The Book of Revelation is a mystery for many.
Yet, the word revelation means "revealing, making
known something previously unknown." Are you
intimidated by it, finding it impossible to
understand, preferring rather to put it on that
proverbial shelf?
If so, today's Tomorrow's World program is for you.
Many are familiar with the four horsemen of
Revelation, the book often referred to as the
apocalypse, but what about the seven letters to the
seven churches in Asia, as recorded in chapters 2 and 3?
These letters have puzzled scholars and lay members
alike for more than 1900 years.
Do these letters have some special meaning for you and me?
The answer is, yes, and that is the subject of today's program.
In addition, I'll be offering you our free resource,
God's Church Through the Ages.
This easy to understand booklet gives more details
than I have time to cover on this program, so be
sure to have writing material available to take
down the contact information.
Now stay with me, as I'll be back in five seconds to
explain the seven letters to the seven churches of Revelation.
♪
A warm welcome to all of you from those of us here
at Tomorrow's World, where we bring you the good news
that Jesus proclaimed of the Kingdom of God,
explain the prophecies of the Bible, and make sense
of the world in which we live.
On today's program, we'll open the biblical book of
Revelation, and discover the significance of the
seven messages given to seven churches.
The first verse of this book gives us answers to
five vital questions:
Who can open our understanding of the book?
What is the source of its message?
Who is the intended audience?
When do its prophecies begin?
and, Who is to take the message to its intended audience?
So, let's begin by reading Revelation 1, and verse 1,
where we read the answers to our five questions:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ [that tells us that He is
the One who reveals the message], which God gave
Him [God the Father is the Originator of the message]
to show His servants [so the message is not
primarily to the world, but to the servants of
God]--things which must shortly take place [in other
words the events prophesied would soon begin].
And He sent and signified it by His angel to His
servant John [the Apostle John is to take the message
to God's servants].
We see from these opening verses that Jesus Christ
is the One who unveils the message, that the message
comes from God the Father, that the message is
intended for God's servants, and that John is
given the responsibility to carry the message to
those servants.
But, as rich as this opening verse is, it does
not reveal the theme of the book.
For that, we must turn to verse 10, where John writes:
I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard
behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet.
What is the meaning of being "in the Spirit on
the Lord's Day"?
Almost all translators and commentaries erroneously
promote the idea that, "in the Spirit on the Lord's
Day," means that John was worshiping on Sunday; but
there's a huge problem with this.
To claim the expression, Lord's day, means Sunday,
is flawed on multiple fronts.
If we're talking about a day of the week, which it's not,
it could never be Sunday.
If the Bible is our source, we find that not once does it
identify Sunday, the first day of the week,
as belonging to the Lord.
On the contrary, it tells us three times that Jesus
is "Lord of the Sabbath."
Notice: Matthew 12:8--
For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.
Mark 2:28--
Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.
And Luke 6:5--
The Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.
So, according to the Bible, if the Lord's day
is a day of the week, it is not the first day of
the week--it's not Sunday; but the seventh day--Saturday.
However, the statement, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's
Day," has absolutely nothing to do with any day of the week.
The book shows that John was projected forward in
vision to the day of the Lord, a time referred to
more than 30 times in the scriptures, in both the
Old and the New Testaments.
The first six chapters of Revelation set the stage
for the theme.
In chapter 4, John sees a vision of God, the Originator of
Revelation, on His heavenly throne.
Chapter 5 describes Revelation written on a scroll that is
locked with seven seals.
It also explains in this chapter that the Lamb of God,
that is Jesus Christ, is the only one capable of
opening these seals.
We then read in the 6th chapter how He opens six
of the seven seals.
The first four seals are the famous four horsemen.
The fifth seal pictures a martyrdom of some of
God's servants.
Then comes the sixth seal-- the terrifying heavenly signs:
And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a
fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by
a mighty wind.
Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled
up, and every mountain and island was moved out of
its place.
And the kings of the earth, the great men, the
rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every
slave and every free man, hid themselves in the
caves and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to
the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us
from the face of Him who sits on the throne and
from the wrath of the Lamb!
For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is
able to stand?"
These six seals, all opened within a short chapter,
are preludes to the theme of Revelation,
the day of God's wrath on rebellious mankind.
This wrath is explained by the seventh seal, which is
made up of seven trumpet plagues.
So we see in chapters 4 and 5, the Originator of
Revelation, the One who can open the scroll to our
understanding, and the opening of six seals that
bring us to the theme of the book. But what about
the servants of God?
Who are they?
Our resource--God's Church Through the Ages--
fills in details that cannot be given on this
program due to time constraints.
Frankly, my friends, Satan the devil has deceived
mankind, as we're told in Revelation 12:9.
And part of that deception is unveiled by understanding
the messages to the seven churches of Revelation.
This resource--God's Church Through the Ages--
reveals the true history of the Christian Church.
And it will be sent to you free for the asking,
as all our long-time viewers know.
I sincerely hope you will take us up on this offer
as it can change your life.
So, pick up the phone or go to our website,
TWTV.org/Church and order your free copy of
God's Church Through the Ages. You'll be glad you did.
And when I come back after this short break, I'll
show you who the servants of God are, according to
the book of Revelation.
For today's free offer call...
Or go to...
This clear and straight-forward resource
will help you understand this vital truth--
straight from the pages of the Bible.
If you're calling for the first time, you will also
receive a free annual subscription to Tomorrow's
World magazine.
Six inspiring issues discussing news, science,
and modern culture will help you make sense of
your world from a biblical perspective.
Call today and join millions around the world
who are turning to Tomorrow's World for
truth, prophecy, and hope in these confusing times.
Call now!
Or go to...
♪
Welcome back.
On today's Tomorrow's World program, we're
exploring the significance of the letters to seven churches
found in the mysterious Book of Revelation.
These letters have puzzled theologians for centuries,
yet there are keys that unlock the mystery.
As we learned from the prologue, it is Jesus
Christ who unveils the message, the message
originates with God the Father, and it's intended for
the servants of God, and John is given the
responsibility to carry the message to those servants.
In this portion of the program, I'll show that
those servants are defined by the seven churches as
described in chapters two and three.
William Ramsay wrote a highly respected book titled,
The Letters to the Seven Churches.
There's a lot of excellent information in it,
but Professor Ramsay missed the key element.
Instead of realizing that the seven churches define
that intended audience, and are an integral element for the
entire book, he sees the letters as an afterthought.
As he writes on page 35:
In this work, Jewish in origin and general plan,
there is inserted this episode of the Seven
Letters, which appears to be almost entirely
non-Jewish in character.
The reason was that the form of letters had
already established itself as the most characteristic
expression of the Christian mind, and as
almost obligatory on a Christian writer.
Ramsay goes on to speculate as to the reason
for inserting these letters, suggesting that
they were an afterthought, rather than critical to
understanding the book.
In the subsequent development of St. John's
thought it is plain that he had recognized the
inadequacy and insufficiency of the
fashionable Jewish literary forms.
It seems highly probable that the perception of
that fact came to him during the composition of
the Revelation, and that the Seven Letters, though
placed near the beginning and fitted carefully into
that position, were the last part of the work
to be conceived.
He then makes this incredible statement on page 37:
The Apocalypse [that is, the book of Revelation] would be
quite complete without the Seven Letters.
In other words, Ramsay speculates that the
letters were an afterthought, that John
realized that the composition of Revelation
lacked the most common means of transmitting information
in the New Testament-- that is by written letters.
But were these letters an afterthought as
Ramsay speculates? Is the book, as he wrote:
quite complete without the Seven Letters?
John is told to take the revealed message to the
servants of God.
So, where are these servants to be found?
Even if scholars don't understand, you can.
Does that sound too arrogant?
Or is that not what Jesus tells us in Matthew 11:25...
At that time Jesus answered and said, "I
thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You
have hidden these things from the wise and prudent
and have revealed them to babes.
Here are four keys that reveal the mystery of the
seven letters.
Key #1:
The servants of God and the Seven Churches are the same.
Notice once again John's commission found in
chapter one and in verse 1:
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him
to show His servants [that is the audience]--things
which must shortly take place.
And He sent and signified it by His angel to His
servant John.
Yes, the message is to go to the servants of God.
So where does John go?
The answer is found in verse 4:
John, to the seven churches which are in Asia.
So, even before we know which churches these are,
John immediately addresses them.
Furthermore, John is commanded to record in a
book what he sees, and send it to these seven
churches--that is, the whole message of
Revelation, not the letters only.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the
Last," and, "What you see, write in a book and send
it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to
Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to
Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea."
In other words, the message is to go to the
servants of God, and John is to take it to the seven
churches in Asia.
Is it not obvious that the servants of God and the
seven churches are the same?
This is confirmed in the last chapter of Revelation.
In a sense, the connection between the servants of
God and the Seven Churches is bookended by the first
and last chapters.
Notice Revelation 22, and verses 6 and 16:
Then he said to me, "These words are faithful and
true." And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His
angel to show His servants the things which must
shortly take place.... [And then in verse 16] I, Jesus, have sent
My angel to testify to you these things in the churches.
So, key #1 is:
The servants of God and the Seven Churches are the same.
Servants and churches are used interchangeably--
they're synonymous-- but note that not all
Christian congregations in Asia are mentioned.
Nowhere does the book introduce any other
congregation than these seven.
Obviously, there's something special or
significant about them.
So we must wonder: Why these churches?
Why only seven if they are the servants of God?
Does that mean that none of the other congregations
of the first century were God's servants?
What about today?
Are we somehow left on the outside of being God's servants?
Not at all.
Key #2: There is a special relationship between these
seven and Jesus Christ.
We now come to a remarkable vision.
Following a trumpet sound and the listing of the
seven churches, we read, beginning in verse 12:
Then I [that is John] turned to see the voice that spoke
with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands,
and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like
the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the
feet and girded about the chest with a golden band.
He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His
mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His
countenance was like the sun shining in its strength.
What does this vision mean?
We can be thankful that we don't have to speculate,
because verse 20 explains it:
The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My
right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The
seven stars are the angels [or messengers] of the seven
churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw
are the seven churches.
As we have seen, the churches and the servants of
God are synonymous, and Christ is seen walking amongst them.
Mysterious?
Yes.
Impossible to comprehend?
No.
In a moment I'll show you how you can understand
what theologians and lay members for the last 1900
years failed to recognize.
But first I want to remind you of our free,
insightful resource, God's Church Through the Ages.
It goes into far more detail than I have time to
cover on this short program and it unravels a
mystery that even a child can understand once the
keys are pointed out.
So order your free copy of God's Church Through the Ages.
It can change your life.
Just call or go to our website: TWTV.org/Church.
And when I come back after this 15 second break, I'll
show you why theologians do not understand this
mystery, but how you can.
This clear and straight-forward resource
will help you understand this vital truth--
straight from the pages of the Bible.
Call now!
Or go to...
♪
On today's Tomorrow's World program, we're
exploring the meaning of the letters to the seven
churches found in the mysterious Book of Revelation.
These churches have puzzled theologians for centuries,
yet there are keys that unlock the mystery.
In the previous portion of this program, we saw two
vital keys to understand these prophecies.
Key #1 was:
The servants of God and the Seven Churches are the same.
And it's evident from the vision of the glorified
Christ walking in the midst of seven lampstands
that represent the churches, that Key #2 is:
There is a special relationship between these
seven and Jesus Christ.
There's a third key that should be obvious by now,
something that William Ramsay, who speculated
that the letters to these churches were an
afterthought, clearly missed.
So Key #3:
The entire book of Revelation is addressed to the seven churches.
John is instructed to take the message of the book to
the servants of God.
As we've seen, the servants and the churches are the same.
It therefore follows, that the whole book of
Revelation is for the seven churches.
And this is confirmed, as we saw earlier, in the last
chapter of Revelation. For review, I'll repeat that:
Then he said to me, "These words are faithful and
true." And the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His
angel to show His servants the things which must
shortly take place.
I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you
these things in the churches.
There's a fourth important key, but before
I give that, let's notice two easy to understand
lessons that are generally understood about these letters.
The first one is that these were real church congregations
and the messages to each of those congregations
described conditions that existed at that time.
So, when Ephesus is told that it had lost its first
love, that was a problem in that first century congregation
located in Ephesus.
The second takeaway is understood from this
refrain that is given to each of them:
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says
to the churches.
The admonition is not to that church alone, but to
the churches, plural.
A condition that exists in one congregation could
also affect congregants in any of the others.
The difference being that the condition mentioned,
dominated that church.
In the example of the church in Laodicea, a
lukewarm spirit prevailed, but the admonition to
"hear what the Spirit says to the churches,"
indicates that this same lukewarm attitude could be
found among some of the other congregations.
This is mostly how ministers down through the
centuries have understood these letters.
As a teenager, I remember a chaplain giving a
seven-part series of sermons on this subject.
But, our 4th key is something that has not been generally
understood and is perhaps the most important of all the keys.
Let's go back to the last part of verse 1 and all of
verse 2, where John is given three sources of
information that he was to record.
And He [that is God] sent and signified it by His angel
to His servant John, who [#1] bore witness to the
word of God, [and notice especially #2]
to the testimony of Jesus
Christ, [and #3] to all things that he saw.
We've already seen that John was commanded to do
number 3--write in a book what he saw and send it to
the Seven Churches.
But he was also to record the word of God,
references to the Old Testament scriptures,
and the testimony of Jesus Christ.
The testimony of Jesus Christ, is of course, what Jesus spoke,
but what He spoke in Revelation is prophetic in nature.
We read in chapter 19 and verse 10:
Worship God!
For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
If you have a red-letter Bible, the red letters are
what the translators believe were the direct
words of Jesus.
And where do you find the overwhelming majority of
Christ's words in Revelation?
If you guessed the letters to the seven churches,
you guessed correctly.
In other words, these letters have prophetic significance.
And it's evident from studying the book that the subject
matter began in John's day and yet ends in our future.
So, in addition to recording conditions in
the very real first century congregations,
and warnings of attitudes that can apply to anyone,
Key #4 is:
The letters to the seven churches are prophetic.
Why is this important to understand?
I'll give you the answer to that question in a moment,
but I want to remind you of today's free resource
God's Church Through the Ages.
Jesus said He would build His Church, and the
letters to the seven churches give insight into
that Church in ways found nowhere else.
Doesn't it make sense to ask these serious questions:
Where has God's Church been down through the ages?
Why is Christianity so radically different today
from the Church in Jesus' day?
Is it possible due to your upbringing that you've
overlooked where God is working?
God's Church Through the Ages is an eye-opener.
It answers these important questions and shows how
mainstream Christianity would not even be
recognized by Christ as His own.
God's Church Through the Ages also explains, in
greater detail than I have time on this short
program, how the seven churches of Revelation
portray seven stages that the true church of God
would go through from the first century all the way
to the return of Jesus Christ.
So be sure to order your free copy today.
For today's free offer call...
Or go to...
This clear and straight-forward resource
will help you understand this vital truth--
straight from the pages of the Bible.
If you're calling for the first time, you will also
receive a free annual subscription to Tomorrow's
World magazine.
Six inspiring issues discussing news, science,
and modern culture will help you make sense of
your world from a biblical perspective.
Call today and join millions around the world
who are turning to Tomorrow's World for
truth, prophecy, and hope in these confusing times.
Call now!
Or go to...
♪
Welcome back.
Our resource--God's Church Through the Ages--
describes seven stages through which the true
church of God would progress from the first
century until the return of Christ.
As the author of this resource, the late John Ogwyn, explains:
When we look at the context of the book of
Revelation, we must recognize that it is
primarily intended as a prophecy.
Revelation 1:1 shows that the book's purpose is to show
to God's servants things that would soon begin to happen.
Thus the seven churches should primarily be
understood as representing the entire history of
God's Church in seven successive eras.
Why is this not generally understood?
It's not that others have not tried to trace the
history of the Church through seven distinct
stages, but they fail in these efforts.
Why?
The answer is simple.
They try to shoehorn mainstream Christianity
into these scriptures, and mainstream Christianity
simply does not fit.
Put another way, they're looking for the answer in
the wrong place.
Our resource--God's Church Through the Ages--
traces the history of the true church of God from
the first century to the time of Christ's second coming.
That means that the true church of God is now
living during the final era-- the Laodicean era--
which is portrayed as being blind to how
lukewarm and self-satisfied it is.
And as a result, it will be thrown into
the Great Tribulation. Yet, there is hope.
There is a remnant of the previous era and
those in it will be afforded protection from
the greatest trouble in mankind's history.
So if you'd like to learn more, order your
free copy of God's Church Through the Ages.
And be sure to come back next week when Richard
Ames, Wallace Smith, Rod McNair, and I will bring
you more good news of the Kingdom of God and the
prophecies of the Bible.
See you next week.
♪
For today's free offer call...
Or go to...
Call today and join millions around the world
who are turning to Tomorrow's World for
truth, prophecy, and hope in these confusing times.
♪
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