rbc

(originally written in the summer of 1995) Just after the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, it seems there were many questions… Read More »How Could God Let This Happen?

In this day of religious toleration and widespread acceptance of “new and better” things, many long-held beliefs and practices have come under scrutiny. Claiming that… Read More »Can a Woman be a Man of God?

(copied from Brother Herb Evans) A GREEK TRAGEDY A certain Bible college was teaching the “original” Greek to its eager students. The students were supposed… Read More »A Greek Tragedy

I copied this from a friend. It’s typical of your modern Bible college graduate, who gets educated beyond his spirituality. I know preachers whom I… Read More »If a modern Bible “scholar” evaluated “Jack and Jill”

In an age where lack of political correctness is viewed as a character flaw, there is increased pressure on Christians and churches (from within and… Read More »Unconditional Compromise

This is from the tail end of a discussion I was in about Bible correctors among fundamental Baptists. Well, so much for Wycliffe’s desire “that… Read More »Bible-correcting Fundamental Baptists

Some time back while studying Hebrews 2, a thought occurred to me: Suffering made Jesus what he is today. Now, we know that Jesus knew all things from the point of view of scientific knowledge. But he did not know all things experientially (“…yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered”). That stayed with me. Below are several of my musings on the topic. Perhaps they will at some point be part of a more formal writing.
(Note: this has not been editted much; it’s mostly as I originally wrote it, so it’s somewhat raw)

The word “suffer” seems akin to permit or endure (Matthew 3:15, “…suffer it to be so…”, 1 Timothy 2:12, “…I suffer not a woman to teach…”). Carries the distinct connotation of “going through” something. The latin root meaning (transliterated) “to bear under.” That latin root, ferre, may be akin to the word ferry. It cannot be separated from endure, actually.

By its definition, it implies discomfort, whether physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, or other. We do not “suffer” things that please us – we enjoy them. We do not endure comfort, we welcome it. We may endure something which is not painful, but whatever we endure is almost always uncomfortable. That is how we define these things in our mind. Comfort and discomfort do not co-exist, and by the same token, then, neither do enjoyment and enduring, or pleasure and suffering (at least, not to the carnal man).
Read More »Musings on suffering