#Revelation #Endtimes
Rev 3:7-13 "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: 'The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. "'I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie--behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you. Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'"
The church that is not reprimanded has held on to the Absolute love in the midst of error and trial. The two anchors of truth and grace remain. Holding on to the absolute and the love, enduring in both ways is the narrow path. You can have all truth and be nothing before God and you can hold a kind of love "eros faith" and be completely in error, walking the wrong pathway. A pathway to destruction.
David F. Wells says; "Modernity's God is not nearly so morally angular as the God of the Bible. His sharp edges have all been ground down to make him less threatening, more comfortable, more tame. He is rarely perceived as the God of the outside who, in his awesome greatness, summond his people to worship, to hear the Word of truth that they cannot find within themselves or their world, to become agents of righteousness in a world that scorns this righteousness as alien and contrary. Robbed of such a God, worship loses its awe, the truth of his Word loses its ability to compel, obedience loses its virtue, and the church loses its moral authority. What has happened? Because it is the easiest route to take. The habits and appetites of modernity are more attractive than the sacrifice and discipline of orthodox faith. God's love seems less burdensome than his holiness. The church has succumbed to the seductions of therapeutic culture, and in that context it seems quite natural to favor the relational dimension over the moral dimension, mysticism over cognitive conviction, self-fulfillment over personal surrender, self image over character, pluralistic religious equality over the uniqueness of the Christian faith."
David H Wells
God in the Wasteland p 136 Wm. B Eerdmans Publishing 1994
"Hold fast what you have so that no one may come and seize your crown"
Rev 3:7-13 "And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: 'The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. "'I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie--behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet and they will learn that I have loved you. Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'"
The church that is not reprimanded has held on to the Absolute love in the midst of error and trial. The two anchors of truth and grace remain. Holding on to the absolute and the love, enduring in both ways is the narrow path. You can have all truth and be nothing before God and you can hold a kind of love "eros faith" and be completely in error, walking the wrong pathway. A pathway to destruction.
David F. Wells says; "Modernity's God is not nearly so morally angular as the God of the Bible. His sharp edges have all been ground down to make him less threatening, more comfortable, more tame. He is rarely perceived as the God of the outside who, in his awesome greatness, summond his people to worship, to hear the Word of truth that they cannot find within themselves or their world, to become agents of righteousness in a world that scorns this righteousness as alien and contrary. Robbed of such a God, worship loses its awe, the truth of his Word loses its ability to compel, obedience loses its virtue, and the church loses its moral authority. What has happened? Because it is the easiest route to take. The habits and appetites of modernity are more attractive than the sacrifice and discipline of orthodox faith. God's love seems less burdensome than his holiness. The church has succumbed to the seductions of therapeutic culture, and in that context it seems quite natural to favor the relational dimension over the moral dimension, mysticism over cognitive conviction, self-fulfillment over personal surrender, self image over character, pluralistic religious equality over the uniqueness of the Christian faith."
David H Wells
God in the Wasteland p 136 Wm. B Eerdmans Publishing 1994
"Hold fast what you have so that no one may come and seize your crown"
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