Messages to the seven churches, Revelation 1-3

[barnhart]

God bless you on your journey. There was a time in my young adult life when the church tradition handed to me seemed disorganized, not carefully considered and a little thin. The thing that changed my thinking was finding Anabaptist writers and thinkers who were able to pull the pieces together in a unified whole in a way I could appreciate. We all have our own way and the things that impact me may not be that meaningful to you but press on. It's sounds like you are on a good path.

[barnhart]

Back to the topic of the thread, I have understood this entire portion to be both historical and metaphorical. It functions as a message to literal church gatherings within the time of writing and also as a message to all churches until the end of time. I wonder if this segment of Revelation is put first to cue us how to interpret the rest of the book as well.

[Neto]

When I was in HS I gave a speech (in speech class, of course ) about the 7 churches. A friend challenged me on my understanding of this part of the book of the Revelation, because the books I had studied were from the dispensational viewpoint, which regards the 7 churches as not only literal congregations, but also representative of progressive changes in the Church during the "Church Age", that is, subsections of that more general dispensation.

Now-a-days I'm still not completely sure what to think about that, but do not tend to look at it that way any longer. More so that we should examine our own situations, and take a message on how we should 'clean up our act' in our attitudes, to remain neither hot nor cold, but 'palatable' before our Savior.

[barnhart]

Now-a-days I'm still not completely sure what to think about that, but do not tend to look at it that way any longer. More so that we should examine our own situations, and take a message on how we should 'clean up our act' in our attitudes, to remain neither hot nor cold, but 'palatable' before our Savior.

I resonate with that. I was never taught the dispensationalist interpretation so it never had a lot of traction with me. When I used the word metaphorical I meant the experience of the first century churches are symbolic of the types of temptations and persecutions churches will face in nearly every age.