Philologos
Bible Prophecy Research
Title: Seven Churches in Revelation
Submitted by: research-bpr@philologos.org
Date: April, 1998
URL: http://philologos.org/bpr/files/s001.htm

Seven Churches in Revelation

One reason these seven particular churches are mentioned corresponds with the fact that when Jesus returns He will come in judgment. The Roman Empire sent out governors each year to outlying provinces who would "make the circuit," stopping in certain towns to hear cases and grievances. The governor who oversaw Asia Minor would land in Ephesus, continue to Smyrna, then Pergamum, etc. through all seven churches mentioned.

(Pagans and Christians, Robin Fox--Roman Civilization, Sourcebook II: The Empire)

Why these seven churches? Maybe because they all had something to do with the Seleucid Dynasty and if Antiochus Epiphanes was "the" antitype of the antichrist, then anything connected with him or his family would be germane. The Seleucid kingdom could technically be considered "the king of the north."

"The churches named were churches which actually existed in John's day. In dealing with them, He seems to give us a brief church history from the first century Church to the Church of today, in seven periods:

1. Ephesus--the Church of the first-love, the apostolic Church
2. Smyrna--the persecuted Church--Diocletian to Constantine
3. Pergamos--the Church under imperial favor--under Constantine
4. Thyatira--the papal Church--the Dark Ages
5. Sardis--the Reformation Church--protestantism, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
6. Philadelphia--the missionary Church--period ushered in by the Puritan movement
7. Laodicea--the rejected Church--Church of the final apostasy"

(What the Bible is All About, Henrietta C. Mears)

The parables of Matthew 13 correspond to the seven churches.

(The Revelation Verse by Verse Study, Dr. Oliver B. Greene)

Paul wrote to seven churches:

1. Roman
2. Corinthian
3. Galatian
4. Ephesian
5. Philippian
6. Colossian
7. Thessalonian

Please see the online book The Letters to the Seven Churches of Asia by W. M. Ramsay

Please see Secret Societies and Their Infiltration of the Seven Churches of Revelation  

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