“And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, ‘These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass…’”, Revelation 2:18.
The city of Thyatira was smaller than the first three, distinguished by its industrial activity and guilds for such things as pottery, tanning, and dyeing.
The name itself means either, perpetual sacrifice or continual offering, which is quite fitting for the period in history it represents, 590 to 1570 A.D. the dark ages, dominated by the Catholic Church.
It is important to realize that these letters, while addressed to seven different churches are aimed at two different groups within the church.
The church’s leadership decides in which direction the church is going. It is critical that these men always be godly Christians. Without true Christians the church degenerates.
The laity, the people in the pews who are either false Christians, or are true Christian members of that local church.
And keep in mind that this also applies to the historical church, the entire church age, as well as the individual seven churches who received these letters back then.
“I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first.” Revelation 2:19.
The church in Thyatira is commended for five different things, their works, love, service, faith, patience (or perseverance), and the word works is repeated, for the last is greater than the first.
Yet the Lord condemns the fact that they are letting that woman a so-called prophetess named Jezebel, “teach and beguile My servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols.”
The name Jezebel brings to mind the original, a Phoenician princess who married Ahab king of Israel (B.C. 874-853) and inundated that country with her own religion, the worship of Baal (1 Kings 16 and 2 Kings 9).
The prophetess named above may have been named Jezebel, or more likely the name is used to give a mental picture of the evil she was doing.
The woman was being allowed to teach what was undoubtedly error, mixed with truth, which is the most effective lie, and to beguile, better, to seduce, cause to wander, lead astray. How all this played out is unknown since history is silent on the matter.
We can however, be more specific about the historical church period called the dark ages, about 590 to 1570 A.D. a period dominated by the Roman Catholic Church.
Consider carefully what the Lord calls Himself in the opening sentence of this letter, “the Son of God”; while it is known that the church established the deity and the eternality of Jesus Christ, God incarnate, at the Council of Nicaea, 325 A.D. it was not too long before Mary was declared to be the mother of God, to be worshiped and prayers directed to her.
Thus it was necessary for the Lord to reaffirm that it is He who is to be worshiped and prayed to.
“For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus…” 1 Timothy 2:5.
This should give you an idea of how specific the prophetic word is in Scripture. At the same time it is true that we will not even scratch the surface in these articles.
Jesus is not just the, “Son of God”, He has, “eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass”, this fiery gaze looks right into the soul and burns away all the dross of lies and self-deception and comes to the truth in all things, He is omniscient.
His feet of fine brass carry Him everywhere to judge sinful men and give them their just deserts; righteous judgment mandated by a holy and just God, He is omnipotent.
“For our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:29.
“I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first.” Revelation 2:19.
Though monks, nuns and friars have become a sort of joke, it cannot be denied that throughout the thousand year reign of the Church of Rome, both they and others who had understood the gospel of Jesus Christ and accepted Him as their Savior did whatever they could to serve the Lord.
Monks had much to do with the preservation of Scripture since they copied them by hand.
Friars would actually go outside the monasteries and preach and do missionary work, these among other things are the works commended by the Lord.
As to love, monks and nuns established hospitals and cared for the needy; it had to be love for the lost and the helpless in a cruel and treacherous age.
Service is the same as ministry, Scripture says of ministry:
“Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another…” Romans 12:10.
Service to others, ministry, takes more than just doing something, it is, done in love, affection, with honor to another, preferring others to oneself; not an easy gift.
Faith, meaning loyalty, fidelity, this would for those who had placed their faith in Christ have been a difficult path to walk at a time when the Pope and the church accrued power to themselves, but they followed Jesus.
Patience, the marginal note in my Bible renders this perseverance, as we look at things today we can see the many roadblocks thrown up by Satan to Christianity.
The banning of crosses in even the most obscure places, prayer in school denied while paganism and false religions are either encouraged or winked at.
But if a child wearing a tee shirt with a Bible verse on it comes to school the powers that be are quick to criticize. Children have even been ridiculed by their teachers for their Christian beliefs.
It is often dangerous to speak to a co-worker about Christ; you may lose your job. Yes, our First Amendment rights to free speech and freedom of religion are being slowly extinguished.
Think then of patience in an age where the church became more and more pagan and restrictive to the spread of the gospel, for a thousand years the servants of Christ had to be patient.
“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” James 1:2-4.
Your last works are more than the first; the faithful works begun and carried on by Christians during the dark ages began to break Christianity away from the corrupted Christian church and slowly light began to destroy the power of the darkness.
Some of the men responsible for this breakout were as follows:
Marsilius of Padua born 1275 published his “Defender of the Peace” in 1324 which refuted the pagan doctrines in the church was excommunicated and by God’s grace protected by a German prince who was at odds with the Pope.
William of Ockham 1290-1349, refuted Roman Catholic doctrine and was also protected by a German prince.
John Wycliffe 1329-1384 translated the Bible from Latin to English. By the grace of God he died a peaceful death. Then in 1415 at the Council of Constance he was found guilty of 200 crimes and his writings were burned by order of the Pope, and his remains were dug up and burned.
John Huss 1374-1415 was guaranteed safe passage and came before the church hierarchy and refuted their pernicious doctrines from Scripture. Huss was then burned at the stake.
In 1456 the Gutenberg Bible was published.
In 1516 Erasmus published the first printed New Testament in the original Greek.
In 1517 Martin Luther posted his 95 theses on the church door and started the Protestant reformation.
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:28-29.
Revelation 2:18-19 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 10-1-16, updated on 4-29-22.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.