The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

their faith in His Word. This persistent, patient faith of the true saints of God is what we
think is referred to here by keeping 'the word of My patience.' The general hour of
temptation [referred to in the Philadelphia message], therefore, would not come upon
them, but upon those who came after them--the Laodicean Church. The Philadelphia
Church, which had patiently passed through so severe a trial of their faith, would not be
subjected to the later test.
"'The hour of temptation' has come upon us now. This hour of temptation has been the
Harvest time. In many respects it has tested the Lord's people, and has proved who are
faithful to the Word of God and who are not faithful to it. Hence the majority of the
professing Christians of the world--probably more than three-fourths have lost all faith in
the Bible, and have fallen into the various false and delusive theories of our day--
Evolution, Higher Criticism, Christian Science, Theosophy, Spiritism, New Thought, etc.
They have fallen from faith, from loyalty to the Lord's Word. They are not able to stand in
this 'evil day.'"
Since the above words were penned in 1915 and this remarkable writer ceased from his
labors, other, and more severe tests have come; indeed, the test that finally comes to all is
now on. It is that of holding fast, not only to the Truth, but, above all, that of "holding the
head," and permitting no human teacher or system to come into the heart and take the
place of the Great Teacher of the Church. Loyalty to Christ and His message is indeed the
test; and faithfulness to Him will just as surely mean that a large measure of His spirit will
be exemplified in the life of every true disciple--the Philadelphian spirit of brotherly love.
"Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."--Rev.
3:11.
It is of peculiar and solemn significance that the Savior in His message to Philadelphia
announces the imminence of His Second Coming, that it is near at hand. The language,
therefore, seems to say that when this period of the Church's history has been reached, she
will have approached closely unto the end of the Age, and it will then be a comparatively
short time until the official Second Presence of Christ will be revealed on the earth, when
He will gather all the faithful unto Himself and establish His Kingdom in fulfillment of the
many Divine promises.
Only one message will then remain to be delivered--that to Laodicea. In that message the
Savior announces not that He will come soon, but that He has come: "Behold, I stand at the
door, and knock." This clearly implies that His Second Advent will then be an
accomplished fact. It is the steadfast conviction of many of the faithful watchers who have
given the subject of time prophecy and of our Lord's Second Coming the most sober and
careful consideration, that the Church has already merged from the Philadelphian period
into that of Laodicea.
Philadelphia, located as it is in the successive order of the seven epistles between Sardis
and Laodicea, both of which represent conditions existing in the rejected church systems
of Romanism and Protestantism, seems to stand, with its blessed principles of brotherly