DISCIPLE

  by Camilo Vásquez “Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations” (1 Pet. 1:6).     How long will this pandemic last?  Some health authorities indicate that from the time the first case is detected it will be 12 weeks till the height of the crisis is reached, and from there the effects could last up to two years.     Although this pandemic affects the entire world and is not directed particularly at God’s people, it is still a trial of faith for every believer.  For example, we are told that in the days of the Roman emperor Claudius there was a great famine in all the territory dominated by Rome. This affected even the church in Judea and mobilized the brethren in Antioch to send relief (Acts 11:28-30).     Peter speaks of the trials of God’s people as lasting “for a season,” which means “briefly.” But God’s idea of brief is different from ours. This...

There is no doubt that in the case of some believers God's Spirit seemed at the time to work so irresistibly that they most naturally infer this to be always the case with every believer, and because they have utterly forgotten their resistance to all God's previous strivings with themselves (by His word, by His providences, and by His Spirit), they conclude that the time when they did yield to His gracious influence was what they call "God's own good time," that then, and then only, an "effectual call" had been made; being utterly forgetful of the fact that the term "effectual call" is quite an unscriptural teaching,* and that "God's own good time" in Scripture is always "now" - "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." (2 Cor. 6:2). * The unscriptural teaching involved in the doctrine of "outward calls" and "effectual calls" to unbelievers must no...