Explorations into the Laodicean Age

[rockytopva]

I believe that the churches are seven...

Ephesus - Apostolic
Smyrna - Martyr
Pergamos - Orthodox... Pergos is a tower... Needed in the dark ages
Thyatira - Catholic - The spirit of Jezebel is to control and to dominate.
Sardis - Protestant - A sardius is a gem - elegant yet hard and rigid
Philadelphia - Wesleyism - To be sanctioned is to acquire it with love.
Laodicea - Materialistic - Rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing?

Saint Augustine once said that 'not all error is heresy' and was followed shortly by Pope Celestine I who cautioned that 'not every error betrays godlessness'. These are not the words of the Spirit of Jezebel. Jezebel not only made the worship of Baal a state religion, but also martyred those who would not subject themselves to the state religion.

The Inquisition was established by Pope Gregory IX in 1231 and is the resurrection of the woman Jezebel, which was to use means of torture to defend the state religion. This was continued by the protestant state religions under the likes of John Calvin and the Lutheran church. And even the Anglican religion jailed John Bunyan for over half of his life for not having a license to preach. The AnaBaptist were a heavily persecuted people!

I do not believe that the Catholic church is the woman Jezebel, but in the space of a few centuries nurtured the spirit as did the state run protestant religions.

All of this lead to the happy journey across the Atlantic Ocean where the separation of church and state was practiced. This paved the way for the growth of Wesleyanism and the Pentecostal Holiness church. I have read as of 1820 that 1 out of 5 Americans were Methodist. Had the Methodist kept the revival hot it still might have been this way today.

The definition of a Methodist by John Wesley

I cut my teeth in the Pentecostal Holiness Church. A South Eastern denomination that was almost exactly like the Methodist Episcopalian Church South before it. As the denomination was basically Wesleyan, they tended to love a sense of humor as well as a Godly air.

It was enjoyable back in my younger days. There were a good bit of evangelist back in the day keeping the church at a spiritual height. The people would stay at the alter until the Holy Spirit came upon them. In which some would shout, some would run the aisles, some would speak in tongues. But every blessing was unique, which made going to church fun as we did not know what God was going to do next. And here is the picture of the guy that won me over. I have never seen this man without joy and his shouting was very merry. I use to love going over to his place as we are neighbors and would help them at there small dairy farm.

Dallas Linkous... A great example of a Wesleyan Pentecostal!

About a decade ago his wife Gertrude passed away and now Dallas is very old. I will go pray for him and will hear him shout as I make my way back home.

As Billy Graham is also getting old to me this represents the end of the Philadelphian church age.

1. Open air, camp meeting, revival type meetings.
2. A time of true evangelists.
3. To obtain sanctification was to do so with Philadelphia.

I also find two extremes in the Christian church...

1. The Spirit of Jezebel is to control and to dominate
2. The Spirit of the Nicolaitanes is to do ones own thing

There is almost the danger of the church falling back into barbaric times where it is just about everyman for himself. Anarchy was not a problem with the state controlled religion!

The dangers of the churches that were once Philadelphian are...

1. Going overboard with the doctrine and thus becoming Sardisean
2. Going overboard with the materialism and thus becoming Laodicean
3. Loosing the divine visitation
4. Loosing the demonstration of the power of God
5. Hardened against the soul-shaking encounter with the risen Lord
6. Loosing the outpouring of deep repentance, the instantaneous deliverance of lifelong bondages, the sudden outbreak of miraculous healings
7. Loosing the move of God that takes our breath away, the extraordinary nearness of heaven in worship that radically changes our perspective in a moment of time

So... With this foundation laid we will continue the exploration into the current age...



The pictured Mr Linkous above is now very old. I went to see him the other day in which he commented that there were no more good revivals anymore. My heart goes back to the old American Pie song long ago, which throws in hints of the ending of this great movement...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAsV5-Hv-7U

 

[rockytopva]

Well... Lets see here... Where was I?

Oh yea... The end of the Philadelphian church age. I wish I would have seen it coming. I remember visiting the pictured Dallas Linkous on his and Gertrude's dairy farm. I thought that the kind of life I would enjoy.... Working hard Mo-Sa, revival at night, and church on Sunday.

But the price of land went up and next thing you know our hay fields are now neighborhoods and shopping centers. Dallas and Gertrude long ago sold their cows but still enjoyed their 20 acres. I will give Dallas credit on keeping the joy of the Lord alive in his heart. But I have seen a profound change with the seasons... I believe that the Philadelphian church was a rural church while the Laodicean an urban. And with that comes the issues that have destroyed so many societies...

As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast done, thou and thy daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good. - Ezekiel 16:48-50

The four (the number of the earth) issues that do in a society...

1. Pride
2. Gluttony - Fulness of bread
3. Laziness - Abundance of idleness
4. Greed - Neither strengthened her the poor and the needy

As the times and the seasons go urban so see we signs of the end...

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. - 2 Timothy 3

Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. - 2 Peter 3

 

[rockytopva]

There has also been lifestyle changes that do not represent the teachings of Jesus Christ...

1. Materialism - Got to keep up with the Jones
2. The Weekend - It's the weekend - Eat, drink, and be merry!
3. Entertainment - People do not have time for prayer, but plenty for the TV and the internet.
4. Worship - From hymnals to praise and worship

If you pick up a Philadelphian age hymnal you will find most of the hymns written in the 1800's. And most of these hymns were a result of the camp meetings of the time. Especially with the likes of people like Ira Sankey and Fanny Crosby. As Philadelphia people are not the most astute in the history books they think it has always been this way.

There is a wide variety of music in this Laodicean age from rap to rock and roll to praise and worship. This has made way for religious 'Worship Wars' as you have portions of the church pulling for the Laodicean sound and portions of the church preferring to be faithful to the traditions of the church.

I visited a Baptist church while ago and found that the young people worshiped in one building and the adults in the other. Through the walls I could here the rock and roll beat.

There is a road across from my church that is called the Oil Well Road and is probably a five mile ride up Price Mountain. In my years that road has been developed into an upper class neighborhood. Now, to be somebody, you have got to get you some land and build a house 'on the mountain.' So now we have a status competition which is a real quick way to ruin a church...

The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. - Psalm 10:2

For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue. Let them be before the Lord continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. Because that he remembered not to shew mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.- Psalm 109:2, 15-16

I think that it is a wicked thing in the sight of God to persecute the poor by means of riches. The riches mean of persecution is the form that persecutes without words and without physical violence.

A house on 'the mountain'

Land for sale on the OilWell road, Blacksburg... $583,000