Month: December 2023

Week 52  Revelation

This morning I was thinking about churches. Seven specific churches. Ephesus Smyrna Pergamum Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia & Laodicea.
I thought about ranking them: Best-to-Worst. In the end I figured it was a waste of time. I already knew who’d land at the top and bottom ends. Smyrna & Philadelphia would be #1A & #1B (I’d probably flip a coin to decide). Laodicea would be #7. The other four would be harder to put a number to.
I thought of other NT congregations. Rome. Corinth. The Galatian group. Philippi. Colossae. Thessalonica. Each one of them a bit different from all the others but lots of them in that middle-range mix of some strengths along with some weaknesses. Some of them heading generally up. Some tilting down. Some idling in neutral.
Anyway my tendency is to think that operating independently (being personally free of the church) has its merits. One big problem is that by the time I get to the book of Acts I know the standard practice is for independent believers to band together into something like Incorporated Believers Guilds. So overall it seems that forming a union is most common. For me it’s also preferable to going it alone.
I’m not much of a New Year’s Resolution guy. But it crosses my mind that a) being a better church-team player would be a good 2024 aim for me. And that b) my church Gold Standard should be something along the lines of the Smyrna-Philadelphia Model.

Note: I’m finished Revelation. Tomorrow: Genesis 1.

Week 52  Case 7 Laodicea

One of the things I’ve noticed about the six previous churches is that John either a) says some Good Things & some Bad Things about each church or else b) he just says some Good Things. But he’s got nothing Good to say about Laodicea.
As far as that goes he doesn’t have a list of Bad Things about Laodicea either. It’s like he has nothing much to say about them one way or the other. They aren’t hot. They aren’t cold. They’re the lukewarm church in the list – The Indifferent & Neutral & Nonpartisan Church of Laodicea.
It’s pretty clear the people in the Laodicean church didn’t view themselves that way. They’d done some kind of a self-assessment and discovered three very self-affirming things (a kind of Laodicean Creed):
I am rich
I have everything I want
I don’t need a thing.
This didn’t square with the church-assessment that the Lord had done. According to his findings the Laodicean congregation was: wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.
At least Ephesus Pergamum Thyatira & Sardis each had a couple of strengths – virtues to (arguably) balance out the shortfalls. But Laodicea had nothing. It was a nonchalant & unconcerned & easy-going Devil-may-care congregation.
The Lord ended by telling them to be diligent and turn from your indifference. But it’s hard to know how they’d manage a back-to-front 180-degree swing that would take them from I’m-Definitely-Okay to I’m-Not-Okay-At-All.

Note: Revelation 3:14-22. Quotes from 3:17 19 (NLT)

Week 52  Case 6 Philadelphia

The Lord says a couple of specific things about Philadelphia:
You have little strength
You obeyed my word
You didn’t deny me
You obeyed my command to persevere.
Obedience. Loyalty. Perseverance. Maybe on the surface not that impressive a list. But there’s no doubt Philadelphia had something going for it since the Lord told them: you are the ones I love.
The Lord also gave them one bit of advice: hold on to what you have, so that no one will take away your crown (I remembered Thyatira: I will ask nothing more of you except that you hold tightly to what you have).
I get the impression that Philadelphia was similar to Smyrna. John doesn’t say that Philadelphia was an impoverished and persecuted church like Smyrna. But he does say it wasn’t strong.
The other similarity was that Philadelphia & Smyrna were the only two churches on the list that John had nothing critical to say about. No fatal flaws.

Note: Revelation 3:7-13. Quotes from 3:8 10 9 11 2:24-25 (NLT)

Week 52  Case 5 Sardis

The church in Sardis had a reputation for being alive. A name in the community for being a vibrant lively animated vigorous place.
Unfortunately their public reputation was just a house-of-cards. The Lord’s view was quite a bit different: you are dead.
I think the Lord was exaggerating slightly here. He didn’t mean absolutely and totally dead since he added a follow-up faint-hope clause : now wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is at the point of death. Luckily Sardis wasn’t a fully-and-clinically-dead church. But it was on life-support.
Likely the only thing standing between near-death and total death was that a few individuals in the church had stayed loyal to the Lord. A worthy minority.
But to the rest of the congregation the Lord said:
Go back to what you heard and believed at first
Hold to it firmly
Turn to me again.
I guess it’s a natural thing for churches to want to move forward. Improve. Advance. Evolve. Contemporize. Sardis seemed to have successfully moved along in that direction.
John’s warning was that in the process they had lost track of the fundamental things. And losing the fundamental things – even if they gained a great reputation in the community – was a poor trade-off.

Note: Revelation 3:1-6. Quotes from 3:1 2 3 2:24-25 (NLT). The Lord gave a similar bit of advice to Thyatira: I will ask nothing more of you except that you hold tightly to what you have.

Week 52  Case 4 Thyatira

John spotted four qualities in the church in Thyatira: your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance (and he commended their constant improvement in all these things).
So with that said John added: but I have this complaint against you…
John’s complaint was aimed at a specific individual in the church – a charismatic woman who exerted a powerful prophetic-like influence in the congregation. She called her teaching “deeper truths” and what they permitted people in the church to do was:
A) Worship idols
B) Eat food offered to idols
C) Commit sexual sin
Thyatira – like Pergamum – tried Mixing Unmixables. For instance blending faith & adultery. Or combining love for God with idol worship.
There’s a couple of things I notice here:
First is that these two churches apparently tried to maintain this delicate equilibrium (“let’s try keeping the Goods & Bads in dynamic balance”).
Second thing is that the Lord apparently kept putting up with churches that were mixing these toxic cocktails.
The situation couldn’t last forever. Eventually: all the churches will know that I (the Lord) am the one who searches out the thoughts and intentions of every person. And I will give to each of you what you deserve.
It’s pretty clear that the chickens would eventually come home to roost. But not quite yet. For now the churches get the benefit of the Lord’s long patience.

Note: Revelation 2:18-29. Quotes from 2:19 20 23 (NLT)

Week 52  Case 3 Pergamum

A key issue in the Pergamum church was that there were unsavory members in attendance. John didn’t name personal names but he did identify two groups of people: 1) ones who were like Balaam and 2) ones who were Nicolaitans. The groups were likely different. But both promoted similar teachings:
A) Idol worship was okay
B)Prohibited sexual activities weren’t prohibited any more.
Some of the church people in Pergamum had gone along with these less-restrictive & more-progressive new teachings.
Exactly how this played out in real church life is hard to know. John had already admitted that Pergamum was the place where the great throne of Satan is located but that in spite of their (terrible) location you have remained loyal to (the Lord). So…some members were definitely loyal followers of the Lord. But some had cozied-up to Balaam and/or the Nicolaitans.
So it sounds like two things are going on at the same time. Some being true to the Lord AND some practicing idolatry & taboo sex. Goods and Bads running along parallel tracks right down the centre aisle of the church.
But one of the things that’s clear in the NT: that’s isn’t how the church can run. Loyalty can’t be tracking in lockstep with disloyalty and so John’s advice is pretty short and pretty clear: Repent.
Pergamum wouldn’t last forever with their dual-track congregation. Something had to change or it would eventually quit being a church.

Note: Revelation 2:12-17. Quotes from 2:13 16 17 (NLT)

Week 52  Case 2 Smyrna

More than any other things Smyrna was a) an impoverished church and b) a suffering church (I know about your suffering and your poverty).
Their opponents were Jewish people (real live human opponents). But John said that the Jewish place of worship was a synagogue of Satan. And he went on to say that the Devil will throw some of you into prison. So I get the impression that both ethnic Jews & Satan himself were colluding against the believers in Smyrna.
John told them that they would:
Be slandered by their opponents
Be thrown into prison
Be put to the test
Be persecuted for some period of time.
I didn’t find anything about these people getting rescued. Nothing about the Lord miraculously swooping in and saving them from danger (like in some stories in the OT).
John just told them
Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer
Remain faithful even when facing death.
Other than that about all he said was that he was well-aware of what was going on. Told them to stick with it. Told them the Lord’s future promise: I will give you a crown of life.
I don’t know how many Smyrna-type churches there are around the world today. Likely none in Alberta. Likely quite a few in other countries. No resources. Under-the-guns of their adversaries. Hanging on by their fingertips. Holding onto nothing much more that a promise of a Crown of Life.

Note: Revelation 2:8-11. Quotes from 2:9 10 (NLT)

Week 52  Case 1 Ephesus

John started by telling the people in the Ephesian church: I know all the things you do. I’m pretty sure he meant all the good things they did. Because he went on to list some:
You’ve worked hard
Endured adversity with patience
Didn’t tolerate evil people (a good kind of intolerance)
You scrutinized and tested false prophets who came into the church
You suffered with patience (and you didn’t give up)
John also said: you hated the deeds of the immoral Nicolaitans (an unclear but clearly good quality)
So this seemed like a lot of affirmation (I don’t think any of the other churches will get as many plus-qualities).
But having said all these positive things John added: but I have this complaint against you. You don’t love the Lord or each other as you did at first. Look how far you have fallen from your first love.
It’s hard to weigh the pros and cons one-against-the-other. Six pretty solid qualities. Virtues. Good things. But at the same time the people had lost some of their love for the Lord. Lost love for each other.
Look how far you have fallen. How far was far? Well it was getting to be far enough that the Lord told them if you don’t turn back I will come and remove your lampstand from its place.
Far enough to be on the verge of getting disowned.

Note: Revelation 2:1-7. Quotes from Revelation 2:2 4-5 6 (NLT)

Week 52  Revelation 2-3

I was pretty sure the seven churches named in Revelation 2 & 3 were in seven real geographic locations but checked a bible map anyway (not everything in Revelation is always as it seems to be and I didn’t want to get lulled into thinking that City A was an actual real-life city but then find out later that City A was only a stand-in name for what was maybe City B or maybe Non-City B or maybe something else completely. So I checked.)
The map I looked at in my bible had Paul’s three missionary journeys highlighted in orange & magenta & yellow. A title also said “The Seven Churches of Asia” with the churches located in bold red type. The seven were scrunched together in western Turkey – all within maybe a 100-mile radius of each other (I put a one-dollar Canadian coin on the map and it covered all seven cities).
I’m interested in the seven churches for a couple of reasons but mostly for one personal reason: I go to church. And even though I usually don’t think about it from time-to-time I wonder how my church is doing.
So I figure it’s worth thinking about the Seven Churches and about John’s assessments of their Strengths & Weaknesses. Plus any Recommendations he has for them.
Then I can think about my church and see whether there’s any potential points of application.
I’d be crazy to think my church is perfect. And crazy not to listen to any possibly useful advice.

Week 51  2 Peter 2

Peter is talking about false teachers. He says they are daring & self-willed & they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties. The note in the margin says that ‘majesties’ literally means ‘glories’ (so…angelic glories). When I’ve read this sentence in the past I figured that these false teachers had insulted Good Angels.
I look at another version: these people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at the glorious ones. ‘Glorious ones’ sounds quite a bit like Good Angels to me. But then there’s a footnote that says: “The glorious ones are probably evil angels”. That caught my attention. Are these false teachers mocking out Good Angels or Bad Angels?
I check another version (looking for hints). But all it says is that these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings.
Each of the three versions goes on in the next verse to say that even angels (Good Angels?) don’t accuse or disrespect these Angelic Majesties / Glorious Ones / Celestial Beings (Bad Angels?)
So I’m wondering what’s going on. The idea seems to be that Good Angels don’t abuse Bad Angels. So if they don’t then how do False Teachers get away with doing it?
All I’m left with are two questions: Why don’t Good Angels revile Bad Ones? And why do people who are obviously Bad revile Bad Angels (since you’d think they were both on the same page)?

Note: quotes from 2 Peter 2:10 (NASB NLT NIV) & see 2:11