God’s letter to the church at Smyrna was positive throughout. Nevertheless, the congregation no longer exists, indicating that the Smyrnan Christians who came later were not as faithful as had been their ancestors.  This proves that each generation must measure up to God’s commanded “walk” individually.  There will be no coattail Christians in God’s Kingdom.

Another church about which the Lord had only good things to say was the assembly at Philadelphia.  Not only did He congratulate them on their righteousness, He spoke to them of an “open door” to ministry, a door that only He could open and shut.  This church would go where He told them to go spiritually and do what He told them to do.  By saying that no “man” could open or shut the Philadelphians’ ministry doors, He was saying that they would serve Him, not man.  Service to man–Satan–had brought the previous churches down and which has destroyed the Catholic/Protestant church (Laodicean) era which exists today.  Jesus also said of Himself that He had the “key of David”, meaning that He knew the connection between the Israelite “church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38) and the New Testament Church as well as what would happen to that religion in the latter days.  This statement  indicated that the church in Philadelphia represented one of the two churches that would be in existence at the end of the age.

The Lord emphasized that the Philadelphians had kept His Words and had not denied His name.  In Revelation 19:13 it is written about Christ that “His name shall be called the Word of God.”  God, His Word, His name and His Messiah are one in essence.  Jesus had said: “The Father and I are one.”  He had asked the Father to make the apostles “one” even as They (Christ and God) were one (Jn. 17:17).  God’s Very Elect are one with Him and His Son (Lk. 10:16).  Therefore, in the eyes of God, He, Jesus, His true saints and His name are all one.  To deny any one of them is to blaspheme Him.

The Lord noted that there were those in the church who claimed to be “Jews” (Christians) but were not.  These were imposters who lie.  He promised to make them fall at the feet of His true saints and to know that He has loved them.  Note that He said nothing about loving the imposters.  See Psalms 5:5.

Jesus then said that the true saints in the Philadelphia church had kept His Word with patience.  Therefore He would keep them (safe) during the “temptation”–the Great Tribulation that was to come upon all the world.  If the Philadelphia church was not going to be in existence during the Great Tribulation, why would He have promised to keep them safe while it was taking place?  Just as Noah and his family were kept safe in the ark during the flood,  just as Moses was kept safe during the killings of the Jewish babies in Egypt, and just as Jesus was kept safe through the words of an angel during the child killings in Israel by the Romans, God’s church will be kept safe in “her place” during the days of horror to come. By Christ’s Words to the ancient church in Philadelphia, He was telling them that her spiritual descendants would be in existence during the final church era.

In order to make it into and through the tribulation soon to come, those in the Philadelphia church must “… hold that which you have so that no man take your crown.”  The few who do so (Mat. 7:13,14) Christ will make pillars in His Father’s temple. This shows that even in the end-time Philadelphian church only the righteous will be saved, and they just scarcely (1 Pet. 4:18). This is further proved by His warning to allow “no man” to take their crown that awaited them–salvation.

It is imperative that we understand that we are living in the Philadelphian era which began during the early 1930’s and continues today as the one and only Body of Christ–God’s true church.  The self- designated churches comprising Catholicism and Protestantism call themselves Christians (“Jews”) but are counterfeits of true saints.  God calls them liars.  In Revelation 21:8 God says that all liars will burn in the Lake of Fire.  This includes those who claim to be God’s people but refuse to obey His Words.  Jesus had many choice Words to say to such hypocrites.

The church at Smyrna had the same problem.  Because she no longer exists it is probable that the  counterfeit Christians eventually gained control and took the church down.  This is what has happened to the false church of today. For this reason God’s people have nothing to do with them on the spiritual level.  Having followed His command to “come out of her and touch not that unclean thing” (2 Cor. 6:17), His people remain clean of her false gospels, her false god, her false Christ and her false salvation.

The Philadelphia era church exists today as a small body of people who believe and obey the Law of the Lord.  Hated and rejected by the religious system that calls itself “the church,” those of the Philadelphia era comprise the last of the Lord’s remnant, the “little flock” that has survived throughout the past 2000 years in spite of the false church’s attempt to snuff her out.  It is this tiny Very Elect group who will join their Messiah in the Kingdom of God after being saved and born again upon His return to earth.  He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. L.J.