MY MAIN POINT
My point in this view “all the church is under the Laodicean unbrella” is this: I see Laodicea as a saved church. But i believe there is a period in time where churches in Revelation may be reburic periods of sociological leanings of an age. Where 1 type of church (Smyrna, or Ephesus etc) would be in theory more representative of an “age” than the other churches. I believe every age has all 7 kinds of churches. But i also believe that certain churches (however imperfectly) might represent charactoristics of an age or season of time of the church. Some would say for example that Philadelpha (the church of brotherly love) could be a reburic over the age of the reformation. This is imperfect, however, attributes can be seen as such.
BACKDROP THEORY
I believe there are churches today that are loving Christ and honestly teaching the word. But the age we are in seems to be a Laodicean age. An age where churches are tempted to go much by opinion perhaps in ways and at times and approaches more so than exegetical understanding of scripture. In some ways (as good and helpful as systematic theology is…and as helpful as church theology has developed for us over the centuries) systematic theology in various ways and places is subject to opinion based biblical interpretation as a whole in ways and places. I would say there is a lot of good in systematic theology. But I’m just using it as a hyper example of amplified “opinion” as that which runs the church at large in many ways in our steriotypical idealogical world perspectives. And even in the churches in general today. A staple signature of our age (including motifs of how social media, opinion, and postmodern thoughts weigh into the philosophical operating systems of church polity). An easy example of this would be how CRT how infected the Souther Baptist Convention. Or the varying factions of Christian Nationalism within the orthodox church–by orthodox i mean the church that actually does operate from orthodoxy…not NAR).
LAODICEA CLARIFICATION
The bad things about Laodicea was they were blind. They were naked. They were self sufficient. Churches in 3rd world countries will be more likely dependent upon the living resurrected Lord. In the West it is likely less so. In the West there are a lot of things that can jockey for our dependency. In the reformed faith it is “buy our books,” in the prophetical movements it can tend to be, “we are more in touch with what Christ is showing the world,” in the fundamentalist churches it is “our strict and secluded view is the holy one, don’t listen to others,” in the Southern Baptist Convention it is a sense of belonging to the orthodoxy of a group or movement (a lot of the Christian Nationalism debate can be found swarming their circles). The themeatic tinge these share is the importance each group places on how they see things. So like in that way woud i say it mirrors Laodicea extraordinaire via notions of “opinion driven.”
MY SARCASM IN RELATION TO OUR AGE AS A FACTOR
Now what i meant by what i said “i’m totallly covered” was sarcastic. Meaning, “If i need to sow my wild oats to rebuke others, i just do it one shot and blanket all of us…self included. And since i now got that wild oat sown and out of my system…i can focus on the how to build people up in the church while the whole house is on fire aspect of the faith.” Which is sarcastic for: I believe the whole church is bent wrong in the Laodicea error. So our tendency to rebuke (although can often be accurate) will most often come from unhealthy slants in our soul. Slants reflective of a narcassistic age. Slants suggestive of a Laodicean unbrella. I believe having this sensivity toward our age (more so than how awesome and orthodox our convictions are) can help us operate in a way that ediifies the body of Christ from a removing logs in our own eyes–or biases–to help each other from a hopefully more sincere and humble approach. I don’t think that means rebuke never comes. I just mean that it comes from us as Galaitians 6 tells us to be mature in. And part of that i would think would be to be sensitive to the age we live in and its inordinate effects upon our psyche and soul. If that makes sense?
