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Voice Of Prophecy

H.M.S. Richards

Seven Candle Sticks

Lift up the trumpet and loud let it ring, Jesus is coming again.

Cheer up you pilgrims, be joyful and sing, Jesus is coming again.

From Los Angeles, California, we present the program of The Voice of Prophecy, a voice crying in the wilderness of these latter days, prepare ye the way of the Lord.

Coming again, coming again, Jesus is coming again.

And now we invite you to listen to our program and share with us the mutual blessing and inspiration of this hour together.

He whose word cannot be broken, formed before his own abode.

On the rock of ages founded, wide can liberty pose, With salvation's walls surrounded, Thou and smile at all thy foes.

Savior, if in Zion's city I, through grace, am embered, I am Sydney, I, through grace, remember thou.

Let the world be right or pretty, I will glory in my land.

On the rock of ages bounded, What can shake thy sure repose?

With salvation's wall surrounded, Thou canst smile at all Thy foes.

O Lord, Thou Shepherd of Israel, a glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of Thy sanctuary.

We thank thee for the gift of thy beloved Son, who, although harmless and undefiled, died for our sins and rose again.

We thank thee that we have such a high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle, there to make intercession for us.

That his worthy intercession may be effectual in behalf of all who hear this broadcast, we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.

A place where sin cannot molest, near to the heart of God.

As we approach the third anniversary of the Voice of Prophecy as a World Broadcast, we feel that you will want the very brief but thrilling story of progress.

This gospel broadcast may now be heard in nearly every land from beautiful Hawaii to sunny South Africa and from Alaska in the north to Tierra del Fuego on the tip of the Southern Continent.

Growing from a Pacific Coast network of 83 stations in 1942 to approximately 450 stations at the present time, this Sunday program now reaches well over 4 million listeners.

Friends, we praise God that recently, in fact, during the past month, twenty-three new radio stations were added as voice of prophecy outlets.

3 languages are now being used to carry this radio message of Bible prophecy, the English, the Spanish, and the Portuguese.

Is this not a fulfillment of the prophecy of Revelation 14, 6 and 7, that I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people?

Literally the gospel is flying through the air into hearts and homes everywhere.

And we trust friends that the message of the voice of prophecy is 1 of hope as well as warning.

Please pray that God will take care of our program as we pray that God will take care of you.

God will take care of you, through every day or all the way.

Through days of toil and hardships fail, God will take care of you.

When dangers bear your powerful self, God will take care of you.

Through every day or all the way, He will take care of you.

Yes, friend, God will take care of you and God will take care of that son or that husband of yours overseas.

The 7 golden candlesticks of Bible prophecy, what can they represent?

As we open that last wonderful book of the New Testament, the book of Revelation, we find the Apostle John reporting a vision of coming world events.

And by the way, the word revelation itself is from the Greek word apokalypsis, or apocalypse, and means the unfolding or the drawing back of the veil or the curtain.

And now we come to the first vision in chapter 1, the curtain of the future is rolled back and the Holy Apostle sees 7 golden candlesticks.

In the midst of the 7 candlesticks 1 like unto the Son of Man.

Then John goes on to describe the overwhelming beauty and majesty of his glorified Lord, and says, And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.

And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last, I am he that liveth and was dead.

And behold, I am alive for evermore, amen, and have the keys of hell and of death.

He passed through the grave, but He did not stay there.

He arose again, he came forth a victor and declares that he is the keys of death's dark prison.

And in his resurrection is the promise of ours, as we read in 1 Corinthians 15.20, that now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruit of them that slept.

When the garden tomb outside the gates of Jerusalem was discovered in 1885 by General Gordon, he was convinced that this was the place where the body of Christ had lain.

It had been hidden for centuries and was covered with rubbish 20 feet deep.

After this had been cleared away, all the dust from within the tomb itself was collected with great care and shipped to the Scientific Association of Great Britain, where it was carefully analyzed.

But it was found to contain no traces of human remains.

If this should be the real tomb of Christ, Joseph's new tomb, then Jesus was the first to be laid there, and he was also the last.

How this vision must have thrilled the heart of John, who loved Christ so much, and had not seen him through the long, long years since that good-bye on the Mount of Olives!

He feels the hand of his glorified Lord upon his head.

Can you imagine his feelings, his thoughts, at such a moment?

As he might say, Yes, it is he, it is the Master.

The message of the vision is not for John only.

It's for all believers in all the 7 ages to the end of time.

The mystery of the 7 stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the 7 golden candlesticks.

The 7 stars are the angels of the 7 churches, and the 7 candlesticks of Thou sawest are the 7 churches.

You see, this is really a vision of the 7 candlesticks, the 7 churches, and really means a picture of the ever-present Christ.

The 7 churches evidently cover the whole history of the Church to the Second Coming of Christ, 1 church age exceeding another through 7 successive ages or changes of church history.

When the Apostle John was exiled to the Isle of Patmos, he was evidently the elder shepherd over the churches of the province of Asia.

And the Spirit chose for this prophecy 7 leading churches of that province, whose names and experiences are symbolic of the 7 periods of Church history from the time of the Apostles to the last days.

When we read all of the second and third chapters of Revelation, we see that the messages to the last 2 or 3 of the churches deal with the approach of the Second Coming of Christ.

By carefully comparing all 7 of these prophetic previews with the actual history of Church affairs, from the time of Christ to the present, it is quite clear that the following outline is approximately correct.

The period of the Church of Ephesus covers the Apostolic Age up to about 100 A.D.

Smyrna, the period of papal or pagan persecution, especially during the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

Pergamos from the Emperor Constantine's time on for several centuries.

Thyatira, the period of Church influence during the confused centuries of the so-called Dark ages.

Philadelphia, the period of the great Second Advent awakening and revival.

Laodicea, the last age preceding the Second Coming of Christ.

The message to each church has its lesson for that church to follow and for those that come after.

The name of each church and the message given to it by Christ give us, first, a prophetic history of the city named, and, second, of the local church found in it, and, third, the real inside history of a period of the church universal.

It is easy also to see that each of these 7 church messages or letters is divided into 7 parts.

Fifth, an exhortation or call to repentance.

Sixth, an appeal to hear or pay attention to the message.

Now let us consider these 7 candlesticks of churches 1 by 1.

Ephesus, the first, means desirable and rightly symbolizes the church of the apostolic age, pure in doctrine, active in God's service.

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Seven Candle Sticks

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