I find the listed seven churches as a very interesting part of Revelations. So metaphorical or literal? Do you think that it is listing the 7 churches as 'archetypes' of individual Christians? Or are you inclined to believe that they are referring to the branches within Christianity? Interestingly enough the major schisms have produced 7 major branches:
1. Protestant
2. Anglican
3. Anabaptist
4. Catholic
5. Eastern Orthodox
6. Oriental Orthodox
7. Assyrian
Sauce:
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link to upload.wikimedia.org]
These first churches were essentially the very beginning of
Christianity; most heavily influence by the disciples and teachings of Jesus.
Unfortunately, as time passes people tend to "dilute" or
add their own interpretation of what scripture actually
means.
This is shown to be the case in the first 5 chapters of
Revelation.
An example of this is saying the inerrant Word of God is actually in error, then claiming to correct it i.e. watch tower or the book of mormons and so on and so forth.
Which is why we get so many sects, beliefs and interpretation.
Fortunately, the "true" word of God remains intact - and have been validated through the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Hence the church of Philadelphia - that keeps the Word of God.
The rest are distorting the Word of God.
