Revelation 2:1

REV:2

This chapter contains the first four of the seven letters to the churches which received these special communications from the Lord Jesus Christ through the apostle John as intermediary, these being: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum and Thyatira. But what do the letters mean? Are they to be understood as prophetic revelations regarding the seven successive ages of church history? Many scholars, of course, who take such view of them rather confidently interpret these seven ages of the church thus:

The Church Addressed / Typifies:

Ephesus -- The apostolic period

Smyrna -- The period of persecution

Pergamum -- The times of union with the state of Rome

Thyatira -- The Dark Ages

Sardis -- The Reformation

Philadelphia -- The evangelization movement

Laodicea -- The final period before the Second Advent

G. Campbell Morgan made the above applications.[1]

A deep respect is felt for the sincere students of the Holy Scriptures who accept this and similar views of these seven churches; but there are a number of considerations which forbid our agreement with them:

(1) The applications simply do not fit. Sardis, for example, could not possibly represent the church of Jesus Christ during the age of Reformation, because this, as regards the true church was a time of its greatest zeal and purity.

(2) The conditions typical of each of these seven congregations, from the very beginning of the Christian era, and until the present time, are to be found simultaneously existing in all the ages of the church. Right now, there are "brotherly love" churches (Philadelphia), "lukewarm" churches (Laodicea), and even "wicked" churches (Sardis), etc.; and we find full agreement with Criswell who wrote:

All seven co-exist together: some that are aflame with missions (Philadelphia), some that are paying the price with their lives (Smyrna), some that are cooling off in their devotion (Ephesus), and some that are taking it easy in Zion (Laodicea).[2]

(3) These letters appear here in their normal geographical sequence, each in turn being next on the list for anyone attempting to visit all seven. They have nothing to do with any chronological succession of churches or conditions to the end of time.[3]

(4) Furthermore, all seven of these churches existed simultaneously in a relatively small area at the time John wrote. This is a powerful suggestion that the various conditions pointed out would continue to exist simultaneously throughout history, which they do, as a matter of fact.

(5) Added to all this is the absolute lack of any solid agreement as to when one age terminated and another age began. For these, and for other reasons that will appear in the comments on these letters, they shall be regarded here as applicable in their entirety to all generations. In fact, the material addressed to each church was, at the time John wrote, applicable to all. As Hinds pointed out:

It is unnecessary to conclude that these very short letters were sent separately to the respective churches. Each congregation received all of them, with the rest of the book.[4]

The repeated admonition "Hear what the Spirit saith to the churches" makes what is written to any one of these applicable to all the "churches."

Despite our disagreement with what for many is the normal understanding of these letters, it must be admitted that, "There is a remarkable coincidence between these seven letters and the sequence of periods suggested."[5]

[1] G. Campbell Morgan, An Exposition of the Whole Bible (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1959), pp. 533,534.

[2] W. A. Criswell, Expository Sermons on Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1962), p. 43.

[3] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John's Revelation (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Augsburg Publishing House, 1943), p. 82.

[4] John T. Hinds, A Commentary of Revelation (Nashville: Gospel Advocate Company, 1962), p. 34.

[5] Ralph Earle, Beacon Bible Commentary, Vol. 10 (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1967), p. 489.

To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, he that walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks:

EPHESUS

This is actually the second inspired letter to Ephesus, the canonical book of Ephesians having, in all probability, been directed to this same congregation. See the introduction in my Commentary on Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. Regarding the city itself:

It was the major city of the great Roman province of Asia which embraced a large area of what is now Asia Minor. Its history reached into the remote past, tradition claiming that it was originally founded by the Amazons. Blaiklock stated that the "city was at least ten centuries old when Paul entered it."[6] Alexander the Great captured it in 334 B.C.; but one of his generals, Lysimachus, inherited it; but by the times of the apostles, it was a thoroughly Roman city, but with a Culture deeply colored by the pagan associations with the city's past. Artemis, the principal deity (the Biblical Diana), actually went back to the old Asiatic goddess of nature; but by Paul's time her worship had taken on a different character. Symbolized by a monstrous object of worship (reportedly having fallen from heaven, and possibly a meteorite) that resembled roughly a human female figure with grotesque multiple breasts, her temple, four times the size of the Athenian Parthenon, had become in the days of the apostles perhaps the most important building in Asia. It was a combination of the Bank of England, a city of refuge, a manufacturing and commercial center, and the heart of the whole pagan area. The original temple burned the night Alexander the Great was born; and later, he offered to give his wealth to rebuilding it, if they would inscribe his name on the portal. The Ephesian priests declined with the comment that it was not appropriate for one God's name to be inscribed on the temple of another God! The character of that temple as a city of refuge resulted in the entire sanctuary area, a quarter of a mile in all directions, becoming one of the vilest collections of thieves, murderers, and lawless persons ever known on earth.[7]

By the times of the apostles, the harbor had begun to silt up, and Ephesus was rivaled by other cities. It was, in a sense, a decaying metropolis; and some have supposed that the general character of the city may have contributed to the waning ardor of the Ephesian congregation.

Despite this, it was far and away the most important city of the entire area when John wrote, and it was appropriate enough that the first of these letters should have been addressed to the congregation in Ephesus.

Ephesus with its great temple continued until 262 A.D., when it was sacked and destroyed by the Goths. The Edict of Theodosius closed all the pagan temples about 389 A.D.

Today, a Turkish village, Ayassoluk, the modern representative of ancient Ephesus, stands about a mile northeast of the ancient city.[8] In view of the wretched history of this city in the post-apostolic period, one must conclude that God did indeed remove her candlestick out of its place.

The angel of the church ... See introduction for discussion of this. It cannot be that a literal angel is meant, because that would involve supposing that God sent a message through a mortal to a supernatural being. It cannot mean the local bishop, pastor, or other officer of the church; because it would not be in harmony with the justice of God to believe that such a human officer would have been condemned, or complimented, for what other humans were doing. The angel here is fully accountable for the condition of the church, and this demands the thought of some kind of personification, or by extension, every Christian. After all, every Christian is kept firmly in the Saviour's right hand.

The seven stars in his right hand ... All of these letters reflect the magnificent description of the Christ given in the foregoing chapter, the particular details chosen for the reference to Christ in each case being usually understood as especially appropriate to the time and circumstance in each city. Christ's holding the stars in his hand, as here, suggests the utmost concern of the Lord for every single one of the Christians, the waning love of the Ephesians for each other (as some think) being a tacit denial of the great truth thus symbolized.

Walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks ... This indicates the active, constant, and persistent energy in which Christ is concerned with the welfare of every church and every Christian.

[6] E. M. Blaiklock, Cities of the New Testament (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1965), p. 62.

[7] E. J. Banks, ISBE, p. 961.

[8] Encyclopedia Britannica (Chicago: William Benton, Publisher, 1961), Vol. 8, p. 644.