July 12: THE WILDERNESS CHURCH

Then a fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night. Revelation 8:12

Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8:12) The fourth trumpet judgment brings a kind of spiritual darkness that is the direct result of not following Jesus. It is far worse than the absence of physical light. The fourth letter of Jesus to the churches was to the one at Thyatira. After the compromises began pouring into the church at Pergamos (the third church), our church history slid right into the apostate church. The opening of the fourth seal revealed a horse whose rider was named Death, with the grave closely following him. Here a counterfeit representative of God’s saving message is exposed to the world. Devoid of the saving knowledge of God, this substitute message leads its followers to eternal death.

The church of Thyatira was distinguished by false, seductive teachings that presented a message of unfaithfulness to God (2:20). Symbolized by an immoral woman, this apostate church developed a lineup of false teachings rooted in paganism and mythology. Over the period of twelve hundred and sixty years that this church operated unhindered (538-1798), this “established” church was “the only show in town.”

Yet God still had millions of faithful believers in the world. Aided by the power of the Holy Spirit, they operated in the background, carefully sharing God’s word with those who were interested. This was the season of the wilderness church (see Revelation 12:6,14).

David’s beautiful words, “Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105) surely brought encouragement to these faithful ones. In 1199, Pope Innocent III issued a public ban of the reading of the Bible in private gatherings. Only the priests trained in Catholicism were allowed to read at any gathering and interpret. Suppression of the Scriptures only got worse from that point.

This terrible period in our world’s history, appropriately called the Dark Ages, was marked by Biblical ignorance. Isaiah was told of this time and of the hope that would permeate it: For, behold the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall be seen upon thee (Isaiah 60:2 KJV). The apostasy of the established church is not unlike the earlier apostasy of the Jewish leaders who rejected Christ. Micah spoke of the prophets in Judah: Therefore you shall have night without vision, and you shall have darkness without divination; the sun shall go down on the prophets, and the day shall be dark for them. (Micah 3:6) Repeatedly the Bible cites darkness to symbolize the absence of the gospel, sin, and judgment. These three are facets of one thing: rejection of any part of the word of God, for in its wholeness is the saving message of the gospel (see John 15:15; Acts 20:27). Darkness is the consequence of denying God’s word. The sincere study of it is attended by the Holy Spirit, but ignoring any parts that do not suit your chosen lifestyle is dangerously akin to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (see Matthew 12:31-32). A judgment of darkness leading to eternal death comes to those who actively shut out the light.

“And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” John 3:19