1. Introduction:
After Ephesus and Smyrna, Pergamum is to that vision, the Lord led John and place before him the image of what will be the Church in the third stage of its historical existence.
While at Ephesus Church were at risk of losing his first love and Smyrna to that of persecution, we are confronted with a danger Pergamon much more subtle and more pernicious danger is that of the mixture, mixing between right and wrong, between truth and falsehood, between righteous teachings, biblical teachings and whose sources and origins have nothing to do with the Word of God.
This, indeed, which, historically, has marked the evolution of the Church. Cited after Smyrna, Pergamum reminds us that to oppose the plan of God and His plan for the Church, Satan uses two operating modes: the first one used in Smyrna is violence, the second is used Pergamum, is sort of corruption. One, the violence is mostly a procedure outside (it is rare that a church collapsed because its members come to kill each other), the other corruption, the mixture is a procedure which works from the inside.
3rd in the order of the Lord visits to churches, Pergamum inherits two disadvantages of the two first visited churches: Smyrna persecution continues, Ephesus, the doctrine of Nicolaitans: 2.6 . But instead of being hated, as was at Ephesus, the doctrine is here received, accepted.
What Satan can not do with violence (destroying the Church), he tries to do with corruption. The whole story is there to testify and say that if the Church is suffering under persecution, it is rare for her these days are times of weakness. On the contrary! As we have seen the Church of Smyrna to which the Lord had nothing to reproach, persecution, if it has the effect of reducing time digitally Church, leads the latter to worry and focus on the essentials.
entirely different, and we'll see what happens when the church moves from persecution to the recognition, even friendship and approbation of the world. Not so much the Church is in danger of losing its integrity and fidelity to the teachings and doctrines of the Word of God. Damage occasioned by the persecution begin and end with her. It is not the same with false doctrine. Sown in the flour a good education, it acts as a leaven which eventually penetrate the entire crust: cf Mat 13,33 . Après Pergame, ce n’est pas Smyrne ou Ephèse que l’on trouve, mais Thyatire, une Eglise qui n’est pas seulement infectée par de fausses doctrines, mais qui a carrément à sa tête une fausse prophétesse.
Telle est aussi la réalité de l’histoire. Les fausses doctrines entrées dans l’Eglise les IIème et IIIème siècle vont se traduire les siècles suivants par un système totalement étranger à la Parole et à la pensée de Dieu, système qui subsiste jusqu’à aujourd’hui : le catholicisme avec à sa tête ce que, d’un point de vue biblique, I can only describe as a false prophet: the pope.
How this system is born? How could he enter, then grow to the point eventually lead even the Church of God? That is what we see now with Pergamum.
2. The city of Pergamum:
"I know where you live, this is where is the throne of Satan: v 13. It is impossible to understand what the Lord refers without historical knowledge of what, at the time when John wrote, happening in the city of Pergamon.
Today unimportant small village, Pergamum was at the time of John, the capital of a province rich in Asia. One of the monarchs who governed formed within it a monumental library, with 200 000 books, library designed to compete with its rival in Alexandria. For the record, it's just that we Pergamon name Parchment, who said in Greek and German Pergamene Pergament.
At Pergamum, a historian said, everything had to be greater than elsewhere: libraries, colonnades, temples, amphitheater ... If the city is called the throne of Satan, this is not for his wealth, but first and foremost for the impressive number of cults occult character that the city was home.
While we were in Bruges this week, my wife and I were very impressed by the number of churches that are scattered throughout the city, and more, by the amount of countless statues the "Virgin and Child" engraved on houses and in every corner. No doubt surpassed Pergamon idolatry still what we've seen in Bruges.
According to historians, there were at Pergamos
- a magnificent temple dedicated to Athena, the goddess of wisdom
- a temple to Bacchus, the god of festivities
- the temple of Aesculapius, the god-serpent of health had Pergamon appointment of thousands of pilgrims come to seek healing (the god Asclepius appears on the logo found at the sign of our pharmacies)
- a shrine dedicated to Jupiter. The temple of Zeus at Pergamum was removed by column, then transported to Europe and rebuilt before the first World War in Berlin, in the eastern sector of the city
- the first temple dedicated to a Roman emperor Emperor Augustus is perhaps this fact more than all the others that Pergamum is called by Jesus the throne of Satan.
Comes to the worship of demons, the city of Pergamum had become his time in the throne of Satan is to say the district General for his influence on the ancient world.
3. The Church of Pergamos
The first lesson we take from this that Jesus said about the Church of Pergamos is that if the Church is a holy society, development apart for God, inhabited by the Spirit of God, it is nevertheless not immune against the influence of the society that surrounds it. The example of this is already given in the NT through Corinth, a city known for its promiscuous (live the Corinthian), lightness found in the lives of members of the church: 1 Cor 5.1 .
Given the mentality of the society around us, the local church of Pergamum us wonder: what, in our behavior, our thinking, reflects the influence of the surrounding world in which we swim? To what extent what we experience, practice, reflecting the fact that we are truly a people set apart to God, and to what extent is he mixes in our lives, our ways of thinking between what the world says and ambient done and what the Word of God asks us: the impact of psychology, relativism, rationalism, the materails ...?
If there are good things in the church of Pergamum (Antipas as faithful witnesses who were prepared to give his life to defend the truth), the Lord does not hide it However, some objections against it. The fact that the Church of Pergamum to live in a harsh environment on the spiritual plane is not an excuse for the Lord to justify his errors. Having the Word and the Spirit of God, we have everything we need to live the Christian life that the Lord asks us!
What was the fault of the Church of Pergamum, the claim that the Lord was against it? What He tells us v 14 and 15 about it requires explanation.
4. The teaching of Balaam
As we could not understand why Jesus called Pergamum the throne of Satan without knowing its history, it is impossible to grasp what the Lord referred concerning Balaam without knowing at least the biblical narrative that speaks.
To understand, so let's open our Bibles Numbers 22.1 to 14.
Background: We meet Balaam in the middle of the desert in one of the many episodes that punctuate the history of Israel, God's people out of Egypt by God's power and led Moses.
While God's people approached the borders of the promised land, we see great win military victories over the kings who inhabit the territories over which it passes. Numb from 21.21 to 36 preceding passage we just read, we reported and Israel has just conquered the territory of two powerful kings: Sihon and Og.
Spectator flash these victories, Balak, the king of Moab, which is next on the list concerned. If the weapons and the military option does not succeed, how can he stop Israel? That's where the idea came to him to appeal to the seer Balaam, known for his occult powers and spiritual. Balak then sends emissaries to Balaam and said: Come with me and curse Israel because, he says, I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed: v 6 .
Balaam asks, before giving its final response, a time of reflection. The same night, God came to Balaam to curse Israel for banning him because, he said, Israel is blessed. The emissaries returned to King Balak to give the answer of Balaam.
The story does not end there. The rest of the story tells us that Balak does not renounce his project. He sends emissaries new rich presents in order to win Balaam. Although refusing at first, Balaam, with the permission of God (God does not change his mind: as Balaam wants From there the lead), part. En route, however, it has to do with the manifestation of God's wrath will try to stop it by talking about his ass.
Balaam listening and then committed before God to decide not to Balak on Israel that he inspired the lyrics. This is what happens and tells us Numb 23 and 24.
You would think by reading the book of numbers without reading the passage from the Apocalypse that the story of Balaam's it. In fact, it is not. Because Jesus tells us that after have blessed Israel, Balaam, Balak saw disappointed, has provided further guidance.
Since spells and enchantments have no power over Israel, Balak Balaam suggested another way to bring down the people of God is the way of seduction, the mix of compromise .
It's sort of like Balaam said to Balak: "Since you can not defeat Israel on the outside, either by arms or by the occult, I propose another way : trying to corrupt from within. You have a powerful ally with you in Israel: his own evil heart. Make vibrate the strings of his natural heart and I am sure he will respond. Thus, it is not you who will destroy this people, but by exposing himself to the Judgement of God! "
Cunning and teaching of Balaam fiont fly. Immediately after Numb 24 can find Numb 25.1-5 that shows the effectiveness and success of the whole doctrine of Balaam based on the mixture and compromise. Seduced by the daughters of Moab, the son of Israel and adopt their customs are beginning to offer sacrifices to their gods.
5. Application for the Church
While output of persecution, the Church of Jesus Christ appears as an irresistible force in the world and victory, the same causes produce the same effects. Seduced by the Roman authorities who ordered that Christianity became the state religion, the Church is mired in the mixture, and adopts multiple foreign articles of faith to the Gospel. It's dark shot in error and spiritual adultery and loses what, until then, was his strength : His commitment to God and His Word!
is the time of the birth of the great Christian heresies said that remain to this day:
- the birth of the cult of Mary, purgatory
- the primacy of the bishop of Rome over other
- the invention of the clergy alone ability to understand and explain the word and give the sacraments
- the celebration of Mass
- the birth of Tradition placed on the same level as the Bible, etc ...
6. Remedy against the evil plaguing the church of Pergamum
The mixture can be entered at Pergamum, the Lord what remedy he recommends to heal this church infected by false doctrine. As is the case for Smyrna and Ephesus, it is in the name under which the Lord comes to this church lies the secret of the remedy can cure: v 12-18
is the double-edged sword that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord: Rev. 1.16 that can only come for the issuance infested by mixing church doctrine. This sword, which alone has the power to sharpen our discernment, is the Epistle to the Hebrews says, the sword of the Word of God: Heb 4.12 .
face of bribes which the Lord has also been the object in the desert, we remember that his defense was made of only one thing: It is written. That's what defense mode He also asks us to adopt towards all doctrines by which Satan tries to infiltrate the church to destroy it from within.
As idolatry spread at high speed in the people of Israel, the Bible records that Phinehas, a nephew of Moses, who was a priest, took his spear and pierced one shot an Israelite and Moabite who slept together: Numb from 25.6 to 9 By his zeal, he ended the trial God had already decimated 24 000 people in the camp, which earned him the subject of an everlasting covenant of peace from the Lord: Numb 25.10 to 13.
In a time when truth is mixed with error, the Lord is always in search of Phinehas, of holy men with the Word without compromise, with him able to wield the sword of the mind to separate the people of God that is pure, what is not, that is profane what is sacred. This is the particular challenge which comes to all men God in all ages.
7. Rewards promised to the winner
Even if the Church of Pergamos is infected by error, it is still possible within it to be a winner. A person who, where is the throne of Satan, He is faithful, the Lord promises two awards:
- the first is to feed the hidden manna. This windfall, we know, was the heavenly God, every day, sent down from heaven to feed His people miraculously in the desert. God, likewise, promises to his people remain faithful to Him in the midst of error to support them and feed them every day by miraculously bread of His Word
- the second is a white stone on which is written a new name that only he who is known for.
There was, it seems, in antiquity, 3 specific uses for the white pebble:
- in a trial, the black stones symbolize the conviction and the white stones acquittal.
- The white stones were also used in a vote to express his vote during a debate
- The white stone was used at last the master of ceremonies at a dinner for the name of the guests.
The idea behind the white stone on which is the name of the winners, is the promise God that he will sit at His table and close to Him all those who, over the centuries, will be firmly attached to the Truth. He will call himself by name, the name that will characterize what they were (True, Vaillant ...) to make them sit with him at his right hand in heaven!
God gives us our time to be found among these winners!
I am coming soon!
