Featured The "7 Church Ages" Prophecy

The "7 church ages" Prophecy. I have heard this prophecy started by "quacks" and agree that this can be true. Especially when such people make themselves the "angel" of the church age as if all knees should bow to them. My beliefs are that the churches came along as follows....

The purpose of Revelation was to reveal what was going to come to pass....

The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.... - Revelation 1:1

Which all of this was to heavy for just ordinary churches in Asia that did not amount to anything....

The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; - Revelation 1:20 - Revelation 2:1

Ephesus - Messianic - Beginning with the Apostle to the Circumcision, Peter
Smyrna - Martyr - Beginning with the Apostle to the Un-Circumcision, Paul
Pergamos - Orthodoxy formed in this time... Pergos is a tower... Needed in the dark ages
Thyatira - Catholicism formed in this time - The spirit of Jezebel is to control and to dominate.
Sardis - Protestantism formed in this time- A sardius is a gem - elegant yet hard and rigid
Philadelphia - Wesleyism formed in this time - To be sanctioned is to acquire it with love.
Laodicea - Charismatic movement formed in this time - Beginning with DL Moody, the first to make money off of ministry

Candlesticks - Seven church congregations
Stars - Individuals within the congregations, all held in the right hand of Christ
Seals - The seven seals sealed each congregation within the lambs book of life
Angels - The current preacher to the congregation.

And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. - Revelation 5:4

If this interpretation is not correct why all the ado? And... If you have a better interpretation please post your info! I dont mind for people to disagree with me and may end up learning a thing of two! I believe the churches came down as seven and each congregation is different in their generation!

 

The bible, especially Revelation, is written with much metaphor. I cannot believe one can study Revelation, and the bible, and see the same perspective as another fellow believer. You will agree and disagree on the interpretation of different passages...

John Bunyan was a great writer in metaphors/parables and he explains the use of them in his "The Barren Fig Tree" work (http://www.chapellib.../bun-barren.pdf):

6 He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.
7 Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?
8 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:
9 And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down. - Luke 13:6-9

In parables there are two things to be taken notice of, and to be inquired into of them that read.

First, The metaphors made use of.
Second, The doctrine or mysteries couched under such metaphors.

The metaphors in this parable are,
1. A certain man;
2. A vineyard;
3. A fig-tree, barren or fruitless;
4. A dresser;
5. Three years;
6. Digging and dunging, &c.

The doctrine, or mystery, couched under these words is to show us what is like to become of a fruitless or formal professor. For,

1. By the man in the parable is meant God the Father (Luke 15:11).
2. By the vineyard, his church (Isa 5:7).
3. By the fig-tree, a professor.
4. By the dresser, the Lord Jesus.
5. By the fig-tree’s barrenness, the professor’s fruitlessness.
6. By the three years, the patience of God that for a time he extendeth to barren professors.
7. This calling to the dresser of the vineyard to cut it down, is to show the outcries of justice against fruitless professors.
8. The dresser’s interceding is to show how the Lord Jesus steps in, and takes hold of the head of his Father’s axe, to stop, or at least to defer, the present execution of a barren fig-tree.
9. The dresser’s desire to try to make the fig-tree fruitful, is to show you how unwilling he is that even a barren fig-tree should yet be barren, and perish.
10. His digging about it, and dunging of it, is to show his willingness to apply gospel helps to this barren professor, if haply he may be fruitful.
11. The supposition that the fig-tree may yet continue fruitless, is to show, that when Christ Jesus hath done all, there are some professors will abide barren and fruitless.
12. The determination upon this supposition, at last to cut it down, is a certain prediction of such professor’s unavoidable and eternal damnation.

But to take this parable into pieces, and to discourse more particularly, though with all brevity, upon all the parts thereof. ‘A certain MAN had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard.’ The MAN, I told you, is to present us with God the Father; by which similitude he is often set out in the New Testament. Observe then, that it is no new thing, if you find in God’s church barren fig-trees, fruitless professors; even as here you see is a tree, a fruitless tree, a fruitless fig-tree in the vineyard.

Fruit is not so easily brought forth as a profession is got into; it is easy for a man to clothe himself with a fair show in the flesh, to word it, and say, Be thou warmed and filled with the best. It is no hard thing to do these with other things; but to be fruitful, to bring forth fruit to God, this doth not every tree, no not every fig-tree that stands in the vineyard of God. Those words also, ‘Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away,’ assert the same thing (John 15:2). There are branches in Christ, in Christ’s body mystical, which is his church, his vineyard, that bear not fruit, wherefore the hand of God is to take them away: I looked for grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes, that is, no fruit at all that was acceptable with God (Isa 5:4). Again, ‘Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself,’ none to God; he is without fruit to God (Hosea 10:1). All these, with many more, show us the truth of the observation, and that God’s church may be cumbered with fruitless fig-trees, with barren professors.

 

As far as history Foxes Book of Martyrs has the church persecutions as ten. If this indeed the Smyrnaen Church age then...

The Smyrnaean Church age persecution became great with the Roman Emperor Nero burning down Rome and accusing the Christians of doing it. Smyrna in the Greek means “Myrrh,” in which the Smyrnaean martyrs represented the most pure form of Christianity of all the church ages. The martyred crowns were many as the Smyrnaean church age progressed.

Ye Shall Have Tribulation Ten Days…
Time Persecutor Description
67 AD Nero The Smyrna Church Age begins with Nero setting fire to Rome, and then blaming the Christians
81 AD Domitian Declaration that no Christian should be exempt from punishment, Paul’s Timothy died in 97 AD.
108 AD Trajan and Adrian Severe persecution against Christians from 108 to 138 AD during the time of the Bishop Ignatius
162 AD Marcos Aurelius Marcos Aurelius, commendable in study of philosophy, sharp and fierce towards Christians.
192 AD Severus This persecution was carried out by the will and prejudice of the people and extended into Africa.
235 AD Maximus Numberless Christians were slain without trial and burned indiscriminately in heaps
249 AD Decius Began because of the amazing increase in Christianity, and with the heathen temples forsaken.
257 AD Valerian The martyrs that fell during this persecution were innumerable, their tortures and deaths painful.
274 AD Aurelian A brief persecution that ended with the emperor’s assassination.
303 AD Diocletian The last persecution ended with Constantine’s triumph against Rome in 313 AD

 

Those of the sardisesn church age, as Sardis is a gem, are very set in their beliefs and will dispute this doctrine every time. Especially as I have read things such as this....

"That seditious articles of doctrine should be punished by the sword needed no further proof. For the rest, the Anabaptists hold tenets relating to infant baptism, original sin, and inspiration, which have no connection with the Word of God, and are indeed opposed to it. ... Secular authorities are also bound to restrain and punish avowedly false doctrine ... For think what disaster would ensue if children were not baptized? ... Besides this the Anabaptists separate themselves from the churches ... and they set up a ministry and congregation of their own, which is also contrary to the command of God. From all this it becomes clear that the secular authorities are bound ... to inflict corporal punishment on the offenders ... Also when it is a case of only upholding some spiritual tenet, such as infant baptism, original sin, and unnecessary separation, then ... we conclude that ... the stubborn sectaries must be put to death." -Martin Luther

"My advice, as I said earlier, is: First, that their synagogues be burned down, and that all who are able toss sulphur and pitch; it would be good if someone could also throw in some hellfire...Second, that all their books-- their prayer books, their Talmudic writings, also the entire Bible-- be taken from them, not leaving them one leaf, and that these be preserved for those who may be converted...Third, that they be forbidden on pain of death to praise God, to give thanks, to pray, and to teach publicly among us and in our country...Fourth, that they be forbidden to utter the name of God within our hearing. For we cannot with a good conscience listen to this or tolerate it. The rulers must act like a good physician who, when gangrene has set in proceeds without mercy to cut, saw, and burn flesh, veins, bone, and marrow. Such a procedure must also be followed in this instance. Burn down their synagogues, forbid all that I enumerated earlier, force them to work, and deal harshly with them. If this does not help we must drive them out like mad dogs." - Martin Luther from the book "On the Jews and their Lies"

"Pure devilry is urging on the peasants…. Therefore let all who are able, mow them down, slaughter and stab them, openly or in secret, and remember that there is nothing more poisonous, noxious and utterly devilish than a rebel. You must kill him as you would a mad dog…" -Martin Luther

"Whoever shall maintain that wrong is done to heretics and blasphemers in punishing them makes himself an accomplice in their crime and guilty as they are. There is no question here of man's authority; it is God who speaks, and clear it is what law he will have kept in the church, even to the end of the world. Wherefore does he demand of us a so extreme severity, if not to show us that due honor is not paid him, so long as we set not his service above every human consideration, so that we spare not kin, nor blood of any, and forget all humanity when the matter is to combat for His glory." - John Calvin, after the death of Michael Servetus

 

I have a feeling Iwould have met my ends in a very cruel way if I had been born in Sardisean times! Remember John Bunyan, author of the Pilgrim's Progress, spent half his life in prison for bucking the Anglican church!

 

I would say that the Sardisean were so grounded in church doctrine that they would force others to join their congregation with threats of persecution. There was good reason for America to build a wall between church and state! The Sardisean were not lukewarm in doctrine!

 

I must say, like Fonzie, the established churches of what I would call of the Thyatirean and Sardisean era, regarding doctrine, like Fonzie, would have a hard time uttering these words...


(Fun little two minute video)

 

There are four churches that influenced my life....

1. Catholic - My dad was at one time a Franciscan Monk and talked about it all the time.
2. Baptist - A Baptist church bus driver was most effectual to the point the whole family became Baptist.
3. Pentecostal Holiness - I had wonderful experiences here as a young adult
4. Charismatic - I am currently going to the local Charismatic church

In the Pentecostal Holiness church

1. Revival - Our minister's choice of evangelist was excellent as he at one time was into evangelism.
2. People - All seemed sanctified with wonderful love, warmth, joy, and Spirit.
3. Church - Beautiful church sanctuary with a great young peoples ministry.

That was until they opened up the mountain in front of the church for real estate development. You could buy 5 acres of land in the 1980's for $20,000 an acre. It seemed after that to come to a place of arrival included two cars, a garage, and a nice home on the mountain. I have also noticed the old Baptist church I attended have split from the GARBC to have become Independent Baptist. I worry that the lack of doctrine of the Charismatic church I now attend will invite sinful things and the leader there has already announced he is single again (not knowing what all that means). This all seems to me like issues of the Laodicean church age.

Pictured: The Pentecostal Holiness church back in the times of the Philadelphian Church Age...

 

I believe this prophecy justifies the seven movements of Christianity...

Messianic
Persecuted
Orthodox
Catholic
Protestant
Anabaptist
Charismatic

And attempts to speak to them in time. Also, noting the differences, few would agree with this interpretation. I would say to all who profess Jesus as the Christ...He walks in the midst of all of us!

Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. - Revelation 2:1



The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. - Revelation 1:20

 

Remembering the beginning of the Pergamean age, in which I believe started with Constantine... Constantine was a pagan monotheist, a devotee of the sun god Sol Invictus, the unconquered sun. However before the Milvian Bridge battle he and his army saw a cross of light in the sky above the sun with words in Greek that are generally translated into Latin as In hoc signo vinces (‘In this sign conquer’). That night Constantine had a dream in which Christ told him he should use the sign of the cross against his enemies. He was so impressed that he had the Christian symbol marked on his soldiers’ shields and when the Milvian Bridge battle gave him an overwhelming victory he attributed it to the god of the Christians. - The Battle of the Milvian Bridge | History Today

 

I am an apostate! In the eyes of some other Christian. Had I tried to of proposed these things in the wrong time and geography I more than likely would have ended up a martyr by some disagreeing Christian! My favorite Christian author in AnaBaptist times was John Bunyan, who spent a great deal of time in prison for teaching things Non-Anglican.

 

One of my favorite authors was locked up because of crimes against the state run church. John Bunyan would go on to write many classics even though he was spending the prime of his life in jail. Some of my favorites are...

1. Grace Abounding
2. The Pilgrim's Progress
3. The Life and Death of Mr Badman
4. The Holy War
5. An Exposition into the First Ten Chapters of Genesis

The Pilgrim's Progress has been translated into more than 200 languages and never been out of print. If I could go back in time and chat I would tell him that he was paving the way for the great Philadelphian church age and his works would be blessed.

As a child Bunyan learned his father's trade of tinker and was given some schooling, When Bunyan was 16 he entered service and we have no records of him rising above the rank of Private. Bunyan's army service provided him with a knowledge of military language which he then used in his book The Holy War, and also exposed him to the ideas of the various religious sects and radical groups. It was in such settings that caused him to excel as a writer. At the instigation of members of nonconformist congregations Bunyan began to preach, both in the church and to groups of people in the surrounding countryside. He would of probably been though of by the state church as an uneducated nut and wind up in jail as a protection against society.

 

"When I have indeed conceited that I might be banished for my profession, then I have thought of that scripture: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheep-skins, and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy; for all they thought they were too bad to dwell and abide amongst them. I have also thought of that saying, the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, that bonds and afflictions abide me. I have verily thought that my soul and it have sometimes reasoned about the sore and sad estate of a banished and exiled condition, how they were exposed to hunger, to cold, to perils, to nakedness, to enemies, and a thousand calamities; and at last, it may be, to die in a ditch, like a poor and desolate sheep. But I thank God, hitherto I have not been moved by these most delicate reasonings, but have rather, by them, more approved my heart to God." - John Bunyan

Sure was! He was something different than the Messianic, Martyr, Orthodox, Catholic, and state run Anglican/Calvinistic/Lutheran Protestant before him! Even so that John Bunyan feared for his life!

And... This new wave of removing doctrine/denominational names and replacing them with names that include something like "worship" is something new as well! A Laodicean spirit that is lukewarm towards everything but the contemporary type worship! So many denominational churches are all but abandoned and the contemporary worship churches packed!

 

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. - Titus 2:11-13

I have thought of my sisters family as a good Christian family... Until my last visit! I was talking at the dinner table about the evils of tattoos not knowing I had a nephew and niece had gotten them in private places. Then my brother in law starts defending them! I basically told him that I would not make a good minister in these Laodicean times!

We had an evangelist in the 1970's hold revivals and he stopped by the Baptist church I was going to at the time. He would pack the altar with crying penitents night after night and I had an invited friend go up to testify that he had never prayed so hard. I picked up a cassette labeled, "Worldliness or Godliness" and I made a YouTube video out of it...

 

A sardis is a gem, hard shelled and rigid. So your better off not trying to alter a Sardisean point of view. But... I gave it a try!