The doctrine of the open door; The open doors in heaven

The doctrine of the open door; The open doors in heaven.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Point 7.
The Open Doors in Heaven referring to the Rapture and the Second Advent or the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

REV 4:1 teaches the open door of the rapture of the church.

Some teach that the seven churches portray seven historical stages the church would go through.

Others teach that the seven churches refer to the seven different types of churches or individual believers that live in any and every generation of the dispensation of the Church-age.

The point of view pertaining to the seven different types of churches or individual believers that live in every generation will be our focus.

Both of these views come to the same conclusion.
In REV 4:1, the open door in heaven refers to the door being opened for the Rapture of the Church.

How each one of these churches portray the individual believers that live in every generation of the dispensation of the Church-age.

In REV 2:1-3, as a church or individual believers those at Ephesus had good deeds, produced divine good works and persevered and had not grown weary.

JER 20:9, But if I say, “I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name,” Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it.

You can be right theologically, but if you have lost your first love for Jesus Christ, then your theology is nothing but cold academics.

It is the beautiful combination of sound doctrine and love for Christ that makes a church what it should be.

John MacArthur said in his thesis entitled “The Church in Prophetic Perspective”
Many believers at Ephesus had lost their first love because the people willingly walked away from it.

Then the church of Smyrna in REV 2:9 went through tremendous tribulation and poverty.

In verse 10, they were told about suffering for blessing and that they were going to be tested ten days, the number of completion.

Therefore, in every generation of the Church-age, there are those believers who go through suffering for blessing.

These types of churches or types of believers are described for us before the open door in heaven is mentioned.

Christ can’t even find anything wrong with the church at Smyrna because the dross is burned up when a church suffers for the Lord Jesus Christ.

The church or individual believers in Pergamum in REV 2:14 were warned about the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel and committed acts of immorality.

This is the word of God injecting divine discipline consummating with the sin unto death to believers who end up compromising and putting stumbling blocks before members of the Royal Family of God.

Where is Satan’s throne?

It is more concerned with the fashions of the world than with the things of God.

In REV 2:18-20, as a church or individual believers, Thyatira tolerated false doctrine and false teaching, even though in
REV 2:19, they had deeds, and love and faith and service and perseverance.

1. Tolerating False Doctrine

2. Teaching the Social Gospel.

Evil is the modus operandi, the manner of operation, of Satan from the time of his fall throughout the angelic revolution and down to the point when he became the ruler of the world.

Evil is Satan’s failure to produce a system of good in mankind and society that would bring in a pseudo-millennium.

Satan cannot restrain sin, and therefore he parlays human good into sin and evil.

The church or individual believers at Sardis are told in REV 3:1-2, to wake up and strengthen the things that remain.

In REV 3:8, the church or individual believers at Philadelphia are described as having divine good deeds and a little power, and they have kept with doctrine and have not denied the Lord’s name.

This is the church or the type of believer who God opens up doors of opportunity in life manifested by the Door of the provision of the PPOG and its resultant historical impact.

Its strength is in God, who said, “... My strength is made perfect in weakness....” (2CO 12:9)

REV 3:14, we have the lukewarm believers of Laodicea as a church or individual believers.

REV 3:17, “Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,’ and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,”

The Ephesus type believer who has some divine good production but has left their first love.

If the second generation Christian church could grow cold, imagine what could happen to us?

The Smyrna type believer who is willing to accept suffering for blessing without operation blame game.

The Pergamum believer warned about compromising and becoming a stumbling block to others.

They are preoccupied with their money, car, job, fashion, and themselves.

The Thyatira types who tolerate false doctrine and false teaching even though in they have love and faith and service and perseverance. The Sardis types who need to Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain. The Philadelphia type believer who has stayed faithful to the word of God.
The lukewarm Laodicean believer.

1CO 15:51-52, Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

1TH 4:16-17, For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of {the} archangel, and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.