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NASB | Revelation 1:4 ¶ John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Revelation 1:4 ¶ John, to the seven churches that are in [the province of] Asia: Grace [be granted] to you and peace [inner calm and spiritual well-being], from Him Who is [existing forever] and Who was [continually existing in the past] and Who is to come, and from the seven Spirits that are before His throne, [Is 11:2] |
Bible Question:
The seven Churches that were in Asia, received warning. Did they change, do they still exist? Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea. These Churches were important enough, to be mentioned in Revelation, and also important enough, to get direct warning from Jesus. (WHY) How do they fit into the picture, of the Church, as it is today? If they did not survive, what happened to them, and when? |
Bible Answer: Thyatira - There have been a couple of differences of opinion about when the Thyatira era began and ended. Thyatira - Herman Hoeh (Hoeh, H. A True History of the True Church, 1959 ed.) and Ivor Fletcher (Fletcher, Ivor C. The Incredible History of God's True Church, 1984 ed.) both wrote that it began about 1000 A.D. However, the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) later changed to the belief that it began a little later, closer to the beginning of the twelfth century, with the Pergamos era transitioning out in the eleventh century. WCG also changed its view that the "last work" of Thyatira was around 1238 AD to around 1600. In Dr. Hoeh's book, he has Thyatira ending in the mid-thirteenth century, and remaining in hiding, until the Church re-emerges as Sardis beginning in the mid-seventeenth century. WCG's later correspondence course suggests that the work of the Thyatira era ended in the late sixteenth/early seventeenth century; which is the same position that the Living Church of God's (LCG) John Ogwyn took in his booklet. Sardis - I googled this to death too, nothing on the history of this church. Now that I have researched this for you I am going to have to buy a New Book somewheres on the history of the seven churches past the first century, thank you for giving me a new area of study to kill myself with. I appreciate it:):):) Philadelphia - I also googled this church extensively to no avail. Laodicea - I also googled this church to no avail. There has been a ton of allegorical and symbolic interpretation about the 7 churches, which is outside of a literal intrepretation of the Bible; 1)The message to the 7 churches represents 7 types of churches that present themselves through out all of the centuries as church types, and Jesus was giving good and bad examples as a warning to all churches from the 1st century on into the future. 2)The message to the 7 churches represents 7 church ages from the first century through the present, and Jesus was giving a picture of what the 7 church ages would look like and be characterized by. 3)The message to the 7 churches represents 7 types of Christians who are in the church body, and Jesus was giving good and bad examples of being a member in the churches. 4)The message to the 7 churches represents 7 types of churches in the first century, and Jesus was giving good and bad examples to all the churches in every where in the 1st century of how to run a church. There is only one literal intrepretation of the 7 churches in the Bible; 1)Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things written in it; for the time is near, Jesus was giving His assessment of the character and actions of the 7 specific churches, which He choose according to His own counsel to give the 7 churches instructions in order to encourage them and to prepare them for persecution and to bring them back into the will of God wherever they had strayed. The application comes from Revelation 1:3; heed the message for the time is near - the time for the devil to mess around and the time for persecution is always now - we can give this literal interpretation; we should pay attention to the various admonitions Jesus gives the churches and be on the alert against the schemes of the devil and persecution from the enemies of Christ, and we can be cleanse our chruches of any defilement or wrong doing and go back to our first love of Christ. Agape, Tamara |