If you haven’t already, I strongly recommend that you read the Two Witnesses article before reading this one.
The following are the traditional/majority interpretations regarding the seven letters found in Revelation 2-3.
HISTORICAL LETTERS: In the historical view, these are letters written to the corresponding churches in John’s day. This is, naturally, the most literal interpretation possible — addressing real churches with concrete problems.
CHURCH AGE SEQUENCE: Another widely held view is that these letters are written for sequential phases of the Church over the “Church Age” between Christ’s ascension and his return. This view has long been championed by historicists, and has lately seen a lot of adoption in dispensational views.
GENERAL PASTORAL INSTRUCTION: Many interpret these letters as broad instructions to the Church as a whole, to individual churches, and/or to individual believers that can be applied as needed throughout the life of the church and the lives of individuals. They are prescriptive: “When you encounter X, do Y, or else Z.”
These interpretations, however, leave us with some very pertinent, unanswered questions: Why these churches? These weren’t all the churches in Asia Minor. They weren’t the largest, or the wealthiest, or the poorest, or the most influential. They weren’t the only ones with major doctrinal problems needing correction, or the most persecuted, or the most compromised.
They did conform to a traditional postal hub circuit through Asia Minor, and this observation is an attractive explanation at first, but this view actually raises more questions: if the letters were going to travel this route anyway, why spell it out at all? If the goal is universal application, then targeting the hubs specifically introduces unnecessary counter-missional risk — believers in unnamed churches, especially then, but even today, can all too easily dismiss the pastoral application as applying only to “them, not us.”
If addressing Church ages, what do these different “ages” align with in history? To say that these align with ages of history requires that one identify what exactly those ages were, how they fit the descriptions, and where the transition points were — a task that is incredibly subjective (read: unfalsifiable) by its very nature.
Why does Jesus address these seven directly and not through the apostles, Church leadership, and/or the Holy Spirit? What warranted Jesus supernaturally appearing to John and addressing these in particular? The apostles had already been handling Church issues as we can see through the many letters of the New Testament — Galatia, Rome, Ephesus, Thessalonica, etc. — why would these be singled out in such a unique and unprecedented manner?
Why are these included with Revelation? If these are not apocalyptic in nature, then why are they given clearly as part of the apocalypse of John? Do they, in fact, have some type of application to the end times events John is shown?
While I do believe that we are left with some serious questions if we cling to any one of these interpretations, I will be quick to point out that I 100% believe that these letters do fulfill all of the above purposes. Were they letters addressing real issues in those specific first-century churches? Yes! Do they contain truths that provide real pastoral application to individuals and congregations throughout Church history? Yes! Can they also (and I submit, primarily) be intended for application in the end times? Yes! God is pretty amazing like that.
To me, the notion that the letters and the immediately following vision are intimately and inextricably connected seems obvious, but this is an idea that surprisingly few frameworks seem to explore. When we do, though, we can begin to answer some of the questions posed above.
Why does Jesus address these Churches directly himself rather than continuing to allow guidance to come from the Holy Spirit through the apostles and their successors? The answer is because these messages are an integral part of the vision that he’s giving to John. They aren’t just incidental instructions or a bit of side-business to take care of before getting to the real matter at hand. Rather, they give important details that fill in narrative gaps in the end-times sequence. The revelation doesn’t start when John is taken to heaven, it starts as soon as John hears the voice of his Lord from among the golden lampstands. These letters aren’t given in addition to the vision, they are part of it.
Why these churches? The answer is two-fold. The postal hub circuit does reinforce a sequential understanding of the letters. More importantly, though, the names of the Churches themselves act as an interpretive layer. Symbolic naming is by far the primary method that Revelation uses to identify actors. Jesus is called the “lamb;” Satan is called the dragon; the Church is given a series of names that speak to the events unfolding within it. When we take these letters as sequence, and use their names to guide our understanding, the narrative that emerges is consistent, coherent, and frighteningly plausible.
Throughout its history, the professing Church has always been comprised of some percentage of faithful, Spirit-filled believers and those who claim faith but lack true relationship with Yeshua. The narrative presented across these seven letters shows the growing divide between the two groups under immense persecution and pressures. A sifting occurs where the true people of God stand firm in their faith just like Job, while the false believers surrender to all manner of compromise, corruption, idolatry, and apostasy — the pressure doesn’t create the distinction, it reveals it.
This article, indeed this website, assumes the Islamic Antichrist hypothesis. My Mark of the Beast article provides supporting evidence for this identification, but laying out the whole case is beyond the scope of these articles (for now). If you want more material, I recommend doing a web search — Joel Richardson in particular has some great books, videos, and other materials on the subject.
That said, understanding how Islam operates will help to make sense of the image that develops. Other religions have had violent periods, forced conversions, inquisitions, etc., but these were in direct opposition to their foundational texts. In Islam, though, conquest is a foundational feature that progresses through the following stages:
DAWAH: The Invitation to Convert: This is the primary tactic, and the primary desire. For Jews and Christians in particular, Muslims will affirm much of the narrative, but claim corruption of scriptures. They will reinterpret scriptures according to Islamic doctrine and can be very convincing for those that don’t know their Bible — the worst lies are those that incorporate much truth.
JIHAD: Righteous War: If dawah is unsuccessful, then jihad is called for to forcibly conquer and subjugate an area/people to spread Islam as Allah commands.
JIZYA: Second-Class Status: Once conquered, polytheists who won’t convert receive the death penalty while unconverted “People of the Book” (Jews and Christians) may avoid death by paying the jizya — a special tax. Those paying the jizya are considered “dhimmis” — second-class citizens with much fewer rights.
EXECUTION: Isa the Enforcer: According to Islamic prophecy, when Isa (Jesus) returns (actually the False Prophet), he will “break crosses, kill the pig, and abolish jizya” — he will disabuse people of the notion that Christ died on the cross, enforce halal/sharia laws, and remove the only barrier to martyrdom for believers who won’t bend the knee.
Most of Islamic life is centered around the mosque, and throughout history, mosques have served as more than just houses of worship. They are the center of legislation, jurisprudence, political power, and even military might. They have often been, and continue to be, some of the central locations for war planning and weapons staging. Furthermore, once the land is claimed for a mosque, in Islamic thinking that land belongs irrevocably to Allah. Muslims will fight to the death to defend and/or restore any land that has been dedicated to that purpose. Since mosques are established as an early act in conquering (or even immigrating to) a land, these become the hubs by which Islam spreads its reach. Allah truly is the “god of fortresses.”
Before picking apart the details of each letter, a high-level overview is necessary to demonstrate how a sequential reading of the letters presents a clear depiction of the Church’s decline — a detailed outline of the Great Tribulation of Matthew 24 which, I think, is the apostasy spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2.
If this interpretation is correct, then contrary to the Church “not being mentioned” in the events of the 70th week (as some hold), the very first thing Christ does is to personally deliver detailed warnings and instructions directly to His Church for the period of the greatest persecution in all of human history.
EPHESUS: The Church is working, but it has lost its “first love” — it’s just “going through the motions” so to speak. There is much still to be commended, but actual persecution is not yet mentioned.
SMYRNA: The persecution of the Church has begun and is taking a toll leading to the loss of wealth, the loss of social standing, the loss of freedom, and sometimes even the loss of life.
PERGAMUM: Persecution has increased to include state-sponsored killings, and the forces of darkness are now surrounding and pervasive. These external pressures have begun worming their way inside the Church itself where people are increasingly practicing and even teaching immorality, impurity, and licentiousness.
THYATIRA: The False Prophet, the false Jesus, arrives and begins to lead many astray. He uses his forged authority to reinterpret scripture in a devastatingly convincing way. The faithful are the ones who refuse to break under this immense weight of temptation, indoctrination, compromise, societal pressure, and compromised leadership.
SARDIS: The winnowing has nearly completed its work, and the Church is now called dead with only a few considered worthy. These are the ones who have not “soiled their garments,” but continue pursue godliness. A plea to awaken and restore faith goes out to whoever may listen that may yet be reached.
PHILADELPHIA: Jesus commends the final remnants of the faithful who have little power left to them. Because they have endured the crucible of the Great Tribulation, God will spare them from the worse trial to come — His wrath. There are no more calls to repentence because there are none who would listen. There is only the promise of the open door, the rescue of Jesus at His return.
LAODICEA: The Church after the Rapture is the Church in name only. The faithful have been taken away for the feast in heaven leaving on Earth only those lukewarm “believers” that Christ “spits out” at his coming. Jesus, though, still knocks, still pleads for them to turn to Him for salvation. Only now, salvation comes through the refining fire of God’s wrath.
The image that forms is one of increasing compromise and of dwindling numbers of the truly faithful — the very image of rebellion spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Abandoning faith is a natural and common response to extreme persecution, and the greatest persecution in the history of mankind should naturally result in an apostasy worthy of Biblical mention — exactly what we see in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. It refers to a long-term cascade of basic cause and effect rather than a sudden, possibly supernatural, global Church event.
As stated above, each Church name carries symbolic weight for that particular point in the Church’s narrative.
If the Second Beast, the False Prophet, Isa arises after the Mahdi during the Great Tribulation, then we should probably see that reflected in the narrative of the letters.
The narrative formed strongly reinforces my Olivet Rapture position, which places the rapture about three years into the second half of the 70th week. The return of Christ ends “tribulation” or “persecution” (Greek: thlipsis) — committed against the Church by the powers of evil — and begins God’s righteous “wrath” (Greek: orge) poured out on the unrighteous — which believers are explicitly spared from 1 Thessalonians 5:9.
This view also affirms (albeit a bit indirectly) that there will be mortal humans who survive through God’s wrath into the Millennial Kingdom, some of whom may even be saved during God’s wrath. This is very similar to the “Tribulational Saints” of Pre-Trib eschatology, but the core understandings that these conclusions are based on are completely different, as is the timing involved.
Much of Christian faith can be summed up by answering Jesus’ question: “Who do you say that I am?” Mark 8:29. Thus, Jesus’ self-identification in each letter also provides valuable insight for understanding and interpretation.
“Desired One” or “Let Go” — ties directly to Jesus’ command here for the church to return to its “first love” that it has let go of.
In this first letter, we encounter a Church that has much to be commended for. They are working diligently, have an intolerance for evil, have tested and rejected false apostles, and have shown steadfast persistence and endurance without growing weary. But the Church has “departed from its first love.” It has grown complacent, or perhaps comfortable, in its walk. It’s works are not an outflowing of the gratitude of salvation and love of Christ, but are perhaps just habits and obligations. Their works are not bad in and of themselves, but they’re not founded in correct motives and the outworking of the Holy Spirit.
Christ implores them to remember where they came from, repent, and do the “first deeds.” A call to remember how much they have been forgiven and return to the passion, zeal, and enthusiasm that accompanies the response to God’s saving grace. A call to remember the joy of forgiveness and reignite the fire of earnest truth-seeking and discipleship. As the first step into a period of persecution unparalleled in human history, this instruction is crucial (pun intended) to combat what is coming.
Jesus commends and confirms the Church’s hatred of the practices of the Nicolaitans — but who are the Nicolaitans? The word is from the Greek nikao (conquer) + laos (people), which is usually interpreted as an antagonistic divide between the clergy and the laity — Church authority lording over the body of the Church and/or laity resisting legitimate Church authority.
Although the above is a possible reading, I think a much stronger association and application can be drawn to the followers of Nicolas of Antioch who used grace as a license to sin. The hatred is not towards sin, but towards licentiousness. Paul issues a detailed rebuttal of licentiousness in Romans 6 with the core idea summed up in verse 15: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Absolutely not!”
…the one who walks with the Church and holds even the angels in his hand. We can face the coming challenge knowing who he is (the holder of the stars), that he is with us, and knowing that we are His. Our faith in Him is the driving force that we need to place at the center of our Christian walk.
John 4:4
4… the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
Matthew 18:20
20For where two or three are assembled in my name, I am there among them.
Matthew 28:20
20And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
“Myrrh” — the spice used for embalming, marking the beginning stages of spreading martyrdom
In the letter to Smyrna, the hardships that the Church faces are exclusively external. We see a Church that has already been experiencing tribulation with costly economic impact (“poverty”). The external pressures on the Church are mounting as believers are slandered — the start of “othering” that Christians will face as society begins to turn them into the scapegoats it will eventually seek to destroy. This is an act common to totalitarian regimes throughout history accompanying genocidal movements. Christ warns of the impending persecution, beginning with short imprisonments — perhaps leading even to death — and urges unwavering faithfulness.
The picture that is forming is already one tightly aligned with the escalation of Islamic pressures. “Dhimmi” second-class status for Christians limits all of their social and economic opportunities in addition to exacting the jizya (special tax on non-Muslims). Rather than experience the prosperity of the “golden age of Islam,” Christians would increasingly find it difficult to even eke out a basic living.
On the other hand, those who refuse to convert and refuse to pay the tax would be seen as rebellious troublemakers and subject to jihad, direct confrontation. This would naturally begin as a “mundane” punitive measure for violating law (imprisonment), just as tax-evaders now could face fines and imprisonment. What happens, though, when the tax has a religious component and Christians still refuse to pay? Death at the hands of overzealous jailors/adherents would be all too likely.
The identity of these who “claim to be Jews but are not” is contested, but I can tell you that this verse absolutely does not indicate that Jews everywhere for all time are evil. That’s preposterous.
I theorize, though, that these are perhaps some of the Jews captured in the siege of Jerusalem Luke 21:20Zechariah 14:2 who collaborate with their captors, shifting attention to Christians to take the heat off of themselves. Some are perhaps even converts to Islam, having succumbed to the pressures of dawah. Not a great image, but an all too human one; every conquered and occupied group in history has seen this behavior from some of its people.
…the first and the last, who died and came to life. Jesus reminds us that he has already conquered death. It is He who was the beginning, and it is He who will have the last word — put your faith in Him.
Matthew 10:28
28And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
“Mixed Marriage” or “Height/Tower/Citadel” — Islam has now taken root in the surrounding culture. It’s the stronghold, the citadel, in which the Church operates. Its false doctrines are now being taught in the Church resulting in the “mixed marriage” of incompatible religions.
Pergamum marks the transition from external pressure to internal compromise, and the effects are stark. The Church begins to succumb to the teachings of the Nicolaitans (discussed before: permissiveness, licentiousness) not just spreading, but being actively taught to congregations alongside the teachings of Balaam. Balaam was unable to curse Israel directly, so he taught the king of Moab how to seduce Israel astray through intermarriage and idolatry — tolerance and hedonism leading to spiritual collapse.
Both of these underscore the “mixed marriage” theme: two irreconcilable theologies, forced together in the name of peace and cooperation — Islam integrating into broader Church life, likely under the guise of “interfaith” dialog, integrated communities and events, and claims that “we all worship the same god.” At the end of the day, though, this is nothing but the same tolerance of idolatry that led to the downfall of God’s people when Balaam pulled the same trick.
Antipas is given as an example of the true Church’s faithfulness — he was killed by the political authorities for refusing to participate in state-mandated pagan/emperor worship. This example reveals that martyrdom at this point has moved beyond the acts of religious zealots into the realm of political punishment for religious non-compliance considered seditious.
The example of Antipas aligns perfectly with the indication that the Church is now dwelling “where Satan’s throne is” — the Beast’s kingdom has gained political and religious control on a scale large enough to affect most Christians. The citadel has been established.
As sharia law begins to take hold in the broader culture, mixed marriage, in a very literal sense, could also prove to be path of demographic conquest. Under Islamic law, Muslim men are explicitly allowed to marry Christian and Jewish women under the strict stipulation that children be raised Muslim — a fulfillment of both the meaning of “Pergamum” and a core teaching of Balaam being propagated throughout the Church.
…the one who issues forth the word, who has a sharp two-edged sword in His mouth. The Word of God, the sword of Truth, is the only standard by which we should steer our lives.
Hebrews 4:12
12For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Ephesians 6:17
17and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God
1 John 4:1
1Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Titus 1:9
9He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
2 Corinthians 6:14
14Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness?
“Flowing sacrifice” or “Daughter” — The appearance of the Jezebel figure (daughter?), the second beast of Revelation 13, the only named individual in the sequence. This begins the “flowing sacrifice” — the blood of the saints poured out as Isa abolishes jizya, sets up the image, and enforces sharia.
The faithful Church is exercising love, faith, and patient endurance. Their works are now even exceeding those from the first, and Jesus asks only that they “hold fast” to what they have until he returns. At the same time, the creeping tolerance of false teaching and false teachers — the twisting of scripture, the “deep things of Satan” — has turned into an avalanch leading many astray, and the persecution at this point reaches all-new levels.
Jezebel was the wife of Ahab, king of the northern kingdom of Israel. Though she presented as a royal Israelite, she was actually a foreign invader that usurped power from her husband with lies, forgeries, and manipulations. She brought Baal and Ashera worship into the land, leading many astray, and had the true prophets of Yahweh killed by the hundreds. Ultimately she met a nasty fate, pre-ordained by God.
The Bible frequently uses women as symbols for worship — the bride of Christ, the 10 virgins, Babylon the harlot — and here we see that same symbolism concentrated down into a single, named figure. The parallels between Jezebel and the Isa of Islamic eschatology are unmistakable. Isa will present himself as Jesus, the king of the Jews, but in reality he will be a foreign invader. Through lies, half-truths, manipulations, and the forgery of his own identity, he will bring idolatry into the Church, leading many astray. Just like Jezebel, Isa is already destined for destruction.
Islamic prophecy teaches that it is Isa who will “break crosses” (deny the death and resurrection of Christ), “kill the pigs” (enforce halal dietary laws… and indeed all sharia law), and “abolish jizya,” the very tax that allows Christians and Jews to exist in subservience. With jizya removed, conversion or death become the only two options. The blood will indeed flow from the true followers of Christ.
…the Son of God, with flaming eyes, and feet like burning bronze. In direct opposition to the claims of Isa, Yeshua reminds us that he is the Son of God, part of the Godhead — no mere mortal. The False Prophet may persuade with miracles, but the true Messiah will be unmistakably and irresistably the glorious judge of nations.
Matthew 24:23-27
23Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!” or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25See, I have told you beforehand. 26So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Matthew 17:2
2And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.
John 8:58
58Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’
“Remnant” or “Renewing Ones” — the population of true believers is severely diminished, and only a small fraction remains.
The bulk of the professing Church is — for all intents and purposes — dead. Christ issues a final plea for those who are “asleep” to wake up and strengthen what little true faith they have left by remembering the true gospel and repenting of sin before the last spark they possess dies out. This plea comes with a stern warning hearkening back to the “wicked servant” of Matthew 24:36-49: for those who fail to listen He will come “like a thief in the night” and “cut them to pieces.”
Some, though, still hold to the truth. These are likely the social outcasts, the rejects, the stubborn, hateful weirdos who won’t conform. To these who are scorned by the world, He calls worthy and promises vindication before God and the angels.
…the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars (the Church). Jesus hearkens back to his initial plea to return to the first love of truth and salvation. He is God and the keeper of the Churches, the one that sustains through trial, and the ultimate judge of what is good.
Matthew 24:12-13
12And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Romans 13:11-12
11Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Galatians 6:9
9And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
Psalm 43:1
1Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people, from the deceitful and unjust man deliver me!
“Brotherly Love” — Just as true believers are identified by their love for one another, at his return Christ will reveal His love for the Church. His return will mark the joining of the two houses Ezekiel 37:15-23 and the two olive branches Romans 11:17-24.
There are no more fence-sitters to urge toward repentance. Christ speaks only to the very few believers left who have shown fidelity to Him — this is why there’s no condemnation in the letter: there’s no one left who would even listen to His cries.
Their work is finished and their remaining power is little, but to these faithful few remaining He makes the promise of impending salvation that cannot be thwarted — rescue before the “hour of trial” (God’s wrath) that will come on the whole world with His return.
Christ promises that, at his imminent return, those Jews who first slandered the Christians will see that their Messiah did love the Christians just as they claimed. I believe that this will play a pivotal role in the Romans 11 restoration of Israel — spurred by jealousy for God’s love, and seeing the reality of Yeshua himself, this same “assembly of Satan” will once again turn toward true faith in Yahweh and His son. The Jews that once slandered will have their hearts melted and look on the Christians with brotherly love.
…the true heir of David who comes to claim the throne, the holder of the keys to salvation. No one can thwart the rescue that he is about to perform. No one can thwart the judgment he is about to deliver.
Romans 5:7-9
7For one will scarcely die for a righteous person — though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die — 8but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
1 Thessalonians 5:9-10
9For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.
Romans 11:24
24For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.
“Self-Righteousness” — After the Rapture, there are only those left in the “Church” who have counted on their own righteousness rather than putting their trust in Christ.
The only ones who remain are those lukewarm “believers” who Jesus has “spit out”. They believe themselves to be rich and prosperous, but who Jesus calls “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”
The door that was open in the 6th letter has now been shut, the rapture has occurred, and those left on earth — the professing virgins who were not dressed in wedding attire, in the righteousness of Christ — have been removed from the Wedding Feast of the Lamb.
Yet, even at this point, Christ holds out hope for repentance. He stands at the door and knocks, urging them to buy from Him — clothes to cover their shame, salve to cure their spiritual blindness, and “gold refined by fire” — eternal salvation that will now only come now through God’s wrath. The voice from heaven in Revelation 14, just before the judgements are poured out, holds out blessing atonement even then.
…the “Amen,” the “it is so,” the faithful and true witness who created the world. His witness is true as He proclaims the end from the beginning. His sovereignty is irresistible: what He said will happen, will happen.
Isaiah 46:9-10
9Remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, 10declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,“
Revelation 14:13
13Then I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so they will rest from their labors, since their works follow them.”
Revelation 19:11
11Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
If the letters are to be taken as a linear narrative of the Church through the Great Tribulation, then it stands to reason that it should harmonize with any other texts that speak about this period. The difficulty of finding parallel passages, though, lies in the fact that the New Testament rarely touches upon this time immediately preceding Christ’s return and instead focuses on the return itself. What the Church will face during the Great Tribulation is, in fact, nothing new. It will be the same types of hardships that the Church — indeed all the people of God throughout human history — has faced, only with greater scope and magnitude. Therefore, the bulk of the New Testament is, rightly, focused on practical and timeless guidance rather than on specific prophetic details.
Outside of Revelation, the number of overtly prophetic New Testament passages that are relevant — presenting a narrative sequence within the Great Tribulation — is sparse. 2 Thessalonians 2, Jude, and the bulk of Matthew 24 (with one small exception) each paint an end times picture with such a broad brush that sequence isn’t even implied. 1 Thessalonians 4-5 contains the most detailed image of the rapture of the Church, but essentially nothing about the tribulation preceding it which makes it irrelevant to our examination. Altogether different from these, though, sits 2 Peter which has much to say on the topic.
In the end, there are two relevant passages for us to examine. The first is just five verses in Matthew 24 that give a broad overview of the Great Tribulation. The second is almost the entirety of the epistle of 2 Peter — three chapters devoted to the Great Tribulation — and the amount of overlap with Revelation’s letters is incredible. If one accepts the sequential interpretation, then it becomes nearly impossible to read Revelation 2-3 and 2 Peter apart from one another. The two texts intertwine and add greater depth to the prophetic narrative and to the pastoral guidance of both.
This short passage found in Matthew 24 gives a broad account of what the Church will face after the birth pains and before Jesus’ return, i.e., the Great Tribulation. We should take note that the scope of description in Matthew is focused on the persecution the Church will face rather than the state of the Church or how it should react to that persecution. As such, we don’t see the first letter to Ephesus which comes before the first indicators of persecution. We also don’t see the final letter to Laodicea which is written to the group rejected as unfaithful. This faithless, post-rapture group aligning with the letter to Laodicea is mentioned briefly in Matthew 25, and we can include those verses in the following table.
| Matthew | Revelation’s Letters |
|---|---|
| Ephesus: the sleepwalking Church | |
| 24:9 tribulation, hatred, martyrdom | Smyrna: poverty, imprisonment, slander, death |
| 24:10 apostasy, betrayal, and hatred | |
| 24:11 false prophets deceiving many | Pergamum: false teachers and corrupt doctrine |
| 24:12 lawlessness and apostasy | Thyatira: the Man of Lawlessness deceiving even the elect |
| 24:13 Endurance leading to rescue | Sardis: the mature faithful remnant continuing under pressure |
| Philadelphia: the Church rescued before wrath | |
| 24:14 The gospel preached and then the end | |
| 25:10-12 the door shuts on the wedding | Laodicea: The door is shut, but Christ still knocks |
We can see in verse 9 not only the beginnings of the external pressures upon the Church, but verse 10 gives us the broad impression of what effect that persecution will have on the attitude of the Church. Trial reveals character, and those in the Church who do not possess a love and faith rooted in Christ become hateful betrayers of their supposed brothers.
The mention of “falling away” in verse 10 — coinciding with the beginning of persecution — is later restated at the height of the deception with “love growing cold” in verse 12. Combined, these metaphors show that the apostasy is not a single event, but an ongoing consequence of the snowballing pressures. It reveals that the apostasy spoken of in 2 Thessalonians is not a separate event, but is the predictable result of the Great Tribulation itself. They are concurrent descriptions of the same unfolding reality: persecution reveals true faith or the lack thereof.
At first glance, we are tempted to align the false prophets in verse 11 with the False Prophet — the Jezebel of Thyatira. However, Matthew 24:24, just a few verses later, draws a distinction between false prophets (people who purport to speak for God) and false messiahs (people who claim the title that belongs to Yeshua alone). Under this distinction, the prophet designation here aligns more closely with the false teachers seen in Pergamum. Then, the lawlessness mentioned in verse 12 cleanly aligns with the Man of Lawlessness, the False Prophet (see the Mark of the Beast article for more information about this association).
By the time we get to Sardis, the activity of persecution, deception, and apostasy has crested its peak and produced maturity and godliness in the faithful remnant that remains. For them, the call is to continue with endurance with the promise of rescue. For a passage primarily concerned with the external pressures that the Church will face, it makes sense that little needs to be said covering this time — there are no new threats introduced beyond Thyatira that need to be named.
Verse 14 states that the gospel will be preached to the whole earth and then the end will come. Indeed, Revelation 14:6-7 reveals an unmistakable parallel showing that just prior to the pouring out of the bowls of God’s wrath (the end), which immediately follows the rescue of God’s people, an angel supernaturally carries the message of the gospel to everyone on earth, directly fulfilling (or at least completing) this statement of Jesus. This alignment doesn’t anchor to the letters specifically, but it does create another connection point to the broader timeline that all of these passages connect to.
The entirety of 2 Peter is pastoral advice for a believing Church in a hostile world. That it carries incredible practical counsel for all believers, for all time, is unquestionably true. However, we must acknowledge that the intended audience is one that Peter believed would see Christ’s return. This end-times focus of the book is most transparent in chapter 3. In it, Peter spends 13 verses describing the return of Jesus and the Day of the Lord and then draws the following conclusion from it: “Therefore, beloved, since you are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by him without spot or blemish, and at peace.” Whether Peter believed that return would happen within days or years or even centuries is beside the point — intentionally or not, the passages are geared toward the Church present at the second coming.
As we will see, Revelation’s letters show a sequence that directly parallels the flow of 2 Peter — a sequence spanning two full chapters in Revelation and all three chapters of 2 Peter. This sequence, as we have seen, also matches the description of the same period found in Matthew 24. Combined, this is strong evidence away from mere coincidence and toward the notion of a common underlying reality. If that’s the case, then we can look to 2 Peter’s and especially Matthew 24’s clear end-times anchoring and conclude that Revelation’s letters must also apply to the same period.
Here, though, I want to clearly state, again, that taking all of these passages as eschatologically descriptive in no way undermines the very real pastoral application of each to all believers across the ages. “What sort of people ought you to be?” is a question that applies just as much to the first century as to the Great Tribulation. Indeed, the foundation of the faith of every believer has always been the blessed hope of His return.
After the greeting, Peter begins by laying a foundation in verses 3-8. This is the lens through which he intends readers to evaluate the remainder of the epistle, and there are two major interconnected points being made.
The first is that everything in the life of the believer stems from trust in Christ which is itself a response to God’s calling. As it says in 1 John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.” This foundation is what enables power and maturity to begin with. By implication, without it we are wholly incapable of, as Peter puts it, “partaking in the divine nature” and “escaping the corruption in the world.”
The second point is that spiritual maturity, while enabled by the gift of grace, still requires effort on the part of the believer, and that process tends to follow a specific, identifiable order.
In this path to spiritual maturity, Peter lists seven qualities that believers are to cultivate and add to their faith (in other words, faith is not part of this list, it is the foundation enabling this list). The culmination of these qualities is the unconditional agape love of God shining through the life of the believer, and it is important to recognize that this same agape love is also the precursor to faith itself — it is both the starting point that initiates the journey of the faithful and its destination. Again, we love because He first loved us.
What this means is that these qualities are not just cumulative within the life of a believer, they are multiplicative within the body of the Church. The agape of God enables redemptive faith, that faith matures through these expressions — each laying a foundation for the next — before coming full circle back to the agape that initiated the process. That agape of God expressed through mature believers then becomes the means by which God reaches more hearts, starting them on the same path to then reach others.
Holding the list of Revelation’s letters in mind, there is a particular parallel in the list of qualities that jumps out. Both are seven items and both name the exact same thing, philadelphia, in the exact same position. This leads to an interesting question worth scrutiny: do these two lists correspond to one another? It would stand to reason that if Peter intended for his audience to read his epistle with this maturity pathway in mind, and if the sequence of this epistle matches the sequence of Revelation’s letters, then we should also be able to view those letters through the same lens. If true, this alignment would be an amazing interpretive layer for both Revelation and 2 Peter in addition to the bare narrative sequence overlap that we have already seen.
Revelation presents seven snapshots of the Church in a particular state facing particular challenges. Upon examination, I think that we find that when taken in canonical order, we can see in each case that the corresponding quality in 2 Peter’s list is the very thing that the faithful would require and produce in the presented circumstance. These connections aren’t always simple calls to action, e.g., “you need strength.” Rather, they are often more subtly indicated, e.g., “you will be bench pressing heavy weight.” The latter formation is the richer of the two indicating not only a need for a quality, but the very circumstances that will develop that quality. In spiritual terms, James 1:2-4 summarizes it best: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Then, true to the cumulative nature of this maturity pathway, the strengthened quality of one trial prepares them for the next. In other words, these qualities are not found in isolation, they bleed into each other, primarily in a forward direction.
What this all boils down to, then, is that the suffering of the Great Tribulation isn’t something we should expect to be spared from, rather it’s the very crucible by which Christ will burn away the dross and refine His Church bringing it to full maturity. The unfortunate reality with this, though, is that not all who claim Christ will stick with the regimen. As we will see, progression through the sequence reveals not just the maturity of the faithful, but the faltering of the faithless. To fully understand the image, we must keep in mind that there are two groups within the professing Church that are being addressed: those that belong to Him and from whose hand no one can snatch, and those who depart who never belonged to begin with.
We should begin with an examination of Revelation’s letters in light of 2 Peter’s maturity pathway. Doing this first increases our understanding of the maturity process itself, the power and character of each of the qualities, and how this process relates to the narrative sequence. This in turn will allow us to view the remainder of 2 Peter with a deeper understanding.
Rather than assume parallel, let us take a more careful approach. The list in 2 Peter is inescapably sequential in nature, but the letters of Revelation only have an implicit order based on canonical presentation not explicit textual sequence. Thus, there is no textual mechanism that would prevent us from taking the letters and applying them in any order to the list, and that is if a parallel is even present at all. That means that the burden of proof for this interpretation is twofold: 1. is there a parallel to begin with, and 2. does the canonical order of the letters actually reflect the list order? If these letters can genuinely be mapped to Peter’s sequence, we’d expect the strongest matches to create a clean one-to-one correspondence, i.e., one quality will map to exactly one letter.
To test this understanding we will first walk through the list applying the letters in canonical order to see if reasonable parallels can be applied. If that can be done successfully, we must walk back through the letters to ask if a different quality would provide a better fit. We aren’t asking if the application of a specific quality is possible — you could almost certainly explain how any value could be applied in any situation — we are seeking the core value that is most indicated by or applicable to the situation presented.
The Greek word for “virtue” or “excellence” is arete. It is indicative, not just of an inner moral state, but an active outward expression of fundamental identity. We can see this in the way that Greek can also apply this term to inanimate objects and non-moral creatures. An arete knife is one that cuts excellently. An arete horse performs with speed and endurance. An arete person consistently exhibits wisdom, courage, and moral excellence. It is the fulfillment of purpose.
In a Christian context it represents not just an inward faith, but a faith outwardly expressed through action. This word appears only four times in the Bible; two of them describe God himself, and two indicate the state that believers are to strive toward. Philippians 4:81 Peter 2:92 Peter 1:3, 5 Arete is not directly equivalent with “works,” but it is the word that best describes the reality outlined in James 2:26 “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” Virtue is when your beliefs and your actions are in alignment.
The entire letter to Ephesus centers around the core meaning of arete: the outward expression of inner character. He commends the Ephesians for works, toil, patient endurance, testing of claims, enduring patience (again), bearing up, and not growing weary. He even mentions the hated works of the Nicolaitans. Everything is centered around works — the activity of the Church.
The problem Jesus has is not the works being done, it’s the heart behind it. Jesus points out that the Ephesians have “forgotten their first love” without which any works are just empty gestures and compliance. The Church is just “going through the motions,” sleepwalking through the world. They are told to remember where they came from (reclaim the joy of salvation), and in so doing they will infuse their works with the love and faith of Christ, bringing inner and outer realities into alignment, and restoring the arete of their witness in the world.
At first, the next value, “knowledge” (Greek: gnosis), may not seem to be relevant to what the Church in Smyrna faces, but the counter Jesus gives to the appearance of poverty — “but you are rich” — tells us that knowledge is exactly what the Church must develop. He is taking the worldly assessment of the Church’s state: poverty, and overriding it with His true assessment: richness.
Knowledge of where true value lies is the remedy for the loss we see outlined in the letter — loss of wealth (poverty), loss of social standing (slander), loss of freedom (prison), and even loss of life (remain faithful even unto death). Through all of this loss, the Church doesn’t need to regain its worldly possessions and standing, it needs to properly evaluate its true, inestimable, irrevocable possession — knowledge of Christ.
Philippians 3:8 describes the situation exactly, ”…I now regard all things as liabilities compared to the far greater value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things—indeed, I regard them as dung!—that I may gain Christ.”
Note: It might be worthwhile to hold in mind the difference between gnosis and epignosis. Gnosis is the generic word for “knowledge” which this list in 2 Peter uses. It is the basic understanding of facts and truths needed for proper understanding of truth and assessment of value. Epignosis is a deeper, experiential knowledge and is often used to describe our relationship to Yeshua which is a target of that valuation.
The Greek enkrateia, literally “in-power” (power that is directed inward), is usually translated as self-control, but a more accurate reading might be self-mastery. The nuance is not just the passive resistance to internal impulses, but of active governing of the self. Look at Paul’s depiction of the pre-salvation state in Titus 3:3: “For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another.” What this demonstrates is a master/slave relationship to impulses that inverts in the life of a Christian. Before salvation, our passions were our master, but afterwards we master ourselves enslaving our passions in the service of Christ.
This mastery of self is the obvious need when it comes to the rise of the teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans which form a particularly powerful one-two punch of temptation. The first stirs up distorted desires — sexual immorality, idolatry, greed, self-service. The second provides the distorted justification — all is permissible under the atonement of Christ. You can see why Jesus and the faithful hate the works of the Nicolaitans — they use the freedom of the atonement itself to short-circuit the path to spiritual maturity.
In response to this double-whammy, self-mastery is not just helpful but indispensible. Resisting obvious temptation is certainly difficult in its own right, but it requires far more discipline to be able to resist that which is permitted. Believers must know themselves and recognize those things that can lead them astray, even if those things are not in themselves wrong. Paul clearly reflects this principle in 1 Corinthians 6:12-13 (repeated in 10:23-24): “‘All things are lawful for me,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful for me,’ but I will not be dominated by anything. … The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.”
Later in 2 Peter this same point is drawn out when Peter talks about these very same false teachers stating in 2:19 that “They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them.” Indeed, without self-mastery, we end up in a worse place than we started as he makes clear in the following verses: “the last state is worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them.”
Hypomone, steadfastness or endurance depending on your translation, literally means to “remain under.” It involves an active willingness to face hardship rather than seek an easy escape, and certainly an easy escape will be available to this Church. The False Prophet will come convincing laity and leaders alike of his legitimacy, creating extreme pressure to capitulate. The faithful will need to constantly resist the pressure to “go along to get along.”
Unlike the previous qualities, steadfastness or endurance does not involve course-correction or change. If virtue is the vehicle of progress, knowledge is the destination in mind, and self-control is the steering wheel, then endurance is the forward momentum. It says, “you know where to go, you know how to get there, the road is rough, but keep your foot on the gas.” But this analogy undersells it, because true endurance doesn’t just drive the car, it gets out and pushes when the car runs out of gas or when the road is too rough.
In the instructions to the Church at Thyatira, we see perhaps one of the most explicit descriptions of endurance you could conceive of. Jesus says to them, “I do not put any additional burden on you. However, hold on to what you have until I come.” There’s no change being asked of them, no realignment of character or activity, only the call to keep moving forward and hold fast. But that’s not the only reference; Jesus leads off with a commendation of the steadfastness they have already been exhibiting, and ends with the promise that the one who “continues in my deeds until the end” will conquer.
The determination to continue moving forward is exactly what is needed when the path forward becomes exceedingly difficult, and if the Jezebel of Thyatira does represent the second beast of Revelation 13, then the pressure that the faithful will face from within the Church itself will be extreme indeed. Neither virtue, knowledge, nor self-control can, by themselves, overcome the immense pressure to fold bombarding them from all angles. Rather, steadfast endurance with a tight grip on all three is the only recourse.
On a different note, we can see now that the weighting of the text is also developing into a powerful indicator for the sequence of the letters. In the letters to Ephesus and Smyrna, the bulk of the writing addressed the faithful in the Church, but that begins to shift with the letter to Pergamum which shows a roughly equal split between commendation and rebuke. Now, in the letter to Thyatira, the majority of the letter is addressing those who are falling away. Through these letters we can trace the trajectory of the active apostasy and see that it reaches its zenith at Thyatira. By the time we get to Sardis, the apostasy has run its course, and we see the verdict of Jesus: “in reality, you are dead.”
If virtue, arete, is an alignment of inner faith and outward actions towards your fellow man, then godliness, eusebeia, is its counterpart directed heavenward. Godliness, sometimes translated as “religion” or “piety,” represents true, Spirit-filled reverence, obedience, and worship of God, and it is this vertical relationship that is reflected in the letter to Sardis.
Starting from the very beginning, Jesus tells them “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” This a stunning echo of the rebuke found in 2 Timothy 3:1-9. There, Paul talks about the faithless in the end times, and after running through a litany of abhorrent behavior, states that they are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness [eusebeia], but denying its power.”
Jesus’ rebuke for the unfaithful reveals those who are weary from endurance and have buckled under the pressure. To Thyatira he said “hold fast to what you have,” but now to Sardis he says, “strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.” The promise to the conquerors is expressly heavenward: “I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.” These lean into the quality of eusebeia. It’s not the works towards man, but worship and reverence that are incomplete. If the endurance was supposed to produce godliness, then they haven’t reached their destination yet.
When speaking to the faithful, the imagery shifts to clothing metaphors. Jesus says they have not “stained their clothes” and promises that they will walk with Him “dressed in white.” He expands this promise to all who conquer saying they “will be dressed like them in white clothing.” The only other letter to mention white clothing is the letter to Laodicea when the lukewarm are shown without it. To understand the reason for the white clothing imagery, we need to understand the nature of eusebeia in relation to the other qualities and the Bible’s own symbolism of clothing in general.
All of the previous qualities are things you do: virtue (the working out of faith), knowledge (an internal revaluation), self-control (mastery over impulses), endurance (holding steady under pressure). Eusebeia in its fullest sense is different — it is not only something you do, it is a deep reflection of something you have become. It is the culmination of virtue, knowledge, self-control, and endurance producing maturity and relationship with God acted out in true worship. Just as arete brings earthly activities in line with the internal state of faith, so eusebeia brings worship and piety in line with a mature spirit. As Yeshua told the woman at the well, “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Godliness, then, is a matter of identity as much as activity, and this is exactly what the letter reflects: the faithless have the reputation of being alive, they have the appearance of godliness. The faithful are referred to as names. It must be acknowledged, though, that this creates a tension between 2 Peter’s call to make every effort to add these qualities and the New Testament’s clear teaching that grace is the free gift of God. The Bible itself, though, seems to directly hold this tension: the martyrs of Revelation 6 are given white robes, but the multitude in Revelation 7 have washed their robes and made them white. The resolution comes with understanding that the Christian life requires active participation of both the individual and the Holy Spirit working together towards maturity. The believer’s effort doesn’t manufacture godliness, but it is the mechanism through which the Spirit clothes them.
Scripture, though, is clear that we are incapable of attaining this godliness on our own. Isaiah 64:6 puts it aptly: “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.” Sit with that for a moment. Isaiah isn’t talking about our sin, he’s talking about our best, our righteousness, and it is woefully inadequate. The solution is not to try to clean our own garments, but to remove them and put on the righteousness of Christ. What emerges from the process of sanctification is a godliness that is not our own, but the Spirit working in and through us.
The metaphor of clothing representing our righteousness is pervasive throughout the Old and New Testament. Job says, “I put on righteousness and it clothed me.” Job 29:14 Isaiah reports, “he clothes me in garments of deliverance; he puts on me a robe symbolizing vindication.” Isaiah 61:10 Paul writes to the Galatians, “all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ,” Galatians 3:27 and to the Ephesians he writes, “You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.” Ephesians 4:22-24
At the transfiguration, we see Jesus’ robes take on a brilliant or radiant whiteness like light itself Matthew 17:2Mark 9:3Luke 9:29. This vision of white garments is mirrored in Revelation’s depiction of the saints with the 24 elders, the martyrs under the altar, the multitude in heaven, and the host emerging with Christ all described wearing white robes or fine linen Revelation 4:4, 6:11, 7:9, 19:14. Revelation makes explicit the symbolism of this garb in 7:14, “They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb!” and in 19:8, “for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”
What this all points to is that the only godliness that we can actually strive for is not of ourselves but of the Holy Spirit when we clothe ourselves in Christ’s righteousness. The Spirit works with us, maturing us in His power through the virtues until, as James says, “we are mature and complete, lacking nothing.”
The overlap between brotherly love, philadelphia, and the letter to Philadelphia hits you over the head. It’s in the title itself. But that doesn’t mean that we can just point to the name and move on. There is within this letter, I believe, some profound insights that are revealed under the specific light of the Olivet Rapture framework. This, of course, leans more heavily on the interpretive framework than we have been so far, but the coherence provided by doing so is largely unmatched by alternative views.
As we saw with Sardis, the work of the Holy Spirit towards maturity is, at this point, effectively complete. The mature believer living in true godliness is empowered to shine the love of God towards his brothers (philadelphia) and to the world (agape).
It is at this point that we can see the shift. The apostasy has run its course and Jesus speaks only to the faithful remnant. There is no more rebuke, only the promise of imminent rescue as a reward for their obedient steadfastness. Jesus tells them He’s coming soon, and asks them to hold fast just a little bit longer. That rescue — the rapture of the Church — is where the Olivet Rapture and the mutualist ecclesiology makes the most sense of the image given.
Four full letters after the mention of the “synagogue of Satan” — the group that led the slander of Christians in Smyrna — Jesus oddly, and out of the blue, brings them back to the forefront of conversation telling the Church, “I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you.” (Note: the bowing here is not worship, but obeisance/humility.)
Taken at face value, this appears to be an isolated incident largely devoid of substance. And why even bring them up here? They aren’t shown as doing anything to or with the Church in this moment. If it is only to illustrate vindication, then why this group in particular and not the false teachers, the Nicolaitans, the Jezebel, her followers, etc.? It also presents a potential sticking point for those who claim the letters are not interconnected. The reference to the synagogue of Satan is a clear reference to the same group in Smyrna.
Now, ponder that image for a moment. At best it can be construed as the vindication of steadfastness and the execution of reciprocal justice. At worst, though, it represents petty vindictiveness on the part of Christ. Either way, there’s no love shown, only subjugation. This view subtly tempts the human heart into a posture of vengeance — “They’ll get what’s coming to them!” — rather than outreach, and it is exactly why these passages have been abused throughout history to fuel the villainization and hatred of Jews. In addition, if you place any importance on the meaning of the name Philadelphia (the historical literal view does not), then you have to contend with the fact that this understanding is quite nearly the direct opposite of brotherly love.
This is where the Olivet Rapture reframes the narrative and connects this passage to the events of the end times. Importantly, it recognizes that the Church will be glorified and gathered during the Messiah’s descent to the Mount of Olives to restore Israel. They will be present with Christ when the cut-off olive branches are grafted back in. Romans 11:24
This is the answer to the question we raised earlier, why this group? Because the image isn’t random, it is the very image of the Jews seeing the glorified Christians standing with Yeshua on Zion. Seeing this will create a final acute jealousy for Israel that will lift the veil and snap everything into focus. “They were right; the mashiach did love them!” Then the words of Zechariah 12 will be fulfilled as they “look on him whom they pierced,” mourn, and are restored tribe by tribe. The two groups, the two olive branches, who were always meant to be brothers, are finally united together in Yeshua.
This restoration of Israel also marks the fulfillment of Ezekiel 37:15-23 which shows the reunification of the two kingdoms, Israel and Judah, into a single nation never again to be divided. Thus, all of the groups that have been fractured over time — Israel and Judah, Jew and Christian, Messianic Jew and Christian Gentile — will finally all be unified together as a single people of God. Philadelphia at its grandest moment.
This is the point in the sequence when agape, God’s unconditional love, seems like the least aligned quality with a Church that has been spit out for being lukewarm. But it’s worse even than that — Laodicea runs counter to every quality on the list. They believe that they need nothing, but they need everything. The pronouncement of their sad state sits in stark contrast to everything that has been building to this point. They are called:
Here, though, is where we must remember the cyclical nature of the list itself. Agape is not only the destination of a believer’s maturity, it is the source. God’s agape love, expressed through the atonement, leads to the faith that forms the foundation of all that comes after. That love — and the resultant faith — is exactly what Laodicea needs and is exactly what Christ calls them to when he says, “buy from me gold … and white garments … and salve.”
And notice two things about that calling. First, it is not a command as we have seen throughout the letters. He is not speaking to His servants. Jesus only “counsels” them in the direction they should go — the choice still remains with them if they will heed. Second, it is intense. The gold is refined by fire, and the repentance requires zeal. The escape from “the trial to come” (God’s wrath), the door that was held open for the faithful in Philadelphia, has been shut. Even so, Jesus still stands at the door and knocks — hope for salvation is still available even if through intense trial.
Now that we’ve established that the canonical sequence can indeed be understood in line with the list of qualities, we need to walk back through the letters and ask if this fit is the best fit. In our assessment, though, we need to consider carefully. We shouldn’t expect to see the complete absence of later virtues in earlier letters — as if people are incapable of exhibiting, for example, self-control or godliness before first fully mastering all previous qualities. We aren’t robots. Rather, we must ask if the quality in question is the core value being required and refined in the situation the letter presents.
Furthermore, since these qualities are intentionally cumulative in nature, successively building upon one another, we might also look for hallmarks of previous qualities expressed downstream. If the situations presented show the Church maturing — or failing — along the same trajectory, and if the resolution of one letter naturally leads to the conditions of the next, that provides an additional layer of evidence for a sequential understanding of the letters as well as the mapping of 2 Peter’s list to it.
In a way, many of the commendations that Ephesus receives are reflective of 2 Peter’s list as a whole — they steadfastly endure, they cannot tolerate evil (godliness), they test apostolic claims (knowledge). The Church is obviously seeking to follow Peter’s instruction, but the problem is not that they lack knowledge, self-control, endurance, or even, perhaps, godliness. The problem is that they have lost their first love. Not the agape at the culmination of maturity, but the love that leads to faith, the foundation upon which all of these qualities are built. The outward expression of the other qualities is commendable, but nonetheless is misaligned with the inner reality. The core need of the Church, then, is the act of bringing faith and works into harmony, and that is definitionally the expression of arete, virtue.
From the enemy’s perspective, a Church lacking virtue, just “going through the motions,” is in many ways, one whose effect has been neutralized. Good deeds performed without the genuine motivation of reaching the lost pose a much lower risk of actually growing God’s kingdom.
Subsequently, if the faithful in Ephesus restore their virtue and “do the deeds they did at first,” then their activity would become powerfully persuasive, allowing the light of Christ to shine brightly into the world. This is the exact light that the enemy hates, and would trigger the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:22, “And you will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved!”
Thus, I would argue, the realignment of virtue in the Church of Ephesus could be considered directly causative of the external persecution and loss we see playing out in the description of Smyrna. When we pursue the goals of Jesus over self-interest, prioritizing service of Christ over worldly possessions, it can directly lead to the types of wordly loss that we see. For a Church that has witnessed the abomination of desolation and knows the return of Christ is at hand, cheerful giving would replace selfish hoarding, perhaps excessively, making worldy poverty an inevitable consequence.
Asking if knowledge is the best fit for Smyrna reveals just how strong that fit is in comparison. The Church doesn’t need virtue — virtue is already present and driving the world’s hatred. Self-control, godliness, or love might aid in how they respond to particular people or interactons, but these qualities can do precious little to alleviate the persecution they are experiencing.
At first, endurance seems like a decent fit, but endurance as a quality that can be practiced — not just experienced — implies the choice to persist in difficulty despite the availability of an easier path. This is not the case with Smyrna. It is not a choice of their own to be impoverished, slandered, and imprisoned.
Knowledge is unique among these seven qualities. It is purely an internal trait not tied to external expression. The moment where believers must face the hatred of others, actions they have no control over, is the moment where knowledge has very real, practical application without the need for outward action. It reframes everything the Church is experiencing, and helps them to understand why they are being treated the way they are. Rightly applied, it trains the Church to see the vast superiority of what they are gaining compared to anything they may lose, and it is this reframing that enables the Church to endure and exhibit the other traits in the midst of external pressures.
What the Church at Pergamum faces is temptation wrapped in permission — the internal desires attempting to reassert mastery over the life of the believer. In this inward battle, love, the attitude and actions towards others, has little application. Likewise, knowledge may inform the believer of how to navigate situations, what right and wrong is, but it does nothing by way of action. A person can know what they are being tempted to is evil, but still submit to that temptation.
Virtue and godliness, on the other hand, do speak of bringing behavior in line with character, but there’s a hidden flaw in relying solely on the application of one of these virtues when it comes to the temptations described. Even good acts, permissible acts, can lead to bad places. If a believer commits an act that would otherwise be considered virtuous or godly but down the road it causes them to become ensnared, then they are still worse off.
To continue the analogy above, if knowledge is the navigator, the pathfinder, then endurance is the engine driving the ship — it drives the boat forward depite weather and waves. Neither of these, though, set the course. Self-control, self-mastery, is the steering wheel. It takes the knowledge of good and evil, of self-limitations, of true value — knowledge that was matured in Smyrna — and applies it. It’s not just saying no to obviously bad things, but being able to say no to perfectly good things that can lead to bad places. Self-mastery uses knowledge to steer the ship at the moment of decision. To mix metaphors, it makes a choice at the fork in the road, and it is this very choice that gives endurance its activity.
When it comes to Thyatira and the rise of the False Prophet, we could imagine that exhibiting virtue or godliness could keep someone grounded from bad influences, or that knowledge might help see through the lies, or that self-control would act as a barrier to acting on temptation. Love might seek to dissuade brothers from falling away, but carries with itself the risk of association that could just as easily pull the believer down as lift the compromised up.
Truthfully, all of these will probably be at play, but the text so overwhelmingly points to endurance that any other association hardly needs to be entertained. Endurance with nothing to act upon is like a car without an engine — you’re not going anywhere. The fact that we can recognize that the Church will need strong virtue, knowledge, and self-control in order to endure is only a recognition of the requisite sequence.
The letter to Sardis carries with it several statements relating to endurance. We could be tempted to see this as the core quality evoked, but look carefully at how that quality is depicted. What we see is not as much a call to endure as it as a rebuke of the failure of endurance — Jesus is not calling for endurance, he’s rebuking the failure to enact the call already made. That, in turn, indicates that this letter follows endurance in the sequence, namely, godliness.
When we further consider the letters core themes of identity and clothing, they prove to be a strong mismatch for any of the other qualities. Virtue, perhaps, comes closest as it pertains to the alignment of internal state and external activity, but the orientation of that activity here is expressly pointed toward God and the emphasis is on identity clothed in Christ making arete a distant second match at best.
The name/word match is an obvious point in favor of the philadelphia alignment, and there is precious little that would commend virtue, knowledge, self-control, or agape as a core theme. The surface content of the letter hints toward endurance, but it’s not as clean of a match as what we see in Thyatira as the call to endure is immediately preceded by the promise that the time will be short. Also, once the Olivet Rapture lens is applied — giving contextual meaning to the synagogue event which would otherwise be inconsequential — the brotherly love quality earns its place as the best match.
Laodicea is the Church that has nothing, and needs everything. As we see with the negative list given, there is an implicit call for every quality on the list: virtue, knowledge, self-control, endurance, and godliness. The offer of Jesus coming in to share a meal if only they would open the door to Him even hints at their lack of philadelphia. They are not followers of Christ adding to their faith. They have no faith, and there is only one thing that can deliver it: agape, the love of God, and once delivered, all the other qualities will be at their disposal. Here, agape, the initiator of salvation, is the only possible match.
We took 2 Peter’s list of qualities and asked one question: beyond just broad pastoral application of all of these virtues as a whole, do we see any evidence that each letter in Revelation correlates more strongly to a specific quality on the list? In other words, does the content of each letter — the description of activity, the specific rebukes, commendations, and commands — strongly preference a single value that would best represent what is being described?
The answer, I believe, is yes — each of these letters appears to be thematic in content in ways that narrow the realistic application of Peter’s qualities, often to only one legitimate option. Even in the cases where more than one option is potentially possible, the candidates are not equally viable. In every case, the sole option or the strongest option, aligns the canonical order of the letters with the overt sequence of the maturity pathway.
The thematic narrowing on its own shows that 2 Peter has very real, and very specific, pastoral application. It invites us to examine which properties can be most beneficial to apply to specific situations rather than just broadly applying the list as whole to real-world challenges — certain situations call upon certain aspects of maturity.
The sequential framing of the letters in direct correlation with these qualities has far more profound implications. It reveals that Revelation isn’t just showing seven individual churches facing individual trials. It’s showing the Church being grown to maturity through the exact pathway laid out in 2 Peter’s values, using the mechanism indicated in James 1:2-4: “the testing of your faith produces steadfastness … that you may be perfect and complete…”, to the fulfillment of Ephesians 5:25-27: ”… Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her … that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”
The narrative also shows that the same hardship that removes the imperfections from the faithful separates the wheat from the tares. Those who remain are given white robes and the crown of life, but what is readily apparent is that many will fall away.
What we see in 2 Peter is similar to what we saw in Matthew 24. In that case, the intention of Jesus was to describe the persecution the Church would be facing, and as such, the content of the first and last letters were not covered. It is the same with 2 Peter — not every letter is covered, but those that are still retain the sequence of the letters.
In 2 Peter, the focus is on pastoral application. Under this focus, we see the narrative begin in Ephesus — it is foundational, indispensable instruction — and continue through Thyatira, the peak of persecution. One can argue convincingly, that the epistle ends on a note reflective of the letters to Sardis and Philadelphia, but those are clearly not a driving force of the message. This makes sense pastorally in light of our walkthrough of the qualities. Sardis presents no new threats to overcome requiring new guidance, only the call to complete the maturation into godliness already begun. Philadelphia is the rescue itself which hardly needs instruction. Laodicea, comprised of false believers and apostates, is not even part of Peter’s audience.
Revelation shows believers who are doing works absent of their first love, and 2 Peter reveals that the works done in that state are “ineffective” and “unfruitful.” Both outline the same predicament, and both provide the same remedy leading to the same result: remember your salvation so that your works may be effective and you can finish the race attaining eternal life. Both set the stage as the foundational state needed to face what is to come.
As we saw in our walkthrough, knowledge of true value is the key component that the Church in Smyrna requires. It is at this point in his epistle that Peter hammers this exact point: “Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder.” Indeed he does remind them of the truth of scripture and the certainty prophecy throughout the remainder of the chapter — the very knowledge needed to rightly contextualize the suffering and loss that they will face.
It is also noteworthy that this is the point where Peter mentions his own impending martyrdom reflecting the same call by Jesus to Smyrna to “remain faithful even unto death.”
The entirety of chapter 2 is spent talking about the false teachers, specifically naming the false teachings of Balaam in both passages. Where Revelation gives a brief snapshot of the false teachings — sexual immorality and food sacrificed to idols. Peter draws out the false teachings in much greater detail — denial of Christ, licentiousness (usually translated sensuality or debauchery), blasphemy, slander, revelry, deception, adultery, greed. Not only do we see the direct naming of licentiousness — supporting our identification of the Nicolaitans with this practice — we see the slave/master paradigm reflected (as we already discussed above) which directly correlates with the quality of self-mastery.
A large portion of this chapter integrates the evil works of the false teachers with their ultimate fate and the hands of Christ, and it is in the letter to Pergamum that we see Christ himself state that He will war against these false teachers and their followers with the sword of his mouth (an allusion to Revelation 19:15 and Armageddon).
The dour note that this chapter lands on is a sobering warning. It’s reflective of the increasing apostasy of those that fail to put these maturity qualties into practice: “For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: ‘The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.‘“
At first, the majority of chapter 3 seems like a departure from the narrative to focus on the judgement of Christ at the end of the millennium, but this is essential information that the Church of Thyatira specifically requires. When you look at the letter to Thyatira, Jesus explicitly describes himself as the final judge, blazing in glory, the same image developed in 2 Peter. It is this very image that will prove the counterfeit nature of the False Prophet. Islam’s Isa may perform miracles to confirm his claims of identity, but he will never be able to match the true splendor and authority of Christ. The letter to Thyatira and 2 Peter both show the true messiah coming in divine glory with irresistible authority. Matthew 24 in its warnings against succumbing to the false messiah gives the exact same litmus test.
We can see that this time will be characterized by scoffers who deny the second coming — or perhaps deny the Bible’s description of it — and a concurrent distortion of scripture. Peter, importantly, affirms the writings of Paul and then warns that in that time Paul’s writings, and indeed all scripture, will be twisted by lawless people. This is about the most precise description of the method of Islamic dawah (evangelizing) as you could hope to expect. The very method that Islam uses to make converts of Jews and Christians is distortion of our own scripture to their own ends. It is this very distortion, that Peter here associates with lawlessness. This adds to the stack of parallels that support the identification of the False Prophet, the Jezebel of Thyatira, as the Man of Lawlessness mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2.