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Earthquake Day 67
"To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name." (Revelation 3.7-8)
Philadelphia had a characteristic which left its mark upon this letter. It was on the edge of a great plain called the "the Burned Land." The area was a large flat volcanic valley from extinct volcanoes. Such land is fertile and Philadelphia was the epicenter of a great grape-growing area and a famous producer of wines. But this had its perils and left its mark on Philadelphia more than on any other city. In A.D. 17, there came a great earthquake which destroyed Sardis and ten other cities. In Philadelphia the tremors went on for years; like a "city full of earthquakes."1
When a great earthquake comes people meet it with courage, but ever-recurring minor shocks drive people to panic. That is what happened in Philadelphia. Shocks were an everyday occurrence. Gaping cracks appeared in the walls of the houses. One part of the city was in ruins, then another. Most of the population lived outside the city in huts and feared even to go into the city streets lest they should be killed by falling masonry.
1Strabo (63 B.C. - 24 A.D.)
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