JULY 20TH, 1893

JULY 20TH, 1893

I return the enclosed, which gives no good reason for departing from what we have been accustomed to hold as to the seven churches. Paul sees the ruin of the assembly as a professing body as much as John. (See 2 Timothy.) John carries it on to judgment to make way for “the things after these”, and eventually gives the judgment of the great whore before the marriage of the Lamb. But when the Revelation was written the seven churches in Asia existed and stood in the normal relation of the church to Christ, and to the Spirit. They were not in judgment, but threatened with it. Taking the extended view of the seven assemblies there must come a moment when Christ alters His position, and His body is taken, and all the arguments in the world would not convince me that this makes no difference to the professing body. The house will be left desolate, and christendom will no longer stand in any present relation to Christ or the Spirit. Judgment comes in and other things begin to operate. When the twenty-four elders are round about the throne the “things after these” have taken the place of “the things that are”, i.e., of the assembly on earth in its relation to Christ. I do not believe that the church is any longer owned in any sense, and it cannot be proved.