97 - Message to the Churches

Revelation 2:1 - 3:22

In chapter 1 we learned that John was directed to send a book to seven churches:

10I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11saying, ‘Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.’

Seven churches addressed in Revelation

In Paul's letters to churches in Ephesus, Corinth, Philippi and Galatia, we often had to tease out the problem Paul was addressing by the advice he gave the churches.

Here however the message is quite clear and direct:  what they are doing right, what they are doing wrong, what they need to do to win the victory.  The formula is followed precisely. You could put in in a chart.

In fact many folks have constructed a chart.  Here's one here.

You see that at least one church, Laodicea, has nothing worth commending, and two churches, Smyrna and Philadelphia, receive no rebukes.

But also notice along the top row of this chart.  The author has included a correlation to historical times, as though each church's situation is a prophecy, a foretelling, of what is to come in the future.  If you read through the Wikipedia description of the religious interpretations of Revelation, you see that one option is the "futurist" model.  This chart's correlations reflect that point of view.  I notice that the author of the chart finds particular evil at the height of the Roman Catholic church (Papal supremacy of Dark Ages), and particular good in the (Protestant) Great Awakening.  This perhaps represents a particular viewpoint!

Nonetheless the chart, and more to the point the descriptions of the various churches in Asia Minor, give us some language to evaluate the condition of the Christian church in 21st century America.

What do you think the strengths and weaknesses are?  What advice would we receive?