Ruins of Ancient Sardis
By COGwriter
Sardis is the fifth of the seven churches listed in the Book of Revelation. The Sardis Church apparently became predominant by or during the early seventeenth century.
Ruins of Ancient Sardis
Jesus had the Apostle John record the following about the Sardis Church:
1 "And to the angel of the church in Sardis write,
'These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: "I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. 3 Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. 4 You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. 5 He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." ' (Revelation 3:1-6, NKJV throughout unless otherwise indicated).
It probably needs to be emphasized that since Jesus taught that the gates of the grave would not prevail against the true church (Matthew 16:18), that the true church never actually died out, even though some names associated with it changed (Revelation 2-3).
At the end of the time of Thyatira's dominance, the Sardis Church began to emerge.
John Ogwyn reported:
By the end of the 1500s, congregations that the world labeled "Sabbatarian Anabaptists" had emerged from remnants of the Waldensians and were growing in Central Europe, Germany and England. They were termed Sabbatarian because they taught and observed the seventh-day Sabbath. They were called Anabaptists, meaning "re-baptizers," because they refused to accept as Christians those who had merely been sprinkled as babies. They taught that baptism was only for adults who had come to believe the Gospel and had repented of their sins (cf. Acts 2:38) (Ogwyn, J. God's Church Through the Ages. Booklet. 2003).
In 1600, William Cotton reported that a Passover had been celebrated in Exeter, England (Roberts, 1904, vol. 10, 450).
John Traske was born in Somerset about 1585. The youngest son of Lionel Traske, he was baptized on 15 October 1585 at East Coker, Somerset and married on 23 November 1606 in the same parish. Traske made his living as a school master at a gentleman's house, and could presumably have lived out a comfortable, and perhaps uneventful, life in that role. Something changed his direction in life, however. What was it? Sadly we do not know; but we do know that his wife died just before this new direction. ...
Traske arrived in London again about the beginning of 1617, ... Soon after his arrival he married Dorothy Coome in February 1617. His bride was a spinster of the same age (about 31), and came from the same London city parish of St. Sepulchre where he now made his home. ...
Traske was one of the first in modern times to regard the Old Testament not merely as the history of ancient Israel, but as a storehouse of timeless truths which God could speak to his own generation. Traske sought to understand and obey these newly discovered words of the Lord.
This aspect is significant because without it Traske would probably never have accepted the Sabbath once presented to him. ... Hamlet Jackson's private Bible study was leading him to the belief that the Sabbath had never been abrogated by God, and that therefore Christians should observe it rather than Sunday as their weekly day of rest and worship. It seems that he did not discuss the matter with Traske. ...
Traske also considered that his work might have prophetic significance. He apparently wondered whether he might be the second Elijah sent to discover the antiChrist (cf. Malachi 4:5-6). While there are other hints of Traske's prophetic interest, it is clear that his main interest lay elsewhere. He believed that his view of scripture had restored truth as it was in the days of the apostles.
For Traske the situation was that "the whole letter of the Scriptures lying dead from the apostles days to our times, were now revived and stood on their feet." ...
The most scandalous offense of the Traskites was that they now kept the Sabbath, and ignored the Lord's Day as an ordinary day of work. ...
Towards the end of 1617, this "Judaising sect" could no longer be ignored. Traske and some of his followers were soon in prison, though we have no details on the series of events that saw them arrested. ... Traske resumed preaching after his release. He traveled around the country, and continued to impress those who heard him with his stentorian voice. Those near to him would have been able to clearly see the 'J' burned into his forehead, a branding which would remain for life.
By the summer of 1627, he was in trouble again. The event underlines Traske's continuing popularity. ... The record of Traske's examination over the incident shows that while he claimed to have given up the Sabbath, he admitted that his wife still observed it, (Lyell L. John Traske: Persecuted Pastor of London's First Sabbath keeping Congregation. Sabbath History, September 1996)
In 1617 (or 1616) John Trask came to London from Salisbury and held revival meetings. One of his disciples, named Hamlet Jackson, was the means of bringing Trask and many, if not all, of his congregation to the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath in about 1617, and Elder William M. Jones says that this Traskite congregation was the origin of the Mill Yard Church. (Dugger AN, Dodd CO. A History of True Religion, 3rd ed. Jerusalem, 1972 (Church of God, 7th Day). 1990 reprint)
The old Worldwide Church of God taught:
How the Sardis Era Began
About 1585, almost immediately after the end of her 1260 years in the wilderness, God's Church began to revive — this time in England.
In the reign of Elizabeth (1558-1603), states Chambers' Encyclopedia, article "Sabbath," "many conscientious and independent thinkers" advocated the seventh day. ...
John Traske. Traske also understood the truth concerning unclean meats. He ordained four evangelists about 1616, whose labors resulted in the conversion of many. Because of these things, Traske was censured ... (Cox's "Literature of the Sabbath Question", Vol. I, p. 157). ...
Another who shared Traske's belief in keeping the Sabbath was Theophilus Brabourne, a former Puritan minister in Norfolk (where many Anabaptists from Holland had migrated). He published books in 1628 and 1632 advocating the true Sabbath. Of him, Of him, Cox says, "(He) MAY BE REGARDED AS THE FOUNDER IN ENGLAND of the sect at first known as Sabbatarians, but now calling themselves Seventh Day Baptists." (As we shall soon see, they then CALLED THEMSELVES the Church of God. And only later did a majority organize themselves as Seventh Day Baptists, while a small minority continued as the Church of God.)
Cox continues, "THIS SECT AROSE IN GERMANY IN THE 16TH CENTURY." He means they had been among those the world loosely called Anabaptists, among whom were Sabbath keepers such as those in Bohemia (mentioned by Erasmus) and elsewhere. (Lesson 53 - Reaching The World With Power! 58 Lesson: Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course. 1969)
"In the year 1618, James I published for the county of Lancaster, a declaration of liberty sports and soon after appeared a sect of Sabbatarians, who were long known."Notice that, now this was in 1618 and if, as he says they were long known "under the name of their first teacher, John Trask." He wasn't their first leader in England. Walter Lollard was their first leader in England. John Trask was their first leader from among the English. Walter Lollard had come over to England from Germany. So in 1618, "after James I issued this declaration, a sect of Sabbatarians long known under the name of their first teacher, John Trask and also afterwards called Seventh Day men." Notice that, afterwards they were called Seventh Day men. They weren't called Seventh Day Baptists until 1818. They were called Seventh Day men. ... “John Trask, William Hillyard, Christopher Sands, ... Wright, and -- Hebden were among those who were prominent between 1600 and 1630 A.D. Trask was whipped, and imprisoned under sentences by the infamous Star Chamber. ... John Trask, Christopher Sands, ministers of true church. (Blackwell D. A HANDBOOK OF CHURCH HISTORY. A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Ambassador College Graduate School of Theology, April 1973)
This is approximately 1260 years after the Smyrnaeans fled because of of edicts of fourth century Roman Emperors, such as Constantine's Edict Against Heretics of 331 A.D. (it appears that around 1600 the COG no longer felt that it needed to be fleeing, but then began to come out in the open).
Here is another report related to John Traske:
John Traske: The Truth in Trouble Soon after the publication of the famous King James Version of the Bible in 1611, an itinerant preacher named John Traske arrived in London. Disgusted by the obvious corruption and indulgence of the clergy of his day. Traske emphasized that God would give his Spirit to those who obey him in the way they live their lives.
Traske began advocating fasting and went on to revive the Old Testament prohibition on unclean meats. In a short time this gifted preacher had built a significant following of men and women seeking to obey God's commandments. Hamlet Jackson was one such scrupulous student. His studies led him to conclude that there was no Biblical command to observe Sunday and that the Saturday-Sabbath observed by the Jews had never been abolished. Stunned by this discovery, Jackson went immediately to Traske who was also convinced and began observing the Sabbath and vigorously peaching the 'Saturday Sabbath'. Most of Traske's congregation also adopted it. In 1614, Traske ordained Jackson and three others to proclaim their discoveries of obedience and also to heal diseases by anointing with oil. ...
At this time two opposing and equally elaborate arguments were developing about the meaning of Sunday. ... Traske's argument was by contrast attractively simple. The Sabbath command remained and it had not been changed to Sunday. However, Anglican and Puritan alike both cried 'Judaising' ...
In circumstances still unclear, Traske and his followers were arrested in 1616. Brought before a panel of bishops, Traske refused to be argued back to Anglican orthodoxy. Offended by his challenge that they would all one day observe the Sabbath, they imprisoned him and urged him to "repent". While in prison Traske continued his study of early Church history, no doubt with material provided to him by the bishops. As a result, he made another surprising discovery. He denounced Easter as a man-made blasphemy of the same kind that Sunday was! In its place Traske adopted the Old Testament date of the Passover and also observed the Days of Unleavened Bread. Infuriated with his "arrogance", Traske's persecutors formally charged him in 1618 with sedition: seducing the King's subjects away from the Church of England to Judaism. Traske was imprisoned, degraded from the ministry, whipped, mutilated, branded with a 'J' on his forehead and fined one thousand pounds. Defeated and dejected, Traske gave up his beliefs and published a recantation three years later. He was immediately released from prison. His wife however remained in prison till her death -- still a Sabbath-keeper.
To Traske goes the honour of being the first known Christian of modern times to observe the Sabbath and the Passover. (Lyell, Leon. THE SEVENTH DAY MEN. Sabbath History, July 1996)
Seventh day Sabbath-keeping was causing controversy in England in 1584 (Andrews J.N. in History of the Sabbath, 3rd editon, 1887. Reprint Teach Services, Brushton (NY), 1998, p. 485). Regarding John Traske, SDA writer J.N. Andrews reported:
John Trask began to speak and write in favor of the seventh day as the Sabbath of the Lord, ... His field of labor was London, and being a very zealous man, he was soon called to account by the persecuting authority of the church of England. He took high ground as to the sufficiency of the Scriptures to direct in all religious services, and that the civil authorities ought not to constrain men’s consciences in matters of religion. He was brought before the infamous Star Chamber, where a long discussion was held respecting the Sabbath.
It was on this occasion that Bishop Andrews first brought forward that now famous first-day argument, that the early martyrs were tested by the question, “Hast thou kept the Lord’s day?
Gilfillan, quoting the words of contemporary writers, says of Trask’s trial that,
For ‘making of conventicles and factions, by that means which may tend to sedition and commotion, and for scandalizing the king, the bishops, and the clergy,’ ‘he was censured in the Star Chamber to be set upon the pillory at Westminster, and from thence to be whipt to the fleet, there to remain a prisoner.’”
This cruel sentence was carried into execution, and finally broke his spirit. After enduring the misery of his prison for one year, he recanted his doctrine. ...
Pagitt, who was the contemporary of Trask, thus states the principles of the Sabbatarians of that time, whom he calls Traskites:-
“The positions concerning the Sabbath by them maintained were these:-
“1. That the fourth commandment of the Decalogue, ‘Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy’ [Exodus 20], is a divine precept, simply and entirely moral, containing nothing legally ceremonial in whole or in part, and therefore the weekly observation thereof ought to be perpetual, and to continue in force and virtue to the world’s end.
“2. That the Saturday, or seventh day in every week, ought to be an everlasting holy day in the Christian church, and the religious observation of this day obligeth Christians under the gospel, as it did the Jews before the coming of Christ.
“3. That the Sunday, or Lord’s day, is an ordinary working day, and it is superstition and will-worship to make the same the Sabbath of the fourth commandment.”
It was for this noble confession of faith that Mrs. Trask was shut up in prison till the day of her death. For the same, Mr. Trask was compelled to stand in the pillory, and was whipped from thence to the fleet, and then shut up in a wretched prison, from which he escaped by recantation after enduring the miseries of more than a year.
Mr. Utter mentions the next Sabbatarian minister as follows:-
“Theophilus Brabourne, a learned minister of the gospel in the established church, wrote a book, which was printed at London in 1628, wherein he argued ‘that the Lord’s day is not the Sabbath day by divine institution,’ but ‘that the seventh-day Sabbath is now in force.’ Mr. Brabourne published another book in 1632, entitled, ‘A Defense of that most Ancient and Sacred Ordinance of God’s, the Sabbath Day.’” (Andrews J.N. in History of the Sabbath, 3rd editon, 1887. Reprint Teach Services, Brushton (NY), 1998, p. 485-489).
There are some indications in the writings of the period that Trask later returned to Sabbath observance, but there is no record of him playing any major part in the church after his release from prison. (Fletcher I. THE INCREDIBLE HISTORY OF GOD'S TRUE CHURCH. 1984).
The following is from a writing from a Roman Catholic Priest published in 1618:
John Traske and the other Puritans in their ceremonial and precise manner of observing the Sabaoth, are superstitious imitators of the Jews, our saviour’s adversaries ... (Falconer John. A Breife Refutation of John Traskes Judaical and Novel Fantyces. St. Omer, 1618, p. 31. As cited in Parker, Parker Kenneth L. The English Sabbath: A Study of Doctrine and Discipline from the Reformation to the Civil War. Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 166)
Jesus was a Jew and kept practices many consider Jewish, so not all Jewish practices are adverserial, but should be kept by Christians (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:1). John Traske had a great zeal, but some issues of knowledge (cf. Acts 18:25-26; Roman 10:2). He may have been COG. John Traske claimed to get one or more dreams from God (Cottrell-Boyce A. John Traske, Puritan Judaizing and the Ethic of Singularity. Journal of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions 6, 2018), was considered as some type of a prophet (Smith RM. Christian Judaizers In Early Stuart England. Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church Vol. 52, No. 2, June 1983, pp. 125-133; Cottrell-Boyce, p. 122), and had a lot of impact in England.
Does the Bible ever teach about prophets and dreams?
Certainly.
Of course, many do not want to believe that God uses dreams or will discount the ones they hear about.
Yet, the Bible shows that God often chooses to work with prophets through a dream:
6 “Hear now My words:
If there is a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision;
I speak to him in a dream. (Numbers 12:6)
Notice that the above says that God will speak to His prophet in a dream.
And the Sabbatarian Church of God leader, named John Traske, said he had some kind of dream from God and was a prophet.
The late evangelist John Ogwyn wrote about him:
John Traske was one of the first in England to publish a book dealing with the Sabbath. Writing around 1618, he was imprisoned for his efforts. Some credit him with raising up the Mill Yard Church in London, the oldest known Sabbath-keeping church still functioning and parent of later Sabbatarian churches in America. ... In 1661, John James, another Church of God minister in the London area, was arrested for preaching the Truth. (Ogwyn J. God's Church Through the Ages. 2004)
John Traske practiced the laying on of hands (Smith, p. 127) and stood for biblical literalism (Cottrell-Boyce A. Jewish Christians in Puritan England. Pickwick Publications, 2021, p. 119). He was considered to be a type of evangelistic prophet who taught the law unlike others since the time of the apostles (Cottrell-Boyce A. Jewish Christians in Puritan England. Pickwick Publications, 2021, p. 122)--a critic claimed he held "a fantsasticall opynion of himselfe" (ibid, p. 119). John Traske rote recitation of prayer (ibid, p. 146) and supported the poor (ibid, pp. 143-144). Some suggested that he had ties to the Lollards (ibid, p. 131).
John Traske seems to have at least partially kept something on Passover as the Days of Unleavened Bread according to the same priest Falconer while using 1618 English:
Iohn Traske ... By reading in Eusebius history lib. 1. cap. 22. how Saint Policarpe and other holy Bishops of Asia observed the Iewes time of keeping Easter, he and his disciples are lately therein resolued to imitate them. …
IOHN Traske seemeth falsely to suppose, and Maister Cra. his Aduersary as lightly to graunt, that a Sabaoth, or seauenth daie of rest from bodily labour was from the beginning of mans Creation … Christians are expressely forbidden to play the Iewes, and to be idle on the Sabaoth, and willed with all to obserue and prefer our Lords day be∣fore it ...
IOHN Traske ... the 14. of March-moone, wherin the Iewes were commaunded by God to celebrate their Passouer. And vpon his late reading in Eusebius lib 5. hist. cap. 22. Policrates epistle di∣rected to Victor Bishop of Rome concerning the Asian custome of keeping easter with the Iews, ... he will arrogantly presume to call Victor that holy Bishop & Mar∣tyr, famously mentioned in ancient histories, a proud Prelate, ... he hath ob∣serued the feast of Azimes, ... the ancient Bishop of Ephesus in a preposterous zeale of obseruing the yearly me∣mory of our Sauiours resurrection, as S. Policarpe and other great Saintes had done before him in those partes of Asia, wrote very ernestly in the defence of that Quartadeciman Custome. Whose authority hath, as it should seeme, much moued Iohn Traske ... IOHN Traske and his disciples hold the Legall difference of meates mentioned Leuit. 11. Deutron. 10. to be so morall in it selfe (Falconer J. A briefe refutation of Iohn Traskes iudaical and nouel fancyes Stiling himselfe Minister of Gods Word, imprisoned for the lawes eternall perfection, or God's lawes perfect eternity. English College Press, 1618, pp. 3,17,21,43,57-58,60 65)
So John Traske (an “i” was often used then for a “j” in the 17th century; the "u" above often should be a "v") kept the seventh-day Sabbath (and said it was established in the Book of Genesis), would not keep Sunday, kept Passover on the 14th, cited church history, kept the Days of Unleavened Bread (called "the feast of Azimes" above), cited the practices of Polycarp and Polycrates, and avoided eating biblically unclean animals. Those are Church of God doctrines. For Traske doing so, a Roman Catholic priest objected, referred to Passover as Easter, and called original Christian practices preposterous.
But John Traske at least partially apostasized in 1620 after being arrested and imprisoned, though his wife Dorothy did not (Smith, p. 125-133).
Here are two views on the founding of the Mill Yard Church:
Church of Mill Yard, Goodman's Fields, London, is conñdently believed to have had origin in 1617, and may be said to have been founded by John Trask and his wife-two school teachers-who were both imprisoned for their views upon the Sabbath. (Randolph CF. THE SABBATH AND SEVENTH DAY BAPTISTS (THIRD REVISION). Published by the AMERICAN SABBATH TRACT SOCIETY, PLAINFIELD, N.J. 1930, p. 15)
Jones Church History discusses this church:
"...John Trask and John James were the founders of the Mill Yard Church, London, 1616 to 1661.... In 1546 there were seven congregations in London, which called themselves collectively 'The poor despised Churches of God....' Sixteen years later (1661), John James the founder of one of the Sabbath-keeping churches in London died a martyr's death for the precious truth, showing the severity of the persecution against these despised people of God. (As cited in: Ambassador College Church History Lecture 23 The Church in England and America, 1987 accessed 09/19/25 at https://www.friendsofsabbath.org/ABC/Lectures%20%26%20Sermons/Course_Handouts_and_Notes/ChurchofGodHistory/Church%20History%20Notes/Church%20History%20lecture%2023.ht
Here is information on the Mill Yard Church from the Seventh Day Baptists and the old Worldwide Church of God:
MILL YARD, LONDON. 1617.
Origin. Some have supposed that this church owes its origin to the labors of John James, who was martyred Oct. 19, 1661. President Daland goes back as far as about 1580. In 1617 (or 1616) John Trask came to London from Salisbury, and held revival meetings. One of his disciples, named Hamlet Jackson, was the means of bringing Trask and many, if not all, of his congregation to the observance of the seventhday Sabbath in about 1617, and Elder William M. Jones says that this Traskite congregation was the origin of the Mill Yard Church. All the records of this church, prior to 1673, were destroyed in the fire of 1790 ...
Pastoral service. The early pastorates are difficult to determine; the following arrangement is probably very nearly, if not entirely, correct:
John Trask…………….. 1617-1619
Dr. Peter Chamberlen…. 1653-?
John James…………………. ?-1661
William Sellers……....... * 1670-1678
Henry Soursby………… 1678-1711
John Maulden…………. 1712-1715
(Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America: a series of historical papers written in commemoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the organization of the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference, celebrated at Ashaway, Rhode Island, August 20-25, 1902, Volume 1. Printed for the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference by the American Sabbath Tract Society, 1910, pp. 39,40)
Evidence is that this "Mill Yard" congregation dates from 1607, or even the 1580's. (Lesson 53 - Reaching The World With Power! Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course, 1969)
Traske, was not a Baptist (Ball B. Seventh Day Men: Sabbatarians and Sabbatarianism in England and Wales, 1600-1800, 2nd edition. James Clark & Co., 2009, , p. xx)
Information on the actual founding of the Mill Yard church is not as clear as we would like. We do not have the name of who immediately preceded John Traske. But, despite the Baptists claiming him, Traske was not one of them.
"Traskite Sabbatarians existed in London ... during the 1630s most probably in continuity of the practice of their founder c. 1617" (Ball, p. 8).
Piecing multiple sources together, the following list looks reasonable for succession in the British Isles:
1617-1619 John Traske
1620-1652 John Pecke (and possibly others)
1652-1654 Peter Chamberlen
1654-1661 John James
1661-1678 William Saller
1678-1711 Henry Soursby (Ball, pp. 81-87)
1712-1715 John Maulden or unnamed Sabbatarian or Thomas Lucas (same as shown below)
1712 or 1716-1743 Thomas Lucas (Ball, pp. xxxii-xxxiv)
Byran Ball reported, "from the late 1640s, with new religious liberty and freedom of expression and practice, the seventh day came into the open in a way previously unknown in England" (Ball, p. 55).
As far as some details on more of the leaders goes, a friend of John Traske was a young lawyer, named John Pecke (Como DR. Blown by the Spirit: Puritanism and the Emergence of an Antinomian Underground in Pre-Civil-War England. Stanford University Press, 2004, pp. 143,173f; Cottrell-Boyce A. John Traske, Puritan Judaizing and the Ethic of Singularity. Journal of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions 6, 2018, p. 2). John Pecke was a Sabbatarian and seems to have been John Traske's successor. Those associated with Traske held to "the observation of the Saturday Sabbath, dietary laws and even Passover ... a Puritan drift towards Biblicism, towards a Judeo-centric millenarianism" (Ball, p. 2).
John Traske was a Church of God leader.
He held Church of God doctrines.
And though he had some issues after he was imprisoned and apparently tortured, he looks to have been a leader near the start of the Sardis era of the Church of God.
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