The seven churches in Asia (modern-day Turkey)
NOW WE get to the prophetic stuff! The Book of Revelation was written by John, either in the mid-60s A.D. or around 95 A.D. Most scholars believe it was the later date, during the reign of Domitian, although some believe it was thirty years earlier, during the reign of Nero.
Either way, Revelation is a deep and fascinating prophecy given to John by Jesus himself. This week, we discuss the introduction to the book and the messages from Jesus to the seven churches of Asia. All seven are in modern-day Turkey, which may have significance for the last days. We briefly explain how the seven churches represent the ages of church history (see the chart below) and various heresies that had entered the church before the end of the first century A.D.
LETTERS FROM Paul in Rome are the focus of this week’s New Testament study, and there is a lot of meat here. Paul addressed errant teachings that threatened to undermine the gospel of salvation by grace through faith at Colossae and Ephesus.
PAUL RETURNS to Jerusalem in this week’s study, as we return to Luke’s historical account of Paul’s journey, in spite of warnings from believers from Asia to Judea that he would be arrested and possibly killed. But Paul already knew that, since he’d been warned by the Holy Spirit that this is what God had in store for him.
