142    The Bible and the Future of the World 

    But in these words, God is also speaking to the Church of our near future, 

which will have seven parts, worldwide. The seven parts of the Church are 

represented by the seven churches which were in Asia during the time this 

book was written. The Church will be reorganized into seven parts during 

the early  A.D. 2020's. But these words of Holy Scripture speak to the 

Christians of today, even before that seven fold unity occurs. Thus, the 

Christian Churches will begin to be reorganized into seven parts prior to, 

and in preparation for, the unification of all Christians in one Church. 

Ephesus (Rev 2:1 7) 

      `  I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how 

you cannot bear evil men but have tested those who call themselves apostles 

but are not, and found them to be false.... But I have this against you, that 

you have abandoned the love you had at first.  '   (Rev 2:2.4). 

    God speaks to the future part of the Church represented by the church in 

Ephesus. This part of the Church is praised by God for being able to 

recognize and reject false prophets, false teachers in the Church. These false 

apostles are members of the clergy and religious life who claim to follow 

Christ, but do not; they lead people astray. 

    But God also criticizes this part of the Church for a decrease in love. See 

how the Church at this time in the near future has flaws. Yet, later in 

Revelation, the Church is described as a beautiful city (Rev 21). Thus, 

Revelation is a description of the path of the Church to perfection. It is the 

story of the journey of the Church to God and all of the stumbling and 

suffering which occurs along the way. 

    This part of the Church is also praised by God for hating  the works of 

the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.  (Rev 2:6). Notice that it is the works, 

not the people, which God and His Church hate. The Nicolaitans were 

heretics of the early Church who, according to Eusebius and Clement of 

Alexandria, practiced utter promiscuity.

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 The Nicolaitans represent those 

members of the Church who go astray from the works of God, to do their 

own evil works. They especially represent those Christians who falsely claim 

that Christ's teaching allows for promiscuity  and various sexual sins. This 

verse refers to heretical Christians of the near future, sometime during the 

Forty Years. 

    The Nicolaitans named their group after one of the first Deacons of the 

Church, Nicolaus (Acts 6:5). Yet he did not found the group, was never a 

member, and did not espouse their beliefs. The Nicolaitans also represent 

those heretics who name their group after a faithful servant of God, but who 

are really nothing like the person whose name they expropriate for their own 

purposes.