The Lord said that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church. The gates of hell are access points the powers of hell come through to corrupt and destroy. Can we now say that His church has not been preyed upon through these gates? We can if we understand the true church of God and can distinguish it from the church mankind has built.

      The church the Lord has been building throughout this age has withstood every onslaught from hell and remained a pure, chaste virgin waiting for the Lord’s return....

      How did most of the church fall into such depravity that it would be called “the Great Harlot” and “Mystery Babylon” in the Revelation given to John? The institutional church through the Middle Ages descended into a deep darkness that is incomprehensible today. Its nature and practices could hardly have been more contrary to the teachings and instructions of Jesus or His true followers. This terrible fall and corruption of the church was predicted in the vision John was given, and it happened just as it was portrayed.

      Why was this shown to...

      We are preparing to examine some very challenging facts about church history. If we do not see them through the Lord’s eyes, they can lead to cynicism and critical judgments of the church—and of people—which can darken our hearts. Let us keep in mind that not every church that has claimed to be the church of Jesus Christ was built by Him. His church has always been “a little flock,” a remnant that has resisted trying to build for this age. Rather, it seeks the city God is building, a heavenly city.

      The church the Lord is building...

      The seven churches addressed in Revelation are named in the sequence of the ages, or time periods, they represent. These periods can vary in length a great deal, from a couple of centuries to over a thousand years, so they are not defined by the amount of time but by the main spiritual conditions of each period.

      The meaning of each name is also prophetic of that period. So, it may seem logical that all of the other “sevens” named in Revelation would fall into the same sequence and relate to these same church ages, but that...

“What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia: to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea" (see Revelation 1:11).

      Not long after John was given this revelation, these churches began to fade out of existence. So, why would the Lord’s message for the entire church age be sent to these seven churches? It was obviously not because of what these churches were or would become but because of how they prophetically foreshadowed the unfolding destiny of the whole church in this age....