Printer-Friendly          E-mail this page

Judgment of the People
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Revelation 3:14  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) Jesus Christ calls Himself "the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness. . . ." We say, "Amen," at the end of a prayer. What is "amen"? It affirms that the prayer is true and one agrees with it. Here Jesus is the Amen. Descriptive terms follow it to help us understand—He is a "Faithful and True Witness." Christ is the faithful and true witness of God—His example is an exact representation of what God would be like if He were a man. Already, He is contrasting Himself with the Laodicean and what He finds so distasteful. They are faithless in carrying out their responsibilities to Christ. They are lukewarm—good for nothing but vomiting. We have been called to be witnesses. Through the prophet Isaiah, God says, "[Y]ou are My witnesses . . . that I am God" (Isaiah 43:12). He has made witnessing our responsibility. We witness with our lives, but the Laodicean fails miserably as a witness because he is so worldly. The only witness Christ gets out of him is that he is worldly, which is spiritually useless. The illustration described here is as if the Laodiceans were on trial and Christ, the Faithful and True Witness, is testifying against them. As the Source of all creation, He is not fooled by their diplomacy and compromise: He sees their witness is unfaithful and untrue. In fact, the word Laodicea means "judgment of the people," and the entire letter is a study in contrasting judgments, the Laodicean's and God's. The physical man looks at his material and social circumstances and evaluates himself as spiritually sound. On the other hand, the spiritual God looks at the same person and sees spiritual poverty. John W. Ritenbaugh The World, the Church and Laodiceanism

Revelation 3:17  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) This verse reveals an additional problem that magnifies the Laodiceans' dangerous condition due to their indifference. They are ignorant of their real spiritual condition. We are given two opposing evaluations in verses 14-17. One is from the all-wise, all-seeing God, while the other is from material and spiritually weak men. Laodicea means "judgment of the people," which could apply to either the people's judgment of themselves or of God's judgment of them. The Laodicean saw what he amassed materially and saw much. God saw what was amassed spiritually and saw little. Each judge looked for what was most important to him and thus made contrasting judgments. This should tell us a great deal about the Laodicean. His heart is focused on material things, even though he had been given the most precious spiritual knowledge that could be given to a human being. John W. Ritenbaugh Laodiceanism

Revelation 11:15-18  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) Jesus Christ will return to earth for the purpose of setting up the Kingdom of God and judging the nations. This time, He will not come meekly but with God's wrath against a rebellious mankind! The nations' political rulers will be furious when they realize that Christ has come to abolish the governments of this world and to establish the Kingdom of God, which will rule over all the earth from headquarters in Jerusalem. Note also that all English translations of the first part of verse 18 speak of "the time of the dead, that they should be judged. . . ." This is an error and is disproved by Revelation 20:5, which shows that the time of the dead to be judged is after the 1,000 years are over. The later Greek manuscripts do have the expression "the dead" in Revelation 11:18, but earlier manuscripts and the official printed Greek text of the Greek Orthodox Church have "the time of the nations that they should be judged. . . ." Feast of Trumpets: Why the World Won't End in Cosmocide

 

XML RSS  feeds available		The Berean: Daily Verse and Comment Sign up for the Berean: Daily Verse and Comment, and have Biblical truth delivered to your inbox. This daily newsletter provides a starting point for personal study, and gives valuable insight into the verses that make up the Word of God. See what over 50,000 subscribers are already receiving each day. Email Address:     King James VersionNew International VersionNew King James Version
We respect your privacy. Your email address will not be sold, distributed, rented, or in any way given out to a third party. We have nothing to sell. You may easily unsubscribe at any time.

Printer-Friendly          E-mail this page