3ABN Spring Camp Meeting 2013: Showers of Blessings

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Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN)

Stephen Bohr

Another Look at Thyatira

Good evening What a pleasure it is to see so many of you here on a Wednesday night You know somebody said it was Thursday night out there and they're right Because biblically this is Thursday night Because the night comes before the day.

It's good to be here once again at 3ABN for Camp Meeting.

Before we study God's Word this evening however we want to ask for the Lord's special blessing and so I invite you along with me to bow your heads reverently as we pray Our Father and our God what a privilege it is to be here in this beautiful place we thank you Father for your word which is a sure guide in a world that is so confused as we look at the world it seems to be falling apart at the seams.

But we thank you that in your word you tell us that you have everything under control.

You still sit on the throne and you rule in the affairs of men.

We ask that you will bless us as we open the pages of your holy book and we thank you for your presence and we're certain of it because we pray in the precious name of Jesus Amen.

I'd like to begin by mentioning that in the book of Revelation we have 7 churches which represent 7 periods in the history of the Christian Church.

I'd like to begin by reading a statement that we find in the book Acts of the Apostles page 585 where Ellen White describes the 7 churches and their specific meaning.

This is what she says, the names of the 7 churches are symbolic of the church in different periods of the Christian era.

The number 7 indicates completeness and is symbolic of the fact that the messages extend to the end of time while the symbols used reveal the condition of the church at different periods in the history of the world.

So clearly the spirit of prophecy tells us here that the 7 churches represent 7 consecutive periods in the history of the Christian Church from apostolic times to the very end of time Now it's interesting to notice that Ellen White is not alone in this concept because most conservative evangelical scholars agree that the 7 churches represent 7 periods of church history.

I just like to read a statement by 1 of those scholars so that you can see that this is not unique to Ellen White.

Now I'm going to read from someone with whom Ellen White disagrees probably 99.99% of the time.

And in his book, Vanished into Thin Air, page 276, Hal Lindsey said this, which is correct.

I believe, along with many scholars, that these 7 letters were not only written to 7 literal churches with real problems, but also that they have a prophetic application to church history.

I believe that these 7 churches were selected and arranged by our omniscient Lord because they had problems and characteristics that would prophesy 7 stages of history through which the church universal would pass very similar to what we read from Acts of the Apostles page 585 and Hal Lindsay is not the only 1 there are many, many other scholars that I could read that believe that the 7 churches represent 7 periods of church history from the days of the apostles till the end of time.

Now evangelical Protestant scholars believe that the church of Ephesus represents the apostolic church.

They believe that the church of Smyrna represents the church that was persecuted during the period of the Roman emperors.

They believe that the church of Pergamum represents the church during the period when apostasy entered the church, darkness entered the church in the times of Emperor Constantine.

They believe that the church of Thyatira represents the church during the period of papal supremacy, the period of the Middle Ages, the Dark Ages if you please.

They believe that the church of Sardis represents the Protestant Reformation.

Believe it or not, not only Adventist writers but also non-Adventist evangelicals have believed that.

Now when you get to Philadelphia and Laodicea they become a little fuzzier as to what it applies to but virtually all who believe the 7 churches represent 7 periods of church history agree that Ephesus is the Apostolic Church, Smyrna is the persecuted church by the Roman Emperors, Pergamum is the church of the days of Constantine, Thyatira is the church of papal supremacy, and Sardis is the church of the Protestant Reformation.

Now as I've studied the 7 churches I've come to a very important conclusion And that is that the 7 churches are to Revelation what Daniel 2 is to the book of Daniel.

Now Daniel 2 is foundational to all of the book.

The book of Daniel builds upon chapter 2.

And I believe that the same is true about the 7 churches.

The 7 churches provide the foundational prophecy of the book of Revelation.

It gives us the skeleton or the basic chronological structure for the rest of the book.

If you please it gives us the framework upon which the book of Revelation in its entirety presents itself.

Now this evening we are going to begin our four-part study with 1 of the 7 churches the Church of Thyatira.

Now the Church of Thyatira is the fourth church in the sequence.

Before we study the Church of Thyatira however, we need to take a look at some principles that will guide us in our study.

You see, in scripture you really have 4 stages to Elijah and Elijah is linked with the message to the church of Thyatira.

The first stage of Elijah is the historical Elijah in the Old Testament who was called to speak to literal Israel.

The second Elijah or the second stage of Elijah is John the Baptist and we'll be studying John the Baptist a little bit later on in this series.

The third stage, which is the 1 that we're going to take a look at tonight, is the stage of Elijah during the 1260 years, during the period of the church of Thyatira.

And the fourth stage is the end time Elijah.

The Elijah that will exist and be alive when Jesus comes, if you please.

So there are actually 4 stages to the Elijah prophecy.

Now the first 2 Elijahs are literal individuals.

And they have 3 literal enemies, personal enemies the last 2 Elijah's are not individuals the individuals represent world wide movements and world wide systems or powers in other words you're dealing with type and anti-type Elijah in the Old Testament and John the Baptist in the New Testament become symbolic individuals along with their enemies of the Elijah during the 1260 years and the end time Elijah but at the end time Elijah is not an individual Elijah is a movement and his 3 enemies are not individuals his 3 enemies represent global worldwide systems.

Now there are 4 main protagonists in the story of Elijah, the first protagonist is a determined and strong-willed harlot woman whose name is Jezebel.

The second protagonist of the story is a weak and easily influenced king whose name was Ahab.

The third protagonist or we could say protagonists of the story are apostate false prophets that did the bidding of this harlot Jezebel.

And of course the fourth protagonist was none less than Elijah who was called by God to denounce this union of the king with Jezebel and the prophets of Baal.

Now it's very important to realize that whenever Elijah appears in Scripture he never appears alone.

Whenever Elijah appears he always appears in bad company.

In other words his 3 enemies appear with him.

Whether it's the Old Testament Elijah, whether it's John the Baptist, whether it's the Elijah during the 1260 years or the very end time Elijah whenever Elijah appears in scripture his 3 enemies appear along with him and so in the 4 stages of Elijah we're going to have to find a determined and strong-willed harlot woman, we're going to have to find a weak and easily influenced king, we're going to have to find false prophets who do the bidding of this woman, and we are going to have to find Elijah who is called to rebuke this unity of this threefold alliance.

Now I would like us to begin by reading the message to the church of Thyatira.

It's found in Revelation chapter 2 and verses 18 through 29 and I'm going to read it slowly because it has several very important details.

Remember that Thyatira is the church that exists during the period of the dark ages, during the period of papal supremacy, that is the key point that we want to remember.

Now notice what we find beginning in verse 18.

And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, These things says the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass.

I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience, and as for your works the last are more than the first.

Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman, now here comes 1 of the protagonists, you allow that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess, let me ask you can this be literal Jezebel?

No, because Jezebel had been dead for 800 years at this point, So this cannot be literal Jezebel that arises in the time of the church of Thyatira.

So it says because you allow that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality other versions translate fornication and eat things sacrificed to idols.

In other words she introduces fornication and idolatry.

In the Old Testament this is literal, people bow before literal images and she's committing literal fornication with the king.

It continues saying here in verse 21 notice, and I gave her time, the word time here is the Greek word chronos where we get chronology from.

So I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality or of her fornication and she did not repent.

Therefore notice what God does, because she didn't repent after God gave her this time.

Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery or fornication with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.

And then it tells us I will kill her children with death.

Interesting, all sorts of interesting details that we find in this passage.

I will kill her children with death and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and the hearts, and I will give to each 1 of you according to your works.

But now notice that in this church there's a faithful remnant, verse 24 says, now to you I say and to the rest that word rest really is the same word that is translated remnant in Revelation 12 17 it's the Greek word loypos in other words it could be translated now to you I say and to the remnant in Thyatira as many as do not have this doctrine in other words as many as are against fornication and against idolatry who have not known the depths of Satan as they say I will put on you no other burden but hold fast what you have till I come and he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end to him I will give power over the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, they shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessel, as I also have received from my father.

And I will give him the morning star, he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

And so because we have Jezebel in the church of Thyatira that would tell us that we also have to have whom?

There also has to be the king, there also has to be Elijah, and there also have to be the false prophets.

That's right, because when 1 of the protagonists appears all of the other protagonists appear along with that 1.

So we know that in the period of the church of Thyatira Jezebel appears with all of the other protagonists of the story.

Now in the Old Testament Jezebel is a literal pagan priestess who links up with a literal king and used his executive authority to introduce a mixture of God worship and Baal worship in literal Israel.

She had a group of literal false prophets who extended her influence in the literal geographical territory of Israel.

In other words, the story in the Old Testament is a story that deals with literal individuals in literal Israel.

However, in the church of Thyatira, what was literal in the Old Testament now becomes symbolic of movements and becomes symbolic of systems, of global systems.

So in the church of Thyatira, which is right in the middle of the history of the Christian church, we have a woman, symbolically speaking, which represents an apostate church, that blends paganism with Christianity.

She links up with the kings of the earth not just with 1 king and she has spiritual children that at some point were born to her and she persecutes those who disagree with her points of view.

And so what was literal in the Old Testament now becomes symbolic and it becomes global.

Now let me just summarize some of the details of the story from the Old Testament.

Tomorrow morning we're going to take a look at the story as it appears in the Old Testament which is really the root to all of the other Elijah passages that we find in scripture.

Let's just review the main points before we draw a parallel between the days of Elijah and what happened during the church of Thyatira.

The harlot Jezebel as we've noticed fornicated with the king and used his executive authority to extend her counterfeit religion and to persecute those who were opposed to her agenda.

The second point is that she was involved in the occult because in 2nd Kings chapter 9 and verse 22 it says that she was involved in witchcraft.

In other words she was involved in the occult.

Furthermore we notice that she blended the worship of God with the worship of Baal.

In other words it was a mixture of God worship of genuine worship with counterfeit worship.

She instituted a false sacrificial system.

Remember that the altar of the Lord was torn down in the days of Elijah because they had forgotten the gospel they had forgotten that the victim represented the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and they were offering sacrifices to Baal furthermore we know that in the days of Elijah she was leading the people to break the commandments of God because when Elijah met Ahab, Ahab says oh so you're the 1 who troubles Israel and Elijah said no I have not troubled Israel but you and your father's house have done it because you have forsaken what?

You have forsaken the commandments of God.

Also false worship was involved because we're told clearly in 1st Kings chapter 16 and verse 30 through 33 that Jezebel implemented the false worship of the sun god Baal.

We also know that she had a group of false prophets that did her bidding and we know that Elijah was called to unmask this counterfeit religion at the risk of his own life.

Now let me just read you some texts that we find in Scripture that describes some of these details that I've mentioned.

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Another Look at Thyatira

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