Guest Blog Post by Timothy Brennecke - Revelations, The Seven Churches May 5, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Brennekce in Guest Blog Posts.Tags: 7, Asia, Brennecke, Chruches, Commentary, Ephesus, Gentile, God, Jesus, Jew, Jewish, John, Laodicea, Pergamos, Philadelphia, Revelations, Sardis, Seven, Smyrna, Spirit, Thyatira, Timothy
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So, why would someone want to study the book of Revelation? The reason is because everyone wants to know the future. In the very first verse of the book we are told that the whole purpose of the book was to tell us “things which must shorty take place.” However before I go to far here, I think it is important to note to whom the book is actually written. Verse one not only tells why the book was written but that it was written to God’s slaves. The term slaves (doulos as they are called in the Greek) depicts complete rejects, utterly worthless creatures that are only kept as servants because of their unshakable devotion toward there master. John’s use of this word not only tells us that it truly is by God’s grace that we are saved but that we must return the favor and demonstrate our love to Him—show Him our true devotion. However, this is not the only description of whom the book is addressed. Both verses 4, 11 and 19 further define the recipients as seven churches in Asia Minor. We must then gather that this book had immediate application at the time of its writing. However, we also know that God’s Word is both living and powerful, thus it is always relevant to our everyday life. This is also the case with the book of Revelation as I will explain while I cover the letters to the seven churches.
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However, before we move on to the seven churches there is some background information that chapter one covers must be discussed. John also tells us that this book is a direct message from God, the Seven Spirits (which are the picture of the Holy Spirit in this book), and Jesus Christ; all of whom currently stand in the throne-room in heaven. John establishes his credentials as an Apostle by stating that he had witnessed the crucifixion and resurrection, and he gives us a dating for the book by telling us that his vision occurred on either a Saturday or a Sunday (depending on your view) while he was exiled in Patmos. John also gives an unusual blessing: “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein”. No where else in the Bible do we see quite a blessing like this. However, there are not here three different groups that will be blessed as is commonly thought, but only one. The way that the original Greek is written connects the hearing to the doing. Thus only by both hearing and obeying will you receive the blessing that John here mentions. But in order to do that one must know what he is to do. That is one of the key things that I will explain later on in this commentary.
It is also interesting that John mentions many times in this book that these events are soon to be fulfilled (example: 1:1 and 1:4). The Greek in verse one tells us that the events surrounding the Second Coming will happen quickly whereas verse four tells us that their soon fulfillment will happen within the time-frame of the seven churches. On first look this is an apparent contradiction and in relation to the rest of the book it would make it seem as though Christs Second Coming must have happened during the generation that received the original book and thus supporting the theory of Preterism (the belief that all or at least most prophecy was fulfilled during the 1st Century C.E.). This is a small fact that many Pre-millennial scholars will pass over because they believe that, if not all, most of the book still applies to us today. Their way of justifying this is to allegorize the seven churches into representing seven different periods of the Church age (based on Dispinsationalism). Preterism, though it interprets the Revelation verses correctly, spiritualizes the rapture and the Second Coming making it an impersonal event. The other view allegorizes the whole passage just so they can explain there Dispinsationalism in a very persuading manor. Both of these are not the true interpretation of the passages as I will explain in the discussion of the seven churches.
Before the book moves on to the seven churches, John gives us an important description of his vision. John sees what he tells us is “one like a son of man”. This phrase should not surprise someone familiar with the Bible as one of the terms that Jesus used to refer to himself. John even makes the recognition of Christ and falls down at His feet. However, along with John’s description it has another importance. The prophet Daniel also had a vision in which he described the exact same person using an identical description and the same title (Dan 10:1-9). This makes an extremely important connection between the two books. Both John and many others of his day would have recognized this personage to be Jesus Himself by this connection alone. However, Jesus goes on to clarify who is by clearly stating His accomplishments for us.
Next, Christ gives John the basic “table of contents” for the time-line of the book (see verse 19). John is first told that he is to write down what he has seen (found in the first chapter), what is at the present (found in the letters to the churches), and what will take place soon after (chapters 4 and onward). This “time-line” of events is very important to take into mind as one looks at the following verses to see where the events in question line up with the books own internal dating.
As we look at the letters to the churches we can see that they are not what John is seeing as God is dictating the letters to him while he is in exile. They are also not describing future events because God says that this is how the churches are now—at the time of the writing of the book [Although God does mention things that will happen to them if they don't follow His command, the letters are, in general, describing the present state of the churches]. Thus this passage must be taken to describe the present state of these churches and not a set time-line of church history which, again, I will begin to discuss in the next section.
However before I leave chapter one there is one more important thing to look at. Jesus not only gives us a brief outline of the book but he gives us a hint as to a part of the interpretation. The seven candlesticks that were in the vision are said to represent the seven churches and the seven stars that Christ was holding are said to represent the seven angels of the seven churches. I will discuss the meaning of the stars and angels next in the Introduction to the Seven churches but before we move on to it let us look at the importance of the seven candlesticks.
This appearance of the seven golden candlesticks back in verse 12 should have immediately reminded us of the single golden candlestick in Exodus 25 or the Menorah found in the tabernacle and the Temple. The Menorah of the Old Testament was representative of the Holy Spirit’s presence among the people of Israel. The Menorah was also made out of seven separate candlesticks made into one. It had one major candlestick coming from the base to the candle at the top and had six candlesticks coming out of it, three on one side and three on the other. This made up a total of seven candlesticks on the Menorah. What is so interesting about these new seven candlesticks is that they are not connected to one another on the Menorah. Thus, instead of being unified in one Menorah the churches dispersed into seven separate candlesticks. In fact, this also tells us that these churches are Jewish churches not Gentiles churches. Thus, the identity of the seven churches as seven Jewish churches dispersed throughout the nations, means that we as Gentile believers are not directly address in this book. The only way we can include ourselves in the mix is through our being grafted into Israel (Rom. 11). This tells us that the Church is not a Gentile religion but a Jewish one. For us to be able to then understand this book we will have to look at it from a Jewish mindset and not with Gentile ideas.
Hello,
I would like to know about the 7 churches in Revelations. Since it was written to the Jewish people, where are those 7 synagogues in the world today? I have always been fascinated by Revelations. Thanks.
The locations of the seven churches/synagogues which were sent the letters are given in Revelation 1:11 and can also be found at the beginning to each of the letters which are found in the next two chapters (Rev. 2-3). In chronological order the locations are: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. These cities all lie within about a 90 mile radius of each other in the country of modern Turkey. These cities are also still here today although a few of them lie in ruins. However, the location the churches/synagogues is not nearly as important as the recipients of the letters. All seven of the letters are addressed, not to the church/synagogue as a whole, but to the “angel of the church”. This phrase leads us to the question: who is the “angel of the church”?
The strictly literal explanation of this phrase suggests that these angels are actual angels. However, if this were true this would mean that these letter and then the whole book also were not written to us but to angelic beings. This simply can not be the case as it contradicts what we are told in the first chapter of Revelation: that the churches are Jewish. Another way to look at this phrase (and probably the most common view) is to re-translate the word angel. In Greek and Hebrew the word “angel” means “messenger”. Using the word “messenger” in place of the word “angel” would then infer that these letters are addressed to the seven Pastor’s/Elder’s/Bishop’s of the seven churches/synagogues. Although this is a much better interpretation of the phrase, it still limits the entire book of Revelation to only for seven people who lived in the first century CE. This makes the letters inapplicable to us today which is a contradiction of what we are told in 2 Timothy 3:16.
Remember that I said these were Jewish synagogues. Thus they would not really have been very similar to our churches today (unless you happen to go to a messianic synagogues which is very unlikely). From the book of Acts we even know that some of early churches even met in Jewish synagogues. In fact, if we look closely at Scripture we can find that Paul even told Timothy and Titus to set up churches in an extremely similar way to that of how a Jewish synagogue was set up. This is important to realize because in the Jewish synagogue there was a person called the “angel of the church”. This character was in charge of picking people to read from the Torah every Shabbat and “overseeing” them as they read to make sure they did not mess up (thus the word “overseer” in 1 Tim. 3). If there was a need the “angel of the church” would fill in for the Bishop/Rabbi so that there was always someone to preach, thus he also acted like an assistant Pastor. However, beside all these duties, his primary job was to pray for the church/synagogue both publicly in the services and privately throughout the week.
When Paul addressed the issue of leadership positions in the church/synagogue in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, he included only Bishops (also called Elders, Overseers, or Rabbis) and Deacons; both of which were positions which could be found in a Jewish synagogue. In fact, Bishops, Deacons, and “angels of the church” were the three major leadership positions in the Jewish synagogue. Paul required the first two to be set up in his Jewish churches/synagogues but failed to mention the role of the “angel of the church”. I believe the reason for this is because the “angel of the churches’” duties were to be done by all the members of the church/synagogue, not just by one specific person.
Of the three main duties that the “angel of the church” was supposed to have (prayer, making sure that the Scriptures were read, and being able to preach if called upon), all of these are aspects that all Christians are told they are to have. In 1 Timothy 2:8, Paul tells us that everyone is to be involved in public prayer. In 1 Timothy 4:13, Paul tells us to devote ourselves to public reading of Scripture. And in 1 Peter 3:15, Peter tells us to always be ready to preach the Gospel of Christ. In the end, the Bible basically sets up the role of the “angel of the church” but does not give it a name so that it would be a duty of all believers. For this reason, since the churches/synagogues of the day would have know what the phrase “angel of the church” meant, John used it in Revelation to address the book to all believers. So, again we see that, just like the meaning of the candlesticks, this phrase too enforces the Jewishness of the book.