More on the Seven Churches Of Rev. 2-3

Q

Thank you so much for your insight. I’m very happy to have your website. Does the church age end with the rapture of the church? If so, then the 7 churches in Rev 2-3 would not go into the 70th week of Daniel. How could Laodicea be the post rapture church if there is no church after the rapture?

A

The Church age ends with the Rapture. According to Rev. 1:19 the Book of Revelation is divided into three parts. Part 1 consists of the things John had seen and covers chapter 1. Part 2 is what John was seeing in his day and that’s the seven churches of chapters 2 and 3. Part 3 consists of what would take place later (after John’s day) and covers the rest of the book from chapter 4 to the end.

The seven churches to which Jesus addressed the book of Revelation all existed in John’s time. But as you study them you can see that they were chosen because in the order of their appearance they represent the entire church age. Ephesus stands for the first century church, Smyrna is the 2nd and 3rd centuries, and Pergamum is the 4th Century church during the time of Constantine. Thyatira represents the Catholic church which emerged from the Holy Roman Empire. Sardis represents the main line protestant church that broke away from the Catholics, Philadelphia is the Evangelical Church that broke away from the main line protestants, and Laodicea is the apostate church that broke away from all of them.

In a careful reading of the the letters you can see that some from the Catholic (Rev. 2:24-25) and Protestant (Rev. 3:4) churches will go in the rapture, and everyone from the Evangelical Church will go (Rev. 3:10). But no one from the apostate church will be raptured because they are not believers but are a church in name only. Jesus is standing outside the door knocking (Rev. 3:20) instead of being inside among the people.

You can read a lot more about this in my study of the Seven Churches of Rev. 2-3.