Revelation 2-3 Explained: Do the 7 Churches Represent 7 Ages of Church History?

In this video we discuss the 7 churches of Revelation 2 & 3. Are they prophetic predictions of 7 ages of church history, or are they simply letters to churches during the time of the apostle John?
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[@setherys]

To expand on your final point. I think the 7 churches represent the 7 types of churches that exist throughout church history with Jesus giving rebukes and encouragement to each. Each "type" having a dominating influence at certain times in history. The two churches (the persecuted and the missionary churches) receiving no rebuke from Jesus are the two witnesses of Chapter 11. The faithful Christians representing those two church types will do wonderful things during the tribulation as they always have through church history.

[@mobileturtle]

Interesting view, It would be awesome if you would expand on the 2 witness theory.

[@bonniebarbee7984]

Very well presented, God Bless you and your messages. I Think you hit the nail on the head !!

[@ArkansasCelebrations]

I totally agree with you on this!😊

[@accessibilityisability]

Sometimes it is just good to listen, watch, pray and learn the word of God deeply.

[@DannyG683]

The words of the letters are characteristic of Christ's words in that the relevance of the things he says never decays or passes away. I believe that while Christ was indeed speaking to specific churches at that time, the messages he gives are relevant to all churches in all time periods. It can be fun to puzzle out the depth of these letters, but also so important to ask God for ears to hear any encouragment, rebuke or correction the Lord may be offering to us personally or our churches right in the moment we read the letters. His words are eternal!

[@Truth-Seeker777]

I believe these churches serve as archetypes for different spiritual states. Scripture often has multiple layers of meaning, so each Christian might fit into one of these categories, reflecting their spiritual journey.

[@sambee4927]

We are still in the Church Age which is the "things that are". I believe Chapters 2 and 3 cover the entire 2,000-year age of the Church.

[@setherys]

Two words for insight...in addition to this channel of course: Chuck Missler.

[@justmyopinion7]

He really had a wealth of information and shared it in a unique way. Sad that he passed away.

[@jcgsovereign]

I agree to a point

[@havenofear7033]

They taught this theory as a fact at Sunday School and it was all I could do to smile and keep my mouth shut. What bothered me most was their total disregard for the literal, historical, grammatical interpretation and parroting of their favorite Bible commentator instead.

[@rootscommunity6992]

I feel that the 7 churches were for then. But i also believe they will be the seven different states of the churches and/or believers who are around in the last age. Thus every believer and/or church should check themselves against the 7, to see where they are and act accordingly... otherwise the outcome proclaimed by the Messiah, will come to them if they're one of the 5 problematic ones...

[@cycribbs]

Well I can tell you this, most of those churches didn't come into existence until around 63 ad. When polycarp wrote his letter to the Church of Philippians which was around 6380 Paul wrote his letter to the Colossians mentioning the Church of laodicea but laodicea has not even established itself as a church. That also goes for the Church of Smyrna. However The Book of Revelation was not written for the church way out into the future. It is the progressions of the church ages. I do have issues with the dates of the ages of the church but I firmly believe that the age of the church idea makes the best sense. Preterism is false and the explanations of each age given makes more sense than any of the four doctrines being taught about The Book of Revelation and the end times.. Philadelphia the age of Philadelphia really didn't find itself under persecution.

[@tareh1890]

Our Lord tried to send another letter to church number 8 called Catholic church as well. The Bible forgot mention about that . 😂😂😂😂

[@jbartlett1840]

He didn't write the letters to the candle sticks He wrote to real churches The letters are relevant until the end of this ERA

[@stewiefy]

for me, the 6th seal is clearly the beginning of the last 3 1/2 yrs before Jesus comes Rev 6:12-17 & Rev 8:1 the 6th trumpet is the great tribulation(Matt 24:21) immediately before the last 3 1/2 yrs(Matt 24:29) Rev 9:12-21 to slay the third part of men Rev 11:7-15 when they shall have finished their testimony(Nisan 2024 to Tishri 2027 ??)

[@jbartlett1840]

Interesting

[@DavidHummel-cc4of]

Yep- have been keen on 6-6-6 representing or introducing most things Satanic- 6th trump , 6 th seal, 6 th vial....yet have faith because Jesus manifestó in the 7th Trump, seal and vial..

[@justmyopinion7]

Daniel says halfway during the 70th week the abomination of desolation will occur, thus when the son of perdition sits in the temple claiming to be God we have reached the 3.5 year mark according to scripture.

[@Colors.TF1]

The book of revelation was written during the time of the prophet Steven and was finished around 60AD-70AD.

[@Mavors1099]

Wrong

[@Colors.TF1]

@@Mavors1099 kzbin.info/www/bejne/aWi3coaEqd2to5Y

[@Mavors1099]

The 7 churches are the 7 churches mentioned by name in the text. That's it. Do t blow out your mind.

[@danieldishon688]

I've heard it argued he wrote to these 7 churches in this order because that's the order a circuit riding preacher would go and visit all those churches. I think these letters are for churches of all ages and those specifically of the first century. I think the flexibility and constant changes those who take the 7 Age view do to history is often silly and gives a meaningless over simplified view of church history. But I do wonder sometimes if there's not something more to this passage than just letters for the first century churches. 7 is still a very suspicious symbolic number and referring to the 7 things in his hands as angels or stars seems a little high and spiritual to be applied to just 7 human bishops. We know angels in the book of Daniel are sometimes called Spirit Princes of people groups on earth, because a spiritual war is taking place behind the scenes of the natural war. Noting that you could kind of boil down every major Denominational family in 6 or 7 groups, I sometimes wonder if these 7 letters to 7 churches led by 7 Angel's might reflect each Denominations struggles we have today. If each church equated to today's Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterians, Pentecostles, Cambilites, Catholics, and Peace Churches today. It's a fun idea to puzzle out if true, but if it is, like you said the problem is its not obvious, and this theory is a little too flexible with which denominations you could group together as one spiritual church and which you write off as not counting as Christians all together. And again, every denominations surely has struggled with the challenges of all these 7 churches throughout history and still today in some shape or form.

[@Colors.TF1]

John was the apostle of the 12 tribes of Israel and not the body of Christ. If the 7 churches was of us than Paul would've been the one writing about it.

[@slotfreak7094]

- [ ] Some say the seven churches represent the entire Church Age and the messages characterized the “ state” of each phase of the Church. The Church Age ends when John says “and after that” meaning the Church Age and its phases are over,Chapter 4:1. - [ ] Phase 1: Ephesus, the Apostolic Church. Ended about 100 AD - [ ] Phase 2: Smyrna, the Martyr Church. Rome launched 10 persecutions at the Church. 100- 300 AD - [ ] Phase 3: Pergamas, the State Church. Laid the groundwork for Catholicism. 300-500 AD - [ ] Phase 4: Thyatia, the Papal Church. Beginning of Catholicism. 500 AD- up to the present. - [ ] Phase 5: Sardis, the Reformation Church. After Martin Luther’s’ Thesis. 1500AD- till now. - [ ] Phase 6: Philadelphia, the Missionary Church, the Gospel was exported to most of the world first by England with the USA making the strongest effort. 1800 AD -now. - [ ] Phase 7: Laodicea, the APOSTATE Church ~Early Twentieth Century till today. - [ ] - [ ] The Church is not mentioned after Chapter 4:1. It has been raptured.

[@jbartlett1840]

Committing fornication is referring to perversion of church doctrine with pagan religion and that became a "law" with the Trinity Jesus was disregarded and replaced with the Trinity and Christians were/are required to believe IT instead of Christ And Christians to this day will fight with anger defending it.

[@Mavors1099]

😂😂😂😂😂

[@notawinemom8540]

Pagans have multiple gods, & that's not what the Trinity doctrine is. Visible light is both particle & wave. Is it 1 or 3? You are mind, body, & soul, how many of you are there? Has it occurred to you that explaining whatever God is to simple minded creatures in the 3rd dimension before we even had some limited physics might be impossible?

[@douglaskuhl9641]

No! No!!!

[@johngreg8910]

Not sure where you got your years. Or why you assumed that they were the only options. This discrepancy truly degrades the value of the video as a scholarly work. Nor were the name interpretations so central in the understanding. Few scholars start Ephesus in 33 AD. Many start around 96 AD, or about when the book was being written. Notice that nowhere does the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem get mentioned in the book. So, no events prior to AD 70 would be expected. 10 days uses the same day for a year conversion principle found in Daniel’s 70 Weeks. The persecution is called the Diocletianic Persecution. You can read about it in Wikipedia if you have never heard of it. It lasted from 303 AD to 313 AD, where it ended with the Edict of Milan. The fact that neither you nor your source was aware of this makes me wonder about your source’s understanding. This principle is employed many times in the Revelation. The entire book of the Revelation uses the Greek term “gy” instead of “kosmos” in all but about 3 places (the first being Rev. 11:15.) - very little is bound to the entire planet. Laos-dike. Dike can signify righteousness according to self. A people who attribute their righteousness to themselves while proclaiming to be Christian. The mixing of hot and cold is called “ecumenism”. Ecumenicals increasingly believe their righteousness is the result of Grace plus Works. So a mixture religion, otherwise called a “plus” religion. Ecumenicism is not scriptural, so it is People trying to create their own spiritual laws or system, so as to rule over themselves instead of having God rule over them, despite the fact that they call themselves “Christians”. We can see this also in the “Christian Nationalism” in the US. Amazingly, it enamors about 50% of the US Population. People who profess to be Christian want to elect a man to be president who also claims to be a Christian, despite the fact that he is a convicted felon who cannot even think of a single Bible verse when asked. Astounding! Again, the popular ecumenical TV program “The Chosen”, which mocks the real Jesus, receives all types of awards even from secular society. There is no period in the last 2000 years that could be marked as having similarly pervasive ecumenism. It is truly unique, with a slow start in the 19th century, followed by accelerating increase in the 20th and 21st centuries. Just as with the Book of Daniel, where all of the battles between the Kings of the North and the Kings of the South are hard to figure out today, God never guarantees that the answers are lying in plain sight. In fact, the Bible proclaims the opposite. “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter.” (Proverbs 25:2) You would probably be wise to go back to the inquisitive phase in your attempts to understand Biblical Prophecy, as you have demonstrated many false assumptions which will prohibit your progress.

[@Celtickaven]

Although I understand d the frustration in the comment I think it was a bit more personal and argumentative than it needed to be. The information you presented was very wonderful though and I am in agreement with your perspective as it seemed to just appear like a veil being taken down, I just hope in the future we don’t sew divisiveness amongst our fellow brothers in Christ. Galatians 5:14-15 is important to remember