Chapter 6

Burning with Doctrinal Zeal

Revelation 2:12-17

As we come to the third of the seven churches of Asia whom Christ addressed in His Revelation to John, we find that it is located in the city of Pergamum (the NKJV translates this “Pergamos,” but I will use this more familiar rendering). We saw that when Christ spoke to the church at Ephesus, that though she was sound doctrinally and like Christ she hated false teachings of the Nicolaitans, she had become unloving. Practically the opposite is true of the church at Pergamum. She was faithful and true in her love for Christ, but the church had grown tolerate of the Nicolatians. Christ is telling His church that her doctrine must be pure.

This last statement poses a problem for the church today. In order to have pure doctrine, you must have clear thinking. But many in our day do not like to think. That is the p oint of the book Neil Postman wrote, called Amusing Ourselves to Death, which details the devastating impact image-based entertainment such as television has had on our culture. Postman explains that the word “amuse” means literally “not thinking.” Our media-driven culture thrives on image, with television screens wherever you go, and it deadens our ability to reason and make proper distinctions. Charles Colson explains and comments on Postman’s analysis with these words:

"The book was welcomed by critics and reviewed in all the right magazines, but not once did we learn where Postman got his ideas. It turns out he got them from the Bible. Postman's thesis is that different types of media encourage different ways of thinking. The printed word requires sustained attention, logical analysis, and an active imagination. But television, with its fast-moving images, encourages a short attention span, disjointed thinking, and purely emotional responses. The medium of communication actually helps shape the way people think. Postman says he first discovered this connection in the Bible. As a young man, he read the Ten Commandments and was struck by the words: "You shall not make for yourself a graven image." Postman says he realized that the idea of a universal deity cannot be expressed in images but only in words. As he writes, "God...was to exist in the Word and through the Word, an unprecedented conception requiring the highest order of abstract thinking."

The effect of being lovers of imagery rather than lovers of truth has been devastating on the church. People who call themselves Christians today believe things that have been considered heretical throughout church history. They profess love for Christ even as they openly practice behavior that the Bible says disgusts Him. These “professors” think that truth can mean different things to different people as the Bible is open for self-interpretation. This would be “amusing” if it were not so indicting. The church is unthinkingly becoming irrelevant, so much like other religions that there is no longer any uniqueness.

We need to wake up from our mindlessness, for look how Jesus comes to the church at Pergamum! He comes as the One with the sharp two-edged sword coming from His mouth ready to make war with it (verses 12 and 16; see also Revelation 1:16, 19:15; Hebrews 4:12). God has given us His revelation through the Word of God (John 1:1), preserved in the written Word which is the Bible. To truly understand Him, we must be students of theology (theology means “the study of God”). For theology directly affects how we live in this dark world , as we shall see. If our theology is corrupt, then our living shall be corrupt as well. Notice how Christ seriously emphasizes this to the saints at Pergamum.

Satanic influences are not only outside but also inside the church

As Christ speaks to the church at Pergamum, He speaks to them these jolting words, "I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is" at the beginning of verse 13, and then He emphasizes this again at the end of this same verse by saying this is "where Satan dwells. "

How did the church live where Satan dwells and rules? This is Jesus' manner of describing the city of Pergamum. If we take a look at the main attractions this city had to offer in John's day, namely three temples found in the city, we begin to see why Jesus refers to it in this manner.

Located in Pergamum was a temple to the god Asclepios, the god of healing. Pergamum was a medicinal center in the ancient world, but attempts at healing were intertwined with pagan worship. Asclepios was deemed the Savior and was worshipped. The idol for this god was fashioned in the form of a snake seated on a throne, and in this reference to Satan by our Lord he is using this god as a picture for the Christians of the satanic influence and power in the city.

Another temple located in Pergamum was dedicated to Zeus. Situated on a hill that was eight hundred feet high above city, this grand temple acknowledged the king of the Roman gods. The altar to Zeus in this temple itself was forty feet high, upon which burnt a continual fire. Looking at this temple from below, it would have appeared to the observer in the city streets as a smoking throne. To be considered a faithful citizen of Pergamum, one would have to do proper homage to these gods.

The third temple found in this city was devoted to the Roman Caesar. Pergamum had served as the capital of area of Asia for nearly four hundred years, and at the time of this letter was kept as a Roman stronghold. The proconsul of Pergamum was given what the Romans called the “ius gladii ,” or the right of the sword. Anyone failing to ascribe to Caesar the title Lord, and offer a sacrifice to that effect, was considered unworthy of citizenship and could be executed on the spot.

Despite these terrible pagan and political pressures put on the church, she had stood strong. Antipas (whose name means “against all”) was a martyr that Jesus commends here in verse 13 as one who exemplified the spirit of the church to not deny the Christian faith by following the pagan gods or bow to Caesar. Yet Jesus looks upon this church, the One who has the true ius gladii or power of that two-edged sword proceeding from His mouth, and determines that that are some matters in Pergamum that need His careful, piercing judgment. In effect Jesus says that Satan is not only outside this congregation in the world out there, but he is prowling around in the false workers within the congregation.

Before I explain fully what these Satanic influences were, let me make this re-emphasize this point. The greatest destruction that comes on the church comes from within its boundaries. It comes in the form of those subtle, compromising, destructive heresies that are straight from the pit but dressed up like Christian orthodoxy. Since many churchgoers today often go to church to be entertained and amused, they then go not thinking and embrace false teachings as proper Christianity, unaware that they are being seduced. Friend, you must think about and examine what you are being taught (see Acts 17:11; Ephesians 4:14). If the lead apostle was called “Satan” because he spoke in a manner contrary to the gospel (Matthew 16:23), can you then just blindly entrust yourself to any person who happens to step behind a pulpit? Satan prowls the earth, seeking whom he may devour.

When these Satanic influences are discovered, they must be quickly removed

Verses 14-15 tell us what these influences were in the Pergamum church. A group of people in the church called the Nicolatians existed who were causing the church to sin (see Chapter 4 of this book). Their teachings were like that of Balaam, the premier false prophet of the Old Testament whose seditious ways we learn of in Numbers 22-25 (see also Numbers 31, especially verse 16). Recall that Balak the king of Moab had hired the false prophet Balaam to curse Israel as she had journeyed through the wilderness into his land. Balak wanted Balaam’s curse to give him the power he needed to defeat the Israelites. Yet Balaam could not, as he was constrained by the Spirit of God to keep pronouncing blessings upon Israel instead of curses.

Yet later the Scriptures teach us that he must have whispered something demonic to the king of Moab. "Balak, your approach is all wrong. Instead of a direct, frontal assault against Israel, which will be easily spurned, just send some of your good-looking women over there instead. They'll lead the people into immorality and then idolatry, and then you will not have to do a thing. Just stand back and watch, for God will judge them and fight your battle for you." Balaam was evil in his intent, but he was also right in his prediction. 24,000 died in a God-sent plague that day.

The same type of thing was happening in Pergamum. They could not have been just openly cursing Jesus, as the church would have never tolerated that. Instead, the Nicolaitan teachers were sowing stumbling blocks by telling the congregation that Christianity gave you the freedom “to live.” The powerful social structure that existed in Pergamum considered it to be foolish to live with one woman all your life in marriage when so many women were available. “So enjoy life, and do not be bound by old dogma that restricts you!” the Nicolaitans must have taught naïve church members as they unthinkingly went from one sexual partner to the next. Those of Pergamum would have considered it to be anti-intellectual to allow for only one God. “Worship Jesus, surely, but do not be too separatist and proud to eat the meat offered to Asclepios for your good health,” would have been common counsel coming from this group. The Nicolaitans were not blatant heretics, but seductive ones.

This insidious spirit is found today in the church. In one of the largest mainline denominations, liberal teachings began to find a place in the church at the beginning of the twentieth century that were trying to compromise Scripture with claims of the academic world and science, particularly evolution. Though these teachers proclaimed they loved Christ, they said the Bible did not affirm fundamental teachings such as the virgin birth, the divinity of Jesus Christ, the vicarious and atoning character of His death, His bodily resurrection, and His second coming. When p eople rose up in the church to defend these doctrines, they were labeled as intolerant of other’s positions and derisively called “fundamentalists.” These so-called fundamentalists, men such as J. Gresham Machen, were seeking to make the point that if the church is not faithful to the clear teachings of the Word of God, Christ will remove the light of its witness. They taught that a wrong theology leads to a wrong lifestyle. History has shown they were correct. Recently, this same denomination met and gave out three "Woman of the Year" awards. Two of these were given to lesbians, who are clergy in the church. A few years following the granting of these awards, the church voted to remove homosexual restrictions for the clergy! Read those last three sentences again. Are you thinking? They surely were not, and as a result have lost their gospel witness to the world.

When we see these types of influences, we must remove them from the church or the church will become apostate. In verse 16, the Lord says “Repent,” and then promises He will make war with the sword of His mouth. The need to make war over satanic influences is emphasized repeatedly in the story involving Balaam. Remember when Balaam was on his donkey headed to Balak? The donkey stopped, and at one point Balaam beat him. The donkey then speaks and asks, "Why are you beating me? I’m trying to save you." Balaam looks up, and sees the angel of the Lord with his sword drawn. The Lord is at war with false prophecy and the false prophets. At the end of this story, when the camp of Israel had fallen into idolatry and adultery with the Moabites and Midianites, the priest Phineas ran a spear right through an Israelite man and Midianute woman embraced in sexuality. Phineas is commended and rewarded by the Lord for his zeal (Numbers 25:10-13). Later on in numbers, when God commands the destruction of the Midianites and the Israelites war over them, we read this commentary in Numbers 31:8, "Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba - the 5 kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword." False teachings and those who promote them must be judged by the sword of God's Word. Where guilty and unrepentant, they must be expelled from the church, recognizing that corrupt theologies will corrupt the church. Endless debates and never-ending study committees masked over with a lot of talk about Christian love and acceptance are not the answer for theological unfaithfulness. The false teachers must be dealt with judiciously, but quickly!

If we are faithful to remove these influences, we will be filled with Christ

Jesus promises to those who respond to this challenge that He will give to them "hidden manna" (verse 17). Manna was the heavenly bread that God gave Israel to eat for forty years in the wilderness. Of this food we read that it "rained down manna for the people to eat, for He gave them the grain of heaven. Men ate the bread of angels" (Psalm 78:24-25). The manna was on the ground every morning sparkling in the sun. Manna certainly was not hidden, so what does Christ mean by calling it such here?

Recall that there was some manna that was hidden. Moses had told Aaron to take a golden jar, put some manna in it, and then place it inside the ark that was in the holy of holies.

No one could see it, for it was hidden in this mercy seat, or throne, of God. As the bread of life from heaven (John 6:35), Christ is promising the church here is that if they are faithful to not eat food offered to idols before the throne of Satan, but remain true to the Word of God that is life itself, they then will eat of a bread that the world cannot see. They will taste of Christ before the throne of mercy in the very presence of God.

Not only that, but they will be given a white stone with a new name only He knows (verse 17). Often when people in the Scriptures come into contact with the Lord, they are given a new name. Abram became Abraham; Jacob became Israel; Simon became Peter. Why does the Lord give a new name? To demonstrate that these that He has redeemed now belong to Him. You name what you own, and here Christ is saying that those who burn with doctrinal purity are uniquely possessed by His Spirit, by Christ Himself. They are given a white stone with this name to signify that they are pure, living stones of His holy temple, the church (I Peter 2:4-5). The world and even the strong and arrogant in the church may consider you foolish and label you with derisive words like fundamentalist or Bible thumper. But to Christ, those who pursue doctrinal purity for His glory alone are choice and precious stones in His sight.

Conclusion

Again hear what the Spirit is saying to the church, friend. People think theology is unimportant, and to engage in doctrinal discussion or even doctrinal battles is unbecoming of the Christian. Yet it is a very loving thing to protect the church from error that threatens the souls of its members. May we have a spirit like Phineas, yeah like Christ, and wield the sword of His word against all that would stand opposed to the gospel.