Sundry times link Old and New Testament ideas

We update studies as the Lord Jesus leads us. You can find the latest update of this study at ChurchAges.net

A basic plan of God is to have 7 church ages

:2  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

Sundry times means there were certain times or ages in the past where God dealt with the Jews in such a way that it was a shadow or pattern of the seven church ages that lay in the future.

Only Jesus could change history and events in such a way that the Old Testament past became a preview of the future New Testament seven church ages that were predicted in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3.

This should prove that the Jehovah (more correctly JHVH) of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament. The same God in control of both Jews and church, using the same pattern.

Ephesus, the first church age from about AD 33 to around AD 170.

A church that God praised except that they lost their first love (of Scripture and began listening to human leaders).

Abraham, the first prophet of the Jews or Hebrews. Great man, great faith. But left his first love Sarah for Hagar. Now we have the Arab hatred of the Jews.

Smyrna, second church age (170 -313). Much Roman Empire persecution. The worst was a ten year persecution 303–313 started by Roman emperor Diocletian.

REVELATION 2:10. “Ye shall have tribulation ten days”.

A day symbolizes a year in prophecy. A ten-year tribulation to try to wipe out the Bible and the Christians.

REVELATION 2:10 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 ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. 

[In our days, the Christian missionary Andrew Brunson was imprisoned in the city of Izmir, which used to be called Smyrna, for absolutely no reason. Until President Trump imposed sanctions on Turkish steel. Then president Erdogan of Turkey quickly released the brave man Andrew].

But no criticisms are made in the Bible of these suffering Smyrna Christians.

Joseph, the prophet of this second Jewish age. Sold into slavery. Unjustly imprisoned.

He endured suffering, but there is no criticism of him in the Bible. He has a perfect testimony.

Pergamos, third church age (313–606). Emperor Constantine stops persecution of church and gives the Lateran palace and much wealth to the Roman church to elevate Roman church. The Roman church adopts pagan beliefs and enters politics to please. Constantine who wants the church and the pagans to unite. Thus elevated with political power, the Roman church then begins persecuting “heretics” who disagree with them. In AD 606 the bishop of Rome is declared Universal Bishop. Domination of the church by an elevated priesthood that has a supreme leader, the Pope or Pontiff of the Babylonian mysteries.

REVELATION 2:13 “Satan’s seat”.

Politics and pagan beliefs were hybridized into Christianity. Christmas.  25 December.  Good Friday. Easter Monday.  All these expressions are not in the Bible.

“Antipas”. (anti papas or anti pope) was a martyr. The Roman church began killings its opponents.

REVELATION 2:14 “Doctrine of Balaam”.

He opposed Moses who was the prophet for this Jewish age. Moses had the truth of God’s Word. Balaam had man-made doctrines that sounded clever but led to immorality and death.

REVELATION 2:15 “Doctrine of the Nicolaitans”.

Nico means conquer. Conquer the laity. Put a man in charge of the church. From now on each church would be run by a human head, the priest. This is the system of organized religion that the people wanted. Priests would be controlled by bishops, then archbishops, then cardinals, then the Pope (Very unscriptural titles).

God wanted many small churches, not a big church that made one man important.

There were no church buildings in the first church age. Believers met in homes in small groups.

Clubbed into submission the people or laity just accepted these unscriptural beliefs. The light of the Bible was ignored and banned. Bible faith died out.

This took the world into the Dark Ages as the Light of Scripture was rejected.

Thyaira, fourth church age (606–1500).

Thyatira means a dominating woman. A woman is a symbol of a church. The true church is the bride of Christ. The Roman church dominated Europe.

REVELATION 2:20 but the church is called “Jezebel”, the most evil woman of the Old Testament.

REVELATION 2:24 “The depths of Satan”

The blood thirsty lusts and viciousness of the Crusades. The terror and unspeakable cruelty of the sadistic Inquisition. The utter corruption of Popes like the Borgias. The church could not sink much lower.

Very few like the Waldenses or Vaudois who fled into the wilderness of the Alps still believed the truth. They had copies of a Bible that they has got from Antioch in AD 120 which they translated in AD 157 until they joined the Protestant reformation in 1520.

The Jewish prophet in the age of Jezebel was Elijah. Faith was dying out in Israel. God said only 7000 Jews still believed.

Sardis, the fifth church age (1520 - about 1750) Sardis means escaped ones.

The age of the Reformation when God began to restore Bible truth.

Luther’s Reformation enabled Protestants to escape from Catholicism. Luther preached salvation by faith in Christ alone. No church works can save us. The Pilgrim Fathers escaped from Europe that was dominated by Rome and went to America. America then amazingly arose as a bastion of Protestantism to give us great men like Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, and William Branham.

But putting a pastor in charge of a church just led to endless splits and much infighting as many Roman church beliefs stayed in the Protestant denominations that kept multiplying. Today there are 45000 different kinds of churches and denominations. Something went seriously wrong.

“Pastor” is only mentioned once in the New Testament and condemned 6 times in Jeremiah. Thus there is no scriptural authority for a pastor to be in charge of a church.

REVELATION 3:1 “Thou hast a name that thou livest but are dead”.

Church-goers called themselves Lutherans, Anglicans, Catholics, Presbyterians, Calvanists etc. God detests these unscriptural labels. People huddle in a church and stick some label on their church and think that makes them safe while they play follow-my-leader with his man-made beliefs.

The early church were just called Christians. Each local group was ruled by a group of local elders. Lots of small churches stopped any man getting too important.

The elevation of a holy man above their people or laity is Nicolaitane, which God hates.

REVELATION 3:4 “Thou hast a few names in Sardis which have not defiled their garments”.

Salvation is by grace through faith. Not dependent on a church or a preacher. Not dependent on good works.

But the splintering Protestant movement was building man-made doctrinal walls of exclusion around themselves.

The start of Luther’s Reformation was symbolized by Ezra who brought the treasure back into the Temple. The treasure of the Bible was Luther’s great discovery that the Just shall live by faith in Jesus and His Word alone. Repentance whereby we accept Jesus as a personal Saviour is the only key to Heaven.

Philadelphia, the sixth church age (1750–1906) means brotherly love. The golden age of Christianity was this missionary age of holiness and outreach. The industrial revolution that began about 1750 brought much wealth. Steam ships took missionaries overseas and steam trains took them inland. The Word of God spread.

REVELATION 3:8 “I have set before thee an open door”.

The mission fields. England ruled one quarter of the world where English and Scottish missionaries could travel without a visa.

Christ crucified is the Door to Heaven.

These brave missionaries, despite all their tremendous difficulties, took the Gospel to the heathen. There are no criticisms of this church age. Missionaries, trying to get people saved, are always in the will of God.

The sixth Jewish age was in the time of Nehemiah who built up the walls of Jerusalem. That made the city strong.

Brotherly love, crossing the sea to get an unknown heathen saved, is the strength of Christianity. Holiness sets a great example of Christian strength.

The seventh church of the Laodiceans (1906- ) Laodicea means people’s rights. This is our modern age. We demand rights and evade responsibility.

It started with the Pentecostal Welsh revival of 1904 and the Pentecostal revival at Azusa Street in Los Angeles in 1906.

But God says nothing good about our end-time church which He describes as lukewarm and vomit in God’s mouth.

REVELATION 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

:17 “Thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods”.

Our materialistic prosperity gospel of greed.

”And knowest not”. Fast asleep, totally unaware of our true condition. We think we are wonderful but God sees us as

“and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked": 

spiritually and Biblically poor or ignorant, blind to Bible truth, naked”.

Just look how modern day church women dress. [South Africa win the rugby world cup and then some men celebrate by running around in underpants. The only naked man that Jesus met was a madman.]

Preachers are powerless before the demons that strip the clothes off our women.

:20 “I stand at the door and knock”

Jesus has been rejected by His own church.

The seventh Jewish age was the prophet John the Baptist. He presented Jesus to the Jews as a Man and they rejected Him.

In our day God tried to reveal the mysteries of Scripture to the church and we have rejected the revelation of Jesus as the revealed Word of God.

Scholars have retranslated the Greek New Testament 28 times until Christians are now convinced that there is no perfect Bible. They criticize the Bible as flawed, poorly translated with mistakes, myths, and contradictions.

But the Bible is God’s way of thinking. You cannot separate a person from their thoughts. So what we say about the Bible, we are saying about Jesus.

The criticized Jesus stands unwanted outside the church. Just as rejected as what the Jews did to Jesus.

“In sundry times”. How God dealt with theJews in their seven times or ages, was the same pattern with which he would deal with the church in their 7 ages or times.

Let us not forget that the Jews are gathering in Israel.

When the Jews rejected Jesus the Man, then He turned to the Gentiles.

We Gentiles prefer church doctrines and traditions to the Bible, which is Jesus in Word form. As soon as Jesus feels that the Bible mysteries that He has revealed in our age are not wanted by the modern church, then He will turn back to the Jews to collect the 144000. And the rejecting church will get straightened out in the Tribulation.

Please remember that there are no prophecies or parables that refer to the end time church that are complimentary.

Or even more correctly YHVH or YHWH (Yod Heh Vav Heh or Yod Heh Wah Heh).

These words are not used in the New Testament. God has not used them for 2000 years. God’s Old Testament names fell out of use when He took on His human New Testament name, Jesus.