A question was asked at the end of the recent Laguna Niguel Seminar:
The following is offered - not as a concise answer, but as a means to whet the appetite for more study. Daniel Peters
“A fax direct from Heaven could not be more arresting than Christ’s one command to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans: ‘Be zealous therefore, and repent.’ To whom does He say this? What does He mean—‘repent’”?
“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will [Gr., I am about to] spue thee out of My mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Revelation 3:14-22, KJV).
“‘The angels of the seven churches’ and the ‘churches’ are not the same. They are distinct. ‘The seven candlesticks . . . are the seven churches.’ But ‘the seven stars you saw in My right hand,’ He says, are ‘the angels’ who symbolize the leadership. (“The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches,” Revelation 1:20, KJV). Since He addresses the message to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, it must be more than individual or personal repentance He calls for.”
“God’s ministers are symbolized by the seven stars, which He who is the first and the last has under His special care and protection. The sweet influences that are to be abundant in the church are bound up with these ministers of God. . . . The stars of heaven are under God’s control. . . . So with His ministers. They are but instruments in His hands . . .” (Gospel Workers, pp. 13, 14).
“That ‘angel’ of the Laodicean church must include Sabbath School leaders; academy, college, and university teachers; local elders; deacons; Pathfinder leaders; pastors; local and Union conference leaders; and of course General Conference leadership—all who guide the church.
“Therefore this total body of leadership is the focus of Christ’s special attention in the Laodicean message. It is not in any way disrespectful to the human leadership of the church to give attention to what the True Witness says.”1
“Does our denominational history give meaning to Christ’s call for last-day repentance? There are several possible ways of looking at our history:
1. We can view our past with pride like a sports team that almost never loses a game. This attitude is thought to be loyalty, for it assumes that God’s blessings on the church are His approval of our spiritual condition. The result is apathy and pervasive lukewarmness. This is by far the most popular view of our history, but its spiritual pride is the opposite of New Testament faith which always includes the element of contrition.
2. In contrast, others view our history with despair. There are real failures in our history that some interpret as evidence that the Lord has cast off this church. This view has produced various offshoots, and continually spawns new movements of fruitless, destructive criticism. Often these movements are initiated as a legitimate protest against spiritual pride or apostasy, although they seldom offer a practical solution to the problem.
“But there is something that both these groups hold in common: Both strenuously oppose denominational repentance. The first group oppose it on the grounds that it is unnecessary. Even the suggestion is regarded as impertinent, disloyal, as ancient priests regarded Jeremiah’s appeals for national repentance. The second group reject it on the grounds that it is impossible, since they assume that the Lord has withdrawn from the church both the privilege and the possibility of such repentance.
There is a third view possible:
3. We can view our history with a confidence born of contrition. This is the realistic approach. This church is the true ‘remnant’ of prophecy which God has raised up. The world has not truly heard the message, and His people have not as yet been prepared for the return of Christ. This view ‘rejoices in the truth.’ It does not seek to evade or surpress the obvious facts of denominational history that call for repentance and reformation. Our failure to honor our Lord requires simply that we fall to our knees. Nevertheless, realism highlights the future with hope. The joy of the Lord always accompanies repentance.”2
1 Robert J. Wieland, Plea of the True Witness: Corporate Repentance, pp. 13, 14.
2 Ibid., pp. 121, 122.
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