“And some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge, and to make them white, even to the time of the end: because it is yet for a time appointed.”
Some of the wise will fall, in order to refine and to cleanse them and to make them white, until the time of the end; for there is still an appointed time—affirming that the martyrdom of the righteous serves divine purposes, purifying and refining the faithful through suffering, yet promising that persecution will conclude at God's appointed time. The imagery of refining and whitening (purification through testing) establishes theodicy for suffering. The certainty of an appointed end provides hope amid ongoing persecution.
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