THE NEW TESTAMENT
BIBLE STORYThe REVELATION of Jesus Christ #5
THE LAST TWO CHURCHES After the Protestant Revolution, it was getting much easier for the true people of God, the Church of Jesus Christ, to openly proclaim all truths found in the Bible, without being persecuted even to death. The Church of God was then, as is put in Revelation, "alive." But, as nearly always happens, over time, the zeal FOR truth as well as the zeal to PROCLAIM it, starts to dwindle. Whatever the time frame was (God knows) it was true that the Church of God was alive, but yet they were in many ways "dead." And when this happens, Jesus, who is in charge of His Church, moves SOME within His body the church, to move on out so to speak and form other individual local groups and/or a work that has many local groups co-operating together, to proclaim the Gospel around the world. So it was, no time date to pin-point it, but from what we can see from church history, it was probably in the 1700 A.D. and after, that the people who would be the 6th time frame, or the church of Philadelphia came on the scene of the world. I want you to take special note of the below, taken from the New Unger's Bible Dictionary. PHILADELPHIA "brotherly love" - A city in Lydia of Asia Minor. It was built by Attalus 11 Philadelphus, whose name it bears. It was situated on the lower slopes of the Tmolus, about twenty-eight miles SW of Sardis and 100 miles W of Smyrna. It has been several times almost destroyed by earthquakes. Its name is now Alasehir, "city of God." The town is an unimportant place of fifteen to twenty thousand people. Jesus says He is holy, true, and has the key of David, He opens and no man shuts, He shuts and no man opens. Jesus is in charge of His church. And He is the One to give it power to go here or there and spread the Gospel in this manner or that manner. The key of David? As David had the key to his house so to speak, had authority and power over his house, so Jesus has authority over His house, His church, and can execute whatever judgement as He needs to for the keeping of His house. As Jesus said, He would build His church and the gates of hell or the grave would never prevail against it. Jesus knows the works of this people in this time age of His church. There will be an open door for them to proclaim the truths of God and the Gospel, and until Jesus says differently, no man can shut that door. Certainly the modern worldwide INTERNET is maybe the greatest open door for teaching the truths of God all around the earth. And it will for now only get more so with the Internet, as modern space age technology develops. If you noticed above about today's literal town of Philadelphia in Turkey (Asia Minor), it is UNIMPORTANT, SMALL, IT HAS THEN LITTLE STRENGTH as such. The true people of God have always been the relatively SMALL unimportant, in the view of the world, religious group of Christians. Jesus once said that His followers would be the VERY LITTLE flock (as the Greek reads). On the whole they would have very little strength, very little compared to the Babylon Mystery Christian Catholic church. It would be something like Elijah in his day, when he lamented that to the Lord that he was the only person NOT bowing the knee to Baal. God answered him by saying he was wrong, because God had 7,000 others out there, here and there, that had not bowed the knee to Baal. It is true, the VERY ELECT, are few and far between, they are the SALT of the earth, the very little flock. A few here and a few there, one here and two or thee there, scattered around the world. So it has been for the last 500 years or so. But they have been there, and the door to spread the Gospel has been open in various ways, personal evangelism, written words of evangelism, broadcasts over radio, TV, and now the Internet. The true people of God have had an open door which no man can shut. At the present that door remains open. God's people in these end time hundreds of years, have NOT DENIED His name, and have been willing to KEEP His word. They are the faithful. They are the ones who strive for the faith once delivered to the saints. They are willing to grow in grace and knowledge, willing to be taught, be corrected, willing to be humble and submissive to the leading of the Spirit of God. We have had people in the last few hundred years who kept the 7th day Sabbath, and who observed and proclaimed the keeping of the Festivals of God. We had the black man working on the trains in the late 1800s who just read his Bible and came to see the Festivals of Leviticus 23 should be observed, and raised up a good work among other black people. We had the Seventh Day Adventist minister in the very early 1900s who came to see the Festivals of God should be observed, had his study paper printed in the worldwide Adventist magazine, and some SDA churches in South America were willing to agree and observe those Festivals. We had minsters in the 1930s in the Church of God, Seventh Day, who came to admit those Festivals should be observed. Some formed their own organizations and spread the word of God. We have SDA ministers like Samuele Bacciocchi PhD. who admit the Festivals of the Lord should be observed, and some in the SDA church DO observe them. So the word of God is not denied, the name of God and what He stands for is not denied. They are few relatively speaking, but they do have an open door. One day the world will have to admit, come before those people made immortal, and actually worship at their feet. Yes, those people will then be in the God Family, and worshipping before them, will be natural, as they will have the name of God in their character. All that I fully explain in my study called "A Christian's Destiny." Yes, the world, and the false Christianity in it, the BILLION plus will have to one day admit, those few with outward little strength WERE and ARE the very sons and daughter of God the Father. They will KNOW THEN that God truly DID LOVE those few! And because they did KEEP the word of Christ's PATIENCE, which is interpreted for us in Revelation 14:12 as KEEPING the COMMANDMENTS of God and the FAITH of Jesus Christ, they will, a part of them (this is another of those "general" statements used in the Bible) be KEPT SAFE from the hour of TRIBULATION or Temptation to come on the WHOLE world (see Rev. 12:14-16; Luke 21:36). Jesus says, "Behold, I come quickly; hold FAST what you have, that no man take away thy crown" (verse 11). Yes, when the prophecy of this book of Revelation REALLY starts to unfold, when we are down to the last 42 months, 1260 days of the close of this age, then Jesus WILL COME QUICKLY! The point is when Jesus is ready to come quickly, there will be true faithful people of God on this earth, doing the work of God, going through the open door set before them to teach, to preach, to expound the prophesies of Revelation and all the prophetic books of the Bible. They will be spreading the Gospel and warning the nations of this earth what will take place as the Lord has declared. For a short while God will stop His word going but by the Elijah to come and the two witnesses of Revelation 11. But until then His children will have an open door set before them. Those at this end time who do overcome the world and Satan, will be some of the very "pillars" of glorified perfection in the Temple of God. They will have the VERY NAME of GOD, and in type symbolism the name of NEW Jerusalem, which will come down from God eventually (as shown in Revelation 21,21). And they will have, in what ever way Jesus means it, HIS NEW NAME! All of this for the true faithful children of God at the close of this age (which remember can cover a number of hundreds of years). LAODICEA The town was located on a flat-topped hill. A wall (about a kilometer long on each side of its four sides) surrounded the crown of the hill. The Laodicean condition describes the spiritual lukewarmness and worldliness that will prevail in the professing church of Christ at the end of the age. Rich, cultured, religiously ritualistic - this church will have become so self-satisfied and worldly as to have ostracised Christ completely. He is represented prophetically as standing on the outside knocking for admission (Rev.3:20). The awful spiritual condition, so utterly abhorrent to God, calls forth one of the boldest figures used in the NT, "So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth" (Rev. 3:16 cf. 2 Tim.3:1-8 for the spiritual and moral condition at the end of the church age) (The New Unger's Bible Dictionary). As it happens so often, because of time and human nature twisted by the help of Satan the Devil, there will be a people during the whatever decades or more (maybe a few hundred years) who will still be at the very close of the age, in a Laodicean mind-set. Jesus says He is the Amen! The faithful and true witness of His very own body - the Church of God. He is the beginner (as it should be understood) of the creation of God. Yes, Jesus was the ONE who DID the creating in Genesis chapter one. All that subject is covered in various studies on this Website. Jesus knows their work, that they are neither hot nor cold, they are resting with their feet up, in a self-righteous manner, and so because of it, because they are "lukewarm" He will spit them out of His mouth. Look at their attitude. They say they are "rich and increased with goods; and have no need of anything." They must be saying, "I'm physically blessed so God must be rewarding me for serving Him, in the way I do." Or "I have all I need, physically and spiritually, I have the truth, so I'm just fine." Jesus answers them, "You know not that you are WRETCHED, and MISERABLE, and POOR, and BLIND, and NAKED...." What language Jesus uses, He is really telling them the naked truth (excuse the pun)! These people will not even come close to trying to see WHERE and HOW they are short of the maturity of spirituality. They have deceived themselves into thinking it's all over, just hang on to what they have had, or what they NOW have as thinking it is the better truth than what they had before, but in reality it is going back into UN-truth. Either way, they have deceived themselves, and they are really WRETCHED and BLIND and NAKED, they have no white garment of the righteousness of God, in reality, but they think they are wearing a spotless white robe. When you loose the desire to LEARN, to be CORRECTED, to GROW in grace and knowledge, when you loose the desire to HUNGER and THIRST after RIGHTEOUSNESS, then you are Laodicean! The personal lesson should be clearly evident. Christ counsels them to buy of Him GOLD tried in the fire. He wants them to have the REAL spirituality that makes a difference, actually the difference of life or death. Then He says they can have true riches, and a WHITE garment, so they are then clothed in the correct outfit for His wedding (see Rev.19:7-9). And so being clothed properly their spiritual nakedness does not appear and does not bring them shame. Jesus wants them to anoint themselves with EYESALVE, get their eyes open and have true vision, so they can SEE the spiritual reality and truth that is REALLY of God, and not manmade. Jesus WILL CORRECT! He will REBUKE! He does it because He loves people. He wants people to REPENT! He stands at the door of our hearts and minds, wanting us to OPEN to Him, so He can come in and have a FEAST with us on truth and righteousness. If people WILL REPENT, admit the error, go the right way, do the correct thing, be HUMBLE, then He can come into them. And those who will open to Him, can sit with Him at His throne (during the millennium age - Rev.20:1-4), just as He sat down with the Father at His throne, when He went back to heaven after His resurrection from death. There will be, there already IS ... THREE church time ages in existence today. They are overlapping each other, maybe by hundreds of years. There is the walking dead, with only a few in clothes of white and still have their names in the book of life. There is the true faithful, who have found and are remaining true to the faith once delivered to the saints, and there are the "rich" in their OWN eyes, who will not see their wretchedness, who will not admit error and sins and all that makes them spiritually naked. My prayer for you dear reader is that you will be a pillar in the Temple of God, and have written on you the name of God, and be given Jesus' new name (verse 3:12). .................... Written November 2007 |
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