Lukewarmness

The seven churches of Asia Minor fall into three classes: those in which the Master found something to praise and something to blame–Ephesus, Pergamos, and Thyatira; those in which He found only something to praise–Smyrna and Philadelphia; and those in which He found nothing to praise–Sardis and Laodicea. There was an exception in Sardis, in that there were a “few names” in the congregation that had not defiled their garments, and they would walk with Christ in white. But of the church as a whole nothing good is said. It had a name that lived but was dead.

These three classes are all-comprehensive. One cannot conceive of a congregation that would not fall into one of these groups. All congregations are either wholly bad, wholly good, or partly good and partly bad. Then, as now, the largest group was composed of congregations in which there was a mixture of good and bad.

The church in Laodicea was wholly bad. For it there was no word of praise. It was the worst of the bad. In it there was no exception as in Sardis. Yet this church was not disturbed by the vicious works of the Nicolaitans, as was Ephesus; unlike Pergamos, Laodicea was not troubled by those who held the doctrine of Balaam; it was not subjected to bitter persecution as was Smyrna; no self-styled prophetess, like Jezebel, sought to seduce her members, as in Thyatira; yet, Laodicea was in the most deplorable condition of the seven churches. It was a victim, not of false teaching, not of immoral practices, not of relentless persecution; but a victim of a more deadly malady–lukewarmness, indifference.

Laodicea was the church of the excluded Christ! The saddest words addressed to any of the seven churches fell upon the dull ears of Laodicea. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). Mark you, these words were not addressed to the alien sinner. They were written to a church that had expelled the Christ who died for it.

What is the gravest threat to the churches? What is the deadliest malady that haunts the Christian? Worldliness, digression, modernism? Don’t forget lukewarmness, indifference. It drove Christ from the hearts of the Laodicean brethren. It benumbed them into a false sense of independence and self-sufficiency. They mistook lack of pain for absence of malady. They thought they needed nothing when they needed everything. When you come to appraise the dangers besetting the church, remember indifference!

B. C. Goodpasture

Gospel Advocate, April 22, 1971

The Thousand-Year Reign

The vast majority of Protestants believe the “thousand years” of Revelation 20:1–7 refers to the tenure of Christ’s reign in an earthly kingdom upon His return. Since He will come before His alleged millennial reign, this theological system is called “premillennialism.” Since the aforementioned passage is the Bible’s only reference to a millennial reign of Christ, premillennialists rely heavily upon it, in spite of the fact that it does not contain or support premillennial dogma. For example, the passage does not mention such essential parts of the pre-millennial program as the rapture, the bodily resurrection of saints, the city of Jerusalem, an earthly reign of Christ, a thousand years of earthly peace, or even the Second Coming—all essential points of the dogma. A principal key to understanding the book of Revelation is that it is largely written in symbolic orfigurative “code” language (Revelation 1:1). No other Biblical document contains more signs and symbols than this one. One should thus approach its details as symbolic unless there is some contextual reason not to do so. Note the figurative flavor of the opening verses of Revelation 20 (the “angel,” the “key,” the “greatchain,” the “bottomless pit”/“abyss,” and the “seal” are all obviously figurative). There is every reason to believe (and no reason not to believe) the “thousand years” is also figurative. The events described in Revelation 20:1–9 are not a chronological continuation of chapter 19, which describes Jesus’ return, His destruction of all the ungodly, and His casting the “beast” and the “false prophet” into Hell (vv. 11–21)—all of which are highly figurative descriptions of the end of time and the Judgment. Revelation several times moves in cycles from the beginning of the church to the end of time, the last such cycle occurring in 20:1–9. In these verses John recaps the period from Pentecost to theJudgment (the Christian Age), during which Satan is bound for “a thousand years,” “loosed for a little time,” and at last cast into Hell forever. During this period (the present Christian Age), Christ now reigns over His kingdom, the church (Matthew 16:18–19; John 18: 36; Colossians 1:13; Revelation 1:5–6, 9), and simultaneously, Satan’s power is restrained. The “thousand years” of Satan’s “binding” and of Christ’s millennial reign is figurative, denoting a long, but indeterminate, period (cf. the “thousand hills” [Psalm 50:10] and the“thousand generations” [Deuteronomy 7:9]). During this time, “souls” (not bodies) of martyrs “reign” with Christ in Heaven (not on the earth), awaiting the universal bodily resurrection at His coming (John 5:28–29; I Corinthians 15:22–26). We are living in the millennium, the figurative “thousand-year” reign of Christ.

Note: This article was written for and published in the Denton Record-Chronicle, February 16, 2007.

Dub McClish