REVISITING CHRIST’S MESSAGE TO TODAY’S EVANGELICALS

Part III: Christ’s Appraisal Of Evangelicals As Two, Offensive, Judging Factions

B. Christ’s Evaluation Of Evangelicals Detailed

1. Christ’s Exposure Of The Factions’ Errant Judgments Of Their Ministries

(Revelation 3:14a, 17a[a,b,c])

I. Introduction

A. Since Jesus predicted that our era of Church History would be marked by an errant division of two judgmental evangelical groups of Arminians and Calvinists, we would expect Him to provide a detailed explanation of it.

B. Revelation 3:14a, 17a[a,b,c] gives Christ’s detailed explanation of the factions’ errant judgments of their own ministries, what we will study in this lesson. [However, Revelation 3:14a, 17b[a,b,c,d,e] gives Christ’s detailed explanation of the factions’ errant beliefs that have produced these errant ministries with their errant spiritualities, what we will study in the five lessons that will follow today’s lesson!]

II. Christ’s Exposure Of The Factions’ Errant Judgments Of Their Ministries.

A. We learned in Revelation 3:14 how Christ is the All-Sufficient Source for ministry to the godly (“The Amen”), the carnal (“the faithful and true witness”), and the unsaved (“the Ruler of the creation of God”).

B. However, the self-evaluations of the two evangelical factions that promote their own respective faction’s ministries are EXPOSED by Christ to be both errant and ineffective in discipling all three groups noted in section “II, A” above – the godly, the carnal, and the unsaved (as follows):

1. The self-evaluation of both factions’ ministries to the godly are flawed: (i) Jesus said evangelicals judge themselves, saying, “I am rich,” Rev. 3:17a[a] NIV. This phrase exists elsewhere in Scripture only in Zechariah 11:5 where Israel’s spiritual shepherds in Christ’s era were predicted to take financial advantage of God’s flock while failing them spiritually (Merrill Unger, Zechariah, p. 192). (ii) This sin is also critiqued in Ezekiel 22:25-30 where Israel’s spiritual shepherds failed to expound Scripture, but they took financial advantage of God’s flock for their own wealth and fame instead of teaching and exampling Scripture truth. (iii) Thus, Arminian and Calvinist leaders have not rightly expounded Scripture, but they have instead taught the errant views of their respective factions to avoid conflicts with other leaders in their factions to preserve their jobs, ranks, and pensions at the cost of the spiritual welfare of God’s flock. (Robert Culver, A Wake Up Call, 1993, p. 68-77, exposed this problem in the Evan. Free denomination!)

2. The self-evaluation of both factions’ ministries to the carnal are also flawed: (i) Jesus said evangelicals judge themselves, saying, “I have acquired wealth” (Rev. 3:17a[b] NIV), (ii) a phrase appearing elsewhere only in Hosea 12:8 LXX (Moul. & Ged., Conc. to Grk. Test., p. 818-819; Hatch & Red., Conc. to LXX, v. II, p. 1150). Ephraem there saw its wealth as a shield for its sin, so (iii) Arminian and Calvinist leaders have often used the existence of personal wealth or wealth in the church to assert that God is blessing them though not using Scripture to address sin! (John H. Armstrong, gen ed., The Com. Evan. Crisis, p. 36-41)

3. The self-evaluation of both factions’ ministries to the unsaved are also flawed: (i) Jesus said evangelicals judge themselves, saying, “(I) do not need a thing,” Rev. 3:17a[c] NIV. (ii) The Greek words in this phrase exist elsewhere in the N. T. only at 1 Thess. 4:12 (Ibid., Moult. & Geden, p. 1010). (iii) Paul there called the Thessalonians to work with their own hands to uphold a good testimony before the unsaved. (iv) Applied to the Revelation 3:14, 17a[c] context, Jesus critiqued evangelical leaders for relying on their own human efforts to evangelize, sabotaging spiritual effectiveness in evangelism by human effort. [Dallas Seminary’s founder, L. S. Chafer, exposed this problem in True Evangelism as early as 1911!]

Lesson: Christ taught that today’s evangelical Arminian and Calvinist factions’ self-promoting judgments of their own ministries err: (1) Both factions’ leaders judge themselves to be upright in ministry to the godly when they fail to expound Scripture effectively, not truly heeding belief in Sola Scriptura, that they might voice their errant factions’ views so as to preserve their jobs, pensions, and renown at the cost of shepherding God’s flock. (2) They have also hidden behind their own and/or their factions’ wealth, not addressing sin in the church and (3) they have errantly judged themselves to be effective in evangelism in spite of their futile, human, evangelistic efforts.

Application: Evangelical leaders must stop yielding to peer pressure in their factions in mouthing the false beliefs of their respective erring Arminian and Calvinist factions for financial gain and livelihood security and instead rightly expound Scripture! Evangelical leaders must study, proclaim and example what Scripture actually says in place of mouthing their factions’ errors, trusting God versus their factions to provide for their livelihood needs!