Nuggets from "Whatever Happened to Heaven?" by Dave Hunt | thebereancall.org

Hunt, Dave

Nuggets from "Whatever Happened to Heaven?" by Dave Hunt

Christ was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and He told His disciples that they (and that would include us today) should not expect to be treated any better than He was. It was in obedience to His Father that He allowed Himself to be slain, because it was through death that He would “destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil’’ (Hebrews:2:14). So Paul in the Roman epistle is declaring that the same fate will befall many Christians, but that just as our Lord triumphed in death and suffering, so we shall also. This Scripture does not teach that the Christian will be able through the power of God to escape suffering and death but that we will conquer through suffering and death. This was Paul’s own experience. To Timothy he wrote:

"But thou has fully known my doctrine [note the first thing he mentions, the foundation of all that follows], manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came upon me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra [and many other places]; what persecutions I endured; but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" (2 Timothy:3:10-12).