October 1931
448
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
STRUCTURE1 SCRIPTURE By NORMAN B. HARRISON, Minneapolis, M innesota....... All R ights Reserved o f c i & R e n e s o f llie Q C ingclo tn . . . (Continued
1. Ephesus (2:1-7)
the Greek, while all of them are true to our Lord’s por traiture. 1. First-Love Church 2. Persecuted Church 5. Reformation Church 3. Married Church 6. Missionary Church 4. Papal Church 7. Rejected Church No one can follow through this story in tabloid and have any honest question as to the course the church was to take, as foreseen and foretold by her Head. Men may say, as they do, out of blindness or a false sense of loy alty : “There’s nothing wrong with the church” ; but such shallow superficiality is utterly groundless, the Lord Him self being the authority and judge. One thing is noteworthy: It is the persecuted church that receives no censure. Founded in a Christ-centering love, persecution kept her for many decades devoted to Him and drawing her life from Him. Humanly speaking, had the world not changed its method from persecuting hatred to the fatal wooing of false love, the church’s record would have been one of glorious triumph in her Lord. Modern chapters here and there bear this out. An old missionary remarked regarding the effect of Japanese persecution upon the Korean church: “Japan could not have planned better for the Korean Christians if she had tried.” C ause of D eclension To get at the heart of the matter, we must now avail ourselves of the lessons learned in studying Matthew 13. In doing so, we discover that the key which let us into the secrets there is the very key that again unlocks the cham ber of understanding. The key common to both is per sonality, and in each case the personality is bent upon do ing the same thing. 1. Ephesus (Christ) C atholicism P rotestantism 2. Smyrna 5. Sardis (Satan) (Divisions) 3. Pergamos 6. Philadelphia (Man) (Bigness) 4. Thyatira 7. Laodicea (Woman) (Leaven) Note that in the first four churches, as was the case in the first four parables, the personality is mentioned in each instance, and it appears as the determining factor. How striking! It is the key we must find and use. Ephesus. Christ was her “one and only.” The church of the apostles loved Him to the exclusion of all others. Thus He molded and shaped her life. Yet even then, she was slipping. Other loves were creeping in, as an entering wedge. With this she is reproached—leaving her first love. Smyrna. Satan prompted a series of persecutions, the “ten days” referring to the ten successive attempts upon the life of the church under Roman emperors. Note that now the tables have turned: In the parable, the “wheat”
2. Smyrna (2 :8-l 1) 3. Pergamos ( 2 :12-17) 4. Thyatira ( 2 :18-29)
5. Sardis (3 :l-6) 6. Philadelphia (3:7-13) 7. Laodicea ( 3 :14-22)
TT n th is brief compass is given what we may well call “The Inside Story of Church His tory.” None but our Lord could have given it. Here is what Christ Himself sees from the glory, told in the real ism of prophetic vision, with acute insight into all the forces at work to defeat and divert the church—hence the note of warning and admonition throughout. Remembering that our Lord brought these forces to light while still with us, in His parables of Matthew 13, we will keep our minds alert to detect the same person alities and sinister purposes now portrayed by our Lord from heaven in their historical outworking. Biblical structure, however evident from Genesis on, is so preeminently characteristic of this last book, the Revelation, that everything found here, in both form and contents, follows structural laws. S even T imes S even This is the more remarkable when we realize that the book before us is “the Revelation of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:1). Again, the letters before us are personally spoken by our glorified Lord. (Note the first personal pronoun.) Yet He follows a structural plan that gives to each of the letters a practically identical form. The variations to be noted are that 6 and 7 are in re verse order in the last four letters; also, the censure is entirely lacking in the second. What is true of these letters, a seven within a seven, is also true of the entire book. Structurally, it consists of seven sevens. S even D evelopments These churches, designated by their geographical fiames, are seven churches actually existent at the time John received this revelation. ■Our Lord selected them as typical and prophetical, in their spiritual state and expe rience, of what would develop historically in the church through the centuries. It is significant that they are lo cated, geographically and in the order named, in a circle, suggestive of the entire cycle of church history. While space does not permit a detailed examination of each, the following names will enable us to trace in a gen eral way the trend of development. For the most part, these names are a close reproduction of the meaning of 1. Title of Christ (Rev, 1 :12-18). 2. Characterization ( “I know” ). 3. Commendation. 4. Censure. 5. Counsel. 6. Admonition to hear \ To the . 7. Promise to overcomer ) Individual (Rev. 19-22)..
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