<P> The letters follow a common pattern . For example: the Lord first addresses each church and identifies himself, then defines things that he knows about the church in question . After this, a challenge or reproach is given, followed by a promise . In all seven cases the admonition is included, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches", although sometimes this comes before the promise and sometimes after . </P> <P> Although the letters differ in length in accord with the needs of each community, all conclude with an appeal to hold fast and to listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches . Each church is promised that everyone who conquers will be rewarded by Christ . </P> <P> Some historicists typically interpret the seven churches as representing seven different periods in the history of the Western Church from the time of Paul until the return of Jesus Christ . Scofield states that "these messages by their very terms go beyond the local assemblies mentioned ." He is of the opinion that the letters have a prophetic purpose disclosing the seven phases of the spiritual history of the Church . Other writers, such as Clarence Larkin, Henry Hampton Halley, Merrill Unger, and William M. Branham also have posited the view that the seven churches preview the history of the global Church . </P> <P> Historicism has been criticized by the Eastern Orthodox Fr . Dimitri Cozby, who writes that historicists take a greatly oversimplified view of church history: "Since dispensationalism is Protestant in origin its' Church history' is strictly Western . The dispensations take into account almost nothing of Orthodox history after the period of the early councils which we share with the West ." </P>

Which of the 7 churches of revelation is the church today