THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Revelation: God's Revelation To His Servants Today On Events About To Occur

Part III: "The Things Which Are": Church History

G. Laodicea: Message To The Current Evangelical Church - Returning To Biblical Christianity

(Revelation 3:14-22)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

Christ's message to believers in today's Church era is certainly very important to us, so we view it (as follows):

Need: "Since it is very important to us, what is Christ's message to believers in today's Church era?!"

I. In Revelation 3:14, Christ's attributes show today's Laodicean Church era evangelicals are in dire need:

A. Christ is "the Amen," an expression found elsewhere in the Greek N. T. only in 2 Cor. 1:20 and 1 Cor. 14:16 (Moult. & Ged., C. G. T., 1974, p. 51f): in 2 Cor. 1:20, the godly say it if Scripture is taught dispensationally [Fundamentalism] as Jesus fulfills the Abrahamic Covenant versus Covenant theology in Reformed-Calvinism (J. D. Pentecost, Things To Come, 1972, p. 65ff; B. K. C., N. T., p. 557; C. C. Ryrie, Dis. Tod., 1970, p. 43ff) and in 1 Cor. 14:16, the godly say it if the speaker uses a known language versus Charismatic-Arminianism.

B. Jesus is also "the Faithful and True Witness," a title used elsewhere of God only in Jer. 42:5 (with Jer. 43:1-7) where carnal hearers say they will heed God's message from His prophet though they proudly do otherwise.

C. Christ is "the Head of the creation of God," alluding to Col. 1:15-22 of His sovereignty esp. with lost men.

D. To explain, (1) around 1950, "new evangelicals" disobeyed Christ's Rev. 3:11 Philadelphia era call to hold firm to [dispensational] Fundamentalism so as to engage the world in a presumed more respectable Reformed-Calvinist front (John H. Armstrong, The Com. Ev. Crisis, 1996, p. 29-31. (2) However, (a) this shift left them open to accommodate the world's errant views (b) and led Charismatic-Arminians to react to their old nemesis in Calvinism by touting Arminianism (Ibid., p. 31-34; Quebedeaux, The New Charisms., p. 30-31). (c) We also saw in our Pergamum era study how Calvinism reflects Augustine's pagan Neo-Platonism where man is an extension of God so God authors man's faith (B. B. Warfield, Calvin and Aug., 1974 [all, esp. p. 378]; G. Carruth, ed., The Vol. Lib., 1994, v. 22, p. 2025f; E. M. Burns, Wes. Civ., 1963, p. 395-396), but Arminianism also errantly reflects pagan belief in the form of Pelagius' Stoic, self-help bias to make faith a work so man can help save himself (W. Walker, A Hist. of the Chr. Ch., 1959, p. 168ff), so evangelicals fail in belief and work!

II. Christ critiqued today's evangelicals, using an illustration from ancient Laodicea to do so, Rev. 3:15-17:

A. Rev. 3:15-16 refers to Laodicea's water supply folly: the city piped hot water from Heliopolis and cold water from Colossae by laying both conduits overland exposed to the elements so that both gave lukewarm water, fit only as an emetic, Douglas, ed., The New Bible Dict., 1973, p. 716-717. Thus, not only have Reformed-Calvinism and Charismatic-Arminianism long been laced respectively with worldly pagan 'Neo-Platonism' and 'Stoicism', but their recent added compromise with the world makes Jesus about to "vomit" (emeo, Arndt & Ging., A Grk.-Eng. Lex. of the N. T., 1967, p. 254) them up as "adulterous" (Lev. 18:25), Revelation 3:17a:

1. "I am rich" alludes to Zech. 11:5 where Israel's leaders abusively used God's flock for material gain; "I have acquired wealth" points to Hosea 12:8 where Israel held her wealth meant she was not sinful and "[I] do not need a thing" refers to 1 Thess. 4:11-12 where one's testimony to the lost is given via one's works.

2. Along with worldly pagan-laced theology, evangelicals by worldly pride have also replaced Christ with money as their god in spiritual "adultery" as they regularly compromise truth to keep the pews and coffers full, what Walter Martin roundly critiqued in 1983 (Brannon Howse, Religious Trojan Horse, 2012, p. 11).

B. Christ then revealed how errant Calvinist and Arminian beliefs have led to this dilemma, Rev. 3:17b:

1. "Wretched" (talaiporos) points to Rom. 7:24 (Ibid., Arndt & Gingrich, p. 811) where one is carnal versus what he wills, Rom. 7:15-24. Calvinists teach Total depravity, that both the will and nature of the lost are fully corrupt while Arminians say both the will and nature are partly corrupt so the lost can contribute faith toward saving themselves. Rom. 7:15-24 shows the will is not bound by the sin nature though the latter is fully corrupt opposite both views, and both fail to lead men to rely on the Spirit as in Rom. 8:1-4.

2. "Pitiful" (eleeinos) refers to 1 Cor. 15:19 (cf. Ibid., p. 249) of Christians whose hope is only in this life. Calvinists claim God chooses who can believe to be justified [Unconditional election] where Arminians hold God elects to justify those He foreknew would believe, so both make election result in justification though Scripture shows election is only unto POST-justification goals (1 Pet. 1:2; 2 Thes. 2:13 and Eph. 1:3-6). Both errant theologies have left people focusing only on this earthly life, leading to worldliness.

3. "Poor" is explained via Rev. 3:18 as weakness in faith [with 1 Pet. 1:7] opposite Calvinism that asserts Limited atonement, that Christ died only for the elect since only they are given God's "rich" saving faith, for true believers in this verse and context (Rev. 3:19 with Heb. 12:6-8) are poor in faith! "Poor" also critiques [Pelagian] Arminianism that holds man's faith helps save him so that one loses his salvation if his faith falters, for here believers are saved though poor in faith! Calvinists fail to live by faith as they errantly rely on predestination to preserve their Christian walk and service and Arminians fail to live by faith in Christ in seeking to foster a self-help, meritorious so-called "faith" for Christian living!

4. "Blind" depicts the lack of spiritual discernment opposite Calvinism's belief in Irresistible grace, that God makes the elect discern the truth to believe unto salvation. This "blind" state also counters the Arminian view that the lost of their own ability can discern the truth to be saved. Both groups fail to rely on God's Spirit to convict the lost (John 16:7-11) and for believers to discern truth, John 16:12-15; 2 Tim. 1:13-14.

5. "Naked" via Rev. 3:18 and 19:8 is a lack of godly works versus Calvinism's claim of the Perseverance of the saints in godly works due to predestination and versus the Arminian idea that a lack of perseverance means one loses his salvation. Here the truly saved do not persevere due to carnality! Also, opposite both errant theologies, believers are unconditionally kept forever saved by the seal of the Spirit, Eph. 1:13-14.

III. In Revelation 3:18-22, Christ gave His solution -- being purged unto Biblical beliefs and world impact:

A. The Rev. 3:18a verb "counsel" exists elsewhere in the N. T. only at John 18:14 (Ibid., p. 785) where Caiaphas told the Sanhedrin to kill Jesus to save the nation, and John 11:47-52 shows Caiaphas' advice led via the cross to God's move to unite His true flock scattered abroad. Since pagan-laced, compromising evangelical beliefs are spread via missionary outreach to God's flock scattered worldwide, and such theologies open doors for communalistic movements influenced by the oppressive, secular, godless, one-world elitist movement (Ibid., Howse, p. 1-485), drastic measures are needed for the rescue and welfare of God's true Church worldwide!

B. To that end, Christ in Rev. 3:18b calls us to trust Him to "buy" [by grace, Is. 55:1] in His sovereignty over life's events "gold," "white garments" and "eyesalve," referring to 1 Peter 1:7 with 2:12 for "gold" [faith] and "white garments" [persevering in godly works] and John 9:1-39 for the "eyesalve" [discernment], i. e., to be mistreated by Calvinists as "heretical Pelagians" for rejecting their TULIP beliefs ["II, B, 1-5" above]! (Rev. 3:18) The believer will thus separate from and become independent of Calvinists and their views and works.

C. Rev. 3:19 KJV urges us to "repent" with the lingo of Charismatic Arminians, meaning we are to buy from Him the same three items as from Calvinists (in v. 18b) in being mistreated by them for rejecting their beliefs and works, leading to separation and independence from them! The word "love" is from phileo, the typical emotional love of Charismatics (Ibid., p. 866-867), and "be zealous" (zeleuo, Ibid., p. 338) points to the 1 Cor. 12:31, 14:1 and 14:39 passages Charismatics widely use to push others to be "zealous" to gain their false sign gifts, Ibid., Quebedeaux, p. 13-18. Zeleuo is the late, rare form of the verb zeloo in the 1 Corinthians passages above (Abbott-Smith, A Man. Grk. Lex. of the N. T., 1968, p. 195), showing Christ critiques the Charismatic movement's claim that God is increasingly giving believers its false sign gifts in the latter days of the Church!

D. After this painful purging and parting from errant evangelicals, in righteous victory over the "wretched" sin nature, Christ in Rev. 3:20, pointing to James 4:13-5:5, calls esp. the pastor to trust Him to meet his material needs by not faithlessly taking another job or pressuring God's flock to give toward his livelihood, and Christ will reward him by aiding him in his Bible study (Jn. 14:23) so he can "feed Christ" edifying Bible exposition vicariously to His flock (Acts 9:4-5), and Christ through His flock will materially meet the pastor's needs.

E. Lastly, for overcoming "pitiful" worldliness as Christ did (Rev. 3:21 points to John 16:33) in not loving the world and its lusts to do God's will (1 John 2:15-17), Jesus will use one to fulfill His hinted section "III, A" agenda: He will set the victor "in" His Davidic throne as He sat down "in" His Father's heavenly throne, meaning God will make his religious and civil foes worldwide subject to him (Ps. 110) and he will also have a great nurturing Bible exposition ministry to God's oppressed flock worldwide, Rev. 7:9-17. God used Luther to open America for religious liberty, He used Edwards to protect liberty in forming our nation and He used Fundamentalists to guard liberty here, so He will use our era's victor to rescue His flock and even secular individuals worldwide from their one-world, religio-politico foes' (Ibid., Howse, p. 15-69) oppression!

Lesson: Today's evangelicals have not heeded Christ's warning to 19th and 20th century Fundamentalists to hold firm to Fundamentalism, and that with dire results, but Christ calls us to look to Him for painful, needed purging in doctrine and life from pagan-laced evangelical error for godliness and an effective, worldwide edifying ministry.

Application: May we heed Christ's call for our Laodicean Church era to enjoy His enormous blessing in our time!