(2) Chapter 2: Verse 24, 25 – As usual, let us first look into the explanation for the church at the city of Thyatira of that time. The false prophet Jezebel was claiming her own misleading teachings to be deeper than the true doctrines taught by the Apostles. And this claim was being endorsed by some in the church. But Jesus says those teachings were not deep truths, but actually ‘Satan’s secrets’. And he praises the believers in the Thyatira church who did not hold to those false teachings and had not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets. Even today, we need to be very cautious if and when someone claims teachings outside the Bible as deep secrets / types-antitypes / prophecies. Jesus tells the Thyatira church members who had exercised such caution to continue rejecting Jezebel’s false teachings and to hold on to what they had. He assures them that he would not impose any other burden on them. So the main trial that came upon the Thyatira church of first century was indeed through the false prophet Jezebel. And as a matter of fact, it was a very difficult trial for the church members. Therefore Jesus says he would not impose any other trial (burden) on them. This does not mean the spiritual race for those members was just about rejecting Jezebel’s false teachings. Rather, we might remember studying that the Thyatira church was doing more works of gospel than what she had done at first (Rev 2:19, See Scripture Study – Blossom 12: Jan ’11, Para 04). Performing works of gospel is indeed the spiritual race for all members of the Church (See Grace – Blossom 24: Jan ’10, Para 06). Many trials would test us during that gospel race. The tribulations faced by the Thyatira church because of the false prophet Jezebel was one such trial. That being the case, Jesus says he would not impose any other test on the Thyatira church because the Jezebel trial was difficult in itself. He asks the true believers of that church to hold on to their faith in the true doctrine (‘what you have’) until he comes. By ‘until I come’, he implies his second coming indeed. This was a church of the first century. And Jesus’ second coming was to occur many centuries later. Then why would he mention that as a hope to them? What we need to understand is this. No matter what time period a church belonged to, the fundamental hope & eager expectation of her members was the second coming of Jesus. Because all true Christians knew that the Church would receive her promised blessings only after his second coming. Not only that. We could also say, for a first century Christian the second coming of Jesus was not necessarily an event that was to happen many centuries later, but rather as one that will occur just after the number of years that constituted the duration of his/her lifetime. How so? If a Christian (belonging to any century for that matter) remains true till his death, wouldn’t he be resurrected only during the time of Christ’s second presence? The intermediate period when such true Christians stay dead might be a thousand years. But since death is a thoughtless state, that intermediate period would feel just like a second to them when they rise again. They would just feel like they are meeting Jesus Christ having woken up the next second after their respective deaths. In this regard, for those Christians who lived before the second coming of Christ, ‘until he comes’ meant just the time till their deaths. Essentially Jesus calls the first century Thyatira church members to be faithful till their death (‘until I come’). Now is the time of the second presence of Christ and we are his church of today. We too need to remain faithful till our death. Only then we would get the great blessing of seeing Christ face to face during our glorious resurrection.
(3) Next, let us look at the meaning that applies to the church of the fourth time period that that church in Thyatira typified. In this symbolic explanation, we already know that the false prophet Jezebel represents the Roman Catholic Church (See Scripture Study – Blossom 12: Jan ’11, Para 07). Amazingly, like the Jezebel of Thyatira, the Roman Catholic Church during the time period of the fourth church – 539 to 1517 A.D., was claiming many of her false teachings to be deep secret truths. Those teachings were neither present in the Bible nor had been taught by the Apostles. Indeed, during this time-period the Catholic Church was preaching many non-biblical doctrines like idol worship, Mary worship, angel worship, Trinity & Hell! As Jesus says here, they were not deep secrets, but rather ‘Satan’s secrets’. That being the case, we also saw in our last issue that there were true Christians even during these times. Not only did they reject the false teachings of the Roman Catholic Church, but they also did more gospel works than the earlier time period (See Scripture Study – Blossom 12: Jan ’11, Para 05). Jesus’ assurance to such Christians is that he would not impose any other trial on them. As we had seen in an issue of Grace, different kinds of trials came upon churches of different time periods (See Grace – Blossom 33: Sep ’10, Para 01). In that regard, it’s indeed a historical truth that the dominance of the Jezebel Catholic Church served as the main trial for the fourth church. Even as gospel work constituted the spiritual race for this church’s members, the Catholic Church remained as the major obstacle against that work. Jesus tells those members to endure that trial, remain faithful to the true doctrine and continue the gospel work until he comes (till their deaths).
(4) Verses 26, 27, 28, 29 – Both the typical first century Thyatira church and the church of the fourth time period were churches that were amidst the dominance of evil forces. Jezebel was powerful during the times of the Thyatira church. Likewise the members of the fourth church were under the reign of the Catholic Church. Essentially members of both these churches were powerless and oppressed. And what does Christ remind such people? – ‘To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations— that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father.’ (Rev 2: 26, 27). Yes, they might be powerless now. But when they rule alongside Christ in the Kingdom of God, they would have authority over all nations. Jesus reminds them that they are to rule over the evil forces with an iron scepter and to dash them to pieces like pottery. Such a reminder would have definitely comforted those church members then under the oppression of evil forces and would have given them hope. We too sometimes might be affected by evil forces inside or outside our church. At such times, we should remind ourselves of this promise by Jesus and be reassured. Jesus further says that he would also give the ‘morning star’ to the victorious ones. The morning star appears in the sky right before first light and indicates the impending dawn that would remove the darkness. The church too signifies the dawn of justice that is soon to come to take away the world’s darkness of sin. Moreover, historians state that the morning star used to be a sign of victory in ancient societies. In that regard, it’s indeed true that Christ gives his Church victory over all the evil forces. If we delve further into this, Jesus calls himself as the morning star in Rev 22:16. So does he imply here that he would give himself to the victorious church? What is the meaning behind this? It means that we too would be one with Christ, by being a part of his Body. Even Apostle Paul explains this same thought in many of his epistles (See Rom 12:5; 1 Cor 12:27; Eph 3:6, 4:12; Col 1:24). Jesus ends the message to this church by asking whoever has ears, let them hear his message being said by the angel for this church, i.e. one of the seven Spirits.
(5) Chapter 3: Verse 1 – Jesus commences the message for the fifth church in Sardis. As we have seen earlier, He begins it with one of the signs (him who holds the seven spirits) of the verses Rev 1:12-20 (See Scripture Study – Blossom 10: Nov ’10, Para’s 02, 03, 05; Blossom 11: Dec ’10, Para’s 02, 07; Blossom 12: Jan ’11, Para 02). In an earlier issue of Scripture Study, we saw that the rendering of this verse as ‘the seven spirits and the seven stars’ in English Bibles is inaccurate. The correct rendition in this context is ‘seven spirits even the seven stars’, meaning seven spirits that are the seven stars (See Scripture Study – Blossom 10: Nov ’10, Para 03). We also know that this church in Sardis not only denotes the actual church in the first century city of that name, but also represents the church of the fifth time period (See Scripture Study – Blossom 09: Oct’10, 
Para 06). So as usual, let us first look at the explanation for the first century church at the city of Sardis. This city was around 33 miles south-east to the city of Thyatira where the church we had studied about before was located. During the first century, this city was popular for its jewelry and garment factories. Also Sardis was located by a mountain top. The present-day Turkish village of Sart was the city of Sardis of those days. A majority of Sardis citizens were nature worshippers. Jesus says he knows the deeds of this church. He adds that this church was dead even though it had a reputation of being alive. That is, Sardis was a church that did works just for namesake. Other churches who saw those nominal deeds from outside considered it as a church that was alive and well. But Christ with his ‘blazing eyes’ that can see even the depths of hearts, accuses this church of being dead. It would be wrong for us to do works that are just outwardly pleasing to men, but are otherwise neither good nor complete. Doing such works might earn us the praise of other church members. But no one can fool Christ! For instance, some might help gospel work just financially and try to stay aside otherwise. It’s indeed good to provide financial assistance for gospel work. But even as it gains us the praise of many in the church, it’s neither sufficient nor complete. We can make our calling and election sure only if we ourselves actively do the divine gospel work and present ourselves as living sacrifices to God. Our call is to suffer for the sake of the gospel. We should sincerely plan and perform comprehensive deeds to achieve that. As it’s mentioned in the next verse, the Sardis church members did not do so and their deeds were found unfinished in the sight of God, thereby Christ considered them as dead (Rev 3:2).
(6) Next, let us look at the explanation for the church of the fifth time period that the first century church of Sardis represented. The fifth church began at 1517 A.D. How long did it last though? To figure that out, we start by noting the fact that this church was not that good a church and then take a clue from Jesus’ message to the next (sixth) church. There he seems to indicate that church being better than the fifth. So if we determine for how long the church was not good during the years after 1517 A.D., we could arrive at the duration of the fifth church. Give attention in particular to Jesus deeming this church dead even as it has a reputation of being alive. We know that the Lutheran doctrinal reformation started in 1517 A.D. As a result of that, countless numbers deserted the Catholic Church. Furthermore many Christians including Luther rejected certain wrong doctrines of the Catholic Church. So when seen from outside, the church of this period seemed to be alive and well. Why, even today many would perceive that period of the Lutheran reformation as a golden age of the Church. But that view is inaccurate. As Jesus says, the works of this church were actually dead even when they appeared to be major. Let us take a moment and think about this! The main protagonist of the doctrinal reformation of this period was Martin Luther. And how many of us know that Martin Luther himself was preaching various wrong doctrines that were against fundamental Christian truths, including belief in Hell! To take it further, Martin Luther even doubted the authenticity of New Testament books like the epistle to the Hebrews, the epistles of James, Jude and the Book of Revelation. His preaching included directives to drive away Jews who would not accept Christ. To top it all, it’s a historical fact that a majority of the churches that came out of the Catholic Church during the doctrinal reformation of this period, ended up behaving like the Catholic Church by associating themselves with worldly kingdoms. So there is not much difference between them and the Catholic Church. Some might question this assertion. We humbly request them to conduct a research on the history of these times. This being the case, the fifth church that began at 1517 A.D. lasted till 1648 A.D. How do we arrive at that year? We start by figuring out what was the most important among the namesake godly deed that Jesus says this church performed. The churches that separated from the Catholic Church aligned themselves with different worldly powers that supported them. This created major fissures between the kings who endorsed the Catholic Church and the rulers who supported the separated churches, resulting in wars and subsequent massacres on both sides. Believing these to be wars of faith, the Christians of those times considered them as deeds of faith done for God. But we know for a fact that these were not deeds acceptable to God. That is why Jesus too terms them as dead and useless deeds. These kinds of nominal deeds lasted till 1648 A.D. That is the year the treaties constituting the Peace of Westphalia were signed between the warring factions of the kings aligned with the Catholic Church and those supporting the separated churches. One of those treaties called the Treaty of Osnabruck granted freedom of worship. Thereby the namesake deeds of waging wars of faith came to an end. That is why we conclude that the fifth church lasted till 1648 A.D. What we need to understand is this. Yes, the doctrinal reformation of the Lutheran times was indeed the divine judgment that came upon the Catholic Church. But we cannot deem all the churches that came out of that reformation as true Christian churches. As Jesus says in this verse, a majority of them were actually dead churches doing namesake deeds of faith like waging the so-called wars of faith.
(7) Verses 2, 3 – As usual, let us first look at the explanation that suits the first century church in the city of Sardis. Jesus gives a wakeup call to the church members. Their deeds of faith were not good. And their faith lacking in action was dying. Jesus says he found their deeds unfinished in the sight of God. So he calls them to strengthen what remains of their dying faith by doing gospel works that were comprehensive and good. He advises them to therefore remember what they have received and heard from the Apostles, hold it fast and repent. He warns them further that if they do not wake up and repent, he would come ‘like a thief’ and ‘you will not know at what time I will come to you’. Jesus is not talking about his second coming here. Here, ‘I will come to you’ indicates judgment. What Jesus implies is that if the church members do not wake up from their wrong ways and repent, judgment would come upon them at a time they would not expect it. No one knows when a thief would come. But if he comes, we would definitely be affected – ‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy’ (John 10:10). This is the why the Bible at certain places compares even the second coming of Jesus with the coming of a thief. Because his first task at hand after the second coming would be to destroy the second world. Therefore, Jesus is warning the first century Sardis church members about a judgment of destruction that would sneak upon them when they least expected it. We as the Church have made a covenant with God. But if we act against that covenant, it’s certain that divine judgment would come upon us at an unexpected hour in unforeseen ways.
(8) Now let us look at the explanation for the church of the fifth time period that that church of Sardis typified. This fifth church was a dead church that used to do wrong-headed acts of faith like waging wars of faith. So Jesus asks the church’s members to wake up and do acceptable acts of faith to strengthen their dying faith. He calls them to remember the faith taught by the Apostles and repent. If not, he warns them of the judgment of destruction that would come upon them like a thief. The members of this church lived during the period from 1517 – 1648 A.D. The angel for this church would have made them realize this warning from Jesus. Those who listened to this message and repented would have stayed away from activities like the wars of faith. So they would have escaped divine judgment that included death during the many wars of faith and material destruction. But others who did not heed that wake up call, indulged in such wars of faith deluding themselves to be doing acts of faith for the sake of God and thereby ending up being affected by judgment that came upon them from God like a thief.
(9) Verse 4 – Let us first look at the explanation that applies to the first century church in the city of Sardis. Amazingly, Jesus says that even inside the dead church of Sardis there were a few people who had not soiled their clothes. These few were following Christ by performing good works of faith. What can we realize and learn from this? It does not matter whether our ecclesia is bad or good. Why, it might be even dead! But still it’s very possible for us to lead a faithful life amidst that. The good believers amidst the rotten first century Sardis Church led such lives indeed and serve as examples to us. So we cannot blame the state of our church as an excuse for our own listless spiritual lives. Since God’s judgment is truly on an individual basis, we should never forget the fact that every man’s spiritual race is in his own hands (See Scripture Study – Blossom 10: Nov ’10, Para 11). So no matter which ecclesia we are in, we should keep our righteous clothes unsoiled. And we should also try as much as possible to help guide those who stray into wrong paths back into the narrow way. Jesus praises such people in the Sardis church as worthy and assures them they would walk with him after their resurrection, dressed in virtuous white. We too should conduct our lives in a manner worthy of such a great blessing.
(10) Now let us look at the explanation for the church of the fifth time period that that church of Sardis typified. As Jesus says here, there were indeed true Christians during the period of the fifth church i.e. 1517 – 1648 A.D. Many of the true Christians also were misled by the influence of the doctrinal reformation that began in 1517 A.D. Why so? Till then, as far they were concerned the Catholic Church had been a wrong church that preached erroneous doctrines. When the Lutheran Reformation rose amidst such times, it must have naturally attracted the attention of those true Christians as well. Such believers were further drawn into the wrongful acts like the wars of faith that followed the Lutheran Reformation and thereby ended up soiling their righteous clothes. But a few among them did not let themselves to be misled into such wicked activities and preserved the pure faith of the Apostolic times thereby keeping their virtuous clothes unsoiled. Jesus tells such people that they would wear the eternal white clothes of righteousness during the resurrection and that they would walk with him. History has not documented much regarding who these true Christians of this time period were and how they lived. But when the Kingdom of Heaven comes, it’s very certain that the world would know their historical accounts in vivid detail.
(11) Verses 5, 6 – Jesus repeats that the one who is victorious would be dressed in righteous white. He also assures that he would never blot out the names of the victorious from the book of life, but that he would acknowledge their names before God, the Father and his angels. Let us think about this. Be it may the Sardis church or the fifth church, the true Christians were very few in number. So history has not recorded any of their names. But they must have felt excited to hear Jesus proclaiming that their names would be acknowledged before the God Almighty Himself. Now let us learn a little bit more about the ‘book of life’ that Jesus mentions here. When we studied the Book of Malachi in an earlier issue of Scripture Study, we found God telling Malachi that He does not forget those who follow Him and that their names are recorded in His presence in a ‘scroll of remembrance’. And those people would be His, says God, on the day He would collect His treasured possession i.e. in His coming Kingdom (See Scripture Study – Blossom 04: May ’10, Para 11). That ‘scroll of remembrance’ is indeed this ‘book of life’. As the predestined church, our names are already written in the book of life (Rom 8:28,29). But if we soil our righteous clothes and walk against our holy baptismal oath, Jesus would blot out our names from the book of life. That is, we would be subject to the irredeemable eternal punishment of the second death. Truly there is no chance of any church member’s name being rewritten into the book of life after it has been blotted out once. So we need to conduct ourselves in such a manner that does not call for Jesus blotting out our name from the book of life. Thus the warning in Jesus’ message – ‘Whoever has ears, let them hear’ – applies to us too.
(12) Verse 7 – Next Jesus commences the message for the church in the city of Philadelphia. As we have continuously seen before, He begins it with one of the signs (him who holds the keys of death and Hades) of the verses Rev 1:12-20 (See Scripture Study – Blossom 10: Nov ’10, Para’s 02, 03, 05; Blossom 11: Dec ’10, Para’s 02, 07; Blossom 12: Jan ’11, Para 02, this Blossom’s Para 06). Here in particular, he elaborates further on the symbolic ‘keys of death and Hades’ that he had mentioned earlier in Revelation 1:18. Our readers might remember studying about this symbol in the issue of Scripture Study that dealt with Revelation 1:18. We learnt that it indicates Jesus having the key that sets the whole of mankind free from death and grave (See Scripture Study – Blossom 10: Nov ’10, Para 02). Herein Jesus calls that much meaningful key as ‘the key of David’ and he goes on to add that what he opens with that key no one can shut, and in the same way what he shuts no one can open. Actually, Jesus is picking up the symbolic ‘key of David’ from the Old Testament. It is infact being quoted from the prophetic Book of Isaiah (See Isaiah 22:22). To figure out the deeper meaning behind this, we need to slightly delve into the Book of Isaiah. During the reign of King Hezekiah of Judah (729 – 687 B.C.), there was a man named Shebna who was the steward and palace administrator in Jerusalem. It is to be noted that the palace of Jerusalem was also called as the house of David. As palace administrator, Shebna was the one who would hold the key to the palace, i.e. the key to the house of David. God prophetically tells Isaiah that He would oust this Shebna from his position because of that man’s pride (Isaiah 22:15 – 19). God says He would seat Eliakim, son of Hilkiah in place of Shebna as the palace administrator and steward (Isaiah 22:20, 21). He further adds – ‘I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.’ (Isaiah 22:22). Here God is talking about the key to the palace of Jerusalem indeed. But Jesus quotes this very same verse in the Book of Revelation owning the symbolic implication to himself. So this tells us that the Eliakim of the times of Hezekiah is a type of Christ. Due to constraints of space, we cannot do an elaborate study on this type. To summarize in brief, Shebna represents Satan, Eliakim typifies Jesus and the palace of Jerusalem symbolizes life. Since death came upon mankind due to Adam’s sin and Man continued to be in the clutches of sin, the key to life went to Satan. Like Shebna of the times of Hezekiah, Satan too brimmed with pride. And he locked up the palace of Jerusalem that represented life so that it was inaccessible to mankind. Then Jesus broke the hold of sin on mankind by means of his ransom sacrifice and acquired the key to life. So the way to life has been opened for those who follow him. No one can shut it. At the same time, the way to life has been shut to those who refuse to follow Jesus till the end. No one can open that. Like Eliakim of the times of Hezekiah, Jesus wields this key in a righteous manner. At the same time, we know that just as there are similarities, usually there would also be some differences between truths (anti-types) and shadows (types), because truths are greater than shadows (See Grace – Blossom 28: Apr ’10, Para 04). In that regard, even as the Eliakim of the times of Hezekiah used the key in a good way, God tells Isaiah that his period of honor would also come to an end (See Isaiah 22:25). But Christ’s honor will last for eternity. Moving on, in the beginning of his Philadelphian message, Jesus proclaims himself to be ‘him who is holy and true’. Furthermore, as we know, this Philadelphia church not only denotes the actual church in the first century city of that name, but also represents the church of the sixth time period (See Scripture Study – Blossom 09: Oct’10, Para 06). So as usual, let us first look at the explanation for the first century church at the city of Philadelphia. This city was around 30 miles south-east to the city of Sardis where the church we had studied about before was located (See the map illustrated in Para 05). This was a city full of vineyards. It’s also notable that many of its residents lived outside its walls because of occasional earthquakes in the city. Let us continue our study in the next issue. Amen.
–To be continued in the next issue–