Revelation describes past and future

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Symbols of the Book of Revelation have a real meaning

Let us consider the symbol of the 7 candlesticks mentioned in the first three chapters of Revelation.

This idea comes from the central candlestick with six branches that was in the holy place in the Jewish tabernacle. What does it symbolize?

According to some historians there was no church in the city of Thyatira by the time John the Revelator died about the year AD 100. The church only came into existence later. There were no “Balaam” or “Jezebel” in these early churches.

Consequently, these names refer to periods in Jewish history when false leaders raised up to oppose God’s men of those time-periods who were Moses and Elijah, respectively. The two witnesses who will return to Israel in great Tribulation (Revelation Chapter 11) to guide them back to Messiah.

Thus, the “mystery of the seven churches” means that each of the existing six churches, and the soon-to-be-formed church in Thyatira, had within them the characteristics of a future age that the Christian church would go through.

Around AD 100, the last apostle died and ambitious human leaders, called Nicolaitans who conquered the laity or congregation, began to rise up in the church. Ephesus means aimed at and relaxed. Little unscriptural errors began to creep in. One-man-leadership of the church began to creep in. People did not care about remaining strictly Scriptural, but the trickle of error would grow into a flood of unscriptural ideas in later ages. This first church age ended around AD 170, when Bishops were taking over the leadership of the churches. They introduced the Nicolaitan spirit. The first church age was built on the New Testament and the doctrines of the apostles. The Word of God was their Absolute. A group of elders ruled each local church. The only name they had was Christian. This became the foundation of what the church should be like in all ages. The apostles never got involved in politics. The murderous Nero was emperor in Paul’s day. Paul could have had a great time listing Nero’s faults but Paul just said that we must pray for the leaders. Paul always boosted Christ as the fullness of the Godhead. Nero would die, so Paul ignored him, but Jesus would remain as the Word of God, so Paul uplifted Him. Jesus, the Lion of Judah.

This candlestick represents the first church age of the New Testament. Our best example of a Christian church that was not involved in pagan traditions (25 December festival, Christmas tree decorations, sign of the cross, eat fish on Friday, lent, or politics). They constructed no church buildings nor lusted for power over people. They did not lust after money as they had all things in common.

The apostles established the best kind of church. Christians should just copy the beliefs of that first church age. We cannot improve on them as they were trained by Jesus.

Church age 2.

Then, after the death of the last apostle, human leadership introduced error into the church as deviations from Scripture began. The fumdamental error in any church is to make one man the head of the church. Men began to call themselves by new unscriptural titles like “the Bishop of Antioch”. Elders had ruled the early church that were usually small local groups that met in houses. The first building used as a church was only built around AD 220, according to archaeologists. The word “pastor” is only mentioned once in the New Testament but condemned prophetically six times in the Book of Jeremiah. There is no Scriptural authority for a Pastor being the head of the church. (Especially since there are more than 2000 different types of churches today, headed by thousands of Pastors with different beliefs. A real spiritual swamp).

As time passed, the church began to drift away from strict New Testament standards. Religious deception was creeping in. Jesus had warned, “Take heed that no man deceive you” in Matthew 24:4, but people preferred human wisdom instead of Scripture.

Smyrna means bitterness and death. Persecution and poverty stopped the church straying too far from the example of the first church age. God commended this church age as the people stayed mainly Scriptural and out of politics, just calling themselves Christians.

An unpalatable truth is that persecution and poverty is good for the church.

The church was still shining bright with human wisdom but the truth was shrinking, so the second church age looked like this, in terms of truth:

Church age 3.

The Council of Nicaea put the official church under the domination of a ruthless political tyrant Constantine. The bishop of Rome was backed by the Roman emperor Constantine and Rome's Bishop then wanted influence over other cities. Unscriptural words and political involvement entered the church. Pagan traditions were dressed up in Bible terms. Christmas on a made up date of 25 December that copied the birthday of the pagan sun god, was declared around AD 350 to be a church festival by Julius I, the Bishop of Rome. The Bible never asked us to remember the birth of Jesus. Spreading this unscriptural Christmas as a major church doctrine and festival around the world helped to establish the authority over other churches, of the Roman Pope and the Roman calendar, which had been changed in 45 BC by the pagan Roman dictator-for-life, Julius Caesar.

Satan was aiming for dictatorship over the church.

DANIEL 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws:

Rome changed the times with their new calendar. They changed laws with the unscriptural Christmas, Good Friday, Lent, Easter Monday, and Sunday Sabbath.

Denomination is an unscriptural word that was taking over the church world.

Constantine showered political authority, money, and buildings on the church.

Thus, the church listened to him, not the Bible.

Pergamos means thoroughly married. The church was married to paganism, worldliness, wealth, and politics. Greek philosophy such as "one-God-in-three-Persons" and "Eternal Sonship" took people away from Scripture.

In AD 325 the Bishops were forced to accept the unscriptural word "Trinity". Going outside the Bible was darkness. Church-goers began killing and persecuting those Christians who disagreed. The Ox represents the beast of slaughter. The sword of political involvement, with its hatreds, resulted in church-goers killing Christians who rejected unscriptural church doctrines.

The church shone brightly with human opinions. But the third church age looked like this, in terms of truth.

Church age 4.

A massive church hierarchy with unscriptural titles would grow to dominate the dark age where the Bible was in Latin and not read by ordinary people. People were often killed just for owning a Bible. This was the church age of Thyatira, which means a dominating woman, the Roman Catholic church, who killed millions. A woman symbolizes a church. Her history is described in Revelation Chapter 17. The awful Borgia popes represented a pit of depravity as truth was buried under the dirt of the dark age. Political power, church laws, and human greed dominated the church. The official church dominated Europe and truth died before the onslaught of unscriptural church traditions, man-made doctrines, and the power struggles unleashed by the love of money. True believers had to flee to wilderness areas like the Waldenses who hid in the mountains of the Alps. Pope, Cardinal, Metropolitan, and Archbishop are all unscriptural titles but that is what ruled the church. The seed of Bible truth was buried in the dirt and superstition of the dark age, but this would allow the seed of truth to start germinating in Martin Luther’s brave Reformation.

The church was illuminated with cunning human doctrines, superstitions, and subtle Greek philosophies with their brilliant defence of error.

But in terms of Bible truth, which had shrunk to a minimum, this is how the fourth church age looked:

Chapter 2 of the Book of Revelation lists four churches.

They represent the first four church ages. Four is the middle of seven. So, the fourth church age is known as the middle age or dark age, when the church ruled Europe.

EVIL means that the churches kept moving further away from the beliefs of the first church age that was set up by the apostles.

The truth had steadily declined from the apostolic age towards the brutal and superstitious dark age of churchianity which had effectively replaced Christianity. Human traditions and church doctrines had moved away from the Bible truths of the Book of Acts and the New Testament. Nobody baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. (Acts 2:38)

The fourth lamp had little Bible truth compared to the first lamp.

The red arrow represents EVIL, the churches moving away from the example and teachings of the New Testament church of the first church age. By 1500 the churches were almost totally brainwashed with error.

The first four church ages had one thing in common, a movement away from the New Testament church. This was slow at first and easily overlooked, but then it began to pick up speed and dominate church beliefs.

Chapter 3 of the Book of Revelation mentions three church ages where the opposite happened as people began to long for Scriptural truth.

LIVE is EVIL written backwards.

Reformers would try to move the church back closer to the Bible beliefs of the first church age of the apostles.

Church age 5.

Then, brave Martin Luther in Germany defied the murderous church system, and the reformers of this age were the first leaves shooting up as the seed Word of God began to germinate. The reformers restored salvation by faith in Christ and not by works. Then Satan fought back and soon politics and violence re-entered the church. But a beginning had been made to get back to what the early apostles taught. The 5^th church age of Sardis, the escaped ones. The King James Version of the Bible was born in 1611 to give the Scripture in English and checked and re-checked to be finalized in 1769. Then the King James Bible formed the backbone of the golden missionary age when tens of thousands of English and Scottish missionaries devoted their lives to saving the heathen in far-away British Empire lands.

When the Reformation started, Luther stood out like a solitary light in the darkness. Saved by grace through faith alone. Soon, he was joined by other reformers. Luther probably had a far bigger impact on human history than what people realize.

The 5th church age looked like this. Luther had moved to the other side of the lampstand. He wanted to restore the apostolic doctrine of salvation in Christ alone. He did not want to use good works to move further away from the New Testament.

Church age 6.

Then John Wesley in England, abstaining from preaching politics and rejecting violence, restored holiness and outreach which laid the foundation for the great open door of the missionary age, where the life-giving pollen of the Word of God was carried around the world. This was the golden church age of Philadelphia, brotherly love. Unlike today, there were no sexual scandals and financial dishonesty amongst the missionaries. They put God first, not their own gain.

In the 3^rd and 4^th church ages, the Ox ages, Christians were killed and the truth lost. In the 5^th and 6^th church ages, God blessed human wisdom and scholarship and great reformers emerged. Luther restored salvation by faith. The King James Bible was translated, and Wesley restored holiness and outreach to the lost.

God was slowly starting to restore the church back to its early beliefs.

The truth of Scripture was getting stronger, so the sixth church age looked like this, as it became more Scriptural:

Church age 7.

The Pentecostal outpouring in Wales in 1904 and at the unknown downtown 312 Azusa Street building in Los Angeles in 1906, restored the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. The church was on track to being restored to the beliefs of the apostolic church of the New Testament. This was the husk that protects the seed Word.

But sadly, by 1917, Pentecost was denominating into factions just like the other churches had done.

Pentecostal churches picked up the evil of denominational organization and competitive churchianity. They made the fatal mistake of declaring the Pastor to be the head of the church. They developed a prosperity Gospel based on greed. Sex scandals and financial fraud ripped through the leadership ranks. The 7^th church age that showed much promise in 1906, fell into apostacy as the years passed. Foolish virgins (saved people) with unscriptural ideas lost the name of God and were unable to solve the deeper Bible mysteries. "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" is not a name. The Father is called Jehovah in the Old Testament, but the name Jehovah never appears in the New Testament. The Holy Ghost is given no name in Scripture.

The modern churches serve a nameless God. They have fallen into the same trap as the Muslims.

Allah means God in Arabic. The Muslims claim that "Allah" is the name of God.  But "God" is not the name of God.

So Muslims and church-goers both serve nameless Gods. That breaks the third Commandment. God has a name.

"Do not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain".

MATTHEW 13:12  ... but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. 

This is how the seventh church looks as it cannot discover the full truth of Scripture.

The church has come a long way from the Dark Age but is still not back to the beliefs of the original apostles.

So, in the last church age of Laodicea (people’s rights) the church lost direction.

They got richer and more materialistic instead of more Biblical. By refusing to accept the revealed mysteries of Scripture, the seventh church age becomes described as apostate.

REVELATION 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

In Matthew 25, all saved Christians are described as virgins, clean women. Some are wise (Spirit filled) and some are foolish (fooled by church leaders). But they are all described as fast asleep, both wise and foolish.

MATTHEW 25:5  While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. 

Today there are more than 2000 different kinds of denominational and non-denominational churches. That represents a wide spectrum of different beliefs.

Today’s church world that can get people saved (which is very good) but then proceeds to lose direction in a money-driven age that has many unscriptural traditions (which is bad). This mixture of good and bad makes the church lukewarm. As such they are keen to reject the end-time revelations of Scripture. Thus, Jesus stands outside the door of the church.

But the true Bride are individuals who know more Scripture and want to move out of the apostate 7^th church age, back to the first church age of the apostles.

Thanks to the restoration of Bible truth by the eagle-eyed end-time prophet from America, William Branham, who took us back to the original Bible truths of saint Paul, the main spokesman of the Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ. (The true name of God).

MATTHEW 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance:

God did not just want a restoration of the Holy Spirit power, He also wanted a full restoration of the Bible truth that had existed in the first church age.

JUDE 1:3  Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. 

 JOHN 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:

The proof of the Holy Ghost baptism is your ability to understand the deeper mysteries of God.

Today, the seed, which is the Word of God, has to ripen in the revealed truth of Scripture. But church-goers prefer church loyalty to Bible truth. Each person only believes what his or her church preaches. They learn to reject any revealed truth that is different to what their specific church teaches.

This is how the seventh church should look as it seeks to be restored in both Spirit and truth, to the New Testament first church age.

Thus, the restoration of Spirit and truth, back to the example and the beliefs of the New Testament church, since the Reformation of Luther, looks like this:

EVIL is turned around and becomes LIVE. This is shown by the red arrow as the churches are restored to the New Testament faith of the original apostles of the first church age.

Thus, looking at the full candlestick, in terms of the light of the Bible truth, reveals two trends.

Church ages 1 to 4, in Revelation Chapter 2, revealed a movement away from Scripture.

Church ages 5 to 7, in Revelation Chapter 3, reveal a movement back to Scripture that will only end when the last church is just like the first church.

Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, agree.

Please note that there is great depth in the symbols of Revelation.

The many symbols in the Book of Revelation cover the history of the church plus the events leading up to the Coming of the Lord and then the 3½ years of great Tribulation that sets in as the Gospel returns to the Jews. Then comes the titanic battle of Armageddon and the 1000 years of peace before the new Heaven and the new earth set in.

There will be no more sea.

The sea will explode and totally destroy the surface of the earth and burn up all the orbiting satellites. There will be no trace left of all our technological and scientific “marvels” that did great things but also caused much damage and produced huge imbalances.

The final unsustainable fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Eternity must be built on a much better foundation, which is Jesus Christ.

He somehow will combine both Heaven and earth for the welfare and benefit of those who became born again of both Spirit and Truth.

The Bride, the saved by grace wise virgins who studied to understand the deeper mysteries of Scripture, will dwell in the great city, New Jerusalem. They were fascinated by the thoughts of God as revealed in the King James Bible.

The church, the saved by grace foolish virgins, who are the vast majority of Christians. but who never understood the deeper mysteries of Scripture, will dwell outside the great city. They were never actually interested in trying to understand God's deeper thoughts. God loves them but was never actually interested in marrying them.