The last stop of the day, and the seventh church on our list, was Laodicea, which was a stark contrast to Philadelphia. The sprawling Laodicea site is spread across a hilltop outside the modern city of Denizli. In the New Testament Book of Colossians, Paul instructs that his letter to the Christians in Colossae also be read in Laodicea, which was nearby. After Christianity was legalized in 313 AD, Laodicea became an important Asia Minor center for the new religion. It was abandoned after an earthquake in the 7th Century AD.

I visited this site more than 20 years ago and found the once-wealthy ancient city a desolate wasteland, with fragments of stone blocks and broken columns. Pieces of a crumbling theatre appeared to be falling down the hill. The place seemed to illustrate fulfillment of the warning in Revelation 3, where Jesus famously told Laodicean Christians that because they were lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—he would spit them out of his mouth.

What I saw on this trip was vastly different. Excavations of the site began in 2003, and the massive work is ongoing. Archeologists have unearthed and are restoring numerous buildings and monuments that show Laodicea’s power and wealth, including two theatres, temples to Roman gods and imperial leaders, a stadium, four bath complexes, a huge water distribution system, marketplaces, houses, and colonnaded streets.

Nearly two dozen chapels and churches have been discovered here as well, some in residences, which reflect the early Christian practice of meeting in house churches. The most important church is an enormous basilica that dates from the 4th through the 7th Centuries. So far, archeologists have discovered an altar, a baptistry, and several large sections of mosaic floors. A new modern roof has been constructed to protect the mosaics from deteriorating further.

“Laodicea is the example that however long it’s been (since you’ve visited), it’s going to look different in some ways” because of all the excavating work that still being done, Bolen says.

Turkey has submitted Laodicea for recognition as a UNESCO world heritage site, noting in its application that Laodicea “has more buildings and bigger buildings than the Athens Acropolis.”

The seven Revelation church sites are just a small glimpse of Turkey’s early Christian history. Scholars believe as many as two-thirds of the 27 books in the New Testament were written to or from what is now Turkey. Several early ecumenical church councils met in Asia Minor to hammer out foundational Christian beliefs. The cities here were associated with many New Testament and early church leaders, including St. Nicholas, the 4th Century bishop who was the inspiration for Santa Claus. In Search Of The Real St. Nicholas’ Deep Roots In Turkey (religionunplugged.com)

“After the Gospels, which describe the earthly life and ministry of Jesus in Israel, Turkey takes center stage in New Testament and church history,” writes scholar Mark Wilson, author of Biblical Turkey: A Guide to the Jewish and Christian Sites of Asia Minor.

Turkish tourism officials are frustrated that more Christians are not coming to Turkey to explore their faith heritage. Servet acknowledged that many Western Christians have what he believes is an unfairly negative opinion about Turkey. However, he said his country wants to promote its Christian heritage, even if this was not always the case.

“Lately, a very, very serious amount of money is spared for the restorations of the historical sites, excavating the ancient cities,” he said. “We understand its value.”

Servet has been a tour guide for more than 20 years and specializes in cultural tours, including tours of the Christian sites. “This is a very important geography,” he told me. “The Christians who endured all the oppression and persecution from the Romans, if they had given up, then I guess Christianity would not have had the chance to survive.”