7/07/26 GOD TOLD US
In Revelation 2 and 3, God gave us an expressly clear preview of coming events for the Church.
A QUICK OVERVIEW...
Ch.1 Introduction.
Chs. 2-3 Prophecies of the Seven Periods of Future Church History.
Chs. 4-18 Prophecies concerning the Seven Years (after the Rapture) of The Tribulation Period.
Ch. 19 Prophecy of the Return of Christ.
Ch. 20 Prophecy of the Millenial Reign of Christ, the Final Defeat of Satan, The Great White Throne Judgment.
Ch. 21 Prophecy of New Heaven, Earth and Jerusalem.
Ch. 22 Prophecy of the Eternal Reign of Christ and Call to Faithfulness.
You will notice that the 200+ years of prophesied Church History only takes two chapters. Likewise, the Prophecies of the Return of Christ, the Millennial Reign of Christ, the Final Defeat of Satan, The Great White Throne Judgment, the New Heaven, Earth and Jerusalem, and the Eternal Reign of Christ are addressed in only
four chapters.
The major portion of Revelation is focused on the coming Tribulation. This does not mean that the other prophecies are unimportant.
It is important to realize that the two chapters about the Seven Periods of Church are also prophetic.
The seven churches mentioned in Revelation actually existed in Asia Minor during this time, in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. Jesus did dictate letters to these seven Churches,
But the seven churches were also representative of coming periods of the Church History, and the characteristics, the commendations, the condemnations, the warnings and the blessings of those churches would be applicable to the seven periods.
Each of these types of churches would exist in each of the seven periods, but the period would be characterized by the specific churches.
As we study the seven different character profiles of each church we will find those characteristics become very distinct for each period. The prophecies are amazingly applicable.
I will give you a basic outline. The exact time for each period is approximate. We also may not know all of the applications and interpretations of these two chapters. But with the history we have at this time, it is easy to see the prophetic meaning to each church.
Ephesus... The Apostolic Church... 33-100 AD (Authority of Apostles).
Smyrna... The Persecuted Church... 100-313 AD (targeted by Caesars).
Pergamos... The Compromising Church... 313-590 (the influence of Constantine and mixing with paganism).
Thyatira... The Corrupt Church... 590-1517 The establishing and development of RCC and the Papacy).
Sardis... The Dead Church... 1517-1740 (the Reformation movement).
Philadelphia... The Open Door Church... 1740-1900 (the recovery of abandoned Christian doctrine and practice and evangelism).
Laodicea... The Lukewarm Church... 1900-Today (the rejection of Biblical revelation and surrender to worldliness).
