Bible Studies
This article was taken from the internet version of my paper titled "A Verse-by-Verse Study of Revelation Chapters 1-10," which was taken from the paper by that title which was published in July, 1999. I was able to use bold, italics, underlining, and footnotes in the original paper and the version on my internet site. Sometimes I will use double brackets [[ ]] and (( )) to make them more obvious. All quotations from the Bible were taken from the New American Standard Bible, 1995 edition, unless otherwise noted. Are you aware that you can click on my name beside any of my articles on this Christian article site and see a listing of all my articles on this site (so too for any author)?
Every verse of the book of Revelation is discussed in papers on my internet site, except for Rev. 11:1-14:5, which are discussed in a verse-by-verse manner in my book, "The Mid-Week Rapture." For a condensed version, see my paper titled "Twenty-Four Articles on the Mid-Week Rapture" that is available on my internet site. Those twenty-four articles are available individually on this Christian article site: "The Mid-Week Rapture, Part 1," and so on. Those twenty-four articles serve as a good introduction for my book and for the mid-week rapture viewpoint (that Christ will return and the rapture will take place right in the middle of the seven-year period that is sometimes called Daniel's 70th week). There is a fold-out Chronological Chart in the back of the book, and a chapter of the book explains the chart in some detail.
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF REVELATION CHAPTERS 2, 3. Revelation chapters 2, 3 contain the seven letters to the seven churches, which were also intended for every other Christian and every other church of every other generation where the same conditions apply. The most shocking feature of these letters was that the Lord Jesus informed many of the Christians (and it is clear that at least most of them were born-again Christians) of that early day (about AD 95) that there was much need for repentance, and that if they didn't repent, they would forfeit their salvation. He wasn't speaking to a few isolated individuals. In two cases (the churches at Ephesus and Laodicea), He was speaking to the entire church (not that the message necessarily applied to every individual in the church). In another church (Sardis), He was speaking to all but the few that didn't need to repent. The most shocking thing is that the Christians at Ephesus had so much right.
Most Christians of most generations of Christians are very slow to see their sin, and our generation may be one of the worst in this regard. I believe we Christians have a serious need to study these seven letters to the seven churches (and everything else the Bible teaches about repentance, righteousness, holiness, and the victory over sin). In our day many Christians put most of the emphasis on forgiveness and right standing (things that are Biblical and important), greatly diluting the Biblical emphasis on the call, and the enablement, to walk in the righteousness and holiness of God, with the victory over sin (by grace/the Holy Spirit through faith). Many Christians of our day never even use the word "repent," and in many circles there is very little fear of God. I'm speaking of a true, balanced, necessary, Biblical fear of God.
We'll start with Rev. 2:1.
[Christ is still speaking here, as He was at the end of Revelation chapter 1.] " 'To the angel of the church [see under Rev. 1:20 in the article on chapter 1] in Ephesus write: the One [the Lord Jesus Christ] who holds the seven stars [the seven angels of the seven churches (cf. Rev. 1:16. 20)] in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands [which represent the seven churches (cf. Rev. 1:12, 13, 20)], says this: (2) "I know your deeds [[or, "works
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