Suffering. Not a word I hear much when I stop on "Christian" TV networks these days. We like to focus on more upbeat topics here in America. Suffering is not something that most Americans under the age of 75 or so have experienced and we don’t want to believe it could ever happen here. But it can. And, one day, in your lifetime or that of your kids, it will likely happen here.
Suffering. If you grew up in the Christian Bubble, you probably think it’s when someone laughs at the fish decal on your car or dismisses your Sunday morning schedule.
Or, maybe you’re like me and you think you’ve suffered because you endured summer football two-a-day practices in the hot August sun under the direction of an old-school former SEC football coach before the word "hydration" was in football vocabulary; three days of no air-conditioning on a summer day; a long hike on a humid day with inadequate water intake; 2 hours of tv sitcoms and Oprah while waiting at the car repair shop; sitting, stuck in a business meeting in a trendy tofu restaurant when a great steak place is across the street; or 245 seconds in the awfully annoying "It’s a Small World" ride at Disney World.
Nah.
Unless you have suffered from a debilitating disease, or live in a third world country where Christians are truly persecuted, you likely haven’t suffered much if you’re reading these words.
Want to know what suffering is? Here are just a few horrifying examples, which like the Bible, are not rated G.
Dr. Rowland Taylor, who I am told is one of my ancestors, died under the rule of Queen Mary, burned at the stake for his role in the reformation–which is to say, for rejecting the heresies and corruption of the Roman Catholic institutions of the period. According to the Foxe Book of Martyrs:
When Dr. Taylor had arrived at Aldham Common, the place where he should suffer, seeing a great multitude of people, he asked, "What place is this, and what meaneth it that so much people are gathered hither?" It was answered, "It is Aldham Common, the place where you must suffer; and the people have come to look upon you." Then he said, "Thanked be God, I am even at home"; and he alighted from his horse and with both hands rent the hood from his head.
His head had been notched and clipped like as a man would clip a fool’s; which cost the good bishop Bonner had bestowed upon him. But when the people saw his reverend and ancient face, with a long white beard, they burst out with weeping tears, and cried, saying: "God save thee, good Dr. Taylor! Jesus Christ strengthen thee, and help thee! the Holy Ghost comfort thee!" with such other like good wishes.
When he had prayed, he went to the stake and kissed it, and set himself into a pitch barrel, which they had put for him to stand in, and stood with his back upright against the stake, with his hands folded together, and his eyes towards heaven, and continually prayed.
They then bound him with the chains, and having set up the [wood], one Warwick cruelly cast a [stick of wood] at him, which struck him on his head, and cut his face, so that the blood ran down. Then said Dr. Taylor, "O friend, I have harm enough; what needed that?"
Sir John Shelton standing by, as Dr. Taylor was speaking, and saying the Psalm Miserere in English, struck him on the lips:
"You knave," he said, "speak Latin: I will make thee." At last they kindled the fire; and Dr. Taylor holding up both his hands, calling upon God, and said, "Merciful Father of heaven! for Jesus Christ, my Savior’s sake, receive my soul into Thy hands!" So he stood still without either crying or moving, with his hands folded together, until Soyce, with a halberd struck him on the head until his brains fell out, and the corpse fell down into the fire.
Thus rendered up this man of God his blessed soul into the hands of his merciful Father, and to his most dear Savior Jesus Christ, whom he most entirely loved, faithfully and earnestly preached, obediently followed in living, and constantly glorified in death.
Things weren’t so great during the early days of America, either. Writes The Zephyr, describing some of the atrocities committed against early pioneers by a particularly barbaric indian tribe:
In March and April, 1791, Jacob Greathouse, his wife, his 12 children and two other young men were traveling on the Ohio River. The Shawnees captured the Greathouse party. The Shawnees killed the Greathouse children and tortured to death both Jacob and his wife. According to Eckert (1967), they had been beatened, stripped, and their abdomens cut opened. One end of their intestines had been tied to saplings. They were then driven to walk around, or dragged around the trees so that the intestines were pulled from their bodies. They were scalped and burning coals stuffed into their body cavities.
Here’s an excerpt from Harper’s Weekly, depicting the inhumane treatment of African-Americans in America in 1863:
The treatment of the slaves, they say, has been growing worse and worse for the last six or seven years. Flogging with a leather strap on the naked body is common; also, paddling the body with a hand-saw until the skin is a mass of blisters, and then breaking the blisters with the teeth of the saw. They have "very often" seen slaves stretched out upon the ground with hands and feet held down by fellow-slaves, or lashed to stakes driven into the ground for "burning." Handfuls of dry corn-husks are then lighted, and the burning embers are whipped off with a stick so as to fall in showers of live sparks upon the naked back. This is continued until the victim is covered with blisters. If in his writhings of torture the slave gets his hands free to brush off the fire, the burning brand is applied to them.
Another method of punishment, which is inflicted for the higher order of crimes, such as running away, or other refractory conduct, is to dig a hole in the ground large enough for the slave to squat or lie down in. The victim is then stripped naked and placed in the hole, and a covering or grating of green sticks is laid over the opening. Upon this a quick fire is built, and the live embers sifted through upon the naked flesh of the slave, until his body is blistered and swollen almost to bursting. With just enough of life to enable him to crawl, the slave is then allowed to recover from his wounds if he can, or to end his sufferings by death.
Then there’s war, and the torture of American soldiers in Vietnam in the 1970’s. I am personally acquainted with one of the men held captive by the Vietnamese, and Wikipedia describes at a high level the torture that man and his friends, including presidential candidate John McCain endured in Hanoi:
In August 1968, a program of severe torture began on [John] McCain.He was subjected to rope bindings and repeated beatings every two hours, at the same time as he was suffering from dysentery. Further injuries led to the beginning of a suicide attempt, which was stopped by guards. After four days, McCain made an anti-American propaganda "confession". He has always felt that his statement was dishonorable, but as he would later write, "I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine." His injuries left him permanently incapable of raising his arms above his head. He subsequently received two to three beatings per week because of his continued refusal to sign additional statements. Other American POWs were similarly tortured and maltreated in order to extract "confessions" and propaganda statements, with many enduring even longer and worse treatment.
Other suffering is well documented regarding holocausts in history:
The Chinese have a method of torture known as the death of a thousand cuts, in which the executioner is rated according to his ability to hack and mutilate the victim without permitting him to die until the maximum of suffering has been inflicted. They have a very good photograph of an execution by this method in the Chamber of Horrors in Madam Tussaud’s Museum in London, but most people coming upon it unsuspectingly turn away revolted, and only the most morbid visitor lingers for a second glance.
Hitler’s torture of the Jewish children is even more ingenious, however, for he has invented a way to convert the period of childhood into a term of unrelieved sorrow, fear, dread and suffering.
We’ll have to leave that one there, as it’s too horrendous to print here.
Let’s travel to the other side of the world, in 2008, where Christians are routinely tortured and murdered. Writes AsiaNews:
No end to the attacks and violence against Christians. In Orissa, where for more than three weeks a pogrom against Catholics and Protestants has been underway, two more killings have been recorded. Iswar Digal and Purinder Pradhan were murdered and cut to pieces. Iswar Digal, was from the the village of Gatringia in the district of Kandhamal; he was stopped on September 20 by a group of Hindu extremists while he and his wife were trying to escape to a refugee camp. Their home was burned. The other victim was from Nilungia. His body was cut to pieces, put into a jute sack, and thrown into a pond.
and
According to estimates from the All India Christian Council, 37 Christians have been killed in the state of Orissa alone, including 2 Protestant pastors; more than 4,000 homes belonging to Christians have been burned; and more than 50,000 faithful have been forced to flee. Of these, only 14,000 are believed to be in refugee camps provided by the government. Tens of thousands are hiding in the forest.
The primary targets of the Hindu radicals are the priests, the sisters, and their families. They are attacked, and often forced to convert to Hinduism. Even in the camps, the persecution is strong, and the police check to make sure "that there are no conversions". Priests and sisters present in the camp must conceal their identity.
Here’s an excerpt from a story just today, buried in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, about the torture terrorists in Africa have inflicted at the hands of one a former Liberian leader, Charles Taylor, and his American son Charles McArthur Emmanuel:
Prosecutors say Emmanuel headed the “Demon Forces,” an elite paramilitary anti-terrorist unit in his father’s Liberian government from 1999-2002. The unit trained soldiers and tortured prisoners, prosecutors said.
Former prisoner Rufus Kpadeh testified Tuesday that detainees were forced to sodomize each other as Emmanuel laughed.
“I want the world to know what happened to me so it will not happen again in the future,” said Kpadeh, who rolled up his tunic sleeves to show jurors scars from where he was burned with flaming-hot plastic.
…prosecutors are trying to establish a pattern of brutality by rebels who they say were led …They are calling victims and former officers under his command to tell tales of executions, cannibalism, torture and disfigurement.
On Wednesday, Osman Jalloh told judges that rebels hacked off his right hand —- such amputations were a hallmark in the Sierra Leone conflict.
And in some of the most harrowing testimony since Taylor’s trial started in January, a woman identified as witness TF1-064 said Tuesday she was forced into a house and had to listen as her two children and other members of her family were hacked to death outside.
Rebels then ordered her and another man to carry a bag containing the victims’ heads to another village where they were dumped in a pit of water.
Then there’s the suffering of Jesus, via crucifixion, on our behalf:
In the early morning, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and exhausted from a sleepless night, Jesus is taken across the Praetorium of the Fortress Antonia, the seat of government of the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate…Preparations for the scourging were carried out when the Prisoner was stripped of His clothing and His hands tied to a post above His head. It is doubtful the Romans would have made any attempt to follow the Jewish law in this matter, but the Jews had an ancient law prohibiting more than forty lashes.
The Roman legionnaire steps forward with the flagrum (or flagellum) in his hand. This is a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead attached near the ends of each. The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again across Jesus’ shoulders, back, and legs. At first the thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles.
The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped.
The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet with His own blood. … Flexible branches covered with long thorns (commonly used in bundles for firewood) are plaited into the shape of a crown and this is pressed into His scalp. Again there is copious bleeding, the scalp being one of the most vascular areas of the body.
After mocking Him and striking Him across the face, the soldiers take the stick from His hand and strike Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp. Finally, they tire of their sadistic sport and the robe is torn from His back. Already having adhered to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, its removal causes excruciating pain just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage, and almost as though He were again being whipped the wounds once more begin to bleed.
In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans return His garments. The heavy patibulum of the cross is tied across His shoulders, and the procession of the condemned Christ, two thieves, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers headed by a centurion begins its slow journey along the Via Dolorosa. In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by copious blood loss, is too much. He stumbles and falls. The rough wood of the beam gouges into the lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tries to rise, but human muscles have been pushed beyond their endurance.
The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selects a stalwart North African onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus follows, still bleeding and sweating the cold, clammy sweat of shock, until the 650 yard journey from the fortress Antonia to Golgotha is finally completed.
Jesus is offered wine mixed with myrrh, a mild analgesic mixture. He refuses to drink. Simon is ordered to place the patibulum on the ground and Jesus quickly thrown backward with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist and deep into the wood. Quickly, he moves to the other side and repeats the action being careful not to pull the arms to tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement. The patibulum is then lifted in place at the top of the stipes and the titulus reading "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" is nailed in place.
The left foot is now pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees moderately flexed. The Victim is now crucified. As He slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists excruciating pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain — the nails in the writs are putting pressure on the median nerves. As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet.
At this point, as the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by his arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed and the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, he is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen. ..
Hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain where tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins…A terrible crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart…
…It is now almost over. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level; the compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissue; the tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain.
… The body of Jesus is now in extremes, and He can feel the chill of death creeping through His tissues. This realization brings out His sixth words, possibly little more than a tortured whisper, "It is finished."
His mission of atonement has completed. Finally He can allow his body to die.
With one last surge of strength, he once again presses His torn feet against the nail, straightens His legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters His seventh and last cry, "Father! Into thy hands I commit my spirit."
We would be remiss at this point to conclude without referencing the most horrible suffering of all. The place Jesus warned those who perished in their sins would go to for eternity: hell. A place so awful, so horrific, that even the suffering we just described pales in comparison. A place so terrible that even the Bible struggles to communicate how much suffering there will be in this place. Thankfully, the suffering of this world is not worthy to compare with the glory of the age to come for those who love Jesus, thanks to the suffering Jesus himself endured on our behalf. When suffering comes, I pray we are ready…I am ready…and that our churches are ready, because heaven is moments away for the believer, and hell is moments away for the unbeliever. And both last forever. Writes John Piper:
Hell is unspeakably real, conscious, horrible and eternal – the experience in which God vindicates the worth of his glory in holy wrath on those who would not delight in what is infinitely glorious.
I know this has been hard to read–if you’ve even been able to read it all. My point is not to be gruesome or sensational, but only to point out the reality of the evil that exists in this world and most of us are oblivious to it, and are not ready for it if it comes knocking at our door tonight. The suffering ahead of us may not be this barbaric yet, but I am convinced the only reason it isn’t is that God in His grace has given us a nation restrained by an inegenious system of checks and balances that keeps evil from raring it’s ugly head more than it would otherwise. It wouldn’t take much more than a national crisis for that system to be suspended, opening the door for untold cruel and inhumane treatment against anyone not in agreement with the political figure in power.
Yes, suffering is real and it may become more real in the days to come. And let’s not forget: the degree of suffering between my football practices and the fish decal being torn off is considerable. But the difference between my football practices and the suffering detailed in these pages is tremendous, and the difference between the suffering on these pages and the suffering in hell is exponential and infinitely greater. Thank God for His grace and mercy. Amen.