John was dealing with churches then and there-churches with problems-much like Paul dealt with in his letters.Were Paul’s corrections prophesies of the future?No. Some people see prophecy were none is implied.This is simply a reading into of scripture which many evangelicals are prone toOk I’ve recently came across some protestants using the letters to the 7 churches in revelation to show that the bible prophesied about the Roman Catholic Church…
Apparently the letters to the 7 churches prophecy also about church history.
http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee309/marapets1995/7prophesies.png
Excellent point.
I know
I’ve never seen that before, it was actually in my protestant church history textbooks
I really regret asking my protestant mom for church history, it’s a waste of money.
D) that they represent the Church during it’s lifetime. This is more explained that what you posted. I don’t believe that John actually knew that he will write to the churches of all time, but this is the how the Holy Spirit works.In chapter 1, Jesus Christ presented Himself to John, who is in exile on the Greek island of Patmos. He has just asked him to write in a book everything he is about to see, and send copies of that book to seven of the Churches in Asia Minor. The first Church is the one of Ephesus.In Greek, "ephesis" means "a great desire", "a great drive", especially when one is new at something and desires to learn more about it and to become good at it. This corresponds to the Christian Church in her early stages, during which she had the burden of spreading this new teaching to all of the Roman world and beyond, and history tells us that those first Christians were very enthusiastic about their mission.An evil person would not want to be a member of this Church, because these Christians, at least during the initial phases of the Church's existence, used to give all their possessions to the Church and the poor. Even at times when this was not common practice, there was no motive for an evil person to join the Christian community, as the latter had little power and was often persecuted. In other words, the early Church "could not bear them which are evil".
Enthusiasm was quickly diminished, as Christians were disappointed that Jesus did not return during the first century AD, as many had been expecting.In those times, being the leader of a Christian congregation meant that one had a cross to carry, since there were continuous threats to the Christian community by the powers of the old order.In Greek, "niko" means "I win" and "laos" is "the people". So, the "Nicolaitanes" should mean those who try to win the favour of the people and rule over them. As discussed above, those were very few in the early Church. The local presbyters and bishops were truly servants to their flocks, and did not, with some exceptions, seek to obtain personal power. Such attitudes would have led to divisions and conflicts, and the Church, still young and fragile, could not afford such phenomena, as they would compromise her very existence.
And this completes the description of the Church of Ephesus.The next period of Church History was characterized by massive persecutions against Christians, in reaction to the growth of the new religion."Smyrna" is "myrrh", used to make a sacrifice pleasurable to God or the gods. This Church suffered through many tribulations, and many times was she deprived of her possessions, her buildings, and her right to worship God the way she wanted. This was because she was growing rapidly and was becoming dangerous to the existing order, so she had to be drastically dealt with. In times of relative peace, though, there were many false Christians, usually presbyters or bishops, seeking to obtain personal power. This was due, in part, to the growth of the Christian movement, due to which the Christian communities were now stronger and more self-sufficient. Their leaders thus gradually obtained more power and influence. Consequently, a leading position in a Christian community was now becoming more attractive to people seeking such power and influence, evil people in most cases. This situation led to a loosening of the bonds between local congregations. Rivalries thus appeared. Heresies flourished and meaningless disputes took place, with dark motives in most cases."Jews" is a metaphor for "Christians", since the latter are the ones that are "truly circumcised". This metaphor can be found in Paul's Epistles.
There were many persecutions, even from Nero's time, but the fiercest of all was the one started by Diocletian in January 303. Churches were destroyed, books were burnt, most Christian property was confiscated, and many Christians martyred. In 304, it became obligatory by law that everyone should worship the Graeco-Roman Pantheon only. After Diocletian's abdication in 305, the persecution was continued mainly in the Eastern part of the Empire, where the Christians were more numerous, but with a gradually decreasing severity. In January 313, the Edict of Milan, which established freedom of worship, was issued by Constantine. It was also decided that all confiscated Christian property should be returned to Christians.From 303 to 313 ten years can be counted (the actual persecution had ended before the start of the year 313, but, using the ancient way of estimating time, ten years can be counted from 303 to 312). In the book of Ezekiel it is said that a prophetic "day" corresponds to an actual year, so ten years are symbolized by ten days.Christianity was then recognized and adopted by the Empire, for which the decisive event was Emperor Constantine's favourable attitude towards it and later conversion to it. Christianity gradually became the official religion of the Empire."Pergamos" can be translated in Greek as "super-marriage", or "a marriage that is larger than proper". Religion was married to the State, and religious leaders often tried to obtain temporal power by forming alliances with temporal leaders. The dispute between Areianism and Orthodoxy was a clear example of this situation, where one side would use the temporal leaders to undermine the other side.The Church was now seated on the throne of Satan, meaning that she had won the battle against the ancient polytheistic religion. It can also mean that she had become a friend of the Empire, which had been a bitter enemy of the Word of God during the previous centuries. In chapter 12, it will be shown that the term "Dragon" or "Satan" refers to the powers that are hostile to the Word of God and are, in this case, embodied by the religion of the Graeco-Roman Pantheon and its representatives. "Antipas" is a composition of two Greek words, meaning "against all", and referring to the persecutions, now in the past, where the Christians had been opposing the whole of the old world order.
The "Nicolaitanes" were flourishing during the era of Pergamos. Well known are the fights between bishops for power. The Areian issue sparked much dispute, and the battle over supremacy between the different Patriarchates would ultimately lead to the great Schism of 1054 between Orthodoxy and Catholicism, in essence present for many centuries before that time. In what way are the "Nicolaitanes" guilty of fornication and idol worship? The Apostle Paul, in one of his Epistles, incites the believers not to be divided into fractions and say "I am a follower of Paul" or "I am a follower of Apollos", but that all should have a common leader, the Word of God. In Paul's days, as has been shown above, such phenomena of division were not the rule. But, as the Christian communities grew stronger and larger, being the leader of such a community became increasingly associated with temporal power. As a result, divisions arose, and the situation described by Paul was now becoming more and more common. Paul said that, when one views oneself as a follower of Paul or Apollos, one forgets about Christ. The Church is symbolically said to be the Bride of Christ, because she is supposed to have the Word of God inside her. But, if the Church forgets about the Word of God, or Christ, and follows other leaders, she commits adultery against Him. And this is why the "Nicolaitanes" (meaning, as discussed above, those who try to win the favour of the people and rule over them), much like Balaam and Balac, were leading the "children of Israel", in this case symbolizing the members of the Church, to commit fornication. Idol worship is the worship of something other than the true God, so the act of following leaders other than the Word of God is, indeed, a form of idol worship.And that was the situation of things in the centuries after Emperor Constantine's time. Incited by the Bishopric of Rome and forced by the circumstances, the Church in the West slowly separated herself from her Eastern counterpart.Contrarily to what was going on in the East, the West was in turmoil after the invasions and settlement of mostly Germanic tribes. The Catholic Church undertook the great work of keeping both religion and knowledge alive, mainly through her numerous monasteries, and she also spread the Word of God to Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, the Baltic regions, Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, etc.I can't say for sure whether "Thyatira" (or, rather, "Thyateira") means something, but, through a (not very satisfactory) play of (half) words, it could mean "sacrifice to the Empress". The Empress would be the Church of Rome, here named "the woman Jezebel", who fell into the error of the Nicolaitanes and demanded to be worshipped herself, instead of teaching her flock to worship the Lord only. She had once been the Church of Christ, but now she was the Church of Rome; she was not Christ's anymore. In other words, she had committed adultery against her Husband. To follow the Roman Pontiff instead of the Christ is an obvious form of adultery and idol worship. "Jezebel", many centuries later, as history tells us, would be deprived of most of her power, and the results of her "fornication" would disappear from the face of the earth. "Thyatira", through another unsatisfactory play of (half) words, could mean "the sacrifice of the Latins".In the Greek text, verse 2:20 reads: "because thou sufferest thy woman Jezebel...", meaning that Jezebel is in Thyatira, and the interpretation is that the Church of Rome is a part of the whole Western Church. That part would ultimately gain control of the entire Western Church and completely sever her off from her Eastern sister, while placing her own glory above the glory of Christ throughout the whole Western world.
But, apart from those who were promoting the Pontiff's supremacy, the Catholics throughout Europe were, at that time, as mentioned above, engaged in great works.These works would prove to be fundamental contributions to the waking up of Europe after the Dark Ages.The Catholic Church, over the centuries, mutated into a veritable theocracy, where the Pope of Rome was the supreme ruler, the representative of Christ on earth, whose authority was not to be questioned.
There were no more pagans left to evangelize, so the missionary spirit gradually died down. This is the age of the Inquisition, first established in Toulouse, France, in 1233. It is the age of the abominable Indulgences (forgiveness of sins by the Pope in exchange for money) and of a worldly and corrupted Church, resistant to change and progress. Great campaigns for the silencing of those who disagreed with the Church took place, like the persecution of the Albigenses, the Waldenses and the Hussites, leading to innumerable martyrdoms of true Christian believers. That Church, sadly, no longer had the life-giving Spirit of Christ in her.Sardis (or, rather, Sardeis) had been, for a time, the ancient Persian capital, and it was well known for its riches. The Roman Catholic Church did in fact accumulate vast riches during this time, augmented by the later colonization of overseas territories by Catholic countries. The Church did not seem interested in spreading the Word of God anymore, except to the aforementioned colonies, the crimes committed against which are much better known than their evangelization by the explorers/conquerors.It should be stressed, though, that quite a few clergymen and a large number of ordinary people were still faithful to Christ, even though they were outnumbered by those who, out of convenience or ignorance, were worshipping Rome instead of Him.But eventually the human mind woke up. The Renaissance began, and a new understanding of the Word of God was sought, mainly through the Protestant Reformation. New doors were opened to the human mind."Philadelphia" (yes, the Greek spelling is "Philadelpheia") means "to love one's brothers", and Christians once again became brothers during this era. The Bible was now available for everyone to read, not imprisoned in dead languages. The Church now had little temporal power, but she was a much more real Church than in the previous centuries. This was true for the Catholic countries as well, after the Church lost much of her temporal power in those countries.In many countries, Roman Catholics converted to Protestantism, abandoning the sterile teachings of Rome to embrace this new understanding of religion, which re-discovered the Scriptures and made them available to the people. Catholicism itself was renewed through the Counter-Reformation, which, although led by the controversial Jesuit order, gave emphasis to education and revived the missionary spirit. The so-called Christians of the Dark and Middle Ages thus slowly evolved into truer Christians.This renewed Christian fervour lasted for a few centuries, and then it died down, mainly because of the scientific and technological progress and the great increase in wealth ("temptation") which characterizes the present era.The Church would never again be as alive as in the time of the Church of Philadelphia.Let's take a look at the Church of the present day."Laodicea" (Laodiceia) means "the judgment of the people" or "the judgment by the people". If the first one is correct, it could mean that there is to be some kind of "judgment" during or immediately after the "reign" of this Church. Anyhow, this Church is characterized by spiritual indifference. Not rejection of religion, like in the French or Russian Revolutions, which at least shows that one is spiritually awake, but indifference, which shows spiritual staleness.In this day, we have become dependent on material things, and have forgotten about the world of the mind and spirit. We do not strive to fill ourselves with spiritual virtues, but to fill our houses with material possessions instead.The way out of this error is not through the deprivation of material goods, but through the accumulation of spiritual knowledge. These are dangerous times we are living in, and only through the cultivation of the mind and spirit can we make good use of our age's material prosperity.Our thirst for material goods has led, in this era, to the greatest catastrophes humankind has ever known, including the destruction of the environment. I believe that, having learned much from these catastrophes, we are slowly beginning to emerge out of this spiritual hibernation.This analysis may seem arbitrary to some, but I can't help but observe that there are striking similarities between the Seven Churches and the outline of actual Church History. Jesus asks us to hear with our spiritual, and not literal, ears, meaning that He wants us to understand a hidden meaning behind these messages to the Seven Churches. Throughout the Apocalypse, a group of seven things denotes a chronological sequence of events or situations with a common theme. Seven also denotes totality. Thus, the Seven Churches must symbolize the course of the Church throughout history.The trouble with this theory is that the 7 churches WERE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES. They were Christian communities already established. Tradition has it that St. John was archbishop over this whole area at one time, and the letter was written to the churches there. Some of this substantiated because the Book of Revelation was very popular in this area.
In my opinion a lot of anti -catholic tripe,mixed with scripture.Ha, a tasty witches brew of bigotry.
Paragraph 1: Yep, I know. Isn’t wonderful how the Holy Spirit works? He managed to deliver a message to present churches and the ones in John’s time. Isn’t it fantastic?
Oh boy, here we go again… Honestly, why did you have to do that? I was looking for the CATHOLIC answer, that why I came to CATHOLIC ANSWERS in the first place. I didn’t want you to post a bunch of posts from some anti-catholic website.
Sure, the reformers were such wonderfully smart people, so smart and so godly that Martin Luther managed to get a bunch of nuns (who left all to serve God) to leave the convent. Martin Luther even managed to grab one for himself and have 6 children.
