Revelation Lesson 21: The Church at Philadelphia - Part II

In this second half of our look at Christ's words to the believers of the First Century church at Philadelphia, we discuss two special assurances the Lord gave them.  He promised them vindication from their enemies and deliverance from "the hour of temptation" that would come upon the whole world (Revelation 3:10).  This is a wonderful promise regarding Christ's true Church (the Body of all born again believers) and the yet-future seven-year Tribulation "to try them that dwell upon the earth," and it definitely supports a pre-Tribulation Rapture! In the progress of Christ's last four church letters, we find His coming (His Return) gets closer in closer.  To Thyatira, He said, ". . . hold fast till I come"; to Sardis, He gave repeated warning to be watchful, and if she was not, He would come upon her "as a thief"; to Philadelphia, He said, "Behold, I come quickly" - while to Laodicea, He said, "Behold, I stand at the door"! Discussed also in this sixth church letter of Revelation are the five special promised rewards  to those who are overcomers (the most of any of the seven churches).  Find out what it means to be made a pillar in the Temple of God, to "no more go out," to have the name of God written upon us, to also have the name of the city of God written upon us, and to have Christ's NEW NAME written on us! We also spend time in this lesson talking about events of history, beginning with the late seventeen hundreds, that resulted in the apostacy of our modern era (represented by the church of Laodicea).  We discuss the "intellectual" movements known as Rationalism and Empiracism, the "birth" of Deism ("the religion of reason," which is totally anti-Biblical), the philosophies of Hegel and Schleiermacher, which led to the development of Destructive Criticism, and the impact of Karl Marx's Communitst Manifesto and Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, and how all these anti-Christian ideas had a detrimental affect on Christendom.