“. . . On this ROCK (Jesus Christ Himself, Deuteronomy 32:3-4; I Corinthians 10:4) I will BUILD My Church, and the gates of Hades (grave, I Corinthians 15:54-55) shall NOT prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18).

An Overview of the 7 Church Eras

Dear Brethren,

During this past Feast of Tabernacles I gave a sermonette on “An Overview of the 7 Church Eras.” Afterwards, I was asked if I would write this up sometime in my Pastors Comments. With this request in mind— I am presenting it this week.

Introduction

John, to the seven Churches which are in Asia (Turkey today) . . . I was in the spirit in the Lord’s day (the coming day of the Lord), and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, saying, “I Am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see write it in a book and send it to the seven Churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands. And in THE MIDST of the lampstands, One like the Son of Man . . . He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. . . .

“The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels (margin: or messengers), and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven Churches” Revelation 1:4, 12-13, 16, 20)

By way of explanation— this overview was given prior to the viewing of the Video Sermon by Mr. HWA in which he presented the history of the 7 Church eras. My purpose in that short sermonette was to touch on their problems and fill in the gaps that he does not dwell on in that video sermon.

An Overview of the 7 Church Eras

Jesus Christ told Peter and the disciples that He would build His Church, which He did on the Day of Pentecost, or Firstfruits in 31 A.D.: “. . . on this ROCK I will BUILD My Church and the gates of hell (hades - graves) will NOT prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18)

In the interim Christ prepared the primary leadership for it by Himself through His direct training of the 12 disciples for three and one/half years.

Revelation 2 and 3 reveals its history from its beginning unto our time today.

Those two chapters reveal the history of God’s ongoing Church that would never completely die.

Though the Church would never die there were the problems that came to exist in each one that threatened its existence and did lead to the near-death of Laodicea.

1) Ephesus Church Era -- 31 A.D. The Loveless Church

It was in the Church of Ephesus that brought about a problem that continued through all of them until the Philadelphia Era.

Though it had a problem with false ministers, and the deeds of the Nicolaitans, it had its good points.

However these good points were not enough to override its primary problem, one that would filter down through the first 5 Church eras, and would end up with the virtual death of the 5^th Church Era.

Christ gave the warning through John: “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have LEFT your first love” (Revelation 2:4).

This LOVE had everything to do with the desire to share the wonderful truths with which they were blessed by having their minds OPENED to receive those truths from God our Father and Jesus Christ.

Tragically, their loss of that FIRST LOVE for others brought about such a deteriorating complacency and lack of watchfulness that it brought about other grave problems and led from one to the other of the first 5 eras, and ended up with a devastating impact on both the Sardis and Laodicean Church Eras.

This condition is made known through the parable of the 10 virgins:

“But while the BRIDEGROOM was delayed (from the time of expectancy - Matthew 1:6), they all slumbered and slept” (Matthew 25:5).

They went to sleep spiritually— became lethargic and complacent for 1900 years.

Because of their loss of love the true teachings were not as wonderful to them as at first, and as the result they became tolerant regarding the false ministers and made possible their deceptive teachings to enter the Church.

2) The Church in Smyrna – 135 A. D. – The persecuted Church

The Church Era of Smyrna also tolerated people who were suppose to be true Christians but in reality were of the Synagogue of Satan (Revelation 2:9).

3) The Church in Pergamos – 600 A.D. – The Compromising Church

The Church of the Pergamos Era had in their midst members who held to the doctrine of Balaam and of the Nicolaitains (Revelation 2:14-15).

4) The Church in Thyatira 1104 A. D – The Corrupt Church

The Church of the Thyatira Era allowed the Catholic Church (Jezebel personified) to teach their false doctrines and in so doing she seduced God’s people into the worship of demons (Revelation 2:20).

5) The Church in Sardis – Around 1585 to the 1600s – The Dead Church

Mr. Andrew Dugger was the apostle of the 7^th Day Church of God— a Church that is also known as the Sardis Church Era in Scripture. (He died some years ago.)

The Church of the present existing Sardis Era is now experiencing virtual death due to the degenerating impact from that loss of love that filtered all the way through the first four eras and reached its climax with the Sardis Era. Because of this, Christ stated:

“. . . You have a name (Church of God) but you are dying” (Revelation 3:1).

The loss of love for God, Jesus Christ, and the lack of zeal to share the wonderful true teachings of God, that began developing in the Church in Ephesus had filtered all the way down to the Church in Sardis and had brought it to near death.

This was largely due to their almost full acceptance of false ministers and their teachings as having a relationship with God.

The few true teachings they once held has come to a near death existence. Mr. Armstrong found they only had two or three of those true teachings left; and they were not receptive to having them restored, as you will find in the excerpts from the following sermon by him:

June 6, 2009 played in Modesto
Mr. Armstrong
October 23, 1982

Man and Angels/Clay and Bronze

Some really, very important, new knowledge has been revealed to this Church during the past year. And now, I wonder if this afternoon you can bear a little more, new light – to throw still more, new light on this subject – if we can take a little more, new knowledge? It seems like that’s difficult for God’s people to do.

I remember that when God revealed to me about the annual Sabbaths. He didn’t reveal the whole Feast of Tabernacles – just the annual Sabbath days to me back at the beginning from 1927, in the spring, and my wife and I kept that first Passover in the spring of 1927.

And immediately, I began to preach about the holy days as new light and new knowledge to the people in the Sardis Church, up in the Willamette Valley in the State of Oregon. They wouldn’t hear of it.

Now, they believed in the Sabbath. They had the name Church of God. They didn’t know yet what the gospel is. They didn’t preach the gospel because they didn’t know what it is. The gospel had been lost. Seventh Day Adventists don’t know what it is. No church on earth knew what it was. It just had not been proclaimed for over 1,900 years.

The thing that I found is that they had gone so far – and the people in the Sardis Church had accepted the Sabbath. They had accepted the name of God. They knew there would be a Millennium, but they had no idea what would happen. They didn’t know it meant ruling the whole earth and that we would be ruling under Christ. As a matter of fact, they didn’t have the gospel in any way really, but they would not accept any knowledge in addition to what they already had.”

Prior to its virtual death, Jesus Christ used Mr. Armstrong to begin a newly revitalized Church Era— the Philadelphia Church Era.

6) The Church in Philadelphia (brotherly love) – 1933 – The Faithful Church

Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong was both the apostle of the Philadelphia Church Era, and also the promised Elijah of the end-time. As such, he was used by Jesus Christ to restore the true doctrinal teachings that were placed in the Church by Jesus Christ through His early apostles, but lost through the centuries due to the problems of the first five Church Eras.

The Church began waking up from its sleepy state and brought about the renewed LOVE for God, Jesus Christ, His wonderful Truths that had been restored in it with the desire to SHARE them with Israel and the world. Accompanying this was brotherly love for one another.

7) The Church in Laodicea – The Lukewarm Church – Self-righteous

Revelation 3:15-17 Self-righteous – in need of nothing – rich increased with wealth – so lukewarm in works – Christ will spew them out of His mouth into the Great Tribulation.

The lack of love that had brought about the near death of the Sardis Era leapfrogged from it over the Philadelphia Era and into the Laodicea Era. Because of their failure to open the door to the knocking of Jesus Christ, repent, and correct their problems, they will have to win their salvation through repentance and faithfulness while experiencing the horrors of the Great Tribulation.

A WARNING – to the members of the Church of the Philadelphia Era: Being sandwiched between a virtually dead Church, and a self-righteous one that is headed for the Great Tribulation, Christ cautions each of us:

Revelation 3:11 “Behold! I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have (faithfulness to Christ and His teachings as made known in the Philadelphia Era) that no one (from either side or elsewhere) take your crown.”

Beginning next week, I plan on going into much detail about the history of God’s Church from its beginning to where we now are in time. My plans are to essentially write about one Church Era at a time.

Though there are numerous writings on this subject perhaps Christ will use me to perhaps fill in some blanks as well as put together other writings in a more cohesive manner.

Your friend and servant in Christ,

Don Billingsley

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