The Evidence that the Church of God is about to Close its Earthly History

(Continued from page 132.)

Another line of evidence is presented in the seven prophetic letters of Rev. 2 and 3. For that they are prophetic, and not merely moral- dispensational, and not simply local in their application-is a thought now familiar to many earnest students of the Scriptures. The proof of this is found in their exact correspondence with the seven stages of the history of the Church on earth. This is incontrovertible, however self-styled optimists may object to it,-the objection being chiefly based on the fact that Laodicea closes the septenary series, thus precluding all thought of a triumphant Church and a converted world at the end of the dispensation. Yet the Church shall be triumphant:of that there should be no question. For our Lord Jesus has solemnly declared, "Upon this Rock (Christ as Son of the Living God) I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." But between the Church of Christ's building and the vast complex church of man's devising there is a great difference. The real Church will be triumphantly raptured to glory ere the judgments fall on the great apostate mass of Laodicea.

I do not therefore attempt to prove by argument that the seven letters give us an outline of the Church's course from apostolic days to the closing up of the present age. This has been so well done by others that it would be on my part a work of supererogation to try to make it any more convincing. I only desire in these necessarily brief pages to refresh the memory of my reader by pointing out how aptly the letters fit the history. The inquiring reader is referred to "The Prophetic History of the Church," by F. W. Grant, 25 cents. Same publishers.

Ephesus then, from this view-point, presents the Church in apostolic days:-an unworldly, called-out company who labored earnestly and well in making known the riches of grace, and who walked apart from iniquity, unable to bear those who were evil, as indeed these in turn could not endure the company of God's redeemed, for we read elsewhere, " Of the rest durst no man join himself to them." In those days of primitive simplicity men were tried by the testimony they brought, and if they spoke not according to the doctrine of Christ were rejected as "liars"-a "short and ugly word" that aptly designates many profane hucksters of the word of God today.

But the picture has its shadows too, for even during the very lifetime of the apostolic band declension began, the Church left her first love, and a somewhat mysterious form of evil, "the deeds of the Nicolaitanes," came in, though largely against the desire of the mass, for Ephesus is commended because of hatred to this unholy thing. Leaving their first love was losing the sense of Christ's presence:occupation with work, with service, in place of heart-occupation with Himself. No sect of the Nicolaitanes is known, though some have tried to link the name with the reputed followers of an apostate Nicolas, traditionally held to be one of the seven, in the 6th of Acts, who were set apart to serve tables. He is supposed to have taught his disciples that the indulgence of licentious practices was not inconsistent with the grace of God. This, however, is very uncertain and largely conjectural. They would seem to be right who consider " Nicolaitanes" to be an untranslated Greek word, properly rendered "rulers of the people." In that case Diotrephes of 3 John would be a typical Nicolaitane, who has had many successors. It would be the divine condemnation of the clerical system. Not yet had this system become an accepted doctrine, but the deeds manifested the spirit behind it. Crystallization into an accredited dogma came later (Rev. 2:15).

The second period followed apace, as set forth in the letter to Smyrna. ' It depicts as by a few master-strokes the tragedy of the Pagan persecutions in their efforts to crush Christianity beneath the iron heel of the Roman emperors, from Domitian to Diocletian. Nero's persecution was local rather than general, but the monster who succeeded him set in motion a world-wide effort to destroy the Church of Christ. Historians count ten general persecutions, which are connected with ten main edicts of the emperors. The last under Diocletian went on for ten years, ceasing only with the death of the incapacitated tyrant. "Ye shall have tribulation ten days " seems to hint at this. But a suffering Church is more likely to be rich in faith than a church fawned upon by the world; though in deepest poverty the Church in the Smyrna age was "rich," and prospered, for as Augustine later said, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church." Those dark days were days of Christian devotion and heroism unparalleled save in similar times of suffering and danger. And yet the picture is not altogether bright, for the clear gospel of grace was largely obscured by the legal teaching of "those who said they were Jews and were not." Such are a synagogue of Satan. Judaism was a divine institution. Christianity is a divine revelation. But the strange mixture of Judaism with Christianity is of Satan. It is a corruption and a counterfeit; and "the corruption of the best thing is the worst of corruptions."

Pergamos followed this, and gives us the period of the Church's relief from persecution and her subsequent union with the world. It is the era of Constantine the Great and his successors, when the Church became the pet of the emperors (save for a brief period under Julian the Apostate), and Church and State were linked in an unholy alliance. Thus the Church sat at ease where Satan had his throne, clung to this for centuries, until the world itself wearied of her and wrenched her from her place of power. He who is familiar with Church history can scarcely read the Pergamos letter without the vast pageant of the fourth century passing before the eye of his mind. The death of Diocletian; the temporary triumph of Maxentius; the Gallic legions hastening eastward led by Constantine :the famous vision of the fiery cross:the "in hoc signo vinces" portent; the Christians coming forth into the glare of publicity from the dens, caves and catacombs which had been their hiding places for so long; the bishops summoned to the general's August presence; his endorsement of the new doctrine and intellectual conversion; the cross-led army driving all before it; the overthrow of Maxentius; Constantine hailed as Emperor of the world; proclaimed head of the church and pontifex maximus (the heathen's high priest title); the bishops seated among princes; the church's mourning over, her eyes dazzled by the unaccustomed luxury and splendor, basking in the imperial favor. Then the Arian controversy; Christ's true deity denied, but maintained at the council of Nicea where despite tremendous pressure the Church "held fast His Name, refusing to deny His faith." Of Antipas personally we know nothing, but we see in his very name (which means "against all") the trumpet-note of Athanasius who, when a later Arian emperor sought to persuade him to endorse the hated Unitarian heresy by crying "All the world is against you," in holy dignity Athanasius exclaimed, "Then I am against all the world."

The Balaam doctrine too was openly advocated by many in those days, and since – urging the mingling of clean and unclean, the unequal yoke of Church and world, a spiritual marriage, which " Pergamos" seems to imply; while Nicolaitanism, or clerisy, had now become a full-blown doctrine, and the distinction between clergy and laity was at last complete. The Pergamos letter is a synoptic description of the conditions prevailing from the fourth to the seventh centuries.

And Thyatira followed as the natural result. Things were going down-hill with fearful rapidity. The church of the middle ages was rich in works of mercy and abounded in "charity." Her monasteries and hostelries dotted the lands and kept open house for the sick and distressed. But doctrinally she had deteriorated tremendously, and the Papal system was fully organized, becoming a church within the church, to which all had to bow. It was the woman Jezebel teaching and leading the servants of God astray. As the heathen princess of old foisted her idolatry on Israel, so this false paganistic thing crowded out the Christianity of Christ and superseded it by a system unspeakably evil and inherently corrupt.

Yet at the Reformation of the sixteenth century she was given space to repent, but she repented not as the decrees of the Council of Trent bear witness. She spurned the light shining from the newly recovered Scriptures and continued in her idolatrous course. For "her children" there is nought but death, though grace ever has discerned even in Rome a remnant, having not known the depths of Satan, whom a gracious Lord owns as His and commands to cling to what they have till He shall come. It is the first intimation that declension has gone so far that His return is now the only hope.

For Sardis, though it speak of Protestantism and its great State churches, is not a true recovery. They had received a deposit of truth at the Reformation, which became crystallized into creeds and confessions but did not quicken the mass. So of the great Protestant bodies it can be said, "Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead," for churchman ship has largely been substituted for new birth, and orthodoxy for conversion to God. Yet there are a few with garments undefiled who know the Lord and love His truth, and who are exhorted to watch for His coming again!

Philadelphia speaks of the great revival period of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, assuming different forms in different places, but in all characterized by reality, by brotherly love, by clinging to Christ's word and honoring His Name who is the Holy and the True. They who take such ground will never be popular with the world or the world's churches, but they will be content to know that God approves, and that the Lord Himself has opened for them a door of service which none on earth or anywhere else can shut. They wait in patience for the Morning Star – the symbolic title of the coming Bridegroom.

Laodicea closes the series. It is the solemn arraignment of latitudinarian Christianity with its pride and folly, marked by impudent self-conceit and utter indifference to Christ. It glories in its breadth and culture, its refinements of thought and its refusal of ancient formulas. It congratulates itself on its wealth and following, while, in His sight who stands knocking outside, it is "poor and wretched and blind and naked." All the church machinery can go on without His presence, and without any sense of His absence.

And this is the last state of the professing body on earth. When things have reached this condition the Lord Himself will come, and will spew out of His mouth that which is so distasteful and disgusting to Him. "After this," says John, "I looked, and behold a door was opened in heaven." As he is caught up through that open door he beholds surrounding the throne in glory the true Church seated in triumph, as symbolized in the twenty-four elders.
Laodicea is the closing period of the Church's history, and who can doubt that we have now reached the very time depicted ? It behooves us to act as men who wait for their Lord, knowing that His coming cannot be much longer delayed.

We have thus glanced at various Scriptures having to do with the evidences in the professing church of the Lord's near return. We must now look at some movements among the nations which point unquestionably to the same thing. H. A. Ironside

(To be continued.)