The Church in Sardis and "Once Saved, Always Saved"

Part of Jesus' message to the church in Sardis says, "Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels." [Revelation 3:4-5, ESV]

On the surface this appears about as straightforward as any passage in the book of Revelation can be. However, to those who hold to the doctrine of "once saved, always saved," it is troublesome. This is a message to the church -- saved people who have been added to the body by the Lord. Yet Jesus says Sardis has "a few . . . who have not soiled their garments." He promises the one who conquers (or overcomes) that He will never blot his name out of the book of life.

But what about those who have been saved, but who do not overcome? Their garments are soiled. Will they walk with the Lord in white? Are they worthy?

I've been reading John Walvoord's The Revelation of Jesus Christ to get a better understanding of the premillennialist perspective on the whole book of Revelation. Revelation 3:4-5 gives difficulties to Walvoord and others who share his views. He at least admits the issue by writing, "This verse has troubled expositors in view of other promises of the Scripture which seem to indicate that a person who has once received Jesus Christ as Saviour is forever secure in his salvation. How then can his name be blotted out of the book of life?" (82). Dr. Walvoord (1910-2002) was a respected scholar and long-time president of Dallas Theological Seminary. However, he had obvious doctrinal biases and interpreted the Bible through those lens.

Listen to the way he handled Revelation 3:4-5: "To make the continuance of our salvation depend upon works . . . is gross failure to comprehend that salvation is by grace alone. If it depended upon the believer's perseverance, the name would not have been written there in the first place. . . . [S]ome have considered the book of life not as the roll of those who are saved but rather a list of those for whom Christ died, that is, all humanity who have possessed physical life. As they come to maturity and are faced with the responsibility of accepting or rejecting Christ, their names are blotted out if they fail to receive Jesus Christ as Saviour; whereas those who do accept Christ as Saviour are confirmed in their position in the book of life, and their names are confessed before the Father and the heavenly angels" (82).

I don't know if this writer was so thoroughly blinded to the truth that he really did not know how he was treating the text or if he was being intellectually dishonest by refusing to admit that this text teaches something which contradicts one of his pet doctrines.

Read the whole of the letter to Sardis [Revelation 3:1-6] and see that this was a dead church. Some were not yet dead, but were about to die. They were warned to wake up or the Lord would come like a thief against them. This sad condition described the church in general, but it did not apply to every individual. Some had not soiled their garments. They were worthy to walk with the Lord in white. Their names would not be blotted from the book of life.

It is not explicitly stated what will happen to the others in Sardis. But if those who had not soiled their garments would not have their names erased from the book, what does that imply about those who had soiled their garments? If they did not repent, their names were removed from the book of life. Couple that with Revelation 20:15, "If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire." Dr. Walvoord did a great disservice to his readers by giving those who were not living as faithful Christians a false sense of security about the eternal condition of their souls.