7 Churches of Revelation

Introduction

Sections

About the Seven Churches of Revelation

Jesus Christ personally wrote the seven epistles to the seven churches in Asia Minor. These letters were given to John to deliver to the churches. These churches were actual, physical churches in operation at the end of the 1^st century. Due to heavy Roman persecution, most of the churches operated out of homes in and underground fashion but were well established in the mid to late 90’s A.D. when John dictated the letters from Jesus Christ.

We don’t know when or how John managed to get the letters to the churches, but it could have been after his release when Roman emperor Domitian died in 96 A.D. The expectation of the Lord was that the letters be delivered to the churches and shared among each other, so that all the churches received all the letters at some point in time.

Why did Jesus write to just seven churches? There were many churches in operation at that time. Why these seven churches? There were much more prominent churches, such as the ones in Jerusalem, Rome, Corinth, and others. Why are these epistles included in the first section of the book of Revelation? How do they fit into the prophetic nature of this set of visions the Lord Jesus is sharing with John and all of us?

Every part of scripture is there for a reason, and it is for our learning. 2 Timothy 3:16 says “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”. These letters have a special purpose, and they are part of the entire message of what the Greeks call “Apokalypsis”, which is interpreted in English as “revelation”, which means revealing or disclosing truths concerning things before unknown. We have come to take the Greek word associated with this book as a different meaning of Apocalypse, or the end of the world as we know it, which the book emphatically portrays.

The book starts by saying this is “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him to shew unto his servants things that must shortly come to pass, and He signified it by His angel unto his servant John.” (Rev 1:1). It is important to understand what this means. Everything that follows, which includes the seven letters to the seven churches, fits into this purpose. That purpose is to show us the things that must shortly come to pass.

That statement is followed by “He signified it”. The Greek word for signified is “sēmainō”, which means to make known through signs. In other words, Jesus wrote this entire book as a symbolic message. That means it is not all to be taken as a direct literal translation of the words, but symbolically. How do we know how to make sense of the symbols used in the book? By using the rest of the scripture to address the meaning of the symbols. Every symbol used in Revelation can be found somewhere else in scripture and that can give you an understanding to its meaning.

Why would Jesus do this instead of giving us an historical recounting of future events? There are a number of possible reasons. One logical one is that it would not make sense to anyone who was not a follower of Jesus or had an extensive background in the Hebrew scriptures, such as the Roman government. If these messages were intercepted by the Romans, they would not see them for what they are and would likely allow them to be distributed as planned. That is a more logical, near-term explanation as of the late 1^st century.

Another possibility is that Jesus wanted the message to be understood by His followers and not those who do not accept His as the Christ, which is Greek for the Hebrew word “Messiah”, what we call in English, the “Savior”. Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.” God wants us to search the scriptures to fully understand His message to us. The more we study it, the more He “reveals” to us.

Why These 7 Churches?

Given the understanding that all parts of the book of Revelation are intended to show us the “things that must shortly come to pass”, then it perhaps we should consider the possibility that the seven letters to the seven churches are prophetic in their own right. If so, how?

Below is a hypothesis that you can consider. It is suggested that you do as the Bereans did, which was told to us in Acts 17:11, “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” Do your own study and see how well this hypothesis fits.

The seven churches likely represent the seven major types of churches throughout church history. If they were in any other order, this would not be true. The seven churches in the order given by Jesus Christ is outlined below.

Ephesus
Smyrna
Pergamos
Thyatira
Sardis
Philadelphia
Laodicea

The church can be categorized into seven major stages of development. These start off sequential but branch out and become overlapping after the first three. The types of churches throughout history are outlined below.

The Apostolic, early church – Ephesus
The persecuted church – Smyrna
The married church – Pergamos
The papal Catholic church – Thyatira
The reformation church – Sardis
The missionary church – Philadelphia
The apostate church – Laodicea

These will be explored in the sections that follow. The hypothesis is that each of the seven churches represents the type of church that corresponds to the history of the church. This is shown in the timeline of general church history shown below.

We will consider this hypothesis as we take a closer look at each of these churches. We will also consider the real-world things that were happening in these churches and the history of the areas these churches were in. All of this comes into play when considering the full implication of the messages contained within these 7 short epistles.