The Contender Vol. 15 No. 3

Book excerpt: WE WERE JUST BARELY GETTING INTO THE PHILADELPHIA LETTER IN OUR THREE PART SERIES ON THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF ASIA WHEN HE RAN OUT OF SPACE, FOR PART 2. THEREFORE WE WILL START RIGHT OUT IN REVELATION 3:7, WHERE WE FIND JOHN WRITING TO THE SIXTH CHURCH OF THESE SEVEN CHURCHES. THIS WAS THE CHURCH THAT HAD CONDITIONS IN IT IN 96 A.D. THAT WOULD TYPE CONDITIONS IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE 6TH CHURCH AGE, THE AGE OF BROTHERLY LOVE. THIS, OF COURSE, WAS THE WESLEY AGE, AND THAT IS THE LAST ONE THAT HAS THE CHURCH AGE MESSENGER RECORDED IN HISTORY. BUT FOR THE LAODICEAN AGE WE DO NOT NEED HISTORY, FOR WE HAVE LIVING WITNESSES AS TO WHO THE CHURCH AGE MESSENGER WAS. THE MESSENGER HAS PASSED FROM THE SCENE, AND ENTERED INTO HIS REST, BUT THE AGE OF LAODICEA IS STILL RUNNING ITS COURSE, AND THE MESSAGE DELIVERED TO IT BY THE STAR MESSENGER WILLIAM MARRION BRANHAM, IS STILL RINGING LOUD AND CLEAR TO THOSE WHO HAVE EARS TO HEAR. WE DEALT WITH LUTHER’S AGE IN PART 2, BUT DID NOT READ THE PARABLE FROM MATTHEW 13:44, THAT PREVIEWED IT, SO WE WILL READ THAT ONE VERSE OF SCRIPTURE BEFORE ENTERING OUR STUDY OF THE PHILADELPHIA CHURCH, AND THE AGE IT TYPED. REMEMBER NOW, THE APPLICATION OF THIS PARABLE IS COMING RIGHT OUT OF THE DARK AGES, WHEN CATHOLICISM HAD SWALLOWED UP EVERY APOSTOLIC DOCTRINE TAUGHT BY THE EARLY CHURCH, AND HAD SUBSTITUTED THEIR MAN MADE DOCTRINES IN PLACE OF THEM.