Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20020811.htm

CHRIST'S SCRIPTURE PROPHECY ON CONTEMPORARY EVANGELICALISM
Part III: Christ's Appraisal Of Evangelicalism As Two, Offensive, Judging Factions
B. Christ's Evaluation Of Evangelicalism Detailed
2. Christ's Exposure Of The Factions' False Doctrines Behind Their False Judgments
(Revelation 3:14, 17b[a,b,c,d,e])
  1. Introduction
    1. If Christ predicted our current Evangelical era of Church History, we should expect Him to provide a specific, detailed spiritual evaluation of our era's believers and their churches with their unique needs.
    2. Well, Rev. 3:14a, 17b[a,b,c,d,e] is Christ's exposure of the false doctrines behind Evangelicals' problems.
  2. Christ's Exposure Of The Factions' False Doctrines Behind Their False Judgments, 3:17b[a,b,c,d,e].
    1. As we learned, Christ is appalled at Evangelicalism's two factions, (1) Calvinists who extol doctrine and (2) Arminians experience, factions that judge each other in self-exonerating evaluations, cf. Part III, A.
    2. After exposing these factions' errant, self-exonerating evaluations of their own false works, Christ noted the false beliefs of both Calvinism and Arminianism that have produced these errant views and works:
      1. Jesus complained the Evangelical factions were each "wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked," (Rev. 3:17b KJV), a fivefold description of predicate adjectives connected by "and" that all modify a single subject to a single interrelated description of a subject, cf. Blass-Debrunner, A Grk. Gram. of the N.T., p. 240, par. 460; A. T. Robertson, A Gram. of the Grk. N.T., p. 777.
      2. Well, Loraine Boettner, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, p. 59 reports Calvinism's five points of belief are "not isolated and independent doctrines, but are . . . inter-related . . ." (sic)
      3. Also, these five adjectives in order critique the five points of Calvinism not to mention the five points of Arminianism. We detail this extensively in our previous study, "Examining Contested Reformed Theology Beliefs," Part III, A-E, and we very briefly recall that study's results as follows:
        1. "Wretched" - we found this word critiques Calvinism and Arminianism on their views of depravity. We saw these errors have led believers to live spiritually sinful lives in the power of the sin nature.
        2. "Miserable" - we found this word critiques Calvinism and Arminianism on their views of election. We saw this error has led to a godless preoccupation with this present life, producing worldliness.
        3. "Poor" - we found this word critiques Calvinism and Arminianism on their views of faith, and also critiques Calvinism's assertion of limited atonement. We saw these errors led to faithless living.
        4. "Blind" - we found this word critiques Calvinism and Arminianism on their errant views of the Holy Spirit's convicting work. We saw these led to a failure to lean on the Spirit for discernment.
        5. "Naked" - we found this word critiques Calvinism and Arminianism on their errant views of salvation security. We saw these errors led to a tendency to be led to join in unholy alliances.
    3. We now can summarize Christ's Rev. 3:17a,b message, that holding to Calvinist-Arminian views has produced the following errant ministry results, let alone errant self-exonerating evaluations of them:
      1. By applying errant Calvinist or Arminian beliefs, we Evangelical pastors have turned to living by the sinful nature, being worldly, failing to trust God, being doctrinally blind and being deceived unto joining in godless unions. We have thus failed to expound Scripture in favor of mouthing popular, errant beliefs to keep our jobs and income, and judged all was fine if job and income were safe!
      2. By applying errant Calvinist or Arminian beliefs, we Evangelical pastors and laymen have turned to living by the sinful nature, being worldly, failing to trust God, being doctrinally blind and being deceived unto joining in godless unions. We have thus failed to discern or address sin in ourselves or others, harming holiness in the Church, and judged all was fine if ministry externals were thriving!
      3. By applying errant Calvinist or Arminian beliefs, we Evangelical leaders and laymen have turned to living by the sinful nature, being worldly, failing to trust God, being doctrinally blind and being deceived unto joining in godless unions. We have thus leaned on human effort for outreach, producing futile long-term outreach results, and judged all was fine if we were busy in evangelizing efforts!
Lesson: Evangelical Calvinist and Arminian doctrinal beliefs are fully leavened with error, and applied to living, yield fruitless ministries and abhorrent, self-exonerating evaluations of our ministry efforts!

Application: WE Evangelicals must get HUMBLE and REPENT of our Calvinist or Arminian beliefs!