7 thoughts on “Friday Forum: Revelation 3:15-16: Should I Stay or Should I Go”
Several years ago I was called to serve in an EQ presidency. The brother I replaced remarked that he knew why he was being released–apathy. He admitted to doing as little as possible in the calling and said he almost felt bad. Several months passed by and this brother was called as a counselor in the bishopric. I would say the Lord effectively spewed this brother out of his mouth.
I am proud to report that this brother served honorably and magnified his calling.
Sometimes getting spewed out is a good thing. 😉
In context, it seems to me this is a scripture about being “lukewarm” about your testimony about the Savior. It seems the main message (if you read the entire passage in context) is that the life, death and resurrection of the savior is a real event and that you need to take your stand on that issue. It either happened or it didn’t. If you remain lukewarm, Revelations shows it’s not going to be a happy day for you when the Savior comes.
Good story Brian. I am glad he got a second chance.
Interesting Geoff. So what you are saying is agnostics are not in a good place with God. So my question to you are agnostics worse off than atheists? This scripture appears to mean just that.
I guess I would answer on several levels. First of all, I don’t know.
But we DO know, based on many, many things in the scriptures, that God sees us as either moving closer to Him or farther away from Him. I see this scripture as warning that you gotta choose sometime, and if you remain lukewarm you have made the wrong choice.
Now having said all that, there are atheists/agnostics who are better people than professed Christians, meaning that they are, in their own way, moving closer to God. So I would not presume to make any sweeping generalizations about such things. Was CS Lewis a really, really Bad Person when he was a professed atheist, and did he magically become a Good Person a year later when he became a professed Christian? I don’t think God sees it that way. Instead, CS Lewis was probably progressing throughout that period, and it manifested itself more and more as he aged. That’s how I see it anyway.
Lovely comment Geoff. I know none of us REALLY know. Just speculations. I agree, charity the pure love of Christ can be present in non-christians. God will judge us on how well we treat others.
Terryl Givens gave a fantastic talk at BYU-Hawaii earlier in the year and addressed that issue:
“I have always thought there was a great lesson
to be learned from the Lord’s words to the church of the Laodiceans in the Book of Revelation. “I know thy works,” he said, “that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou
wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm… I will spue thee out of my mouth” (3:15-16). It all reminds me of the great play Peer Gynt by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Gynt is a rascally anti-hero looking for meaning in life, but he is a person of half-measures and petty vices. In the end, he is accosted by a stand-in for
the devil, the figure of the button-molder, and he is told—to his shock and horror– that his fate is to be melted down with other mediocre villains in the button-molder’s
cauldron. Only proper sinners, he is told, deserve the more heroic end of a torment in hell. His apathetic existence more fittingly deserves simple oblivion in a pot of melted buttons. I am reminded also of Saul of Tarsus, who was wicked in a decisive, passionate way, killing Christians left and right. The Lord can work with passion. He just picked Saul up, figuratively, and pointed him in the other direction, and we get Paul the apostle. The Lord can work with passion. There is little he can do with apathy.”
I recommend this talk (“Rainbows Over the Rain: The Gospel of Superabundance”) with all my heart–it’s one of the best I’ve ever heard.
Terry- Thank you for your comment. The talk by Teryl Givens, you cited, has given me a lot to think about.
The Lord can work with passion. There is little he can do with apathy.
Several years ago I was called to serve in an EQ presidency. The brother I replaced remarked that he knew why he was being released–apathy. He admitted to doing as little as possible in the calling and said he almost felt bad. Several months passed by and this brother was called as a counselor in the bishopric. I would say the Lord effectively spewed this brother out of his mouth.
I am proud to report that this brother served honorably and magnified his calling.
Sometimes getting spewed out is a good thing. 😉
In context, it seems to me this is a scripture about being “lukewarm” about your testimony about the Savior. It seems the main message (if you read the entire passage in context) is that the life, death and resurrection of the savior is a real event and that you need to take your stand on that issue. It either happened or it didn’t. If you remain lukewarm, Revelations shows it’s not going to be a happy day for you when the Savior comes.
Good story Brian. I am glad he got a second chance.
Interesting Geoff. So what you are saying is agnostics are not in a good place with God. So my question to you are agnostics worse off than atheists? This scripture appears to mean just that.
I guess I would answer on several levels. First of all, I don’t know.
But we DO know, based on many, many things in the scriptures, that God sees us as either moving closer to Him or farther away from Him. I see this scripture as warning that you gotta choose sometime, and if you remain lukewarm you have made the wrong choice.
Now having said all that, there are atheists/agnostics who are better people than professed Christians, meaning that they are, in their own way, moving closer to God. So I would not presume to make any sweeping generalizations about such things. Was CS Lewis a really, really Bad Person when he was a professed atheist, and did he magically become a Good Person a year later when he became a professed Christian? I don’t think God sees it that way. Instead, CS Lewis was probably progressing throughout that period, and it manifested itself more and more as he aged. That’s how I see it anyway.
Lovely comment Geoff. I know none of us REALLY know. Just speculations. I agree, charity the pure love of Christ can be present in non-christians. God will judge us on how well we treat others.
Terryl Givens gave a fantastic talk at BYU-Hawaii earlier in the year and addressed that issue:
“I have always thought there was a great lesson
to be learned from the Lord’s words to the church of the Laodiceans in the Book of Revelation. “I know thy works,” he said, “that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou
wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm… I will spue thee out of my mouth” (3:15-16). It all reminds me of the great play Peer Gynt by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Gynt is a rascally anti-hero looking for meaning in life, but he is a person of half-measures and petty vices. In the end, he is accosted by a stand-in for
the devil, the figure of the button-molder, and he is told—to his shock and horror– that his fate is to be melted down with other mediocre villains in the button-molder’s
cauldron. Only proper sinners, he is told, deserve the more heroic end of a torment in hell. His apathetic existence more fittingly deserves simple oblivion in a pot of melted buttons. I am reminded also of Saul of Tarsus, who was wicked in a decisive, passionate way, killing Christians left and right. The Lord can work with passion. He just picked Saul up, figuratively, and pointed him in the other direction, and we get Paul the apostle. The Lord can work with passion. There is little he can do with apathy.”
I recommend this talk (“Rainbows Over the Rain: The Gospel of Superabundance”) with all my heart–it’s one of the best I’ve ever heard.
Terry- Thank you for your comment. The talk by Teryl Givens, you cited, has given me a lot to think about.
Perfect quote.