3:1 ¶ And unto the angel of the
church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of
God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou
livest, and art dead. 2 Be watchful, and
strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found
thy works perfect before God. 3 Remember
therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If
therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt
not know what hour I will come upon thee. 4
Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their
garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. 5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed
in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but
I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. 6 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the
Spirit saith unto the churches.
This church is in big trouble. It
is called a dead church and not just a dead church but a dead church that
thinks it is alive. It is called to repent, to have a change of mind and heart
and turn from its ways or be judged.
White raiment is a symbol of
righteousness before God.
Revelation 19:8 And to her was granted
that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen
is the righteousness of saints.
Daniel 12:10 Many shall be
purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none
of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.
These verses are linked by what
they are talking about and having nothing to do with race as some racist
preachers like the famous J. Frank Norris would have had you believe, as I
heard a recording of him bragging about how he told a group of black preachers
that one of the rewards for trusting Jesus was that in eternity they would
become white people. Some people just have their own wicked agenda.
Christ promises not to blot a
person’s name out of the Book of Life. All human beings’ names are in the book
when their soul was created but based on God’s foreknowledge and if we reject
Him our name is removed.
Exodus 32:32 Yet now, if thou
wilt forgive their sin — ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of
thy book which thou hast written. 33 And
the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out
of my book.
Philippians 4:3 And I intreat
thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the
gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are
in the book of life.
Revelation 13:8 And all that
dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book
of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Revelation 17:8 The beast that
thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go
into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were
not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they
behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Revelation 20:12 And I saw the
dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another
book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of
those things which were written in the books, according to their works…15 And whosoever was not found written in the
book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
Revelation 21:27 And there shall
in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh
abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of
life.
Revelation 22:19 And if any man
shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take
away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the
things which are written in this book.
When we are saved we are said to
be sealed and the Holy Spirit is given to us as a deposit, earnest money, so to
speak.
2Corinthians 1:22 Who hath also
sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also
trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation:
in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of
promise,
Ephesians 4:30 And grieve not
the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
So, it is consistent to believe
that God’s Book of Life contains all our names and when we die physically the
name is either left there or taken out based on what we have done regarding
Christ…
Hebrews 9:27 And as it is
appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
If that is not the case then your
salvation is not sure, that is, if you can have your name put in and then taken
out.
Regarding verse 5 the early church
was faced with enormous persecution of a physical and deadly nature as it is in
many parts of the world today. I’ll read some verses and then show you something;
Matthew 10:32 Whosoever
therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father
which is in heaven. 33 But whosoever
shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in
heaven.
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that
God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Philippians 2:11 And that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
To deny Christ under persecution
was a serious danger in the early church or in a place like Somalia or Vietnam
today;
2Timothy 2:11 It is a faithful
saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him: 12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him:
if we deny him, he also will deny us: 13 If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful:
he cannot deny himself.
There is a tension between that
passage and these verses in Hebrew that shows how persecution can weed out the
false Christians in any age. For either the following verses underscore that
you cannot be saved twice so your salvation is sure or it suggests that you can
get unsaved and if you do you cannot come back which we know by what happened
to Peter at Christ’s trial this is not so. Peter denied Christ three times and
was still forgiven. So, I believe the following underscores the absurdity of
the idea that you can get saved and unsaved again for Paul says that to do so
would require Christ’s sacrifice again, shaming Him that His salvation of us
was not sufficient.
Hebrews 6:4 For it is impossible
for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and
were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5
And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,
6 If they shall fall away, to renew them
again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh,
and put him to an open shame.
Those people in the upcoming last
3 ½ years of human history, called The Great Tribulation by Bible students, cannot
take the Beast’s mark without suffering God’s rejection. There may be those who
claim to be Christians but are really philosophical Christians or cultural
Christians or even political Christians who will deny Christ by taking this
mark.
In the early church there were
great controversies over whether or not Christians who had surrendered under
persecution and denied Christ should be readmitted to fellowship upon their
repentance of their deed. We should not take this lightly as the impulse to
make a statement that pleased the authorities would be very strong if your
child was being tortured in front of your eyes.
Our Baptist doctrine of eternal
security is called into question here but I think there is a resolution. First,
the heresy of Calvinism must be addressed and then the question of the meaning
of the verses in 2Timothy 2 and Hebrews 6 in relation to eternal security.
Finally, the question of whether or not Christians in the Great Tribulation
could lose their salvation needs to be examined.
John Calvin and his adherents
called Calvinists made and make the primary mistake of applying any “..ism” to
the Bible. Forcing the Bible to be interpreted by a system creates grave errors
in understanding, particularly as the student is not open to evidence the Holy
Spirit reveals to him. For instance, recently I was starting a discussion with
a Calvinist and realized there was no grounds on which to continue our
discussion because he, in believing that mankind is not capable of choosing God
and that God chooses those who will be saved and those who will burn in
eternity, simply ignored and refused to comment on verses contrary to his
beliefs.
Joshua 24:15
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that
were on the other side of the
flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
When a person places a method of
interpretation whether it be Calvinism, Fundamentalism, Replacement Theology,
Dispensationalism, etc. above the Bible it is not possible to reason with them.
Secondly, regarding 2Timothy 2:13;
13 If we believe not, yet he
abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
With Christ’s Spirit abiding
within us it is He who saves and preserves and the verses I quoted above in no
way deny the security of our salvation in the age of the church. In similar
regard Hebrews 6:4-6 shows that it is impossible to be saved twice. So, either
our salvation is secure by virtue of Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection or, if
you believe you can lose your salvation, you cannot ever be saved again and are
lost forever. But, that is for the age of the church.
Under the Law a Jew could lose
their salvation. Talking to Ezekiel, God said;
Ezekiel 3:20
Again, When a righteous man
doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a
stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him
warning, he shall die in his sin,
and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood
will I require at thine hand.
Ezekiel 18:24
But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousness, and
committeth iniquity, and doeth
according to all the abominations that the wicked man doeth, shall he live? All his righteousness that he hath
done shall not be mentioned: in his trespass that he hath trespassed, and in
his sin that he hath sinned, in
them shall he die.
Compare this with Christ’s
promise;
John 10:28
And I give unto them
eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29 My
Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father’s hand.
Back
to what we call the Great Tribulation it is clear that anyone, no matter what
their profession of faith is, if they take the mark of the Beast, will perish
forever.
Revelation 13:17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he
that had the mark, or the name
of the beast, or the number of
his name.
Revelation 14:9 And the third angel followed them, saying
with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his
forehead, or in his hand, 10 The same
shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without
mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire
and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the
Lamb: 11 And the smoke of their torment
ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who
worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
So,
either no actual Christian will take the mark of the Beast, a Christian in the
Great Tribulation can lose their salvation, or, based on the context, the
person is condemned because they worship the Beast, not because someone
threatened to torture and kill their loved ones or they were faced with
starvation if they did not take the mark and they did out of fear and weakness.
Some commentators even say there will be no believers in this Tribulation
however there are some problems with that and chapter 12.
I
would bring to mind that Peter was forgiven for his denial that he knew Christ
and also remember the parable of the tares and the wheat. There are many who
say they are Christian who will deny Christ under pressure but will not return
to Him in bitter, tearful repentance like Peter.
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