Messianic Perspectives

Guest (Female): They say prophecy is history written in advance. Today we'll be looking at a remarkable series of prophecies in the book of Revelation that outlines 2,000 years of church history, all predicted centuries before it ever happened. Right here on Messianic Perspectives.

Liz Ayello: Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinctively first-century Jewish point of view. I'm Liz Ayello.

Today Dr. Gary Hedrick is teaching on the mystery of the seven churches in Revelation, chapters two and three. I'll be back at the close of the program to tell you about two special resources we're making available during this series, so be sure to have a pencil and paper ready. Now with today's study, here is Dr. Gary Hedrick.

Dr. Gary Hedrick: All right, thank you and welcome listening friend to another edition of the program. It's good to have you with us today as we continue this series of studies on the mystery of the seven churches. Now today we come to the message to the church at Thyatira.

Revelation chapter 2, verse 18. This is the Lord speaking to the churches. And here's what he says: "And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass." Verse 19: "I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first."

Remember what we said in each of these seven messages? He begins by introducing himself because he wants them to know who's speaking. And here he introduces himself to the church at Thyatira as the Son of God. Not a son of God, because we're all sons of God if we're members of the family of God. So he doesn't say a son of God, but the Son of God.

Now what does that mean? It's very simple. Every man who's listening to me right now is someone's son. The fact that you are your father's son means that he was responsible for your being born. It's like the genealogies in the Bible. First, they name the father and then they name his son. Like they'll say, "And Cush begat Nimrod," or "Abraham begat Isaac," or "David begat Solomon." It means David is the one who brought Solomon into this world—with a little help from Solomon's mother, of course.

And there are two people in scripture referred to as being uniquely the Son of God. The first one is Adam. In the Messianic genealogy in Luke chapter 3, Adam is called the son of God. Why? Because he was a direct creation of Almighty God. God is uniquely responsible for Adam's existence because God formed him from the dust of the ground, and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.

Now who's the second person that's called the Son of God in scripture besides Adam? The Messiah. Why? Because God was uniquely responsible for his virgin birth. He was the only begotten Son of God. You say, well that might be true in your Christian New Testament, but that's not a Jewish concept. The Messiah is not some divine Son of God.

And you're right. The divine sonship of the Messiah is something that wasn't explicitly taught in the Old Testament. There's no chapter and verse that explicitly says the Messiah will be God in the flesh. That's true. But remember, we've already seen that the ancient rabbis recognized certain remezim in the Bible. The word remezim means hints. A remez is a hint, and there are many remezim scattered throughout the Jewish scriptures that point to the divine sonship of the Messiah.

In the time of Jesus, the Jewish understanding was that the Messiah would be the Son of God. In Mark chapter 14, for example, when Jesus stood before the Sanhedrin, the high priest asked him. He said, "Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" In Hebrew it was, "Are you Hamashiach, Ben Hamavrak? Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?"

And how did Jesus answer? He said, "I am." That was the covenant name of God himself, "I am that I am." And when the high priest said, "Are you Hamashiach, Ben Hamavrak?" Jesus said, "I am," Ego Eimi. I am being, I am that I am. But Jesus didn't stop there.

He looked around at the chief priests, the scribes, and the Pharisees, that entire Sanhedrin representing first-century National Israel, and he said, "Not only am I Hamashiach, the Son of the Blessed One, but one day you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven." You see, when they say Jesus only wanted to be known as the Son of Man, and that he didn't want to be known as the Messiah or the Son of God, they're wrong.

Because Jesus made it very clear that the Son of Man, who came in his humility to suffer and to die, was the very same Messiah they would meet again someday as their judge. He didn't hide it from them. He told them point-blank exactly who he was. And the high priest understood it because what did he do? He tore his clothing and he accused Jesus of blasphemy. He knew exactly what Christ was saying.

So here in the Lord's message to the church at Thyatira in Revelation chapter 2, he identifies himself as the Messiah, the Son of God. And what does he say to them? He says, "I know your works and love and service and faith and your perseverance." And he says, "You're doing more now than you did at first."

But then he says, "Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols." And again, we said each of these seven churches represents a period of church history.

And the warning he gives to the church at Thyatira is about a woman he called Jezebel. In Hebrew, it's Izavel. In the Old Testament, Izavel was King Ahab's wife, but she wasn't Jewish. She was a princess of Tyre and her father was a priest of Baal, the pagan deity. And it was through this woman Izavel that idolatry and Baal worship were introduced into Israel in the days of King Ahab.

So the next period of church history is this Thyatiran period when much of Christendom was taken over by idolatry and paganism. And not only that, but church authorities actually hunted down and killed Christian believers who refused to accept the idolatry and paganism of the Roman Church. Just like Izavel killed all the prophets of Jehovah she could lay her evil hands on.

She chased Elijah halfway across the country because she wanted to kill him. Anyone who stood against her, she wanted dead. So the Thyatiran period of church history began in about AD 606 when the Bishop of Rome became recognized as the Pope. It extended for almost a thousand years until the year 1520 or the time of the Reformation.

Historians call it the Dark Ages or the Middle Ages. Others have called it the Devil's Millennium because it was almost a thousand years in duration. This is when much of professing Christendom is taken over by a pagan, idolatrous religious system headquartered at Rome. It calls itself a church, but it's no longer the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now it's a powerful pagan religious system that will destroy anyone and anything that stands in her way. Read about the Crusades and the slaughter of literally thousands of Christian believers who refused to bow their knee to Rome. Read about John Hus and how he stood up against religious tyranny and how they burned him at the stake because of it.

Read about the Anabaptists and the Waldenses who were for the most part futurists and millennialists, which means they believed in a future reign of the Jewish Messiah on this earth. Read about how the Anabaptists had to go underground because of the persecution they suffered at the hands of Christian religious authorities.

Get a copy of Foxe's Book of Martyrs and read the stories of literally dozens and dozens and dozens of Christian believers who were drowned, boiled in oil, shot through with arrows, or burned at the stake, all because they refused to submit to a religious system that they saw as evil, wicked, and idolatrous.

You see, even in this Devil's Millennium, the Thyatiran period of church history, God still has a remnant of true believers—men and women of faith who would rather die than bow their knee to Baal, who would rather be burned at the stake than pledge allegiance to a pagan religious system.

And it's interesting that in Revelation 17, there's a prophecy that in the end times, there will be a vast religious system that will dominate the world along with the Antichrist. This one-world church is described as a woman who rides a scarlet beast, verse 3, Revelation 17. But instead of calling her Jezebel, she's called Babylon, the mother of harlots and the abomination of the earth.

And it says in verse 9 of Revelation 17 that she sits on seven hills. And what city started as seven settlements on seven hills on the left bank of the Tiber River? Rome. The one-world church of the end times will be headquartered at Rome. But he doesn't end on a negative note.

He gives the church at Thyatira a wonderful promise of his second coming. He describes the Messianic age, the thousand-year period when the Messiah will rule over the nations. And then he says, "I will give him," that is, he who overcomes, that's the church, "I will give him the morning star."

The morning star is Venus. Astronomers call it the morning star because it's the brightest object in the night sky in the last hours before sunrise. So before the dawn of the Millennium, when he comes in glory and every eye shall see him, we have Jesus, the bright and morning star, who appears quietly in the darkness, but only for those of us who are looking for him.

You see, the coming in glory is mainly for Israel. His coming as a thief in the night, the bright and morning star, is only for the church, only for the Ecclesia. What a wonderful promise. He's coming and it may be soon. So that's the message to the church at Thyatira and that's all of our time for today. On the next program, we'll look at the church at Sardis. Until then, this is Gary Hedrick saying God bless you, take care, bye-bye.

Liz Ayello: Thank you, Gary. And thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. If you liked what you heard today, you will be pleased to know we've taken all of the programs in this series and placed them on one convenient CD entitled "The Mystery of the Seven Churches" and it's yours for a gift of just $6 or more to Messianic Perspectives.

Also available is the companion chart, adapted from the original drawn by Clarence Larkin in the early 1900s, entitled "The Messages to the Seven Churches Compared with Church History." This interesting chart shows how the messages to the seven churches in Revelation correspond to the seven successive periods of church history.

It's the perfect companion for this series of studies on the mystery of the seven churches. So that's the CD for $6 and the chart for $3, or both for a total of $9. Just visit our secure online store at messianicspecialties.com to place your order. If you would prefer to order by mail, just address your request to Messianic Perspectives, PO Box 345, San Antonio, Texas, 78292.

To order by phone, use our toll-free order line. The number is 1-800-926-5397. Have you enjoyed this edition of Messianic Perspectives? Why not continue to learn about the Jewish roots of your Christian faith by inviting a speaker from CJF Ministries? Call our toll-free number, 1-800-926-5397, and we'll be happy to handle all of the details.

And as always, when you're in touch, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I'm Liz Ayello. Join us next time, won't you? As Dr. Gary Hedrick continues our series of studies on the mystery of the seven churches, right here on Messianic Perspectives.

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