If we are not already in the church in Laodicea we certainly are close to it. Look at the issues Christ raises (above): "the Amen"; "the faithful and true witness"; "the beginning of the creation of God."

The term Laodicea may come close to meaning "the rights of the people." If so we certainly are talking about America of today. The worst sin you can commit is to take away someone's "rights" even though for them to have their "rights" protected is to have everyone else's rights destroyed. We must protect the individual even if society is imperiled. It probably will take the installation of some kind of totalitarian government in America before this race toward anarchy is averted.

For everyone to have his "rights" means everyone will lose his rights.

An excellent example of this is the destruction of the rights of the baby so the "rights" of the mother may be preserved.

"The Amen" means that Christ says amen to the Word of God. Today the Word of God is watered down when it conflicts with human "rights" and pleasure. The substitution of the term reverence for fear is an example of humanism. Reverence and fear are not at all the same thing. But who in America wants to actually fear God? Certainly not the humanist or the Christian who has been influenced by humanistic thinking and sentiment.

Another example is the unwillingness of today's teachers of the Bible to acknowledge that the believer who lives in the appetites of his flesh stands in clear danger of losing his appointed inheritance if not his very soul. Although there is much scriptural support for the terrifying punishment of the Christian who buries his talent, or the timid Christian, we cannot accept this. We cannot say amen to it. But Christ says amen to it!

Christ is the faithful and true witness of God. If anything is needed in the Christian churches of our day it is a faithful and true witness of God.

The reason we do not have a faithful and true witness is that we are trying to build churches instead of saints. To build a church you find out what the people want and give it to them. It doesn't matter what God wants or what Christ has said or is saying, "we must not offend the people or they will leave."

One minister reasoned with me that if you drive off the people by saying hard things then you can't help them at all. Isn't that cute? With this kind of thinking the minister will never get to the point of telling his congregation what Christ demands of His disciples. (Eventually this man's congregation split and he was stuck with those who will never do what Christ has commanded. We heard that the believers who wanted to serve the Lord went somewhere else.)

The New Testament does not emphasize church growth but it does emphasize the growth of the saints.

To be continued.