It is an inescapable conclusion that the Lord's addresses to the seven churches in Revelation (chapters 2 and 3) are written to us for our learning and that we might be exercised thereby, for seven times it is written: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." We are responsible to hear and heed what has been written.
That we have seven distinct and separate conditions and states constituting a sevenfold prophetic outline of the professing church on earth from the days of the Apostle John on to the very end of Christendom is evident to all who with subject minds and open hearts have examined the two chapters. We say "professing church" because it is seen in its outward form as a witness for Christ on earth; these seven churches are seen as seven candlesticks, or lamp-stands—as that which was set to give light. But, alas, there is a mixture of that which is real and that which is false in the picture, and it ends with Christ's spewing the nauseous thing out of His mouth. It is not the picture of Christ's Church which He builds, for nothing spurious will ever be incorporated into that; and there will be no breakdown in it (see Matt. 16:1818And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:18)).
When John wrote by the Spirit, declension had already set in; for in the first address the Lord's complaint is that they had "left" their "first love." They had grown cold in heart toward Him, and the Lord felt the coldness. This reminds us of God's charge to Israel, saying, "I have loved you, saith the Lord"; but they replied, "Wherein hast Thou loved us?" Mal. 1:22I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, (Malachi 1:2). Leaving the first attachment of heart which we had toward the Lord Jesus when we first tasted His love toward us is the beginning of departure and failure, both individually and collectively. Thus in the professing church the failure began there and increased and accelerated generally through its history, except for His grace that recalled it betimes as He did in the days of the Smyrna period by allowing most severe persecution from the pagan Roman Empire.
It then becomes evident in this prophetic outline that the last stage will be marked by cold, calculating indifference to Christ. It could brook anything that disparages Him, as though it were a matter of no concern. That this stage is now present is abundantly clear; we are at the very end of this day of grace. The spirit of Laodicea is widespread; it characterizes nominal Christianity and casts its pall over that which is true and real. All of us who know and love the Lord Jesus need to be on our guard lest the spirit of the day gain the ascendancy and our hearts lose their fervency. If such has happened, we need to get back to Him and judge every hindrance while we seek His help to enjoy Himself.
One of the characteristics of the Laodicean state is great claims: "Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." This is their estimate. And is not this condition prevalent today? Church membership, both in total numbers and in ratio to the population, is at or near an all-time high. Money contributed to the supposed cause of Christ has kept pace with the rising trends, while church buildings have grown in number, magnificence, and wealth. And this has not been confined to mere nominal Christians, but the spirit of it is quite' general. "Thou sayest" stands in sharp contrast to Christ's rebuke: thou "knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." -What a contrast between men's thoughts and God's thoughts of outward Christianity today! "Rich" versus "poor"! "Increased with goods, and have need of nothing" versus "wretched, and miserable" and "blind, and naked"! "Blind" is not to see beauty in Christ; "naked" is to be devoid of Christ-mere false profession. What a state, but by and large it is representative of a vast proportion of Christendom; and that which is real is being contaminated by the spurious. Laodicea is here, and far advanced. Men go on as though God would tolerate their counterfeits and approve of them because they make great claims and much display. But "God is not mocked," and His wrath is coming. If God spared not Israel when they apostatized, neither will He spare Christendom; or, as the Scriptures say, "If God spared not the natural branches [of the olive tree of blessing], take heed lest He also spare not thee [the grafted branches of Gentiles who in this day have privileges above any heretofore]." Rom. 11:2121For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee. (Romans 11:21).
Another characteristic of Laodicean departure is found in the Lord's solemn charge, "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot:... thou art lukewarm." "Lukewarm" (spiritually) means to be indifferent to Christ and His claims. In other words, it is neutrality; but the Lord said long ago that "He that is not with Me is against Me." There can be no neutrality in this war; it is a war to the finish. This world cast out Christ and rejects His claims; and to be indifferent to Him now is to be a traitor to Christ. Of vast multitudes today He will later say, "I never knew you: depart from Me." Matt. 7:2323And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:23). They were never His at all. May these words search the heart and conscience of any one who reads them who has never had a personal experience with Christ, who has never accepted Him as his personal Savior, and so has never had his eyes opened to see beauty in Him—"Unto you therefore which believe He is precious"—and who has never been clothed with "the best robe" (Christ Himself).
Nov let us document the present state of Christendom by a reference' or two to current religious writings and happenings. One of the representative periodicals of Christendom in the United States is a magazine called Christian Century. It speaks the language of much of the profession in Protestantism. In the April 2, 1959 issue their editor denied the virgin birth of Christ. Now that is nothing new, for it has been the language of apostasy for a long time; but the manner of his doing it is relatively new. He took the stand that it did not need to be disproved, for it was a matter of perfect indifference, an irrelevancy. How shocking to a true Christian! Does it not make any difference whether the Lord Jesus was born of a virgin according to prophecy, and according to the express statement of the New Testament? Any truehearted believer would rise in justifiable indignation at such a suggestion; for they would say with Mary, "They have taken away my Lord." If He be not the Son of the virgin, then Scripture is utterly false, and true believers have been false witnesses of Christ down through the centuries. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ"—the One born of the virgin, the Seed of the woman, the Son of man and Son of God—"let him be Anathema, Maranatha," or, in other words, "be accursed, the Lord cometh."
Such language as that of the Christian Century is luke-warmness and indifference to Christ of major proportion and consequence—it is Laodiceanism in essence and development. Faithfulness to Christ demands a scathing denunciation of such betrayal of the One who saved us by His atoning death.
Christian Century further said that if the virgin birth were admitted it would mean that Christ was God in "His structure," but this was rejected as untrue. Has mortal man become wiser than God? Dare the thing formed reply to Him who formed it and reject His pure Word—"Forever, O LORD, Thy word is settled in heaven." Psalm 119:8989LAMED. For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. (Psalm 119:89). But man will have the audacity to condemn it on earth!
We are thankful for every Christian who raises his voice against such daring apostasy, for those who "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints," but we deplore delicacy in handling such unholy deviations from the Word of God; for there are some who handle things that are derogatory to our blessed Lord in such a timorous and weak way that even their criticisms are benign and inane. "The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD." Jer. 23:2828The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 23:28).
The drive in Christendom for a "one church" world, for ecumenicalism, has fostered the proud, boastful, complacent spirit of Laodiceanism, which in turn has produced an abundant crop of insipid indifference to Christ. Broadmindedness is extolled at the expense of the truth of the Word of God. A sample of this can be seen in a carefully prepared statement of faith to be submitted to the second General Synod of the newly formed United Church in the United States. This body is an amalgamation of the General Council of Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church. It may well set the pattern for merging other bodies of Christians in the vanguard of the trend toward Rome and the greatest confusion of all in Babylon the Great, for it is a model of using words to express nothing except the luke-warmness of Laodicea which is so noxious to Christ that He will spew the whole thing out of His mouth.
They begin their statement with, "We believe in God, the Eternal Spirit, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Father." Just what does this mean? Almost anything could be made from it. Are God the Father and the Holy Spirit not to be distinguished in the Godhead? Is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ our Father in the same way? Could not one who denies the deity of Christ give assent to this statement? And, incidentally, the essential deity of Christ is nowhere affirmed in this "testimony of faith"; nor is His virgin birth mentioned; nor is the availing, shed, precious blood of Christ given a space in this watered-down, anemic, inert "testimony." Such erroneous statements as "reconciled the world to Himself," "to share in Christ's baptism," "to join Him in His passion and victory" are there.
And then fearing that perhaps someone may object to something supposedly orthodox in this statement, it is said that this is only a statement of faith and not a test of faith. Could not a member reject orthodox truth and remain in good standing? The only one whose rights and claims are ignored is the only One to be considered—the alone worthy Lord Jesus Christ. Tolerance is at the expense of the glory of Christ. 0 child of God, sinner cleansed by the precious blood of Christ, how can you tolerate this being "neither cold nor hot" to the glory and virtue of your Savior? Remember that to have fellowship with those who deny the virgin birth, the deity or humanity of the Lord Jesus, or His atoning work and shed blood, is to be disloyal to Christ. It is traitorous. "Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of their sins" is said in respect of that final combination to which Christendom is hastening-Babylon the Great. One thing that is being widely discussed in Christendom at present is the discovery
of 13 leather-bound papyrus books found in a tomb in Egypt. In days of indifference to Christ and His claims, it is easy for spurious writings to gain credence. This "find" is supposed to be a "Gnostic library." Gnosticism was that religious plague from the East that infiltrated early Christianity, and against which the Apostle Paul wrote time and again. It was a curse to the early Christians, for it sought to add to Christianity something which would in reality deny the full value of the work of Christ and of the believer's perfect standing in Him. The Apostle wrote against this in his warnings in the epistle to the Colossians. May real Christians not waste their time on these unprofitable "discovered" writings—one of them fraudulently called the Gospel of St. Thomas.
God has marvelously preserved to us the whole canon of the New Testament—in fact, of the whole Bible—and we do not require any extracanonical books to enrich or further our understanding of the Holy Scriptures. Many spurious books have appeared from time to time, and the enemy of Christ would gladly see them propagated. But
Christians who dabble in such things do so at a loss to their own souls. As for the four Gospels we have, there is every reason to believe there were no more intended to be given us, and that the four give all of the different characteristics of our blessed Savior that the Holy Spirit planned to give us. To add another would be to spoil the plan. The four we have are like the four sides of one house.
One of the so-called "unknown sayings of Jesus" found in this new discovery is: "Jesus said: If those who lead you say to you: Behold, the kingdom is in heaven, then the birds of heaven will precede you; if they say to you that it is in the sea, then the fish will precede you. But the kingdom is within you and it is outside of you." What utter nonsense! One needs only to read it to see that it does not begin to comport with the true sayings of the Son of God. "His word was with power," but what power is in the above quotation? A man who is well trained in the handling of genuine money easily discerns a counterfeit when it is passed to him. We do not need to know all about counterfeits, for their name is legion; but there is only one truth of God, and that is embodied in the Person of Christ and in the written Word. May God graciously preserve us from the spurious and give us to gaze on the Lord Jesus Christ with ever increasing and adoring eyes—on Him who is at the right hand of God for us.