Has the corporate church passed the point of no return?

At this stage, opponents will concede that mello, in Revelation 3:16, does convey the idea of conditionality, "a possibility of the determination being changed." But they now go on to insist that the leadership of the corporate Seventh-day Adventist Church has failed, and thus has been spued out, and that the true "angel of the church of the Laodiceans" has assumed another identification, namely, their particular offshoot. If so, our objective theological investigation of mello must be continued by a further study of the elements of the Laodicean message. There is nothing in the words of Christ in Revelation 3:14-21 that can support such an idea; any possible support for it must now be derived from a subjective interpretation of history.

No candid mind can deny that this church has repeated the history of ancient Israel and Judah. Christ’s message to the "angel" of Laodicea expressly declares that of all the seven churches, the last one is the one outstandingly, conspicuously "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."3 Not even in the days of Israel or Judah did the Lord have as difficult a problem to deal with as He has today. The situation is so serious that the "dragon" seriously entertains the hope that he may yet succeed.

While it is always possible to wrest some obscure text to prove anything, there is no objective theological evidence to support the position of those who declare the organized church to be hopeless. But there is objective evidence in Scripture that must deny such a view, because the "more sure word of prophecy" discerns truths about history that are beyond our subjective judgment:

  1. The "woman" of Revelation 12 is a corporate entity, a visible church that has always been Christ’s body, and represents Him on earth. She was in the wilderness for 1260 years during which time her identity was often obscure. She now comes out of obscurity at the end of the 1260 years as "the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (12:17). She also comes to view again as a visible entity in 14:12, the "saints" who ‘keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Offshoot adherents will all agree that at the close of the 1260 years, that "remnant of her seed" became authentically identified as the pioneer Seventh-day Adventist Church which arose after the Great Disappointment of 1844. They will also agree that "the testimony of Jesus Christ" was manifested in her midst by the prophetic ministry of Ellen G. White.

Further, all will agree that around 1856, that pioneer church began to recognize that the message "unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans" applied principally to them. And all will agree that Ellen White’s ministry to that church validated its identity at least through her lifetime. This included several decades following the 1888 failure and at least one decade following 1903, when some say that more apostasy occurred.

Does the prophecy indicate that that corporate or denominational identity will be lost? (1) There is no eighth church to take the place of Laodicea if she should ultimately fail. (2) There is no verse 18 that follows verse 17 of Revelation 12; the woman who comes out of the wilderness carries on and endures the dragon’s sophisticated wrath unto the end. She could not endure like that unless the message to Laodicea were heeded, because included in the dragon’s wrath is some very clever counterfeiting that cannot be discerned unless the "eyesalve" somewhere in history is applied. (3) There is no other body of "saints" that succeed those who are raised up by the proclamation of the three angels’ messages of chapter 14. (4) The "harvest" that ripens for Christ’s sickle to be thrust in at His coming (verses 14, 15) is the same corporate body of saints we see in verse 12, the fruitage of the three angel’s messages. Now they are seen as having grown up "unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ," ready for the final events and for His coming. Somewhere between verses 12 and 14 a repentance has taken place.

  1. A neglected aspect of Christ’s appeal in Revelation 3:20 further identifies the corporate church that ultimately overcomes. The KJV renders the passage, "I stand at the door, and knock if any man hear my voice, and open the door . . ." Again, the KJV misses the import of the actual Greek by rendering tis as "any man." Its actual intrinsic meaning is "a certain one" rather than "anyone" (see W. E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, p. 178).

For example, when Revelation 22:17 concludes with the appeal, "whosoever will," the word tis is not used, for it is an invitation to "anyone." But when the "mother of Zebedee’s children" came "desiring a certain thing" of Christ, the word used is the neuter form of tis. She was not making a vague request for anything indefinite, but for something particular and precise. Mark speaks of "a certain young man" who followed Christ (14:51), again using tis. He is not speaking of any young man who followed Him, but of one in particular.4

When Christ speaks to Laodicea of knocking at the door, He says, "If a certain one hears My voice . . ." That "certain one" is the same one to whom He has addressed this special message—"the angel of the church of the Laodiceans."5 The identity of the "angel" has remained the same all through the message from beginning to end. Although any individual Christian can profitably apply anything in these seven appeals to himself personally, the eschatological application takes the priority, otherwise prophecy is pointless. Nothing in the text itself indicates a change from the corporate "angel" of verse 14 to individuals in verse 20. The same "angel" (or leadership) who is so woefully deceived and poverty-stricken in verse 17 is the one who is to "hear" the "voice" in verse 20 and repent and overcome in verse 21. Nothing but that same corporate "angel’s" repentance can bring honor to Christ! Failing that, He must stand forever discredited and ashamed, as a bridegroom whose bride has scorned him.

  1. Further evidence is seen in the unmistakable reference in verse 20 to the Song of Solomon. This invests that same "certain one" with dramatic significance. Here Christ sets His seal of approval on the Song of Solomon, justifies its inclusion in the sacred canon, and discloses the love-poem setting of the Laodicean message. The Song poignantly describes a true lover being rebuffed and rejected by the one dearest to him.

The point is that Christ is also a Lover who has been rebuffed, rejected, by His true love, the supreme object of His regard on earth. His high hope was that, in union with His bride-to-be, He could lighten the earth with the glory of a message through which "all families of the earth [should] be blessed." Instead, "in a great degree" the message has been "kept away" both from the church and from the world (2SM 234, 235). Two terrible world wars have had to curse the earth (apparently needlessly), plus agonies unspeakable. Ten years before World War I Ellen White recorded that "the disappointment of Christ is beyond description" (RH, December 15,1904).

Some dimensions of that divine disappointment can be grasped by considering the Laodicean message in the light of its true source, the Song of Solomon. In the poem, the true lover appeals to his sweetheart to let him in, for he is in need. He is out in the cold and the wet. But the girl is thinking only of her own comfort and ease and scorns his appeal. Finally she arouses herself to sense a concern for him that transcends her concern for herself. But when she at last opens the door, she finds he has gone.

The Septuagint passage from which Christ quotes is as follows:

(The lover) I am come into my garden, my . . . spouse, . . . I have eaten my bread with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk. . . .

(The bride-to-be) I sleep, but my heart is awake: the voice of my beloved knocks at the door, saying, Open to me, my companion,. . . my dove, my perfect one: for my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.

I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them? My beloved put forth his hand by the hole of the door, and my soul was moved for him. I rose up to open, . . . I opened to my beloved; my beloved was gone: my soul failed at his speech: I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he answered me not. (Song of Solomon, LXX, 4:16; 5:1-6).

The Faithful and True witness to Laodicea has taken from this source at least three or four direct quotations or allusions:

  1. "I stand at the door and knock" contains a direct quotation from the LXX of Song of Solomon 5:2, epi ten thuran. This has been recognized by devout students of Scripture for centuries; Seventh-day Adventists have been slow to see it.6 Christ is not only the Bridegroom Hero of the Song of Solomon; He is also the Bridegroom Hero of the Book of Revelation and the Laodicean church leadership has been the tardy, unfeeling, unresponsive, unappreciative object of His love (19:6-8).
  2. The lethargy of the lukewarm "angel" of Laodicea is seen to be the same as that of the bride-to-be in Song of Solomon 5, who is between sleeping and waking, a state analogous to that between hot and cold.
  3. "If a certain one hear My voice" is a reference to the words of the girl of the Song of Solomon who responds so tardily, "The voice of my beloved knocks . . ."
  4. The reference Christ makes to His coming in to eat together is from Song of Solomon 4:16 and 5:1, which passage just precedes the knocking episode: "Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits . . . I have eaten my honey-comb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends" (KJV).

The obvious import is that the Laodicean invitation is to a nuptial intimacy. Thus the primary application cannot be individual or personal. Further evidence in the Book of Revelation confirms this.

The triumphant climax of Revelation is a wedding.
 

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  1. This is indicated by the use of the article ho, you are the one thus and so. [return to text]
  2. In Acts 2:45 tis occurs with an, thus singling out any certain one who had need; in Mark 15:24 tis is used of the soldiers who cast lots for Christ’s clothing to determine what part each should take. Again the idea is of particularization—no one soldier could take all. The same idea is in Acts 8:31 where the Ethiopian asks for someone, some certain one (tis), to explain Isaiah to him. Paul again uses the word in 1 Corinthians 15:35 to speak of "someone" or "a certain one" asking a pointed question; always the thought is different from "anyone." To be consistent with NT usage, Revelation 3:20 should not be translated, "if anyone hears My voice," but "if a certain one hears . . ." [return to text]
  3. Numerous scholars for many years have recognized that the application here is not personal and individual but eschatological and corporate (see Expositors Greek New Testament, Vol. V, p. 373). [return to text]
  4. For example, Dean Alford, Friederich Dusterdieck, Pfleiderer, Bousset, Forbes, Salon, Swete, Hotzmann, and James Moffatt (idem). [return to text]