The letters to the seven churches of Modernity, from the Revelation of St. Thomas, a mythographical work.
Write, then, to the seven churches in Modernity.
The Word of the Father says this: I know your deeds, that you have spread the gospel over the face of the Earth, making the sea basin your inkwell and filling the air with words and images and music of the gospel. I know that you are beset by enemies, who slander you, calling you hypocrites, tyrannical, simple-minded, and greedy.
But I have this against you, that you have so often spread the good news badly. You have given substance to the slanders of your enemies. You have played music to the ear like treacle to the tongue. You have scattered pages of hateful and lunatic words, forging my name to them, like chaff and tares crowding out the good wheat. You have let the moneychangers back into the temple, where they sell blessings and callings as if to Simon Magus, so that the faithful among you are ashamed.
Repent, therefore, and cast out the thieves, or you will never sing the new song that only the blessed can sing.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes I will feed the bittersweet scroll, and he shall prophesy for me.
The one the apostles call Teacher says this: I know your deeds, that you have looked into the deep things of God, and that many of you have loved God with all your mind, seeking to bring the gospel to the wise of the Earth and to bring wisdom to the faithful.
But I have this against you, that many of you have become faithless, tuming your cunning against the gospel, and even more have become puffed up with vanity and wrath, making parties and divisions among you instead of seeking ways to live together with your different opinions.
Therefore repent and seek honesty and love, or I will give you over to the darkness in your minds and you will never see God.
The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will eat of the fruit of life and no more will the fruit of knowledge be deadly to him.
The one who came to fulfill the Law says this: I know your deeds, that you have worked for freedom, justice, and mercy for the poor, and that you have hungered for the Spirit.
But I have this against you, that many of you have fallen away, falling into idolatry and sorcery or denying God, and many of you have fallen into lust, forgetting the law, and many of you have fallen into wrath and envy while pursuing mercy and justice.
Therefore repent, for whoever is ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of, and whoever denies the Son of Man, the Son of Man will deny to the Father.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will enjoy the liberty of the sons of God.
The one who brought division and scandal says this: I know you have kneaded the gospel into the bread of the nations, making it part of custom and law, and that you have quietly and slowly spread the good news through the generations.
But I have this against you, that you have made my name a label, not of righteousness but of respectability. Instead of making holiness your custom, you have called your customs holiness. You have sought reputation from repetition of prayers you have emptied. You have dinned the gospel in your ears until you no longer hear it. You have become lukewarm, fearing to scandalize the scalded.
Therefore repent or the gospel will depart from you and the praise of the world will be your only reward, quickly lost.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will be blessed for the sake of my name when he is cast out of the assembly.
The one changing water into wine says this: I know that you have fought long to remain pure and preserve the gospel.
But I have this against you, that you have thrown off my light yoke and made a heavy one for yourselves, your neighbors, and your children. You have feared pleasure and happiness, both for yourselves and for others. You have banned harmless works, forgetting that all things can be done to God’s glory. You have turned grace back into law and contested with the Pharisees for the prize of self-righteousness.
And this I do hold most against you, that you have made the gospel and my name an oppression to your children, so that they shrink from me, seeing in me your unjust judgments and wrath and sourness.
Therefore repent or it would be better for you to be cast into the sea tied to a millstone. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will sit at my right hand, where there are pleasures forever.
The King of Kings says this: I know your deeds, that you have given God’s things to Caesar and have given out Caesar’s coin as God’s. You have ruled with tyrants and whored with tyrants, and you have crucified me uncountable times in my brothers, burned, beheaded, or pitted one against another in your wars among yourselves.
Therefore repent and leave Caesarea, for I did not set you to rule the kingdoms of this world, and all who seek after the power of sword and crown and purse I will give over to the horsemen who roam the Earth, to be trampled under their hooves.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes the world and forsakes it will receive back his soul.
The one who healed the mad and the blind says this: I know your deeds, that you have fought the world, the devil, and your own flesh seeking to obey me.
But in so doing you have driven yourselves mad. Each of you has fashioned an idol of doctrine or tradition or superstition and made it the center of the gospel, cutting out the Word’s living heart. You shun medicines or tools or wholesome foods. You gaze into the gospel like one seeing phantoms in a fire, and then pronounce your fancies to be foundations of the Law.
And each of you will think I speak only of all the others.
Therefore repent and come to your senses, or you will be cast into the nightmares of the outer darkness.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will have the new covenant written in his own heart.
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Copyright © Earl Wajenberg, 2025