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John Beholds the Glorified JesusRevelation—Its Grand Climax At Hand!
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5. (a) What does a voice call on John to do? (b) Why was the location of “the seven congregations” favorable for sending a scroll to them?
5 In this first vision, before John sees anything, he hears something: “And I heard behind me a strong voice like that of a trumpet, saying: ‘What you see write in a scroll and send it to the seven congregations, in Ephesus and in Smyrna and in Pergamum and in Thyatira and in Sardis and in Philadelphia and in Laodicea.’” (Revelation 1:10b, 11) Authoritative and commanding as a trumpet call, a voice calls on John to write to “the seven congregations.” He is to receive a series of messages and to publish the things he will see and hear. Notice that the congregations mentioned here actually existed in John’s day. All of them were situated in Asia Minor, right across the sea from Patmos. They were easily accessible to one another by means of the excellent Roman roads that existed in the area. A messenger would have had no trouble carrying the scroll from one congregation to the next. These seven congregations would resemble a section of a modern-day circuit of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
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John Beholds the Glorified JesusRevelation—Its Grand Climax At Hand!
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[Pictures on page 23]
Archaeological remains of the cities where the seven congregations were located confirm the Bible record. It was here that first-century Christians received Jesus’ encouraging messages that today stimulate the worldwide congregation
PERGAMUM
SMYRNA
THYATIRA
SARDIS
EPHESUS
PHILADELPHIA
LAODICEA
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