GOD'S CLOCK:THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA

   The “apocalypse” is the end of days, or ages. As scripture says about the “rapture,” nobody knows the day nor the hour (Mat 24:36), and that also applies to the apocalypse as well. In fact, nobody knows for certain if Christians will be raptured before or after the Great Tribulation period which precedes the Apocalypse. “Rapture” is theological terminology for the “Day of the Lord” when Jesus returns to “snatch up” those, either dead or alive, who belong to Him.

  The notion that the rapture will occur before the Great Tribulation is “pre-tribulation” doctrine. Indeed, it would be great if Christians missed the persecution for those seven years of troubles. Most believe in a pre-tribulation rapture because it fits well into the doctrine of eternal security… but will that be the case?

  Whether it is, or not, is inconsequential whether you miss the Great Tribulation, or not, because clues are given about the end of days. That is so wise Christians would be ready just as Jesus warned them. Which raises the question Why would Christians be warned about the Great Tribulation if they are not in jeopardy?

  God provided a “clock” to foresee the end of days. The end of the clock is given: “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man” (Luke 17:26). Before that day, Jesus would suffer death (verse 25), so all that is known is that the “days of the Son of man” is sometimes after He was crucified. John implied that time as “quickly” because when Jesus returns to judge, that time will be subsequent to the rapture, and it will come quickly (Rev 22:2).

  So, on God’s “Clock,” from the time that he died until the end of time is “quickly,” not on our clock but His Timepiece.

  The pre-condition for the rapture is as in the days of Noah. That is not just “days” but ages. Generally, days are ages in scripture when speaking of a future event.

  How were things the time before Noah? Not by coincidence, the days of Noah were just as in the days of Sodom (Luke 17:29). That implies that in the days of Noah, that Sodomizing was practiced — male on male sexual intercourse.  Not only that but “marriage” in the days of Noah was no more than sexual coupling, and sacred literature reveals that pedophilia was the coupling of choice.

  Also implied in the days of Noah that the identification of the species was jeopardized when the sons of God married the daughters of men (Gen 6:2). The interpretation is that the sons of Seth, who were righteous, coupled with the daughters of Cain who were cursed.

  Seth was a righteous kind and Cain a cursed kind. With that background, the righteous DNA of godly men would be contaminated by ungodly women. With the COVID19 virus and messenger-RNA, at the present, our species is in jeopardy. With that said, regardless of the timing of the rapture, doomsday, at least for some, is eminent because it is as in the days of Noah and Lot in Sodom.

  Would God leave mankind on his own to have a surprise “death-day party” or would He leave some type of clock? Neither the day nor the hour is known but the age is known. It is the age of water but not with water, as promised to Noah. Perhaps that is the Age of Aquarius that has just dawned, some say on December 20, 2020, based on the Zodiac.  Until then was the Christian Era (Pisces waned with the waxing of the Luciferin Era which the New Age religion identifies as Aquarius.)

  This commentary is to identify the Doomsday Clock for the reader.

  The world’s Doomsday Clock is now set to 100 seconds to midnight and that “darkness” is called “doomsday.” That is man’s clock divided into minutes and seconds. Nobody knows that time, so it is just a guess based on mankind’s instinct toward self-destruction, and Putin may be helping that along.

  But is there also a “Spiritual Doomsday Clock”? I believe that John saw that “Clock” when writing of the seven churches of Asia.

  Scripture talks of the end with the same “normal” activities, to wit: “They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all” (Luke 17:27). They were engaged in regular commerce as if time was not running out.

  The cities of the seven churches were each engaged in daily commerce just as Sodom and Gomorrah. Even the Synagogue of Satan (Satan’s Seat) was in Ephesus. That was the Temple of Artemis (Diana) who was the goddess of fertility of the Romans. Hence, if Ephesus was the start of the “Clock” then, it could have begun with Roman baths and sexual promiscuity (Hedonism). That may be, but let’s continue without concluding anything yet.

  Satan was always about sexual intercourse, and scripture points toward that as Eve’s sin (Gen 4:1). Perhaps it was carnal knowledge that Eve learned, since scripture is all about the flesh and its pleasuring.

  But what about God’s “Clock”? Where could it be found? The seven churches of Asia were real churches in real places. In fact, those cities lied on the major trade route from Ephesus to Qing (China). But once the goods reached Ephesus, there was another trade route. Not only were those seven cities a church route for John’s “journey” but a trade circuit for ancient commerce, and not by coincidence the circuit ran the course described by John in Revelation chapters two and three as shown in figure #1 below.

 Figure 1: Seven Churches of Asia

 

  The churches are listed by John in clockwise order around the circuit shown on the map above. Many theologians accept the conditions of each church as a church age, as well as real ancient churches.

  Is this trade route the “Clock” that God provided? Clocks are usually round, but many have seen clocks of various shapes. If so, this “clock,” if a clock, may be of irregular shape.

  It is a commercial trade route where everyone at that time went about their business just as Luke wrote about the coming of Jesus. Was Luke pointing to this trade route as the “clock”  timing the coming of the Son of Man, and which coming? The rapture is the second coming of Christ and scripture identifies it as such, albeit theologians do not recognize it as such. Now consider scripture:

²⁹ Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: ³⁰ And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (Mat 24:29-30)

  Matthew is not describing something else other than the rapture (verse 31). It is to come immediately after the tribulation of those days! Whether it is the same tribulation as the Great Tribulation is unknown but what is known is that Christians shall suffer tribulation, perhaps as a test of faith. What is such a test? When the mark of the beast is mandated. For what? To buy and sell, or to engage in commerce (Rev 13:7) just as the church cities circuit was used.

  There is some connection between those churches and what was to come, and perhaps they made up God’s Clock for the ages, not with increments of minutes and seconds, but with ages.

  Would the churches be able to commerce sitting at the Seat of Satan? Would the Church wither through the ages just as Adam and Eve withered throughout their days?

  The Seat of Satan is mentioned for a reason; that Lucifer thought, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the North” (Isa 14:13). Ephesus is north of God’s “Throne” in Jerusalem. Artemis is ultimately “Mother Nature” who so many worship to this day. That was in Ephesus and where the “Clock” begins. It is also the “midnight” hour.

  In the 1 Book of Adam and Eve, they were not cast out north of the Garden of Eden because they would wash themselves free of sin in the waters there. However, much later, Satan, cleverly disguised as a cloud to appear as God, told them, “God has sent us (him and his hosts) to take you and bring you to the border of the Garden northwards, to the shore of the clear sea (the Mediterranean), and bathe you and Eve in it, and raise you to your former gladness (joy), that you again return to the Garden (1 A & E 28:5). The plot was to kill them on “a high mountain” (verse 10).

  The Temple of Artemis was in Ephesus and was one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Antipater of Sidon (the poet) referred to that Temple as the “lofty Babylon on which is a road for chariots.” Lofty is the Hebrew term for “heavenly” and Antipater was suggesting that Ephesus was the access to the Babylonian realm, or Hell! It certainly was the “Seat of Satan” and there was a church of God there!

  Thus, the “Clock” starts and stops at the Seat of Satan. When did it start? That is unknown but the “Church” is immortal; it did not commence with the Resurrection of Jesus but the first sin and the grace that came afterward. In the beginning, the Seat of Satan was at Ephesus, and so it will be at the ending. Perhaps the “Clock” started not at the Resurrection of Jesus but the insurrection of Adam when he was cast out of the Garden!

  Scripture identifies the Kingdom of David as the Garden of Eden. The provenance of that is much but the Hebrews always recognized that Paradise on Earth was the Kingdom of David, and Jesus, as the “Son of David” was King of that Kingdom by genetics through both Joseph and Mary. “Son of David” is evidence enough that David’s land was Jesus’s realm. Genesis 13:10 reveals that if it is read critically and in the Hebrew.

  The Seat of Satan is wherein Satan will always endeavor to kill God’s people. Perhaps Ephesus is the place where Satan will rise again as the Antichrist. Not only will Lucifer sit upon the mount of the congregation to the North, but John saw, “A Beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads ten crowns” (Rev 13:1).

  The “sea” in ancient scripture is always the Mediterranean Sea. It could be anywhere, but the clues are in the heads and crowns. Many take that to be the Roman Church, but it could as well be the Islamic Church which also has seven mountains (pillars) and ten crowns, as I wrote before:

The "seven heads" may represent the original "seven pillars of Islam" which is now reduced to five. Those seven pillars represent the seven holy mountains of Islam, not the seven hills of Rome. Furthermore, they also represent the seven tribes of Canaan mentioned in Deuteronomy, the Girgashites even people with feet of clay.

     Moses was making reference to the Ten Commandments. The "ten horns" of the beast are their perversion of the Ten Commandments. Rather than precepts of God, they are precepts of Mohammad. Clearly, Isa represents the Beast and Islam the doctrine of Satan. (Herrin 2019)

  As the Seat of Satan and Turkey are part of an invisible empire — the Islamic Caliphate — that replaced the Roman Empire in Asia, then their Isa (Jesus) is perhaps the Antichrist, and he will come from Ephesus. And there the “Clock” would end where it started.

  So, the range of the clock is unknown; and it could either start with the Antiochian Church of Jesus or perhaps the “Church” of the Garden of Eden. You ask, Was a Church there?

  Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mat 18:20). Adam and Eve were the two of that “congregation” and Satan desired to “sit also upon the mount of the congregation” as Isaiah wrote. Perhaps Adam and Eve were in Ephesus at the very seat of Satan when he tried to kill them.

  The middle of the Garden was where “Church” was held and the “Congregation” originally met. The Church of God began when Adam and Eve entered Paradise and chose which “tabernacle” they would stand under.

  The Canopy of the Tree of Life was the “Tabernacle of God” and the canopy of the “Tree of Knowledge,” the tabernacle of Satan, and the two congregants took communion under the wrong “church.” They ate of the elements of Lucifer and denied the elements of God as they ate of the tree of pleasure rather than the Tree of Life.

  God promised Adam reprieve in “five-and-an-half days” which He explained was 5500 years (1 A & E), or on the sixth “day,” or process.

 In my book, On the Origin of Man and the Universe, I explained that the “warming” and “twisting from the warming” (from the original Hebrew) not only describes a day, but also any process, and that processes are not necessarily all the same.

  The processes before sin were seven — six days of working and God resting on the seventh day.

  Perhaps the rapture is on the sixth day when, not only Adam is resurrected, but all those dead in Christ. When that work is accomplished, then God would rest again during the Millennial Reign of Jesus. Then the “Clock would stop” at the midnight hour, and time would become eternal. Therefore, perhaps the “Clock” is for the entire extent of life in the world, away from the Garden, and before Paradise in Heaven. Hence, the Clock’s “hours” may be six but what does the Clock show?

Now look again at the “Clock” in figure #1 from a different perspective.

 

 

         Figure 2: Herrin; "God's Clock"

  Perhaps the Millennial Reign is “Day Eight” on the Clock which would need not be on any clock. This is a “seven-day clock” and the rest period would be the end of the Laodicean Age. Jesus, remembering that He IS God on the Throne, said at the end of the discourse on the Laodicean Church, “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne” (Rev 3:21).

  Hence, the seventh day may not be the Millennial Reign of Jesus but those who sit with God on His throne by overcoming the Laodicean Age. The Laodicean Age seems to represent Judgment for lukewarm “Christians” some who will be spewed from the Mouth of God (Rev 3:16), and others who will sit vicariously with Jesus on His Throne.

  The message of John’s Revelation is mysterious indeed! But why the vision of the seven churches when there were many more in Asia? If the Church at Jerusalem or Alexandria was included, then it would not be a clock of seven ages.

  Note that the “seventh day” is not there yet but the end of that “day,” or age is approaching. Perhaps, the Clock does go from the day that Adam was sent unto the world until Adam’s kind is redeemed sometime during the sixth day, and likely toward its end.

  The ”Church” existed in the Garden of Eden with Jesus (The Tree of Life) there in its midst, and in the wilderness where God revealed Himself under another canopy — a “tabernacle.” It still existed in the Temple, and now in the bodies of Christians which are “Temples” of the Holy Ghost. The Church has always existed, and it started as a Garden for two in the middle of Eden (the world) where the Word, Jesus, communed with His two person “congregation.”

  When did God start building the Church? It was, “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Eph 2:20). The first “prophet” and “apostle” was Adam. He saw Jesus face to face as an “apostle” and his story foretold the grace of Jesus (Gen 3:15).

  The “Foundation Stone,” according to the Hebrews, was the very place that Adam was created. That Stone is now under the Dome of the Rock and is now the very “Seat of Satan” and Jerusalem the New “Babylon” on which it stands just as the poet wrote.

  Whether the “Clock” is accurate or not is questionable, but it does make sense that God would provide a clock for things to come. The Seven Churches describe events in time and the Revelation is all about time.

  Now let me explain how the clock in figure #2 was derived. A mathematical technique is to “normalize” rough data by smoothing the curve. That is the basis of calculus and logarithms. Rough curves can be normalized by either logarithms or common factors.

  The time it would take to make the circuit is variable but even to this day, the distances remain constant. The rough “clock” was transformed into a smooth clock by proportioning the distances between churches over the range of the clock. That also makes sense, because “ages” are not precise but periods of varying and different processes.

  It also makes sense that if God generated all things and came to rest in seven “days,” or ages, of different duration, that it would degenerate at the same rate and in the reversal of those seven processes in some manner or form. Thus, the Clock might be the time for mankind to degenerate to the point that just a few would be regenerated at the end of the Laodicean “hour.”

  But for Christians, now is the time for salvation, and that was anyplace on the Clock from the time of Adam, to the time right now, until the time is ripe to regenerate those who remain and stand firm on the “Solid Rock” of Jesus, the Cornerstone of the Church.

  An earlier commentary explained the duration of the “Clock of Human Existence,” and follows is a short excerpt from it:

You see here that for God, one day is as a thousand years, but conversely one-thousand years is as one day. With that, creation was perhaps seven-thousand years, and the world is as if seven days. If eternity is the eighth day, according to Jewish writers, then a “day” in scripture can be any period between 24 hours and infinity. It is whatever God defines to suit His Purposes. Whatever the time,  now we are nearer to that day than when we first believed, and now is the time to live like it! (Herrin, Day of Rest - Part 2 of 2 2020)

  Have I missed the mark? Is that why the churches of Asia are in scripture? There is no way of knowing but every theologian uses the same process; they examine scripture and build a case for their version of what it means. Is my version correct? Overall, my point is: the Clock is running out and now is the time to slow the Clock by submitting to Jesus.

  God has the Power to reset the Clock that He set in the beginning. At each age, God reset the Clock with His various Covenants but in the end, seven God-days seems to be His limit and we are about there.