Revelation 17,18

The seven letters to the seven churches are prophecies concerning the development and history of the church from the time of Jesus ascension to the time of His second coming.

This is very brief. But for in depth reading, I recommend the book The Orthodoxy of the Church by Watchman Nee. What I am going to share to a large extent comes from my study of that book. There are other messages which also helped me learn these things. IE. The Life Study of Revelation by Witness Lee.

So what links the last four prophecies together as one group ? What links the letter to Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea into one group is the closing two verses for each letter.

For the first three churches - Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamos the first there is the exhortation for those who have an ear to hear what the Spirit says and then there is a promise to those who overcome. But in the last four churches - Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea there is first the promise to those who overcome and THEN the exhortation to hear what the Spirit says.

The switching of the order of these two common themes group the seven churches into a group of three and a group of four. We feel the grouping is intentional. And the last four are together to emphasize that these four situations of the Lord's people will exist at the same time on the earth at the time of the second coming of Christ.

These four characteristics of Christians will exist on earth at Christ's second coming:
The apostasy of Roman Catholicism.
The partial Reformation of Protestantism.
The recovered churches of brotherly love.
The proud fallen recovered churches.

Believers should examine their own lives with God to seek the Holy Spirit's guidance as to how we can be overcomers.

All this has been shared as ground work needed to understand how the Mother of Harlots with her daughters can be overcome.

The Holy Spirit in speaking to the church in Thyatira and the church in Sardis is speaking of the falling of the church to its lowest spiritual point and a partial reformation out of that situation.

In Thyatira there are "the deep things of Satan" representing that the things of the occult have infiltrated into the the apostate Christiandom.

"But I say to you - the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they say - I put no other burden upon you." (Rev. 2:24)

These things are not deep to Jesus who has eyes like a flame of fire (2:18) . But "as they say" means to us they seem as deep and mysterious things. All things are naked and laid bear to Christ who has eyes upon our hearts like a flame of fire.

Roman Catholicism has the characteristic of being infested with the deep things of Satan - the occult. The Protestant reformation which came OUT of Catholicism may carry some of these deep things also. If it doesn't the protesters are exhorted that spiritual deadness is still with them.

"And to the messenger of the church in Sardis write: These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars:

I know your works, that you have a name that you are living, and yet you are dead." (Rev. 3:1)

What the Spirit is saying is that Protestantism has a reputation of being a return to orthodoxy yet there is deadness. The lack of spiritual vitality defaces the return to right doctrine.

The reformation is INCOMPLETE for this reason -

"Become watchful and establish the things which remain, which were about to die; for I have found none of your works completed before My God." (v.2)

The recovery from the deep things of Satan is a step in improvement over Thyatira. Nonetheless, the recovery in spiritual life has not been completed. For this reason Christ says that He has found none of their works completed. And some works that have been recovered are on the verge of dying.

This is the contrast between the Roman Catholic Thyatira and the Protestant Sardis. One church has fallen to the rock bottom condition. Thyatira is the longest letter of the seven churches and is the church with the most problems. Sardis has a reputation of improvement yet Christ finds in her deadness and incompletion.

The Protestant Reformation is incomplete. It has a reputation of a recovery among God's children but in spite of this there is the need for the seven Spirits of God to bring the church out of deadness.

How Christ addresses each church is related to their problems or their particular characteristics.

The Mother of Harlots in Rev. 17 does have daughters who to one extent or another have carried with them some maladies of the Mother.

It should be noted that in all seven letters there is always a call for those to hear what the Spirit says to the churches and a promise of reward to those who overcome. All are not told to overcome the exact same thing. But all are exhorted to overcome something.

The church in Thyatira represents the church fallen to the lowest point.
The church in Sardis represents a partial recovery from that fallen state.

The situation in the apostate Thyatira is so bad that some of God;'s children seem permanently sick. They are said to be lying in a sick bed sick with death.

"Behold, I cast her into a bed, and those who commit adultery with her, into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works." (2:22)

This is brief. The bed of sickness into which some unrepentant ones are cast means it is hard for them to recover from this spiritual sickness.

Though this involvement with the deep things of Satan has caused spiritual sickness, Christ's penetrating eyes of flame know exactly their condition.

"And her children I will kill with death; and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the inward parts and the hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your works." (v.23)

The idolatry of the Old Testament evil queen Jezebel is used to symbolize the blatant idolatry practiced in the Roman Catholic system.

"But I have something against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, she who calls herself a prophetess and teaches and leads My slaves astray to commit fornication and to eat idol sacrifices." (2:20)

Watchman Nee taught that the the RCC has a policy that what the Church says is more important than what the word of God says. He said this was the meaning of the Lord Jesus saying that the woman Jezebel calls herself a prophetess.

The Protestant reformation however has an incomplete recovery. The start was good. The reputation was honorable. But the Lord found the recovery of the Protestant reformation to be incomplete and suffering from deadness.

"And to the messenger of the church in Sardis ... I know your works, that you have a name that you are living, and yet you are dead. ...

Become watchful and establish the things which remain, which were about to die; for I have found none of your works completed before My God.

Remember therefore how you have received and heard, and keep it and repent ..." (see vs 1-3)

Christ is saying to remember the spiritual revival, the return to vitality, the infusion of fresh light and faith that did come with the reformers. "Remember therefore how you have received and heard"

Originally posted by sonship
This is very brief. But for in depth reading, I recommend the book [b]The Orthodoxy of the Church by Watchman Nee. What I am going to share to a large extent comes from my study of that book. There are other messages which also helped me learn these things. IE. The Life Study of Revelation by Witness Lee.[/b]

The Life Study of Revelation by Witness Lee?

So you are getting this all from that cult leader.

{b]Does Witness Lee say anything at all about Islam? [/b]

In the above post I wrote how Protestantism was a partial recovery from Roman Catholicism. Of course many Roman Catholic consider Protestants to be in a cult and Luther was condemned as a heretic.

Ironically this tendency did not stop with the Reformation. The recovery continued. The church in Sardis represents a coming forth from Thyatira's situation. And the church in Philadelphia represents a coming forth from Sardis' situation.

In the former case some as those coming forth were called a cult and heretical so also in the latter case. The spiritual blindness of some in the Reformed Protestant recovery accuse as cult leaders those who God has had mercy to recover from the deadness of Protestantism.

To participate in God's ongoing recovery you must expect that some Christians stuck in the foregoing age's recovery will not understand and label you as a cult.

We thank God for all the light he has shown us in the present recovery of the church life in these last of days.

The sequence of recovery from Thyatire is like this.

Sardis is a coming forth from the degradation of Thyatira.
Philadelphia is a coming forth from the degradation of both Thyatia and Sardis.
Laodicea is a proud and degraded Philadelphia.

These four situations will be on earth at the time of the Lord's second coming.

It is easy to see that Sardis representing the Protestant Reformation will have Christians on the earth at Christ's second coming because they are warned thus:

"Remember therefore how you have received and heard, and keep it and repent. If therefore you will not watch, I will come as a thief, and you shall by no means know at what hour I will come upon you." (Rev. 3:3)

This is a warning to Christians that His sudden second coming to take the watching saints off the earth in rapture, will be a total surprise. Some of us will not know the moment that Christ comes to rapture a remnant of watching and ready believers. And they will be left to pass through the great tribulation to learn to watch.

We are so thankful to God for shining a light upon His word these days to adequately prepare His people for these last days.

To Philadelphia, the saints in brotherly love, they are warned to keep what they have so that they would be raptured out of the hour of trial, the great tribulation. Every warning in the New Testament always means there is a possibility to heed and a possibility to be heedless. Therefore it is a true WARNING and not an automatic guarantee.

"Because you have kept the word of My endurance, I also will keep you out of the hour of trial, which is about to come on the whole inhabited earth, to try them who dwell on the earth." (Rev. 3:10)

Only a remnant of Christians will disappear from the earth in the first rapture.
The majority will be left to pass through the great tribulation.

Antichrist will destroy apostate Christianity - the RCC as the Mother of Harlots.
All the saints of God who are truly born of the Spirit will come out of that calamity seeing that degraded Christiandom us under destruction.

The religion is destroyed by one who will exalt himself above all gods and object of worship. But the reality of the indwelling Holy Spirit in the persecuted believers CANNOT be destroyed.

We should not wait to be solidly grounded in that reality.
We should seize the time now to be grounded in the Spirit of Christ as the truth that we live by.

It is time for me to briefly explain why I went into Revelation 2,3.

When we say that the Roman Catholic Church is called the Mother of Prostitutes and that she has daughters, understandably Protestants will object. It is easy for Protestant denominations not to realize that their recovery is not completed.

Remember that Christ told Sardis that He found none of her works "completed". That means in essence " Yes, you began to come out but you did not come out far enough."

Some in Thyatira do not feel there is degradation in the Roman Catholic Church. And they would be suspicious of Protestants that they are a cult.

In turn some in Sardis would not realize the incompleteness of their recovery. So they would be suspicious that those who have been recovered from Protestantism are heretical and a cult.

What about those of Philadelphia ? Philadelphia is in danger of becoming proud and self satisfied. And the degradation of the recovered Philadelphia is Laodicea.

Some Christian teachers identify Laodicea as a degraded Protestantism. But actually Philadelphia is properly recovered church and Laodicea is a fallen recovered church. The church in Philadelphia is first recovered back to orthodoxy. Then as time passes the danger of self richness, self satisfaction, and a refusal to pay a price becomes the fall of the recovered Philadelphia.

It should be noted that what is written to ANY one of the churches is for the benefit of all the churches. So valuable exhortations are to be heeded no matter what our condition. This is why seven times we hear and re-hear the exhortation -

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

Seven times this is said. It is said at the end of each of the seven letters.

Originally posted by sonship
It is time for me to briefly explain why I went into [b]Revelation 2,3.

When we say that the Roman Catholic Church is called the Mother of Prostitutes and that she has daughters, understandably Protestants will object. It is easy for Protestant denominations not to realize that their recovery is not completed.

Remember that Christ told Sardis[ ...[text shortened]... " [/quote]

Seven times this is said. It is said at the end of each of the seven letters.[/b]

As I understand it, those seven churches in Turkey have been destroyed by the Muslims.

"The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave to Him ... and He made it known by signs, sending it by His angel to His slave John." ( See Rev. 1:1)

We are to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The point is not to go excavate in the sand to find if someone's concept of a physical edifice has been destroyed or not. Those priorities may be the only the interests of the archaeologist.

There were seven communities that received these letters in John's day. And prophetic utterances were given by Christ in them. These utterances are part of the signs conveying revelation of Jesus Christ and His purposes to people of God for centuries after the writing of the book of Revelation .

" He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." (2:7a)

If anyone does not have an ear to hear what the Spirit is speaking then they just don't have an ear to hear what the Spirit is speaking. Maybe other parts of the Bible are opened more to them but this book of Revelation is just a closed book for them.

Brother Lee had a good word on the problem of us reading too much of our culture into the revelation of God's salvation.

From The Life Study of Exodus by Witness Lee.

THE ALPHABET OF GOD’S SALVATION

More than fifty years ago, I learned some letters of the Greek alphabet, but at that time I did not learn them very well. I had trouble, for instance, with the Greek letter gamma (&gamma😉, which resembles a lower case y in the English alphabet. Also, an upper case y (Y) in the English alphabet looks somewhat like an upper case upsilon (&Upsilon😉 in Greek. Today many believers have learned the alphabet of God’s salvation in much the same way I learned part of the Greek alphabet years ago. On the one hand, they are like those who do know some Greek letters. On the other hand, they are like those who confuse Greek and English letters, perhaps taking a lower case English y for a lower case Greek gamma. For example, they may think that certain aspects of our culture are the same as God’s salvation. This can be compared to saying that an upper case Greek eta (&Eta😉 is the same as an upper case English h (H), or that a lower case English p is the same as a lower case Greek rho (&rho😉.

Those who confuse aspects of culture with God’s salvation have not learned thoroughly the alphabet of God’s salvation. They know something about justification, regeneration, and forgiveness. But they also know many things of their culture. As a result, they unconsciously mix certain aspects of their culture with God’s salvation and confuse human culture with the salvation of God. Furthermore, when someone speaks about a certain aspect of God’s salvation, they may be very confident that they understand. Actually, they do not understand at all and have confused something of God with their natural concept and the cultural elements that have saturated them. This can be compared to thinking that a lower case Greek nu (&nu😉 is a lower case English v. I use this illustration of Greek and English letters to point out our need to know the complete alphabet of God’s salvation.

http://www.ministrybooks.org/books.cfm?n