Unlike the previous syntheses of Asia Minor and John the Apostle, the review of the seven Church communities will neither be lengthy or complex. In looking at the observations regarding the “Seven Churches” what are the reasonable inferences that can be drawn from the listed observations which would be relevant to the Revelation of Yeshua the Messiah?
We will start with a basic question. If these Churches are no longer viable as we approach the end times then it must be accepted that these Church messages are:
Meant for either another audience; or
These messages have no pertinence with respect to the future Church body or Church communities of Yeshua the Messiah.
The author is careful here to point out that it would make perfect sense for these messages to be applicable for the respective Church communities at the time of the writing as well as for a future Church. Throughout Holy Scripture the use of double or multiple meanings for one prophetic passage is not extraordinary and should even be expected. Consequently if these messages did in fact convey a specific message, applicable to a specific Church community, this fact would in no manner negate the potential of the messages having a meaning for a different future Church.
To really come to a determination if these messages were in fact prophetic for a future Church body of Messiah, which is the primary focus of this topical discourse, we should pay attention to what we do know. It has been established that other Church communities existed within Asia Minor at the time Revelations was authored, Church communities such as Patara, Troas, Antioch, Colossae, Hierapolis, Tralleis and Magnesia. An important point to be made is that the seven cities were not selected simply because they were situated on the circular route described previously because they were not even the only or the most important cities on the route. On this circular postal route the messenger would naturally pass through Hierapolis, Tralleis and Magnesia on the circular journey. Each of these cities were known seats of the Church at the time, yet none of the three found a place among the representative cities even though both Tralleis and Magnesia were much more prominent than Philadelphia or Thyatira.
It should also be presumed the topical concerns addressed to the Church communities would have in effect been somewhat universal to all of the Church communities given their geographic proximity and semblance of issues. Persecution, false apostles, etc. would have most certainly been concerns for all members of the faith.
Still further it should be viewed that the combination of these individual Church messages into such an apocalyptic end times Revelation would be most peculiar indeed. Although the “Epistle” or “Letter” format had, by the time of the inspirational authoring of Revelations, become the standard mode of instructional discourse within the early Church, the Revelation is first and foremost a “universal” discourse.
Revelations, as already discussed, essentially represents G_D’s summary of his Plan. To believers it is understood that the canonical works are inspired by the Holy Spirit. As such it would have to be concluded that individual Church messages, if not designed to be consistent with the rest of the inspired work, would simply not be included within this last work.
So from what other relevant context can we view these seven Church communities? The first context which we need to look at is the “roadway” context. At the time of this Revelation there were no broadcast or delivery modes that would have resulted in all Churches receiving this message at the same time. Consequently the delivery of the Revelation and individual Church messages contained therein would have been both incremental and chronological.
As past archeological discoveries have proven, the seven Churches would have taken delivery of the Revelation in the same order as they were addressed. At first glance one might just pass this off to the fact that John would have known this postal route would have been followed. To contradict this notion however we should also understand this Revelation from Yeshua would in no way have been subject to editorial license by John, certainly given the fact that we are dealing with the Word of G_D! We should therefore rule out John as influencing the identification of the Churches or the delivery order of the messages.
Perhaps then it could be explained that Messiah would of course have known about this delivery route? It would be amusingly conjectured that Yeshua would have had knowledge of such matters, but if this is the case then why would Yeshua have not provided a personal message to each and every Church community along the route? Could it be these omitted Churches were not in need of a message from the Master? Or these omitted Church communities were without difficulties of their own? Or these omitted Church communities were unimportant? The author would hope the reader views these questions as intended. These questions are of course leading and only serve to have one desire an answer which makes sense.
The symbolic nature of sending seven messages to specific Churches which would receive the Revelation in a concise order over a segmented period of time is a clear indication of structured purpose. Still further the omission of specific Church communities along this same route indicates that something about these communities is pertinent to the entire Revelations subject matter. This context should resonate with all readers as being in complete unity with our understanding of G_D. Relative to our universe and very existence, structure and order are in fact the fundamental aspects which can be attributed to G_D by humans. Purpose is paramount to our understanding of G_D.
So what then could the purpose of this symbolism mean in relation to Revelations? It is clear the purpose of the messages is definitely prophetic and that the messages depict an incremental and chronological path to be followed by the Church of Messiah. A path which begins with the birth of the Church and culminates with the coming of Yeshua the Messiah!
When looking at the seven Churches again we encounter a number thoroughly associated with our Lord G_D. The significance of “seven” as it pertains to the Biblical festival cycle is self-evident. Within the festival cycle we see “seven” used in the function of “time” or “seasons.” We see an orderly progression with a beginning and an end. We must also not forget the significance of “seven” as it pertains to our own creation. Once again “seven” is used in the context of “time” and “events.” And then again we have the sacred Shabbat on the seventh day; the day on which G_D rested and the day that serves as the anchor in G_D’s cycle of rest and reflection, the day that makes all things complete and signals the end of the weekly cycle.
When we view these "seven" constructs we should not lose sight that the Sabbath construct represents an ascent or aliyah of creation while the collective Festival Cycle represents an ascent or aliyah of restoration/recreation.
Additionally the construct of "seven" and this ascent works within the confines of the Sacrificial System as well … one just needs to view the Holy Service to notice: The Altar; The Laver; The Showbread; The Menorah; The incense Table; The Ark and of course the LORD's Presence.
So when we look in a Hebraic perspective we consistently see in Holy Scripture the connection between “seven” and “time” and "movement" as well as “events.” But we should also discuss the inference of “seven” within the overall context of Torah. Certainly it must be acknowledged that the Festivals, Shabbat and the Holy Service are integral to G_D’s Torah. Therefore “seven” and Torah are most assuredly connected.
Recalling the brief discourse on Torah we see where it is more appropriate to view Torah as a directional path or "road" having a starting point, a progression in a specific direction and a final ending point. Furthermore we should not overlook within the context of Torah that the path or road at hand is a spiritual endeavor wherein the individual and communal efforts are centered upon becoming holy as G_D commanded. In essence the Torah itself represents a spiritual path or aliyah!
Ultimately the author sees these not overly complex connections as clear validation that the messages to the seven Churches represent a chronological path to be followed. Furthermore it would seem most likely the prophetic path depicted will be done so within a “spiritual” context given the apparent symbolism just addressed.
We should also not lose sight of the “Asia Minor” contextual issues which were exposed. With Asia Minor being representative of the high level or macro view of G_D’s Plan for humanity, the author would contend that the Seven Church communities, being a sub-set of Asia Minor, represent a micro view of G_D’s Plan. Still further since this sub-set is reflective of the Earthly Church of Messiah and not all of humanity, it should be viewed that the revelations detailed in the Seven Church messages will be directly related to the specific history of the Earthly Church of Messiah as well.
Thus far the author has not engaged in any wild or unsupported speculation in pursuing applicable context. The author has not introduced any secret codes or bizarre numerology methods, nor does the author have any detailed knowledge of such alleged Bible decoding systems. The author has made all attempts to confine the respective topical discourses to known historical facts and Holy Scripture. But in the course of basic research, regarding the seven communities, the author did indeed come across some materials which for lack of a better phrase could be dubbed “twilight zone” material.
Although the divulgence of this material is not necessary to promote the position of the “Church Era Messages,” it should be noted that the materials uncovered are interesting as well as troubling. While undertaking rudimentary attempts to establish additional inferential context and meaning, these seven communities were looked at from an “acronym” perspective.
ac·ro·nym: A word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as PAC for Political Action Committee, or by combining initial letters or parts of a series of words, such as radar for radio detecting and ranging. (17)
So when looking at the seven Churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea we derive the following acronym: "ESPTSPL". The author performed a simple internet search only on these letters and nothing of value was uncovered. Staying on the acronym review mode the author thought perhaps it would make sense to investigate the acronym formed from the current Turkish communities which have supplanted the traditional Churches of Revelations.
Following is a listing of the modern day Turkish city to the applicable Church of Revelations:
The subsequent acronym yields “SIBASAD”. Internet searches were performed in attempt to find basically anything and then review the findings for any pertinence. The search yielded nothing at all. So this is the end of this endeavor correct? Not so fast!
The author decided to approach this short lived exercise from a different perspective. A Hebraic perspective, which as the reader might know, would dictate reading from right to left. In this instance the acronym above inverts to “DASABIS.”
When looking at this string of letters it immediately dawned on the author the construct certainly had an inkling of “Latin” to it. It made sense to view this in a Latin perspective as well in as much that the Roman Catholic Church and “Latin” are indisputably connected and essentially synonymous. Subsequently a quick search was done to find a Latin translation service online. The author found a University of Notre Dame sponsored site (18) which had a link to another free site (19) with more diction capacity. Upon entering the “dasabis” string the site provided the following:
“May be 2 words combined (das+abis) If not obvious, probably incorrect.”
The author then placed a space in between “das” and “abis” and the following was returned:
d.as V 1 1 PRES ACTIVE IND 2 S
do, dare, dedi, datus V TRANS [XXXAO]
give; dedicate; sell; pay; grant/bestow/impart/offer/lend; devote;
allow; make; surrender/give over; send to die; ascribe/attribute; give
birth/produce; utter
abi.s V 6 1 PRES ACTIVE IND 2 S
abeo, abire, abivi(ii), abitus V INTRANS [XXXAO]
depart, go away; go off, go forth; pass away, die, disappear; be changed
The author will declare by no means is there a contention that an expertise exists in the linguistic field; the author is no authority in this professional field by any stretch. This fact however should in no way reduce the intrigue prevalent with the result. When we look at this result and first of all find a legitimate translation from Latin instead of unrecognizable garble it must be admitted minimally this is interesting and certainly extremely coincidental.
Upon further review, and especially in light of the subject matter being dealt with herein, it must be further admitted the resultant translation is tremendously astonishing and outside the auspices of mere coincidence in the author's opinion.
In looking at the "das" portion of the translation there should be no doubt that it is indeed consistent and descriptive of the giving to the Church the gift that is “Revelation.” In so many ways do these variant definitions fit in with the contextual review that has been conducted thus far. The message is a gift. The Church has been imparted with the wisdom of the ages. The Church of Messiah represents the birth of a new creation. The role of evangelical authority has been surrendered over to the Church of Messiah. The Revelation is itself the greatest of all prophetic utterances. The Church from its very creation is essentially sent forth to run its course and die as the figure head of the Gentile Age.
In looking at the "abis" portion of the translation there can be no doubt, that when viewed in context of the companion "das" element, that there is direct correlation. When the first portion of the translation is viewed as the imparted gifts of G_D, the prophetic messages, the wisdom, the evangelical charter and the spiritual authority of the Church, etc. … then the "abis" portion can really only translate logically to mean that these things will progress from the source and change to the point where the Church will ultimately be unrecognizable or just plain die out.
In light of these linguistic coincidences the author can only ask the reader to answer a simple question; at what point does incredible coincidence turn into something which just cannot be explained away as chance?
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In concluding this synthesis dealing with the seven Churches addressed in the Revelation of Yeshua, a solid argument, as well as the rare “smoking gun,” has been presented with respect to establishing that these Church messages were definitely intended to be meaningful beyond the immediate days in which the Revelations were delivered.
When we consider the sum total of the circumstantial body of evidence touched upon herein the reader hopefully is left with the following impressions:
1) The inclusion of the messages to the Seven Churches within this universal prophetic Revelation makes the most sense in a Hebraic perspective when these messages are viewed in a prophetic context. Limiting the intent of these messages, as instructions and exhortations relevant only to those specific Churches at the time, is simply not in keeping with the prophetic and apocalyptic nature of the Revelation of Messiah. Furthermore it would seem the selection of these specific seven Churches will be meaningful in some way to the content of the prophetic messages.
2) The addressing of the Seven Churches, when viewed in the context of a delivery route with chronological message receipt, is symbolic of an extant historical path to be followed by the Church of Messiah. An argument indicating the messages are meant for seven diverse Churches of Messiah at one specific time does not really make sense in light of the review of G_D’s Torah. So the clear implication is that the messages are intended for one recognizable Church body over a period of time.
3) The synthesis suggests the nature of the Church messages to be both historically and spiritually related. Historically from an identifiable “progressive era” context and spiritually from a “theological” context!
4) Finally the circumstantial evidence presented indicates that the ultimate fate of the Earthly Gentile Church of Messiah is to disappear, die out or just become ineffective. This last conclusion is by no means contrary to what Holy Scripture predicts about the end of days.
In closing it must be noted that the “Church Era” mode developed herein has been utilized before. It will be asserted however that what is different about this specific work is the method of developing supportive contextual synthesis which has resulted in a completely different perspective and a significantly bolstered argument.
Because of this unique contextual perspective and robust body of evidence the reader can be assured the subsequent interpretive results of the prophetic Church messages will be more insightful and better supported by the developed body of evidence.
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