Training Evangelists at Bethsaida

148:5.1At an­other of these pri­vate in­ter­views in the gar­den Na­than­iel asked Je­sus: “Mas­ter, though I am be­gin­ning to un­der­stand why you refuse to prac­tice heal­ing in­dis­crim­i­nately, I am still at a loss to un­der­stand why the lov­ing Fa­ther in heaven per­mits so many of his chil­dren on earth to suf­fer so many af­flic­tions.” The Mas­ter an­swered Na­than­iel, say­ing:

148:5.2“Na­than­iel, you and many oth­ers are thus per­plexed be­cause you do not com­pre­hend how the nat­u­ral or­der of this world has been so many times up­set by the sin­ful ad­ven­tures of cer­tain re­bel­lious traitors to the Fa­ther’s will. And I have come to make a be­gin­ning of set­ting these things in or­der. But many ages will be re­quired to re­store this part of the uni­verse to for­mer paths and thus re­lease the chil­dren of men from the ex­tra bur­dens of sin and re­bel­lion. The pres­ence of evil alone is suf­fi­cient test for the as­cen­sion of man—sin is not es­sen­tial to sur­vival.

148:5.3“But, my son, you should know that the Fa­ther does not pur­posely af­flict his chil­dren. Man brings down upon him­self un­nec­es­sary af­flic­tion as a re­sult of his per­sis­tent re­fusal to walk in the bet­ter ways of the di­vine will. Af­flic­tion is po­ten­tial in evil, but much of it has been pro­duced by sin and in­iq­uity. Many un­usual events have tran­spired on this world, and it is not strange that all think­ing men should be per­plexed by the scenes of suf­fer­ing and af­flic­tion which they wit­ness. But of one thing you may be sure: The Fa­ther does not send af­flic­tion as an ar­bi­trary pun­ish­ment for wrong­do­ing. The im­per­fec­tions and hand­i­caps of evil are in­her­ent; the penal­ties of sin are in­ev­i­ta­ble; the de­stroy­ing con­se­quences of in­iq­uity are in­ex­orable. Man should not blame God for those af­flic­tions which are the nat­u­ral re­sult of the life which he chooses to live; nei­ther should man com­plain of those ex­pe­ri­ences which are a part of life as it is lived on this world. It is the Fa­ther’s will that mor­tal man should work per­sis­tently and con­sis­tently to­ward the bet­ter­ment of his es­tate on earth. In­tel­li­gent ap­pli­ca­tion would en­able man to over­come much of his earthly mis­ery.

148:5.4“Na­than­iel, it is our mis­sion to help men solve their spir­i­tual prob­lems and in this way to quicken their minds so that they may be the bet­ter pre­pared and in­spired to go about solv­ing their man­i­fold ma­te­rial prob­lems. I know of your con­fu­sion as you have read the Scrip­tures. All too of­ten there has pre­vailed a ten­dency to as­cribe to God the re­spon­si­bil­ity for ev­ery­thing which ig­no­rant man fails to un­der­stand. The Fa­ther is not per­son­ally re­spon­si­ble for all you may fail to com­pre­hend. Do not doubt the love of the Fa­ther just be­cause some just and wise law of his or­dain­ing chances to af­flict you be­cause you have in­no­cently or de­lib­er­ately trans­gressed such a di­vine or­di­nance.

148:5.5“But, Na­than­iel, there is much in the Scrip­tures which would have in­structed you if you had only read with dis­cern­ment. Do you not re­mem­ber that it is writ­ten: ‘My son, de­spise not the chas­ten­ing of the Lord; nei­ther be weary of his cor­rec­tion, for whom the Lord loves he cor­rects, even as the fa­ther cor­rects the son in whom he takes de­light.’ ‘The Lord does not af­flict will­ingly.’ ‘Be­fore I was af­flicted, I went astray, but now do I keep the law. Af­flic­tion was good for me that I might thereby learn the di­vine statutes.’ ‘I know your sor­rows. The eter­nal God is your refuge, while un­der­neath are the ev­er­last­ing arms.’ ‘The Lord also is a refuge for the op­pressed, a haven of rest in times of trou­ble.’ ‘The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of af­flic­tion; the Lord will not for­get the sick.’ ‘As a fa­ther shows com­pas­sion for his chil­dren, so is the Lord com­pas­sion­ate to those who fear him. He knows your body; he re­mem­bers that you are dust.’ ‘He heals the bro­ken­hearted and binds up their wounds.’ ‘He is the hope of the poor, the strength of the needy in his dis­tress, a refuge from the storm, and a shadow from the dev­as­tat­ing heat.’ ‘He gives power to the faint, and to them who have no might he in­creases strength.’ ‘A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smok­ing flax he will not quench.’ ‘When you pass through the wa­ters of af­flic­tion, I will be with you, and when the rivers of ad­ver­sity over­flow you, I will not for­sake you.’ ‘He has sent me to bind up the bro­ken­hearted, to pro­claim lib­erty to the cap­tives, and to com­fort all who mourn.’ ‘There is cor­rec­tion in suf­fer­ing; af­flic­tion does not spring forth from the dust.’”