The Seven Churches In Revelation

I have never really studied the warnings given to the seven churches in Revelation in depth. Neither have I held strongly to a view whether these warnings were meant to just be given to the seven churches that were present during that time, or if that they also point to warnings to future churches.

Some believe that, under the light of Biblical prophecy, these warnings are to each of the different spiritual conditions throughout the Church Age, while others believe that they indicate actual periods of time when each church had a particular spiritual condition.

It was on this last theory — the period-condition view — that I began my study and research in the past few days.

Now, as to the certainty of this theory I am not sure, and my own study and research is by no means complete (may God give me the wisdom to understand it!), so what I am sharing here is just on what I have learned so far about the last theory.

Proponents of this theory state that the seven churches each represent a spiritual condition in the Church’s history. By Church I mean the Body of Christ built upon the rock that is cut without hands — Christ Jesus, and not any particular church, and definitely not the Roman Catholic Church.

There are two indications why this theory might stand:

1. To each Church, Christ identifies Himself such that, if you notice, He directly addresses the spiritual condition of the church that He is speaking to. For example, to the church in Smyrna which was heavily persecuted, Christ identifies His words to them as “The words of the first and the last, who died and came to life.” (Revelation 2:8) — exhorting them to be faithful unto death, and just as He died and came to life, so shall they who hold fast to Him.
2. The second is the historical background of each location where the churches are located, as well as what the names of the locations mean. For example, Smyrna means “bitter sweetness”.

I have yet to completely confirm if the meanings are correct (I am still reading the history of each church listed), but the following are the apparent meanings of each location:

• Epheseus — “Not Lasting”
• Smyrna — “Bitter Sweetness”
• Pergamum — “Divorce”
• Thyatira — “Constant Labor” and “Guarding the Door”
• Sardis — “Of the Flesh”
• Philadelphia — “Brotherly Love”
• Laodicea — “People’s Opinions” and “People Judged”

With that in mind, let’s look at the respective historical periods in the Church Age that each supposedly represents:

• Epheseus (”Not Lasting”) — Exact dates uncertain: from end of persecution of Nero to death of the Apostle John.
• Smyrna (”Bitter Sweetness”) — Death of the Apostle John, to Edict of Milan, 313 AD.
• Pergamum (”Divorce”) — Edict of Milan, until the reign of Charlemagne, 800 AD (or Battle of Tours, 732 AD).
• Thyatira (”Constant Labor” or “Guarding the Door”) — Reign of Charlemagne, (or Battle of Tours) until end of the Crusades, 1290 AD.
• Sardis (”Of the Flesh”) — End of the Crusades, until Martin Luther, 1517 AD.
• Philadelphia (”Brotherly Love”) — Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, until the American Revolution, 1776 AD.
• Laodicea (”People’s Opinions” and “People Judged”) — American Revolution, until the beginning of the Great Tribulation.

Taking all that into consideration, and assuming that this interpretation of Scripture is correct, it looks like we are living in the Laodicean Church age.

Is there basis for it? Does it correlate to what we see and observe of the spiritual condition of the Church in general? Let’s first look at Revelation 3:14-22 where the Church of Laodicea is addressed:

“And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation.

“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Revelation 3:14-22

It does seem to me that there’s correlation between the warnings sounded to today’s Church!

Look at Christ Jesus’ greeting — He is reminding the Church that He is the true Word of God, the Words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness. That hearkens back to John 1:1-2:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

John 1:1-2

Given the previous incidences on how He would address the spiritual condition of each church with a reminder of who He is, Christ Jesus is reminding the church of Laodicea that while He is the true and faithful witness, that church isn’t holding on to what God has given in His Word to the Church, and even to the effect that those who are today trying to redefine who He is and what He said are not holding fast to the Truth, God’s Word.

Now, that sounds familiar — don’t we today observe many teachers who teach a different Christ or try to redefine what the Word of God actually says? Think Emergent movement, think prosperity gospel…

The Church in this age is rich. Not materially rich, but falsely believing that they are “spiritually rich” (I’ve yet to confirm this translation from the original Greek). And because we think that we have it all together (spiritually rich), we have put aside true study of God’s Word. As a result, our works are lukewarm; our hearts are lukewarm because there’s no thirst.

Yet notice what Christ Jesus says of our actual spiritual condition — we are wretched, pitiable, blind, poor and naked! In other words, and using Biblical precedents where those words have previously been mentioned, it simply means that we are still in bondage to sin, in dire need of God’s mercy, don’t fully know the Lord and worst of all, unrepentant!

Is that a true picture of the Church today? Some might disagree, but my personal take is that that’s 100 per cent accurate!

Looking at the letters to the seven churches through these lenses does give me an insight, a revelation even, on where we truly stand in God’s eyes. Though that is the case, I am reminded to be careful that I am not trying to fit prophecy to current observations.

I reckon it will take me some time to come to an understanding whether this portion of Revelation is prophetic or, as others have stated, just to be taken as letters to the seven churches of that time. There’s much to consider — the accuracy of historical records on the seven churches, determining if each church does in fact correspond to a period in history and if so, which period of history and for what length of time, and of course, the history of the Church during that period of time — enough to make my head spin, really.

Shalom Aleichem.