Post by foxjj on Jul 10, 2021 17:28:05 GMT
You do well to use the church in Sardis as an example of a mainly luke warm church Randy. At the time of John writing the message from Jesus, Sardis was a wealth Roman town. Consequently, some of the people who called themselves members of the church there were members in name only, therefore Jesus gave them a warning to throw off their lukewarmness by waking up and repent or their name will be blotter out of the Book of Life.
Whiles on the other hand, Jesus promised His genuine followers of Justified believers, that their names will never be blotter out of the book of life. These promises are to all who call themselves Christian down through history.
As a side note, there are no Christians in Sardis today, which as you may know is in Turkey.
Here is the full warning to the church in Sardis:
“To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; hold it fast, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.
4 Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who is victorious will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out the name of that person from the book of life, but will acknowledge that name before my Father and his angels. 6 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. (Revelation 3:1-6 NIV)
When I got into the Jesus People movement, and in Charismatic circles, I began to recognize that the Holy Spirit wants to draw near to us all the time. And I came to realize that God's presence was conditioned on our obedience to the voice of God in our conscience.
And so, I began a walk with God, quite different from my 16 years prior. I recognized that God wanted me to testify to Him concerning His presence in our lives and concerning our need for holiness. My conversion roughly coincided with the Jesus People movement. But I got a lot of my teaching from Watchman Nee, who was from China.
I was still living with my parents, and I eventually had to inform them that I wasn't happy being a Lutheran any longer. I told them God gave me a Scripture, that our Lutheran Church had the "name of being alive, but was dead." I didn't want to attend a dead church, particularly if I had no input and no means of addressing the condition of the church.
I met with the pastor, but he showed no understanding of the Holy Spirit except to say that he once felt the Holy Spirit in a particular sermon he preached. And he gave me a book called "Faith, Hope and Love," which was all about letting "love" make us tolerant. And he completely rejected my request to address the congregation. I shouldn't have been surprised, since I was only a teenager. But I was confirmed as a Lutheran, and a capable speaker.
So I left the Lutheran Church, and joined the charismatic church of a former Lutheran pastor who had been kicked out of his Lutheran denomination for teaching the gifts of the Spirit, including the speaking in tongues. I differ in some of my doctrines from Charismatics and Pentecostals, but I do share with them their enthusiasm for the Holy Spirit.
I do not consider nominal Christianity, such as I was in the Lutheran Church, to be adequate Christianity, even though I would still address them as "Christians." It is a genuine Church, but not a full practicing church, as could be seen over time.
As the world around it descended into the abyss, the Lutheran Church went with it. More and more compromises developed as the world pressed for more open displays of sin.
So when I mention "churches" and "Christians" the terms are used in a nominal sense at times, and at other times in their more valid sense as born again practicing Christians. Christians in churches can be "Christians in churches" without being born again simply because they profess themselves to be such. Profession is only half the way to a more adequate Christianity.
Acts 18.26 He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.
I've discovered that many Christians in many different denominations do understand this "more adequate Christianity." It's not something cornered by any particular denomination. But it helps if a denomination gives more space to true practicing Christianity without compromise. I think every denomination has its institutional defects, requiring that the individual look to God even more than to the institution.