«　WEEK 8　DAY 2　»

　　Rev. 3:8 I know your works; behold, I have put before you an opened door which no one can shut, because you have a little power and have kept My word and have not denied My name.

　　10 Because you have kept the word of My endurance, I also will keep you out of the hour of trial…

　　Matt. 18:20 For where there are two or three gathered into My name, there am I in their midst.

　　In Greek, Philadelphia means “brotherly love.” As a sign, the church in Philadelphia prefigures the proper church life recovered by the brothers who were raised up by the Lord in England in the early part of the nineteenth century. Just as the reformed church, prefigured by the church in Sardis, was a reaction to the apostate Catholic Church, prefigured by the church in Thyatira, so the church of brotherly love is a reaction to the dead reformed church. This reaction will continue as an anti-testimony to both apostate Catholicism and degraded Protestantism until the Lord comes back.

　　One outstanding feature of the church in Philadelphia is that she kept the Lord’s word [Rev. 3:8]. According to history, no other Christians have kept the Lord’s word as strictly as those in the church in Philadelphia. The church in Philadelphia, the recovered church, does not care for tradition; she cares for the word of God. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2525-2526)

　　We should not regard the church in Philadelphia as being strong, powerful, and prevailing. Whereas we may estimate the church in Philadelphia very highly, the Lord says that she had “a little power.” What pleases the Lord is not that we are strong but that we use our little power to do the best we can.

　　In Revelation 3:8 the Lord also says that the church in Philadelphia has not denied His name…. The word is the Lord’s expression, and the name is the Lord Himself. The apostate church has deviated from the Lord’s word and has become heretical. The reformed church, though recovered to the Lord’s word to some extent, has denied the Lord’s name by denominating herself with many other names. The recovered church has not only returned to the Lord’s word in a full way but has also abandoned all names other than that of the Lord Jesus Christ…. To deviate from the Lord’s word is apostasy, and to denominate the church with any name other than the Lord’s is spiritual fornication. The church as the chaste virgin betrothed to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2) should not have any name other than her Husband’s…. In the recovered church life we have no teachings of Balaam (Rev. 2:14), no teachings of the Nicolaitans (2:15), no teachings of Jezebel (2:20), and no mysterious doctrines of Satan (2:24); we have only the pure word of the Lord. Likewise, the recovered church has no denominations (names) but the unique name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The deviation from the Word to heresies and the exaltation of so many names other than that of Christ are the most striking signs of degraded Christianity. The return to the pure Word from all heresies and traditions and the exaltation of the Lord’s name by abandoning every other name are the most inspiring testimony in the recovered church.

　　As the One who has the key of David and who opens and no one shall shut (3:7), the Lord has given the recovered church “an opened door which no one can shut” [v. 8]. Since the recovery of the proper church life began, in the early part of the nineteenth century, until now, a door has always been wide open to the Lord’s recovery. The more that organized Christianity tries to shut the door, the wider it is open. In spite of much opposition, the door today is open worldwide. The key is in the hand of the Head of the church; it is not in the hand of the opposers. (The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2526-2527)

　　Further Reading: The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 238, 412; Life-study of Revelation, msg. 15; CWWL, 1984, vol. 3, “The Divine Economy,” ch. 14