Pillars of PhiladelphiaPage 1

Christian Churches of God

No. 283

The Pillars of Philadelphia

(Edition 1.0 20010913-20060609)

The promise to the smallest and most faithful of the Churches of God, the Church of the Philadelphians, was that they would be made Pillars in the Temple of God. This is a much more powerful promise than it might first appear.

Christian Churches of God

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(Copyright  2001, 2006 Wade Cox)

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Pillars of Philadelphia

Pillars of PhiladelphiaPage 1

In the text of the messages to the Seven Angels of the Seven Churches Christ has this to say to the Church of the Philadelphians.

Revelation 3:7-13

"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: `The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut, who shuts and no one opens. 8 "`I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut; I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. 9 Behold, I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but lie -- behold, I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and learn that I have loved you. 10 Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial, which is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth. 11 I am coming soon; hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. 12 He who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God; never shall he go out of it, 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 from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. 13 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.' (RSV)

This text says that he who conquers will be made a pillar in the Temple of Messiah’s God and here in the RSV it says: never shall he go out of it. But the text actually says: no more shall he go out of it (cf. Marshall’s Interlinear where it says: By no means he shall go forth [any] longer).

What exactly does it mean to be made a pillar in the Temple of Messiah’s God? What is happening in the message to the churches? Is there a story here from which we might draw some understanding?

Firstly, why was the message to the angels and not directly to the churches? The answer can be deduced from the facts of history. The churches mentioned are in fact all drawn from a line of cities in Asia Minor that were on a mail route. The assumption is that the mail route was a sequential progression from the churches mentioned. The churches commenced at Ephesus and moved through the cities until the last mentioned which was Laodicea. The order was thus held to be Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.

Because they were in a progression in order as a mail route, it was then assumed that they actually referred to eras of the Church spread over the history of the Church in the wilderness. This view is of course totally rejected by the church in Rome as it means that the lampstand was passed from one era to another and hence could not rest in one church in one location as is claimed by the Roman Catholic system. The Orthodox Church might see this as erroneous in the same way but apply to them as the authority with the Roman system being derived from them and hence of no authority either. Their resistance to this view of the prophecy will be solidified as they all progress to reunification over the next few years. From 1996 the Egyptian Coptic Church went back into union with Rome after a split lasting from 451 following the Council of Chalcedon. This was brought about by the increasing persecution of Egyptian Fundamentalism (see also The Fall of Egypt (No. 36)).

The fact that the message was written to the angels of the Seven Churches meant that they had responsibility for what happened in those churches and the message had a life of itself that transcended time.

The view of the extended church era is reinforced by the administration of the churches themselves in the first few centuries.

John was effectively head of all of the churches from Ephesus after the death of the other apostles. Peter, for example, had been bishop of Antioch and not of Rome. His successors whom he trained later established the headquarters from Smyrna. Polycarp and later Polycrates were the premier bishops of the East. They trained and despatched the bishops into Europe and the East. For example, the bishops at Lyon up until Irenaeus were trained and despatched by Smyrna and not by Rome. Polycarp was held to have founded the church at Lyon ca. 120 CE (cf the paper Timeline of the Churches of God (No. 30)).

Thus Ephesus was the first love of the church. It was new and it was the home of the last apostle and the one loved by Jesus Christ. Thus the message can be seen in this light. The apostle John wrote the messages whilst he was in exile on the island of Patmos around 95 of the current era.

Revelation 1:9-20

I John, your brother, who share with you in Jesus the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11 saying, "Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Per'gamum and to Thyati'ra and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to La-odice'a." 12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden girdle round his breast; 14 his head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters; 16 in his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth issued a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. 17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. 19 Now write what you see, what is and what is to take place hereafter. 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. (RSV)

The Lord’s Day referred to here was not the so-called Sunday reference but referred to the Day of the Lord at the end of the age (see The Day of the Lord and the Last Days (No. 192)).

John had been imprisoned because of his testimony and he was in fact kept alive to receive this Revelation, which God gave to Jesus Christ. The book is called the Apocalypse (Greek for Revealing) of John by the Roman system in spite of the fact that it is a revelation of God to Jesus Christ and which he then gave to John. This means that Christ was not omniscient even after his resurrection and was dependent upon the willing self-revelation of God and hence was not God in the sense that the Eternal Father was God.

In this text Christ tells John to write what is then and what was to take place thereafter. He explains that the seven stars are the seven angels of the seven churches and that the seven golden lampstands are the seven churches over which they preside.

This text tells us a number of things:

  • The seven churches have a lamp of their own.
  • The seven angels are stars in their own right.
  • The message is given to each one of them separately.

From this we deduce that each church and each angel is directly responsible to Jesus Christ and there is no continuity of people and authority from one church to another.

Each angel and his church is responsible to Jesus Christ who has the two edged sword proceeding from His mouth which is the word of the Law of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. We will see that failure is punished by the removal of authority symbolised by the candlestick or lampstand itself.

The message was for what was then and for what was to come. Thus this prophecy covered the time span of the churches. The argument might be and has been put forward that the churches themselves at those locations simply were covered by the prophecy and when they perished so did the time frame of the prophecy. This view is not supported by the history of the churches themselves in those locations. We have the Ephesian and the Smyrna era correctly placed and the administration did go from one to another. However, the Ephesian church did not recover in any sense that might be of the great significance required by the works and prophecies here in the Revelation of God to Jesus Christ. Moreover, there must be a more important message involved or the prophecy would seem to be open to the charge of trivialising the importance of prophecy to the churches over time.

We might examine the messages and the history to test their application to history and the importance of these prophecies.

Ephesus

John is told to write to his own church.

Revelation 2:1-7

"To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: `The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. 2 "`I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear evil men but have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and found them to be false; 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember then from what you have fallen, repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have, you hate the works of the Nicola'itans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.' (RSV)

In this first church we are close to the scene and within the period of John. The great controversies mentioned by John in the epistles of John cover these disputes up until the time of the Revelation. This is the time referred to as being what is. Modern critics claim that the text refers to the activities in Rome during the time of Nero but that is not correct. The early church accepted it as prophetic for hundreds of years. The texts were written in the terms of the end of the first century and within the terms of reference that they would understand but are for events over the millennia ahead.

The importance of Ephesus and Antioch to the Church should not be underestimated. Yet Antioch under Peter and his successors gets no mention in these prophecies at all. Areas that were then not even bishoprics get mentioned.

The falling away or the loss of the first love of this era and church is easily identified and not in dispute. What is in question is the relevance of the time frame and locations to the Churches of God.

Ephesus was a large seaport city on the coast of Asia Minor. It was an important commercial and religious centre and Paul worked there for an extended period. Acts 19:8,10 states that he taught in the synagogue for three months and then in the hall of Tyrannus for two years. Acts 20:31 gives a round figure of three years for his total time there. The name of the Ephesians appears in some MSS in Ephesians 1:1 (A,D,G and the later Koine or Byzantine family). Ephesus appears also in Acts 18:27 in D and in the margin of the Harklean Syriac. The Ephesians are referred to in Acts 19:28, 34,35). Trophimus the Ephesian is spoken of in Acts 21:29.

The Ephesian church was undoubtedly an early and premier centre of the early church.

North of Ephesus on the mouth of the Hermus River lay Smyrna and north of that again in the valley of the Caicus River lay Pergamum (also called Pergamos). This name was derived from an ancient term for citadel.

According to Strabo (XIV. 632,640) the first people there were Carians and Leleges. They were driven out by Androcolese son of the king of Athens who led the Ionian Greek colonisation there, some time around king Solomon’s death and the partition of Israel. Androcolese is regarded as the founder of Ephesus. However, there was a cult of Artemis there long before that. The first temple to Artemis was built by the Architect Chersiphron (Strabo XIV 640). The city was dedicated to Artemis in the siege by the Lydians under Croesus ca 560 BCE when he began his conquest of all the nations west of the Halys R. Afterwards Croesus himself donated the golden oxen to the temple and the greater part of its pillars (cf. Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. 2, p. 115).

Cyrus defeated Croesus in 546 BCE. And then his General Harpagus overcame the Ionian cities (Herodotus 162) no doubt including Ephesus. The Temple at Ephesus was burnt on the day of the birth of Alexander the Great.

In 334 CE Alexander conquered the Persians at the Grancus River and the temple was rebuilt there soon after. The Ephesians declined Alexander’s offer to pay for it.

Alexander’s general Lysimachus is considered to be the modern founder of Ephesus when it passed to him with the greater part of Asia Minor. He rebuilt it on higher ground and the walls and tower are visible to this day on the hills. He also built a new harbour.

When Lysimachus was defeated and slain by Seleucus 1, Ephesus, along with the entire Asian Empire of Lysimachus, was then entrusted to his son Antiochus 1 and thus became part of the Seleucid Empire (Pausanius I. 16.2). In 190 BCE the Seleucid king, Antiochus III the Great, was defeated by the Romans at Magnesia near Sipylus and the cities of Asia Minor fell under the domination of Rome (Livy XXXVII. xxxvii- xlv). In the Battle of Magnesia Eumenes II of Pergamum aided the Romans, and afterward they gave him much of the holdings of Antiochus including the city of Ephesus.

When the last ruler of Pergamum Attalus III Philometor died in 133 BCE he bequeathed his kingdom to the Romans and so Ephesus came again under their rule (cf. Interpreter’s Dict.,ibid.). By 64 BCE the Romans had put down any serious opposition there and the area was all under Roman influence. Under Augustus a general peace was enjoyed and in 29 BCE the city of Ephesus dedicated a sacred precinct to Rome and according to Cassius Dio (LI, xx, 6) Ephesus attained the chief place in Asia and the Interpreter’s Dictionary states:

In the next century or two it enjoyed that great glory to which its ruins still bear witness (ibid.).

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was accounted one of the seven wonders of the ancient world but with the coming of Christianity its importance declined and the Unitarian and Iconoclastic Goths finally burnt and thus almost completely destroyed the Temple in 262 CE.

A temple to the emperor Domitian (81-96) was erected at Ephesus and also a temple to the Egyptian god Serapis was erected in the second century. This was during and subsequent to the time of John. Domitian persecuted the Church and was their archenemy. Ephesus however continued on as a Christian site for many centuries. The village and the hill there in the region of the Artemission (temple of Artemis) called Aysoluk is derived from the name ‘Agios Theologos which was the title given to John in the Eastern Church (cf. Interp. Dict., ibid., pp. 117-118).