The apocalyptic Book of Revelation is the only book in the entire Bible that opens with a promise: "Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near." (Revelation 1:3, NIV). It therefore behoves us to spend time studying and getting an understanding of what is predicted therein. The book begins with a series of messages sent to some Seven Churches clustered within "the province of Asia" (present day western Turkiye). These seven churches are listed as: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea. Though these churches literally existed at the time of John's writing, it is also true that they correspond to seven church periods beginning 33AD, and coming down the tunnel of history right down to the End of the Age.

It is our purpose here, to look at the distinct periods, their primary messages, the historical circumstances and what they portended for the Church. This then, is the breakdown: 1. Revelation 2:1-7; Ephesus, meaning: "Desirable" or "Lovely" (33 - 100AD). It was the period of the Apostolic church when the True Faith was desirable and miraculously wonderful. The crippled, the blind, the deaf and all the infirm were healed. Even the dead, were raised in many marvelous demonstrations of the power of the Holy Spirit, as clearly shown in the Book of Acts of the Apostles. The Gospel message spread like a Savannah wildfire within the Mediterranean region and beyond. It was the period of the First Angel's message: "Fear God and worship Him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the springs of water." (Revelation 14:6-7). This period also saw the fulfillment of Isaiah 62:1-3, where the True Church, the Daughter of Zion was given a new name. This is the name: "Church of God" as mentioned twelve times in the New Testament (cf 1Corinthians 1:2; 11:16, 2Corinthians 1:1, Galatians 1:13, 1Timothy 3:16, Acts 20:28 etc). The entire Renewed Covenant (New Testament) scriptures were codified during this time. The period also saw the seige and destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple as prophesied by Yahshua (Matthew 24:1- 2, Luke 21:20). This happened in 70AD during the era of the Emperor Vespasian who sent his son General Titus to quell festering rebellion among the Jews.

It was also during this period that all the apostles, except for Saint John the Divine were martyred. Put inside a cauldron of boiling oil, this servant of Elohim did not die, but instead, a fragrant smell of perfume started emanating from the boiling oil. His persecutors had to remove him from the fire. He was then blinded in both eyes before being banished to the Island of Patmos in the Mediterranean Sea where he received the message of Revelation. Roman Emperor Nerva later ended his exile and he died a natural death in 96AD, while serving as Bishop of Smyrna. The other apostles were martyred as follows: - Stephen - the first martyr, was stoned outside Jerusalem around 34AD. - Peter was crucified upside down (at his own request, for he considered himself unworthy to be crucified in the same fashion as was Yahshua). - James the Great - the son of Zebedee, was beheaded by King Herod Agrippa (44AD). - Matthias - stoned outside Jerusalem and then beheaded. - Jude - crucified outside Edessa. - Philip - scourged, then thrown into prison and afterward crucified in Phrygia (54AD). - Matthew - slain in the city of Nadabah in Ethiopia (60AD). - James the Lesser - chaired the Council at Jerusalem in Acts 15. He was later stoned and had his brains dashed out with a fuller's club in Egypt. - Mark - murdered by an irate Alexandrian mob. - Thomas - martyred by being thrust through with a spear in Parthia/India. - Luke the Doctor - hanged on an olive tree by some idolatrous priests in Greece. 2. Revelation 2:8-11 - Smyrna, meaning: "smell of death" - (100 - 315AD). Named so probably because the city of Smyrna's chief industry was the raising of aloes, myrrh and other items used in the anointing and embalming of the dead. There was also the 'smell of death' in the sense that the Emperor Diocletian persecuted the Church in a bloody ten year period. This is the martyrdom foretold in Revelation 2:9-10, which occurred between 294 - 305AD. These beloved brethren loved the Faith to the death. It was also during this time when the Emperor Aurelian (whose mother was a priestess of the sun) made sun-worship the official religion of the Roman Empire. 3. Revelation 2:12-19 - Pergamum, meaning: "exalted" (315 - 538AD).

This is the time when the Western Bishops started "flirting" with civil power and coveted high ("exalted") positions in the Empire. Like Balaam, their love for money led them to compromise the Faith and adopt many pagan practices just to swell church numbers. This was "spiritual fornication". The Antipas mentioned (verse 13), was (traditionally) martyed much earlier during the reign of Emperor Nero (about 64AD) for casting out demons which the locals worshipped in the same area. It may also be symbolic of the faithful who stood opposed to the "papists" who were then surreptitiously introducing heathen doctrines into Christianity (Sunday, trinity, images, candles, sacerdotal garments, etc). Emperor Constantine's Sunday Law was enacted on 7th March, 321AD. The Councils of Nicaea (325AD) and Laodicea (364AD), quickly followed.These meetings reinforced quite a number of pagan doctrines into Christianity. The Arian kingdoms of the Heruli, Vandals and the Ostrogoths were uprooted by Papal forces as the Bishop of Rome gained political primacy (cf Daniel 7:8). The Ostrogoths were last to be overthrown in 538AD, paving way for the metamorphosis of Pagan/Imperial Rome into what later became known as the "Holy Roman Empire" or Papal Rome. The Emperor Justinian ceded his power to the Bishop of Rome decreeing that "...the pope should be over all the Christian churches of the earth." The dragon (Pagan/Caesarial Rome) had indeed given his "seat" and "authority" to the papal beast (cf Revelation 13:3-4). 4. Revelation 2:19-28 - Thyatira, meaning: "Sacrifice" - (538 -1517AD). The Church of Rome and State were now fully united changing into Papal Rome which took over from Pagan Rome (cf Revelation 12:3-4 and Revelation 13:2 last part). The metamorphosis produced that hybrid religio-political system known today as the Roman Catholic Church (woman riding the beast in Revelation 17).

This period also marked the beginning of the terrible Dark Ages of European history. Bible reading was criminalised for ordinary ("lay") people and could only be read by the priests. The light of God's word was therefore snuffed out from human souls and papish errors and traditions reigned supreme. The Gregorian Calendar was established during this period when Pope Gregory the Great modified the old ten month Julian Calendar into the modern calendar of almost universal usage. It also marked the beginning of the 1,260 year prophetic period of persecution for the True Church. This persecution ended in 1798AD, when Napoleon Bonaparte sent General Berthier to the Vatican and had him incarcerated (Revelation 12:2; 11:2-3, Daniel 7:25). Historians estimate that between 68 to 100 million people were martyred during this dark period simply because they would not submit to the religious dictates of Rome. It was indeed a "sacrifice of contrition which is nearest and dearest." The early reformer Peter Waldo (1140 - 1218AD), a rich merchant of Lyons, France, gathered scattered believers. Waldo sacrificed his considerable resources to furthering the cause of the gospel and also translating the Bible to French. During the same period, John Wycliffe (1124 - 1184AD), an Oxford University lecturer, translated the Bible into English. The wicked woman Jezebel, upon the unequal yoking with Ahab king of Israel, made Baal worship (sun worship) the official religion of Israel (cf 1Kings 18 -19). The Jezebel of our text (Revelation 2:20-21) refers to the Roman Catholic Church which was similarly leading millions into the error of Sunday keeping among numerous other idolatrous heathen traditions, rites and doctrines (cf 2Thessalonians 2:3-4). 5. Revelation 3:1-6 - Sardis, meaning: "Beautiful new song" (1517 - 1780AD).

This period is known in history as the Reformation. On 31st October, 1517AD, a fearless German friar, Martin Luther nailed 95 theses on the door of the university chapel at Wittenburg. He exposed the various errors in Catholic teachings. This initial spark kindled the fires of the Reformation in Europe. This is the period of the Second Angel's Message as outlined in Revelation 14:8. This message declared that "Babylon the Great is fallen!" In other words, the God of heaven had severed all relations with the apostate Church of Rome. Thus any honest seeker after truth should therefore have no traction with her but should instead flee from her (cf Zechariah 2:7; Jeremiah 51:6-9 and Revelation 18:2-4). During this time the true believers (Messianics) were known by different names in various parts of Europe. These names included: Waldenses, Lollards, Cathari, Paulicians, Insabbati, Albigenses, Donatists, Puritans, Anabaptists, Calvinists, Huguenots etc. 6. Revelation 3:7-13 - Philadelphia, meaning: "Brotherly love" (1780 - 1844AD). This church marked the period when "...the earth helped the woman..." (Revelation 12:16). The true church was able to flee Papal Rome's persecution to the newly founded nation of the United States of America. This nation's founding documents - the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, espoused many wonderful freedoms (among them the Providential freedom to worship according to the dictates of one's conscience). Persecuted religious pilgrims therefore flocked to America's shores. They founded the city of Philadelphia on the Atlantic seaboard of the North American continent.The city was founded on the principles of "brotherly love" hence the name Philadelphia. The open invitation to America was the "open door which no one can shut..." (Revelation 3:8).

Indeed Rome has been trying hard to close this door on religious freedom, but has so far been unable to. The period also saw the fulfillment of 1John 2:19: "They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us..." This prophecy was largely fulfilled in 1844, with the failed "Second Advent" prophecy by William Miller. Based on erroneous calculation of Daniel 8 prophecies, Miller had predicted that Yahshua would return to earth on 22nd October,1844. When the prediction failed, there was much disappointment and a schism occurred in the Church of God. William Miller, Ellen G White, and her husband James White, led a separatist group out of the Church of God. They formed the Seventh Day Adventist Church which was then registered in 1860. 7. Revelation 3:14-22 - Laodicea, meaning: "People and judgement" (1844 to the End of the Age). This is the last church period. It marks the time of impending judgement on the world as Israel ended her 2520 year period of divine chastisement (cf Leviticus 26:18,21,24, and 28). The said period began in 606BC and ended in 1914AD. According to the prophet Jeremiah, the cup of God's wrath was then to be thrust into the hands of the Gentiles (Jeremiah 25:16-17, also Isaiah 51:17, 21-23). Beginning with the First World War in 1914, the people of the Gentile world have seen ever increasing wars (Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran - Iraq, Balkans, Chechnya, Somalia, Yemen, Syria etc), famines, earthquakes (Kanto, Lisbon, San Francisco, Shanghai etc), deadly plagues and diseases (Spanish Influenza, HIV AIDS, Ebola, anthrax, COVID-19 etc), tsunamis (Bandeh Aceh), volcanic eruptions (Pinatubo, Vesuvius, Paracutin, Kilauea, Agung etc), floods (Pakistan, Kerala, Sudan, Germany, Belgium etc), heatwaves (Spain, France, Britain, USA etc), hurricanes (Katrina, Sandy, Rita etc) among many other natural disasters.

There have also been many man-made disasters such as Three Mile, Chernobyl, Exxon-Valdez, Daichi-Fukushima, incessant almost annual California wild fires, terror attacks such as World Trade Centre, Oklahoma city bombing, Dusit 2, Tokyo and London subway attacks etc. The Third Angel's message began to be broadcast during this period beginning in 1918. It warns people of the impending divine wrath (the seven last plagues) due to worship of the beast and his image. On 15th May, 1948, the modern State of Israel was reborn (cf Isaiah 66:7-8) with David ben Gurion as its first premier. In 1953, the headquarters of the True Church was relocated to Jerusalem from the USA. The move was made by Elder Andrew Nugent Dugger who founded the Mt Zion Reporter in Jerusalem. The Reporter published and distributed many gospel tracts and a periodical called Judah magazine. In August 1970, Elder André Marion Shoemaker was sent to Kenya in response to numerous requests. Shoemaker baptized over 270 Kenyan believers. The Church had since grown exponentially in Kenya and the East African region. This Church has presence in South Africa, Malawi, Tanzania, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, the DRC, Uganda, South Sudan, among other African countries. It is also present in India, Taiwan, South Korea, China, the Philippines among other Asian countries. The same can be said for the Caribbean Islands, North America, South America and Europe. In Revelation 3:16, this end time Church is accused of being lukewarm and reflects the world as opposed to reforming it. It is also a church that boasts of nonexistent riches, its true spiritual condition being that of poverty, blindness and nakedness in God's sight (cf Revelation 3:17-18)!

We are exhorted to make amends with God as Yahshua is right at the door of the Second Coming and subsequent judgment. Blessings.

Pastor JK Chang'andu