During the 1800’s and early 1900’s the Sardis era of church history began to grind to a halt.  By the 1930’s the church was dead for all practical purposes.  God’s minescule, fast-fading remnant could barely be detected by the spiritual eye.  The church, having lost many of the original teachings of Christ, were hanging on to what little spiritual knowledge they had by the tips of their spiritual fingers.  The problem lay in the fact that God’s Truth was not being sent to the world.  Though available due to mass printing, regional radio and global transportation, those few who knew God’s Truth were not taking it to the masses.  That was about to change.  With the advent of global radio, and later global television, God’s Truth was about to be sent around the world as never before.  In Matthew 24:14 Jesus declared that the gospel of His Father’s kingdom would be sent throughout the entire world just before He (Jesus) returned to earth.  The Lord raised up this globe-encompassing ministry through a man named Herbert W. Armstrong.  Over the coming decades many “ministers of righteousness” would come on the scene proclaiming to be preaching “God’s Truth.”  But only Herbert Armstrong and the ministers who worked under him preached the Truth of  the Holy Bible without variation.  All others, both Catholic and Protestant, preached the doctrines of the various organizations with which they were affiliated.  Though there came to be literally hundreds of “voices” preaching hundreds of “truths” designed to scratch the itching ears of thousands of people in hundreds of “faiths,” the Lord arranged for one voice to rise above all others to proclaim His unedited Word to those having ears to hear what the Spirit was saying.  It was to those in the church during the final years of the Sardis era that Jesus addressed His fifth letter.

In Revelation 3:1-6 the Lord laid out the positive and negative truths about the Sardis church as well as the corresponding church (era) that would come on the scene many centuries later.  He told the people then and later that, though they had a reputation for being religiously alive, they were in actuality spiritually dead.  They were doing, and their religious descendants would later do, many works, but their works were of a man-generated, man-exalting nature.  The Lord required of them perfect works–works that reflected His Word.  He warned them to be “watchful” so that they would not lose what little life they had managed to retain.  They were dying spiritually because they were losing the Truth “once delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3).  Operating according to His “use it or lose it” rule, Jesus warned that if they did not repent and return to what they had been given, “… I will come upon you like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will arrive.”  Recall that a thief comes to kill and destroy. If they did not get their house in order, Jesus Christ would remove their candlestick (Rev. 1:20).

Jesus noted that there were a “few” people in the Sardis church who had not made their robes filthy with sin.  Only these few were worthy to walk with Him because of their steadfast obedience to His Word.  As was the case with the other churches to whom John wrote, the Sardis church was commanded to repent of their sins and afterward to overcome Satan’s temptations.  Only those who did so would wear white robes–the symbol of holiness.  Those who refused to repent and overcome would have their names removed from the Lamb’s Book of Life.  Only those who repented and overcame Satan would have their names presented to the Father and His angels.  Only a few of those of the Sardis era would come to the end of their lives having remained true to God’s Word.  Only these few would be resurrected from the dead at the return of Jesus Christ and taken into God’s Kingdom.  We are told in other Scriptural passages that only white-robed saints would be allowed to enter the kingdom from which they would rule and reign over the earth for 1000 years.  Jesus ended His Sardis message as He had all other messages: “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”  Sadly, only a few determined souls remained true to the Lord and were alive when the Sardis church came to its inglorious end and the sixth era of God’s church came on the scene.  Through generation after generation, era after era a tiny, persecuted remnant could always be found.  These precious, Truth-obeying souls had maintained their holiness until their deaths, at which time another generation of true believers picked up the torch and soldiered on.  Those chosen by God to lead them took up the mantle of ministry and preached God’s Truth in spite of the opposition of the vast majority of church people.  Though the faces and names of God’s Very Elect changed over time, the Word and their allegiance to it did not.

As had been the case with the previous churches, the Sardis church eventually lost her faith and was removed by the Lord.  And as had been the case with each church era, a tiny remnant of true believers–His Very Elect–had stayed the course during the Sardis era and lived to see the rise of yet another church era.  This remnant came to be led by Herbert Armstrong and was called the Church of God, not to be confused with the protestant denomination known by that name.  “Church of God” is the name Bible writers most often used in reference to the Lord’s collective spiritual body.

The fifth church era had come to an end and a new church had been raised up by the Lord to carry on His work.  Anciently this work would be performed by a group of people located in the city of Philadelphia.  This church was like no other church before or after it.  And as will be seen, her modern day counterpart embodies those same spiritual characteristics.  L.J.