Dr. Bob Jones III was appointed president of Bob Jones University in Greenville, S.C., in 1971 and Chairman of the Board of Trustees in 1998, the third to hold these offices since the university was founded in 1927 by his late grandfather. Under the leadership of the three Drs. Jones, it has grown from a small college to a university which has more course offerings and majors than any other Bible-believing Christian institution in the world.

On May 7, 2005, Dr. Jones became Chancellor of BJU, and his younger son Stephen was chosen by the Board of Trustees to be the school's fourth president.

In much demand as a forthright preacher, he receives more requests for meetings than he is able to fill with his varied schedule of duties. He has led the cast in many Shakespearean plays produced by the BJU Classic Players and has performed major roles in several Unusual Films productions, among them three full-length, award-winning Christian films, "Wine of Morning," "Red Runs the River," and "Flame in the Wind."

Well known for his outspoken religious and ethical convictions, Dr. Jones has been selected to represent the view of Bible-believing Christians on educational and national television.

Are You Listening?

Suffering heightens sensitivity. C.S. Lewis said it this way: "Pain is God's megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

Have you ever noticed that you tend to be much more aware of traffic conditions after having an accident or a near-miss? You can injure a knee or an ankle and then find yourself favoring that limb when crossing a slick surface or playing some sport. It doesn’t take too many bounced checks to (hopefully) remind you to balance your checkbook with a little more care.

Suffering is no different. Weeping hearts are acutely aware of God, nagging questions, and the persistent pain. Even those who do not profess to be Christians cry out to God when confronted by tragedy. The sensitivity of the soul to things spiritual increases when the joy of things temporal decreases. This is God’s plan.

However, the view of God that we may have from our forest of suffering is easily obstructed. Our deep pain and daily problems can actually monopolize our attention, drawing our hearts away from God. This is no new thing. These distractions from God’s purpose for our suffering have been present for thousands of years.

The Bible records the horrific story of a good man who endured unbelievable pain. God wanted to heighten this man’s sensitivity to Himself. For a while he endured well—he allowed his heightened sensitivity to fasten his eyes on God. But over time, the man became engrossed with his pain. In the end, however, he came to see God from breathtaking vistas of which he had never dreamed.

This is the story of Job. The story of a real man. The story of every man.

Job suffered like most men have never suffered. The blood-intensity of his pain began to turn his gaze from God and onto himself. Job’s trials branded every area of his life. He suffered physically, losing all his wealth and children in one day (1:13-14). He was afflicted with an awful disease (2:8-10). He endured social hardships, being scorned and betrayed not only by the lowest on the social ladder (16:10), but even by his own friends (2:7-8; 16:14-23). Job also experienced a wide range of troubling emotions: uncertainty (9:20), hostility (10:3), dismay (21:6), and loneliness (19:13-19). Above it all, Job was terrified at God’s deafening silence toward him spiritually (23:8). At the beginning, Job tried not to focus on his problems, but eventually the shouts of his pain began to drown out everything else.

If that weren’t enough, Job’s suffering also seemed absolutely pointless. The entirety of Job’s first speech (chapter 3) was essentially comprised of his questioning the point of life itself. He cursed the day on which he had been born (3:11-16), questioned why people in suffering had to go on living (3:20), and wished for death as a relief from such suffering (3:21-22). Pessimistically, Job seemed to have no good reason to go on living. His suffering and pain were so keen and overwhelming to him that all of life seemed to be one fatalistic maze in which the winner is the one who finds the end.

But God was not finished with Job.

What did God want to reveal about Himself to Job through his suffering? What was the purpose behind the pain? In His conversation with Job (Job 38-41), God reveals Himself preeminently as the Creator. As Creator, God also controls His creation. God had designed the entire universe according to His own precise plans (38:4-8). Therefore, as the work of His hand, the whole creation has structure and order pre-programmed into it. There is no aspect of the world that is not under His controlling authority (38:16-24) and careful management (38:25-39:30). God wanted to heighten Job’s awareness of Himself as the sovereign Creator. But Job would not have seen God in the dawn of His glory as Creator had he not been made to pass through the long night of suffering.

Job’s words, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee" (42:5), reveal that God’s intended objective for the suffering was indeed achieved. Job was the most God-fearing man on the face of the earth prior to his testing (1:8). Prior to the testing, he loved God because of what he’d heard about God. Afterwards, he loved God because he had seen Him with the eye of faith and had experienced the reality of God’s faithfulness and care for those who love Him.

Throughout Job’s struggles, God brought him out into the sunlight of His salvation. Although he was already a believer (1:1), God wanted to increase Job’s knowledge of Himself as the Redeemer. Exhibiting a proper focus on God, Job declared that God was his "salvation" (13:16). Even during his miserable existence, Job put his "trust" in God for deliverance. He knew that God could rescue him. However, Job also believed that, regardless of what happened to his body, God would sustain his life even after death. Job asserted that as a tree continues to show growth even after being cut down, so he, too, would sprout to life again even though he might die (14:7-14). Job’s confidence that he would see God in his resurrected body also occupied Job’s thinking (19:25-27). Job’s focus on God Himself as his sustaining Redeemer reveals the bedrock beliefs that enabled Job to endure his incredible difficulties.

No one can find comfort in having a better view of God, unless they are rightly related to God first. At first glance, every man sees God as the enemy, not a friend. To change this hostile relationship, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to earth as a real Man, to live in such a way that would generate His approval and to die in such a way that would exhaust His anger, paying for all of man’s sin. For those who turn from and reject their sins and embrace the substitute offered in Jesus Christ, God has promised life—both in this world and in the one to come. To become a beneficiary of Christ’s life and death, you must acknowledge that you are a sinner, without any hope, and believe that Jesus died in your place and for your sins. To those who repent and believe, God grants salvation from their sin and His wrath.

Unless you know Him as Savior, you will never know Him as Creator and Redeemer. You will never find purpose in pain. Your heightened sensitivity to spiritual things will never be satisfied. In order to endure the problem of suffering, you must either initiate or maintain the correct focus—knowing God Himself.

Listen to your suffering. It is the voice of God calling you to know Him more fully. Are you listening?

For more information about Bob Jones University or to contact Dr. Bob Jones III visit Bob Jones University at www.bju.edu.

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