The Seven Churches in Rev 1:9-20

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lozeerose

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I hope I do not offend any of the staff apologists because I posted this in AAA yesterday but did not receive an answer. No problem though…

In any event, I was at a Baptist church this past Sunday and the pastor there was going over Rev 1:9-20. And he stated that the churches detailed in those verses, although once physically existed, now “represent the characteristics of all of the [Christian] churches in the workd today.”

I have been looking for some commentary and/or teachings about the churches in these verses and have not found anything…at least any from a Catholic perspective.

Anyone care to chime in on this?

Thanks and God bless.
 
lozeerose said:
And he stated that the churches detailed in those verses, although once physically existed, now “represent the characteristics of all of the [Christian] churches in the workd today.”
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Which characteristics did he describe them as representing?
 
passus said:
Which characteristics did he describe them as representing?
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Rev 2 (1-2) "To the angel of the church 3 in Ephesus, write this: " 'The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks in the midst of the seven gold lampstands says this: "I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate the wicked; you have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and discovered that they are impostors.) contains the descriptions the pastor was talking about but he did not equate them with any particular church or demonination so to speak. And that is why I was puzzled because everyone else was nodding their heads and I was trying to figure out if there was anything taught on the subject.
 
lozeerose said:
Rev 2 (1-2) "To the angel of the church 3 in Ephesus, write this: " 'The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand and walks in the midst of the seven gold lampstands says this: "I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate the wicked; you have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and discovered that they are impostors.) contains the descriptions the pastor was talking about but he did not equate them with any particular church or demonination so to speak. And that is why I was puzzled because everyone else was nodding their heads and I was trying to figure out if there was anything taught on the subject.
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It’s really difficult to comment on what he might have said without having heard it for myself, but yeah, it doesn’t sound like he had any kind of evidence to correlate the churches mentioned in Revelation 1 with the Church today and I have to say that I cannot gather any from my own reading of that Scripture, either. I wouldn’t give much credence to what he said–not that it sounds like he said very much in the first place.

Intolerance of the wicked and leer of impostors have been qualities of the Church since its nascence, so if that’s what he was meaning to point out, it’s surely nothing shatteringly profound.

As far as people nodding their heads go, I don’t suppose they were really paying attention. 😛
 
The struggles and potential pit-falls that Jesus is chastising and warning against in Revelation are definitely true today in our churches. The message in the letters is timeless, for it deals with our human weaknesses.

Don’t we still suffer from being luke-warm in our faith, for example?
 
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