[Photo of serpents by Mostafa Meraji on Unsplash. In the city of Pergamum many people spent the night in the Temple of Askeplios, the god of healing and they had the pleasure of having a multitude of snakes crawling over their bodies in the darkness. I think I prefer the NHS! ]
To the church in Pergamum
[12] “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.
[13] “‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. [14] But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. [15] So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. [16] Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. [17] He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’ [Revelation 2:12-17 ESV]
Pergamum was an important city of 180,000 people, the seat of government in the Roman province of Asia. It was a major centre for the worship of the emperor, known as the imperial cult. In each of the seven letters, Jesus chooses one item from the previous vision to describe himself. When he was addressing the angel of the church at Pergamum, Jesus described himself as "the one who has the sharp two-edged sword" (Revelation 2:12). The sword was the symbol for the city of Pergamum and it was one of the few cities to which Rome had given the right of the sword, the right to inflict capital punishment. There is a reference to one of their number being killed and this may have been a judicial execution carried out by local officials on behalf of the Roman authorities. However, Antipas might have been the victim of a brutal attack by the mob or a lynching because of his beliefs. He might have been the first martyr in this area but he would be unlikely to be the last. There might well be another suggestion tied up in the symbol of the sword. Darrell Johnson suggests that Pergamum was at the centre of a fierce battle - a 'battle for the mind.' "Here a pitched battle was being fought in which the soldiers were not men but ideas [John W Stott]. This battle was being fought on two fronts, according to Darrell Johnson. The church was being bombarded from the outside by ideas which were in conflict with Christian values. But the church was also under pressure from within by false teaching and ideas. Darrell Johnson argues that the church was strong in defending the truth from the attacks on the outside but they were losing ground on the inside attacks which were more subtle.
The city of Pergamum was dominated by a massive hill which rose 1,000 feet above the city. On this hill there was a variety of heathen temples and altars. These included a temple to Askeplios, the god of healing. People came from all over the world to be spend the night in darkness with snakes crawling over them in the hope of being healed from their illness. There was also the temple of Zeus who was considered the greatest of the Greek gods. They spoke about "Zeus, the saviour." The temple of Zeus dominated the city as it towered on a high ledge 800 feet high. Pergamum was also famous for its library which at that time held 200,000 parchment scrolls. I understand that the word 'parchment ' is derived from the name Pergamum. So it is a city of culture and learning as well as idolatry and the worship of the Emperor.
'In every way Pergamum was a centre for ideas that blinded people to the truth - to the truth about God, about the world, about themselves. While the average tourist was blissfully taking pictures of the expressions of idolatry, Jesus grieved' [G. Campbell Morgan cited in Darrell Johnson: Discipleship on the Edge]. [There is an anachronism in this quotation!]
I have had a brief look at the Nicolaitans in another blog (Abusing God's Grace 29/05/2023). It is hard to do justice to the richness and complexity of the teaching in Revelation via Day Share without making the blogs too long. I am only going to have a brief mention of two aspects of this in today's blog. I am convinced that the reference to Balaam is the clue. Both groups - Balaamites (name from the Old Testament) and Nicolaitans (a first century title) - were engaged in the same false teaching that it was ok to sin because God's grace was readily available to us in abundance.
From a reading of the New Testament, it is possible to identify two aspects of their teaching. Firstly, these libertarians argued that it was ok to eat meat sacrificed to idols. An animal had been killed as part of the worship of a heathen god in the temple. However, this meat was then sold in the market place for public consumption. It was also a custom for Gentiles (non-Jews) to hold a feast in their home where they continued to extol the virtues of the particular god. You can well imagine the moral dilemmas this provoked. A citizen of Pergamum became a follower of Jesus but, of course, her relatives were still active worshippers of Zeus, the saviour God. The new Christian would be invited to go along to a night out in the home of a friend or a relative where there was a banquet in honour of Zeus and the main element was eating the carcass which had been part of an idolatrous celebration earlier in the day. This new believer would find it challenging when they began to toast the saviour Zeus. This was an act of blasphemy and dishonour to a young Christian who had just found the real Saviour! The false teachers - Nicolaitans / Balaamites - would assure her quietly that this was fine to engage in this social event as we all know that 'idols are nothing.' Zeus is not real so it does not matter. What a crisis of conscience.
There was a second moral dilemma which is even more up to date. The worship of heathen gods was associated with rampant sexual promiscuity. Casual sexual relationships were the order of the day. It was normal for a man to have his wife to give him children and to look after his household but to have casual sex with as many women as he could find. He could also visit the brothel where there were prostitutes readily available. We think that our society is promiscuous! The first century Roman empire was much worse. The Christians were out of step because they believed that marriage was a lifetime commitment between one man and one woman which was deeply significant spiritually as it represented a higher truth - the relationship between Christ and his bride, the church.
Jesus is portrayed with the sword in his mouth. He is the one who cannot tolerate evil. We need to make sure that we are following the standards of God's word and not the declining moral standards of this evil world. We need to engage in discipleship where we engage in meaningful, prayerful discussion where we apply the Word of God prayerfully to all aspects of our lives and support each other in the Christian pathway. We need to watch that we are not prepared to lower our standards by the slick arguments of clever folk who worm their way into our church fellowships.
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