Continuing from Part 1 we shall now study the next two of the seven Churches, prophetically covering the period A.D. 312 to 1517. These two Churches are the Church in Pergamos and the Church in Thyatira.
The Church in Pergamos (Rev. 2:12 - 17).
1. Name of the recipient Church
Pergamos was the capital of Asia Minor and a flourishing center of politics, power, heathen worship and learning. It had temples of Zeus and altars offered to Aesculapius, its tutelary god. The people put serpents on their altars and worshipped them. This signified devil worship. Moreover, the cult of emperor worship flourished here too. It was the duty of every citizen to burn incense once a year to his deified image.
2. Christ's spiritual evaluation of the Church
Prophetically, the Church in Pergamos refers to the Church period from A.D. 312, when Constantine the Great proclaimed Christianity as Rome's state religion, until the year 590.
"Pergamos" means "marriage." While Constantine made Christianity the state religion, he also took advantage of it politically. He used the marriage of the state and Church (including the incorporation of the Babylonian religion's heresy) to consolidate the empire's unity.
Accordingly, in the annals of Church history, the Church in Pergamos represents the adulterous Church that compromise with the world. When suffering persecution, they became pure. But when they received blessings again, they compromised with the world, turning into Pergamos and falling to depravity in pursuit of worldly pleasure.
The Lord appeared to the Church in Pergamos as "He who has the sharp two-edged sword" (Rev. 2:12, NKJV).
Because this Church "have those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idol and to commit sexual immorality" (Rev. 2:14), it needed to repent, or He would come in judgment - fight against those people with "the sword of His mouth" (Verse 16) which is the sword of His Word.
3. Christ's Commendation
Jesus commended the Church in Pergamos for keeping its pure faith and not compromising with heresies. he especially pointed out a man named Antipas (Rev. 2:13). Tradition and history related this concerning the martyrdom of Antipas:
"At that time emperor worship was in full force. One day a Roman official took Antipas before the image of the emperor and said, 'Antipas, worship the image.'
Antipas answered, 'The King of kings and the Lord of lords is Jesus Christ only, so I will not worship any other god. Only Jesus.'
The Roman official was infuriated and shouted, 'Antipas, don't you know that all the world is against you?'
Antipas responded, 'Then I, Antipas, acknowledge Jesus as the Lord of lords against all the world.'
Enraged at this answer, the official ordered some men to heat up a brazen bull, and Antipas was put into it. There he was slowly roasted to death. Yet he never denied Jesus."
4. Christ's Rebuke
Jesus rebuked the Church in Pergamos, saying, "But I have a few things against you, because you have those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, ..." (Rev. 2:14).
When the children of Israel came out of Egypt and entered the land of Canaan, Balak, king of Moab, called Balaam, the prophet, and asked him to curse Israel. Balaam, whose eyes were darkened by power and money, advised Balak that if the Moabites tempted the Israelites with fornication, God would destroy them (read Num. 25:1 - 9; 31:16). So Balak had beautiful Mobite women dance lewdly on the altars of the idol, and the men of Israel committed fornication with the women of Moab and worshipped the idol. As a result, God's judgment came upon them, and thousands of people died in a single day.
The Church in Pergamos harbored fornicators, and the Christian Church of that day committed spiritual fornication by joining itself with the Babylonian religion.
The Lord also rebuked the Church in Pergamos for including some who held the doctrine of the Nicolaitans (Rev. 2:15).
The Nicolaitans were the followers of Satan. They introduced Greek philosophy into the Church and also caused it to commit fornication and adultery.
5. Christ's Exhortation
Jesus exhorted the Church in Pergamos, "Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth" (Rev. 2:15).
From this we know how indignant He was. The Church He bought with His own blood was tainted with heresy and immorality.
6. Christ's Promise
He promised that He would give the hidden manna to the person who repented and overcame temptation (Rev. 2:17). This hidden manna is heavenly, spiritual food - Jesus Himself!
He also promised He would give a white stone to those who overcame. This refers to the stone the court of that day gave as token to accuse criminals when they were found not guilty. On the other hand, if they were found guilty they were given a black stone. Therefore, Jesus was promising that when people repented, He would forgive their sins and make them righteous. The promise extend to us as well.
The Church in Thyatira (Rev. 2:18 - 29)
1 Name of the recipient Church
Thyatira was a small city in Asia Minor. The chief industry of this city was fabric dyeing. Fortune-telling was also prevalent, and numerous people would gather for this purpose in large temple.
2. Christ's spiritual evaluation of the Church
"Thyatira" means "continued sacrifice," which the Catholic mass is all about. In terms of Church history, Thyatira signifed the Dark Ages of the Church from A.D. 590 to 1517, when Martin Luther began the Refomation.
Jesus was described to the Church in Thyatira as having "eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass" (Rev. 2:18). He penetrates reality with those eyes and judges the Church with those feet. Brass speaks of judgment.
After Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire, the Church grew steadily more worldly. It left the true nature of the faith - the religion of the Word, praise and prayer. Lay people attending service only watched what was going on, while the priests offering sacrifices. Consequently, the faith of the laity atrophied into little more than spectating at rituals.
One of the abominable practices adopted by the Church was the selling of indulgences to collect contributions from the believers. It was a last unbiblical resort to finance the building of a new Church building for Saint Peter in Rome. Buying an indugence was a commercial transaction; it was like buying ticket to heaven, and it was adverised as such! However grave a person's sin may have been, it was immediately forgiven the moment he bought this indulgence. Even a person who was already dead and whose soul was thought to be in purgatory could get to heaven if his offspring bough indulgences for him!
A story was told that, Johann Tetzel, a priest who was commissioned to sell indulgences, beguiled believers, playing on their sympathies for departed relatives and friends whom they might release from the sufferings in purgatory "as soon as the penny tinkles in the box." Thus, God's spiritual gift of salvation was corrupted into a commodity to be fought like a sack of potatoes! In this manner the Church of that day, like the Church in Thyatira, became depraved. For this reason, most Bible teachers classified the Church in Thyatira as the corrupt Church.
Jesus said He would cast the Church that did not repent of fornication into a sick bed and kill its children (read Rev. 2:21 - 23).
Several times Jesus gave opportunities for the Church to repent in the dark period of the Middle Ages. Various movements arose and challenged the Church to repent and reform.
One of the first was the Albigenses, which arose around 1170 in southern France. Rejecting the rites of the Church, it put its effort into distributing copies of the New Testament. In those days the Church forbade lay believers to read the Bible. Every local Church had only one copy, and even that was chained to the pulpit so no one had access to it. When the reform movement became strong, Popel Inncent III sent crusaders and annihilated the Albigenses.
Another opportunity for repentance came with the waldense movement in 1170. Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyon, France, was their leader. The Waldence disguised themselves as tradesmen and peddled ware, distributing copies of the New Testament and preaching the pure gospel as they traveled. However, this movement also came to a halt through persecution.
Yet another opportunity for repentance appeared with the reform movement led by John Wycliffe, an Englishamn, he translated the Latin Bible into English and launched a compaign of spreading the Bible throughout the world. Jan Hus, who was influenced by Wycliffe, became the rector of a university in Bohemia. He cried for reform in 1369, demanding that the Church return to pure faith. In 1416 he was excommunicated y the pope and was finally burned to death in France.
On the day Hus was executed, the public square was filled with a large crowd. An effigy of a demon was bound to his body, which in turn was bound to a stake by a chain. Wood was heaped around his body up to his chin, and then set on fire. Historians noted that Hus sang hymns as the fire was ignited and began to burn his body. Numerous people witnessing the scene were moved to tears and became followes of the reform movement.
Because the Church refused to repent of her spiritual fornication, she had to be "cast into a sickbed" (Rev. 2:22). That bed was the Protestant Reformation led by Martin Luther, which supplanted the Roman Church as God's most faithful witness on earth.
3. Christ's Commendation
The Lord said, "I know you works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first" (Rev. 2:19).
He commended the works, love, service, faith and patient endurance of the Church in Thyatira.
4. Christ's Rebuke
The Lord issued a severe rebuke citing the Church's tolerance of Jezebel, the false prophetess (Rev. 2:20). Jesus was referring to a woman fortune-teller in Thyatira, who even went into the Church to practice her evil. But, symbolically He was referring to the Jezebel of the Old Testament. She was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and Ahab, king of Israel, took her to be his wife (read 1 Kings 16:29 - 33). She brought the worship of Baal into Israel and had the altars of the Lord God demolished.
Jesus rebuked the spiritual adultery of this Church that followed Jezebel, mixing faith and divination.
5. Christ's Exhortation
The Lord gave the Church in Thyatira the exhortation that it should not compromise with the shamanistic faith, but stand firm on the Word (read Rev. 2:24, 25). Our faith also should be based firmly on the Word. Extravagant fondness prophecy - an obsession with details not revealed in the Bible - might lead your faith astray just as in the case of the Church in Thyatira.
6. Christ's Promise
Jesus promised He would give power over the nations and the morning star to him who overcomes temptation (read Rev. 2:26 - 28). I believe the morning star signifies the second coming of Jesus Christ. If we stand firm on the Word with pure faith, we will have the privilege of taking part in the second coming of Christ - our part as the bride of Christ!
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