God’s Overview of Church History

“Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done” (Isa 46:10)

In Revelation 2 and 3, God gives us a very interesting prophetic overview of the development of Christianity in the course of church history. He does this on the basis of the seven epistles to the seven churches in Asia Minor. This shows us how ingenious the Bible is.

It goes from the abandonment of the first love at Ephesus after the death of the apostles, through the terrible time of suffering of the church in Smyrna under 10 emperors, to the marriage with the world at Pergamus, where Christianity was elevated to state religion under Constantine.

Then the long and sometimes brutal reign of the Catholic Church is shown through the church at Thyatira, followed by Protestantism at Sardis, the 19th century revival at Philadelphia and the current period of decline at Laodicea, in which we live today - where Christ stands outside and knocks!

In retrospect, there is no doubt that these developments occurred in exactly the same way!

J.P.S.