“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17).

“And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever” (I Samuel 2:35).

“. . . his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction” (II Peter 3:16).

“And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah; for there they blessed the LORD: therefore the name of the same place was called, The valley of Berachah, unto this day” (II Chronicles 20:26).

“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (II Timothy 3:12).

This sobering prediction is placed in the context of the “last days” when “perilous times shall come” and “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived” (II Timothy 3:1,13). All who determine to live a godly life in Christ are going to be persecuted.