Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 8:04 pm
No, each of the seven letters was written to a particular church that existed at that time. The seven church locations were Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.
While all of the letters have information that's invaluable to today's church(they wouldn't have been included in the Bible if it were otherwise), there's no direct evidence to show that they were anything but specific comments from Christ Himself to those seven churches at that time.
Some people read into the seven churches, and there are numerous theories as to how they apply to the church today. The only one that we know for sure is true, and the simplest one, is that we can simply look at the comments of Jesus and learn from them. He values hard work, but not at the expense of losing touch with the church's First Love(Him). Stuff like that -- simple enough, really. Is there more there? Probably. Christianity is full of parallels. I'm only passingly familiar with various 7-church theories, so can't say for sure which(if any) I believe.
One interesting thing about Laodicea, and Jesus' comments, that most people don't know. Laodicea at the time was known for having nasty water, full of various deposits. It was lukewarm, and just nasty. So they had hot and cold water pumped in from other places. Most people think of this comment as something like "Be for me or against me, but don't straddle the fence." That's also a valid point, but not what this comment is actually saying. It's more like saying "Be like these good waters! Cool and refreshing! Warm and comforting! But not like that lukewarm nasty stuff your town's known for."
Random point, but one example of something interesting you can glean from the Book of Revelations if you know a little more about the towns being addressed. While these things are great to learn, and we're always supposed to be learning more about the Bible, we shouldn't let the fact that we'll never understand every nuance get in the way of our believing the Bible and considering it a book of incalculable worth.
While all of the letters have information that's invaluable to today's church(they wouldn't have been included in the Bible if it were otherwise), there's no direct evidence to show that they were anything but specific comments from Christ Himself to those seven churches at that time.
Some people read into the seven churches, and there are numerous theories as to how they apply to the church today. The only one that we know for sure is true, and the simplest one, is that we can simply look at the comments of Jesus and learn from them. He values hard work, but not at the expense of losing touch with the church's First Love(Him). Stuff like that -- simple enough, really. Is there more there? Probably. Christianity is full of parallels. I'm only passingly familiar with various 7-church theories, so can't say for sure which(if any) I believe.
One interesting thing about Laodicea, and Jesus' comments, that most people don't know. Laodicea at the time was known for having nasty water, full of various deposits. It was lukewarm, and just nasty. So they had hot and cold water pumped in from other places. Most people think of this comment as something like "Be for me or against me, but don't straddle the fence." That's also a valid point, but not what this comment is actually saying. It's more like saying "Be like these good waters! Cool and refreshing! Warm and comforting! But not like that lukewarm nasty stuff your town's known for."
Random point, but one example of something interesting you can glean from the Book of Revelations if you know a little more about the towns being addressed. While these things are great to learn, and we're always supposed to be learning more about the Bible, we shouldn't let the fact that we'll never understand every nuance get in the way of our believing the Bible and considering it a book of incalculable worth.