Corporate Repentance - Robert J. Wieland

history from the time of the apostles to the close of
probation (Acts of the Apostles, pages 581, 583,
585). The message to Laodicea is "the warning for
the last church," not the next-to-the-last one
(Testimonies, vol. 6, page 77). The message does
not apply to apostates, but to God's true people in
the last days (Bible Commentary, vol. 7, page 959;
Testimonies, vol. 3, pages 252, 253).
The Lord's intention has always been that the
message to Laodicea result in repentance and
overcoming on the part of His true people and that
it prepare them to receive the latter rain
(Testimonies, vol. 1, pages 186, 187). There is no
hint in Scripture or the Spirit of Prophecy that the
message will ultimately fail; God's true people will
heed "the counsel of the True Witness, and they
will receive the latter rain, and thus be fitted for
translation" (Ibid., pages 187, 188). Nowhere does
Ellen White say that God's true people must leave
Laodicea and return to Philadelphia.
It is, of course, true that spiritual applications
can be made from all of the messages to the seven
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