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There has always been a lot to say, since Job and doubtless before, about the way God rules.

It is in one sense grimly amusing, like seeing a kid thumb its nose to an Army; in another, impertinent, like the scene of a student 'shooting the lip' at his/her teacher - and more recently, simply shooting without the advantages of verbal limitations, by grey and gleaming gun. But the worst of it is this: it is ingratitude in action, like the torrents of water in a flood. It surges, knows not what it does, leaps, swallows, gurgles and gluttonises in destruction.

The destruction of Christ, as far as it was possible, by slow crucifixion amidst mockery, was the final expression of rebellion against God, on the part of His critics.

• But WHAT in the world was there to criticise in Christ ?

But then they forget Christ.
 

• Since HE IS THE PLAN, is it not strange that in this historical oblivion, they so criticise the plan, by talking about what it is not, and not talking AT ALL about it! Here is heedlessness on legs, recklessness with ruin, irrationality with relish!

It is like forgetting the life-saver, and storming at the rocks which crush you, ignoring the help you reject.

It is like swearing at the captain of your ship, as it sinks, because you do not feel like entering a life boat. It is the ultimate and acme of folly. Shall a runaway child criticise his/her parents because of an accident on the road as he runs, regardless and rebellious, from home ? But here, a mere man criticises God because His plan rejected, His program despised and not even MENTIONED!

God ? It seems the thrust is this: HE does not adjust the weights and sufferings of this world TO TASTE (with side-orders of delight) ? Very well!  His divine  ways are then denigrated, His results are made in some feisty comedy, or gaunt tragedy of words, the toast of cursing. Such is the generic way of this sort of thing, in whatever current mode the deployment of words may occur: some more, some less, they all tend to judge the Judge, and show contempt for the Creator, even while they ignore His plan and turn from His salvation like a man starving with no money, who curses or flings far from even his thought, the very jewels which have been provided for him to take and use!

Why this is so, we shall consider shortly.
 
 

WHAT SORT of a plan is this ? asks the writer in The Advertiser.  At the Royal Adelaide Show some contraption for thrills, being ill-checked by the authorities, it seems from subsequent remarks about the METHODS of dealing with such things on the part of Authority, broke. It fell apart;  and people were hurt, some very badly indeed.

"If this is part of a grand plan, where is the fairness? " he asks. "Why should innocent people be singled out and badly injured in a freak accident ? Some  plan," he comments with an acrid acidulosity, as if the nose must be assaulted if the tongue did not respond. The parents will weep, he indicates: "Is it any wonder I am sceptical about life's grand plan ? And envious of those who believe there is one ?"

Such is the attack on the PLAN and on the PLANNER, whether or not the writer believes in God: you attack what you censure, even if you do not know whose work it is, and whatever you believe. God has planned; this attacks the plan; and hence, without being explicit, implicitly this discourse is attacking God. Indeed, as to the work of God, it is clear that the conception has at least occurred to the writer, since he refers to those who DO believe in a plan; and since the 'GRAND PLAN' conception has been also explicitly unveiled as a concept in his writing, in order to be rejected, it is apparent that any being responsible has his most ardent criticism. He refuses to believe, indeed, in such a planner, because in his view the results of any such plan are so dismal as to remove the concept of ANY work being done on it at ALL! That appears to be the level of his taunt ? jaunt ? tirade ? you may judge for yourself.
 
 

It is to the point to note that an exceedingly small accident, based as it may well be, on lack of planning on the part of Government authority, in NOT instituting adequate objective checks, duly certified, on such things as amusement park machinery, becomes an assault on the work of that Being whom the world calls God!

This is like the spark that ignites the inferno. Imagine if the author of this newspaper writing had someone insult him and tell him, something like this: Your work is so ill-conceived, badly executed and shoddy, that frankly I cannot believe any human being wrote it, or for that matter, in the concept of an actual newspaper employing such a being, or indeed existing at all, in view of such degradation of the literary art and abuse of the rational proclivities of man, as appear on this page. As to any author of this ill-planned literary presentation, I deny your existence; and as to those who believe it is the case that you exist, how I envy them. For my part, I CANNOT conceive that there could be a writer of this material AT ALL!

Now if THIS were to be said,  would be regarded as libel, perhaps ? It would seem to lack all virtue as an assault, would it not ? It would be personal and to putrify the name of the writer. Who would dare so to speak, and for what purpose ? If they disagree, surely they could rather rationally write the refutation of the work, as we shall do here, in the name of the Lord. That would be far better than such a counter-tirade or attack as that envisioned above! However, this imaginary exercise, by bringing it down to human terms, does illustrate what is being done. Thus we begin to see the radical and gross character of the assault on God, which is here implicit, by simply imagining anyone would speak in such a way to any other writer, in place of reasoned and careful survey of the scene, when with due claim, the material is presented !

But now, let us return from our noetic experiment, our imagining such things occurring ON OUR OWN PLANE, simply to stir thought, to the facts.
 

• It is true that in the -

 
• absence of


1) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT (as here) of the salvation plan of God, as of any

2) ACCEPTANCEof it, as in the case of billions, and

• substitution for it, as occurs by statistics at least, in the case also of billions of the 6 plus billion apparently living on God's earth, of plans which the Lord has NOT shown or attested in any rational or evidential way, but which man has chosen for his own heedless part;  and in the

 
• ignoring of this plan by the United Nations as it invokes whatever gods it may have in mind, from time to time, secular humanism perhaps, or some other preference, and on the part of virtually every nation on earth in its practical considerations and policies (which, when they may include some elements of compassion, are not thereby in line with the purity and principles of God, which involve the SOLUTION and not merely the treatment of the pain and suffering, from time to time, on this or that ad hoc basis, ignoring the provisions of God in their scheme and scope), and indeed in the reckless

 
• provision of the exact opposite of the plan of God, and of His words,  in idolatries of many kinds, cruelties as policy, world dominion as principle of operation, self-interest by individual and nation ('national interest', or for that matter, 'international interest' as humanism tilts at God and makes its arrogance reach to the heavens),

 
• there are results!

However, God has NOT done nothing. He is the One on whom ANY system and ALL systems depend for their existence, so that the moment they are contrary to His righteousness, they do not exist, OR have a remedy according to His will and plan, to operate in them until the time for it is finished, as in our actual case (cf. Benevolent Brightness or Broth Bane  87).

Always what He would be, God never changes. It is the products which change. They do not evolve (cf. That Magnificent Rock Chs.  1,  8, A Spiritual Potpourri Chs. 1-9, SM. Ch. 2), and the evidence is universally, by scientific method, to the contrary. On the contrary, it is to the effect that  the world continues on the grand PHYSICAL and BIOLOGICAL PLAN with which it was invested. NEVER do we find these extra-terrestrial intelligences, for which so many US billions are spent in seeking to entertain the idea, or them; never do we find an increase in information in the derivations, generation by generation, of the KINDS which were created. Instead, we receive simply diversification on the pattern provided; never do we see the laws which generate realities, only the laws which are applicable in them.

The world goes as made, and its ways are merely observed by man ... and criticised. Its provisions are assaulted in our marvellous industrial excesses, so that the very oceans are challenged to surge in power and rising water levels, onto the many coastal areas. Vivisection is practised with a lack of concern or trust in the Lord, which would abuse His creations for our Self-interest. It is all very good and right, is it not! or so it is affirmed. How could this be so ? It is because of double standards, so convenient; but we ARE SO compassionate and concerned and all that! Right ? Anyone willing to differ ? YES! Decidedly so, and now and here. It is NOT compassionate, it does NOT display trust in the Lord to be cruel to His other creations in the interests of changing things our way. Deal with plagues by all means; but do not BE ONE to what is NOT an affliction... that is, if you do not in principle, feel HAPPY TO HAVE THIS DONE BACK TO YOURSELF. You CANNOT have it both ways. Give what you want to get.

Nor is this all we do with such beautiful serenity and 'innocence', that seems to have been the word chosen by our author.

We are, after all, free to invent gender deviations and political lusts, and to do what we please JUST SO LONG AS A MAJORITY OF US WANT IT, so that brothels can become legal, making woman traffic media; and you can GIVE children by scientific intrusion, to sexual perverts, and ask them to bring them up in the way that seems good to them! Free ? But of course. Freedom is God, so long as it is democratic! Is that not it! That appears to be the lovely, innocent design of the critics, of those who would criticise the Lord.

And God, what with Him ? Would He perhaps be invited or arraigned, as when Christ was here, and told what to do, and then to cease doing it, and then allowed to cease on this earth so that the perfectly innocent people who allegedly inhabit it, might continue to do with Someone else's property, rules, laws and creation, EXACTLY what they please, and THEN be displeased, because when it all worked out, it did not please them after all! It sounds like children.

GOD, then,  SHOULD INTERVENE all the time, to make things nice and agreeable, and suspend the laws of physics which we are coming to know so well, of chemistry, of engineering aspects of the physical, of the mind and of the heart, to ensure that nothing ever goes wrong in this most moral of all worlds, where everybody is so innocent of every conceivable thing that it is a wonder the world does not sit down and worship itself!

But it DOES! That is precisely the present trend of events. The UN and the WCC play fast and loose with God as we have seen repeatedly (as in The Other News Appendix 1, Acme, Alpha and Omega - Jesus Christ   Ch. 3, SMR pp. 743ff., Barbs, Arrows and Balms - BAB - Appendix IV):

• they ignore Him, or
• adjust Him, or
• alter His word,
• practising philosophic invasions as in Liberation Theology
• while many theologians despise the divine personality to the point of wanting to obliterate it, or
  
  
• irrationally degrade His Christ to some sort of super-star, or
• make something quite different, of their own taste ... (cf. SMR Ch.  6,  9, Repent or Perish Ch. 2, Tender Times for Timely Truths Ch. 8, AAA  9, Biblical Blessings Appendix IV) or
  
  
• seek to subdue Christ to the confines of their social awareness department,
• or whatever else; perhaps invent the
• revised version, revolutionary 'christ', or even submit
• 'the idiot'  (YES, that was one of the RECEIVED versions - cf. SMR Ch. 6) or
• whatever else seems modish or pleasant or instructive:

 
• without any regard to reason (as in SMR Chs. 1-3,10)
• or righteousness.

Accordingly, our newspapers do not hesitate to conduct the sport to the readers. Let us be clear. Such is the profusion of confusion, the mental and spiritual contusion as these things and such things are wrought towards the Creator of our own equipment, physical, mental and spiritual, not to say moral, that many have not the slightest idea what they are doing (cf. Luke 23:34). Negative considerations appear similarly to apply. Thus, when Dr Kouznetsov with his three bio-science doctorates, visited Adelaide, one found it virtually IMPOSSIBLE to have ANY (of the two available) newspapers PUBLISH THAT SIMPLE FACT!
 
 

News ? Of course, that so distinguished a Russian should be visiting our State Capital and addressing our University, a full professor from the recent adversary, Russia, and one speaking his mind. But what was in his mind to speak ? CREATION. He had already noted that in the USA it was more difficult to espouse creation than it was in Russia, and now this! He ADVOCATED FREEDOM TO THINK for students, and NOT the dogmatic indoctrination with evolutionary theory, which he for one cold not fit with the facts; and he said so, in no uncertain terms at the University, unannounced as he in many ways, was (cf. SMR pp. 218-221).

And what must be said of all these things, in their various categories, now small, now great ?

Provocation ? Ignoring ! Incredible and unabashed failure to present the work of God according to the BIBLE AND SCIENCE! And what of our schools! Made in this regard, into propaganda camps in precisely the ways outlined in detail in That Magnificent Rock Ch. 8.

As to that: these facts are not uncertain and unsure. They have been vindicated and presented endlessly to this Government, and to the last, and to the one before that; but no one will act. One who became a Minister for Education, requested that we re-write what was the grossly discriminatory abuse of religious liberty found in the Circular to Principals in this State. Small wonder he suffered so far, for this Circular was and is one requiring such follies of unobjective authoritarianism in education as can scarcely seem credible for Australia - but these facts must be credited, though discreditable, for they are demonstrable and attested in the reference provided above.

This much yielded, conceded, and the work of re-writing done, what however was the result of these labours ? This: then both he and his Premier IGNORED what was provided. The practice proceeded when they came to power (for this group had been in opposition, when this matter was presented to them). They continued, as the Government to this day continues to INSTRUCT with this style of wanton avoidance, and intrusive preference, and in effect, to treat as pulp for production lines IN THIS RESPECT, the minds of the afflicted, commonly known as students.

They do this and it is surprising that some LITTLE THING  - it is not that suffering of even ONE person is unimportant, but when you compare it with TENS OF THOUSANDS of abused child minds, at the word of this government, it is in that respect little - goes wrong! This great city, God dares to allow it to have an accident! They with whom purposeful activity of the most outrageous, continued and appalling kind continues towards (relatively) 'innocent' youth! You pour hot boiling water down the necks of a hundred thousand children (over the years) and you wonder why your own hand is scalded! This community is to be immune because it is outrageous in government, yes, in 3 governments in such dimensions. The  morally all-powerful community of wonder is to be sovereign and without vulnerability, even while, through its government, it molests the minds of thousands of the young!

When will this mockery cease! This is MERELY ONE EXAMPLE, and it is used because it is known in DETAIL, and because the government has ignored it in a way which is documented and sure. But the world is in a state not dissimilar, if not too often so intrusively provocative (except in dictatorial States) as in this S.A. case. The fatal feature in this particular Australian State,  is this: that NOT ONLY is this attack on the creation, as it shows itself to be (yes, and consult on that topic, A Spiritual Potpourri Chs. 1-3 as well as the above references), an assault on junior minds which should be protected and enabled to have the evidence,  not the conclusions of some instead; but it ALSO addresses ALL religion, in terms both subjectivising and relativising it; and this it does with that ludicrous addition, that removing truth from all, it tells this much of it to some!

And this! It should be ignored! The myriads of actions of child abasement before this idol, as of old with other types of nature worship idols, the scalding of their minds, the warping of their spirits by this dichotomy between God and nature, instead of seeing it as it is Biblically stated, or even allowing students to think in a fair-minded and apt way: all this is NOTHING! It should be divinely subsidised, and all the other brutal actions of rebels and marauding gangs, youthful and older, the illicit actions, the subverted morals in government after government (as recently acknowledged in Japan for example), the cynicism and the fretted morals of so many, the insistence indeed, as in the US, that morals are not so very important, it is the government of the country that matters ... all this is to be ignored! (Cf. The Kingdom of HeavenCh. 3.)

Any planning God should say: Yes, and let us be sure that your feet are comfortable and your mouth is fed, and that you have NO reason to doubt that this is just so, unspeakably attractive, so that your whole world, the planning of which you despise, and your whole lives, the salvation of which you ignore, MUST be made pleasant and convenient, the very sort of thing you DO NOT ALLOW IT TO BE to your children, and your peoples, while you play God with His powers, and govern without Him.

THAT WOULD BE A PLAN! If THAT were the plan, one might indeed wonder what was the use of talking about the topic. It would be quite insane. You pamper the pollution-merchants and approve the moral manglers and assist the murderer (do not worry about why it is a murder) when it is in enough millions (as in Communism, where they were are glorious partners in World War II); and you make things cozy, when as in China, the valiant work of youth is subverted by murder, and manipulation of minds, when spirits of liberty are imprisoned and humiliated. The US might give 'most favoured nation' treatment to such attacks on the minds and spirits of (often quite young) persons, but do you rationally expect GOD to give most favoured earth treatment to a people who DO SUCH THINGS!

In the word of God, we read this:

"These things you have done, and I kept silent.
You thought that I was altogether like you;
But I will rebuke you,
And set hem in order before your eyes.

Now consider this, you who forget God,
Lest I tear you in pieces,
And there be none to deliver.
Whoever offers praise glorifies Me;
And to him who orders his conduct aright
I will show the salvation of God" - Psalm 50:21-23.

Enough said. God does not LIKE the evil men practise, and He in His patience has not yet REMOVED the race from the earth (II Peter 3:9), having some better thing in store as long announced (cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms 17); though there will come a time when the end of the exercise, in the salvation of some from such a teeming squalor of immorality and presumption, will occur; and then indeed the refuse bin will do its task (as in Matthew 13:24-30). He has spoken; but EVEN HIS SPEECH is ignored. He HAS COME, but (Mark 12:1-10), even in the person of His eternal word, His unique Son, He is crucified. Logic is routinely crucified now, since, it seems, He being unavailable, something must be in the revolt and the rebellion on the earth (Repent or Perish Ch. 7).

Is THIS earth to be protected when it has been warned for SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS! Does a school teacher warn for years! Is no judgment applicable ? Is God to suspend laws and requirements because this earth is in contemptuous and contemptible revolt! Is He to quail before such criticisms, and start to intervene for every unredeemed sinner, lest there should be a hurt, when the whole race is writhing in disbelief and disproportion, invention of evils ever new, spirit (as in Acme, Alpha and Omega: Jesus Christ Ch. 9, The Frantic Millenium and the Peace of Faith Ch. 2), though always the same in principle and spirit.

As we see from the above references, there is often a desire to find, physically, morally, spiritually, some UNDERLYING UNITY which MUST not be God even though the testimony of the word of God, of reason and verification is overwhelming and without comparison. Since the truth is rejected, then WHERE IT IS SUCH 'UNITY' TO BE FOUND. This is to replace God! Unity without God is one of the follies of the race since Babel, and the result is to gut reality. The race has gone as far as it may in gutting God, at the crucifixion; but now they try it in spirit also, to remove Him from the realm He made.

He CAME, indeed, but as John Ch. 1 puts it, He was in the world He made, but they did not receive Him. Until He comes, the case will not change. They make gods of Nature, of Unity; and yes they even make new gospels (cf. Tender Times for Timely Truths Ch. 8), and try to ram them into the world, which God is expected to make nice and comfortable for them as they do it; for is not the world so INNOCENT! Fancy letting it have ANY trouble for such minor matters as these! What a shame!

Such is the spirit of the criticism. But you say, WHY should people suffer who are not necessarily in these admittedly presumptuous, provocative and derelict human movements ? Should not the young be preserved in some sort of incubative period! But DOES THIS LAND, and do MANY OTHER LANDS SHOW that they MEAN this by PROTECTING their own young from FAR WORSE abuse, in the class rooms, indoctrinating and instructing them against what God has said, till the time is coming when there will be no remedy, and only judgment CAN remain, as it did for the Amorites, for Sodom and Gomorrah! (Indeed, it is towards this arrogant defilement of the purities of God's creation that in many things, this land moves, as do so many lands, with AIDS, doubtless to be rejected as 'not on', a searing comment on the folly of it all, duly ignored, this also!)

While the WORD of God can be (irrationally) rejected, the results of its breach cannot be (actually) rejected. They have arrived, in this, and in far more as Matthew 24 has specified, the delayed wrath in terms of the long provocations and presumptions.

The SYSTEM is programmed in many ways, and the PLAN has been announced in MANY WAYS, and there is NO OTHER PLAN, as there is NO OTHER GOD. The sins of the fathers are visited on the children to the 3rd and 4th generation of THOSE WHO HATE GOD. This is part of the situation. Therefore you ought to teach them aright and deliver them, not ensure, as far as lies in you, the ruin of young and old alike in IGNORING the PLAN of God (which includes as the account of Jury in the Advertiser makes so clear, MANY current indications of the price of misused freedom), or criticise the PLAN you ignore, or ignore the plan you criticise. WHAT on earth is the use of criticising the plan of God when it is not even mentioned! What is the good of attacking the splendour of the palace, when the house is somewhere else! Is it not wise to know of what you speak ? If the plan of God is wrong, if the Gospel is amiss, if its free pardon and the love of God in and through His people to bring others back to His love is amiss, WHY NOT AT LEAST MENTION THIS!

If the government had a policy to feed the hungry immigrants for 10 years, free of charge, would you be wise to attack its lack of plan ? or would you be better worthy of attention, if you at least MENTIONED the plan before you assailed it! If the plan is rejected, WHY ? Not mentioned. If it is inadequate, HOW ? Not noted. If it is merciless, in what WAY ? Not narrated.

All that is in view is this:  that IF God had not announced His plan, this would be terrible.

THIS IS TRUE.

But that is contrary to both logic and reality.

He HAS announced His Gospel (as in Barbs, Arrows and Balms 17) for so long, and with such total confirmation in all respects (even to the point of the statement in John 16:2, that the time would come when those who killed Christians - as in the Inquisition and since - would think they were doing GOD some service!), that this ignoring of it is not merely irrelevant: it MAKES IRRELEVANT the criticism, in one stroke. It is beside the point, quite literally.

Yes, yes, Mr Jury, if God had not announced His plan and way, it would be stark unreality to look to His control at all. It is precisely for that reason that people should look for the plan where it is proved and has long been proved to be (as in SMR), and having found it, receive it, and cease criticism; because it is good. But if you do not like it, why ? See on this Questions and Answers1 and A Spiritual Potpourri Ch.12 and Barbs, Arrows and Balms 14!
 

• Is it unreasonable to meet the pangs of sin in redemption ? It is love.
• Is it unreasonable to meet the follies of rebellion in a blind and deaf world, with simple continuance of its cause and effect processes for those who will not look beyond them ?
• Is it unreasonable to provide every final rebuttal in reason, challenge in disaster which might bring men to their senses (as in Amos 4),

and yet for a long period, continue when they refuse (as in Revelation 9:20) ?

Is rebellion to be subsidised ?
Is vanity to be given comfort ?
Is unbelief 'innocent' ?
Is folly in ignoring mercy to be given Divine Welfare State Treatment ?

while the kids are sacrificed by convention to Survival of the Fittest technologies of spirit,
while, in this,  all that is true and good and beautiful is to be submerged in vile violence
and furious evils that surge under nice names
(like the unity of religions, and penalties where the word of God is preferred to human constructions without reason, and against it):
to the provocation of the Almighty
and the defilement of truth!

Is arrogance to be advantaged!

Moreover, is
presumption and
take-over from God
to be given a pension and peace by God,
when its ways and words are lies!
demonstrably false and spurious!
and is what CANNOT be true, to rule (as exposed in SMR Ch. 3 and elsewhere)!

Is the human frailty in the presence of the inane and rampant fevers of the flesh, to be called innocent, and is the divine watchfulness over His people, who ever willingly SUFFER for others as they bring them the Gospel of real peace and actual power in the presence of God Almighty, to be ignored^*1! as also their freely laying down their lives for the preservation of that by which alone,  man is far from meaningless, and without which he also is justly unable to find his meaning!
 
 

It is return to the Lord, not railing against Him, or against His throne and majesty, that is required.

It is then that the tender mercies of God may be found, even in the midst of this residual folly before Christ returns (as exhibited from the word of God and events co-ordinated in Answers to Questions Ch. 5).

No one can see without eyes open; and Christ attests the WILFUL closing of the same as a crucial cause of the whole conflict and confusion (Matthew 12:13-14). It is nothing to do with the intellect of a human being, or his own conscious intentions when in the dark of unbelief, without the acknowledgement even of the Gospel of God, and all it implies, he/she utters such degradations of the place of God. It is a spiritual condition shared by the race, apart from salvation.

Its embers burn until they die out, or the fire is re-lit in a different place, by the one who started Life, and knows both its end and its meaning.
THAT, it is so GREAT that it occasioned His own investment in flesh, the declaration of God by God, in power and by prophecy in flesh, with the crucifixion for sin for all who receive Him... for ALL ? Yes, though all do not have their sins borne, that is the product of preference for darkness; but ALL are freely invited, and the love of God excludes NONE (I Timothy 2). It is in man that the responsibility lies, even for criticism of the plan, even when it is rejected.

After all, you cannot have it both ways. If you reject the plan of God without pondering and presenting it in your criticisms, what knowledge do you display of its operations ? If you ignore it, how do you show it wrong! If you refuse the operation, do not blame the surgeon. If you ignore his advice, do not blame his plan. It simply means this, that in your case as in countless others (and is it not so often in medicine!), YOU have your will, and are dissatisfied. So be it; but that is nothing at all, in the least or slightest degree, to do with the surgeon.

It is rather a question of the patient.

He needs the operation.
 
 

End Note

*1
 See Scoop of the Universe  55, for the exhibition of the diversities of suffering, meaning and point. There is nothing inexplicable; but what is inexplicable in terms of reason, is this, that ignoring reason, many refuse even to inspect the declarations of God on the topic, and assume a sort of fastidious fancifulness in condemning what hurts. It is rather what causes it which should be considered, each item in its place and each result as it applies.
 

• So good at physics, and indefatigable, it almost seems, in processing every particle of evidence

 
• (though not always carefully, when the significance question comes into play, in general accord with the pagan principles of secularism cf. That Magnificent Rock Ch. 7),

 
• man yet tends to find it too much to spend an hour or two looking at this topic.

In fact, the righteous often suffer, as did Peter and Paul, MOST WILLINGLY (cf. Acts 5:40-41). As in the case of Job, they may suffer didactically, to SHOW that God is not loved for selfish results, but because He is WORTHY. The author here can speak: much has been done against my ways and opportunities, in slander and action most positive in force and persistence, and most negative in calumny and avoidance: but the Lord, in all these humiliations and degradations, these lies and these hypocrisies, has been good. He has been so near and so wonderful, so adequate and so faithful and true, that it is simply not possible for those who do not know Him, to imagine with any degree of accuracy, the actual realities of the case. To KNOW Him who is true, and to FIND Him so constantly, even in adversities suffered freely for His sake, and the honour of His name, is a joy unspeakable.

It is not a matter of joy-units. It is an integral and spiritual matter: faithfulness and truth are beyond all price. Love is its own reward when the One who loves, IS love. It is done at a PERSONAL level for a PERSON who is just and true, delightful and God. This is not to be 'explained'. It is its own explanation.

What husband worthy of his salt would not die for the defence of his own wife from assault!
Is it 'suffering' ? If he suffers, is it to be 'estimated and calculated, computed and disputed'! So in the knowledge of God, there are things this world cannot know. Yet they may be stated quite simply.
They happen. Even Job saw his error in the end, and his testimony, tried and imperfect but in the end triumphant as the good Lord delivered him,  has endured for thousands of years. It is a testimony, not least,  to the reality of our sin, the depravity from which we need rescue, and to the wonder of the mercy of God, and the glory of His redemption in the Messiah! Every Christmas, in many places, via Handel's Messiah, we hear Job's testimony from Job 19, concerning the Messiah, who in the latter day shall stand upon the earth, whom Job is to see for himself, as exemplar of the faithful, with his own eyes, and not another.
 
 

It is not God who is under review; it is man. And as to that, the review is long over: the necessity is repentance and faith in God according to His word, the Bible, His only begotten Son, the testimony of whom, considered often on this site and in particular in the above references,  has no parallel, no equal and alone can measure up to God. It is therefore meaningful suffering, if one follows the Lord, as required (even an army soldier is ready for it); or else, if one prefers the place of rebel, then it is for what may well appear meaningless (as in Psalm 1:4-6). It is compared to the movement of chaff in the breeze. Chaff is like that. Life is like that, within certain merciful restrictions, without God.

That is the nature of the case: you reject the plan of the Lord, and nothing makes sense. How could it ? There is no other plan. It is in THESE TERMS that the answer lies. Ignore it, and it is merely a VERIFICATION of its truth, that you can find ... NOTHING. That is right. That is for a very simple reason: this apart, there IS NOTHING! It is always the case with truth: if 2+2 are NOT allowed to be 4, then NOTHING will work. What would you expect! It is on the other hand a testimony to the soundness of the addition as normally... practised, that you fail without it, necessarily, and always. Alas, when it comes to Christ, the Life, the Way and the Truth, one must add to the failure list, without Him: FOR EVER.

It is always better to suffer awhile than for ever. Nothing makes wrong right, and nothing avails when remedy is rejected; and there is no other. God will lose NO ONE who is HIS, and He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and knowledge of the truth (cf. SMR Appendix B, and The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 4). The furious, spurious, splenetic frenzies of unbelief and their sources and their source, are exposed more directly in The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 8, and the necessities of action in knowledge as already long and publicly given by God, repentance and faith in the objective Lord, not criticism in ignorance: these  are illustrated in Acme, Alpha and Omega: Jesus Christ Ch. 11, in the Submarine Conversation.