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2⁸ “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. ⁹ I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. ¹⁰ Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.¹¹Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.

The Son of man, the alpha and omega, identifies himself with our physical weaknesses – He had taken on physical form in the World of Matter, had suffered and died and came back again. This should easily be understood by Christians who identify with Christ’s death and resurrection, but does not necessarily indicate that it was Jesus speaking (see above). As stated earlier, in presenting the Son of Man, John frequently emphasizes the unity of the Trinity and the fact that in the Son of Man we must also see the Christ. This is meant to be a great help for all those who have accepted the message of the Son of God. It is, however, important to remember that Christ’s incarnation is not the first or only incarnation of Divinity on earth and this phrase may apply to another incarnation from the Light.

The Son of Man understands our affliction, but is also aware of our spiritual hypocrisy and conceit. As such, He can assure us that affliction and poverty in the earthly sense do not detract from spiritual riches. This is a church under serious persecution, but which is spiritually alive and as such truly rich. Spiritually, Smyrna’s star is glowing brightly. In terms of spiritual commendation, this church is the highest followed by Thyatira as number 2. Philadelphia is number 3, Ephesus in 4, Sardis in 5, and Laodicea in 6th position and Pergamum last.

Nevertheless, within this community, there are hypocrites, those who say they are Jews but are not. This does not refer to Jews as a people or sect since they will not in any case be members of the Christian church community in earthly Smyrna. It is, of course, possible that the Jews indicated are outside the church community, but we must bear in mind that the admonitions are to the spiritually striving within each community. We must remember that the designation Jew may refer, as often before, to servants of the Almighty on earth. Indeed, the faithful everywhere are regarded as the children of Abraham, the ancestor of all the Faithful. These hypocrites present opportunity for Satan to internally destabilize the church.

There is suffering still ahead for this community, persecutions and deprivation, but the influence of Satan is limited already in time. The use of ‘ten’ days as the time scope, I believe indicate ‘complete’, i.e. that the influence of Satan will be allowed to run its full allotted time as permitted by the Almighty. This may indicate the time until the binding of Lucifer by the Son of Man, a task that followed after giving us the Message and before the establishment of the Kingdom of a thousand years (Chapters 10, 11).

It is, however, more probable that it indicates the time until the end of the Millennium when all evil is judged. The main base of activity of oppression and persecution is from those who claim to be Jews, described as a synagogue of Satan. In these trying times, faithfulness to the Will of God is our only weapon and we must remain faithful even to death. Remember that only the physical body can be killed and not the spirit and indeed, death in the faith can only bring us the quicker to the crown of everlasting Life.

Smyrna has been seen by Christian scholars as a description of what was happening to the early church, just breaking free from Judaism and the ten days allowed for the persecution is believed to indicate the time to complete emergence of Christianity from Judaism. Thus looking forward to the future and the end time, the admonition from the Son of Man to Smyrna may represent an admonition to a Universe at the same level of maturity as the church at the time of the revelation. We should remember, however, that word from the Light often mean more than we can clearly understand and that we are meant to receive from them what we are capable of receiving.

The admonition again ends on a personal note. Striving spirits who hope to be saved in Smyrna must listen and hear the Message of the Spirit of Truth. The Lord speaks directly to the individual spirits in Smyrna – Faithfulness even to the point of physical death is the key to the crown of life; faithfulness to the Will of the Creator. You will then not be hurt by a second death. These lessons are individually relevant and require individual awakening of spiritual intuitive perception.

The form of the persecution may be different, but the elect of every church is as challenged as the other and need as urgently to listen to the word of the Son of Man and to strengthen our faith even to the point of death.