“I know where you live – where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city – where Satan lives.” – Revelations 2:13
INTRODUCTION
This is the third of the seven letters that God sent as warnings to some of the early Christian churches. The contents clearly show that the messages of the letters are not outdated because of when they were written but are as relevant to us today as individual Christians and churches as it was to those early churches.
As usual, we will examine the condition of the church that was in the place called Pergamum, an ancient city known for its spectacular architecture and many beautiful temples dedicated to a variety of gods. It is now called Bergama in the Izmir Province of Turkey in the Anatolia region.
DESCRIPTION OF THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF THE PERGAMUM CHURCH
The instruction given to John, God’s appointed scribe was: “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of Him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. I know where you live – where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city – where Satan lives.” – Revelations 2:12-13
From the letter, we know that the Pergamum church was located in the wrong place. It was a city well versed in crime and excesses that were sanctified in the name of religious necessity. So notorious was this place that its testimonial was that it was the place “where Satan lived.” Many strange deities reigned, as was the abundance of detestable practices.
One of the gods with a large following was Dionysus, believed to have been the son from the union of another god, Zeus, and a human mother. He offered life after death and a meaningful life on earth through indulgence in raw meat and wine. The orgies and lasciviousness that attended the festivals to him were so wild that even the Roman government outlawed the worship of Dionysus as being “too immoral.”
Other forms of worship accepted by the Roman government were hardly any better. There was Ascelpius, the snake god of healing, Demeter, the goddess of grain who was credited with the provision of food and believed to forgive the sins of her followers when they immersed themselves in bulls’ blood. There was also Caesar Augustus, the Roman Emperor, whose worship in Pergamum was the first instance of an Emperor cult.
For Satan to have set up a kingdom in their city meant he must have had many loyal and obedient subjects at his beck and call. In the letter, we find evidence that Satan did not take the conversion of some of the inhabitants of Pergamum to the Christian faith lightly. They were wooed, molested, assaulted, and imprisoned in endless bids to weaken their will and get them to renounce their faith. Antipas, famed as the bishop of the church, was martyred publicly as an example to others in the town that had converted to Christianity. The warning was clear – a similar fate awaited those who insisted on maintaining their new faith. Yet, the members of the church in Pergamum remained true to the name of God and did not renounce their faith. Contrary to Satan’s plans, conversion to Christianity continued to increase, as people heard about the fate that led many to the stakes and kept them praising God while the flames licked hungrily about them, they longed for a similar experience and were led in penitence to pledge allegiance to the Most High.
This great controversy was not unknown to God, hence His message to the church: “I know where you live – where Satan has his throne… where Satan lives.” – verse 13. God made it clear to them that He was aware of their situation, the challenges they faced, and the resilient faith with which they met those challenges.
DIAGNOSIS OF THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF PERGAMUM CHURCH
As strong as the Pergamum church had been in the face of terrifying attacks on their faith, they were however, spiritually okay. Their camp had been infiltrated and they had been negligent in taking care of it. God therefore declared that He had a few things against them not withstanding their great faith:
“Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.” – Revelation 2:14-15
This church tolerated among them those who subscribed to false teachings, which they had carried over from the pagan gods they claimed to have severed ties with, was a problem. Balaam, a prophet of God who received a bribe from the pagan king, Balak, to curse the children of Israel – Numbers 24:1, taught Balak how to entice them to violate God’s commands – Numbers 25:1-2 Numbers 31:16. None can inflict more grievous harm on a group than he who knows the inner workings of that group!! So with Balaam’s help, Balak was able to injure the cause of God and derail God’s children in a way that no outsider could have done.
Balaam’s story is recorded in Scripture to serve as a warning against indifference or tolerance of his kind of teaching and the danger it heralds for God’s people. Like a cancerous tumor, such people must be rooted out and not allowed to flourish in the body of Christ, lest they grow in number and influence and destroy the entire body. Unfortunately, the church in Pergamum had left the clones of Balaam to infiltrate their camp with their evil teaching. They had allowed those who held on to the teaching of the Nicolaitans to infect them with their cancerous and dangerous teachings.
The Jerusalem Council had also specified concerning new believers that: “It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make I t difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood” – Acts 15:19-20
Though this warning from the Jerusalem Council had been made clear to the Pergamum church, they had disregarded it and had left these evil groups to continue to flourish among them, oblivious to the danger they were to the entire body of Christ and the danger they posed for its unity or prosperity. The diagnosis in the letter revealed to them a ticking time bomb. They were walking around with dangerous cancerous tumors attached to their insides, and nonchalant about the danger of their situation.
PRESCRIPTION FOR THE SPIRITUAL CONDITION OF PERGAMUM CHURCH
After diagnosing the hidden danger of the neglect of the church in failing to address the cancerous tumors of the false teachers attached to its body, the Lord gave the Pergamum church the urgent prescription: “Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth” – v 16. In other words, they were to quickly do what they should have done before the warning letter or leave God no other choice than to take care of it Himself. How dangerous for them!
God warned that, in dealing with the two evil groups of people, He would go through the entire camp and fight with the sword of His mouth. What a pandemonium that would ensue!! The influence of the offending groups was defiling and sinful. The tolerance of the rest of the members was also sinful before God, and therefore the entire group was equally guilty either by commission, or by association. As a result, God gave the leaders of the church the opportunity to repent and take appropriate steps to rid the church of the cancer that had invaded it. It was a prescription that was time-bound, so it had to be taken urgently. The Great Physician said he would soon get rid of the tumors and cleanse the body Himself, if the people He had given the responsibility failed to repent do so promptly.
A WARNING TO 21ST CENTURY BELIEVERS
If God had left the church in Pergamum without the warning in the letter He sent to them, they would no doubt have been totally destroyed. Satan had failed to get members to publicly renounce their faith in Christ but he was about to succeed to get them to gullibly compromise their Christian faith.
The same warning comes to us today. The church is the body of Christ – 1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 5:23 and our individual bodies, the temple of the Holy Spirit 1 Corinthians 6:19. Are there evil practices and teachings that we tolerate that can lead to our destruction? The letter to the church in Pergamum is the caution to us to quickly repent. God promises victory – “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.” – verse 17.
Stay blessed!
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