I recently found the Bible on mp3 (a free download version too) that didn’t want to make me gag, (it’s just sometimes the voices just are intolerable to me). Anyway, if I get up in the middle of the night I will turn on my laptop and start it playing. The other day I woke up half groggy to this verse that I could not place although I knew it was in the book of Revelaton. So here is what I heard: "And I will kill her children with death”. I could not determine the context, but I knew it was Jesus talking and it just seemed a bit strong. Not only was there a threat of killing, but as it says, killed with death! I wanted to know whose children and what's this killed with death bit. As it turns out it is Jesus talking to the church at Thyatira, Rev.2:18-29. The analysis of this church seems to start off pretty well, but then it turns not so pleasant:
20… to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
21 And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
When it comes to these judgments and proclamations to these church groups I believe that: it was a real part of the Church at the time of writing, but also can be a for individual bodies that exist today and last each church represents a church age. As I looked as to when people thought the Thyatiran age was, it seemed to be placed between 600AD to 1500AD. As I thought about this and the “killed by death” pronouncement I thought of the Black Plague which was active in the 1300s. During the plague the conservative estimate is that 1/3 of Europe died and up to 75% in certain cities. The plague not only destroyed the people but also the economy of those cities. So not only did the people lose family members but the ability to buy and sell even food became hard if not impossible. Killed by death indeed… ouch.
Although I do like the end and hope presented:
Re 2:26 And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
28 And I will give him the morning star.
The good news is no matter what the “Christians” of the age are up to… you can go against the flow and overcome and get a special reward for those that make their relationship with God their priority.
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