Revelation Chapter Two Part Two
jame...@btinternet.com
TO THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA
Revelation 2:18-26, “And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira
write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a
flame of fire, and his feet [are] like fine brass; I know thy works,
and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works;
and the last [to be] more than the first. Notwithstanding I have a few
things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which
calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to
commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave
her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I
will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into
great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill
her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he
which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of
you according to your works. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in
Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known
the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other
burden. But that which ye have [already] hold fast till I come. And he
that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give
power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as
the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I
received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He that
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
1 Kings 16:31 states, “And it came to pass, as if it had been a light
thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he
took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and
went and served Baal, and worshipped him.” Ahab the king of rebellious
tentribed Israel, married Jezebel who was a Phoenician princess. We
are familiar with the events of 1 Kings 18:13-19, “Was it not told my
lord what I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the LORD, how I hid
an hundred men of the LORD'S prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them
with bread and water? And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold,
Elijah [is here]: and he shall slay me. And Elijah said, [As] the LORD
of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely shew myself unto
him to day. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him: and Ahab went
to meet Elijah. And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab
said unto him, [Art] thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I
have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye
have forsaken the commandments of the LORD, and thou hast followed
Baalim. Now therefore send, [and] gather to me all Israel unto mount
Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the
prophets of the groves four hundred, which eat at Jezebel's table.”
and patience.
The latter false prophets taught Israel to worship idols and to burn
incense to images of the Gentile goddess Astaroth whom they called
the “Queen of Heaven” in Jeremiah 44:16-18, “[As for] the word that
thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken
unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of
our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour
out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our
kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of
Jerusalem: for [then] had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw
no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven,
and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all [things],
and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.”
We ask at what period in church history did the so called Christian
Church persecute and kill the true prophets of the Lord while elevating
false prophets who taught the people idolatry and thus spiritual
fornication? The answer to this question without a doubt was the church
under the Papacy especially from 606 AD, to the Reformation in 1517.
This prophecy was also equally applicable to the Greek Church in the
Eastern half of the Roman Empire. The “Thyatira” church is the middle
church of the seven, and it was the church of the middle ages which
killed millions of true saints who refused to worship idols and images
as mediators to God. The false priesthood of the dark ages taught the
people to worship Mary, the mother of Jesus, as if Divine and to call
her the “Queen of Heaven,” the very same sin which Jezebel led Israel
of old to commit. There are numerous Catholic paintings of Mary in the
Art Galleries of the world, such as the Tate Gallery with the Gentile
heathen title below “The Queen of Heaven,” Yet Mary died almost 2000
years ago, nor is there any historical or Biblical record that she was
at any time resurrected or taken up into heaven. Therefore Roman and
Greek Catholics who worship Mary, burn incense to her, and call her
the “Queen of Heaven,” are really worshipping under an assumed name the
goddess Astaroth whom the children of Israel were taught to worship by
Jezebel’s false priests. “Thyatira” means “ruled by a woman,” and
surely Jezebel metaphorically ruled the whole church of the Middle Ages.
Christ said that this church would have plenty of time to repent. In
the East, the Greek Church never repented of its superstitions and
images in spite of the scourge of the Mohammedan Arabs in the seventh
and eighth centuries.
In the West, it is now 400 years since the light of the Reformation
burst through the darkness, yet the Church of Rome has never repented,
but instead has fought the light.
Christ’s prophecy that therefore the Thyatira church would
suffer “great tribulation” has been fulfilled (1) in the East, by the
almost total destruction of the Greek church at the hands of the Turks
and Russians; and (2), in the West, by the mutilation of the Roman
Catholic church through the French Revolution and from the Communists
and Nazis in Spain, Germany and Poland, etc. Finally Christ warns the
remainder of the “Thyatira” church that her children will be killed
with death at His second advent, when He comes to judge all
antiChristian systems in “flaming fire.”
These events are predicted by Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-8, “Now we
beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and [by]
our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or
be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us,
as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any
means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away
first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is
worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing
himself that he is God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you,
I told you these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that he might
be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work:
only he who now letteth (hinders) [will let], until he be taken out of
the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall
consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the
brightness of his coming.” The hindering power was not the Holy Spirit
but the worship of the Caesars of Imperial Rome who after Julius Caesar
were all “Pontifex Maximus.”
Hence His title “with eyes like unto a flame of fire,” is a warning to
this church of her final judgment, Revelation 1:14, “His head and [his]
hairs [were] white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes [were] as
a flame of fire.”
However there were to be some Christians in the Thyatira period who
would not “have known the depth of Satan” This latter description
indicates that Christ must have regarded this church as the very
masterpiece of Satanic delusion.
All whet have read anything of the history of the Roman and Greek
churches, with their wicked deceptions, will readily admit the accuracy
o Christ’s prophetical description of that period in church history. To
the “overcomers” He will give the privilege of ruling the nations in
the millennium, which will be a contrast to their humiliating
persecution at the hands of that counterfeit Christianity.
Christ’s title to sit in judgment as “The Son of God,” is surely a
rebuke to the church of the Middle Ages which reduced Christ to the
subordinate position of babe, the “Son of Mary,” instead of the
triumphant resurrected Son of God, and only mediator between God and
sinful humanity
Notice how in the messages to the last four churches, Christ points
forward to His second advent. This simply means that from “Thyatira”
onwards each church would continue functioning right up to the second
advent, although, of course, each would pass it zenith as a succeeding
phase began to predominate. End of Revelation Chapter 2.
Welcome to the Historicist-Futurist, Pre-Millennial, A-Millennial,
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1335 on the Hegirah. It was Sunday December 9th 1917, which was also
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begin to come to pass, [then look up], and lift up your heads; for your
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