Biblical Church History

Following the Hand of God and the Hand of Satan

Church Reference Approx. date

Meaning

Ephesus Rev. 2:1-7 90 – 200 AD Fully purposedSmyrna Rev. 2: 8-11 200-325 AD Bitterness and

death Pergamos Rev. 2: 12-

17325-500 AD Much marriage

Thyatria Rev. 2: 18-29

500- 1000 AD

Oder of affliction

Sardis Rev. 3:1-6 1000- 1500 AD

Red ones

Philadelphia

Rev. 3: 7-13 1500- 1900 AD

Brotherly love

Laodicea Rev. 3:14-22

1900- Rapture

Civil rights

THE 7 PERIODS OF CHURCH HISTORY

Revelation 2:18-29c.1000-1500 A.D.

“RED ONES”

ThyatIra

SARDI s

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I. The CommissionRev. 3: 1a

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(Rev 3:1) And unto the angel of the church in

Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God,

and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou

hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

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II. The CharacterRev. 3: 1b

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(Rev 3:1) And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These

things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name

that thou livest, and art dead.

(Rev 4:5) And out of the throne proceeded

lightnings and thunderings and

voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the

seven Spirits of God.

(Rev 5:6) And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the

throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb

as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God

sent forth into all the earth.

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III. The Condemnation Rev. 3: 1c

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(Rev 3:1) And unto the angel of the church in

Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the

seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou

hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.

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IV. The Correction Rev. 3: 2-3

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(Rev 3:2-3) Be watchful, and strengthen the things which

remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore

how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I

will come upon thee.

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V. The Commendation Rev. 3: 4

SARDI s

(Rev 3:4-5) Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which

have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are

worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white

raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

SARDI s

Historians place the number around 4 million

Don’t ever lose sight of the fact of no matter how dark Israel got in the Old Testament and the no matter how dark it may get in the church God has always had his faithful few. (1 Kings 19:18)

God has always had those who would not bow to Baal, nor defile their garments.

SARDI s

In this Sardis church period there were those that who were never a part of the Catholic Church. People that stood for the Word of God and against that Church along time before the Reformation.

These people were not try to reform the Catholic Church because they were not ever a part of it.

Sardis B. The myth of

the Baptist being

Protestant

“RED ONES”

THE CRUSADES

PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER THAT BROUGHT IN THE REFORMATION

1. THE FORMATION OF THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE

In 795 Pope Leo III was given protection by Charlemagne after accusations of adultery, perjury and simony (attempting to buy one's way into religious office) were made against him. In November 800 Charlemagne presided over the trial in Rome. After swearing his innocence on a copy of the Gospels, Pope Leo was cleared and reinstated on Dec. 23.

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Remaining in Rome, the king of the Franks attended a nativity service on Christmas Day, two days later. The central event of the Middle Ages was about to take place! As Charles knelt before the altar in worship, there was a hush throughout the church. As the king rose from prayer, the pope turned suddenly and placed a golden crown on his head, proclaiming him Imperator Romanorum, "Emperor of the Romans."

More than three centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire, the West once again had its own emperor!

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This was Satan’s attempt to gain back the (Physical) kingdom. Or the Kingdom of Heaven. He had already gained a foothold on the (Spiritual) kingdom, or the Kingdom of God through the establishment of the Roman Catholic Church.

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2. THE GREAT SPLIT IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

Don’t forget Constantine builds during his time a city in the east and names it after himself called Constantinople This city is the eastern capital of the Roman Empire, just like Rome is in the west. After years of battles and religious disagreements, in 869 there were basically 2 popes (1in west and 1 in the east) calling each other the Anti- ChristThis leads to a church split. The west known as the Roman Catholic and the eastern as Greek Orthodox

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3. THE RISE OF MOHAMMED AND NATION OF ISLAM

4. THE CRUSADES

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In November of 1095 in Southern France, Pope Urban II calls the Council of Claremont.

It brought:14 Archbishops, 250 Bishops, 400 Abbots, and thousands of tents were pitched outside the walls.

Phillop Schaff, History of the Christian Church, V, 227

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After 9 days of deliberation, Urban walked out on an elevated platform to address the people..

“The address was the most effective sermon ever preached by a pope or any other mortal. It stirred the deepest feelings of the hearers and was repeated throughout all Europe.”Ibid.

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Key elements of the “sermon”The Catholics are “the elect of God”

The Moslems (Turks) are “the accursed race”

We (European Catholics)a re the answer to the cry of our brothers and sisters in the East.

If we go, Christ Himself will lead the armies.

Those who fight will receive an “incorruptible crown”

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The theme throughout the “sermon” was… “God wills it!”

An excerpt from the “sermon”“It is the will of God. Let these words be your war-cry when you unsheathe the sword. You are the soldiers of the cross. Wear on your breast or shoulders the blood-red sign of the cross. Wear it as a token that His help will never fail you, as the pledge of a vow to be recalled.”Schaff, V, 229

5. THE CORRUPTION OF THE PAPAL OFFICE

Halley's Bible Handbook: wrote: "The 200 years between [the Popes] Nicolas I [858-867 AD] and Gregory VII [1073-1085 AD] is called by historians the MIDNIGHT OF THE DARK AGES...

During this time some of the Popes where some depraved that people who were not even believers, were appalled by the things that the “Holy Father” was doing

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Sergius III (904-11)Said to have had a mistress, Marozia. She bare him many bastard children and together they rasied these childern to be the Popes and Cardinals She, her mother Theodora, and her sister, 'filled the Papal chair with their paramours and bastard sons, and turned the Papal Palace into a den of robbers.' Called in history “The Rule of the Harlots” (904-963) Other scholars have dated the period more broadly or narrowly, and other terms, such as the “Pornocracy”

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[Pope] John XII (955-963) A 18 year old grandson of Marozia, was 'guilty of almost every crime; violated virgins and widows, high and low; was bisexual and turned the Lateran Palace into a brothel. He was also into molesting female pilgrims in the basilica of St Peter lived with his father's mistress; made the Papal Palace a brothel; was killed while in the act of adultery by the woman's enraged husband'" a tribunal eventually found him guilty of incest, adultery and murder and was excommunicated He held massive orgies and took particular pleasure in defiling holy sites, like the tombs of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, with his sinful acts

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Pope Anacletus (1130-38) had a prostitute for a mistress, slept with his sister and had a bad habit of raping nuns.

Pope Leo X (1313-21) was a promiscuous homosexual he suffered from shocking ulcerations of the rear end and was often carried around on a stretcher!

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Pope Boniface VIII (1294 – 1303)Made the statement “To enjoy ones self, and to lay carnally with women or boys, is no more a sin than rubbing ones hands together. At other times he called Christ a hypocrite and professed to be an atheistIn 1302 famous Unam Sanctam, which essentially claimed all civil and spiritual authority for the papacy.

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THE

REFORMERS

A. John Wycliffe

“The morning Star of the

reformation”

England 1320-1384

(Rev 2:26-28) 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.

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He is called “the Morning Star of the reformation.” He was born in Yorkshire England around 1320 A.D.He is trained at Oxford UniversityJohn Wycliffe was a Catholic priest that was converted in England and he found out what the Bible really taught and he becomes vocal against the Catholic Church in doctrines of “salvation by works” “transubstantiation”, Pope and etc.

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To understand his work you must understand the condition of the common people in England and Europe at this time His work against the friars… (they preach and offering forgiveness for a fee)In 1360, he published a work exposing the corruption of these men called “Objections to the Friars.”In it, Wycliffe says, “He (Friars) stuffs the people..with garbage.”

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In 1366, he became chaplain to the King At this time England as a nation wanted to break away from the stronghold of the RCC and the power of the Vatican (nearly 200 years before King Henry the 8th)

During this time, Wycliffe becomes quite outspoken, and referred to the Pope as… “Antichrist, the proud worldly priest of Rome and the most cursed of clippers and pursekervers.”

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England is afraid to break from Rome because they feared the sin of disobidence, in which Wycliff replied, “Who gave the Pope this power?”In 1374, Wycliffe becomes the Pastor of a local church in a small English village called Lutterworth.Here, Wycliffe is free to publish more materials to seek to open the eyes of the people of England.In 1377, Wycliffe sent a statement listing 19 heresies of the Church of Rome to the Pope.

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Pope Gregory XI immediately excommunicated him from the church.In 1378, he begins to wage the doctrinal battle. He condemns: Salvation by works, prayers to the saints, confess to the Priest; all church offices above Pastor and Deacons; and transubstantiation.Wycliffe began to understand that the only way to break the power of Rome, was to make available the power of the Bible, by translating it into the language of the common man.

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By 1380,the New Testament had been completed.

By 1382, the Old Testament had been completed.

In his translating work he used an old Latin Bible (Not to the confused with Jerome’s Latin Vulgate)

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The Response from Rome:“Wycliffe by thus translating the Bible made it the property of the masses and common to all and even women who were able to read.” The gospel is thrown before swine and trodden underfoot, and that which used to be so dear to both clergy and laity has become a joke..This precious gem of the clergy has become..common to the laity.”

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Wycliffe’s response:“Christ and the Apostles taught the people in the language best known to them. Therefore, the doctrine should not only be in Latin but in the common tongue. If it is heresy to read the Bible, then the Holy Ghost Himself is condemned who gave in tongues to the Apostles of Christ to speak the Word of God in all languages that were ordained of God under heaven.”

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The popularity of his Bible…•People would give a load of hay, just to borrow his Bible for an hour.• Neighborhoods that had a Bible, gather in a home and read until dawn.

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Through Wycliffe’s influence, hundreds of young men had begun to attach themselves to his ministry. These men were trained and seen throughout the land preaching the Word of God! They were called “ “meaning “babbler”On Dec. 29, 1384 during the Sunday morning service. Wycliffe suffered his third stroke. Two days later, Dec 31st, he died.

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The response of the Roman Catholic Church:

“John Wycliffe, the organ of the devil, the enemy of the Church, the confusion of the common people, the idol of heretics, the looking glass of hypocrites, the encourager of schism, the sower of hatred, the storehouse of lies, the sink of flattery, was suddenly struck by the judgment of God..the mouth which was to speak huge things against God and against His Saints….

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…or holy church, was miserably drawn aside..showing plainly that the curse which god had thundered forth against Cain who also inflicted upon him. That pestilent wretch, John Wycliffe, the son of the old serpent, the forerunner of Antichrist, who had completed his iniquity by investing a new translation of the Scriptures.

(Mar 12:35-40) And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of

David? For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou

on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is

he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly. And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces,

And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts:

Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall

receive greater damnation.

(1Co 1:26-29) For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many

mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish

things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; And base

things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God

chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in

his presence.

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Forty-four years after his death, Pope Clement VIII ordered that Wycliffe’s grave be torn up and that he be burned at the stake. They then took his ashes, and threw them in the river Swift that flowed through the town of Lutterworth.

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Thomas Fuller noted how this action was actually symbolic of his life and ministry;

“The Swift conveyed them (his ashes) into the Avon, the Avon into the Severn, the Severn into the narrow seas; they into the main ocean, and thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which is now dispersed all the world over.”

B. John Huss Bohemia

{Czech Republic}

1371-1415