"Blessed is the man whom thou dost chasten, O Lord, and whom thou dost teach out of thy law" ( Psalms 94:12). There "a strong angel" is associated with the large scroll. "These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes as a flame of fire, and his feet like fine brass." If this is the meaning, this phrase describes the life of untroubled goodness which is lived when, after the battles of earth, we reach the presence of God. To report dead links, typos, or html errors or suggestions about making these resources more useful use the convenient, Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament, The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary, International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. You go into a post-Christian era when you get to Europe. we're increased with goods, we have need of nothing; you know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked ( Revelation 3:17 ): Interesting how the church observes itself and how Jesus observes the church. Why espouse a book that you can't trust or is not true? From the hour of temptation - The season; the time; the period of temptation. Outskirts Press helps authors develop and publish high-quality books by offering exceptional design, printing, publishing, distribution, and book marketing services. An angel setting forth representation (human or not), an ideal representative of each assembly is meant. The connection of the Son with creation is frequently made in the New Testament. Now, I shall speak for myself and for you, and I know that we can bear witness that this promise is true. The reader is encouraged to "have ears to hear what the Spirit says to the churches", even down to our own day. Let them cry "Lo here, or lo there," but believe them not. (iv) On the faithful Christian the name of the new Jerusalem is to be written. You have been a receiver yourself until now, and that is well and good; but, now that you have become filled, overflow to others, and let them receive of your joy. It is the present imperative and means: "Keep on remembering; never allow yourself to forget." Where are they to be found? The seven spirits signifies the completeness of the gifts of the Spirit and the universality of his presence. This, I think, is meant. Behold, I will make of them the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee ( Revelation 3:9 ). [Note: Showers, p. Was it not thus when the epistle to the Ephesians was written by Paul? We can see now why it was. If they are what they should be, they will not think so much of our little praises as to be unduly exalted thereby; but they will be sometimes so encouraged as to be nerved to higher and nobler things. By whom this letter was signed; even by the same Jesus who is alone the universal head of all the churches; and here observe by what title he chooses to represent himself to this church: He that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, c. You have his personal character: He that is holy and he that is true, holy in his nature, and therefore he cannot but be true to his word, for he hath spoken in his holiness and you have also his political character: He hath the key of David, he openeth, and no man shutteth; he hath the key of the house of David, the key of government and authority in and over the church. "I am the Lord, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King" ( Isaiah 43:15). The faithful ones will be citizens of the city where there is always the presence of God. First, it supplies us with an example. (b) Some scholars think that what is here promised is fixity of moral character. They who are faithful will share in that whiteness of light which is the garment of God himself. It does not mean He would preserve them through it (the posttribulation position) or remove them during it (the midtribulation position). While, therefore, he had all that is properly Christian, he also had very special communications of another character for saints who will follow us at the end of this age. A new evil appears. - NLTSB. Thus whether it be the depraving of souls or the forming sects after an earthly mould among those who were heavenly according to Paul, or whether it be the taking them away from the life of Christ, and from walking as He walked and simply putting them under Jewish ordinances, the Fathers, I fear, as a class, fully earned the awful distinction here assigned by the Lord. That is what the Philadelphian Church would see, at least in its beginnings, if its members were faithful. B. John is commissioned to preach. He is God. I am far from saying this because I do not feel for them much. When Cicero was travelling in Asia Minor it was at Laodicea that he cashed his letters of credit. What do the white robes signify? "Thou dwellest even where Satan's throne is." "We are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned along with the world" ( 1 Corinthians 11:32). To get at the armies of Cyrus he had to cross the River Halys. Let them abide in the place of patience, even though there be tribulation, as there must be if they are content to endure for Christ's sake now. "Be watchful, stand firm in your faith," he urges ( 1 Corinthians 16:13). Own . He is the new and living way into the presence of God. There may be individual reality even where the associations are miserably untoward. He seems to say, "Dear child, since you will not go beyond my written word, you shall not be tempted to go beyond it. "And from the seven Spirits which are before his throne." In certain cases we know that it might be a literal representative; for instance, when John the Baptist sends some of his disciples, there was a representation of his mind by men. It is quite true that, in the literal sense, Jesus Christ did not come back to those who were so warned and exhorted. Revelation 1:1-3 indicates the judgment of which this book is about, was to come soon, for the time is at hand. You might as well establish another religion on Mother Goose rhymes or something, or Aesops Fables. It has two aspects of meaning. "I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." I am afraid that there are great truths in God's word which we do not intelligently believe, but take for granted. Sardis was a city of degeneration. For the posttribulational interpretation, see Mounce, p. 119; aand Ladd, p. But it is another thing when we hear of the angel of this or that assembly. But, dear friends, as this expression was used to the angel of the church at Philadelphia, whom I suppose to be the minister of the church, I do not feel that I shall be doing any violence to the text if I take it in reference to each individual; and I have no doubt that there will be individual Christians present at this time who, though they have but little strength, have kept God's word. We have most of us heard what conflicts he had, and not merely at the beginning of his career but to the end. Faith sees that the blessed One, the holy and the true, is the same that has the key of David. They were true and ardent, but with no considerable light of knowledge if measured by a fuller and richer testimony which the Lord was afterwards to raise up, as foreshown in the next chapter. Nobody ever respects him. Temptation waits for our unguarded moments and then attacks. This has nothing to do with His presence for us; but after our own delight and thanksgiving have gone forth towards Jesus, the testimony to others most suitably follows the song of praise that had, I may say, involuntarily burst forth at His name. For whom it was more immediately designed: The angel of the church of Philadelphia; this also was a city in Asia Minor, seated upon the borders of Mysia and Lydia, and had its name from that brotherly love for which it was eminent. It is the fulness of the Holy Ghost's energy as an overruling power. When the children of Israel had hopelessly betrayed the Lord when their departure was complete before His eyes not only in the first rent-off portion, the ten tribes of Israel, but even the remaining two, when there was a stay and a lengthening of the tranquillity, when not only Judah, but even the house of David, the anointed king, the last regular link between God and His people, failed, then we find that God addressed not His people, but an only chosen faithful servant as His witness. 2 He was holding a little scroll, which lay open in his hand. He must, therefore, be ever on the watch. Here is the picture of Christ searching for sinful men who did not want him. Nor is it that I have any doubt that it is a great sin to wipe off all public recognition of God in the world. The Sardians had thought themselves too safe to need a guard; and so Sardis fell. They hoarded up divine knowledge in their memories, preserved it in their affections, used it in their experience, and practised it in their lives. We call our opponents heterodox, and our zeal for orthodoxy comes to the front; and yet, after all, it may be that we have never exercised a personel faith about those doctrines, so as to think them out for ourselves. So, because you are tepid and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. God is beginning the end, the resolution of all things, the gathering together (resolution, summing up) of all things in one in Jesus ( Ephesians 1:10 ). In gratitude it changed its name to Neocaesarea--the New City of Caesar. [48] Edward A. McDowell, The Meaning and Message of the Book of Revelation (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1951), p. 58. (b) The main theme of Revelation concerns the overthrow of the Roman persecutors, and this "overthrow" actually took place with the conversion of the Emperor Constantine in A.D. 312-313. So, we find within the church today a lot of relics from the Babylonian system, the Babylonian religion. Jesus Christ will mark his faithful ones with his new name: what that name was we need not even speculate, for no man knows it ( Revelation 19:12), but in the time to come, when Christ has conquered all, his faithful ones will bear the badge which shows that they are his and share his triumph. And so the day will come when they will acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah and I pray and long for that day. (c) In any land and time white is the colour of purity, and the white robes may stand for the purity whose reward is to see God. I do not mean of course for Christians, who needed no such bulwark as this, but for Christendom. God's threat passed on by Nahum to the disobedient people was: "I will let nations look on your nakedness, and on your kingdoms shame" ( Nahum 3:5). It is true for us all; but it is in harmony with the latter day sufferers, not what specially linked him with the Christians and the church. God is holy because he is different from men; he has that quality of being which belongs to him alone. Men who deserve praise can bear it, and some of them even need it. It was founded for a special purpose. But of this I would say but a few words, considering the late hour. How comes it, that for so many hundreds of years only a part of what the Fathers had laboured at sunk into the minds of men, a certain portion being rejected, as we know, by Protestantism; but now, when God brings out this fresh testimony, there rises a counter-testimony? We can rely on his words for he is the Amen. Hence it is not said here that He walks in the midst of the seven lampstands: that was ecclesiastical strictly. 208-18.]. 71-72; Thomas R. Edgar, "An Exegesis of Rapture Passages," in Issues in Dispensationalism, pp. "Jesus Christ" appears as "the faithful witness." How stand the facts? The motives, taken from the speedy appearance of Christ: "Behold, I come quickly. The faithful will share Christ's power at His coming, and be associated with Himself in His kingdom. He took counsel of the famous oracle at Delphi and was told: "If you cross the River Halys, you will destroy a great empire. All eye-salves in the ancient world caused the eyes to smart at their first application, and Laodicea had no wish to see itself as it was. One says to me, "Are you not perplexed about the prevalence of modern thought the new phase of divinity that has come up of late, and the general progress that is being made towards a new theology? The disciples go and give the message of him that they followed. Because thou hast kept the word of my patience - My word commanding or enjoining patience; that is, thou hast manifested the patience which I require. Your book matters, let's make it your way! Remember, Christ praises FAITHFULNESS, not success. It is this picture which is in John's mind. Therefore, as it is a holy thing, a heavenly thing, a priceless thing, keep you God's word. A Church which is so lethargic as to fail to produce a heresy is mentally dead; and a Church which is so negative as to fail to produce opposition is dead in its witness to Christ. And it was then that he uttered his famous saying to Croesus: "Call no man happy until he is dead." . I do not mean conflicts about the church, but about his soul, It is needless here to cite passages from his extant writings, which prove how sorely he was tried by inward conflicts of unbelief, which amply prove how far he was from the calm enjoyment of the peace of the gospel; but it is an error to impute them in themselves to any other cause than a lack of clear knowledge of grace. If you have been vacillating and shifty and tricky, and have believed everything and nothing, nobody will take any particular notice of what you say, except it be to shut the door against your uncertain prattle. He is a "miserable conqueror.". To try them that dwell upon the earth - To test their character. It, and be associated with himself in his kingdom has that quality of being which to... A post-Christian era when you get to Europe the Messiah and I pray and long for that day let... 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