3452 — The Seven Divisions of the Gospel Age
By Editor
Am I right in my understanding of Revelation that the Gospel age is divided into seven distinct stages or epochs, and that our Lord returns near the close of the sixth? W. From the view-point of the seven churches, no. When Christ comes, probation will have closed and every message to every church will have been given. While the Sardis church precedes the Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia precedes the Laodicea, all of them exist contemporaneously from the time that the latter enters — 1844 — till our Lord comes. In other words, the conditions represented by those three churches will exist to the close of probation. Out of Sardis and Laodicea will come the faithful into that of Philadelphia — brotherly love and faithfulness to God's Word. But as to both the seven seals and seven trumpets, our Lord comes at the opening of the seventh seal, at the sounding of the seventh trumpet. Rev. 8:1; 11:15. The angel of Rev. 10:1 is a mighty angel in charge of that message of warning given in that chapter, given before the seventh trumpet sounds. The seven plagues cover one prophetic day or year. Rev. 18:8; Isa. 34:8. They come at the close of probation, before Christ's coming, and cover the little period "quickly" in Rev. 22:12. Follow the studies on the Revelation. Seven divisions of different things do not necessarily cover the same period. They merely denote completeness, fulness, of the thing to which they are applied.