The Church of Ephesus era occurred from 33-100 A.D.
The word Ephesus means “to relax from effort,” which matches Messiah admonishment to them, to return to the first works of faith and love, with zeal and fervor.
Note: You will see a pattern of the church name corresponding to their spiritual state.
The Roman Beast They Faced: The Roman Empire
Christian Groups During This Era: The Early Church led by Peter, Paul and the Apostles.
Main Events During This Era: The great fire of Rome in 64 A.D. was blamed on Christians, and Nero executed thousands of Christians. They were killed in Coliseums by gladiators and lions by Emperor Domitian.
The Apostles spread the gospel in many countries and planted new churches, which required a lot of patience. They were burdened by opposition, and many were persecuted and killed.
All of the Apostles except John were killed by a violent death, which no doubt was disheartening to the church.
Many of them expected Messiah to return after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., so they may have relaxed their efforts.
The Church of Smyrna era, the Persecuted Church, occurred from 100-313 A.D.
The name Smyrna comes from the word “myrrh” which is a tree resin with a bitter taste that was crushed and used in perfume, in incense, and as a preservative in burial. It’s a symbol of death, which is appropriate for this church era.
Messiah had nothing about which to reprimand the church; He had only words of encouragement and comfort in her sufferings at the hands of her persecutors.
The Roman Beast They Faced: The Roman Empire
Christian Groups During This Era: The Early Church, led by Polycarp and other church leaders.
Main Events During This Era: Satan empowered the Romans to persecute Christians, to try to stop the progress of the Gospel.
The church of Messiah was hated in the Roman Empire, and every natural calamity, whether flood, earthquake or drought, was blamed on the Christians and on their refusal to worship the Roman gods.
The church era of Smyrna endured eight persecution periods from the Roman Emperors:
- The Third Persecution occurred under Trajan in 108 A.D.
- The Fourth Persecution occurred under Marcus Aurelius Antoninus in 162 A.D.
- The Fifth Persecution commencing with Severus in 192 A.D.
- The Sixth Persecution occurred under Maximus in 235 A.D.
- The Seventh Persecution occurred under Decius in 249 A.D.
- The Eighth Persecution occurred under Valerian in 257 A.D.
- The Ninth Persecution occurred under Aurelian in 274 A.D.
The most terrible, most prolonged persecution in the history of the early church occurred during the Tenth Persecution, as Diocletian sought to root out Christianity from the very face of the earth, from 303-313 A.D.
Revelation 2:10, “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
The “ten days” of tribulation that Messiah prophetically spoke of were 10 years of the Diocletianic Persecution where so many saints were martyred.
Under Maximin (Maxentius) this persecution reached its climax. Before the decisive battle, he vowed to Jupiter (Satan) that, if victorious, he would abolish the Christian name. The Lord caused the defeat and death of Maximin, which delivered the Church from the last and most implacable of her enemies. (History Unveiling Prophecy, Henry Grattan Guinness)
In 312 A.D, Constantine supposedly converted to Christianity, and then in 313 A.D., the Edict of Milan ended the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire.
The Church of Pergamos era occurred from 313-538 A.D.
The name Pergamos in Greek means, “Married to the tower.” Pagan worship originated in Babylon, where the tower represented their rise to become gods.
When the Medo-Persians conquered Babylon, the Babylonian priests moved to Pergamos and established a place of Satanic cultic idolatry, pagan worship, with various customs and deities.
So Pergamos is a perfect symbolic name for this church age, as Mystery Babylon, the Roman Catholic Church, who exalt themselves above all that is called God, rose to power during this time.
The Roman Beast They Faced: The Roman Empire as it collapsed.
Christian Groups During This Era: .
Main Events During This Era: Satan lost power over the Roman Empire, as it collapsed.
Satan couldn’t destroy Messiah’s church with ten persecutions from Pagan Rome, so he changed his strategy to destroy it from within.
Satan caused Constantine to unite Christianity with pagan idol worship and feasts, and fornication. Pagan Rome had many gods and idols, which they weren’t going to give up. So to make Satan’s Papal Church more acceptable to them, the church took the idols and simply gave them new names.
The Rome beast didn’t die, it simply changed its appearance and its approach, as Satan empowered the Roman Catholic Church to destroy Christ’s Church from within.
The era of the Church of Thyatira, the Pagan Church 538-1514 A.D.
Thyatira means “ruled by a woman,” which is the perfect name because this era was ruled by the Mother church of Papal Rome, who is the Great Harlot of Revelation, the Whore of Babylon.
The Roman Beast They Faced: The Roman Catholic Church.
Christian Groups During This Era: The Early Church, led by people groups such as the Waldenses (named afterPeter Waldo), the Albigenses, Hussites (named after John Huss) and Wycliffes (named after John Wycliffe)
Main Events During This Era: After the Roman Empire collapsed, Satan caused the Roman Catholic Church to be gain religious and civil power in 538 A.D., when Emperor Justinian issued a decree making the Pope head of all churches.
The Papal Church relentlessly sought to eliminate the Two Witnesses of the Word of God and the Church of Christ, and as this happened, the world became a very dark place where evil prevailed, called the Dark Ages.
During this church age and the next, Papal Rome tortured and killed over 50 million people they deemed heretics, most from Christ’s true church.
Messiah’s church eras of Thyatira and Sardis used the rod of iron, the Word of God, to know and testify about the pure gospel of Messiah, instead of salvation by works through the Papal Church.
They are the two lamp stands which stood as a witness against the Antichrist Papal Church during their 1,260 years of reign from 538-1798 A.D.
Peter Waldo, or Valdes, a man eminent among Medieval witnesses to the gospel of Christ, sold all he had in the year 1170, distributed to the poor, and became the leader to “certain missionary bands know thenceforth under the name of Waldenses, as well as “Poor Men of Lyons.”
Driven by persecution from the plain of Lombardy, the Waldenses took refuge in the valleys of the neighboring Alps, where for many centuries they maintained, in opposition to the Church of Rome, their witness to New Testament teachings. (History Unveiling Prophecy, Henry Grattan Guinness)
The astounding development of papal ambition in Innocent III, and the papal war of extermination which followed against the Albigenses and Waldenses, led the latter, early in the thirteenth century, to accept as an article of their creed the doctrine, “That the papacy and Church of Rome were to be regarded as the Apocalyptic Harlot Babylon, and by consequence Antichrist.” (Ibid, II, p. 371)
The Church of Sardis era, the Dead Church, occurred during the 1514 – 1798 A.D.
The meaning of the word “Sardis” is the “escaping one,” or those who “come out,” so it is an excellent symbol of the Church during the Reformation period, when Martin Luther and a number of other reformers protested against the false teaching, tyranny and claims of the Papal Church, and they heeded Messiah’s command and came out of her.
The Roman Beast They Faced: The Roman Catholic Church.
Christian Groups During This Era: The Huguenots
Main Events During This Era: .
At this point the church had endured many persecutions from the Papal Church, and no doubt was tired of fighting against it. In 1514, the Antichrist Papal Church pronounced Messiah’s Church as dead.
Through Martin Luther and others, they were reminded of justification by the righteousness of Christ, pardon through his blood, and atonement by his sacrifice, doctrines that had been lost.
They had to be reminded about these things, because the Papal Church had forbid them to read the Bible, which caused them to become weak and apathetic.
In 1525 A.D. William Tyndale published the first preserved English New Testament.
To counter that, in 1559 A.D, the Satan-empowered Papal Church at The Council of Trent declared that Preserved Bibles are on the “Index of Forbidden Books.”
Interestingly enough, in 1536 A.D. when Tyndale was being burned at the stake, he cried out “Lord, open the king of England’s eyes.”
God answered Tyndale’s prayer, as King Henry VIII of England authorized the Great Bible in 1540, and it was read aloud in church services of the Church of England. And then in 1611 A.D. the King James Bible was published.
With the advent of the printing press and the Word of God translated into English, millions of people were finally able to read the Bible.
They found salvation through faith, apart from works, in the pure gospel of our Messiah.
Read more about the advent of the printed Bible by clicking on The Little Book of Revelation 10
John Calvin, Martin Luther, and many other revered scholars, proclaimed that the Roman Catholic Church is the Antichrist ‘whore of Babylon’, who is guilty of the blood of the saints.
This means that the ‘man of sin‘, the ‘son of perdition‘ referred to in 2 Thes. 2:3, has already been revealed, so we’re not waiting for it to happen in the end times, as so many Pastors teach.
The Protestant Reformers told people to “come out of her” (Rev. 18) and millions left the Roman Catholic Church and were saved by faith in Messiah, which led to the formation of the Protestant churches.
Revelation 3:4, “You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.”
Messiah used these excellent men who held to the truth of His doctrine, to shine the light of the love, grace and salvation of Messiah’s gospel into a dark world.
Martin Luther was a German monk, priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation.
John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation.
John Eliot was a missionary who published a Bible in the Algonquian Native Americans’ language, and planted 14+ churches among them.
Sadly, and much to our loss, Christians today aren’t taught about these heroes of the faith. Most don’t even know what the Protestant Reformation was and how it impacts their lives even today.
It was the Protestants of the Reformation, who with the power of the Word of God, overcame the Holy Roman Empire in which the Pope, being head of the church of the civil state, could enforce his anti-biblical doctrine by means of civil law.
They instituted the rule of law, and in America they powerfully shaped the Constitution which was an entirely new kind of government, a representative republic based on the rule of law, the basis of which was the Bible.
Without the Reformation of the sixteenth century, the American Experiment of a new kind of civil government, in which having neither a state church nor a ruler claiming both temporal and spiritual authority, as the Pope does, could not have taken place.
Many immigrants from Europe, England, and Scotland fled to the American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, because of the terrors that the Roman Catholic Church continued to perpetrate on their homelands.
Revelation 3:5, “He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
During the era of the Church of Sardis, Satan continued to use the Catholic Church to kill Christians.
Spain especially had her share in the responsibility of this iniquity, for under forty-five Inquisition trials, between the years 1481 and 1808, 31,658 were burnt alive, 18,049 were burnt in effigy, and 225,214 were condemned to galleys or imprisonment.
In 1555, Queen Mary, known as Bloody Mary, restored Roman Catholicism and persecuted Protestants.
In 1572, the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre targeted the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants), during the French Wars of Religion. By some it is supposed that at least 100,000 Huguenots suffered death.
In the seventeenth century, the Papacy was heavily invested in “ethnic cleansing” of the Bible-believing Vaudois, or “people of the valleys” of the Cottian Alps.
On 24 April 1655, an estimated 1,700 Waldensians were slaughtered; the massacre was so brutal it aroused indignation throughout Europe.
It is supposed that 50 Million Christians have perished in the Papal Church persecutions of the Waldenses, Albigenses, Bohemian Brethren, Vaudois, Wycliffites, and Protestants.
You can see how the battle of Messiah vs. Satan played out historically during this church era. And you can see why this period is referred to as the time of Great Tribulation.
The Catholic Church continued to persecute Christians, but more importantly, they implemented a new strategy of destroying Christianity by infiltrating it.
This started at the Council of Trent (which took place from 1545-1563 A.D.), where they mapped out their plans:
Since since they could not stop the word of God from spreading worldwide, they took steps to corrupt it. You can read that study by clicking on Satan’s Corrupted Bible Manuscripts
To destroy Christianity, they became as Christians, and infiltrated seminaries and Bible schools, to pervert the Word of God and deceive from within, to corrupt their theology and bring them back to the Mother Church.
They deflected blame from them being accused of being the Antichrist by creating deceptions regarding the fulfillment of the prophecies in Daniel and Revelation. You can read that study by clicking on The 70th Week Of Daniel is Fulfilled by Jesus Christ NOT the Antichrist
All of these deceptions have grown to epic proportions over time, as most Christians are reading their corrupted Bible versions, and most believe their end-time prophecy deceptions.
In 1798 A.D., Napoleon’s army marched into Rome and captured the Pope, ending the reign of the Papacy, causing a deadly head wound of the beast of Revelation.
The era of the Church of Philadelphia occurred from 1798 – 1866 A.D.
Messiah did not have one word of condemnation for this church era, only words of praise for their faithful love and service.
The Roman Beast They Faced: Jesuit-controlled Roman Catholic Church and America
Christian Groups During This Era: The Great Awakening pastors.
Main Events During This Era: .
His Church started to come back to life during the previous church era, and it gained strength and came fully alive during the era of Church of Philadelphia.
The “open door” was an unprecedented opportunity to preach the gospel throughout the world, to people who were open to receive it and embrace it.
This was the rise of the evangelical church in North America and the British Isles, as they took the word of God to the whole world.
A large number of souls were won to Christ during this time of revival called The Great Awakening, because of the missions of these great men of God:
George Whitefield (1714-70) was a friend of the Wesley’s and the first open-air preacher. Thousands got saved on two continents.
Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) was a Christian preacher and theologian, who is widely acknowledged to be America’s most important and original philosophical theologian, and one of America’s greatest intellectuals.
Francis Asbury (1745-1816) was the first of many Methodist “Circuit Riders.” He traveled 270,000 miles and preached 16,000 sermons, despite persecution.
William Carey (1761-1834) was the Baptist father of modern missions. In 1809 he finished the Bengali Bible, and published many more Bibles in other languages. Carey sailed for India, where he found an “open door,” and since then the Lord has opened the door into China, Japan, Korea, India, Africa and the isles of the sea, until there is not a country in the world where the missionary cannot go.
Adoniram Judson (1804-90) was a missionary to the Burmese people, and completed the translation into Burmese.
Charles H. Spurgeon (1834 – 1892) was a strong figure in the Reformed Baptist tradition and known as the “Prince of Preachers”.
You can see how the era of the Church of Philadelphia shined the light of the Gospel throughout the world.
Revelation 3:9-10, “Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews and are not, but lie–indeed I will make them come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you. Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.”
The hour of trial will come upon the last church era of Laodecia, because the Church has fallen away from sound doctrine, and doesn’t understand who the Satan-empowered beast is, so she is exposed to its deception.
Revelation 3:11-13, “Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown. He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. And I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
The era of the Church of Laodicea, the Lukewarm Church, 1866 A.D. – present
Revelation 3:14 “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, ‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God.”
Laodicea means “power of the laity,” and it’s a fit description for two reasons:
After the antichrist Pope was removed from power in 1798, the Babylonian-based Papal Church was brought back to life by the Jesuits, when in 1929 Mussolini signed a treaty with the Roman Catholic Church giving them political power once again.
Today the Papal Church clergy organizational structure controls 1.2 Billion members, which is 1/6th the world’s population.
The Roman Beast We Face: Jesuit-controlled Roman Catholic Church and America
Christian Groups During This Era:
Main Events During This Era:
Power of the Laity also applies to most Christians churches, that give all the power to the Pastor and some deacons, instead of following Paul’s five-fold ministry pattern.
Revelation 3:15-16, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.”
Messiah offered our current church age not one word of commendation, and says that we are lukewarm and self-satisfied.
Timothy warned about this time, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” 2 Timothy 3:1-5
I pray that after reading about the historical fulfillment of the first six church eras, you realize that we now live in the last church era of Laodicea, and you will understand the force of Messiah’s words to us and the consequences if we don’t follow His commands.
The flames of the Protestant Reformation and Great Awakening have been quenched.
The passion for winning souls has been passed off to Pastors and missionaries, instead of being borne by the Temple of God, Christians.
Churches have to liven up the worship and arts and teachings, to entertain the church members.
The desire to fight against the Antichrist system has been lost, because the Church doesn’t understand who Mystery Babylon is; instead they think that they will be raptured out before the Antichrist appears, so they can’t fight against it.
The church is compromised in sin, and doesn’t stand out from the rest of the world when it comes to divorce, drinking, watching evil movies, etc.
The church thinks that Satan will prevail in the end times, instead of understanding that Messiah will defeat the enemy through the remnant church.
Around us we see wealthy churches that are void of Christ’s Spirit and power, because they attempt to serve God and Mammon, which is impossible.
Many church leaders like Rick Warren are partnering with the Antichrist Roman Catholic Church in the name of peace.
The church has certainly fallen away from truth and zeal, and it’s first love, Christ.
Revelation 3:17, “Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’–and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.”
Because most Pastors don’t teach that we indeed are in the era of the Church of Laodecia, we never understand the full impact of Messiah’s words against us.
Messiah warned, “Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
“Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'”
“And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'” Matthew 7:21-23
Since the Protestant Reformation, the Jesuits of the Papal Church have infiltrated the church, to deceive it.
Since they couldn’t stop the Word of God from spreading, they infiltrated and created new a revision of the Greek, and then created corrupted Bibles from that.
Read Modern Bible Deception Verse Study
They infiltrated Bible schools and semitaries, to cause them to use their version of the Greek text and their modern Bibles, so as to be deceived.
Read Satan’s Corrupted Bible Manuscripts
They had Jesuit priests create an end-time tribulation period featuring a one-man Antichrist, as to deflect the accusations of the Protestant Reformers.
Read The 70th Week Of Daniel is Fulfilled by Jesus Christ NOT the Antichrist
Their end-times deception causes Christians to believe that they will be raptured out and not have to face tribulation and the beast system.
Read The Pretribulation Rapture Myth
They created the modern state of Israel to deceive Christians about the end times. Read Jews Who Are Not Really Jews
Through the use of social issues, the Roman Catholic Church seeks to draw true Evangelical Bible-believers into itself so that there can be no opposition by them on the fundamental issues of the authority of the Bible alone and the Gospel.
Popular Pastors like Chuck Swindoll, David Jeremiah and John MacArthur, teach prophecy concepts that support the Jesuits end-time Antichrist deception.
Most Pastors have been deceived because seminaries have been infiltrated by Jesuits.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4
Most Christians think they know how end times will play out, but they have been blinded by the enemy.
Most Christians are naked, as they are exposed to the lies of the beast, and will be caught off-guard, instead of prepared for Messiah’s return.
Read all of the deceptions listed on this website and you will see how blind, poor and naked we are.
Friend, we have fallen far away from the Biblical truths and we have failed to identify the enemy, so we have no way to fight against it.
False Prophets have infiltrated churches and seminaries.
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.” 2 Corinthians 11:13-15
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” 1 John 4:1
The false gospel of humanism, personal development if you will, is being preached by many pastors such as Joel Osteen.
The mandate of the church is to preach the pure gospel of salvation through Messiah’s sacrifice, to make disciples who can share the gospel, and to identify false prophets.
It’s not about living your best life now; it’s about living your best life for Messiah now.
Is your Pastor teaching the true fulfillment of prophecy?
Or are they teaching the prophecy explanations from the Antichrist Papal Church?
You need to test what they say against the Word of God.
“I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see.”
Revelation 3:18
Pray for the Lord to give you eye salve to be able to see the truth. Read the Bible studies on this website to understand the true fulfillment of prophecy.
“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:19-21
“We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head–Christ.” Ephesians 4:14
Be clothed with the truth, so you’re not naked when He returns.
Revelation 16:15 “Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”
Messiah closes with a promise to the overcomers.
Revelation 3:19-22, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
Will you accept the Lord’s rebuke, repent of your past misunderstandings, and overcome the deceptions of the Antichrist beast, so that you can sit with Messiah?
Or will you be Lukewarm and risk being spit out of Messiah’s mouth?
Satan has prevailed during the last 100 years, as he has caused great deception in the Church.
But as you’ve seen, Christ always prevails over Satan’s plans, and He is raising up a remnant of believers to preach the pure Gospel, to identify false prophets to purify the church, and to oppose the Antichrist beast, the Roman Catholic Church.
Here is a one page summary of the seven church eras of Revelation:
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