“Today, Bergama is made up of an ‘old city’ of narrow, cobbled streets and a more modern city. The locals I interacted with didn’t disappoint as they extended their famous Turkish hospitality. Happy to offer information, one man told me Christians visit the seven churches like Muslims visit Mecca—to earn merit before God.”

The trip of a lifetime landed in my lap—visiting the Seven Churches of Revelation. Until recently, I didn’t even know all seven churches were located in modern-day Turkey. A friend and I flew to Izmir, Turkey, where we rented a car and drove to all seven churches in a quick, three-day trip.

In the end, we saw a lot of rocks.

Don’t get me wrong. They were beautiful rocks. But they were rocks, ruins of ancient cities once teeming with people long gone. In the apostle John’s vision of Revelation, Jesus spoke to the Christians in these cities, commending some but warning most. As I read Jesus’s words to the seven churches and learned about each location, I wondered how these rocks should change my life.

Ephesus-Selçuk

Ephesus was the fourth largest city of the Roman empire in the first century. A thriving commercial center and port city, Ephesus was also the home of a temple to the goddess Artemis. The amphitheater in Ephesus, which could hold up to twenty-five thousand people, was the venue of the angry riot against Christians in Acts 19.

In Revelation, Jesus commended the Ephesian church for enduring hardships and hating the heresy of the Nicolaitans—early Gnostics who wanted to blend Christianity with pagan practices like sexual immorality. But others in Ephesus had fallen from their first love of Christ and received a sober warning: “Repent and do the things you did at first” (Rev. 2:5 NIV). Some scholars think these Christians may have caved to pressure to worship at the cult temple of Emperor Domitian.

Over time, Ephesus physically shifted to what is now the small town of Selçuk, only a five-minute drive from the Ephesus ruins. Honeysuckle perfumed the air around the shops and streets I visited. The town is Muslim—as is 99 percent of Turkey. Even so, a small Protestant church of former-Muslim believers gathers in Selçuk for worship and fellowship.

Smyrna-Izmir

The ruins of Smyrna’s marketplace are nestled in a city block of the thriving seaport city, Izmir. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities of the world, Izmir is now home to more than four million people. When we pulled up to the ruins of ancient Smyrna’s marketplace, high school students spilled out from their school. They seemed ambivalent to the millennia-old city ruins across the street from them.

Jesus’s words to the believers in Smyrna encouraged them in the face of coming persecution. “Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown” (Rev. 2:10 NIV). Indeed, not just in Smyrna but across the entire region, first-century believers who resisted the pressure of imperial cult worship endured persecution. Some scholars think this persecution was often economic, like the loss of a job or financial wealth (Fairchild, p. 146). Probably for this reason, Jesus reminded them they are spiritually rich even though materially poor.

The early church father Polycarp was the bishop of Smyrna and a disciple of the apostle John. At the age of eighty-six, he was burned at the stake for refusing to renounce his faith in Christ. Some of Polycarp’s last words were, “For eighty-six years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?” (Wilson, p. 311).

The modern city of Izmir is filled with secular modernists—officially Muslim by name but sincerely disillusioned with Islam and the current political climate. They may know that Christians “used to” live in Izmir, but most are unaware of the thriving Christian community of up to five hundred believers scattered among at least twelve churches. Although many of these churches are historically Catholic or Orthodox, there is a growing number of evangelical Protestant believers as well.

Pergamum-Bergama

The ruins of Pergamum sit atop a hill overlooking the modern-day city of Bergama. A state-of-the-art cable car carried us to the top of the hill where we viewed extensively excavated ruins. Pergamum was a principal city of the Roman empire in the first century. The most striking remnant is the steep theatre built into the side of the hill.

Read More