The Roman Church is the Church of Thyatira

2.18-29 THE CHURCH IN THYATIRA

This church represents the Roman Catholic system.

2.18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like unto burnished brass”—The Lord identifies himself as (1) One whose eyes are like a flame of fire that can see through and distinguish all things, and (2) the Son of God, thus reminding the Roman Catholic Church of her error of inordinately uplifting Mary. And His feet are like burnished brass which are capable of executing judgment. What His eyes condemn, His feet trample down.

2.19 “I know thy works, and thy love and faith and ministry and patience, and that thy last works are more than the first”—We are most surprised to hear of the many good works to be found in such a corrupted church. Naturally, these are performed by a relative few. In spite of the failure of the great majority there are still a few who are excellent. This may be proved by looking at church history.

The Lord does acknowledge that there is some reality even in the Roman Catholic system. People such as Madame Guyon, Francois Fenelon, La Combe, John Tauler, and many others were not only saved but knew God in a real way as well. This is something for us to remember.

2.20 “But I have this against thee, that thou sufferest the woman Jezebel . . . ; and she teacheth and seduceth my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols”—Who is this Jezebel?

Jezebel, whose story is recorded in 1 Kings, was an unusual Old Testament personality. Ahab King of Israel took to wife this Jezebel, the daughter of a Sidonian king (1 Kings 16.31). She seduced the people into serving and worshiping another god, even Baal. The problem created at that time was more than simply a worshiping of idols; the children of Israel had also changed their God. They made Baal their god. Never before had there been any king to lead Israel to sin more than King Ahab. He was the first one who steered the people along to worship a foreign god. His sin surpassed even that of Jeroboam.

The woman here mentioned is Jezebel. Both the woman mentioned in Revelation 17 and the woman who hid the leaven in three measures of meal as mentioned in Matthew 13 betoken the Roman Catholic system.

Here is a woman who brings confusion to God’s people as well as to God’s word. She brings in idolatry. She calls herself a prophetess. She desires to preach and to teach. It is quite true that according to divine truth the church stands before God in the position of a woman. But whenever the church assumes the authority to teach, she turns into a Jezebel. The church of God has no right to speak on her own. In other words, the church has no doctrine of her own, since only the Son of God is the truth and has truths. Christ as the Head of the church alone can speak. How the Roman Catholic system, having turned into a Jezebel, insists on what the church says instead of what the Bible says or what the Lord says.

Jezebel has committed adultery—she has joined herself to the world. The phenomenon of the Roman Catholic system for the past thousand and some odd years is, according to the epistle of James (4.4), an adultery of the first magnitude. Here we find that the church has lost her chastity.

The consequence of such adultery is idol-worship. We are faced with the fact that none other than the Roman Catholic Church has so many idols.

“Thou sufferest the woman Jezebel . . . ; and she teacheth and seduceth my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols”—Why Jezebel? Because she introduces foreign gods and so can represent the Roman Catholic Church. How foreign deities have been taken over and labeled with Christian names, the most notable being the image of Mary. The Greeks had the goddess Venus, the eastern countries had the goddess of mercy, the Egyptians had the goddess of the nether region, but only Christianity had no goddess. For the sake of having a goddess, therefore, Mary was introduced. This is idolatry added on to fornication. The failure of the believers at Thyatira, says God, is to allow such teaching to prevail over them.

2.21 “And I gave her time that she should repent; and she wiliest not to repent of her fornication”—There is only one woman in the whole world who has killed the prophets, and she is Jezebel. During the middle centuries, countless numbers of God’s children died a martyr’s death at the hand of the Roman Catholic Church. She insists that what she decides or judges is right, and she tries to control man’s thought. She will not repent.

2.22 “Behold, I cast her into a bed”—Notice that this is not a coffin, but a bed. It means she is fixed for life, just as a physician might declare the sickness of a patient to be terminal. Her condition will not improve.

2.23 “I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto each one of you according to your works”—This may refer to how God in the future will use Antichrist and his party to destroy the Roman Catholic system.

2.24,25 “But to you I say, to the rest that are in Thyatira, as many as have not this teaching, who know not the deep things of Satan, as they are wont to say; I cast upon you none other burden. Nevertheless that which ye have, hold fast till I come”—Notice the phrase “the rest that are in Thyatira”: Jezebel wanted to kill Elijah. The latter was greatly disappointed and afraid, so he hid himself. When questioned by God, he complained that he alone was left and yet his life was in danger. God’s answer to him was: He had seven thousand in Israel who had not bent their knees to Baal (1 Kings 19). These are “the rest that are in Thyatira”.

Thank God, there are still those who “have not this teaching, who know not the deep things of Satan”—The word “bathea” in Greek is translated “mystery” or “deep things” in English. If you ask a Catholic priest whether you can take the Bible and comment on it, you will often be told that the Bible is such a mystery that none but the Pope is able to understand it. To those who do not follow such teaching the Lord puts no burden upon them save to keep what they have already learned of Him. It is enough just to keep it until He comes.

2.26,27 “And he that overcometh, and he that keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give authority over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to shivers; as I also have received of my Father”—This is the first promise. In the kingdom to come, he who overcomes today shall rule the nations with an iron rod.

What God creates is stone, but what man produces is brick. From the time of the tower of Babel to the time as described in 2 Timothy, all who counterfeit God’s work are considered vessels of clay. They shall be broken one by one until the arrival of the new heaven and the new earth.

2.28 “And I will give him the morning star”—This is the second promise. Physically speaking, we know the morning star in the sky is Venus. It has two characteristics: it being the first star to appear in the sky at dawn as well as being the first one at dusk. One day the Lord shall be seen by the whole world (Mal. 4.2—“the sun of righteousness [shall] arise”). But those who see the morning star are necessarily awake much earlier while the vast majority are still asleep. And these who see the morning star are the overcomers.

2.29 “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches”—The Lord speaks not only to the Roman Catholic Church but to all the churches as well. In the three preceding letters the call for overcomers always follows the words “he that hath an ear, let him hear”; but beginning with Thyatira, this order is reversed. This indicates that the first three churches belong to one class while the last four churches compose another class. The history of Smyrna commences after that of Ephesus has ended, and so too begins the history of Pergamum after that of Smyrna has finished. Thyatira comes after the history of Pergamum is closed, but Thyatira does not pass off the scene when Sardis arrives. Instead, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea will all continue even to the second coming of the Lord Jesus.

I see the Vatican nuked in Rev. 17.16, "And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire." She being religious Rome is destroyed in the 1st half of the Tribulation but must of the world's people are not harmed yet; whereas political Rome is destroyed in the 2nd half of the Tribulation (ch.18). The first half are the 1st 4 Trumpets (ch.8), and the 2nd half is the last 3 woes (8.13) or trumpets starting at Rev. 9.1. Rev. 7 to 11 are the major points of the Tribulation while 12 to 19 give the details. So naturally 17.16 expands on Rev. 8: "filled it with fire of the altar, and cast into the earth...fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up...as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood...and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp...the name of the star is called Wormwood" (vv.5,7,8,10,12).

What else can this be but the Vatican blown up by a nuclear bomb and falls into the sea?