Hi my dear people. How are you? Today I'm recording the fourth message on the series "The Seven Churches in Revelation" Reminding everyone that there were seven churches that existed in Asia Minor, current Turkey.
Seven local churches that actually existed, but that also have, each one, a prophetic calling. They represent a period in the Christian church that began in Pentecost with the beginning of the church, the coming of the Holy Spirit, until the rapture. Today, it's the fourth message, because actually, the first one was an introduction but the third church is the church in Pergamum.
Let's read in Revelation 2:12-17 “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. 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 Repent therefore!
Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. 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. Well, let's start by the city. Pergamum was the political capital of Asia Minor.
I was at approximately 120km north from the city of Ephesus. Among the things they bragged about, was that they had one of the greatest libraries in Antiquity, with approximately 200. 000 books, that rivaled the Library of Alexandria.
Later, the library in Pergamum was donated by Mark Antony to Cleopatra. Mark Antony the Emperor to Cleopatra. It's interesting that many scholars dispute and affirm that the parchment was first used in Pergamum.
So, the second aspect that I want to talk about is regarding Jesus, who I'm calling the counselor. He says in verse 12 of chapter 2 in Revelation: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. In that time there were several types of swords, but the sharp, double-edged sword was the one that could cut in any direction, so the soldier could strike in one way and when he was pulling back the sword he could striike again.
He wouldn't need to change the grip, and the Bible uses that to refere to the word of God, which is sharper than the double-edged sword, so here Jesus is clearly saying that His word is so sharp, and it discerns, it separates, it cuts, and therefore He knows all things, and no one can hide nothing from Him, because He has this sharp, double edged sword that discerns, separates soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and so on. What is Jesus' compliment to the church in Pergamum? He says: "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. " The first compliment given by Jesus is that they kept their faith in times of persecution.
Even though they lived in a place where Satan lives. This is very interesting because Satan's throne, usually is where the power of the world's empires against God were. So for a long time, Satan's throne was in the region of Babylon, because Assyrians, Babylonians, as well as Medo-Persians latter.
Even Greece and Babylon were places where Satan kept his throne, despite several successive kingdoms, but in the same region. Now, what happened is that Satan's throne was brought into the city of Pergamum. So for hundreds of years it was among the Babylonians and now it was in the region of Turkey In the region of Asia Minor.
What is interesting is that this region came to be what is called the Roman Empire of the East. The region is where Constantine established his Roman Empire of the East, in the city of Constantinople, current Istanbul, also called Bizantium. So certainly we're seeing now that Satan's throne was transferred - for reasons that we will talk about later - to the city of Pergamum.
The city of Pergamum had several idols and one of the worshiped idols was a serpent, by the way they worshiped living serpents, but there were also idols of serpents, and perhaps God is saying that Satan's throne was there because of this serpent cult, and we know that in the future, Satan will move again his throne back to Babylon. We can see that in Revelation 17 and 18. It's important to say that many Christians in Pergamum were martyred by their faith, and for some reason the Lord mentions one faithful man called Antipas, who died in that time of the church in Pergamum that comprises - we saw that the first church is the apostolic church, that goes from the year 33 AD until the year 100.
Symbolized by the church of Ephesus. Later the church in Smyrna talks about the persecuted church, mainly in the second century, but that church comprises the period from 100AD until 313AD, when Constantine institutionalizes Christianism - now the third church, the church in Pergamum, and in fact, the institutionalized church, later I'll explain more about that, goes from 313 AD until 590 AD. It's important to say that many people died because of their faith, but when in fact the implementation of the universal religion became official, gradually people no longer died due to their faith, but there still was those who during the implantation time died for the gospel.
The name Pergamum, it's important to say that Pergamum in Greek means marriage. What is monogamy? It's the marriage between a man and a woman?
What is poligamy? It is, for example, the marriage between a man and multiple women, or between a woman and multiple men. Gamos means marriage, so Pergamum is marriage.
but why was this church called by Jesus 'Pergamum'? Because there was a real church, a local church in a place called Pergamum, of the city of Pergamum, but on the other hand it also represents spiritually and prophetically, the Christian church that had a marriage, a spiritual alliance with paganism. Because we can't forget that Constantine was a pagan, he was a Roman, and when he built an alliance with Christians, with Christian leaders, so they would help him with his fight against Maxentius, because Constantine in 306AD, took over the Roman Empire of the East when his dad died.
However, the Roman Empire of the West, where Rome is, had Maxentius in power, so to unify the power of both Empires, Constantine had to fight Maxentius. Seeing that his army was not powerful for that, he made that alliance, that marriage with Christians, promissing this: if you support me and I win, you will never again be persecuted, because I had an encounter with God, I had a vision, and God spoke to me that I will win, so come with me, and besides protecting you, I'll institutionalize Christianism and it will become universal. The word universal in Latin is catholicus, from that we have the Catholic church, the universal church, because it was born not with Peter as they believe, but it was born with the institutionalization of the Christian church with Constantine.
What is the condemnation Jesus brings to that church? The church that married paganism He says, 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. Well, King Balak wanted, at all cost, to destroy Israel.
He couldn't do it. So what did he do? He hired Balaam, a prophet, to curse Israel.
However, every time that Balaam tried, he couldn't curse and ended up blessing and Israel prospered, and Balak was outraged - he was from Moab - and what would he do? He would go to Balaam and say, "prophesy, I will give you more money". Balaam would take the money and when he started prophecying, he couldn't do it.
There's the story about the donkey, the donkey would get stuck and stop, you know the story, and an angel was stopping the donkey, and the donkey was seeing the angel, but Balak wasn't. Well, when Balaam realized there was no way he could curse Israel, he called Balak and said, "Look, I can't curse against them, but I will teach you a way to destroy that nation. Send women, prostitutes who will lay down with the men there, and with the sin of mixing themselves with prostitutes, God will remove His blessing, anf if God removes His blessing from them, then you will win the war.
" So, the Bible condemns Balaam's attitude. Why? Because he was a prophet who sold himself for money.
He was a real prophet, but he was a prophet who didn't just want to have the gift, he wanted to be rich. In a way, this a challenge to all of us. Because there are many Christians who sell themselves, who in the name of faith, and using faith, sell themselves to get money, bringing messages that please the people, teaching the people to act differently from God's will, to do what they want to do, and that was Balaam's doctrine, and the Lord condemns not only the fact that he sold himself.
II Peter shows that very well. Chapter 2 verse 15 says: "They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness. " Here Peter is talking about many who at the end of times who will follow Balaam's path and sell themselves because they wanted the wages of wickedness, in other words, the money that comes with wickedness, with God's condemnation.
It's literally talking about churches that go astray, about pastors who started well but went astray, because of greediness and money. Here Jesus is condemning that church which institutionalized itself and we know that this is when greed entered, when members of the clergy started to want power and began to use politics, making wrong choices, that is, having relationships and alliances with promiscuous people, from a spiritual point of view, in return for favors and money, position and politics We know very well that it doesn't happen only in the Catholic church. Don't think that I'm talking only about Catholics.
Many Evangelical churches are just the same, with leaders, pastors, who are literally corrupt. People who sell themselves for politics, to support candidates in exchange for money. That filth that can exist inside the church.
It doesn't happen only in the Catholic church, but in the evangelical church is just the same, but from the prophetic point of view, and the period that represents the church in Pergamum is the period of the church that married the true Christian church that united itself with paganism. How did they unite? Don't forget, something that's very interesting is that Constantine when he won the battle, what did he do to turn the Catholic religion into a universal religion?
He started to offer benefits. Gold, white linen clothes, other gifts, spices, to anyone who converted. Everyone who got baptized, received expensive gifts.
Gold, silver, precious stones, clothes, the finest linen, he would offer that to people. So the Christian church was quickly filled with pagans who came for the money, but who didn't convert, so, they little changed their doctrines, that's when all the doctrines from paganism, among them idolatry, entered the Christian church. Only now, the idols were not anymore the idols from the Greco-Roman times.
They where the holy idols, saints from the Christian church, such as Peter, John, Joseph, Mary, and many more. So he instituted an official religion, but allowed pagans to "convert", without having true transformation and so, they brought heretical doctrines to the church, and that's the condemnation we see here, that Jesus talks about not only to Balaam's doctrine, but also the Nicolaitans' doctrine, as I have already told you, they were those who separated the clergy from the laity, between the called and the ones who are mere helpers, and according to the word of God all of us are called, and have a ministry, and must use the gifts, so that church, the church in Pergamum, although there were sincere people in it, people who were capable of dying for Jesus, but it was the church that was corrupted because they made an alliance, - that's the reason for the word marriage, Pergamum - with paganism. What is Jesus' advice for that church?
It's in Revelation 2:16 that says, " Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. " In other words, Jesus is saying, if you don't repent I will come with judgment.
What is Jesus' challenge for that church? It's in verse 17, "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.
" Manna always talks about provision, God says, to the ones who are faithful and win over the lies, deceit, and heresies, I will be their provider, and the white stone is an image taken from a Hebrew practice, from the judges' time. When someone was judged for a crime, the judge as he gave the sentence he had two stones, one black stone, and if he took the white stone the person was convicted, if he took the white stone the person would be absolved. And it wasn't by luck, he would really judge, but they had the symbolism.
As he was convicting he would use the black stone, and when he was absolving, he would use the white stone, and Jesus said that to the victorious He will give a white stone with the person's name written on it. What does that mean? That we, who keep our faith in obedience to the word of God, receive the absolution verdict because we have been forgiven by the blood of the Lamb Jesus.
Amen? Don't forget that the faith that saves is the only way, you can't be saved through your works, through the practice of indulgence, all practices that latter were used by the Catholic church, because they strayed from the sound doctrine. So, the white stone talks about salvation and about the name of the person who was absolved and his name written in the book of life.
Well, the church's period is the time between the years 313AD and 590AD. It's a time when the church becomes the official religion of the Roman Empire. The name Catholic comes from the Latin word for universal, meaning that from that moment on, everyone had to be Catholic, be Christian.
Well, as I told you, Constantine was a soldier who became an Emperor in the year 306AD when his father died, but he was the Emperor of the Roman Empire of the East, and to conquer the Roman Empire of the West and defeat Maxentius, he needed Christian support, and that's why that time is marked by a marriage, an alliance between true Christian Church and the pagan world, and that brought huge consequences for the Christian Church in that time Theologian Lorain Boettner, he listed some doctrines that were introduced in that time, but that aren't in the Bible. They are part of the church from that time. The church in Pergamum.
In first place is prayer for the dead. That habit of praying for those who died. No people!
The Bible says that once a person is dead the destiny is sealed. The person will either be saved and doesn't need prayer anymore, or the person is lost, and no prayer in the world can change the situation. The second wrong doctrine, but that was also inserted in the year 375 AD is worshiping saints and angels.
That's a doctrine in the Catholic church that is not biblical. Many Catholics worship their saints, they are devoted to them, besides worshiping angels. Worshiping Mary was also inserted during that time, in the year 431 AD, although Mary was an extraordinary woman, blessed among the women.
I have no doubt that Jesus chose the best, God chose the best to be a mother to His son. She can't be the object of our worship, because only God receives worship. Lastly, I want to mention - there are others - but the purgatory doctrine is very relevant, which was established in the year 593 AD, in the limit, by the end of the time of the church in Pergamum.
Another important thing is that in those times, there were extraordinary men, blessed men, who are important and I want to mention. First, John Chrysostom, who lived between the years 347 AD and 407 AD. Considered the greatest preacher of that time.
The second one, very important, Geronimo, who lived between 340 AD and 420 AD, who was the scholar who translated the Bible from Greek and Hebrew to Latin. The Latin Vulgate. In third place, I want to mention Augustine of Hippo.
Augustine of Hippo, called by some Saint Augustine, but I want to call him Augustine of Hippo. I believe that after Apostle Paul, he was the greatest theologian that ever lived. This man has extraordinary works.
Augustine lived between 354 AD and 430 AD. Considered by all, Catholics and Evangelicals as the greatest theologian after Apostle Paul. Well people, we're coming to the end.
I hope you're enjoying it. That you're being enlightened, taught, that you may be able to apply this word in your life. I ask that you help me sharing the messages, because they are so relevant.
They're helping many people to grow in faith, to take a stand next to the Lord. Amen? I love you all.
In the name of Jesus, God bless you. May the Lord be with you and your home, and with the ones you love. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
