Biblical Church History

Following the Hand of God and the Hand of Satan

THE CHURCH PERIODS

Church Reference Approx. date

Meaning

Ephesus Rev. 2:1-7 90 – 200 AD Fully purposedSmyrna Rev. 2: 8-11 200-325 AD Bitterness and

death Pergamos Rev. 2: 12-17 325-500 AD Much marriageThyatria Rev. 2: 18-29 500- 1000

ADOder of affliction

Sardis Rev. 3:1-6 1000- 1500 AD

Red ones

Philadelphia

Rev. 3: 7-13 1500- 1900 AD

Brotherly love

Laodicea Rev. 3:14-22 1900- Rapture

Civil rights

THE 7 PERIODS OF CHURCH HISTORY

Revelation 2:8-11c. 200-325 A.D.S

myrna “Bitterness and

death”

Smyrna

I. The CommissionRev. 2: 8a

(Rev 2:8) And unto the angel of the

church in Smyrna write; These things

saith the first and the last, which was dead,

and is alive;

Smyrna

II. The Character Rev. 2:8b

(Rev 2:8) And unto the angel of the

church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and

the last, which was dead, and is alive;

Smyrna

III. The Commendation

Rev. 2:9-10

Smyrna A. It was

a persecut

ed Church“bitterness

and death”

(Rev 2:9) I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews,

and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

(Rev 2:10) Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of

you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have

tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give

thee a crown of life.

THE TEN OFFICIAL ROMAN

PERSECUTIONS

Smyrna B. It was

a performi

ng Church“bitterness

and death”

Smyrna C. It was

a poverty

stricken Church“bitterness

and death”

Smyrna

IV. The Condemnation

Rev. 2:9-10

(Rev 2:9) I know thy works, and tribulation,

and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are

Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of

Satan.

Smyrna A. The

progression of Bible

deviations

“bitternessand death”

THE FALSE DOCTRINE THAT GOD IS DONE

WITH THE JEW

SMYrNA

Our lord calls this teaching Satanic and Blasphemous

He also is letting us know that this will be one of the fundamental doctrine that Satan will use to build his counterfeit church (Religious system)

THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING THIS TEACHING

SMYrNA

During this time the Ante-Nicene church fathers began to teach that: Because the Christian is a Spiritual Jew (Romans 2)

Therefore he is also a Physical Jew

Therefore all the promises in the Word of god to the Jew are now given to the Church.

And because of that God is now through with the Jews

WHAT EXACTLY IS THIS DOCTRINE THAT OUR LORD IS REFERRING

TO?

SMYrNA

Further ramifications of this teaching: The Christian has replaced the Jew

The Church has replaced Israel

And the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven are the same

WHAT EXACTLY IS THIS DOCTRINE THAT OUR LORD IS REFERRING

TO?

MILLENNIAL REIGN

SMYrNA

What you believe about the Jew will put you in one of three Categories doctrinally when it comes to the Biblical teaching of the Millennial reign Pre-Millennial

Post-Millennial

A-Millennial

SMYrNA

Pre = Before

A pre - millennialist believes that Christ will return before the 1000 year reign

Post = After A post - millennialist believes that Christ will return after the 1000 year region.

A = Not A – millennialist believe that Christ is NOT going to come back to reign on this earth

Understanding the different views of the millennium

Three relevant examples of what happens doctrinally when you lose sight of the

Jew:

BAPTISM

TONGUES

ETERNAL

SECURITY

The millennial reign issue is always a Political issue… because it deals

with Governmental authority on Earth

Warning!

(Isa 9:6-7) For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the

government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be

called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father,

The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and

peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his

kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with

justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts

will perform this.

PRE-MILLENNIAL REIGN

SMYrNA

We Don’t believe God is done with

the Jew We believe Christ came the first time to establish the kingdom of God..(a spiritual Kingdom)We believe Christ came the first time to establish the kingdom of heaven..(a physical kingdom)We believe the kingdom of Heaven was rejected by the Nation of Israel, so God turned to the Gentile.

PRE-MILLENNIALIST

SMYrNA

But we don’t believe that means

God is finished with the Jews!!!We believe Rom.9,10,11.. “Blindness in part is happened to Israel..” And we simply entered a parenthesis called the “Church Age.” (70 weeks of Daniel)Believe God will restore the Nation of Israel, and all the promises in the Word of God to them will be fulfilled.We leave their promises alone, and claim promises intended for the church..

PRE-MILLENNIALIST

SMYrNA

We invest our time, resources,

and energies in reproducing spiritual “sons of God” on the earth

We believe our job is to make disciples in every nation.

The premillennialists’ view and approach toward human government:..We believe every government is destine for failure

PRE-MILLENNIALIST

POST-MILLENNIAL REIGN

SMYrNA

They believe the job of the

Christian is to make the world a better place in which to live…(i.e. To bring about peace on earth, and good will toward men)..And when we get the world to that place, THEN Christ will come back to rule for 1000 years.

This belief proves that man is an incurable optimist

POST-MILLENNIALIST

SMYrNA

That’s why the Methodists,

Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Southern Baptist approach missions the way they do: Socially

• Feed the poor• Build a school• Build a hospital

The postmillennialists view and approach toward human government:

POST-MILLENNIALIST

Postmillennialism (literally, “after the thousand years”) is the belief that

Christ will physically return to the earth only after a non-literal millennium is

completed. Postmillennialism is optimistic about the end times. Christ’s

reign over the earth from heaven increases during the millennium, which

is thought to be not a literal one thousand year period, but “a very long

time.” Postmillennialism places the Church in a role of transforming whole

social structures before the Second Coming and endeavoring to bring

about a “Golden Age” of peace and prosperity with great advances in education, the arts, sciences and

medicine.

The Postmillennial ViewBy Jay Rogers

Published April 2008

Rick Warren The author of the all-time

best seller “The Purpose Driven Life” wants church

members to get involved in fighting poverty and

disease around the world. Rick Warren, Pastor of Saddleback Church in

California, calls the church “the untapped giant” in the struggle to end poverty. In

an interview with host Peggy Wehmeyer, Warren says, “My goal is to move the American church from

selfish consumerism to unselfish contribution.” He says helping the poor is what being a Christian

is all about.

Soulful MattersBy Kenneth L. Woodward | NEWSWEEK

From the magazine issue dated Oct 31, 1994

…She thinks like a Methodist, talks like a Methodist and wants

to reform society just like a well-Sunday-schooled Methodist churchwoman should. ""I am,''

she told Newsweek in an exclusive interview at the White

House last week, ""an old-fashioned Methodist.''

""She's really a self-churched woman,'' says the Rev. Donald

Jones, her former youth minister, who developed his

privileged suburban students' social consciences by taking

them to visit migrant workers' children. More than other

Protestants, Methodists are still imbued with the turn-of-the-century social gospel, which

holds that Christians have been commissioned to build the Kingdom of God on earth.

And like her mother, 14-year-old Chelsea Clinton is being

raised a Methodist.The Methodist ethos extends to politics as well. The First Lady's speech in April 1993

calling for ""remodeling society by redefining what it means to be a human in the

20th century'' may have startled some listeners, but its ambitious optimism was fully

consonant with the Methodists' liberal social creed

Religion in the Civil War: The Northern Side

James Howell MoorheadPrinceton Theological Seminary

…To examine Protestant attitudes in the 1860s is

thus to learn much about the popular mood

and motivations of Northerners as their

"boys" marched off to war. We will look at

three of these attitudes of Northern Protestants:

Next, Christian ministers often portrayed the war for

the Union in millennial terms. Drawing on the

imagery of the twentieth chapter of Revelation and on other portions of the Bible describing events

near the close of history, they suggested that a Northern victory might prepare the way for the

Kingdom of God on earth.

(This did not mean that they expected Jesus to return

visibly or literally in the near future. Most Northern

ministers were postmillennialists {a technical term designating those who

believed that the Second Coming of Jesus would occur after the millennium or the thousand years of earthly

bliss foretold in the twentieth chapter of Revelation.} In this scheme, no visible return of Jesus could be in the offing

since that event, at the earliest, had to be at least a

thousand years away.)

a technical term designating those who believed that the Second

Yet even if most did not expect an early literal return of Jesus,

they did anticipate that current events would lead

shortly to a time when God's reign would be more

thoroughly established on earth. Thus one Baptist minister, preaching in

Philadelphia in 1863, claimed that the defeat of the rebellion

would bring a time that the Founding Fathers of the republic "pictured and

dreamed about, and prayed for. It will come with blessings,

and be greeted with Hallelujahs, it will be the

Millennium of political glory

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath

are stored;He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift

sword;His truth is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps

They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;

I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;

His day is marching on.Chorus

I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;“As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall

deal”;Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His

heel,Since God is marching on.

Chorus

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;

Our God is marching on.Chorus

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,

With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men

free;[originally …let us die to make men free]

While God is marching on. Chorus

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;

So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,

Our God is marching on.

WORLD WAR 1

“The war to end all

wars”

A-MILLENNIAL REIGN

SMYrNA

After WWI, many stopped believing

Christ would (literally) return to the earth to rule and reign at all They were then forced (if they believed the bible at all), to take the biblical teaching on the Kingdom promised to Israel, and spiritualize it to be fulfilled in the churchAlthough Amillennialism became popularized at the after the end of WWI, it began in the Smyrna Church age

A-MILLENNIALIST

SMYrNA

Blunders Of A-millennialism –

1. Amillennialism fosters no literal interpretation of scripture, even though Old Testament verses quoted in the New Testament were taken literally by New Testament authors, and Jesus Christ Himself.

2. Amillennialism equates the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven and the church. This permits misapplication of doctrinal passages. For example, if the Kingdom of Heaven is synonymous with the church, then it would be possible for a saved person to be “cast out into outer darkness” (Matt. 8:12).

A-MILLENNIALIST

SMYrNA

Blunders Of A-millennialism –

3. Amillennialism teaches that the current age is the Millennial age. But the characteristics of the Millennium (Satan bound, no curse, no devils, absolute peace, longevity of life, ect.) are not in effect today.

4. Amillennialism also alleges that the first resurrection is a spiritual resurrection, like Eph. 2:1,2. Once the literal, bodily resurrection is done away with, who is to say that Jesus Christ rose bodily? [See the readings in the NWT and NASB that deny the bodily ascension of Jesus Christ in Luke 24:51,52.]

A-MILLENNIALIST

(Mat 16:18-19) And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of

hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the

keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind

on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be

loosed in heaven.

Knights of Columbus Book “C” of the Knights of Columbus “Peter

receiving the Keys “

“Jesus could scarcely had used stronger or plainer words to indicate that he would confer on Peter such great authority that any act of Government, any rule that he

would prescribe, any interpretation of the master’s teachings, which he should

propagate, would be ratified, sanctioned and fully approved by God in Heaven”

Peter makes a wrong interpretation in Gal. 2Peter curses, swears and denies Christ 3 times at the end of the GospelsPeter rebukes the Lord in Matt. 16Peter argues with the Lord in Acts 10

Knights of Columbus Book “D” of the Knights of Columbus pg. 14-18

“Peter, the Pope, and Infallibility”

“Peters’ successor fell heir to Peters’ job. Which carried with it the assurance,

divine guidance, and assistance such had been promised to Peter. This is what is meant of the infallibility of the of the

Pope”

Crusades

Augustine He was the Catholic Bishop of North Africa

In 354 Ad he wrote a book called “The City of God’

In this book he goes as far as to say “Rome has replaced Jerusalem”