‘What you see write in a scroll and send it to the seven congregations, in Ephesus and in Smyrna and in Pergamum and in Thyatira and in Sardis and in Philadelphia and in Laodicea.’” (Revelation 1:10b, 11) Authoritative and commanding as a trumpet call, a voice calls on John to write to “the seven congregations.” He is to receive a series of messages and to publish the things he will see and hear. Notice that the congregations mentioned here actually existed in John’s day. All of them were situated in Asia Minor, right across the sea from Patmos. They were easily accessible to one another by means of the excellent Roman roads that existed in the area. A messenger would have had no trouble carrying the scroll from one congregation to the next. These seven congregations would resemble a section of a modern-day circuit of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

6. (a) What is meant by “the things that are”? (b) Why can we be certain that conditions in the congregation of anointed Christians today must be similar to those in John’s day?

⁶ Most of the prophecies in Revelation were to be fulfilled after John’s time. They referred to “the things that will take place after these.” But the counsel to the seven congregations deals with “things that are,” situations that really existed in the seven congregations at that time. The messages were valuable aids to faithful appointed elders in those seven congregations, as well as in all other congregations of anointed Christians of the time.b Since the vision has its prime application in the Lord’s day, what Jesus says serves notice that similar conditions are to be expected in the congregation of anointed Christians of our own day.​—Revelation 1:10, 19.

[Pictures on page 23]

Archaeological remains of the cities where the seven congregations were located confirm the Bible record. It was here that first-century Christians received Jesus’ encouraging messages that today stimulate the worldwide congregation

PERGAMUM

SMYRNA

THYATIRA

SARDIS

EPHESUS

PHILADELPHIA

LAODICEA