The Church Period

The 7 church generation of Church History!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay, we were looking at um the seven churches of Asia Minor in the book of Revelation, chapter two and chapter three. And the uh the one thing that I want to point out in this video is how that these churches are not only literal churches in the time of John that's writing this, but these are also periods of church history. They're prophetic. We don't want to forget the fact that primarily the book of Revelation is a prophetic book. And so John is asked to write to seven churches that are in Asia Minor at the time. Uh that's Ephesus, Smyrna, Thyrotius, Sardist, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. Now, what's very interesting is that uh Jesus points out these seven churches uh for John to write to. There could have been hundreds of churches in Asia Minor by this time. Remember, this is somewhere around 95 AD. And um there, like I said, there could be hundreds of churches by this time in Asia Minor, all over Asia Minor. But Jesus picks these seven particular churches, and because uh the problems, the challenges, uh, the things that they've got going on uh mimic or mirror uh what is going to go on in the in different periods of church history. And hopefully we'll see that before this video is over with. So John writes to them. Now, it's not uncommon form for a prophet to be writing to a nation, a country, or a people, and uh be talking to them about something, and then also be talking to uh a country or people or someone else prophetically in that message as well. We see that some of the old Testament prophets uh of old talk that very same way. So their messages were not only literal to the uh people at the time, but their messages many a times carried over into the prophetic and into other uh uh peoples. And that and that's understandable. Again, that is the nature of the prophetic message. And remember again, Revelation is is uh uh uh primarily a prophetic book. And so we see that these seven churches uh that John is writing to are periods of church history. And uh here are some things that we pick up on that tells us that the church at Smyrna, for instance, is the persecuted church. And we see that to that persecuted church, uh John says this do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life. Well, I can tell you that this church had tribulation more than just ten days. But the reference here is believed to be the ten Neroes or ten leaders under Rome that uh that the church would face in the persecution period of the church, which went from about 100 AD to about 313 A.D. Um, and that's where we have many of the early martyrs and that kind of thing was during that time. And uh and so they but that was all under ten leaders, ten neuros of Rome, and that's probably who this references to. Another place where we see that this is that we can see the prophetic message very clearly is to the church at Philadelphia, and it is what we call the faithful church or the evangelistic church. But he says to them, Because you have kept my command, commandments to preserve or command to preserve, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. Another translation says, uh keep you from the tribulation that will come upon the whole world. Uh that is talking about the tribulation period, and he's telling this church, I will keep you from that. Well, this church is long gone. This was this church was in the first century. All right, none of those people are alive now, but again, it is a prophetic statement speaking to the fact of this period of church history, which probably ran from about 1750 A.D. to the present time or to the time up to the rapture of the church. So all these speak to a prophetic message as well as a literal message that John is sending to seven churches. Also, we see that John is writing to the angel of each of these churches. Well, some would try to interpret that as meaning leader or the pastor or whatever, but he uses specifically the word angel, and the and the word that he uses for angel in the Greek is the same Greek word for angel that he uses about angels everywhere else. Okay, why is that? Because the angel that he's that he's writing to, and that Jesus is writing, is the angel that is overseeing that period of church history. God has appointed different angels to oversee different periods of church history. And John is writing to them as as Jesus is instructing him and telling him to do. Now, if we could put these churches in their period, um, it would go something like this. This is not anything written in stone, but this gives us some idea. Uh Ephesians would have been the period of church history from uh 33 A.D., this is when Jesus uh was crucified and then left. That's when the start of the church happened, to 100 A.D. Smyrna would have been 100 AD to 313 A.D. Pyrygama or Perigamos, Perigama, uh, the compromising church, would have been from 313 AD to 600 A.D. Thyrotira, or the corrupted uh church, would have been 600 to 1517 A.D. Sardist would have been the dead or the Reformation Church, which would have been 1517 to 1750 AD, Philadelphia would have been 1750 A.D. to the present time, and then Laodicea would have been 1900 to the present time. And so we see that one of the last churches that will be during this time, near the end before the rapture, would be the Laodicean church, which would be a rich church, a church that had a lot of money, a church that's very busy, very full, a lot of people going their things, but they are extremely deceived. Because why? They have a mixture of worldly philosophy, love for the world, mixture with the gospel. And it is so deceiving and is so misleading that Jesus says that it makes him sick to his stomach and he would vomit them out of his mouth. And so we see that in this day and time. And what's also very interesting to add to this prophetic message is that after we get out of chapter 2 and 3, the first thing that we see that happens in chapter 4 is what? John is called up into heaven to receive the rest of the revelation that he will receive. And he's called up. In fact, he says he hears another voice, a door is open in heaven, and he is translated up into heaven, which is a type of rapture. I hope this helps us in understanding uh the history of the church and how close we must be to the rapture of the church. It is time, if you're not ready with God yet, it is time to get ready with the Lord.