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 spue thee out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:14-16)
Why the Harsher Judgment?
Have you ever wondered why those described as lukewarm are more unpalatable to Yahweh1 than those who are frigid? I don’t presume to know the mind of God except where He has revealed it to us in His Word. Because He didn’t choose to do so in this instance, I can only proffer a possible reason.
Most people agree that those described as hot in Revelation 3 represent those on the right and those described as cold represent those on the left. Those described as lukewarm appear, from our finite perspective, to be in the center. But this perception is not necessarily how they stand with God.
From Yahweh’s perspective, there is no center, only right and left. We are either standing with Yahweh on His right, advancing His righteousness, or we are left of Yahweh’s right, advancing our own surrogate concept of righteousness (see Romans 10:1-3) or even impudently pursuing wickedness.
The next verse in Revelation 3 bears out that being in the “center” is an erroneous human perception:
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. (Revelation 3:17)
Those depicted as lukewarm view themselves as rich, “in need of nothing.” Instead, the lukewarm, like everyone without Christ (and therefore left of Yahweh’s righteousness), are “wretched, miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” In other words, their centrist position is a false perception. No one stands in the center. At best, the lukewarm are just a warmer degree of cold.
Back to the Question
But this doesn’t yet account for why the lukewarm are more distasteful to God than are the cold. One would think the extreme cold—those overtly left of Yahweh’s right—would be more odious than those who feign to be or have deluded themselves into thinking they are in good standing with God.
Consider one reason why those who try to walk the imaginary center line between left and right are more repugnant to Yahweh: Their attempt to pawn themselves off as being on the right often hoodwinks the unsuspecting into travelling with them on the broad way to destruction (Matthew 7:13-14).
Alleged Conservatives
Consider this in light of today’s Republicans, Tea Partiers, and Constitutionalists. When measured by the standard of Yahweh’s everlasting righteousness and immutable morality, none of these are truly conservative.2 How many people today have been duped into thinking that if only enough of these alleged conservatives are elected into office, they can save America from destruction? In truth, the Republicans, etc., are only the right-leaning branch of the leftists. What they offer is just another version of every man (whether individually, collectively, or by representation) doing that which is right in his own eyes, per Judges 21:25.
As such, the alleged conservatives do as much, if not more, harm to the cause of Christ, His kingdom, and His law than do the far-left liberals. They divert the unsuspecting from the only thing that can save America from her demise: Christ’s redeeming-blood sacrifice for us as individuals and Yahweh’s perfect law of liberty for us as a society.
Related post:
Right, Left, and Center: Who Gets to Decide?
Law and Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant
1. YHWH, the English transliteration of the Tetragrammaton, is most often pronounced Yahweh. It is the principal Hebrew name of the God of the Bible and was inspired to appear nearly 7,000 times in the Old Testament. It was unlawfully deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and the many Scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, we have chosen to memorialize His name here in this document and in our lives. For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see “The Third Commandment.”
2. Right, Left, and Center: Who Gets to Decide?
‘God’s spit.’ That’s what these people are. Crass, perhaps, but apt. After reading of the 100-mile sand storm in Texas this last week, I believe we are experiencing our weather as a chastisement from YHWH for allowing the Obamanation to continue in office. Your article is timely.
That and the HAARP machine in Alaska.
Now, as for what was written: I am a devout Roman Catholic and no one in either group satisfies me. I am not saying that everyone should become Catholic. But I believe that the truths of human life and activity have shown that if we copied our laws and activities from those of our Creator (who created us), and not decided to go with relativism, we would all be better off. Of course, we are in a fallen world and we will need to be saved by our Lord, Jesus Christ. Prepare for the Warning where all souls will see where they stand with God. You may have a chance to get off the fence.
The Republicans and Democrats are both controlled by powerful elite at the top. Common folk can express their anger at how things are going and then vote in the other party. This action makes them think that democracy is working. In the meantime the elite carefully move society towards their grand goals. As President Bush put it- “a new world order”
Voting is today’s opiate for the masses.
Election day is the Constitutional Republic’s high holy day, when the American voting public (non-Christians and Christians alike) worship at the altar of the humanistic (per the Preamble), antichristian (per Article 6), and polytheistic (per
Amendment 1) U.S. Constitution–America’s national idol.
Did Jesus refer to God only as YHWH? Did Paul? Peter? James? Luke?
“Only as YHWH?” No. (Neither do I.) But they surely read the Hebrew Scriptures as inspired, including YHWH in the nearly 7,000 locations where God inspired His primary personal name to appear. For more, see our online booklet on the Third Commandment at http://www.bibleversusconstitution.org/onlineBooks/third-commandment.html.