Seven Churches For Seven Cities

There are seven cities refered to in Revelation 1-3. These seven cities are representative of the churches that exist there, not the cities as a whole, although the churches were probably effected by the circumstances of the cities. We'll describe the cities in detail later, but here's a list of them:
Ephesus
Smyrna
Pergamum
Thyatira
Sardis
Philadelphia
Laodikia


All of the cities are in Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey. They are placed in the order of a circle, with Ephesus being on the coast. This would be the order a messenger would travel to the seven cities, in order, clockwise, Laodikia being near Ephesus, creating almost a perfect circle.

Seven churches of John’s ministry were chosen to indicate a complete number, which represents all churches in the world. There is nothing to indicate that they each represent a different church age. However, each church could represent a church type, which we will explore.