The Seven Churches ---Thyatira and Sardis
(Continued)
B. G. Wilkinson
Synopsis of Article 1.—The seven churches
of the first three chapters of Revelation are
prophetic—a chain of churches reaching from
Christ’s ascension to the second advent, Ephe-
sus, the first church, is the apostolic church,
1-100 A.D. Smyrna, the second, is the church
of the persecution, 100-325 A.D. Pergamos, the
third, has become the church Imperial of the
Roman empire, 325-358 A.D.
FROM PROGRESS TO CONFUSION
NEW turn in affairs is seen
when we come to Thyatira, the
fourth church. Light springs
> up in the midst of darkness.
There is this vast difference be-
tween the church of Ephesus and the
church of Thyatira. While Ephesus, the
first church, grows toward a worse con-
dition, according to the description of
the Lord, Thyatira, the fourth church,
is making progress toward the light.
Things are growing better. “Remember,
therefore, from whence thou art fallen,”
the Lord says of Ephesus. But of Thya-
tira he says, “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.” Here is a church
coming back to primitive Christianity.
Her last end is better than her first.
What can be making this change?
Who is this church, and over what pe-
riod of the Christian era does she extend?
In the first place, it is plain that a sepa-
ration is going on, In this church there
are those who have their eyes on the Son
of God, and like him, are making prog-
ress ; and there are those who have their
eves on the woman Jezebel. In studying
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the first class we see the reason for the
change; in studying the second class we
are able to arrive at the time. In order,
then, first to determine what period of
time this church covers, let us consider
what is meant by the woman Jezebel.
“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.” Rev.
2:20. The preceding church, Pergamos,
had been prosperous. But if prosperity
is dangerous to the life and aims of
Christ’s church, earthly power is her
ruin, It has pleased Christ to liken his
church unto a woman. (See 2 Cor. II:
2; Eph. 5: 32.) While she remains faith-
ful,. she is his wife, pure and chaste.
When, however, she falls back into sin
from whence she was taken, he likens
her unto an adulteress, to a wife whose
affections are alienated. She is not re-
jected, however, From a state of worldly
prosperity in 325 A. D., the Christian
church, by worldly ambition and un-
scriptural means, gradually sought the
dominant place in the city of Rome. For
long years she was compelled to stimu-
late the wars of the emperor, whose capi-
tal was then in Constantinople, against
the heretical Arian powers, in whose
hands was the coveted city. At length,
in 538, success attended the imperial
arms, so that the city of Rome was de-
livered from the Arian Ostrogoths and
left in the hands of the Catholic bishops.
To a woman beginning to lose her love