4. “ I will also keep thee from the hour of temptation (trial), which shall come upon all the world” --3:10-11. This promise was made to the Philadelphians in divine reciprocation of their having “ kept the word” of Christ. They were not promised exemption from trial, but preservation through the period of trial. The world in Revelation 3:10 meant the empire. The hour of trial was the persecution period: in Matthew 24:29, the tribulation; in Romans 16:20, the bruising of Satan; in 1 Corinthians 7:26, the present distress; in Hebrews 10:25, the day approaching; in James 5:8, the coming of the Lord draweth nigh; in 1 Peter 4:7, the end of all things at hand; in 1 John 2:18, the last time--and in Revelation, the hour of trial, all pointing to the impending events attending the end of the Jewish system and state. The Lord’ s statement in Matthew 24:1-51 was the forecast of the siege of Jerusalem; because of “ the present distress,” in Corinthians Paul dispensed advice concerning certain jeopardies involved in marriage; in Hebrews 10:1-39 they were exhorted not to forsake (meaning to abandon, renounce) their first day of the week assembling because of these threats of persecution (as the context of verses 25 through 39 indicates), and to exhort each other, as the day of persecution approached, not to so renounce and abandon the new covenant; in James 5:1-20, the declaration that the coming of Christ was nigh could not have referred to the return of Christ, for it did not occur therefore it was not nigh--it referred to the Lord’ s coming in these approaching events concerning which all of the apostles were exhorting the members of all the churches in every place; and John, in his epistle mentioned “ the last time” in reference to the state of the Jews and of their nation; in the apocalypse he symbolized it as “ the hour of trial,” and assured the Philadelphians that the Lord would “ come quickly,” in the judgments and rewards that he had repeatedly promised to render. The foregoing running summary of the expressions in the epistles of the New Testament to these impending events constitutes cumulative proof that the visions of Revelation related to the persecution period of the early church.