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An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages: Difference between revisions
An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages (view source)
Revision as of 18:47, 17 April 2019
, 5 years ago→The concept of "church ages"
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The burden of proof is clearly upon William Branham to show that these local letters are successive "ages" or "eras". | The burden of proof is clearly upon William Branham to show that these local letters are successive "ages" or "eras". | ||
==Proof that the "church age" concept is incorrect== | |||
Notice the following from the first chapter of the Book of Revelation (emphasis added): | |||
:''John to the seven churches that are in Asia... | |||
:''...“Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.” | |||
:''Write therefore '''the things that you have seen, those THAT ARE ''and'' those THAT ARE TO TAKE PLACE AFTER THIS.'''<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 1:4–19.</ref> | |||
In Revelation Chapters 2 & 3, John writes all of the things he was commissioned to say to each of the seven churches, with Laodecia wrapping up the end of chapter 3. | |||
Now, read carefully the first verse of Chapter 4 (emphasis added): | |||
:''After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you '''what must take place AFTER THIS'''.”<ref>The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 4:1.</ref> | |||
Notice carefully that in Revelation 1:19 John is to write about two things: "those things that are" AND "those that are to take place after this." | |||
We see that Revelation 2 & 3 were "those things that are" as the messages to the seven churches refer to things, people and places that existed at the time John had his vision. Revelation 4 and the following chapters deal with those things "that are to take place after this." The text clearly tells us that itself. | |||
As a result, we can state with certainty that Revelation chapters 2 & 3 were never meant to be prophetic of "church ages" that were to occur in the future. | |||
=Critique on specific comments in Branham's book= | =Critique on specific comments in Branham's book= | ||