In the first two parts of this teaching series, I have examined how Satan has deceived many into thinking that human suffering is authored by God. What makes this "suffering doctrine" a doctrine of demons, is the fact that it removes the blame from Satan and removes the blame from us - and places it squarely on God, which is a lie!

God is a good God! And only good - all the time!

He is now and he always has been. And if anybody tells you differently, they are perpetuating a lie of the devil. It's time the whole concept of suffering is shown for what it really is…a destructive lie from hell.

A little strong you say? A little sharp? Maybe. But remember, Jesus called the religious leaders of his day "vipers," "snakes in the grass," "sowers of stumbling blocks," and "hypocrites."

Why? Because they should have known better. And we should too!

The What-Abouts
"Well Tim, what about in the Old Covenant where it said GOD smote this one and that one, and God DID this and God did that?"

This one's a little more complicated, so rather than go into fine detail, I'll generalize to keep this as simple as possible.

The Hebrew language prior to 1948 was, for the most part, a dead language and had to be resurrected. Much has been learned about the language, but some things are still unclear.

Dr. Robert Strong discovered that, in translation, the causative tense was often mistakenly used for the passive tense. Therefore many of the destructive things that have been attributed directly to God causing or making them happen, were instead simply permitted by God.

And many, if not all, of those were only "permitted" due to the fact that His direct intervention would go against what he had already spoken.

Cause and Effect
A good example of this is in Deuteronomy 28:1-13, where the blessings of hearing and obeying God's law are listed. On the other hand, verses 14-62 list the curses of the law.

Note that one is either under the blessing or the curse - there is no middle ground - no neutral zone. Note also that the blessings are listed first and that they are conditional to hearing and obeying. Now let's say that I fail to hear and obey. This is stepping out from under the blessing and into the curse.

God did not change, move or take any action at all. I was the one that changed and made the move. The curse is the lack of being under the blessing. God is not executing the curse - He doesn't have to!

OK, if I say to you: "If thou shalt flip the light switch to the 'on' position, thou shall be blessed with abundant light. But, if you do not flip the light switch to the 'on' position, thou shalt live in utter darkness, and shall stumble and fall and suffer injuries, and become frightened, frustrated and confused, and be unhappy and blind and on and on…"

Now, if you don't turn the light on - am I the one who causes your potential injury? Am I the one who causes you to be blind, unhappy, frightened, frustrated and confused? NO! I'm not directly involved at all. I just spoke the rule or law into existence and made it legally binding on you, on myself, and on everyone else!

In fact, if it became a spiritual law, I would not even be legally able to remove the effects of the darkness from you. For, they are the automatic penalty for not hearing and doing what I said.

In other words, when it says, "The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he has consumed thee from off the land…," the "Lord" is really passively doing nothing - one way or the other. And may even be legally constrained from action by His own Word.

Now remember, Jesus the Redeemer, has redeemed us from the penalties (the curse) by paying (or taking upon himself) each and every penalty (curse) for us.

In my little example of the light switch, Jesus would have paid each and every one of the penalties for you not turning on the light. He would have voluntarily suffered the blindness and injury and taken upon himself the fear, frustration, confusion and unhappiness for us - allowing us to step into the light!

We no longer have to pay the penalty (or suffer) anything that Jesus paid (or suffered) for us! This was called the Atonement. In the Old Testament, God's law required hearing and doing - and the penalty for not hearing and doing was death.

God also spoke into existence an atonement, (a way to escape - by the sacrificial shedding of blood to cover up your transgression). But this atonement was only temporary because of the impurity of the less-than-perfect sacrifice.

However, Jesus was the perfect (permanent) sacrifice. And He paid for and carried the entire curse to the cross - for us. And if he did - then we are no longer required to carry or suffer any of the penalties of the curse.

Explaining the "What-Abouts"
"Yeah, but what about Job and Paul's 'thorn in the flesh?'" Well, I have an hour-long tape called the "What-Abouts" that goes into great detail about these two. But here's Job in a nutshell.

Job opened the gate in the hedge of protection around him by allowing fear to rule over him and by allowing the words of his own mouth. God just points it out. Satan attacks with the goal of forcing Job to curse God. Satan fails and God restores to Job double his losses in every area.

What about Paul's "thorn in the flesh?" If you ask a religious person what the "thorn in the flesh" was - they tend to speculate all kinds of things. Bad eyes, arthritis, stuttering, sickness, disease, and so on. And then they tell you that they don't really know for sure.

That's when I ask them, "Why don't you know?" And while they are still starring at me like a cow at a new gate - I say, "the Bible tells you what it is, right in the same verse that mentions the thorn!" Guess what? Most have never read it, or have simply read right over it. Primarily because they were "told" what it said in school or in seminary.

"Lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure" (2 Cor. 12:7).

What was the thorn? The Bible says it was a messenger of Satan - a demonic spirit - sent, (not by God) to buffet him (beat him up). And not surprisingly, what happened everywhere he went? He got beat up!

And when Paul (still learning to walk in faith and in the authority of Jesus' name) asked God to make that spirit go away - three times - God told him to do it himself - with the power, authority, and anointing that he had already been provided with. Later in scripture it tells how Paul finally got it and overcame that spirit and was able to teach and preach without disruption.

A Scriptural Suffering
Now the Bible says that there is a very real, scriptural suffering that every serious believer must face. The Apostle Paul talked about that suffering. He said:

I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ [the Anointed] Jesus my Lord [and His Anointing]: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ [the Anointed One and His Anointing]. And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ [the Anointed One and His Anointing], the righteousness which is of God by faith. That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death.
(Phil. 3:8-10)

Paul said he wanted to know the fellowship of Jesus' sufferings. Clearly if Paul had a part in Jesus' sufferings, then we do too. So we need to find out what Jesus suffered - and what our part is.

"Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered" (Heb. 5:8). So, what did Jesus suffer - in obedience?

Isaiah 50:5-6: "The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious (obedient), neither turned my back - away." (i.e., Jesus didn't twist and squirm to avoid the lashes, blows and other violence to his body.) "I (obediently) gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame (reproach) and spitting."

Philippians 2:8: "And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

From these verses, we see that he suffered martyrdom, through torture and death by execution. Now, Christians do not have to suffer martyrdom unless they "choose" to. It's a decision.

What Else Did Jesus Suffer?
Jesus also suffered persecution - religious persecution - from the religious bigwigs of His day as well as demonic persecution. He also suffered rejection from his nation, his town, his friends, his family and his followers. He also suffered insult, slander, discrimination, betrayal, false accusation, religious and racial hatred, ridicule, etc.

In addition, as we will see later, Jesus also suffered the resisting of all the temptations and pressures that come from every direction. These are the sufferings that every Christian (that is doing anything for Jesus) can expect to suffer.

Is There More?
Jesus became the perfect sacrifice of all sacrifices. He was not only the Passover Lamb, but was also the Atonement - or scapegoat - upon which was placed all the sins, perversities, evils, faults, iniquities, mischief as well as the punishments and curses for the people.

At the cross, God the Father, placed all of these things upon Jesus including the full "curse of the law."

Since Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, and atonement - and we are not - we as Christians do not qualify to suffer anything that was included as part of that sacrifice. And that includes everything listed in the "curse of the law."

As I've said, some people have mistakenly decided that sickness and disease are their part of Jesus' suffering. They say, "I guess this is just my cross to bear!" But that can't possibly be true.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God (or God breathed), and is profitable for doctrine (instruction: the function or the information), for learning (teaching), for reproof (proof, conviction: evidence, to convince/charge of a fault, blame, censure), for correction (a straightening up again, rectification), for instruction (education or training, nurture), in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect.
(2 Tim. 3:16-17)

The Word says - that scripture is used to point out fault, correct, and to discipline. Not sickness, disease, and poverty!

Does God Discipline His Children?
The answer is "yes," but what does discipline really mean? And what is said about it in the New Covenant?

People tend to think about the word "discipline" primarily in terms of punishment. But, what is the root word in "discipline?" Disciple!

Jesus was the teacher and the disciples were the students or learners. Discipline primarily refers to education and training. And, even when "correction" may be implied by the context, that "correction" need not imply a "spanking" or "punishment," but rather a paradigm shift, course correction, or a pointing in the right direction.

In Ephesians 6 and Hebrews 12 we can read how God tends to guide and nurture His children - a far cry from corporal punishment.

The primary context of these whole passages is that Father God is a good and loving Father who educates and trains His children. The suffering doctrine is a doctrine of demons, not of a loving and caring God. And it's time we change our thinking for good on this issue.

Please browse through our other articles to find parts 1, 2, and 4 of this article.
Source: The Suffering Doctrine by Tim Greenwood
Excerpt permission granted by Tim Greenwood Ministries