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

2. Christ’s Offer To Use Arminian Opposition To Wean Us From Its Faction

(Revelation 3:19)

I. Introduction

A. After Christ critiqued the five points of Calvinism and the Arminian errors that parallel those points in Revelation 3:17b, He gave the solutions to three of the parallel Arminian errant points in Revelation 3:19.

B. Christ in Revelation 3:19 advances His Revelation 3:18 offer of advising that He arrange that a pastor be weaned from the Calvinist faction to advising him to be weaned from the Arminian faction for blessing!

II. Christ’s Offer To Use Arminian Opposition To Wean Us From Its Faction, Revelation 3:19.

A. In Rev. 3:19 of the Greek N. T., Christ stated, and we translate, “All I Myself emotionally love I reprove and instructively punish! Be zealous [new form], therefore, and repent!” (U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966 ed., p. 845)

B. The Greek words in this verse, in view of the Greek N. T. context, indicate that Christ shifted from advising a pastor on relating to the Calvinist faction in Rev. 3:18 to relating to the Arminian faction in Rev. 3:19:

1. [Note: Charismatics are Pentecostal in their beliefs, and Richard Quebedeaux (The New Charismatics, p. 30) noted, “Pentecostal theology has always been Arminian,” so Charismatics are Arminian in theology!]

2. Christ then referred to Charismatic Arminians in Rev. 3:19a, alluding to Hebrews 12:5-6, but He replaced the verb agapao (“love objectively”) in Hebrews 12:5-6 for phileo, a verb for subjective love that stresses “natural affections . . . passion” (Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T., p. 774, 845; R. C. Trench, Syns. of the N. T., p. 41-42). This verb reflects the key Charismatic Arminian trait of subjectivism (Ibid., Quebedeux, p. 31).

3. Also, in accord with Hebrews 12:5-6, Jesus identifies Himself as the “Lord” (Kurios), the sole word used of God in those verses in the Greek N. T. (Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T., p. 774). This word use reflects the phrase, “Jesus is Lord” that Charismatics commonly use to advertise their groups as being Charismatic!

4. Christ’s call to “be zealous” recalls the verb zeloo (Moulton & Geden, Conc. to the Grk. Test., p. 419) that Charismatics notably use from 1 Corinthians 12:31, 14:1 and 14:39 to teach believers to “be zealous” to gain and not hinder the gift of tongues, et al. (Ibid., Quebedeaux, p. 13-18). However, the form of this verb in Rev. 3:19 is zeleuo, a rare, late form of zeloo that appears in 1 Corinthians (Abbot-Smith, Man. Grk. Lex. of the N. T., p 195), so zeleuo in Rev. 3:19 hints of the Charismatic belief that they have the “latter rain” of God’s outpouring of spiritual gifts where the Early Church allegedly had the “early rain.”

C. Thus, in strong OPPOSITION to the Charismatic Arminian view that God supplies only wealth and health to the godly (Ibid., Quebedeaux, p. 84-92 with Rev. 3:17), in Rev. 3:19a, Jesus declared that ALL TRUE (Heb. 12:5-6) believers whom He emotionally loves He REPROVES and instructively PUNISHES for their SINS!

D. This declaration by Christ ALSO mirrors the case in Hebrews 12:5-6 and its Hebrews 12:1-4; 13:10-14 context where God warned believers that He would chasten them against yielding to pressure from errant Hebrew sects that “idealized” Israel’s wilderness, miracle-laden wanderings [like today’s Charismatic Arminians idealize the Early Church’s miracles], such pressure being that believers would be shamed by the errant sects [as Charismatic Arminians do] for NOT participating in their fellowship, B. K. C., N. T., p. 779!

E. The subject of “emotionally love,” the emphatic pronoun ego (“I Myself”), is written separate from phileo (Ibid., U. B. S. Grk. N. T., p. 845), expressing a contrast (Blass-Deb., Grk. Gr. of N. T., p. 145), and Christ’s use of phileo contrasts His emotional love with the Charismatic emotional love in that He counters the Charismatic charge that others are unloving not to condone their Charismatic faction’s alleged credibility!

F. In summary, in applying in Rev. 3:19 His advice in Rev. 3:18 on how a pastor is to relate to the Calvinist faction to how a pastor is to relate to the Arminian faction, Jesus advises a pastor that under His threat of divine discipline, a pastor must not yield to the Charismatic Arminian slanderous THREAT that he would be “unloving” if he did NOT depend on ITS faction to gain “gold tried in the fire,” if he did NOT cooperate with ITS ministries to gain “white garments” and if he did NOT adopt ITS beliefs to gain “eye salve!”

Lesson: Jesus calls a pastor to ask Him to arrange that he be afflicted by Charismatic Arminians that he might be zealous to resist their faction’s pressures to join them, to unite with their ministries or to adopt their errant beliefs.

Application: May we ALL look to God to arrange for us to overcome BOTH Calvinist AND Charismatic Arminian pressures to join their factions, to unite with their factions in ministries or to adopt their factions’ errant beliefs.