Originally posted by checkbaiter
One of the problems I have with your rapture idea are these verses in Revelation. They seem like a different "administration" is now in effect.
These verses contradict the earlier verses in the epistles concerning grace and the end of the law.
We should not count grace as meaning no responsibility on the believer's part. We are no longer under the demand of the law which we must fulfilled to be
justified.
But if we are not conformed to living through this indwelling grace it is like we have received the grace of God in vain. Our need to be eternally justified is met. But God's need to have sons
conformed to Christ is not.
Paul is speaking to Christians in
Second Corinthains 6:1 -
"And working together with Him , we also entreat you not to receive the grace of God in vain." (2 Cor. 6:1)
This has nothing to do with them being unsaved or losing eternal redemption. It has to do with them being defeated in Christian walk rather than overcoming.
Paul set himself forth as an example of one who did not receive the grace of God and then vainly nullifying it.
" ... and the life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died for nothing." (Gal. 2:20c-21)
Each of the rewards mentioned to the seven churches is an incentive for Christians not to nullify the grace of God and not to receive that grace in vain.
In other words, just to be forgiven by God is not the only goal of His giving grace. Grace is a power over man yet a power
within man too, that man may
live Christ.
So there is no conflict. Each of the promises to those who overcome in
Revelation 2 and 3 are related to rewards of the millennial kingdom and not to eternal salvation in the new heavens and new earth.
This tells me the age of grace has ended, due to a rapture or some other change, and a new administration had begun.
Rev 3:2-3
for I have not found your works perfect before God.
NKJV
To the church in Sardis Jesus did not find there works "completed". This means that what God began to recover in the reformation came to a premature stop. God began to recover through this symbolic church, for example Justification by Faith through Martin Luther. But there was more that needed to be restored.
The Reformation stopped short before a full recovery. Therefore Jesus says that He has not found their works completed or "perfect". The Recovery Version renders verse 2 -
"Become watchful and establish the things which remain, which were about to die, for I have found none of your works completed before My God." (Rev. 3:2)
I would encourage you to read this portion of ministry on the significance of the letter to the church in Sardis.
Here is a sample from chapter 6 of
The Orthodoxy of the Church followed with a link where you can read more.
THE CHURCH IN SARDIS
Scripture Reading: Rev. 3:1-6
We have seen that during the time of the apostles there was the behavior of the Nicolaitans. After the behavior of the Nicolaitans, we have seen how Pergamos sinned greatly by bringing the world into the church. After the Nicolaitans came Jezebel, and at the same time idols were brought into the church. But there is a good point here: In Thyatira we see the judgment of Jezebel, the casting of her into a bed that she may not move; we also see that her followers will one day be killed. These prophecies have not yet been fulfilled; they will be fulfilled at the time of Babylon's fall in Revelation 17. The history of Thyatira began from the time Jezebel improperly brought idols into the church and will continue until she receives judgment. Now we must see one thing: When the church, in her continuous fall from the Nicolaitans, comes to the stage of Jezebel, God can no longer tolerate it. Then Sardis emerges. "Sardis'' means "the remains.'' The church in Sardis is God's reaction to Thyatira. The history of revival in the churches throughout the entire world indicates divine reactions. Whenever the Lord begins a revival work, He is reacting. God's reaction is man's recovery. I would like you to keep this principle firmly in mind. Sardis appears because the Lord has seen the condition of Thyatira.
In Revelation several churches are in pairs. Sardis is connected with Ephesus. Philadelphia is connected with Smyrna, and Laodicea is connected with Pergamos. Only Thyatira stands alone. In Sardis the Lord says that His name is "He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works, that you have a name that you are living, and yet you are dead'' (Rev. 3:1). The epistle to Ephesus says that His right hand holds seven stars, while the epistle to Sardis says that He has the seven stars. Ephesus is the slackening after the apostles, that is, the changing from something good to bad; Sardis is the recovery from Thyatira, that is, the changing from something bad to good. Having works but no love is Ephesus; living in name but dead in reality is Sardis. So these two are a pair. The Lord manifests Himself as He who has the seven Spirits. The seven Spirits of God are sent of God to the world to work, and this refers to the work of life. The seven stars in Ephesus refer to the messengers; here they refer to the illumination. The work of recovery is half in the Spirit and half in the light.
http://www.ministrybooks.org/SearchMinBooksDsp.cfm?id=1EADC8440B