The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

of joint-heirship with the Redeemer in His Kingdom. There were those, however, who
lived in the latter part of the Philadelphian period who did have clear views of the
reigning with Christ. From the writings of some of these faithful ones we have already
quoted, and will, in the interpretation of some of the visions farther on in the book, have
occasion to refer to more of them.
The Philadelphian message closes with the seven-times-repeated individual application
contained in the words: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the
Churches." There seems to be some special significance in the fact that while Christ utters
these words, the hearer is to give heed to what the "Spirit" saith. It would seem to be that
only those who possess a large measure of the Holy Spirit would be able either to
understand or to heed Christ's words. That spirit will cause all to feel a dependence upon
the Father; it is a submissive spirit to the Father's will--a prayerful spirit, a holy spirit, a
meek and humble spirit, an uncompromising spirit, a loyal spirit, a self-sacrificing, crossbearing
spirit. In the very many tests that will be applied to the overcomer, many of them
will have to be met and decided by the kind of spirit manifested by those who bring the
tests or cause them to come. For in some of the siftings and separations that come along
doctrinal lines, there will be among the Lord's true children some possessing scarcely
sufficient analytical ability to decide for themselves the correctness of some of the
doctrinal teaching advanced by professed teachers, who will be enabled to detect error
and to decide where they stand only by the spirit manifested.
Chapter 10: Rev. 3:13-22
Christ's Message to Laodicea
"And unto the angel of the Church of the Laodiceans write."--Rev. 3:14.
With the message to the angel of the Church of the Laodiceans, we come to the close of
these solemn epistles of Christ to His professed Church. Applying the messages
prophetically, as representing the particular characteristics possessed by the Church in
seven periods of the Gospel Age, there can be no question that the message to this Church
and its star or teacher describes a condition existing in the very closing period of church
history. It is very generally agreed by Pre-millennial expositors who have written since
1880, that we have now reached the period of Laodicea.
The church of the last times
Joseph Seiss, in a series of lectures on the Revelation given about 1865, wrote as follows:
"There is yet one other phase [of church history]. Shall I say that it is yet future, or that we
have already entered it? Here are still some whom Christ loves, mostly suffering ones,
under the rebukes and chastenings of their gracious Lord. (Ver 19.) But the body of
Christendom is quite apostate, with Christ outside, and knocking for admission into His
own professed Church. . . . Can any man scrutinize narrowly the professed Church of our
day, and say that we have not reached the Laodicean age? Is it not the voice of this