Revelation Class Notes

May 28, 2026

Revelation: Given to Christ by God the Father to Show His Servants the Things that Must Take Place

Revelation 3: Philadelphia & Laodicea Churches Explained (1750-Today)

1. The Philadelphia Assembly (Revelation 3:7–13)

   1. The Lord has opened a door for this assembly that cannot be shut (Revelation 3:7).

   2. It is an assembly that is small in number, but strong in doctrine (Revelation 3:8).

   3. Those of the synagogue of Satan oppose them (Revelation 3:9).

      1. The synagogue of Satan are those who claim to be Jews who are not.

      2. This is a predominate teaching of Covenant Theology.

   4. This assembly will not go through the tribulation period (Revelation 3:10).

      1. The majority of this assembly is saved.

      2. This assembly will not remain after the rapture.

      3. The unbelievers, who claim to be Christian, in the other assemblies will go into the tribulation.

   5. The Overcomer (Revelation 3:11–13).

      1. Instructed to hold fast (Revelation 3:11).

      2. Will be made a pillar in the Temple of God (Revelation 3:12).

      3. The Name of God will be written on him (Revelation 3:12).

      4. The name of the New Jerusalem will be written on him (Revelation 3:12).

      5. Jesus’ New Name will be written on him (Revelation 3:12).

   6. The predominate condition of the Church from 1750 to 1906 AD.

      1. The Enlightenment’s Institution rose against the Church’s role in the state.

         1. The systematic dismantling of the Church as the foundational authority of the nation-state.

         2. The French Revolution (1789)

            1. Confiscation of Church Property

            2. Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790)

         3. The university, once the stronghold of theological study, was repurposed to promote rationalism, secular law, and empirical science.

         4. The rise of the modern, centralized bureaucracy meant that civil life became governed by secular statutes rather than Christian morality.

      2. The Rise of Higher Criticism from German Academia.

         1. Higher Criticism sought to strip the Bible of its supernatural authority by subjecting it to the same secular scrutiny applied to any other ancient relic.

         2. The driving force behind Higher Criticism was the Enlightenment assumption that the supernatural is impossible.

         3. By 1900, Higher Criticism had successfully colonized major Protestant seminaries in Europe and America.

         4. The Rise of Textual Criticism.

            1. Before the 18th century, textual scholars generally operated under the assumption that the “Received Text” (Textus Receptus) was essentially stable and reliable.

            2. The most significant institutional shift in Textual Criticism occurred with the 1881 publication of the Greek New Testament by Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton Hort.

         5. The Second Great Awaking in the West.

            1. Revitalized religious practices.

            2. 1790s–early 1800s (Frontier phase): Revivals erupted in Kentucky and Tennessee among Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists.

            3. It fundamentally reconfiguration of American religious life, marking the transition of the United States from a nation of inherited, formalistic, and often static parish-based Christianity into a, voluntary religious culture where individual decision-making and engagement became the primary energy behind faith.

            4. The destruction of the barrier between the clergy and the laity for a democratic methodology.

            5. Birthed Social Activism within the Church.

               1. The American Bible Society—a non-profit organization founded in 1816 in New York City for the purpose to make the Holy Scriptures available to every person in the United States.

               2. The American Tract Society—it was established in the early 19th-century by Protestant leaders to promote the distribution of Christian literature to individuals who were otherwise unreached.

               3. Temperance Movement—a social and political movement led by Protestant denominations to mitigate the catastrophic effects of alcohol consumption on the American family and nation.

               4. Social Activism turned the Church into a massive engine for social reform.

            6. The Great Protestant Missionary Movement.

               1. By 1900, tens of thousands of missionaries primarily from Britain, US, and Europe were active worldwide

               2. Expansion of translations of the Bible, founding of churches, schools, and hospitals all resulted from missionary work.

               3. Social reforms are often linked to evangelical Christianity.

                  1. Abolishment of slavery.

                  2. Women’s education.

                  3. Sunday school.

2. The Laodicean Assembly (Revelation 3:14–22).

   1. The Amen, faithful and true witness, and beginning of creation speaks to this assembly (Revelation 3:14).

   2. The rise of progressive christianity.

   3. Its works are lukewarm, making them putrid (Revelation 3:14).

   4. They will be spewed out of Christ’s mouth into the tribulation (Revelation 3:14).

   5. It is a wealthy assembly in worldly goods (Revelation 3:15).

      1. It is poor in doctrine (Revelation 3:16–17).

      2. It is counseled to buy refined gold from Christ so that may have white garments (Revelation 3:18).

         1. Going after proper doctrine.

         2. Obtaining salvation through the truth.

   6. Those whom the Lord loves he child-trains (Revelation 3:19).

      1. God does not permit His children to be condemned with the world (1 Corinthians 11:32).

      2. The Lord child-trains everyone He receives (Hebrews 12:5–6).

      3. Child-training produces the peaceable fruit of righteousness (Hebrews 12:11).

      4. Those who are not child-trained do not belong to God (Hebrews 12:8).

   7. This assembly has left Christ outside the door (Revelation 3:20).

      1. This is the door of the Church, not the heart of man.

      2. Some in this assembly will be saved.

      3. The majority are not saved.

   8. The Overcomer (Revelation 3:22)

      1. Will be granted to sit on the throne with Christ.

      2. They will reign with Christ.

   9. The present predominate condition of the Church since the early 1900s.

      1. The Pentecostal Movement.

         1. Focus on feelings over facts.

         2. Emerging from the remnants of the American Holiness movement, Pentecostalism shifted the focus of the faith from liturgy and theological orthodoxy toward subjective, ecstatic experience.

         3. The core theological innovation of the Pentecostal movement.

            1. The claim that the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

            2. Evidenced by glossolalia (speaking in tongues).

            3. Speaking in tongues is a requirement for the modern believer.

         4. Pentecostalism prioritizes the “fresh touch” of the Spirit over traditional systematic theology.

         5. Pentecostalism is intensely individualistic in its ideology.

      2. The Rise of the Mega-Church.

         1. Beginning in the 1970s and accelerating through the 1990s, church leadership began to import techniques from secular corporate management.

         2. The pastor shifted from a shepherd of souls to a CEO, tasked with marketing the “product” of the church experience to a broader demographic.

         3. Megachurches often scrub denominational identity in favor of generic, upbeat, and non-threatening branding.

         4. Services were re-engineered. High-production music, professional staging, and abbreviated, therapeutic messages replaced rigorous biblical exposition.

         5. The goal is to provide a “user-friendly” experience that prevents members from feeling confronted by the difficult realities of sin, national duty, or historical Christian truth.

      3. The Rise of Theological Liberalism and Modernism

         1. Coming out from the Hight Criticism movement, the infallibility of Scripture is replaced with major denominational teachings.

         2. Propositional Christianity—the Church is defined by abstract ideas and ideology rather than truth.

3. The Seven Churches Describe the Seven Periods of the Church on Earth.

   1. The only assembly not present today is the Ephesus assembly because it lost its fist love—the love for the brethren.

   2. We are currently in the Laodicean period; the last period of the Church on earth.

      1. An assembly that seeks worldly wealth over doctrine (Revelation 3:15–17).

      2. Progressive Christianity is the focus.

         1. It is the secularization of the Church by its own internal leadership.

         2. It is a strategy of survival that involves stripping away every element of the faith that offends the modern world.

         3. It is the functional equivalent of a social club or a political advocacy group that retains the terminology of the Church only to gain legitimacy while preaching a gospel of man-centered political change.

         4. It is fundamentally incompatible with the historic Christian faith.

      3. The overcome is the one who is saved

         1. Will eat from the tree of life in the garden of God (Revelation 2:7).

         2. The second death will not harm (Revelation 2:11).

         3. Will eat from the hidden manna (Revelation 2:17).

         4. Is given a stone of vindication (Revelation 2:17).

         5. Will receive a specific name from God (Revelation 2:17).

         6. Given authority over the nations (Revelation 2:26).

         7. Clothed with white garments (Revelation 3:4).

         8. The overcomer’s name will not be blotted out from the book of life (Revelation 3:4).

         9. Made a pillar in the Temple of God (Revelation 3:12).

         10. The name of God, the new Jerusalem, and Jesus’ new name will be writing upon the overcomer (Revelation 3:12).

         11. Sit with Christ on His throne (Revelation 3:21).

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And let us consider one another in stirring up love and proper works, not forsaking the gathering of ourselves, just as is the habit of some, but encouraging, and so much more as we see the day approaching (Hebrews chapter 10:24–25).

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