CHAPTER SIX
THE THYATIREAN CHURCH AGE
Revelation 2:18-29
And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, Who hath His eyes like unto a flame of fire, and His feet are like fine brass;
I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am He Which searcheth the reins and hearts; and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.
But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.
And he that overcometh, and keepeth My works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
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.
And I will give him the morning star.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
THYATIRA
Historically, the city of Thyatira was the least noteworthy of all the seven cities of the Revelation. It was situated on the confines of Mysia and Ionia. It was surrounded by many rivers, but they were full of leeches. Its most commendable feature was that it was well off financially due to the corporate guilds of potters, tanners, weavers, dyers, robe makers, etc. It was from this city that Lydia, the seller of purple, came. She was Paul's first European convert.
Now the reason that the Spirit chose this city as the one already containing the spiritual elements for the fourth age was because of its religion. The major religion of Thyatira was the worship of Apollo Tyrimnaios which was joined with the emperor worship cult. Apollo was the sun god, and the next in power to his father, Zeus. He was known as the 'averter of evil'; he presided over religious law and expiation (means of atonement, making amends for wrong-doing or guilt). Plato said of him, "He explains to men the institution of temples, sacrifices and services to deities, besides rites connected with death and after life." He communicated his knowledge of 'the future' and his 'father's will' to men through the prophets and oracles. In Thyatira this ritual was conducted by a prophetess who sat on a tripod chair and delivered the messages while entranced.
The hold of this religion was remarkable. Its formidable power did not lie exclusively in the realm of mystery, but lay in the fact no one could belong to the guilds which offered the people their living unless they belonged to the temple worship of Apollo. Anyone who refused to join in the idolatrous feasts and licentious orgies was barred from these first century unions. In order to be a part of the social and commercial life one had to be a practising pagan idolater.
It is most worthy of note that the very name Thyatira means, "Dominating Female." Thus this age is characterized by a dominant force, a force that ruthlessly invades all, conquers all and despotically controls. Now a dominating female is the greatest curse in the world. The wisest man the world ever saw was Solomon, and he said, "I applied my heart to know, and to search, and to seek out wisdom, and the reason of things and to know the wickedness of folly, even of foolishness and madness; and I find more BITTER THAN DEATH THE WOMAN, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the SINNER shall be taken by her. Behold, this I have found, saith the preacher, counting one by one to find out the account; which yet my soul seeketh, but I find not. One man amongst a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found." Ecclesiastes 7:25-28. Paul said, "I suffer not a woman to teach or to USURP authority." From the Garden of Eden onward, woman has constantly and successfully tried to take control over the man, and right today it is a woman's world with the goddess of America being a naked female. As the female idol falling out of the skies (remember her arms were iron bars) characterized the first or Ephesian Age, so her power has grown until she has gained absolute authority, such authority being usurped by her iron disposition.
Now a woman is not meant to have an iron disposition. She is, according to the Holy Scripture, to be submissive to the male. That is commanded of her. Woman who is truly female, all female, will be of that disposition. Not a door mat. No real male makes a female a door mat. But she will want to be under authority and not rule over the male, for he is the head of the house. If she breaks that image that God made for her, she is perverted. Any male that lets the woman take authority has also broken that image and he is perverted. That is why a woman CANNOT WEAR THAT WHICH PERTAINETH TO A MAN OR CUT HER HAIR. She is never to wear garments that pertain to a male or cut her hair. When she does she is intruding into the male domain taking authority and perverting herself. And when a woman invades the pulpit which it is COMMANDED SHE MUST NOT DO, she shows what spirit she is of. Being a dominating female is antichrist and the seeds of the Roman Catholic Church are in her though she may deny this ever so vehemently. But when it COMES TO THE WORD, Let God be true and every man's word a lie. Amen.
Let us go back to the beginning. In the original physical creation as we know it today, God made everything in pairs, male and female. There were two chickens - rooster and hen. There were two cattle, the cow and the bull. And right down the line. But when it came to man, there was only one. They were not a pair. Adam had been made in the image of God. He was a son of God. As a son of God he could not be tempted and fall. That would be impossible. So God took a by-product of man to cause the fall. Woman never stepped fresh from the hand of God as a true product of God. She was produced from man. And when God caused her to be brought forth from man she was vastly different from the other females He had created. She was able to be seduced. No other female in creation can be immoral; but the human female may be touched at almost any time. And that weakness in her allowed Satan to seduce her by way of the serpent, and has brought the woman to very peculiar position before God and His Word. She is the type of all things vulgar, foul and loathsome on the one hand, and on the other hand she is the type of all things clean and beautiful, and holy as the receptacle of the Spirit and blessings of God. On the one hand she is called the whore who is drunk with the wine of her fornications. On the other she is called the Bride of Christ. On one hand she is called Mystery Babylon, the abomination before God; and on the other hand she is called New Jerusalem, our mother. On the one hand she is so foul and wicked and lewd that she is summarily cast into the lake of fire as the only fit place for her; and on the other hand she is exalted to heaven, sharing the very throne of God as the only place befitting such a queen.
And in this Thyatirean Church age she is a DOMINATING FEMALE. She is Mystery Babylon. She is the great whore. She is Jezebel the false prophetess. WHY? Because the true female is submissive to God. Christ is her head. She has no word but His, no thoughts but His, no leadership but His. But what about this church? She has cast out the Word, destroyed the Bibles and worthy essays of the godly. She has slain those who would preach the truth. She has taken over kings, princes and nations - controls armies and insists that she is the true body of Christ and that her popes are the vicars of Christ. She is entirely seduced by the devil until she in turn has become the seducer of others. She is the bride of Satan and has produced his bastard-child religions.
All through the Dark Ages she has dominated. For over nine hundred years she plundered and destroyed. She killed the arts, destroyed the sciences, produced nothing but death until the light of the Truth was almost entirely gone and only the barest sliver of light remained. The oil and the wine had almost ceased to flow; but though she dominated the world kingdoms and demanded that all men find their citizenship in her, there was a little group who belonged to God and their citizenship was in heaven, and them she could not destroy. God kept His little flock; they could not be destroyed. This Church of Rome was as heathen and wicked as Queen Athalia who tried to destroy all the royal seed and almost succeeded, but GOD PRESERVED ONE, and of him there came more of the faithful. So God preserved a little flock in that long dark night and of their truth there finally arose a Luther.
Anyone who knows anything at all about the Roman Catholic Church and its form of worship can tell why this city of Thyatira was chosen by the Spirit to represent the church in the Dark Ages. There it is, right before our eyes.
THE AGE
The Thyatirean Age lasted the longest of them all, about 900 years, from 606 to 1520. 7ch028.htm
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