146    The Bible and the Future of the World 

Philadelphia (Rev 3:7 13) 

      `  Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you 

from the hour of trial which is coming on the whole world, to try those who 

dwell upon the earth.  '   (Rev 3:10). 

    This part of the Church will be preserved from much of the suffering 

which will come upon the whole world. These sufferings are described in the 

beginning of the book of Revelation, they occur during the Forty Years 

(A.D. 2000 to 2039/2040). 

    Clearly, God is telling us that a time will come when God will give the 

whole world, and most of the Church, sufferings and trials to bear. Notice 

that none of the other six parts of the Church are excluded from the hour of 

trial. They must suffer greatly. 

    This one part of the Church will suffer less and be spared the worst of it. 

Similarly, when the nearly seven years of the Church's greatest suffering 

arrives (in the 25th century), one of the then twelve parts of the Church will 

also be preserved from much of the persecutions and afflictions which the 

Church must endure (Rev 12:6, 14). Yet all Christians must follow Christ by 

carrying their crosses. 

Laodicea (Rev 3:14 22) 

      `  I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you 

were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I 

will spew you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, 

and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, 

blind, and naked.  '   (Rev 3:15 17). 

    This part of the Church is severely rebuked by God for being neither hot 

nor cold. When something is hot, it heats up the things around it. When 

people are lacking in good deeds, in works of mercy, in faith and prayer and 

love for God, a faithful Christian will be hot by heating up people to pray 

and repent, to turn back to God and to help those in need. When something 

is cold, it cools down the things around it. When people are doing what is 

wrong, a faithful Christian will try to cool them down, by discouraging them 

from doing evil. 

    But things which are lukewarm take on whatever the temperature is of the 

things around them. Christians who are lukewarm behave like the people 

around them. When the people around them do evil, a lukewarm Christian 

will join them in whatever evil they are doing. When people abandon doing 

good works, attending church, and praying, in order to pursue their own 

ends, a lukewarm Christian will imitate them.