REVISITING CHRIST’S MESSAGE TO TODAY’S EVANGELICALS

Part IV: Christ’s Offer To Wean Us From Evangelicalism’s Factions To Himself

B. Christ’s Cross-Before-The-Crown Solution Applied

1. Christ’s Offer To Use Calvinist Opposition To Wean Us From Its Faction

a. Christ’s Offer To Use Calvinist Slander To Shift One’s FAITH In Calvinism To Him

(Revelation 3:18b[a])

 

I.               Introduction

A.    After Christ in Revelation 3:17b critiqued the five points of Calvinism and the Arminian errors that parallel those points, He gave the solutions to three of the Calvinist errant points in Revelation 3:18b.

B.    The first error that Christ taught how to address was Calvinism’s third point, its errant view of faith (that led to Calvinism’s errant view of Limited Atonement), and Christ taught this truth in Revelation 3:18b[a]:

II.            Christ’s Offer To Use Calvinist Slander To Shift One’s FAITH In Calvinism To Him, Rev. 3:18b[a].

A.    Jesus counseled the pastor first to buy from Him “gold refined in the fire” in Revelation 3:18b[a] NIV.

B.    Scripture’s use of this phrase shows that this action entails a pastor’s facing slander from Calvinists to wean him from relying on the Calvinist establishment for material wealth to rely on Christ to be “rich” in faith:

1.      Besides Rev. 3:18b[a], the only other New Testament reference to a trial that produces what is NAMED as GOLD tried in the fire is 1 Peter 1:7 (Moulton & Geden, A Concordance To The Grk. Test., p. 1019).

2.      The historical context of 1 Peter 1:7 with the historical context of Rev. 2:9, another trial-producing-wealth-context, reveal that the trial in Rev. 3:18b[a] is slander from Neo-Platonist-influenced Calvinists:

                         a.  In 1 Peter 1:7, believers were “rich” in faith by pagan slander over their withdrawal from pagan society, what led to Rome’s first persecution of Christians (B. K. C., N. T., p. 838; Z. P. E. B., vol. Four, p. 411).

                         b.  Later, pagan Neo-Platonist Porphyry critiqued Christians to defend paganism, adding to Rome’s 10 great persecutions of Christians.  Believers in that Rev. 2:9 era of Smyrna became materially poor but “rich” in faith via slander (E. M. Burns, Wes. Civ., 6th ed., p. 235; Camb. Anc. His., 1971, v. XII, p. 207, 630-648).

                         c.  [Also, ancient Laodicea was materially rich (Rev. 3:14, 17), but it signified today’s spiritual poverty in faith in Evangelicalism – the opposite of Smyrna (Douglas, gen. ed., The New Bib. Dict., 1973, p. 717).]

                         d.  In addition, in our past study on Calvinism’s third point in Rev. 3:17b[c], we learned that Christ alluded to 1 Peter 1:7 to critique Calvinism’s view that God provides a gift of faith to the elect so that they can even believe, a view that counters unsaved man’s free will that is taught in Scripture (as in John 3:16). 

                         e.  Calvinism’s errant view on faith began with Augustine whose Neo-Platonism led him to deny that the unsaved have free will (Warfield, Calv. & Aug., reprint 1974, p. 375, 378, 395-397; Ibid., Burns, p. 272).

                          f.   Thus, Christ in Rev. 3:18b[a] calls a pastor to let Christ arrange for him to clash with Calvinists so that he must assert that the unsaved have free will to align with Scripture, leading Neo-Platonist-influenced Calvinists errantly to slander him as being a self-meritorious Pelagian, what is true only of Arminians (Boettner, Ref. Doc. of Pred., p. 47-48; Williston Walker, A Hist. of the Christ. Church, 1959, p. 168).

3.      We thus describe HOW such activity produces the EDIFYING RESULT planned by Christ (as follows):

                         a.  Christ calls a pastor to ask Him to arrange that he conflict with Neo-Platonist-influenced Calvinists in standing with Scripture (like John 3:16) to say that unsaved man has free will versus Calvinism’s view.

                         b.  IF the pastor HEEDS Christ, his STAND critiques the whole Calvinist ESTABLISHMENT, and Neo-Platonist-influenced Calvinists, like ancient pagan Neo-Platonist Porphyry, view that pastor’s STAND as a THREAT to their ESTABLISHMENT (Gal. 6:12), so they slander the pastor, errantly calling him a “Pelagian” [where only Arminians are Pelagian] (1 Peter 4:4-5; John 15:18-22; Galatians 4:29)!

                         c.  IF the pastor KEEPS his Scriptural stand, Christ spiritually edifies him (1 Peter 2:25; John 14:21, 23) and builds up his faith (1 Peter 1:7) and love for Christ with resulting great joy (1 Peter 1:8). 

                         d.  The pastor then stops relying on the Calvinist wing of Evangelicalism for material security to rely INSTEAD on Christ for His provisions (like believers in the era of Smyrna did), gaining “rich” faith!

 

Lesson: Christ calls a pastor to ask Him to lead him to clash with Calvinists to support Biblical free will.  His stand threatens the Neo-Platonist-influenced Calvinist establishment like early Christians threatened the pagan Neo-Platonist establishment of Porphyry, so akin to Porphyry, Calvinists will slander the pastor as “Pelagian,” and the pastor must keep his stand to cease relying on the Calvinist establishment for material security to rely on Christ.

 

Application: May all believers by faith in Christ hold to Scripture’s revelation that unsaved people have free will!