Revelation 3:14-22 - Indepthbible.org

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(...continued)
can look at us only with supreme distaste. The incapacity for decisive experience is the
characteristic of a decadent age and of a decadent church.” (P. 561)
Hough is right--but we must emphasize that still the risen Lord sees hope for a decadent
church!
On p. 81, Gregg gives an outline of the different ways in which the letters to the seven
churches are interpreted:
“In the view of the historicists, the letters contain a cryptic [‘secret,’ ‘hidden’] reference
to the condition in which the whole church would be found at varying times in her history. The
church at Ephesus represents the church in John’s own day, while the church in Laodicea
stands for the church at the end times. [And the other churches represent different periods in
history between John’s own day and the end times.]
“The preterists consider the letters to apply to little else than the contemporary situation
of the seven churches as they existed in John’s time. As with all biblical epistles, however,
application to similar churches of any time is acknowledged.
“Futurists may side with the historicists or, alternatively, with the preterists and the
spiritual interpreters as to the application of the letters, though they see the reference to the
‘things which shall take place after this’ (1:19) as referring to the end of the present age.
“Spiritual interpreters see the purpose of the book as communicating to the whole
church the facts of God’s sovereignty in history and His vindication of the righteous. The
seven churches symbolize the church of all times, and the letters apply to any churches in
which the relevant circumstances prevail.”
What power and instruction there is in these seven small letters addressed by the risen
Lord to seven of His congregations at the close of the first century in Roman Asia! An
attentive hearing of the divine message contained in these seven letters, combined with
obedience to their directives, could well result in a complete renewal of the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) or any other of the so-called “Main-Line Denominations” at the beginning
of the twenty-first century!
As Hough states, "...The messages to the seven churches...are of ecumenical range
and of ecumenical significance. They belong to every age. They belong to every place. They
belong to the Christian church always and everywhere. No Christian can read them without
finding words which speak directly to his own mind and heart." (P. 561)
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