Revelation 2:8-11 Part 2 Bible Teaching

Welcome
Prayer
Songs
Silence

Last week we left off with Jesus addressing the Angel of the Second of the Seven Churches – Smyrna.

This is what we covered thus far in the address:

2:8 And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;
9 I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried;

And we talked a bit about the fact that God allows His children to suffer, that there was no promise of escape for them included here and that Jesus spoke in terms of “shall,” as in: YOU SHALL SUFFER this, YOU SHALL suffer that.

This leaves us with the rest of verse 10 where Jesus continues and says:

and ye shall have tribulation ten days:
be thou faithful unto death,
and I will give thee a crown of life.

Let’s cover these three remaining points this afternoon before moving on to His words to the Third Church, Pergamos.
Revelation 2.8-11 Part II
And the Names of the Seven Churches
Meat
February 19th 2017

“And ye shall have tribulation ten days.”

Why? Because when things like this are said in scripture – ten days – there are ten thousand opinions about what they mean.

So let’s talk about it.

Proposals on how to view the term, “Ten Days”

First, there is the option of viewing them literally. That when Jesus said ten days to John to write and then give to the Angel of Smyrna He meant ten days. I personally think that the most direct and literal way to interpret scripture is often the best but here is not one of them. Why?

While we know that several times already Jesus has established that the time is short before the things happen that are described in the book (which might cause some to take these ten days literally) we know that IF John was a prisoner on Patmos it would probably take more than ten days for him to have received the rest of Revelation, copied it, and then get it over to Asia Minor for delivery. Even if he wasn’t a prisoner but was merely visiting the prisoners there when he received the Revelation ten literal days is not much time to get all of the above done.

So I vote against the literal interpretation here.

Then there is the figurative view which says ten days are not ten days but are ten years.

Historicists suggest, for instance, that Diocletian tortured and tormented Christians for exactly ten years and this is what Jesus was referring. Could be.

Then there is the representational view of ten days which is created by looking through the Bible and seeing what ten days has represented in it over the course of biblical history. The conclusion? That the number “ten” represents “frequency and abundance.”

Let me provide some examples:

In Genesis 31:7 and 41 we read: “Thou hast changed my wages TEN TIMES.” Biblical literalists would suggest that this is exactly what was meant. I don’t think so. Instead what is being said is; “thou hast frequently changed my wages.”

In Numbers 14:22 we read: “Those men have tempted me now these TEN TIMES,” again, I read this as, “they have frequently and grievously tempted and sinned against me.”

In Nehemiah 4:12 we read: “The Jews that dwelt by them came and said unto us TEN TIMES,” and in Job 19:3 we read, “ “These TEN TIMES have ye reproached me.” Frequency and abundance.

Finally, in Daniel 1:20 we read: “In all matters of wisdom, he found them TEN TIMES better than all the magicians.”

In light of these biblical examples I can’t help but believe that Jesus uses ten representationally and was saying that there will be frequent and abundant trials and terrors.

So after saying:

“And ye shall have tribulation ten days,” He adds a biggie.

“Be thou faithful unto death.”

Now, my friends, this is a tall order. And I do not believe that it can reasonably be made of human beings unless God grants them the peace, courage and internal fortitude to face the Grim Reaper.

It is one of the quizzical things – even the difficult things I find when reading the Book of Revelation and what I mean about this is here Jesus is telling (in the least) the angel of Smyrna (and more probably the believers there) to be faithful in frequent sufferings, in imprisonments, and even in death AND IF – IF – IF they are, they will receive the crown of life.

To me this is a blunt confirmation that remaining faithful is rewarded, that to fail may not yield rewards, and that Jesus has expectations – at least of these believers here at Smyrna – of courageous performance!

(beat)

However . . . I can say, at least with some assurance, that I would believe – right here and now – that I could face death in His cause – only by and through His Spirit in me, but nevertheless victoriously. I think.

This being said I can’t help but wonder if during these tumultuous years, prior to the end and winding up of things, if the Saints were doubly empowered from on high and were not in danger of failure – if they trusted in Him.

What about now? Gotta believe the same. However, I tend to think in our day and age that this passage means something different than facing physical death at the hands of persecutors.

Instead I think its application to believers to day is saying:

“Be thou faithful (full of faith) as you die to your will and flesh AND/OR “Be thou faithful (full of faith) until the end of your physical existence.”

In my estimation this is the most reasonable way to apply these words to the believers at Smyrna to ourselves today.

A good number of Christians, because of their dating of Revelation and futurist ideas believe that these words specifically refer to Polycarp – who, as we said last week, was martyred in 155 AD and born in 70 AD.

Admittedly, the contents of verse 10 when seen in light of the Man tend to fit his story.

In fact, when it comes to being faithful unto death it is said that Polycarp, when told to renounce Christ or die said:

“Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never did me wrong, how then can I blaspheme my king who hath saved me?” At which point he was consumed in flames.

I can’t help but read and see application to the end of the age then, to Polycarp in 155, to Christian deaths over the course of history, and then to our own spiritual and physical deaths here and now.

His word is the living word and I have a hard time sequestering portions of it so they can fit our desired applications.

Finally, if we are . . .

“Not fearing what we will suffer.”
“Being cast into prison”
“Being tried”
“Tribulation for ten days,” and
“being faithful unto death,”

Jesus says:

“I will give thee a crown of life.”

As a cross reference, we read in James 1:12

“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”

We can cross reference the promise of James here with this passage in Revelation 2 and see that what Jesus calls,

“Not fearing what we will suffer.”
“Being cast into prison”
“Being tried”
“Tribulation for ten days,” and
“being faithful unto death,”

James calls, “enduring temptation.”

The reward?

“a crown of life.”

I tend to think in concrete terms at times and I gotta tell you, receiving a crown for enduring suffering is not a real motivator to me. I’m not a real fan of hats.

I say this for the literalists sake. Obviously this must mean something else, the phrase, “Crown of life.”

We remember that Peter the Apostle wrote in 1st Peter 5:4:

“And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”

1st Corinthians 9:25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

2nd Timothy 4:8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

From all of these references we know that the crown of life Jesus promises is also a crown of glory, a crown of righteousness, and a crown that is incorruptible!

That’s inviting – something worth suffering for in His name and cause.

And then these words to the church at Smyrna end with:

11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.

Which we covered at length a few weeks ago. Alright, on to church number three of Seven – Pergamos.

Let’s read our passages, which are longer to Pergamos than they were to Smyrna. (Verse 12 chapter 2)

Okay before getting into Pergamos. . . a slight detour. The names of the Churches and their meaning relative to periods of history.

Now, from a historicist and even the futurist perspective the names of these churches have significance and as we’ve pointed out before there are dozens of speculative periods of time assigned to each church based on its specific name.

Let’s see if we can review this with a little more clarity and we’ll start with the first church – Ephesus.

1st Church EPHESUS is believed to represent the Apostolic Church – meaning the years when there were actual apostles of the Lord still walking around. So we will assign the years 30 CE to 100 CE to Ephesus.

Some have suggested that the name Ephesus may have had something to do with the Latin word apis, meaning bee.

This definition is rejected by most scholars but the interesting thing is “bees” are found all over the ruins and was a dominant symbol among the inhabitants as it has even been discovered on their coins.

The word Apis is the term for bee so we create Apisis from that.

More popular however is the claim that the name Ephesus came from the Hittite name “Apasa,” which belonged to the capital of an ancient federation called Arzawa, located in western Anatolia.

“Appa” means “at the back, or after or looking back.”

I’m not sure how bee or looking back fits into the description of the words this first church received from Christ – but you can see firsthand how easy it is to create one.

And this is why there are so many historical periods of time and interpretations of the Seven Churches – because each name can be interpreted to “FIT” the words Jesus has for them.

So, to give you an example, if the meaning of Ephesus is bee, a historicist could say:

“the believers here were commended for their industrioiusness in the face of many theological challenges and to prove the truth”

OR

If the meaning of Ephesus is “at the back” we could say that this first church goes all the way to the back (or end) of the faith – the very “back end” of Christianity, you know, when it all started. Therefore Ephesus represents the apostolic church – from 30 to 100 CE.

See how it works?

Nevertheless, because the believers at Ephesus were commended for testing those “who claimed to be apostles,” and because once the apostles were dead no others replaced them, the Historic view and futurist views suggest that the Church at Ephesus represents the years 33 AD through 100 AD or so.

That being said, we see a present application of Ephesus to believers today in the presence of the LDS church who CLAIM to actually house “apostles of the Lord.”

And this would make the idealist interpretation applicable today.

2nd Church SMYRNA is believed to represent a period between 100 and around 310 CE.

This would be a period in Christian history when the church would really undergo some persecution – which it did – especially for the last ten years under Diocletian (between 303 and 313) where Christians were tried more than any other time.

Having just studied Smyrna we’ve seen that all Jesus does is commend them and pretty much tell them:

“you are going to suffer. Even death.”
For this reason historicists see Smyrna as being represented as this period of time.

Unfortunately, this strict parameters fail when we step back and look at the whole of history because while Christians certainly suffered during this time Christians have always suffered (even death) and even to this day.

And if not physical death Christians should, according to the scripture, willing suffer the painful death of their flesh daily.

And so once again we discover there being application (in an idealist and futurist sense) to the Book and NOT JUST a strict historicist.
Third Church – Pergamos
And the guess at the dating (for some) is 323-538 CE.
The word Pergamos comes from the Greek PURGOS and means a tower or by association “height” or “elevated,” which is fitting since the Church went from being brutally persecuted to becoming lifted or elevated up to the lofty place of being the state religion of the Roman Empire.
Admittedly, these interpretations have a tendency to grip us and make us say, “oooh, ahhh, yessss! “ this is how to interpret each of the Seven Churches in Revelation! (Right?)
The problems with this, however, is (as pointed out)
There are dozens of these dating/definitions in the historicist view.
They are often very different.
And the descriptions cannot be limited to the times assigned to them.
For instance, when it comes to the church being elevated I tend to see Evangelicalism in a very elevated state during recent American history – so does it have application to that time as well? And in the British Isles the Church of England is yet another example of this myopic view being broadened.
So in Smyrna the Christians were being killed but, based on the meaning of Pergamous and the next logical period in early church history Christians are now being elevated. Interestingly, both situations are detrimental to the faith but if I had to pick one for the long term survival of it and its integrity I’d pick “the persecuted” over “the elevated.”
In short, in the period of Pergamos a person had to be a Christian in order to hold positions of authority in the government so claims to the faith effected most people. In fact, an individual could not have all the rights of a merchant or landowner unless they claimed Christ as Lord.
The effects of this action were deleterious to the faith and are, I must point out, the exact same result we get when we mix church and state today. People affiliate with the faith who have no real heartfelt devotion to it and the results are a mess.
The bottom line is the church period (known as Pergamos to some historicists) was filled with non-believers and opportunists.
Next week we will address the Lords words to this 3rd Church next week but just understand that generally speaking the historicists believe this covers a period from around 323 CE to 538 CE.
FOURTH CHURCH – THYATIRA
The period of the prophetic church at Thyatira is considered by some to be from 538–1798 A.D – that’s one heck of a long span.
You might begin to notice that there are overlaps occurring now in the historicist schematic of dates.
Why the dates 538? Through to the date 1789? Let’s talk about this.
The first date has to do with what is called, “The Justinian Code”
The “Justinian Code” was created by the emperor Justinian and it was put in place in 534AD. In large part this decree was made against those who did not support creedal Trinitarianism.
In other words the Papacy used this decree to destroy all those that were found to be non-trinitarian.
A group of people called the Ostrogoths were wiped out in 538AD under this Code.
It is believed that this marked the beginning of the 1,260 year reign of “Church and State terror.”
What ended the Church and State terror and when? Historcists claim this terror ended when General Bertheir (under the command of Napolian) put a stop to it.
When? You got it – in 1798.
But between 538 and 1798 what we would call the Catholic Church reigned with horror in the name and cause of the Trinity.
No religious observances were allowed outside of accepting the Trinity, and relentless violence was openly used against those who ventured out.
This Code of Justinian gives us the idea of how much freedom God has granted us here today.
Some quick history on law making – which is how historicists sort of see the Church of Pergamos representing.
The Greeks were the first western civilization to come up with the idea of a jury.
Any citizen (any free adult male) could hear any case as long as there was space in the theater. One jury in ancient Athens had over 6000 members.
Eventually, regulations were placed on the number of jurors allowed: there could be either 101, 501, or 1001. The Greeks were very democratic when it came to choosing a sentence (probably because they invented the democracy).
If an accused was found guilty, both the plaintiff (the accuser) and the defendant would suggest a punishment, then the jury would vote on which was appropriate to the case.
The Romans used a jury system like the one in ancient Greece. The Romans also acknowledged that the law has to be able to change to meet the needs of society. They were constantly adding and erasing and amending their laws.
There were “Twelve Tables” which were among the earliest written Roman codes, first recorded about 450 BCE. These were implemented during the Roman occupation of England.
These tables put a system of victim compensation in place, and protected the lower class from the upper class’s abuse.
They also started the tradition of public punishments. By 100 CE, Roman law had become extremely complex. There were laws that dealt with every aspect of life, from criminal acts, to contracts, to family arguments.
Eventually, experts were needed to help citizens navigate the complications of Roman law. This was the birth of the lawyer.
About 1000 years after the Twelve Tables were written, the Roman emperor Justinian decided that the law needed to be simplified.
By 529 CE Roman law was condensed into four books, called Justinian’s Code. This code mostly focused on civil law (laws that cover personal relationships), and became the basis for several future European laws.
It also helped to develop the modern idea of justice. In fact, the word “justice” evolved from Justinian’s name.
Okay, take all that and jump way out to the French Revolution – in fact after the French Revolution.
Here Napoleon Bonaparte commissioned new laws to help unify France. The French Civil Code was completed in 1804, and spread throughout Napoleon’s empire.
It was well liked by the people because it was simply written and easy to understand.
So between these dates – 538 and 1790 – we had the Roman Church imposing law.
What’s interesting is that after the Roman Occupation and the Romans left England (in about 410 CE) the Britons were left to administer the law as they saw fit.
Guess what they decided to do? It was almost worse than the Roman Empire – they left it to God to decide someone’s guilt or innocence.
And under this sway three types of combined trial and punishment became popular: “trial by ordeal,” “trial by combat,” or “trial by oath helping.”
There were many types of trial by ordeal, but the most common were “trial by fire” and “trial by water”
Trial by water was just as barbaric as trial by fire. The suspect had to retrieve a stone from the bottom of a pot of boiling water. The premise was the same, God would heal their wounds if they were innocent. If it was decided that a suspect would undergo trial by fire they would be made to walk over hot coals in bare feet or hold hot iron in their bare hands.
Then the suspect’s wounds would be bandaged and left alone for a few days.
If they were innocent of the crime, then God would have healed their wounds by the end of the allotted time period.
If the suspect’s wounds were festering when the bandages were unwrapped, then they would be declared guilty and either exiled or executed.
“Trail by combat” was a popular way of determining the guilt or innocence of both parties.
Essentially, they would fight it out. Since it was expected that God would support the innocent side, that person was “guaranteed” to win.
However, the stronger opponent usually was the victor, innocent or not.
Eventually, it became customary for a weaker person to hire someone to fight for them.
Trial by oath helping was the fairest and most reliable of the three types of trial found after the end of the Roman occupation in England.
It was also the most simple, but it needed the testimony of someone other than the suspect.
If someone swore on the Bible that the suspect was innocent, then it was assumed that they were.
This might not seem like a very reliable system, but it worked because people feared that they would incur the wrath of God if they lied when they swore on the Bible.
After invading England in 1066, William the Conqueror rearranged how English law was administered yet again.
He established the feudal system, where England was divided into different pieces of land. Each piece was governed by a noble, who owned everything within it’s borders, including animals and people. A noble was also in charge of administering the law within the borders of his land.
This created some problems. Each noble handled this responsibility differently. Punishments differed from village to village, and they weren’t always fair. Nobles gave no thought to the rights of the accused commoner, and would often deliver a guilty verdict in spite of evidence to the contrary.
Eventually, the people of England started to complain to the King, who, by then, was William’s grandson, Henry II. When King Henry realized how inconsistent the law was, he ordered judges to travel from village to village and settle disputes.
Since England didn’t have any written laws at this point in time, the judges had to rely on their own sense of right and wrong. They listened to the people of the community to decide on a fair punishment.
Eventually, the judges noticed similarities between cases, and they decided that similar crimes should be treated the same way. To make sure of this, they started to write down their cases and their verdicts.
This became the basis for the rule of precedent (applying a previous decision to a case that has similar circumstances).
The study of Law is fascinating but we’ll stop here and get back to this long stretch called Thyatira.
Now the name of Thyatira is really interesting because from what I can tell it simply means, “the castle of Thya.”
I’m serious – I can’t find any other legitimate definition. But we can find very suspect definitions out there – all of which have been concocted to meet or fit the bill with the period of time that is sought.
I read one what said Thyatira means “sacrifice of contrition” and adds, “This period is not called the “Dark Ages” without reason.”
When we get to Thyatira we’ll read what the message was to that actual church of that actual age and see if we discover more.

FIFTH CHURCH – SARDIS
The dating of Sardis is 1400–1844 (by some). Its name means – who the heck knows! Sardis is utterly uncertain as to its meaning which throws a hand grenade into the camp of the Historicists.
As a result, they come up or create names that suit them and help them create the myth of each church having a special historic meaning – and therefore associated age.
One popular historicist actually preaches that Sardis means, “that which remains”and then giving it a meaning assigns a period the period of general Reformation to it.
Very convenient.
Of course this period of Church History (labled Sardis) saw dramatic changes in civilization, government, culture, and the church.
Powerful Reformation preachers such as Luther, Calvin, Knox, and Zwingli sent spiritual and political earthquakes throughout Western civilization.
I would simply point out that the very same mistakes made in the supposed Pergamos period were made during the Reformational age and corruption resulted through similar political alliances.
It did not take too long before the Protestants were doing the exact same things as the Catholic Church, but in a modified way.
But before long “churches of the Reformation” became as cruel to their detractors as the Roman church had been to them in the Inquisition and previous persecutions.
We will talk about Sardis when we get to it.
Quickly . . .

CHURCH OF PHILADELPHIA
(1844-mid 1990’s)
Philadelphia means brotherly love and this was supposed to be a period of Great Revival. Well, it was a period of great revival.
And then finally, Loadicea – the last of the Seven Churches, and is supposed to represent our present day and age – from the mid 1990’s to the end of all things, the Second Coming, the rapture.
LAODICEA
The name at first glance is just the towns name – nothing more. Historicists have said it means warm springs, lukewarm, etc. Not so.
The closest we can get to an actual meaning (and we may be wrong) is appealing to the Greek and believe that the town name Laos (which means people) and then Dike (which means decision) can be combined and the place means the people decide.

And from here the thinking is that it means that in this age the people appeal to their own wisdom rather than to God.
That the Laodiceans trust in their ability to rule themselves, judging and deciding matters to the exclusion of Christ’s rule within His Church.
Of course this is not only apparent here in our age but it has been apparent in all the church ages. And while it certainly is offensive to God when men take such measures I’m not so sure all of the bobbing and weaving to make a cohesive story here works.
Of course we will get to Laodicea . . . when we get to it.
Q and A
Prayer