Baptistic Theologies, 2009

y’. But, not all suffering produces the intended result. Kargel states that two incorrect results happen. Either one ‘slides above it, (ignoring it) never thinking that it is of the Lord’, or they ‘despair under it’ never looking to the Lord for strength and wisdom. For Kargel, the purpose of suffering is not to produce grief or pain which in turn benefits the individual but to direct us to the will of the God the Father. He writes, ‘Certainly, illness, sufferings, losses, hard blows or any grief in themselves do not make us better if we do not look through them to the Father and find what He wants to tell us through them. Yet, even if we allow them to speak to us and we understand the will of the Father, but we do not agree to go in His way, there will be no sanctification.’ 77 Further, suffering confirms to the believers that they are in the true way and have, as with Christ, ‘laid our life on the sacrificial altar’. It confirms that we are on the true path of Christ as when He went to the cross and in harmony with the scriptures which Peter and Paul wrote telling the church that ‘all must suffer’. Kargel clearly states that ‘there is no other outcome. Suffering is necessary for us to enter the kingdom of God’. 79 7 ’ I.V. Kargel, Zakon Dykha Zhezin 5, 6, 7, 8 Glav Rimlinam (St. Petersburg: Biblia dla Vsekh, 2003), p. 159. 13 Kargel, Sobranie Cochinenij , in Old Testement Prototypes, p. 283. 74 Ibid., in Christ our Sanctification , p. 107. 75 Ibid. 76 Ibid., p. 108. 77 Ibid., p. 106. 78 Ibid. 79 Ibid., p. 107. 38 Baptistic Theologies Suffering is a means to sanctification because it reminds us that we are a child of God. 80 Finally, suffering allows a person to ‘take part in His holiness’. It shows that God has not given up on making us into the image of His son. Suffering is used by God ‘only because in the ordinary way He did not O 1 manage to achieve obedience’. It ‘removes all the roughness’ from human nature and allows the ‘spiritual fruit to ripen’. Kargel wrote, ‘Only on a way of suffering can patience be birthed and allowed to achieve maturity OO and essentially only through patience will one achieve perfection’. Yet Kargel is quick to point out that thousands upon thousands have not learned from suffering as he refers to biblical examples. ‘Sufferings will not release us from sin if we view them carnally’. He states that they are lessons in school and if we don’t attend the lectures, we will never be able to pass the final exam. 85 Kargel’s influence in the Russian-speaking world Ivan Kargel died in 1937 at the age of 88. Bratski Vestnik , the official journal of the All Union Council of Evangelical Christians-Baptists of the Soviet Union, continued to print articles and sections of Kargel’s books. Nearly twenty-five per cent of all Bratski Vestnik journals published between 1945 and 1988 contained an article from or a reference to Kargel. In 1947, in Bratsk