Revelation: #2 The Road to Rome

Bearing in mind that Jesus has sectioned the book into three parts we will look at the churches in Chapters 2 and 3.  John has already told us the way the glorified Lord looks in chapter 1.  This was 'what he has seen,' and starting with chapter 2 we observe 'what is now.'  At the time John was in the church age and we will observe seven letters to seven churches bearing particular warnings and commendations.

Today we are in a unique position of being able to look back on the church age and plot a timeline.  As I have pointed out before the seven churches seem to track the dominant themes of each church age in chronological order.  In this article we will look at the rise of the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy See.  We will also underline the strategy of Satan to render the church powerless.

The seven letters start with Ephesus, the 'desired one.'  This church were accustomed to Paul's passed on tradition / pattern (Paradosis) of dialogue and eating a full meal together as a covenant sign.  We know this because of  Acts 20 when they dialogued with Paul then had the Lords supper.  This was the case for the persecuted church, Smyrna.  The rot had begun however and people were reverting back to synagogue-type meetings.  This onslaught by the enemy is well written upon and ten emperors were stirred to kill the church.  With this having the opposite effect... people drawing closer to the Lord... the church was becoming more worldly.

Increasingly the church had several factors that were more like an earthly institution than a called out assembly.  Pergamum means mixed marriage and this was when the church was dominantly accepting and not resisting persistent sinfulness.  Rank and hierarchy were rife as the brotherhood morphed into an empire.  depending on where you place Constantine and the ones who came after him, the church was hurtling towards Thyatira, the Roman Catholic nightmare.

Thyatira spanned approximately 1000 years and this is where we see the first indication of Christ's return.  The reason this starts here is because From Thyatira to Laodicea, each church is on the earth concurrently.  In the next article I will examine the other three churches we see on the earth... right now.

Gary Ward.