Pergamum

More from Maurice Smith of the Parousia Network.  I thought his article on Ephesus was profound.  Here's this week's installment on Pergamum:

Pergamum: A Compromised Church And A Revolving Fireplace (Revelation 2:12-17)

Maybe you remember the scene from the movie, "Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade". Indiana and his father are stuck in a revolving fireplace which revolves between a room on fire and a room filled with Nazis who want to kill them. After a rotation through this dilemma, Indiana’s father remarks, "Our situation has not improved!" Yep, some days the spiritual battle is like that. Now you know how the church at Pergamum must have felt. And therein lies a story of compromise, hard choices and repentance.

"And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The One who has the sharp two_edged sword says this: ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan,s throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith, even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.’" (2:12-13)

Pergamum was the administrative center of the Roman province of Asia. It had the twin distinction of being a center for the Imperial cult of Caesar worship, as well as the home of the great temple and altar of Zeus, situated on a hillside from which it overlooked and dominated the city. It really must have looked like "Satan’s Throne" to those Christians who lived in the city below. Satan ruled this town, and he had help from the Romans.

As we learned during our look at the Church of Ephesus, Jesus introduces Himself in a manner unique to each particular church. To the Church at Pergamum He introduces himself as "the One Who has the sharp two-edged sword." Why was this special? Because Jesus wasn’t the only person in Pergamum who wielded a two-edged sword. So did Caesar. The profession of Christianity had been forbidden by law throughout the Empire since the days of Nero, some twenty years earlier. Christians who refused to offer incense at a bust of Caesar while declaring "Caesar is Lord" were subject to the sword . . . or worse. Apparently, that’s what happened to Antipas (or "Antipater") whom church tradition says died, not by the sword, but by being placed inside a bronze bull and burned to death during the reign of the Emperor Domitian. Ouch! Yep, life was a little on the challenging side for believers who lived "where Satan dwells." They were confronted with rampant, even satanic, paganism (often involving temple prostitution) on the one hand, and state mandated and enforced idolatry on the other. Like Indiana Jones in a revolving fireplace, their situation was not much improved! And it was about to get worse.

"‘But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality. ‘Thus you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans . Repent therefore; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.’" (2:14-16).

O.K., this will take some "unpacking." The whole sordid affair with Balak (King of the Moab) and Balaam took place during the 40-year "wilderness wandering" episode of Israel’s Old Testament history. You can read the whole thing in the book of Numbers, chapters 22-25 (to pique your interest, it involved frightened Kings, lots of money, a talking donkey and a sword-wielding angel - details to follow). It all culminates in Numbers 25 where we learn that the sons of Israel "began to play the harlot" (i.e., engage in illicit sex) with the women of Moab and Midian, and to eat things sacrificed to their gods. Balaam himself was eventually killed when Israel destroyed Midian (see Numbers 31:8 & Joshua 13:22).

In His message to the Christians at Pergamum, the Risen Christ reduced the above incident to its basics. Balaam taught (imperfect tense in the Greek, "continually taught") Balak and his people to do three things in order to destroy the people of God: 1) Throw stumbling blocks before them, 2) get them to eat food offered or sacrificed to an idol (we’ll call this "oblique idolatry"), and 3) encourage them to engage in illicit sex (sexual purity in all its forms is one of the distinctive marks of genuine biblical/Christian faith).

So, what’s all this got to do with the Church in Pergamum? Enter the Nicolaitans. The word "nicolaitans" is a compound word, formed from two words: nikao, which means "to conquer" or "to rule over" and laos, which means "people." Hence, "to conquer and rule over the people". Interestingly, the Old Testament name Balaam is derived from two Hebrew words: bela which meant "to conquer" and ha’am, meaning "the people". Balaam taught Balak how to "conquer" God’s people. Both situations involved teachers who "conquered" or "ruled over" God’s people by leading them into bondage by means of false teaching and compromise. According to the church father Irenaeus, the Nicolaitans were followers of Nicolaus of Antioch who had abandoned right doctrine (yes, doctrine is important - even in house church) and both taught and lived "unrestrained indulgence." Hippolytus agreed and noted that the Nicolaitans practiced "indifference" regarding what a man ate or how he lived.

Apparently, in Pergamum this indifference had led to compromise with the Imperial Cult of Caesar worship. The Nicolaitans taught that, when confronted, Christians could avoid Caesar’s sword through indifference and compromise, like the Bishop in the movie "Kingdom of Heaven" who, when on the brink of annihilation at the hands of the Muslims, counsels the Christian General, "Convert now, repent later." The Risen Christ, speaking through the Apostle John, understood that, like Balaam, the teaching of the Nicolaitans would become a stumbling block (Greek: skandalon), leading the people of God into compromise, idolatry and more. In both the Old and New Testaments, compromise and idolatry are related to moral impurity - God understands something here that we apparently do not. His admonition to the Christians at Pergamum is blunt, unequivocal and necessary. Like Indiana Jones in a revolving fireplace, you must choose: face Caesar’s sword as the price for your faithfulness to Christ, or face Christ’s sword as the price for your unfaithfulness and compromise with Caesar & paganism. And, no, He never said it would be easy; only that it would be better . . . and that He would be with us.

The solution to this dilemma, like that to all such dilemmas of compromise, is simple: Repent. Genuine personal (and corporate) repentance is the God-appointed means of seeking Christ’s forgiveness and of throwing ourselves upon the mercy of our God. As David discovered during the nasty episode of conducting a forbidden census (1 Chronicles 21), it is always better to cast oneself upon the fathomless ocean of God’s mercy, than to place oneself into the hands of men (1 Chronicles 21:13).