Revelation Class #11

Jesus says to John:

Revelation 2:12 "And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this: (v13) I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith, even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. (v14) But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit immorality. (v15) Thus you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. (v16) Repent therefore; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth. (v17) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.

       Again, we see a very stylized form of communication. Each of the letters to the churches is written "To" the angel of the church at whatever church. In the "From," we see included part of the vision that John had of Christ at the end of chapter one. Each of those parts relates in some way to the particular church. Jesus says, “I know what you are doing.” Then there is usually, “but I have something against you,” and Jesus condemns them in some way. Then finally, “to the one who overcomes,” there is a promise. All of these letters have this same kind of basic structure.

       Robert Mounce (who does not agree with the preterist position, but is very scholarly in his understanding of the historical churches), writes, “The road north from Smyrna follows the coastline some forty miles, then turns inland in a northeasterly direction along the valley of the Caicus River. About ten miles inland from the Aegean Sea stands the impressive capital city of Pergamum. Pliny called it “by far the most distinguished city in Asia” (Hist. Nat. v. 30). Built on a cone-shaped hill a thousand feet in height, it dominated the surrounding valley of the Caicus. Its very name in Greek (Pergamum) means “citadel. Mounce further writes, “Although the site appears to have been inhabited from prehistoric times, its rise to prominence came in the third century BC when it became the capital of the Attalids…It boasted a library of more than 200,000 volumes. Legend has it that parchment was invented there…” (We know that parchment existed long before the city was built, so that part is probably not true).

       Mounce continues, “The most spectacular aspect of this remarkable city was the upper terrace of the citadel with its sacred and royal buildings. Of these, the most remarkable was the great altar of Zeus which jutted out near the top of the mountain. A famous frieze around the base of the altar depicts the gods of Greece in victorious combat against the giants of earth (symbolizing the triumph of civilization over barbarism.” Religion flourished in Pergamum. It was the center of worship for four of the most important pagan cults of the day. They were: Zeus, prevalent throughout most of the world at that time; Athena, the patron goddess; Dionysos; and Asklepios, the patron saint of healers (his symbol was a serpent), who was also called by the Greek word meaning “savior.” Is it any wonder that the Christians would have a problem with this? We see that there were a lot of things going on at that time that would have caused persecution of the Christians to be much greater than we might imagine.

       The shrine of Asklepios, the god of healing, attracted people from all over the world. One commentator called it “the Lourdes of the province of Asia.” It was where people went for a religious experience of healing. Of greatest import to the Christians living in Pergamum was the fact that it was the official center in Asia for the Imperial cult. Remember that in those times. people worshiped the emperor; he was considered to be a god. This began with Julius Caesar, who was elevated to god-hood after his death. It continued with Augustus who followed him and was proclaimed a god during his lifetime, and every emperor after that was also proclaimed a god. The Romans worshiped their Emperors. They built temples dedicated to them. Pergamum was the first city in Asia to receive permission to build a temple dedicated to the worship of a living ruler. This was also happening in Rome, but Pergamum was the first city in Asia to be allowed to build a temple to a living ruler.

       In 29 BC, Augustus granted permission that a temple be erected in Pergamum to the divine Augustus and the goddess Roma. Of all the seven cities of Revelation, Pergamum was the one in which the church was most likely to clash with the Imperial cult.

       The leader of the city, because he was so important, had absolute power. He had the power of life and death. Revelation 2:12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this… Why did Jesus choose this symbology as befitting Pergamum? Remember, this leader of the city of Pergamum had absolute power. He had the power of the sword, to take life or to give it. On the contrary, Jesus is saying, “No, this person is not the one who has absolute power.” The one who has the sharp “two-mouthed” (literally in Greek) sword says this! So Jesus, as the true ruler of the world, is declaring His power over the secular ruler, and the people would have understood that. The ruler of Pergamum has a temporal power of the sword, but Jesus has the ultimate, eternal power of the sword.

Revelation 2:12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this… Jesus is declaring Himself to be the supreme ruler, not this person who was the head of the Roman city. (v13) I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is… Why would Jesus say “I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is?” I believe it was because Pergamum was the center of the Imperial cult. It was the center of four of the major religions of the world at that time. All of these cults were immoral and ungodly. So, very clearly, this was a place where Satan dwelled. It was a wicked, evil place. It was a place where people worshiped the emperor as a god.

…and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith, even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. What does Jesus say about this pastor; this angelos? He is saying that he was faithful servant. The pastor was teaching correctly that Jesus is the only name by which people can be saved. I wish we would see that kind of clear, uncompromising teaching in the church today, but unfortunately we don't. We see hints of it in the church in Pergamum.

We don't know who Antipas was. But no doubt he was someone very well known at the time. Notice what is said about Antipas: My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. If you turn back to chapter 1, verse 5, this is also what is said about Jesus: …from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first-born of the dead… Wouldn't you like to be commended in the same way as Jesus? This Antipas must have been quite a guy. He was probably a martyr, a leader in the church who stood up for Christ. We know he was killed in Pergamum as a result, as part of the persecution. Jesus calls him My witness, My faithful one.

(v14) But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam .  The name Balaam is derived from the Hebrew word Bala, meaning to swallow down. Therefore the name means “one who swallows the people.” Balaam was a priest. He was called by the ungodly leaders of Moab to come and curse the Israelites, which he agreed to do for money (Numbers 22). As he was on his donkey, riding toward the encampment of Israel, the donkey came to a certain place and refused to go further. So Balaam beat him until finally the donkey spoke to him and told him he saved his life because the Angel of Wrath was there. We don't learn much about the teaching of Balaam in this incident recorded in the book of Numbers. We do know he was terribly unsuccessful in his ability to curse the Israelites, who ended up defeating the Moabites. But much later, the Israelites were eventually overcome by their enemies, because of the teaching of Balaam.

We do learn something about his teaching here in Revelation: …who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit immorality. This was important for Jesus to point out, because it was part of the pagan worship system in Pergamum. This is what they did in worship. It was the way people worshiped in most of the temples. A sacrifice was made and then there was a meal made of the sacrifice (just as in the Old Testament worship). Part of the animal was sacrificed to the god and burned, then the rest of it was eaten. Then they participated in sexual immorality with the temple prostitutes, both male and female. That was the way they communed with their god, and that is clearly what Jesus is condemning here. But He is not only condemning the eating of meat sacrificed to idols, but the fact that Christians were actually worshiping in the pagan temples of Satan. Christians in the church of Pergamum were apparently participating in such ungodly worship.

Yet is that really any different than today? Is that any different than the Israelites, who for 40 years in the desert had the visible presence of God with them in the column of cloud by day and the column of fire by night? And yet at the same time they were worshiping the star gods and the moon gods and the gods of the planets that they had brought along with them, while God was there, watching them. We shake our heads and wonder “how they could do that?” But, is this really any different than if we go to an ungodly worship service today and participate, just to get along? We're not to get along by compromise, which is what Balaam taught Balak. He said to teach the people to compromise, just a little bit. What we really need to understand as Christians is there is no compromise. We must stand on the word of God.

       Balaam means “swallower” or conqueror of the people. Nicholas (Nicolaitans) also means conqueror of the people. They were teaching the same kinds of things. Jesus says (v15) Thus you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Jesus very clearly links them together, that they were doing the same thing. He then gives a command: (v16) Repent therefore; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth. When you go through the letters of Revelation, you can see a pattern. To the church at Ephesus Jesus says, “repent,” to the church in Smyrna He does not. To the church at Pergamum He says, “Repent,” to the church at Thyatira He does not. To every other church He says, “Repent.”

       Jesus says, “Repent” to Pergamum, and we can see a comparison here. Jesus said to the church at Ephesus, Rev 2:4 But I have against you, that you have left your first love. (5) Remember therefor from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; ... They were very legalistic. They tested everybody and made sure they conformed to the word of God, but they had left their first love. They were too legalistic. The church at Pergamum had the opposite problem; they were too lenient. They wanted to get along with everybody. There has to be a balance between legalism and leniency. Yes, we need to test the doctrine, test what the church is teaching against the word of God, but we cannot be legalistic in that. We need to do it with a good heart, with humility, recognizing that it is God who changes us.

        (v17) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches… Remember these letters are written to the pastor, singular, but at the end Jesus says “to the churches,” plural. Remember all the churches were situated along a trade route. You go from Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamum and on around. Very likely what happened is that these letters went to the particular church, and then were circulated on this trade route so that all of the churches would read them and perhaps make a copy. We see this same pattern throughout the New Testament, such as when Paul talks about “my letter to the Laodiceans (which we don't have as part of the NT).” The letters from the Apostles were apparently read in all of the churches as part of their worship services.

It's very important for pastors today not to allow the Nicolaitans and the Balaams into the church unchecked, where their teachings will undermine God's word. But we need to do it in a loving way, with the additional purpose of restoration, of bringing that person back into the Kingdom.