146    The Bible and the Future of the World 
Philadelphia (Rev 3:7 13) 
      `  Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you 
from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world, to try those who 
dwell upon the earth.  '   (Rev 3:10). 
    This part of the Church will be preserved from much of the suffering 
which will come upon the whole world. These sufferings are described in the 
beginning of the book of Revelation, they occur during the Forty Years 
(A.D. 2000 to 2039/2040). 
    Clearly, God is telling us that a time will come when God will give the 
whole world, and most of the Church, sufferings and trials to bear. Notice 
that none of the other six parts of the Church are excluded from the hour of 
trial. They must suffer greatly. 
    This one part of the Church will suffer less and be spared the worst of it. 
Similarly, when the nearly seven years of the Church's greatest suffering 
arrives (in the 25th century), one of the then twelve parts of the Church will 
also be preserved from much of the persecutions and afflictions which the 
Church must endure (Rev 12:6, 14). Yet all Christians must follow Christ by 
carrying their crosses. 
Laodicea (Rev 3:14 22) 
      `  I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you 
were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I 
will spew you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, 
and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, 
blind, and naked.  '   (Rev 3:15 17). 
    This part of the Church is severely rebuked by God for being neither hot 
nor cold. When something is hot, it heats up the things around it. When 
people are lacking in good deeds, in works of mercy, in faith and prayer and 
love for God, a faithful Christian will be hot by heating up people to pray 
and repent, to turn back to God and to help those in need. When something 
is cold, it cools down the things around it. When people are doing what is 
wrong, a faithful Christian will try to cool them down, by discouraging them 
from doing evil. 
    But things which are lukewarm take on whatever the temperature is of the 
things around them. Christians who are lukewarm behave like the people 
around them. When the people around them do evil, a lukewarm Christian 
will join them in whatever evil they are doing. When people abandon doing 
good works, attending church, and praying, in order to pursue their own 
ends, a lukewarm Christian will imitate them. 






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