It is necessary for the discipline, trial and final proving of the Church of God that they should be subjected to these adverse influences; for to him that overcomes them is the promise of the great reward. If we would share in the Kingdom with Christ, we must prove our worthiness by the same tests of loyalty to God, of faith in His Word, of zeal for the Truth, of patient endurance of reproach and persecution, even unto death, and of unwavering trust in the power and purpose of God to deliver and exalt His Church in due time. To such faithful ones are the blessed consolations of Psalm 91.
Wolves are not God's, but Satan's servants, who come among God's people with evil and destructive intent. They, therefore, seek not the welfare but rather the life-blood of God's flock. They pursue and terrify; they bite and devour His sheep. They spare neither the old nor the young among the flock. Those who arise from among the brethren, taking teaching positions, and using them to falsify the teachings of the Word, have been of two classes: Great Company and Second Death sifters. Both have taught doctrines that are perversions of the Truth, though the latter class does worse than the former class in this respect. They do so to win a following. God's elect take heed of all three classes, and do so by studying, practicing and spreading the Truth.
Jer. 23:1; Ezek. 34:1-10; John 10:12; Matt. 7:15; Heb. 6:4-6; 10:26-29; 2 Pet. 2:1, 22; Jude 1:3-19; 2 Tim. 1:15; 3:1-9; 1 Tim. 1:19, 20.
