The Jewish believers of the first century found themselves in the middle of a storm. To leave Judaism with all its rituals and sacrifices, its temple and feast days, to seemingly turn their backs on Moses and the law, was to their contemporaries unthinkable. But they had done all this to turn to the Lord […]
How these epistles speak to us of our Lord’s tender solicitude for the welfare of His assemblies! In them we learn too the holy judgment of Him “who hath His eyes like unto a flame of fire,” as He views the churches in the place of public testimony and responsibility. Judgment has begun at the […]
To this eye of Asia, as Ephesus was proudly called, the first of these seven inspired messages was sent by the Great Bishop of souls. He enjoins John to put on record the grounds of His commendation. He begins with the lights of the picture before filling in the contrasting background. “I know thy works, […]
God gives us three views of Church truth, as we shall see in our study of the seven church letters. First, they were seven literal churches at the time when John wrote. Second, they show us conditions that exist at any point in history. Third, the word “mystery” would lead us to see the main […]
From the silence to Smyrna, just one word, one gleam of light, is given: “But thou art rich.” It is as though He bent over them and whispered the great truth. Smyrna counts thee poor. I count thee rich. The blasphemy of the Jews and the persecution of pagans have robbed thee of everything, but […]
A spiritual disease of Latitudinarianism prevails among the saints today, even among those who in the past have maintained the truth of God. This name emerged in the 17th and 18th Centuries within the Church of England, when certain religious leaders tended to minimize Christian doctrines. Its continuance to the l9th Century produced a liberal […]
If for no other reason than that he was a close friend to so many outstanding Christians, we should want to meet a man like William Hake (1795-1890). Hake certainly never flourished in a steady beam of limelight. His self-effacing manner has deflected the attention from him, so that he appeared as a wallflower alongside […]
In the prophetic outline of church history given us in chapters 2 and 3 of the Revelation, we see that after the Protestant apostasy depicted in the message to Sardis, it was said to Philadelphia: “Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.” In the nineteenth century many […]
The epistle to the Laodiceans is not pure reproof. Against the backdrop of dismal decline the Lord proffers two superlative promises to individuals. Laodicea was about 15 miles north by northwest of Colosse, and the two churches received and interchanged Paul’s letters. Colossians contains the apex of the apostle’s teaching on the Person of Christ, […]