These are the well known opening lines of Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities, his description of tension and the struggle for balance in Europe during the time of the French Revolution.
Human history is dynamic.
We live with contending pressures and often solve one problem by creating another. The Lord's words to seven first century churches, taken together, recognize our tendency to leap from frying pan into fire and minister to our need to find a righteous balance in our service of him. This is a key time in the history of Peninsula Bible Church. That is one of the main reasons for this series in the letters to the seven churches in chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation. There is an orientation to the past, the present or the future in these letters.