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<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER">“<b>TWO
ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><b>Jim
& Marie Watt</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><b>Tel:
253-517-9195 - Email: <a href="mailto:jmbetter@gmail.com">jmbetter@gmail.com</a></b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><b>Web:
<a href="http://www.2rbetter.org/">www.2rbetter.org</a></b></p><p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER">February 27, 2012</p><p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><br></p>
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<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><b>2012-02-26
- THROUGH TRIBULATION - Chapter 2 - H.A. Baker</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><b>THROUGH
TRIBULATION TO HEAVEN</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><b>THE
UNVARYING PRINCIPLE OF REDEMPTION</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><b>A.
THE SAINTS, THE CHURCH, SHOULD NOT EXPECT TO ESCAPE TRIBULATION </b>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><b>BUT
TO ENTER THE KINGDOM THROUGH GREAT TRIBULATION</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
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.</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
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.</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
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.</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
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.</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
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.</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>Proof
text: Take heed that no man lead you astray.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>For
they shall deliver you up to councils; ... you shall be beaten:</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>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.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>- an
example of suffering and of patience, the prophets ... them blessed
that endured. James 5:7-10, 11.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>- in
me, you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation: ... John
16:33</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>-
some of them ... shall fall, to refine them, and to purify, ... to
make them white, ... to the time of the end. Daniel 11:35.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>-
Many shall purify themselves, ... make themselves white, ... be
refined; ... Daniel 12:10</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>- 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.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>- any
man ... take up his cross, ... whoever would save his life shall lose
it: Matt. 16:24-25.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>- 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.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>-
joint heirs with Christ: ... suffer with him ... be also glorified
with him. Romans 8:16-17.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>- 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.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>- 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.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>-
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</b><span style>
</span><b>suffered the lost of all things, ... that I may gain
Christ. Acts 14:19-22; Phil. 3:8.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>-
power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, ...
death; ... I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead. Phil.
3:10-11.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>-
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.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>-
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.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>-
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.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>Note:
</b><span style> 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.</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><span style>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.</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><span style>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.</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><span style>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 </span><b>old</b><span style>.</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="CENTER"><b>B.
THE SAINTS WILL BE KEPT THROUGH THE GREAT TRIBULATION</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
The Lord will keep His saints through all of earth's great
tribulation. Jesus prayed not that the Father should take His
disciples <b>out</b> of the world by a rapture to heaven. On the
contrary, He sent them <b>into</b> 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.</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
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.</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>Proof
text: ... you should keep them from the evil ... God is faithful ...
John 17:15; 1 Cor. 10:13.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>-
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.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>- 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.</b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>Note:
</b><span style>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.</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><span style>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 </span><b>“Fox's Book
of Martyrs”</b><span style> 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 </span><b>“Total
Terror,”</b><span style> 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 </span><b>in it</b><span style>.</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
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?</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>I
</b><span style>“infer” that all of Darby's
“inferences” about there being for </span><b>any</b><span style>
generation of saints any way to glory but the way of the cross
through great tribulation are wrong “inferences.”</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><b>Conclusion</b><span style>:
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.</span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><u><b>FINAL
NOTE</b></u><span style="text-decoration:none"><b>: 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</b></span></p>
<p style="margin-top:0.01in;margin-bottom:0in" align="LEFT"><br>
</p>
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