"And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am The First and The Last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches." (Revelation 1:17-20 KJV)

"And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am The First and The Last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches." (Revelation 1:17-20 KJV)

And so it was that the apostle John, while exiled by the Romans to the island of Patmos, was given to write Revelation - a book of the Bible that, more than any other, speaks of events coming in our time now. Your Bible states very clearly that there are many wondrous and spectacular events coming upon the world.

The seven churches (Revelation chapters 2 and 3), located in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, were listed in their geographical order along an ancient triangular highway route in what is today eastern Turkey, touching on theThe Aegean Sea. The island of Patmos was just off the coast.

Beginning at Ephesus, it was about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north through Smyrna, up to Pergamum, and then about another 100 miles back southeast through Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, to Laodicea, which was about 100 miles east of Ephesus.

The seven churches had both immediate and prophetic applications. That is to say, they were used in the prophecy of the future events, while they were actual churches of that time, as shown on the map above. The seven churches were dual in their significance.