The text states otherwise.
Who is the "them"? The them is the them of the church of Laodicea, those in Laodicea already known by Jesus. Those known by Jesus in the other six churches were not lukewarm, they weren't believing their wealth provided sufficiency. The things being said in that passage - all of the things in that passage were said to and specifically applied to those known by Jesus in the church at Laodicea.
Yes, perhaps it can be said any who ask Jesus to come in will received the described response but that is NOT what that passage actually states. It is what a few of the posters here are reading into the text..... based on their previously existing biases. And we know this because of 1) what the text actually states and 2) the failure of any in the dissent to provide an alternative exegesis.
Look at the responses I've received. It has been insinuated all mentions of "anyone" are universal. It's been implied "anyone in one passage is synonymous with "whatsoever" in an entirely different passage that has an entirely different context (one when there was no established church). It has been insinuated I'm bringing in pre-existing bias (despite the fact I have not once offered any given doctrinal interpretation). Illogical arguments have been asserted to imply my posts are illogical!
Those are not the making of rational exegesis nor rational discourse. There's certainly nothing Spirit-led about any of it; the Spirit does not prompt fallacy between brothers and sisters in the body.
That is simply incorrect. Jesus often taught differently between the apsotles and disciples versus the crowds en masse versus the Jewish leaders and other adversaries. I will gladly provide a list of quotes from scripture both teaching and demonstrating this fact if you need me to do so. For now this one text should make the truth undeniable.
1 Corinthians 5:9-13
"I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people — not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
"I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people — not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”
This matter of context, of audience affiliation is very, very important to proper understanding of scripture and any instruction on proper exegesis will list context as one of the most fundamental of precepts. The plain and simple undeniable and irrefutable fact of the epistolary is that it was written by regenerate believers to regenerate believers mostly about regenerate believers.
And it is inappropriate to apply to non-believers those things applicable only to those regenerate, sanctified, justified, redeemed, and changed by salvation.
In this case the problem is Revelation 3:22. This op stated it was a verse supporting Arminian volitional openness but soteriology is specifically about how the unsaved sinfully dead and enslaved non-believer in the resurrected Son gets saved from sin and wrath. The foundation of soteriology isn't specifically about the saved being saved. That's not to say the salvation of the saved isn't germane, but there is no such things an already-saved non-believer.
There are no non-believers mentioned in Rev. 3:22 (saved or not-saved).
There are no unsaved believers mentioned in Rev. 3:22.
Don't read those populations into a passage that explicitly states it is written to and written about those in the church known by Christ.
Digressing from the verse in dispute. Whatever else scripture may or may not say eleswhere the specific verse, Revelation 3:22, does not say it is applicable to anyone else outside the church of Laodicea.
No, it does not. You're arguing a fallacy of construction by which something applicable to one part must be applicable to all parts. That argument is factually incorrect, logically fallacious, and self-evidently contrary to the actual statements of the Revelation 3 text.
Nice quote mine. The impartiality God is not showing has to do with judgment in Romans 2, not salvation. The verses preceding thaat sentence are about the fact all experience tribulation.
Romans 2:1-16
"Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus."
"Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus."
So who does the text state will be shown no partiality? Those "who by patience in doing well..." and those who "obey unrighteousness." Eternal life for one group and "wrath and fury" for the other group. That is what the text actually factually states! I did not make it say that; that is what it states. I didn't "interpret" anything. I'm relying on scripture as written, plainly stated, properly exegeted.
God shows no partiality... for all have sinned. All have sinned but not all are saved. All the sinners stand already condemned (John 3:18-19) and as objects of wrath (Romans 1:18ff). For those in Christ, however, there is no no condemnation (Rom. 8:1). God does show partiality in regards to His Son's body of believers.
So you take five words out of a narrative that covers at least five or six chapters of a much larger epistle and you think you can make a universal doctrinal statement based on those five words. That is called proof-texting. Proof-texting is bad practice. What you (and the others dissenting frm what I've posted) have done is copy and paste disparate passages as if they are about the same matter when they are in fact not about the same subject.
Proof-texting and copy-and-paste eisegesis are bad practice for both the Cal and the Arm. I am not showing partiality. I haven't yet discussed Cal v Arm! I haven't discussed Cal v Arm relevant to this op because there's great difficulty getting my dissenters to practice sound exegesis!
Yes, God saves people from all walks of life. He saves the Jew who believes in the God of the Bible and He saves the pagan/Gentile who may believe in some other god, and He saves the atheist Gentile who has no belief a God exists. Three different populations all saved in only one way: by grace through faith.
I have no dispute with that. I have yet to see anyone in this thread dispute that reality. Nothing I have written should be construed in any way to say otherwise.
It's immaterial.
What is germane is fact that as the NT unfolds it moves from pre-church conditions among the Jews to post-Calvary and post-Pentecost conditions mostly among the ekklesia. The two are not the same conditions and they are not the same populations. Failing an understanding of that reality can, has, and will lead to bad thinking, bad doctrine, and bad practice.
As the church grew the apostles began addressing problems within the ekklesia and not merely the practice of evangelism and proselytization. They added discipleship, mentoring, equipping, teaching, rebuke, etc. The two are not the same.
As I have already previously stated: we are converted from death to life in an instant but salvation is a process that takes a lifetime and is not completed until we are resurrected on the other side of the grave. We Christians have been saved, are being saved, and will be saved.
None of that paragraph applies to the unregenerate, sinfully dead and enslaved, non-believer who is not saved.
Stop trying to apply the attributes and opportunities of the saved to those not saved and not-believing. You create a false-equivalence fallacy doing so. No fallacy comes from God. No soteriology based on false equivalencies come from God.
So, premise by premise I've taken the post I just received and shown that it has several serious flaws in it. I want you to look at them. Even if there is only one out of the many I listed then you have corrections to make. They were made in public. When you correct them in public you not only beget truth not error, but you demonstrate integrity that I and others can then trust and rely upon. I will not continue to trade posts with posters who 1) deny their errors or 2) acknowledge the errors but show no change.
That phrase in Revelation does mean exactly what it looks like. Jesus is limiting context just to the church there. It is plainly stated as such in the text and the only way to make it apply to unregenerate non-believing sinners is to ignore what is plainly stated in the text itself. The only way to make it about Arminian volitional openness is to ignore the stated qualifiers and add doctrinal bias.
We can discuss the soteriological relevance of Rev. 3:22 once we acknowledge and accept what is plainly stated. We cannot discuss soteriological relevance if we have not acknowledged and accepted what is plainly stated.
That verse is not about Arminian volitional openness of the sinner.
No one here has come close to proving that position.
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