11 Reasons The Churches Of Revelation Don’t Represent Church Ages

The Seven Churches Reveal Seven Problems
That Can Happen To Any Church
At Any Time

The book of Revelation fascinates everyone. From start to finish, the mysteries pile up. It mentions many things we haven’t seen or experienced personally, and because those novelties are represented in terms we can’t readily explain (four living creatures with six wings each and full of eyes), one of two things happens: we avoid the text completely or become so obsessed no rational outcome is reached.

That may be why the book opens with some words to encourage us to hold the line.

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things written in it; for the time is near. (Revelation 1:3)

We’re told up front that this is prophecy, meaning it points to future events, things that haven’t happened yet. The perspective is very much forward looking, but it’s also important to note that it has a starting place. Jesus addressed Himself to people of that day, not ours.

What Jesus said does apply to anyone at any future time but He addressed Himself specifically to individuals who were living at the time the Book was written. Jesus delivered his message to real churches in real time.

Seven churches were targeted in the first three chapters and Jesus had a individual message for each of those churches. Those churches were located in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey) and all of them were started by the first generation of Christians. From their experience, today’s churches can learn a lot.

But what do these messages mean? How should we interpret this material?

One school of thought suggests that these churches, aside from being local and individual, also characterize periods of time or ages from the first century till now. The people who teach this say we are in the Laodicean period today which, obviously, is the last period characterized in this list.

Not only does that idea argue against the church age theory, there are also many other reasons to reject this idea.

There’s Not Enough Information To Say Which Period We’re In At The Present

Information is key. Prophetic passages – which are notoriously thin on timeline data – stimulate our speculative juices. We’re anxious to get to the next prophetic milestone and conjure up all kinds of “proof” that we’re almost there.

Every cruel, mean, mass-murdering leader over the past two thousand years was thought to be the anti-Christ. As each one died out, realization dawned.

Even if the church age theory were correct, we can’t know when each stage begins or ends. And if we could, that kind of knowledge would militate against the idea that Christ could return at any moment. If we’re in age number two, we’ve still got five more to go.

The church age theory clearly contradicts the Apostles teaching that Jesus could come at any time.

The Periods Are Out Of Order

The Laodicean period is characterized by people who are very comfortable and have become spiritually sluggish. They are neither cold nor hot for Jesus, but are only lukewarm. But all of the people who suggest this live in countries where the comfort levels are very high. They can print the books they write and make lots of money. They live in comfortable homes, own several cars, nurse large bank accounts, and never venture very far from their comfort zone.

But that doesn’t describe all churches or every community where Christians live. There are probably just as many poor and persecuted churches as there are laodicean churches. In fact, I would say there are probably more.

Laodicean types know there is poverty and persecution in the world; they just don’t know much about it. They are insulated. They know there are Christians who don’t live like they do, but it is very difficult to imagine these things when you are surrounded by luxury.

I would never suggest that the church age theory encourages any specific heresy, but I do believe it keeps us very distracted from the real issue. The churches in this list were not abstractions. They were local churches. They had very specific and very real problems. All of these problems are still very alive and very prevalent today.

Persecution has always catalyzed the growth of Christianity. Poverty has always been very receptive to the Gospel message. Laodicean churches don’t see these things because their vision is clouded by their possessions.

All Of These Problems Existed At The Same Time

All of the churches represented different characteristics and the most important observation is all of the characterizations occurred concurrently, not successively. They occurred in different places at the same time.

It isn’t unreasonable to expect all those same problems to occur concurrently and to the same degree at all times throughout history?

Churches Are Neither Inspired Nor Predestined

Churches are not inspired, meaning they have plenty of faults and can easily veer off track.

Churches are also not predestined, meaning God made no determinations about the nature of any church at any time in the future.

Churches can go astray and the direction in which they stray is controlled by the people – all sinful – who inhabit and lead the organization.

Understanding this is sobering. The church age theory makes it seem like God has predetermined that churches of a certain time period will automatically be infected with problems over which they have no control. It blunts accountability.

There Is Nothing In The Text Of Scripture Which Speaks To This Phenomenon

There isn’t one word in the context of Revelation or the rest of Scripture to verify this idea. Speculation is the basis for thinking these things to be so.

The strongest argument used to support this theory is church history. But church history is not inspired and can never be complete. The only inspired information is found between the covers of the Bible. And the only people who recorded history in ages past are those who had the political and social clout along with the financial backing to get it done. Not everyone in history past had equal opportunity to speak into the record which has been passed down to us today.

And we all know that history tends to slant in the perceived directions of the historian.

History will never provide every detail of every era, but good history should include at least every point of view. The history of the past 2,000 years is sketchy at best. Studying history allows us to compile intelligent questions, not a list of all the answers.

The Churches Are In The Wrong Order If They Represent Successive Periods

The first church on the list is Ephesus, which was negligent, not persecuted. The second church on the list, Smyrna, was persecuted. Quite honestly, there is no way that you can say that the first generation of Christians were not heavily persecuted, maybe even the most persecuted.

Jesus was crucified, the Apostles were beaten, and Stephen was martyred; all in Jerusalem and all in less than a year. And this persecution occurred in an atmosphere that heavily favored the Christians. There were thousands of Christians present in Jerusalem and miracles were happening everyday. The truth is, more people would have been killed if the rulers in Jerusalem could have gotten away with it.

If The Church Age Theory Is Correct, The Only Church Relevant To Me Is The One Representing The Period In Which I Live

And that’s only if we can accurately determine when each age existed.

Other than being interesting to read about, which is another way to say, it was just entertaining, the other messages would mean very little to us. We couldn’t learn from their situation because we wouldn’t face their problem.

The Church Age Theory Militates Against Precision

To accurately determine when the ages begin and end, we would have to know a lot more about history than the average person knows and to get that knowledge, I would spend a lot more time studying history than the Bible.

That would grossly miss the point.

Also consider the fact that in most of history past, the average person in the street wouldn’t have access to a lot of historical data. They didn’t have mass media capabilities. The people in the dark ages wouldn’t have had enough information to know they were in the dark ages.

The Church Age Theory Militates Against The Immanent Return Of Christ

Even the Apostles believed Jesus could return at any second. The Apostolic age did not end with the death of the last Apostle. It ended when the last Word of inspired Scripture was signed into circulation, and not even the Apostles knew when that occurred. These men did not begin their ministries with a list of all the Books to be written and an indication of who or when they would be written.

There are no prophecies, yet to be fulfilled. If the church age theory was correct, it would constitute at least a prophetic calendar of events through which we must live to get to that point at which we can expect Jesus to come again.

The Church Age Theory Militates Against A Responsible Church

Jesus was speaking to seven individual churches about the problems they allowed to develop. Each church was directly ministered to by the Lord Jesus. Each church was responsible for how they responded to the Lord Jesus and each church stands in the same situation today.

This list of churches understood properly causes us to be very serious minded. What is being said here is personal, not just entertaining. We are looking at each church and studying each letter so we can avoid the problems they had.

The church age theory, on the other hand, causes us to waste time asking questions we can’t accurately answer, like in which age am I living?

The Church Age Theory Adds Unnecessary Mystery

The reason we study the Bible is to find answers. The answers don’t always stand up and shout at us but with study and a thoughtful approach, we can make progress.

Suggesting the churches of Revelation represent ages only adds more mystery where it is’t necessary and opens the door to questions that can’t be answered conclusively.

It’s like going backwards. We don’t need that. God didn’t intend that.

THINK!AboutIt