Inquisitor said:
You can have your share in the tree of life and the holy city taken away.
Why do you deny what is written?
"God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city"
It is futile to believe in an idea when the scripture states something else.
Then Kroog responded with:
How do you interpret this verse? Loss of salvation?.......It's not. It is a loss of eternal blessings. Some will have access to His Garden. Some will not. All believers will inherit eternal life, but not all will inherit all of the eternal blessings.
We run the race/work out our own salvation to glorify Him. We don't run the race/work out our own salvation to gain salvation.
It appears we have a classic example of the blind leading the blind, and we know how that ends, don't we! I don't mean to insult anyone but I'm always astonished on forums like this how many professing Christians don't have the first clue on how to exegete scripture. They either intentionally pervert God's truth in order to propagate their theological agenda or they are simply ignorant of the first principles of sound hermeneutics and consequently are careless in their interpretations. I make no judgment here on which is the case with either of you gentlemen; but in either situation the result is the same: The mark is missed completely due to a lack of understanding of what is actually being said. Both of you gents are wrong. The passage is not teaching that one can lose their salvation, nor is it teaching that in the New Order Christians will lose blessings. And now I'll make my case for why neither of these is true and explain what is really being said.
In your case, Mr. Kroog, your understanding cannot be correct due to what Rev 22:18 teaches. Verse 19 must be understood in the context of the previous verse because in both verses the stern warning pertains to the perversion of God's truth. How can Christians be in view in v.18 since the punishment for adding to God's Word are all the plagues that the ungodly world will suffer? Are we to believe that true Christians will suffer the kinds of plagues described in this book for all eternity? And where are they going to suffer these plagues: in the New Jerusalem on the restored earth or in the lake of fire? Therefore, when come to v. 19, which speaks to the second way God's Word can be corrupted (subtracting from it), it cannot be speaking about Christians either.
And in the Mr. Inquisitor's case, these passages cannot be teaching that Christians can lose their salvation, for that would contradict a large body of scripture that teaches the very opposite thing. Just in the book of Jude alone, that epistle is literally bookended with how Christ (the Good Shepherd) faithfully
keeps his Father's chosen ones (Jude 1, 24).
So then...the question begging to be asked: To whom do these two verses apply, if not Church? The verse that immediately precedes v. 18 answer this for us: The verse is actually a Gospel of the Kingdom (Mat 4:23; 9:35; 24:14) invitation given not only by Christ but by His Bride as well! After all, it is his "bride" (the Church) who has been commissioned by Christ to preach the Gospel to all the nations. Therefore, the severe warning that is given in v.18 is given to the ungodly who might entertain the thought of accepting the invitation. In other words, Jesus is basically telling the ungodly world: "Think twice before you accept. Think long and hard. Sit down and count the cost." Jesus is telling them via this warning not to take scripture lightly. The [external] call of the Gospel is a sincere one but you must accept it on
my terms! "So, don't try to play cute with me and feign faith and repentance and then turn around and deliberately carelessly, irresponsibly or complacently pervert my words by adding or subtracting to them because if you do, you'll pay a very high price!" When I ponder this passage, I think of all the people caught up in a cult who sincerely believe they are saved. Or for that matter your proverbial Sunday pew warmer, ritual-lover who really has no zeal or love for God or his Christ! Or just a very religious person who has great zeal for his religion or religious tradition but little for God or his Word. In fact, the people Christ will address on the Last Day in Mat 7:23 come immediately to mind. Jesus, by giving this strong and urgent warning, was in fact repeating a command that was stated in the Law of Moses (Deut 4:2) thereby establishing a solid biblical principle that applies to all dispensations.
Having said all that, I still suspect that people will reject this truth because they'll point to what Jesus said in v.19 about God taking away a perverter's share in the "tree of life". It is this phrase which likely threw both of you guys off because you ignored the larger context of the passage,namely v.17. Verse 19 must be understood through the lens of the Gospel invitation in v.17. The unbelieving hearers didn't actually possess a share in the "tree of life" per se because they were never saved to begin with. They never had eternal life, which is what the "tree of life" represents. Therefore, their "share" (or portion or allotment) in the tree of life that God will take away should be understood as meaning the Gospel promise of eternal life that was extended to them. Such perverters of God's Word will "forfeit" their place in the Kingdom and the gift of eternal life, which they could have had if they had truly repented and believed the Gospel and hadn't corrupted God's Word. Instead of inheriting eternal life, they will inherit eternal destruction. These unbelievers will continue to do wrong and continue to be vile (22:10).
