The fifth letter is written to the church in Sardis. In general, this is not a very positive letter. As far as the church age is concerned it started with the Diet of Speyer (1529) where there was the first legal basis for protestants to exist. It ends with the time when all missionaries roamed the world, around 1750.
To the Church in Sardis
Rev 3:1-6 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. 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 3 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. 4 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. 5 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. 6 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
What does Sardis mean
Sardis means those who escaped. They had to flee two times in their lifetime:
- The city was overtaken by Cyrus the Great in 547 BC, see Sardis – Wikipedia.
- It was devastated by an earthquake in AD 17, AD 17 Lydia earthquake – Wikipedia
To the church in Sardis
It is always good to check the history of this city, and who can do that better than Pastor Joseph?
This is a very nice detailed message about the historic church in Sardis, and honestly, there is nothing I could add to it. So sit back, get your favourite drink and enjoy this great video!
The church of Sardis as a church in the Church History
If you would apply the name Sardis to the Sardis church in its history, it would mean those who escaped the Inquisition of the Catholic church. The Catholics did defend their faith vehemently, whether it was Templars or protestants. The Catholics made them aware of their differences in faith. And sometimes they were a bit too harsh in it, but they had a passion for faith and defended it well.
The people in the Sardis church
Who were the people in the historic Sardis Church? Walther Scott wrote a book about the 7 churches and their church age period and divided them into 2 groups:
We distinguish between the Reformation and Protestantism; the former was a divine work the latter a human system.
Read pages 90 -97 about the Sardis church in this excellent book: Exposition of the Revelation of Jesus Christ: Scott, Walter, 1838-1933. The Thyatira Christians were praised for their good works, but Martin Luther had another view of good works. Read his book about it: A Treatise on Good Works (gutenberg.org).
Revelation 3: 2b for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
As you can read Martin Luther is much into faith in Jesus Christ, which is nothing wrong with. On good works, he had a different viewpoint than the Thyatira Christians.
Theological discussions in the Sardis church period
In this church period, there were many discussions about faith and what to believe. For example, the Netherlands was at war in the 17th century with Spain about differences in religion, When the war was stopped for 12 years, the Dutch almost killed each other about theological differences: History of the Calvinist–Arminian debate – Wikipedia.
The theology mostly used in the Middle Ages could be improved, but would Christ be pleased with how the theological debates went in the 16th and 17th centuries?. One interesting one was between Pope Clement VII and King Henry VIII where Henry could divorce his wife. No, said the pope rightfully, and Henry separated from the Catholic church.
The protestants were unhappy with the pope and his friends, as he had much worldly temporal power. And then countries separated from Rome and became state churches as well. So they accused Rome of something they did as well themselves.
Reformers like Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon were trying to transform the church for the better. In contrast, the aim of the protestants (protest) was to work against the power of the Roman Catholic church. That involved military and political actions against the Roman Catholic church and some secret societies played along as well.
The secret societies in the Sardis church
In To the church in Thyatira we read that the templars were killed or had to flee. Where did they flee to? We read the answer in the encyclopedia of Freemasonry. Onthe subject of Robert Bruce, who was King of Scotland at that time: Albert G Mackey – His Complete Works page 121 Robert Bruce, we read that they fled to Scotland. The templars have been there since then, as you can read in: Albert G Mackey – His Complete Works Page 716 about St. Claire Williams. You can find facts about history in the books of Albert Mackey that you cannot find in the protestant or catholic version of Europe’s history. Good and interesting books to spend some time on. The Masons descendent from the templars as Albert G Mackey wrote in his: Albert G Mackey – His Complete Works Page 189.
The Catholics had their inquisition to keep the church pure. And yes many times they went a bit too far with defending their version of Christianity, but at least they tried to keep what were heretics outside the church. As we read above, everyone was welcome in the Sardis church at that time, which made it difficult for the people to focus on Christ only, as other powers were quite present in the church as well. Jesus Christ was not happy with that.
Endnote
While reading the Thyatira and Sardis letters, you can see Christ was more pleased with Thyatira than with Sardis.