisters; yes, and his own life also, he cannot
be my disciple. .. not bear his own cross, ... cannot be my disciple. ...
whoever he be ... that renounces not all that he has, he cannot be my
disciple. Luke 14:26, 27-33.*

*- joint heirs with Christ: ... suffer with him ... be also glorified with
him. Romans 8:16-17.*

*- you are partakers of Christ's sufferings, ... at the revelation of his
glory also you may rejoice with exceeding joy. 1 Peter 4:12-13.*

*- we are to suffer affliction; 1 Thess. 3:4. ... the same sufferings are
accomplished in your brethren who are in the world ... after that you have
suffered ... shall himself perfect, establish and strengthen you. 1 Peter
5:8-10.*

*- Antioch ... Iconium: ... stoned Paul, and dragged him out of the city,
supposing that he was dead ... exhorting them ... and that through many
tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God. ... I count all things
to be loss ... I* *suffered the lost of all things, ... that I may gain
Christ. Acts 14:19-22; Phil. 3:8.*

*- power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, ...
death; ... I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead. Phil. 3:10-11.*

*- longsuffering, ... patience, persecutions, sufferings; ... persecutions
I endured: and out of them all the Lord delivered me. ... all that would
live godly ... shall suffer persecution. 2 Tim. 3:11-13.*

*- dead by a resurrection: and others were tortured, not accepting their
deliverance: ... better resurrection: ... trial of mockings and scourgings,
... bonds and imprisonment: ... stoned, ... sawn asunder, ... slain with
the sword: they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins; being destitute,
afflicted, ill-treated; ... wandering in deserts and mountain and caves and
the holes of the earth. Heb. 11:35-38.*

*- Therefore ... let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus ... for the joy ... endured the cross, despising the
shame; ... sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb. 12:1-2.*


 *Note: * Saints who have gone before us were kept in times of tribulation,
as great tribulation as ever could come to man. Daniel was kept from the
lions, and his friends were kept through the fiery furnace. So also were
the children of Israel kept during the plagues of Egypt. The prophets were
kept during great tribulation in Old Testament days until their testimony
was complete. In New Testament days the apostles and prophets and saints of
God were kept. Paul and Silas in prison and Peter also in prison were kept
and delivered.


 Of course, the real saints of God have always suffered in this evil world
that the devil has made a world of great tribulation; but, the true saints
suffer no more and no less that is the will of God, so long as they are
yielded to His whole will. They suffer only as much as is best for their
own spiritual development and for the advancement of the kingdom of God.
Until their work is finished the true saints will continue their witness in
spite of any and all tribulation.


 When their work is done and their testimony is complete, the Lord will
take them home, perhaps by a martyr's death. But, even so, not a hair of
their head will perish, for body and spirit are perfectly and eternally
saved in Jesus' resurrection from the dead. Thus the saints are kept safe
before death, at the time of death, and through the resurrection after
death.


 A wide-spread theory that there is to be a final group of saints under the
reign of anti-Christ, called “tribulation saints” is one of the many
“inferences” started by Darby and his Plymouth Brethren. As a matter of
history the true saints of God have been “tribulation saints” ever since
there have been saints on earth. The spirit of the anti-Christ has always
been here, too. The last years of earth will be an intensifying of what has
already been experienced - not something new, but more of the *old*.


 *B. THE SAINTS WILL BE KEPT THROUGH THE GREAT TRIBULATION*

The Lord will keep His saints through all of earth's great tribulation.
Jesus prayed not that the Father should take His disciples *out* of the
world by a rapture to heaven. On the contrary, He sent them *into* the
world to endure its tribulation, during which they would be kept from Satan
and his powers. The saints will be kept in the days of tribulation, for
Jesus' prayer is certain of an answer.


 With temptations and trials God, who is faithful, will make a way of
escape. In times of temptation and tribulation He will deliver His people
from the snare and pestilence and the arrows that fly by day and the terror
by night. He will give His angels charge over His saints to keep them in
all of their ways in any tribulation.


 *Proof text: ... you should keep them from the evil ... God is faithful
... John 17:15; 1 Cor. 10:13.*

*- under the shadow of the Almighty. Surely he shall deliver you from the
snare of the fowler, ... You shall not be afraid ... for the arrow ... he
shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. Psalm
91:3, 5, 11.*

*- For I will give you a mouth of wisdom, which all your adversaries shall
not be able to gainsay nor resist. ... there shall not a hair of your head
perish. In your patience possess your souls. Luke 21:15-19.*


 *Note: *That the church should go through all of earth's age-long great
tribulation is consistent with the unvarying principle of God's dealing
with His children. Every son He receives He scourges. The saints in all
past ages have entered the kingdom of God through great tribulation and
suffering.


 From the day Abel was murdered to the day of the last Old Testament
martyr, what was the experience of the prophets and holy men of God if not
a march to glory over the rough road of great tribulation? On what road to
glory did the apostles and holy men in New Testament days, from the murder
of Stephen on, travel, if not the great tribulation road that passed
through martyrs' graves? If not through great tribulation, by what road was
it the saints from the first to the present century have come on down? Read
*“Fox's Book of Martyrs”* and you will know. For thirty years in Russia,
and longer in South America, and right now in China and all red countries
are the best of saints bing caught away from great tribulation, or are they
in the furnace of fire, fire as hot as saints have ever seen? Read *“Total
Terror,”* by Kalme, and tell me if there has been, or ever can be, worse
torture and more intense suffering that that endured in our day by saints
as good as ever have lived and as good, many of them, as ever will live. If
any of these have been falsely taught that they would be caught away out of
great tribulation, they have found their mistaken teaching. They are now
caught *in it*.


 On what principle, then, should any present-day Christians be taught that
the present Church is to be an exception and “escape” any great
tribulation? Looks strange. One-third of the world's population with its
Christians already being chewed in the red dragon's mouth and the rest
being drawn in, and yet we, who are still free, are to be a unique
exception; they say! On what grounds are we to be an exception? Are we more
virtuous than others - Daniel, the prophets, the apostles, the saints of
all preceding ages? How would the present ease-loving non-cross-bearing,
half-converted Church of our day feel over in glory-land after getting
there on flowery beds of ease and then seeing the martyrs marching by?
Would they not wish to return to earth and return again to heaven over the
blood-saturated road the saints before have gone?


 *I *“infer” that all of Darby's “inferences” about there being for
*any*generation of saints any way to glory but the way of the cross
through
great tribulation are wrong “inferences.”


 *Conclusion*: Since the Bible, from the beginning to end, teaches that
suffering tribulation on the way to glory is the way saints of old have
gone and saints in the future must go, the Church will go through the great
tribulation to its end.


 *FINAL NOTE**: A friend of mine has alerted me to the thoroughly Biblical
teaching of David Pauson of England. One of his teachings is on the Book of
Revelation - and deals with the same subject above - namely: the time of
the Rapture from a Biblical perspective. I was challenged with his
presentation, and believe if any of you want another perspective on what H.
A. Baker is presenting on the Tribulation - then this could be a clear help
to you. I am adding it to this note so that if you wish, you may Download
his CD presentation. His spirit is certainly in line with the Spirit of
God. - Jim Watt*


 *BookofRevelationSeminar08of10.mp3*
23351K   Play
Download<?ui=2&ik=0d72e9a62f&view=att&th=135a756e93c5f9a5&attid=0.1&disp=safe&zw>



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