Finally an early church literature review

If one were to review early church history, one would find that there are also seven letters to churches from Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch.These letters were written on his way through Turkey to face execution in Rome. Four of the letters went to the same towns as found in the seven letters from John's Revelation (Smyrna, Ephesus, Philsdelphia, and Sardis). Perhaps by looking at them, a person could find some corroboration of ideas to what is found in Revelation. Besides the commonality of seven letters and four to the same churches, the time period is very nearly the same. If John the apostle is the author and the date is around 96 AD, then Ignatius' letters come second, being dated to around 110 AD. If John the Elder wrote the Revelation, then the letters could have been written contemporaneously with Ignatius' or even shortly afterward. If shortly afterward, then perhpas Ignatius' letters served as a model or inspiration for the letters appearing in Revelation. Nonetheless, there are several connections between the two sets of seven letters.

First, in Ignatius' letter to the Ephesians, he addresses corruptive teaching forcefully. This matches the vehemence found in Revelation by John's using the term Jezebel for corruptive teaching. Ignatius' words are these, "Do not be deceived, my brothers and sisters. Corrupters of houses will not inherit the Kingdom of God. If a saying about corruptors of houses exists in the fleshly world as good advice, how much more meaningful is it if a person, through evil teaching, corrupts the faith of God for which Jesus was crucified. Such a person, having defiled himself, shall go into the unquenchable fire, as shall the one listening to that person" (Ephesians 16).

Second, if the term in Revelation, Jezebel, a name from the Jewish Bible, refers to a group of Jews, and if they belonged to a "synagogue of Satan" as the Jews were referred to in the letter to Smyrna (Rev.2.9), then the "knowledge of the depths of Satan" would refer to the Jewish teachings from the Jews in Thyatira. If this is the case, then there is a match of thought in Ignatius' letters as well. One of the stongest criticisms by Ignatius is found in his letter to the Magnesians. It states, "Do not be seduced by strange teachings or ancient fables because they are profitless. For if even to this day we live as Jews would have us live, we show that we have not received grace. The divine prophets lived as Jesus would have us live and they were persecuted because they were inspired by His grace. But because of this, disobedient Jews were supposed to have been fully persuaded that there is one God who manifested himself through Christ Jesus His son, who is the message that proceeded from His silence, who in all things was pleasing to Him who sent him... It is monstrous to talk of Jesus Christ and practice Judaism. For Christianity did not believe in Judaism, but Judaism in Christianity, and on that belief every tongue believed and was gathered together for God" (Magnesians 9, 10).

Ignatius also adressed "deep thoughts." He was speaking about speaking with the same authority as the apostles, but he would not do so since they knew more than he did. Ignatius says, "I have many deep thoughts in God: but I take stock of myself, otherwise I might die (spiritually) because of my boasting... So I crave gentleness whereby the prince of this world is brought to nothing" (Traillians 4).

So, Ignatius' words throw some light on what is being addressed at Thyatira. Hopefully, one can learn that the Jews were causing problems in the area for those wanting to believe in Jesus' teachings. In general, Christians lived among a corruptive forces whether secular or spiritual, and those who were leaders in the churches cared a lot about their flock following teachings that would lead them away from Jesus' teachings. And that sounds like the American environment, in which case I can take to heart the gist of the message—don't take my eyes off of the Jesus of the gospels in which he said, "I am the truth, the way, and the life." End of story.