“To the angel of the church in
Pergamum write:
These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 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.
14 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. 15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 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.
Pergamum was a great political and cultural center in the Roman Empire. It had a library of 200,000 books, and would have been filled with the arts, food, and all manner of entertainment. It would have been a place much like our modern cities. David Guzik of the Blueletterbible.org states, “It had temples to the Greek and Roman gods Dionysus, Athena, Demeter, and Zeus. It also had three temples dedicated to the worship of the Roman Emperor.” Satan liked the place so much that he set up a throne there. Yet the people of Pergamum kept their faith.
The faithfulness of the Pergamum church should slap Christian’s of our generation back to reality. The church on the corner of this city was not that of a lukewarm Christian place of worship but an occult body filled with forms of worship that exalt the creation above the creator and make men gods.
While the men of that city are making men gods, Jesus points to the faithfulness of one man, his name is Antipas. Church history knows nothing about the man, but God himself writes his name in the book that will never perish or fade away.
The Lord is always sitting choices before us. They are not difficult choices. They are the choices between right and wrong. The sins of the flesh, like Balak, and Balaam’s, are obvious according the book of Galatians. They are not hidden. They do not have to be routed out. They just have to stop.
Mankind’s conscience is sufficient in and of itself to teach us not to kill, steal, and destroy. God adds His Word to confirm what is already written on our hearts. From Adam to Mosses there was not written word, yet Noah and Abraham were righteous before God.
Men know they are not God and they are smart enough to know that something does not come from nothing. If we persist in sin it is because the pleasure of sin has clouded the penalty of sin in our minds. Jesus says of such people he will fight them himself, and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.
To those who are faithful, he gives tokens of the rewards to come. For this church it was a white stone. “In the ancient world, the use of a white stone had many associations. A white stone could be a ticket to a banquet, a sign of friendship, evidence of having been counted, or as a sign of acquittal in a court of law. Jesus may have any one of these meanings in mind, but at the very least we know that it has the assurance of blessing.” (blueletterbible.org)
God wants to give us a new and great name in heaven. I would recommend John Bevere, audio book Affabel, as a means for understanding this truth. Antipas is described as a faithful martyr. What a name that would be to carry for all of eternity. The Lord is giving stones with names initially known to the one who receives it. Listen to the Spirit, and ask the Lord what he is calling you today. If you are not happy with it just remember others served him where Satan has his throne. Let us be lights in a crooked and perverse generation, not reflections of the world around us. The Church at Pergamum did it. Jesus commended and rebuked this church. Let us learn from what he said to them.
These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. 13 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.
14 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. 15 Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16 Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 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.
Pergamum was a great political and cultural center in the Roman Empire. It had a library of 200,000 books, and would have been filled with the arts, food, and all manner of entertainment. It would have been a place much like our modern cities. David Guzik of the Blueletterbible.org states, “It had temples to the Greek and Roman gods Dionysus, Athena, Demeter, and Zeus. It also had three temples dedicated to the worship of the Roman Emperor.” Satan liked the place so much that he set up a throne there. Yet the people of Pergamum kept their faith.
The faithfulness of the Pergamum church should slap Christian’s of our generation back to reality. The church on the corner of this city was not that of a lukewarm Christian place of worship but an occult body filled with forms of worship that exalt the creation above the creator and make men gods.
While the men of that city are making men gods, Jesus points to the faithfulness of one man, his name is Antipas. Church history knows nothing about the man, but God himself writes his name in the book that will never perish or fade away.
The Lord is always sitting choices before us. They are not difficult choices. They are the choices between right and wrong. The sins of the flesh, like Balak, and Balaam’s, are obvious according the book of Galatians. They are not hidden. They do not have to be routed out. They just have to stop.
Mankind’s conscience is sufficient in and of itself to teach us not to kill, steal, and destroy. God adds His Word to confirm what is already written on our hearts. From Adam to Mosses there was not written word, yet Noah and Abraham were righteous before God.
Men know they are not God and they are smart enough to know that something does not come from nothing. If we persist in sin it is because the pleasure of sin has clouded the penalty of sin in our minds. Jesus says of such people he will fight them himself, and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.
To those who are faithful, he gives tokens of the rewards to come. For this church it was a white stone. “In the ancient world, the use of a white stone had many associations. A white stone could be a ticket to a banquet, a sign of friendship, evidence of having been counted, or as a sign of acquittal in a court of law. Jesus may have any one of these meanings in mind, but at the very least we know that it has the assurance of blessing.” (blueletterbible.org)
God wants to give us a new and great name in heaven. I would recommend John Bevere, audio book Affabel, as a means for understanding this truth. Antipas is described as a faithful martyr. What a name that would be to carry for all of eternity. The Lord is giving stones with names initially known to the one who receives it. Listen to the Spirit, and ask the Lord what he is calling you today. If you are not happy with it just remember others served him where Satan has his throne. Let us be lights in a crooked and perverse generation, not reflections of the world around us. The Church at Pergamum did it. Jesus commended and rebuked this church. Let us learn from what he said to them.
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