Theoretically....I would think that Revelation is the most important book for the Christian today. Let me break that down....for the Christian in question would already have been immersed in the doctrines of salvation from Romans....and the Gospels....and the Acts of the Apostles....the beginning of the church....(and also possibly descriptive of the last days for the church)....and all of the truths from Paul and Peter and Jude....and the creation account....and the OT books describing the redemptive history of our covenant God....and the beauty and worship and truths of Psalms....and the warnings of all the OT prophets....in other words....everything else!
To that Christian....I would think that Revelation is not only for them....but vital. The Pre-Trib believer would have to look at most of what happens in Revelation....almost as after the fact....for they would have been taken up to meet Jesus by then....but to us....hopefully you also....we know that there is a greater purpose to the believer in the book of Revelation....the third verse in it which reads...."Blessed is he who reads....(spacing mine)....and those who hear the words of this prophecy....and keep those things which are written in it....for the time is near." The time has always been...."near"....to every Christian....but to us it appears that it is near in a very special way.
So what about the second and the third chapters of Revelation? These contain the seven letters....to the seven churches. We seem to pass these chapters almost....as I once wrote....as if they were nothing but historical filler....but that just makes no sense.
As a Reformed....or Reformation Christian....for about thirty years now.....I had come to consider the letter to the church at Ephesus to be directed to us....sound in our doctrine....but having since lost something.....something that needs to be regained. It is amazing to me that this letter to Ephesus could only have been a short thirty years or so since Paul wrote to Timothy who was pastor in Ephesus....but then I only have to look back thirty years in evangelicalism to see how far and how fast we can stray.
We know that over much of the world there is a persecuted church such as described in the letter to the church at Smyrna....although we do not know what that designation of "ten days" means.
We do not know how the church....(Pergamos)....located where "Satan's Throne" is....although many think that they do know. What we can glean from that letter is the warning about holding to the doctrines of Balaam...who taught them to Balak....and we can go to that passage of scripture to study and scrutinize....just as we can study and meditate upon the warnings to the church at Thyatira.
Sardis had the "works"....yet they were dead! Should that not stop all of us in our tracks....especially the part where if they are not vigilant....and do not watch....that judgment will come as a....thief.....not knowing the hour....or the time period....that this judgment will come?
There is no warning for Philadelphia....other than to...."hold fast." They will be kept from the trial coming upon the whole world! Folks....the beginnings of whatever the tribulation turns out to be....including the riders on the four horses....cannot be that final trial upon the whole world. Maybe it will be that....hopefully we all will be....as the church in Philadelphia by the time these things comes upon the earth?
And then there is Laodicea....a wealthy and what was considered a....'free city"....by Rome....known for its entertainments....and so metropolitan and international in its makeup....with many Christians and Jews....that even the persecution for not worshiping the Roman emperor was lax....because it was difficult to enforce in such a city! They thought that they were safe....just like we do here in America.
My hope in this post is simply that we might take these letters more seriously than we have in the past....for to reiterate what I said at first....God would not have put these chapters in such an important book relating to the end-times.....if they were not meant to speak to those at that time....which by all of the signs that God has given those who have "ears to hear"....is us today. Maranatha....Lord Jesus Come!
