Journal: Chafer Theological Seminary Journal
Volume: CTSJ 06:4 (Oct 2000)
Article: Article Review
Author: Anonymous

CTSJ 6:4 (October 2000) p. 69

Article Review

“The Pillar and the Throne in Revelation 3:12, 21.” By Daniel K. K. Wong. Bibliotheca Sacra 156 (July-September 1999): 297-307. Reviewed by John Niemelä, Professor of Greek and Hebrew, Chafer Theological Seminary, Orange, California.

This article is a digest of Dr. Wong’s Th.D. dissertation at Dallas Seminary, “The Johannine Concept of the Overcomer.”1 Although he accepts the Pre-tribulation Rapture and argues from a traditional dispensational eschatology,2 he concludes that a consistent pre-tribulational interpretation necessitates equating overcomer with “true believer.”3 His statement of the thesis of his dissertation follows.

The original purpose of this dissertation in view of the above conclusions, then, is reached and the thesis [1] that the Christian overcomer in John’s literature is a saved person, [2] that every saved person is an overcomer, and [3] that all genuinely saved will have a share in the rewards God has promised to the overcomer is substantiated. Indeed, the real difference among true Christians is in degree [of overcoming and reward], not in kind.4

While his understanding of the Pre-tribulation Rapture and eschatology is on the main correct, his understanding of the soteriological implications of this passage is entirely wrong. Unfortunately for Wong, in Revelation 3:10 the issue is neither just eschatological, nor just soteriological; it is both. The thesis of Wong’s dissertation (and article) demonstrates that possessing a

CTSJ 6:4 (October 2000) p. 70

good eschatology does not necessarily lead to correct soteriology in Revelation 3:10. This passage has more than one slippery slope.

Imagine Revelation 3:10 as a mountain called Quadruple Divide Peak. Water divides in four directions: Northwest, Northeast, Southwest, and Southeast. At the cross-hairs of the Eschatological divide and the Soteriological divide of this imaginary peak, three of four directions involve error, while three of four contain truth.5