Most Christians tend to regard this mortal life as a test - or rather as a series of tests. This is upside-down; because life is actually an education.
Of course, an education will involve passing tests - but the over-arching reason for a (real) education is to learn new stuff, to develop abilities - to learn from experiences and thereby be raised to a higher level in the subject being studied.
That is the purpose of mortal life - of living, developing, growing, and having the experiences which God brings to us by his arrangement of ongoing creation. Some of these experiences take the form of tests that we should overcome; but many other aspects of life are experiences from-which we may learn.
Here is an analogy: I was at medical school and studied to pass tough exams; and I needed to pass these exams to qualify as a doctor.
However, the educational aspect was primary. For example; spending the morning interviewing and examining patients, and then presenting a summary and conclusions to a more senior doctor. Or assisting with medical procedures or surgical operations. Or sitting next to doctors in clinics, watching what was done, asking and being asked questions.
In other words; most of medical education was about having experiences and learning from them - and that was the real and positive purpose of the education. And the exams (the tests) were one type of experience; yet of a double-negative kind: I must not fail them.
In sum - the first job of a good medical school is to provide students with experiences from-which they can learn to be a doctor if they take the opportunities offered. Also, in the end, it was necessary to pass the tests in order to proceed.
Christians often fall-into a way of talking that seems to frame mortal life in the exam-like way: as tests that must not be failed. So, these end times were are going through, where apparently supernatural purposive evil dominates a world government, which rules all major social institutions aiming to make society a machine of damnation - may be described as testing-times; and a test which God has set us his children. It is said that we must pass this test to be allowed into Heaven.
I have myself described four Litmus Tests, by which we can discern which side a person or institution has taken in the spiritual war. This might be taken to imply that such Tests are 'set' by God; and that these times of trial are to be conceptualized as like exams for admission to Heaven.
Ultimately, this way of thinking leads to what I have called the double-negative theology which is all too common in Christianity, historically - with the idea that life is about avoiding damnation.
But the truth of our life situation is more more like the whole of education than a set of exams. An alternative and positive idea, is that of life as a chance for theosis; that God engineers our personal experiences such that we can learn from them - and this learning will be of value in our post-mortal eternal life in Heaven.
So, these 'testing times of trial' should also be seen in the broader context of providing each of us - individually - with the personally-tailored experiences we could most benefit from - if we take the opportunities offered, and learn from them.
And at the end of this life; it is also necessary to pass the 'test' of salvation - of being able to make an eternal commitment to Love and follow Jesus Christ - in order to proceed to Heaven.
Note added: William Wildblood's new book Earth is a School is now available for pre-order. It looks in more detail at the idea of life as education.
