“The Perfect Church is

“The Perfect Church Does Not Exist.”

The “Faithful” Church does exist. This is the church of Philadelphia… one of only two churches, the other being Smyrna, where there isn’t a single criticism.

Revelation 3:7 (NIV)
“To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.”

Revelation 3:8 (NIV)
“I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.”

Revelation 3:9 (NIV)
“I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars – I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you.”

Revelation 3:10 (NIV)
“Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.”

“The Hour of Trouble” – The Great Tribulation

Daniel 9:1-3 (NIV)
“In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom – in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.”

Daniel 9:20-23 (NIV)
“While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill – while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice. He instructed me and said to me, “Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision:”

Daniel 9:24 (NIV)
“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.”

Daniel 9:25 (NIV)
“Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens’, and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with the streets and a trench, bit in times of trouble.”

Daniel 9:26 (NIV)
“After the sixty-two ‘sevens’, the Anointed One will be cut off and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.”

Daniel 9:26 (NKJV)
“And after the sixty-two weeks Messiah shall be cut off [karath – cutting down/apart as in making a covenant], but not for himself…”

Daniel 9:27 (NIV)
“He [the prince to come] will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven’ [seven-year period]. In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”

March 14, 445 B.C. – The First of Nisan, Artaxerxes commissions the rebuild of Jerusalem

[seven ‘sevens’ (49 years) + sixty-two ‘sevens’ (434 years) = 483 years (173,880 days)]

Leaving one, “seven” … a displaced seven-year period: Seven Years of Tribulation

Revelation 3:10 (NIV)
“Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.”

Revelation 3:11-13 (NIV)
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Luke 19:41-44 (NIV)
“As [Jesus] approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace – and now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”