Were The Seven Letters Written To Today's Church?

In this regular feature Dave and Tom respond to questions from listeners and readers of The Berean Call.Here’s this week’s question:“Dear Dave and TA:In the Book of Revelation, when our Lord is speaking to the seven churches, he has some pretty harsh things to say to most of them.For example, He tells the church at Ephesus to: repent and do the first works or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lamp stand from its place unless you repent.He tells the church at Pergamos that: because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, and you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate, repent or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.He tells the church of Thyatira regarding Jezebel: indeed I will cast her into a sick bed and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent of their deeds and I will kill her children with death.He tells the church at Sardis: if you will not watch I will come upon you as a thief as you will not know what hour I will come upon you.He tells the church at Laodicea: I will vomit you out of my mouth.My question is- if these churches represent churches down through history, can we expect Jesus to deal similarly with the church of today?If so, how do you see that happening?”

Tom:

Well, Dave, first of all, I mean, it’s interesting to read these verses, I mean, Jesus is dealing with the church, this is discipline, this is those whom He loves He corrects, He chastises, He scourges.

Dave:

Now, He’s calling them to repentance, and it does not sound as though Jesus is at all pleased with the developments in the early church.So why are we going back to the early church, to the church fathers in order to get classical Christianity as they call it.

Tom:

And Dave, much of what was in the early church, this is Nicolaitanes, this is the beginning of a clergy class, and these are the roots of Roman Catholicism.

Dave:

Well, Tom, as I said earlier, all of the epistles, most of them were written to bring correction, and we read them for that purpose to gather some correction for ourselves.And Paul, again, quoting Paul: says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, is profitable, or to be used for doctrine (there we get doctrine again) reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness.” And that would include the letters to the seven churches from Christ.So, we’re going to get some doctrine, we’re going to get some correction and instruction in righteousness.Now, what does that mean about the church of today?Well, we have such a variety of churches today the Lord has to deal with them separately, but not too many of them are even heeding His Word.They’re not reading the Bible; they don’t really honor that it as God’s Word; and they’ve got phony translations, like The Message and the Renovaré Spiritual Formation Bible, and so forth.So, the correction will be applied in judgment after death for the leaders who led people astray.Now the Lord doesn’t interfere—He wrote to these churches, it doesn’t tell us how many actually heeded what he wrote.

Tom:

Well, all their lamps went out, Dave.Right?I mean, you go to Turkey today, which is that area, try and find a church with any light at all, not that there aren’t some believers there.

Dave:

It’s horrible.So Tom, the question for us is- what will we learn for the church today?What will we learn, and what will we put into practice?Where will we allow ourselves to be corrected?And from everything that we’ve been studying about the EmergingChurch, I don’t get the impression that this is what the churches today want.They want to get farther from the Bible, and they want to follow some example of lighting candles and icons and tradition, and so forth.It’s up to individuals, and Tom, I’m sure that God is able to speak to the hearts of individuals who then bring a corrective process influence in the local church where they are.And I was just; in fact, I was just speaking at a local church that I think is terrific.They really go by the Bible.They were not always that way, and they have come to this by obedience to the Word of God, and I’m sure many other churches are doing the same.But at the same time, many of them are under the condemnation that Christ gives to these seven churches.

Tom:

Right.Now Dave, just to throw this in, when you say “local church” we’re not talking about THE local church, we’re just talking about a church in a local community, right?Dave, the other thing about this is, at least in my mind, we need to have a heart for God’s Word, we need to be willing to desire what he desires, or else, I think, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, where it talks about, God will send strong delusion.I think if our hearts are for what God does not want, then strong delusion is going to take over, and we’re going to reap what we sow.

Dave:

Tom, I do not know how you could explain what we have been exposing here on this program, except as a strong delusion.These men and women are under a strong delusion, because they have abandoned the Word of God, and they’re leading many astray into the same delusion, and they love it, apparently, many do