In His letter to the church at Laodicea Jesus was speaking to the seventh and final church located along the Roman mail route in what is today the nation of Turkey.  He was also speaking to those who, in the distant future, would call themselves by His name but who would not obey Him.  These were the people of the second and final edition of the Laodicean era.  By recognizing where we are on the chronological church calendar we can determine future events with  accuracy.  Knowing that we are in the last historical period of the church, we know from Bible prophecy that the next five world-shaking events will be the Great Tribulation, the Day of the Lord, the Second Advent of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of the saints and the Millennium.  But as the prophets and apostles tell us and as daily newscasts proclaim, before the next world-shaking event takes place this sin-filled world will be visited with more visits from the four horsemen of the apocalypse.  In the immediate future God will curse the world with more war, famine, “natural” disasters, disease epidemics, pandemics, etc.  All the while the rider on the white horse–false Christianity–will continue to ride, “conquering (people) and (continuing) to conquer (more people).  We do not know the date of the beginning of the Great Tribulation, but we can know when we are approaching it.  We are approaching it.

In Revelation 3:14-20 Jesus is addressing those of the Laodicean era who today are known globally as members of “the church.”  These people are easily identified in that they claim to worship and serve the true God while rebelling against Him.  These people are like the woman at the well who believed a lie because she believed a lie.  She assured Jesus that she and her people worshiped the same God that the Jews worshiped.  He told her that she and her people did not know what they were worshiping, meaning that their god could not save them.  He then told her that “… salvation is of the Jews” (Jn. 4:22), meaning that to be saved one must become a spiritual Jew (Israelite) by obeying the Law of God given to the Israelites on Mt. Sinai.   Note that He said of those in the Philadelphia era who professed God but refused to obey Him that they “… say they are Jews (God’s people) and are not” (Rev. 3:9).  All Jews are Israelites.  Only those of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi are Biblically called “Jews” who today number approximately 15 million world-wide.  Israelites number in the multiplied hundreds of millions.  Read Who and Where is Israel Today.  Use the code word “Israel.”

Revelation 3:7-13 contains the letter Jesus dictated to John concerning the Philadelphia era that preceded the Laodicean era.  Only a few Philadelphians retained their oneness with the Lord.  The vast majority fell away from Him and became the Laodicean era of God’s church.  He calls the few Philadelphians who obey His Law His “remnant,” His “saints,” His Very Elect,” His “peculiar nation.”  These are those minutely few who will rise to meet Him in the air upon His return, descend with Him to the Mt. of Olives, enter Jerusalem where He will establish the Kingdom of God.  Read The Kingdom of God using “Kingdom” as your key word.  Unfortunately, the vast majority of Philadelphians backslid and, though remaining uber-religious, back-slid into the world where they remain today while claiming to be, and believing themselves to be, God’s people.  They go by the self-decreed title of “Sinners Saved By Grace.”

The false Christians of the Philadelphia era have become the Laodicean era of God’s church.  These religionists are what I call “adjunct Christians.”  An “adjunct” is someone is connected to a group but in a subordinate, “in-name-only” way.  Adjuncts were once part of God’s Philadelphia church but “fell away” from Him (2 Thes. 2:3).  Then there is the largest group of adjuncts who are known as Catholics and Protestants whom I call “counterfeit adjuncts.” These people have never been part of God’s church.  Both adjuncts and counterfeit adjuncts have unknowingly embraced Satan as their god, believe what he tells them through his false prophets, and obey it.  See the Introduction to this website for a few examples of their foundational “Bible truths” which are all borrowed from Gentile (Heb.–“heathen”) religions .  This ministry and this website exist to expose the difference between God’s Truth and Satan’s truth.  As Jesus prophesied in Matthew 7:13,14, few salvation seekers choose to believe and obey His Truth while many choose to go the way of the devil.  The vast majority of God seekers choose Satan’s way because of  the “cost ” of obeying God–“walk(ing) as Jesus walked” (1 Jn. 2:6).  Let us briefly examine the “cost” of this “walk.”  The way the religious establishment treated Jesus shows us what those who walk as He walked can expect from Catholics and Protestants today.  I have found that the attitude is the same.  I am alive only because murder is against the law of the land.  That will change.

Jesus said that one must “count the cost” of becoming part of His Philadelphia remnant–a “saint” (holy one).  Before joining the remnant one must determine if he is willing to pay the price of doing so (Lk. 14:26-35).  Finding the cost of discipleship too high, many of His early disciples “went back and walked no more with Him” (Jn. 6:60,66).  This is what happened to the majority of those in the original Laodicean era.  This also happened to the majority of those in the modern Philadelphia era who decided to walk no more with Him, returned to the world and became the Laodicean (final) era of the church.  Those few of the Philadelphia era who continue to walk with (obey) the Lord comprise the true church here at the end of the age–His “little flock” (Lk. 12:32).

Jesus likens discipleship to going to war.  Read Persecution for a Biblical description of spiritual warfare.  After reading it  one will understand why so few choose to join God’s army.  The cost, as many of His early disciples determined, is too great.  Concerning the cost of discipleship, the Apostle Paul tells us that the first “payment” comes when one separates himself from Satan’s (Catholic/Protestant) church system.  Read God is a Segregationist.  Use “Segregationist” as your key word.  When a captive decides to embrace God and leave Satan’s church he (the devil) goes into full escapee-recovery mode.  Satan’s temptations to sin–to return to him–intensify.  God calls those temptations “fiery darts.”  When one begins to obey God he is outfitted with “the whole armor of God” (Eph. 6:10-17) by which he “extinguishes” Satan’s “fiery darts” by “resisting” them.  By doing so one “OVERCOMES” Satan, causing him to flee from him (the overcomer/escapee)–Jam. 4:7.  Paul tells us how to do this in 1 Corinthians 6:18 and 10:14/ 1 Timothy 6:11 and 2 Timothy 2:22.  Here he tells us to avoid (flee from) those things that can re-trap us.  Just as a recovering alcoholic knows to avoid taverns, a true God-seeker knows to avoid those things (fiery darts) by which he might be tempted.  As Paul reveals in Romans 7, learning to do this takes time and can only be done by the power of the Holy Spirit which the true convert receives.  In the next series we will go into more detail concerning this matter.  Now let us look at what Jesus said to the ancient church at Laodicea and to the modern day Laodicean church.

In Revelation 3:14 Jesus introduces Himself to the backslidden Laodiceans as the “Amen” (“so be it”), the Faithful (obedient) and true Witness (Spokesman) for God.  He was and is the true Proclaimer of God’s Word/Truth/Law/gospel.  This is the same Word/Truth/Law/gospel that He commanded His apostles to preach throughout the world as God’s “witness” to people in all nations (Mat. 24:14).  God’s modern ministers are commanded to bear witness to His Word/Law/Truth/gospel exactly as Jesus bore witness to it.  Not one jot or tittle can be changed (Mat. 5:18); variations of God’s gospel are not allowed because they create divisions/denominations (1 Cor. 1:1011:18).  Interpretation of God’s Word is forbidden (2 Pet. 1:20).  The Bible interprets itself for those who diligently study it with a heart/mind that is open to His Truth.  L.J