I am reminded of some events in my own life. I became a Christian as a young adult, and was aghast at how much I had been deceived both about life, and current events and Scripture. I wasn’t sure that I should ever become a preacher, but I did know that I should do whatever I could, and that I needed to know more about the Bible. In that spirit I went back to college to seek a degree in Bible. Part of the requirements was a minimum of one year of Koine Greek, and an English proficiency test to be taken before a degree was conferred! Where I went to college, no English proficiency, then no degree, no matter how many hours one had!

But whoa! My worst subject in school had been English,

although I had good grades overall. And in High School Latin, my teacher passed me on a “D,” if I promised to not come back next year! And I did promise!

For my college entrance exams, my worse scores were in English!! Even so, I really wanted to know the Bible, and I didn’t want anyone shoot the bull to me about the Bible, especially along the lines of, “Well if you could read the Greek you would know, …”, and so on. So I made up my mind, no matter what … I was going to master Greek! So with no little anxiety, I dove into that course.

I passed with good grades, and then a strange thing happened. At the end of my Freshman year we were administered another set of standardized tests, and guess what! On those tests now my English scores jumped from the bottom of the heap, to very top! My English scores were higher than those in any other subject. Amazing! The truth of course is that often we really do not understand our own language, until we come understand some other language.

Then came the real surprise. Because my scores were so high on that test, I was automatically exempted from any English proficiency test before graduation. Such was simply not necessary. I had already proved myself.

Such also happens in the spiritual world.

“Blessed is he who considers the poor:
Yahweh will deliver him in the day of evil.”
Psa 41:1

In Luke 21 Jesus speaks of more than one subject, including those special stresses which will come upon men at the end of our age. Jesus says we should be careful and sober and alert,

“Therefore be watchful all the time, asking that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Lk 21:35

Even whole churches may escape special testing.

The church at Philadelphia has been faithful in the little things of life, and in the everyday testing that goes on, They are told,

“Because you kept my command to endure, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, which is to come on the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.”
Rev 3:10

Scriptures are from the World English Bible WEB, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901.