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| Does Revelation indicate that "the angel of the church of the Laodiceans" will ultimately fail and pass a point of no return? |
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If so, he will be the first of the seven churches to do so. Always in the preceding six messages there were promises "to him that overcometh," and in the end, each of those "angels" passed on the torch of truth to the succeeding generation, despite many failures and apostasies, and despite the fact that no one in past ages fully understood the truth as it was yet to be revealed. The logical position of Mormonism implies that the preceding six angels did completely fail, and no true church survived in Europe until Joseph Smith came along. But the teaching of The Great Controversy is clear that God has always had a remnant throughout history who were faithful. This is the import of Revelation 12, where we read of the true church as "the woman [who] fled into the wilderness," where she was "nourished." Thus the identity of the true church remained intact through all past ages. This means that the preceding six messages to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, and Philadelphia, did not fail of their objective. None were intended to prepare a people for translation, and none did; but in each succeeding age each "angel" did heed its message and did preserve the church and its essential truth so that "the angel of the church of the Laodiceans" could at last build upon it. No way can a true Christian say that Christ’s ministry "who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks"has been a fake, or that it will ultimately become a failure. To say so would cast contempt upon His cross and His High Priestly ministry. None of the preceding churches were invited to share Christ’s throne, but the "angel of the church of the Laodiceans" is so invited. But if the angel fails and is spued out, the final promise must fail, and such ultimate failure would call into question the "overcoming" of all the previous six churches. The messages to the seven churches are a total unit, and the failure of the last dooms them all. This is readily seen by the fact that all believers in Christ of previous generations who are now sleeping in their graves must remain prisoners there until Christ returns; and He cannot return until the problem of Laodicea is resolved. Thus the solemn truth is that the ultimate success of the entire plan of salvation depends upon its final hour, and that hour is the overcoming brought to view in Revelation 3:21! It is not difficult to understand how the enemy of all righteousness wants to zero in on attacking and denying the possibility and certainty of that final victory. |
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