Revelation: Chapters 2 and 3 Timelines
Setting
The vision in Revelation 1 reveals the Lord’s nature, and Revelation 2 and Revelation 3 reveal how the Lord relates to each church through His nature. The seven candlesticks represent the character and challenges faced by each Jewish church type that forms after the snatching away (rapture) of the Body-of-Christ. That singular event will bring many in Israel who are waiting for their Messiah to a belief in Christ Jesus. It will convince them of the truth they were told by the believers in Jesus Christ before they were snatched away (raptured). Paul wrote that salvation came to the Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy, Romans 11:11. That moment will be impactful as the thunderclap of lightning; it will cause a remnant in Israel to see the truth suddenly in the scriptures that they will turn to, and come to faith in Christ. Though the temple will soon be built and functional, as in the days of Jeremiah when Jerusalem cried out, the temple, the temple, Jeremiah 7:4, they will not seek their help there, but put their whole trust in their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. As Jesus told the Samaritan woman, it is not the place of worship that is important, but the heart, in spirit and truth, John 4:7-26. Home and neighborhood churches centered on Christ will suddenly appear. Then, these churches’ behavior will reflect the seven letters in Revelation 2 and Revelation 3. So, in this time of the pre-tribulation, the Lord will reach out to them and prepare them to be upright in His name, for the tribulation, and to look to Him as their cover, as He was to their forefathers on their exodus. This is the time Paul wrote to the Romans concerning the blindness of Israel, that it happened to them in part, until the fullness of the Gentiles had come in, Romans 11:25.
The use of timeline graphics in this website facilitates understanding all the prophecies in the book of Revelation. The following chart is a base timeline for Revelation, on which all the prophecies will be laid out, to show the concurrency of prophecies, their temporal constraints relative to other prophetic events, and aid in memorizing the sequencing of all the events. This first chart illustrates the snatching away (rapture), on the far left of the graphic. There will be a period immediately afterward, termed the pre-tribulation, followed by the seven years of tribulation. That time is broken into two halves; the first half is the tribulation, followed by the great tribulation. The downward purple arrow is the literal, physical, visible return of the Lord Jesus Christ to establish His kingdom over this world, introducing the millennium, the first 1,000 years of His eternal reign. Afterwards, all the righteous and unrighteous ever conceived since Adam and Eve will be permanently separated as everything folds into the future eternity.
The following chart provides context for the terminology used on this site. This is adapted from James B. De Young's book, “The PRE-TRIB RAPTURE: Key to the End of the World.”
The next chart is the summary from Revelation 1. The summary of the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, will be added onto this chart.
All seven churches were contemporary with one another when these letters were written and sent to them, as the Lord instructed John to do, Revelation 1:11. These Jewish churches existed at the time of John, and typify all other Messianic churches in their day and in the future. These churches are part of God’s prophetic program for Israel, Acts 3:18-22, illustrated in the following timeline. Due to the fall of Israel, salvation came to the Gentiles, Romans 11:11, and the Jewish churches diminished, Romans 11:12 (KJV), with the mystery program led by Paul, Romans 11:13, for the Gentiles (the Body-of-Christ) was blessed by God, Ephesians 3:1-11. However, the Jewish churches will be reconstituted after the snatching away (rapture) of the Body-of-Christ, which is during the pre-tribulation time.
As these Jewish churches reform, their geographic proximity demonstrates their close-knit relationships. In John’s days, the churches of believing Jews formed in this area primarily due to the persecution originating in Jerusalem. The first Jerusalem church, led by Peter and the apostles, was persecuted by Saul. He endorsed the stoning of Stephen, Acts 7:55-59, and he asked for letters from the high priest to go after Jews who were believers in Christ Jesus, in the city of Damascus, Acts 9:1-2. Saul’s severe persecution forced Jewish believers to scatter from Jerusalem to other parts of the Roman Empire, Acts 11:19-21.
This pattern of persecuting Jewish believers in Christ Jesus will be repeated after the snatching away (rapture). It is expected that Israel will transition from a secular nation toward one promoting a rigid orthodoxy as the tribulation temple is built and becomes fully functional. The nation of Israel will not tolerate any form of worship other than being zealous in following the customs of their fathers and the laws of Moses. This will be the cause for pushing the churches out of Jerusalem and Israel, as in the days of Saul. This is shown in two of the seven letters to the churches. Both Smyrna and Philadelphia, the only two churches to receive praise from the Lord and not condemnation, are said to be suffering at the hands of the synagogue of Satan, which are those who claim to be Jews but are not, Revelation 2:9, 3:9. The following chart shows the tribulation church types that will form during the pre-tribulation, and then overcomers in those churches will continue through the tribulation and great tribulation.
There will be another group, a false religion acting as an ecumenical church that will be a significant source of persecution, Revelation 17:4-6, against these new Jewish churches and all believers in Christ Jesus. The woman who rides, or controls the beast after the Body-of-Christ is snatched away (raptured), will carry a golden cup, filled with the blood of the saints, then she will prevail until around the midtribulation point. Afterwards, she will be destroyed, and the persecution will come from the Antichrist. The following chart shows not only the source of persecution against all believers in Christ Jesus, but the top half of the chart provides some scriptural references from the prophets who God used to provide promises to the different groups of Jewish believers.
The above chart lists four of the five groups of believing Israelites who will go through the seven years of tribulation:
- The seven types of churches, Revelation 2 and Revelation 3
- The 144,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel, Revelation 7:3-8
- The innumerable number of martyrs for Christ Jesus, Revelation 6:9-11
- Those who flee into the mountains of Israel when the image of the Antichrist is erected in the holy place in the tribulation temple in Jerusalem, Matthew 24:15-22
- The fifth are the two witnesses who start their earthly ministry at the beginning of the tribulation and are killed by the Antichrist at midtribulation, Revelation 11:3-14
The next chart is a summary of what the Lord said to John, instructing him to write the things that he has seen, the things that are, and the things that shall be, Revelation 1:19. As can be seen below, the Jewish churches in the church age, and the tribulation churches fall within the category of "the things that are." After the discussion of the churches, the focus shifts to the throne room of God, using the term "hereafter" as translated in the King James Version (KJV). Again, the difference between this chart and the previous one is the timeline expansion for the period covering the church age. This is done for purely chartmanship reasons to enable the description of the churches to be readable and understandable.
The next chart shows the seven church types formed in the pre-tribulation period. Then only the remnant from each church type, the overcomers, continues into the tribulation in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, while the others are killed. The size of the arrows from each of the seven churches differs due to what is said in the judgment of the Lord to them. One would expect few overcomers in churches like Laodicea and Sardis, but many would be in the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia. Hence, they have larger arrows representing those overcomers.
The 2nd and 3rd Chapters of Revelation are prophetic in providing the information these tribulation churches need in preparation for the tribulation they will live through. Other prophecies in the Old Testament have yet to be fulfilled that have no direct connection to any of the events outlined in the book of Revelation. The following chart provides a glimpse of those other prophetic events and when they might have their fulfillment. The top yellow area deals with events concerning the saints in heaven, starting with the "day of the Lord" for the New Testament church. Below the yellow box is a box that transitions from a rose color to blue, signifying the period after the snatching away (rapture) of the New Testament church, when there will likely be a time gap until the beginning of the tribulation. Indicated in the text at the bottom of that rose-to-blue box, these five prophetic events appear to be independent of each other. The order of events is arbitrary and not dependent on any other events happening first. However, the order of the listing on this chart is not capricious, but is put in an order that may occur. They may be fulfilled before the snatching away (rapture) of the New Testament church, or afterwards. There is insufficient information to definitively say what the order will be or when the prophetic fulfillment will occur. However, the red vertical line depicting the beginning of the tribulation is used to separate the unfulfilled prophetic events from those written in the Book of Revelation.
