Dear Doves As most of you know, the 7 churches represent a prophetic timeline, aka the "Church Age". If you never heard about that, here is a brief summary: Ephesus: around 33 - 66 (time of the apostles) Smyrna: around 66 - 313 (time or horrible troubles for christians) Pergamos: around 313 - 606 (Mix of Religion and Worldly Government under Emperor Constantine) Thyatira: around 606 - today (Catholic Church) Sardes: around 1517 - today (Reformed and Protestant Church) Philadelphia: around 1600 - today (real Evangelical Churches) Laodizea: around 1967 - today (apostasy in todays modern "Show Churches) The last 4 are in existence today, which is clearly visible in the text (they all have an indicator for either the rapture or the tribulation), and the evidence for that is clearly backed up by the the sequence of "He that hath an ear" followed by "He that overcometh" for the first 3 and inversed sequence of "He that overcometh" followed by "He that hath an ear" for the last 4 Comparing the letters to the 7 churches reveals interesting parallels for Smyrna and Philadelphia: - They are the only churches that receive no rebuke from Jesus - They are the only churches that are not requested to repent - They are the only churches without menace in case they don't repent - To both of them, Jesus talks about "them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan" - They are Nr 2 and Nr 6 -> they sit on the same bow if you assign the 7 churches to the 7 Lamps of the Menorah! Many people think that only the Philadelphia-like Christians will make it to the rapture (which is quite possible due to the special promise of "the open door" and "the keeping from the hour of trial that comes onto the whole earth"). A mystery has always been the "10 days of tribulation" mentioned to Smyrna: "and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Due to the obvious similarities of Smyrna and Philadelphia (and the fact that they sit on the same bow of the Menorah) one may ask if the 10 days also apply to Philadelphia? I think yes. I don't say that I have an answer for what exactly it means, but one thought came to mind: There are 10 days from Rosh Hashannah and Day of Atonement. At Rosh Hashanna, at the end of the Tribulation, the raptured saints will return to earth together with Jesus. The 10 days until Day of Atonement they will indeed be on earth IN the highest peak of the tribulation - the Philadelphia-Christians maybe even in our normal mortal bodies ("be thou faithful unto death"), and the Smyrna-Christians in their already immortal body? No longer and no less. 10 days and that's it - after that we get definitely resurrected and get the crown of life. It's just a thought - probably not a popular one. However, I found it interesting enough to share! At least I find it interesting to see how the precise daycounts all point to Day of Atonement in 2015. http://www.thefinal7yearsareherenow.com/ http://www.markbeast.com/70jubilees/70Sevens.pdf It could explain why the raptured saints are 10 days IN the tribulation if they return 10 days earlier (Rosh Hashannah) to earth, together with Jesus. Watch & Pray! Maranatha! YBIC, Josua