The final three apocalypse letters: sardis, philadelphia, and laodicea.
Recall from our discourses, that the ages of the church according to the seven letters make perfect sense when we correlate them to the greater scenes of the dragon in apocalypse. Also comparing these letters to the great way of the saint of the church, we saw that the first letter is pagan Rome or darkness the purgative way. The next three letters, or that is, two three and four, comprised the three sublights of the illuminative way. This brings us now to Sardis, Philadelphia, and laodicea.
Well, since there can only be three greater phases of church history beyond this in terms of darkness and light ways of the saint, namely, the dark night of the soul , or that is, the darkness of the illuminative way, and then the unitive way of light, followed by the unitive way of darkness, or martyrdom, then clearly these last three churches or letters must fit these last phases since there are no other alternatives.
Incidentally, we will see that this works well. For all purposes, here is what we would expect in the correlation.
Firstly, Sardis must be the dark night of the soul or the minor apostasy. Then philadelphia, must be the unitive way of light, or the age of peace. Finally, laodicea must be the great apostasy or martyrdom.
Effectively it works:
Let?s look at Sardis. The Christ has harsh criticism to Sardis, saying that although Sardis considers herself rich and is rumored to be rich, he calls her wretchedly poor and naked.
In our modern age of minor apostasy this is totally apropos. Countless persons are leaving not only the Catholic church but religion all together in this age. Two, the pews are practically empty in most mainline Catholic churches because of the pathetic liberal nature and substancelessness of their sermons and preaching.
The modern Catholic Church of the West says, look we are so rich in compassion and are wonderful works of the corporal works of Mercy, the wonderful spirit of Vatican ii. But spiritually they are wretchedly poor, stained by liberalism, modernism, and pathetic watered down seminaries, catechesis, and preaching.
However, Christ praises a small remnant within this pathetic Church that has not quote unquote stained their garments with this awful poverty. Of course, these would be the faithful orthodox Catholics who pray the rosary faithfully, go to daily mass, who believe everything written in the catechism, and who understand the chastisement that is coming from the testimony of the approved apparitions.
The applicable dragon scene here is the beast and the false prophet who constitute the minor apostasy ; this imagery has already been explained multiple times in previous writings on the idealism of chapter 13 in Apocalypse, which deals with the beast the dragon and the false prophet, all images of the diabolical Trinity the manifests itself repeatedly in human history through the lies of the Fall.
Moving on to the church in Philadelphia, we expect this to be the unitive way of light by our analogies and correlation. It actually works perfectly since there are effectively no critiques here at all and only good things to say.
First of all, Jesus says that he will bring those who say they are Jews and are not and make them kneel before them in homage. The other language present here is also strikingly similar to the language of the Christ in his Eucharistic prayer in the gospel precisely about Christian union and division. Effectively, he says that he and the father are one and they shall know that he loved us by our works.
This can be the spitting image of the apocalyptic reunion on Christians which is indeed what is prophesied to occur by most of the fully approved private Revelations coming down to us that deal with Fatima and many other apparitions.
Of course this is hyperbole because separated Christians and other forms of religions will not literally kneel before the Catholic church and do her homage, but it does mean that the Catholic Church will be vindicated in all her teachings and all the other religions, whether Christian or not, will realize her ultimate wisdom and come to do her homage in the religious and doctrinal sense.
A final word is that Christ says he will keep the church from that tribulation that is coming upon the whole world to try man. This definitely describes what is happening in the age of peace. The Christians of the age of peace , that is , the Catholics, will be spared the ultimate trial of persecution under Antichrist that succeeds the age of peace. Two, because the age of peace resolves all Christian divisions and brings the near entirety of humanity into a voluntary Catholic Christendom, there really won?t be trials or war anyway.
We note here that the obvious dragon scene correlated is the chaining of the dragon in the abyss where there is a resurrection of the Saints, which is to say, a resurrection of faith that had been lost in the age of the minor apostasy or the beast. The beast and the false prophet are cast into the lake of fire indicating the ultimate manifestation of redemption within human history, which is to say on this side of the end of time.
But the ultimate defeat of evil, which is when the dragon is cast into the lake of fire, comes not until the great tribulation of the end of the world and the second coming. This would in other words mean that there are two primary degrees of the defeat of evil by the Christ in the course of the world. The first is the culmination of his redemption within human history in the age of peace. The second is the ultimate end of redemption beyond the eschaton, in the new creation and Second coming.
Laodicea interestingly, ends up describing the conclusion of the age of peace with the lackadaisical nature of the Catholics, who by prophecy will start to become lax and stop confirming their children because it is not necessary.
Christ is calling them to revive their fire in order to avert the ultimate horror , since this complacency can only give rise to the final apostasy and persecution, afterwards would only be the second coming itself.
This of course would relate to the release of the dragon after the age of peace after the millennial reign of the church , a figurative reign of course. His deception of causing a laxity in the faithful is the prelude to the apostasy of the end.
This concludes the ages of the church according to the dragon scenes as a good correlation that makes good sense.