The Coming Martyrdom of The Laodicean Churches!

THE COMING MARTYRDOM OF THE LAODICEAN CHURCHES

Written by Aleksandar Veljic

Contact: aveljic@protonmail.com

If you were new to the church and you were starting to really open up the Bible for the first time in your life, what would you consider to be the strangest prophecy of all?  Because we are very concerned with Bible prophecy, particularly as we understand that we are living in the very end-time. There are prophecies, particularly if you are new, that strike you as very strange; for instance, Ezekiel as a prophet lying 13 months on one side and 40 days on the other.  Or it could be some of the prophecies in Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar's image composed of different metals. Perhaps different horses riding off in different directions in Zechariah?  Or the book of Revelation with locusts coming up out of a bottomless pit.  There are many prophecies that, on initial reading, when we are new in the Church of God, may strike us as very strange.  But really the strangest prophecy in the Bible relates not to strange actions of the prophets, nor to curious symbols used in prophetic books.  It doesn't relate to weird looking creatures or to the trumpets of Revelation.  In fact, the strangest prophecy in the Bible does not relate even to the future of the House of Israel.  The strangest prophecy relates to the Church of God itself!  Before we get to that prophecy, let us be reminded about three great advantages that the members of the Church of God have in this end time.  

The first of those three great advantages is that we are a part of the greatest and most extensive work of God in scope, of all of man's 6000 years of history.  We are excited by the growth that God gives to us and the doors He has opened to us.  This surely is not a dull work, it is an exciting work to be a part of.  

The second great advantage we have in the Church of God today is that we have a greater understanding of the Bible than ever before, and a greater understanding of the Bible prophecy simply because we live at the time of the fulfillment of many of the prophecies put into the Bible; in fact, many of the prophecies of the Bible could not be understood until our time.  And so, we are watching the prophecies of the end time as they unfold before our very eyes.

The third and the greatest advantage of all is that we are the generation who will see the return of Jesus Christ to this earth.  For 2000 years God's people have prayed, "Your kingdom come", in obedience to Jesus Christ's command to do so.  But that kingdom never came; it came for those saints in the past in one sense at the time of their death, because they have no awareness of the passage of time.  The next moment they will be in the First resurrection - that Kingdom has come in answer to their prayers.  But we understand that we are living in the generation that will literally see God's Kingdom come.

So these are three great advantages that we have in the end time era of God's Church.  Yet, this brings us to the great paradox, the greatest paradox perhaps of the end time - that the closer we get to the return of Jesus Christ, the more some converted Christians are to become unexcited about that return.  Now, on the surface so many prophecies of the end time make sense.... except this one!  This is perhaps the strangest prophecy of all, this one relating to the Church of God, that we who live in the end time, with greater advantages than any other preceding generation of Christians, should allow ourselves, with the imminency of Jesus Christ's return, to become unexcited about it, lacking in our spiritual approach to life, and perhaps lose out on the great reward that is a few years down the road!  

Let's turn to Revelation chapter 3, beginning in verse 14.  What we understand concerning the seven eras of the Church is that they were, of course, contemporaneous with each other and so the problems related were all a part of the apostolic era, though the major problem with the apostolic era was that of the Ephesus church.  As we come down through history, there is the flow of the different eras and we realize that we are a part of a Philadelphian remnant today amidst the last Laodicean era of God's church.  But as we would understand, there have always been Laodiceans in every era of the Church.  There was always a portion who had that particular lukewarm spirit and attitude.  But what is made clear by the Bible is that these problems are not just contemporaneous.  They also follow one after the other - from the standpoint of what is the biggest problem of that particular group in that particular century.  

So we are faced with a whole era of lukewarm Christians.  Yes, there have been Laodiceans throughout the history of God's church, but here at the end time of all times, with the imminent return of Jesus Christ, we have an entire era of people that are lukewarm Christians, unexcited about the greatest event in man's history.  Truly, this is a strange prophecy when we live closer to the return of Jesus than ever before.  What factors have produced an entire era of Laodicean Christians?  I have mentioned the three great advantages that we have living in the end time in the Church.  Now we need to examine three reasons for the rejection of these people of those three advantages.  Three reasons why they don't take advantage of the advantages.  

The first involves the prosperity of the end time.  Let us begin with Revelation 3 and verse 14: 

"To the angel of the churches of the Laodicea write, "These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning, (or 'the beginner' as it should be) of the creation of God". 

Jesus Christ addresses each church with a different introduction, so this introduction is unique to the Laodiceans.  He says, "These things says the Amen".  The „Amen“ is a word that can be "so be it"; it can also mean „I believe, I agree“.  And yet the Laodiceans - because Jesus Christ uses this particular introduction for a purpose - don't truly believe Jesus Christ in a sense that their faith, to a certain extent, is a dead faith, it is not a living faith.  They pay lip service to Jesus Christ and to the commandments, but they don't really act like Jesus Christ in their lives.  If they did, they would be Philadelphian, they would be zealous.  Not that Philadelphia is the greatest of the churches by any means, each one has those who will be in the First resurrection, but just to simply contrast there.  "The Faithful and the True Witness" because Jesus Christ set an example and was a witness to the Laodiceans of how to live zealously for God.  And He was the Beginner of the creation of God.  There is a problem with the Laodiceans with intellectual vanity – there is no humility that recognizes God as their Creator and look to Him daily because they recognize daily they need God, instead of the approach "I have a need of nothing".  But also there is another application of this: „Amen“ is the way we end something, and this is the last era of God's Church.  The Faithful and True Witness because the Laodiceans, who have not truly done the work of God, are going to have to do it in order to make it into the Kingdom.  One way or other, if you don't do a work now, you will have to do a work then!  God will not take non-workers into His Kingdom, and so they will have to do a work of witness for God after Philadelphia is taken to the Place of safety.  And they will recognize their God and their true need for Him.  Verse 17: 

„Because you say, 'I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing". 

I am OK, spiritually I am doing fine, but obviously there is the physical application as well as the spiritual.  We live in the richest generation of all time.  We live better than kings and queens of past ages lived.  How many of them had television?  How many of them had refrigerators?  How many of them had air condition?  Living in some of those drafty old castles, they would certainly envy some of the luxuries we have today. We are a generation that is rich and is increased with goods, not that riches are wrong or goods are wrong, they can be a blessing from God.  Abraham was a wealthy individual, but he always kept it in perspective: God first, material things way down the line.  Continuing in verse 17: 

"and know not that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked". 

And the major thrust of this, of course, is spiritual.  But certainly there is the physical application as well, that is not negated by the spiritual.  They are both here.  "You know not" - they are deceived!  People can be deceived by the comforts of modern day living, the ease of this life, in comparison to when you were grubing the ground for food stuff in past ages.  

Let us notice Matthew 13, beginning in verse 19, the parable of the Sower and the Seed.  In verse 19 Jesus says: 

„When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and understands it not“, he is not really called of God, "then comes a wicked one catches away that was sown in his heart, this is he that receives seed by the wayside“. 

Verse 20: „But he that receives the seed into stony places the same as he that hears the words and not with joy receives it“ - the curiosity seekers to a certain extent – „yet he has not root in himself“, he is not truly, deeply committed, he is just superficially interested, "he has not root in himself and lasts only a little while, when some tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he is offended".  Very thin, has no root there, so it is very easy for him to get offended.  

Verse 22: „But he also that receives seed among the thorns is he that hears the word, and the care of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word and he becomes unfruitful“ - which meant that he was bearing fruit for a while, and then he became unfruitful!  This is a person in God's Church!  But what were the major causes?  The care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches!  The Laodiceans know not, they are deceived!  The deceitfulness of riches, the comfort of this present society has had its effect upon them, has made them complacent and lukewarm.  They have been lulled into a false sense of security.  They think they are secure because they are in the Church, because they hear the sermons and the Bible studies – they are not truly aware of their spiritual condition, and some of that spiritual condition is the result of the age in which they live.  They don't have to beg God every day for their next meal, they have got enough stocked in refrigerator.  There were times when Christians in past ages were truly praying „Give us our daily bread“ because a lot of times they didn't know where their next meal was coming from.  Do we worry about that?  We all know where the next meal is coming from: we bought it a week ago, or we can go out to a restaurant.  It is very easy, with the comforts of this society, to get into a complacent attitude.  

In Proverbs chapter 1, God is talking about those who do not accept the way of wisdom.  He talks in verse 26 of the calamity to come and He says in verse 27, „when your fear comes as a desolation, your destruction comes as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you“, all those who have rejected the truth of God and the words of wisdom that is preached by this Gospel message, „then in the tribulation they shall call upon Me but I will not answer, they shall seek me early and they shall not find me".  

Verse 32, „For the turning away of the simple shall slay them“.  In some Bibles there is a margin note saying, „the ease, the easy way of life“, the comforts of today shall slay them.  Does television reach out and grab a knife and stick it in you?  Does your car run over you?  How do the comforts of this life slay you?  They can kill us spiritually because we can be so much at ease that we don't really push ourselves spiritually in prayer and Bible study before God.  „The ease of the simple shall slay them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them, but who so harkens unto Me shall dwell safety and shall be quite from the fear of evil to come“.  I realize, for the most part, these verses are dealing with people in the world in contrast with those in God's Church, but also verse 32 can apply to the Laodiceans and verse 33 to the Philadelphians. 

Verse 33: „Who so harkens unto Me shall dwell in a place of safety", by extrapolation, and shall be quite from the fear of the evil of the human conflicts during the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord.  But if a person has a Laodicean attitude, then the ease of the simple shall slay them in the tribulation as Laodiceans and their prosperity shall have destroyed them.  

So this is the first reason they reject these three great advantages - the prosperity of the end time.  The second reason is the evil of the end time.  Matthew 24 and verse 12, what Jesus Christ had to say about this end time generation and because of the wickedness that is upon it: 

„And because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold“.  And we see a society that is becoming more and more heartless, more and more calloused, more and more dog-eat-dog, but once again there is the application to the Church - this book was written for us, not for the world that is blinded.  „Because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold" - there are those in the Church who were hot in their love for God, who will allow themselves to wax totally cold and commit the unpardonable sin!  But in between, going from hot to cold, is lukewarm.  There are those who allow themselves to become lukewarm, as Jesus said in Revelation 3:15, „I know your works that you are neither hot nor cold, I would that you were one or the other, and so then because you are lukewarm, (verse 16) I will have to spit you (or as it is in the Greek, „I am about to spit you“) out of my mouth“.  When Jesus Christ spoke those words to John, there were hot springs a certain distance away from Laodicea, and the water was transported from those hot springs to the town of Laodicea.  But by the time the water reached Laodicea, it was lukewarm.  There is also the application spiritually: that a person can be on fire for God (hot), or they can be spiritually cold.  And when Jesus Christ says in that case: „I wish that you were one or the other“ - at least with the cold of this world they are not being called, this is not their day of salvation, their time of calling is yet future.  So if they die, terrible as that will be in the tribulation, at least it is not the end for them, they are not spiritually accountable because this is not their day of salvation.  But a person that has God's Spirit and is lukewarm is in jeopardy because it is the matter of their eternal life or death.  And so we can see why spiritually Jesus Christ would say: "I would that you were hot or cold" - if you are hot, I know I can put you into the First resurrection; if you are cold, uncalled, I am going to wait for a better day to call you, after my return.  But because you are called and you are lukewarm, it is now or never!  And you put upon Me a terribly difficult decision, and that decision has to be, as He says: „Unless there is repentance, I have to spit you out of My mouth" - implied, into the Tribulation, because that is the only way I can save you spiritually and get you into My Kingdom.  

Isaiah 5, talking about the evil of the age and its effect upon people in God's Church - a slow, subtle, pernicious effect, because Satan has done his job well with this end time society, as it becomes more and more wicked all around us.  Isaiah 5 and verse 20: 

„Woe to them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness, that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter"!  Such an apt description of our society.  „And woe to them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight, who have no need for God in their lives"!  Liberated individuals, in their own mind!  „Woe to them that are mighty to drink wine and many strength to mingle strong drink, which justify the wicked for reward"

Verse 23, "and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him".  Now the actual meaning there is that they will justify the wicked for reward, for a bribe, and they will neglect to give the righteous their just cause, say in a court of law.  However, by extrapolation, we could take literally verse 23 - „who take away the righteousness of the righteous from him" - because if we individually are not close to God, we will be gradually sucked into the vortex of this world and gradually loose our righteousness.  This world can take our righteousness away from us, if we allow it to do so!

Nehemiah, chapter 13, verse 26.  We have been blessed with the gift of God's understanding of the end time prophecy, the understanding of the commandments of God and the real way to live and the true Jesus Christ, tremendous wisdom and the principles for right living.  But we can allow the world, by its degeneracy and by its evil influence, to begin to subtract from us righteousness before God!  Verse 26 of Nehemiah 13, "Did not Solomon, king of Israel sin by these things"?  A man of tremendous wisdom, "Yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of His God; and God made him king over all Israel.  Nevertheless (even him) did outlandish women cause to sin".  Now, in the truest analyses, no one causes us to sin.  We sin of ourselves, but what the Bible is stating is: we can allow others to have this influence upon us, whereby indirectly they cause us to sin and to give up, little by little, on our righteousness.  And so there are those in the Church who will, as the Bible says, „grow weary in well doing“ and gradually allow their love, that was once hot, to become lukewarm.  So that is the second reason why the Laodiceans reject the three great advantages of living in the end time Church.  

The third is the return of Jesus Christ.  The third reason some people get unexcited about the return of Jesus Christ is the return of Jesus Christ, or more accurately the fact that the return of Jesus Christ doesn't come when they expect it to come. Matthew 24, beginning in verse 42.  We have already referred to verse 12, this is the Olivet prophecy of the end time.  What Jesus Christ said here had application to the apostles, to the Apostolic era, to the Ephesian era of the Church, and it did have a fulfillment.  But the major thrust of this prophecy is for our time in the 21st century. Yes, it is applied to all Christians through the last 2000 years, but especially to us! 

Verse 42: „Watch therefore“, Jesus warned us, „for you know not what hour Your Lord does come, but know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up“. 

If he had known the future to the point of knowing when Jesus Christ would return, if he had known the year of the Tribulation, and the month when it would begin, he would have prepared himself, he would have been ready - and WE know it is coming, we know it is close.  But, because it's still distant, because it is not fully in our mind, because we don't know the exact time, we may take it easy and wait for events of the future to stir us up.  But the problem with the Laodiceans is that they wait too long. 

Verse 44: „Therefore be you also ready, for in such an hour as you think not the Son of Man comes.  Who then is that faithful and wise servant whom his lord has made him ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?  Blessed is that servant whom his lord when he comes shall find so doing.  Verily, I say to you, he shall make him ruler over all his goods.  But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart: "My Lord delays His coming“ - and certainly that was the problem with the Ephesian era; that is why Jesus Christ said they lost their first love.  Because they had thought Jesus Christ was going to come back in their lifetime, and then He did „delay His coming“.  Yet, He never has truly delayed it.  God is punctual, God will be on time.  But because they made the mistake of putting it too early, there were those who fell prey to this.  And this has happened throughout the last 2000 years.  But - in the original there was no chapter breaks - "Then, (chapter 25, verse 1) "shall the kingdom of heaven be likened to ten virgins (the parable of the Ten virgins is for our day). "Then", you see the scripture just flows on.  Chapters 24 and 25 belong together.  There is a flow from verse 51 to verse 1 of chapter 25, "Then, shall the kingdom of God be likened to ten virgins", and it goes on to talk about the return of Jesus Christ.  

So we have these three reasons why the Laodiceans reject the three great advantages of being called in this time: the prosperity of this age, the evil of this age, and the fact that Jesus Christ, in their minds, has delayed His coming.  They think they got a few more years left, and can take it easy now, then get stirred up when things start to get a little warm.  But they are going to wait one day too late.  There is no death bed repentance with God.  None of us can wait til the last day and suddenly get zealous and say: OK God, I'm Philadelphian now, now you can take me to the Place of safety tomorrow!  God is going to say: forget it, I'm not fooled, the only reason you have become zealous is to save your skin!  You haven't been zealous out of concern and compassion for a dying humanity!  You haven't been zealous for love of Me!  The only reason you have suddenly become zealous is for fear of what is to happen to you!  That is not the character of Jesus Christ!  

As we said, the Laodiceans have to do a work.  They have to witness for God in order to make it into the Kingdom.  Luke 17, verse 34: 

„I tell you, that in that night there shall be two in one bed: one shall be taken the other shall be left; two shall be grinding together, one shall be taken the other shall be left.  One shall be taken and the other left; two shall be in the field, one taken and the other left.  And they answered and said: 'Where will they be taken Lord?"- because they knew they wouldn't be taken to heaven!  He said to them, „Wheresoever the body is thither will the eagles be gathered together“.  

Body referring to the Church, and the church being taken to the Place of safety.  Revelation 12, verse 14: 

„To the woman (the Church) were given the wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness into her place, where she is nourished for 3.5 years from the face of the serpent“, from Satan.  So Satan cast out of his mouth water as a flood, (he sends an army after the woman, as she is fleeing) that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood (destroyed), but the earth will open her mouth and swallow up this army which the dragon casts after her“.  And in consequence, verse 17, the dragon who has failed to destroy the Philadelphian era, that was now protected from him utterly for 3 1/2 years that remain before the return of Jesus Christ, the dragon was wrath with the women and went to make war with the remnant of her seed - true Christians, baptized members - which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.  And the Bible tells us that the testimony of Jesus Christ is the spirit of prophecy, so the Laodiceans understand the prophecies!  They keep the commandments, but it is in a lukewarm fashion.  They are members of the Church.  They are the seed (the children) of the woman, they are begotten sons and daughters of God.  

So a part of the church is left behind to do a work that they would not do when they had plenty of opportunity to do it.  And the work that they have to do is a three fold work.  First of all, they will have to witness to God's Way by their refusal to accept the Mark of the beast.  In other words, they will refuse to work on the Sabbath and they will refuse to accept pagan Sunday.  Secondly, the work of the Laodiceans will be to testify to the Two witnesses being God's true prophets, because the Two witnesses will be doing their work during that 3 1/2 years.  And the third aspect of the work they will do will be the example of courage that they set through martyrdom.  They will testify further to the truth of God's Way by the ultimate sacrifice – martyrdom!  You see, after a life of ease and spiritual lazyness, the Laodiceans sadly are going to have to do a work of suffering and of martyrdom because it is the only way that a loving Father can get them into His Kingdom and not have to destroy them forever.  He loves them so desparately that rather than just destroy them and put them into the Third resurection, He is willing to punish them with the tribulation in the hope that they will remain firm and steadfast so that He can have them for an eternity and never risk losing them again.

Now, there are five stages to this experience that the Laodiceans will go through.  The first of these five stages is „panic“.  After the remnant of the Philadelphia era is taken to the Place of safety, a state of tremendious emotional distress will overwhelm those who are Laodiceans.  A state of terrifying anxiety, knowing what they are faced with because they have the testimony of Jesus Christ.  They understand prophecy.  God spoke, as we read in Proverbs 1 and in verse 27: "When your fear comes as a desolation and your destruction comes as the whirlwind, when distress and anguish comes upon you".  They will know what lies ahead and they will know that they face the agony of being separated from their children in this tribulation to come.  They know that if they had been Philadelphian, their children could have gone to the Place of Safety with them.  But because they are Laodiceans, their children share their fate.  Can we imagine the emotional distress that will bring upon a person?  It is bad enough knowing what lies ahead for you, but your children...  Some of the Laodiceans will not be able to face that and they might commit suicide.  They would rather come up to the Third resurrection.  And there are people who have gone out of the Church in a state of apathy.  Suicide is the way of cowardice.  

There is a good work that the Laodiceans can yet do for a dying humanity.  And there are those who will be affected by their work.  The innumerable multitude will be affected not just by the work of the Two witnesses, but by the example of the Laodiceans who are willing to die for the truth of God.  People will be converted in the Tribulation as a result of the work of Laodicea, not just the work of Philadelphia!  But God would much prefer that we be Philadelphian for obvious reasons.  

After the panic, the full effects of the famine and disease - Ezekiel 5, verse 2: 

„You shall burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city" - these were the hairs of his head and this, as we find from verse 12, represents famine and disease.  A third part of the nations of modern Israel are going to die of famine and disease!  That is the extent of this initial stage of the destruction of modern day House of Israel.  „When the days of the siege are fulfilled", so there is an economic blockade and it culminates with a terrible famine and disease.  True, there would have been portions of famine and disease perhaps before, but the full climatic effects take place when the economic sanctions are over, so „when the days of the siege are fulfilled“, „you shall take a third part and smite about it with a knife" - another third of modern Israel is going to die by the sword.  They survive famine, they survive disease, but now they have to die by war. „And a third part shall you scatter in the wind" - take them into captivity, and a good portion of those will die in that captivity!  „I will draw out a sword after them". Until finally, only 10% of the Israelite nations is left.  An unbelievable catastrophe, unparalleled in all of human history!  Now the Laodiceans experience this, but they are protected by God from it.  They live through it all because they have to die over in another country.  

So the third stage is that of warfare.  They have been through the famine and the disease, and then the Laodiceans experience the warfare where another third of the nation dies; and they do develop zeal through all the suffering that they see; they do develop a zeal for God.  And we can sometimes wonder how can God allow them to go through all of this if they are His begotten children?  It is because God has to.  They will see material things in a different perspective, life would get a different meaning.

The fourth stage is that of slavery, because then they are taken into captivity to Europe and elsewhere.  In Deuteronomy 28, verse 68 it says that modern Israel is to be taken in ships to Europe and to Egypt.  And many people undoubtedly will die on that way, but not the Laodiceans.  God keeps them alive for this work of martyrdom that they must do.  Once again they are preserved.  They are put into concentration camps, they are sold as slaves and then comes the fifth stage in their lives at this point - that of martyrdom!  Revelation chapter 6 and verse 8, deals with the effects of the four horseman of the Apocalypse.  They are given power over a fourth part of the earth „to kill with a sword with hunger and with death and with the beast of the earth“.  Then it says in verse 9: 

„When He had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the alter the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and the testimony which they held.  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, "How long O God, holy and true, do you not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell upon the earth?" 

Verse 11: „And white robes (symbolically) were given to each and everyone of them; and it was said to them that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants (true servants of God now, because the Laodiceans are no longer lukewarm, they are Christians on fire for God to the point they are ready to die for God) also and their brethren should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled“.  After them come the 144,000 and the innumerable multitude.  Before their martyrdom, they will be faced with tribunals and inquisition.  And they would have to give their account of why they refuse to recant of their heresy, why they refuse to give up on their religious beliefs. They will be called to account for their refusal to work on the Sabbath day.  And though sometimes they will be physically kicked and beaten when they are brought to the inquisition, most of them will probably be subjected to refined forms of torture so that, when they are brought out to be publicly martyred, they will not look like they have been terribly beaten because that probably would reflect upon the authorities; and in this day and age they have modern form of torture that do not leave marks on a person.  

But we do need to pay tribute, at this point, to the courage of the Laodiceans - that they have come this far, because certainly it is harder in a Laodicean state to show this kind of character.  But as they were influenced by this world and let it take away righteousness from them, so they will be influenced by the world then, because this society will be totally dying out and that will influence them then when everything is taken from them; then they will become zealous for God and they will no longer be lukewarm in spirit.  Now, God has to do this in His desire to save them from the Third resurrection and eternal death.  Because of His desire to share eternity with them, to have them in His Kingdom forever, and in positions of rulership forever as kings and as priests.  What God does here is not an act of cruelty, it is an act of love, an act of desperation: "I'm about to spit you out of My mouth - don't make me do it", but if I do it, I do it because I love you and I want you for all eternity to be with Me.  Revelation 20, verse 4.  The method of death that will be inflicted upon the Laodiceans is described here.  

„And I saw thrones and they that sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word of God, which had not worshiped the beast neither his image nor received his mark upon their foreheads and in their hands.  And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years".  

That verse is true for all Christians of whatever era.  But it is a verse particularly directed to the Laodiceans – „for those that were beheaded for the witness“ because they have to do a work of witness "of Jesus and for the word of God, which had not worshiped the beast".  

In past ages, Christians were burned at the stake, rarely were they beheaded.  True, John the Baptist was beheaded, Paul was beheaded.  But for the most part, even in Roman times, they were burned at the stake or cast to wild animals and eaten alive. Very few have actually been beheaded, yet here it specifies beheading: „I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and who had not worshiped the beast“.  The guillotine is coming back.  They will use a modern version of it and these people will be publicly beheaded!  So the Beast and the False prophet will give warning to the peoples of the land: „recant of any heresy, do not make the mistake that these foolish individuals have made“.  

Any of us can grow lax in prayer and Bible study.  But all of us - anyone of us, if we could go forward in time to look directly at the Tribulation, to see what Laodiceans are going through, then we might be really stirred to change.  Jesus said: „If the goodman of the house had known at what hour his lord would return, he would have been ready!“  If he could have seen the future!  It seems that prophecy doesn't grip many people in a real way because for them it is not yet a personal experience!  

If we could go forward in time and see what lies ahead.  And warn ourselves: „This is what is going to happen, you can avoid it“.  What if, 10 years down the line, I were a Laodicean.  What if I was facing the last day of my life, Revelation 20 and verse 4, and I could come back in time to myself now, and tell myself, „this is the experience you are going to go through, you can avoid it all"... "if the goodman had known the hour of his Lord's return, he would have prepared for it".  What if a Laodicean member of God's Church, about to die in the future in the Tribulation, could come back now and not just tell himself, but tell all of us what lies ahead?  Would it make a difference? 

Who we are does not matter, it is what we are that counts.  What if I were a member of a Laodicean Church of God, and today is the last day of my life?  I walk over to the cell window and I look down into the courtyard below.  And there I can see the machine of my execution.  And I begin to think back over the events that brought me to this moment in time.  I remember that awful day, when the realization fully came to me that I was a Laodicean - the day after the Church of God of Philadelphia had fled to the Place of safety, and I was one of those left behind.  

What would a parent who is Laodicean think at that point?  He might remember the terrible knot in his stomach when that realization hit him with full force for the first time.  He had suspected he was a Laodicean, but always pushed it back.  But now it was facing him in full reality.  What about his wife?  She could have taken hold on God and prayed and studied.  At least if only one of them had been Philidelphian, then their children would have gone to the Place of safety. 

And the children are now going to have to go through terrible things.  Surely, such a parent wouldn't want to live with himself anymore and would want to die.  He would  remember the days of the famine that came, the riots in the streets, seeing people go over to supermarkets and smash the windows and break-in to fill their arms with food in some vain hope to stave off the full effects of the famine, but it was food that would only last a little while.  And people were even killing each other in the supermarkets for the food...  And then the disease epidemics that might have killed some of their family members, perhaps their children.  Perhaps that will motivate Laodiceans to resolve that, when God brought their children in the Second resurrection, they intended to be there.  No matter what lay ahead, they will go through to the bitter end and be a part of the First resurrection, so that a thousand years later they could be there to meet their children.  And instead of the misery and the suffering and the sickness that they had been through, to give them abundant living and health and well being, to try to make up with the happiness for the misery they had suffered now...  

In those terrible days just prior to the Great Tribulation, people may walk on the street near you and would suddenly just collapse and die either through being so weakened through lack of food, or because of the effects of the plague.  There might be houses that you would walk by and there was that sickening smell that came from it.  And you knew they were cooking human flesh fulfilling the prophecies in the Bible of cannibalism in the land!  And you hurried by for fear that they might come out and try and take you.  Then came the invasion.  God allowed Laodiceans to survive the famine, the disease and the warfare, so that He could take them to Europe and make an example of them.  The guards will come for them and Laodiceans will no longer be afraid to face death.  They will want death being so sick of this life and so sick of the terror they have been through.    

There will probably be young people whose parents were Church members.  Their parents tried to encourage them to be a part of the youth activities and the other things in the Church, and they would go along to a certain extent.  And their parents encouraged them to pray and study, but they just resented it and didn't like their parents interfere in their life that way.  Nobody stops you from praying and studying, nobody stops you from laying hold on God, because God won't allow anybody, not even somebody in your immediate family, to stop you from doing it.  You can't point to somebody else's bad example and say: „there was this problem and that problem“.  We were all called and all given equal opportunity to lay hold upon God....  

But in the next split second of their consciousness they will be there in the First resurrection.  And what will Jesus Christ say to them?  Will He upgrade them from their lukewarmness before, from their folly and stupidity, refusal to heed the sermons that were given? 

In those last moments of life, as they are about to be beheaded, Laodiceans will be aware of the presence of Jesus Christ beside them, Christ who knocked on their door, the door of their hearts and minds.  And they will be filled with a strength and will remember the words: „I will never forsake you nor leave you“.  And they will be in Kingdom of God.  They have refused to worship the great leader of Europe and didn't bow to the will of the State!   They will remember another scripture that mostly would  keep them going through all the terrible things in the Great Tribulation.  It kept them going and helped them hold firm and make it through to the point of their death.  The one who never leaves them, would stand beside them with those words: „Be you faithful unto death, and I will give you a crown of life“.