The seven churches were seven literal churches that existed in Asia Minor (see map) in the first century A.D. Ephesus was the largest city in the area and presumably the largest church. Thus, it served as a “mother” church to the others. All seven were connected by the local Roman highway. They were arranged in a circular pattern going from Ephesus to Smyrna, on to Laodicea, and back to Ephesus.2 Attempts to find prophetic parallels between these churches and a supposed “seven ages of church history”