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Part 5
CHAPTER V. THE PERGAMUM LETTER And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write, These things saith he that hath the sharp two-edged sword, I know where thou dwellest, even where Satan's throne is, And thou holdest fast my name, and didst not deny my faith, Even in the days of Antipas my witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, Because thou hast there some that hold the teaching of Balaam, Who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, To eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also some that hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans in like manner.
Repent therefore, or else I come to thee quickly, And I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna, And I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, Which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it.
Revelation, Chapter 2, verses 12 to 17. Pergamum was an illustrious city of Mysia, given over almost entirely to wealth and fashion. Unlike Ephesus and Smyrna, it was not a center of commerce.
Aesculapius, the god of medicine, was worshipped there under the form of a serpent, and the special aspect of this worship was that of the study of the secret springs of life, and like all nature worship, sincere as may have been the beginnings thereof, it had issued in corruption. This fact may serve to throw light upon some of the statements that occur in the letter. We have no account whatever of the planting of the church, and therefore can only look at it as seen in the epistle now under consideration.
Christ speaks to the church as the one that hath the sharp two-edged sword. That sword, as we have seen, is the symbol of the discerning and executive power of truth. The fitness of this lies in the fact that the church is harboring error.
Not the fact that the church has self-adopted the teaching, nor that she has, as a corporate whole, committed herself to these heresies, but she has become guilty of broad churchism, attempting to find room within her pale for all sorts and conditions of men and faith. Approaching the church as the one from whose mouth proceeds the sword, he comes to deal with the false teachers within it. First let us notice his commendation.
I know where thou dwellest, even where Satan's throne is, and thou holdest fast my name, and didst not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwelleth. The Lord recognizes the peculiar dangers and difficulties surrounding these people. The underlying suggestion of the commendation is that it is an honorable thing to have held fast his name, and not have denied his faith.
The inference is that if there was any place that it might have been probable that people should have ceased to hold his name, it would have been in these peculiar and difficult circumstances, in which the church at Pergamum found itself at the time. The commendation consists in the twofold statement, Thou holdest fast my name, thou didst not deny my faith. My name, my faith.
And the emphasis of the commendation is discovered by consideration of the peculiar perils threatening these people. I know where thou dwellest. That statement in itself is full of comfort.
In every circumstance of trial and tribulation, and persecution and peril, we may hear the words of the Master, I know where thou dwellest. In this case the place is described by the startling phrase, where Satan's throne is. Satan has ever some base of operation, some central place for his throne.
It is very difficult to refer to Satan without wanting to say a great deal about him, and much needs to be said in these days. And in a study of this epistle it is necessary to pause for a little upon this subject. Wasting no time over arguments concerning the personality of Satan, but accepting that as an established fact, there remains certain co-related facts, which need restatement.
First, Satan is not God, and therefore neither has he any of the essential powers of Deity. He is neither omniscient, omnipresent, nor omnipotent. He does not know as God knows.
He is not everywhere, as God is everywhere. He is not all-powerful, as God is all-powerful. He is a fallen angel.
Lucifer, son of the morning, how art thou fallen? In his fall and degradation he has retained all the essential capacities of his unfallen state. The wisdom, the possibility of locomotion, and the marvelous power, which were his before he fell, are his today. But he is not God.
He dragged with him in that awful fall hosts of the bright ones, and with the marvelous wisdom of the unfallen nature, now prostituted to base uses, he marshals them for the doing of his work. To state the case bluntly, if the devil is here, he is not there. If the devil is there, he is not here.
His messengers cover all countries, and include all ranks of life in their operations, and these ramifications of evil are under the supreme control of Satan, who is the prince of the power of the air, the God of this world, the son of the morning, fallen as lightning from heaven. For the carrying out of his enterprises in the world, he has somewhere a place where his throne is, a base of operations. It may be that he has more than one such center, and he himself will pass from point to point with rapidity of lightning.
He is ubiquitous, as we use the word of a general who, on the field of battle, seems to be here, there, and everywhere. Only more so. He is not omnipresent as God is, without motion and without effort.
At the time of the writing of this letter, for some strategic reason of his own, he had his seat at Pergamum. The master knew it and indicated it. Truly the devil manifests a great deal more wisdom than Christian people very often.
His throne will be at some strategic point from which he can best use his influence. Almost invariably that throne is at the center of worldliness and worldly greatness. Wherever his throne is, is a place of peculiar peril.
As it has been forcefully said, in the greatest centers of worldly power, there his eye more peculiarly watches, his energy more peculiarly acts, his influence more peculiarly emanates. Now this was the peril of the church at Pergamum. In Smyrna it was a synagogue of Satan.
In Pergamum it is the throne of Satan. In Smyrna opposition to the Christian church was veiled behind religion. The devil operated through the Jewish synagogue, and Christ with infinite scorn and contempt spoke of that religious center as the synagogue of Satan.
In Pergamum it is quite a different matter. Satan's throne is there, and the peril that threatens the church is not so much that of direct opposition as that of patronage. Where Satan's throne is, the saints are in peril of entering into alliance with the forces under his control.
The history of evil, I think, will prove the assertion that Satan loves to have his seat in the midst of worldly wealth, and all that stands for the feeding of the flesh life in men. The master did not say to men what we often say, you cannot serve God and the devil. I do not question the accuracy of that statement, but it is worthy of notice that the master said, you cannot serve God and mammon.
Thus he revealed the antithesis between the two great forces which govern human lives, God and mammon. God governs man through the spiritual side of man's nature, and man can only be governed in the highest aspects of his life when he is so governed. Mammon, which stands for all the worldly power and worldly greatness, the things which the men of the world value, as a governing force issues in the degradation of man, proving he cannot be perfectly governed in flesh by the things that minister to flesh.
The devil lurks behind mammon, sets his throne up at the point where it gathers its force, and from there rules men. If you think to-day for a single moment of the great evils that are blighting our lands, and if you take time to think far enough back in the history of these things, you will discover that the invariable impulse of evil is mammon and the love of gold. Behind the drink traffic, behind the unholy and iniquitous crowding of the poor into dwellings of which our cities ought to be ashamed, behind the breath of vile impurity that spoils life as it passes across it, is mammon, the love of gold, and behind that, using and manipulating it, the devil sits upon the throne of power.
The peril which ever threatens a church situated in such a city is that it may enter into alliance with mammon, and so pass under the control of Satan. Pergamum was perhaps the wealthiest city of the seven, and there was Satan's throne, the base of his operations, the place from which he governed the goings of evil in that whole district. If you ask me where Satan's throne is in England, I do not hesitate to say that it is in London.
If you ask me where his throne is in America, it would be difficult to answer, for there seem to be several places, one in the east at least, one in the middle west, a strategic point, and others there may be on the far west coast, where the gates are opening toward yet further enterprises. Be sure of this, that where the excellencies of God's earth create special possibilities for man's abuse, there the devil sets his throne. Having recognized this peril, let us now notice the commendation, Thou holdest fast my name.
Christ's name is ever the symbol of his nature, and this first word of commendation declares that the church at Pergamum has been loyal to the person of Christ. There had been no denying of any part of that strange and mystic fact of his personality, that personality that can be compared to nothing, and that can have nothing compared to it. His name stands for a person utterly separated from all others, and utterly unlike them in its totality, while akin to God and man in its duality.
Christ says, You have not denied my name. You are loyal to the central fact of Christianity. Thou holdest fast my name, which is the sign and symbol of my nature.
Again, Thou didst not deny my faith. Note specially that he does not say, You have not denied your own faith, but my faith. In the letter to the Hebrews the writer speaks of Jesus as being the author and finisher, not of our faith, but of faith.
That is to say, he lived and wrought upon the principle of faith, and through his victory was the author or the file-leader, as the word literally is, and perfector or vindicator of faith as a principle of life. The faith of man exercised in his victory is response to his faith. The fact that the church at Pergamum had not denied the faith indicates that they were loyal, not only to the person of Christ.
The fact that the church at Pergamum had not denied the faith indicates that they were loyal, not only to the person of Christ, but that they evidently rested in his accomplished purpose. His faith had operated to perfect realization of a divine purpose of redemption. Their faith operated in him for the appropriation of that redemption.
The redemption was that of regeneration as justification, renewal as sanctification, realization as glorification. The force that was sufficient to bring him to victory was that of his faith in God and his faith in men—faith, that is, in the wisdom and the love of God, and in the possibility of man brought under the influence of that wisdom and that love. This was the mighty principle that bore him up and carried him on, until his faith, triumphant even over death, became the life principle for ruined men, and their faith centered upon his victory appropriated the value of his faith.
His faith would have been denied by their lack of faith in him. On the other hand, his faith is affirmed by that confidence in him which created their character and issued in conduct. Thou holdest fast my name is the commendation of Christ upon the loyalty of men of Pergamum to his person, the peculiar, separate, unique person of Jesus Christ, the one and only person of his order that the world has ever seen.
The name of Jesus stands for his personality, for the human and the divine, for the divine and the human, for that strange, mysterious combination that has baffled the theology of every successive century, and concerning which no final word has yet been said, because no final word can ever be said, because no finite mind can grasp the infinite mystery of God incarnate. To that name these men had held fast. Thou didst not deny my faith indicates their confidence in his mission, confidence in his atoning work.
His name marks the glory of his person. His faith marks the perfection of his purpose. It was a wonderful testimony that the master bore to this church at Pergamum where Satan's throne was, the center of wealth and power, the home of mystic thought and occult study.
The church had been loyal to the person of Christ, more mysterious than the mysteries of Pergamum, loyal to the faith of Christ, bringing men to the true springs of life which these dwellers in the wealthy city were professing to give themselves over to discover. Now mark his complaint. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there some that hold the teachings of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.
That is one thing. So hast thou also some that hold the teachings of the Nicolaitans in like manner. That is the second thing.
Let us examine them, for they reveal one great fact to which the Lord objects in this church at Pergamum. It is necessary that we note carefully what is here said. A very tender and delicate distinction is drawn between the church and certain persons within the church.
He has something against the church, but he is careful to show that it is not that the church holds the false doctrine, but that she is in fellowship with those who do. Not, I have a few things against thee, because thou holdest the teachings of Balaam, but, I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there some that hold the teaching of Balaam. The church was loyal to the mission of Christ, and did not deny the faith, but what he had against them was that they were tolerating false views.
What the church lacked was discipline. What cursed the church was a false charity. For the emphasis of this point, notice the closing words of the Master.
Repent, therefore, or else I come to thee quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. With great delicacy and fine distinction, he draws the line between the and those holding the false doctrine, and yet he now declares it as being against the whole church, that it tolerates these people within its borders. What then is the doctrine which is being tolerated, and to which our Lord takes objection? Some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.
What is this teaching of Balaam? Let us look very carefully at the structure of the statement. I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there some that hold the teaching of Balaam, and then there really follows a parenthesis, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel. Omit the parenthesis and then read the statement.
I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there some that hold the teachings of Balaam, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication. Now is it to be understood that the master meant that Balaam's teaching was that men were to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication? I think not, although they are the exact things which logically followed the teaching of Balaam, and exactly the same perils which threatened the church at Pergamum. May we not reverently attempt to paraphrase the words of Christ, so that their meaning may be clear to us.
It is as though he had said, This is what I have against thee. You have people, who in order that they may eat of the things sacrificed to idols, and in order that they may indulge in the sin of fornication, are holding a doctrine which excuses the actual wrong. The wrong thing is the sacrificing to idols and the fornication, but behind the wrong conduct is the wrong creed, and they are holding the doctrine of Balaam in order to excuse or justify conduct which is wrong.
If this be the interpretation, then it remains that we should ask, What was the teaching of Balaam which made possible such awful conduct? The story of Balaam is contained in the Book of Numbers, chapters twenty-two to twenty-four, and at the end of the twenty-fourth chapter it would appear as though that story is concluded, but it is not. Let me in a few words epitomize the whole story. Balak, the king of Moab, a man under the influence of the sophistries and incantations of a certain class of men, sent for Balaam.
He wanted Balaam to curse the nation that had come up out of Egypt, believing that a curse pronounced would work ruin upon Israel. We do not know who Balaam was. When Balak sent for him, it was that he might hire him.
That word, hire, must be carefully remembered in the study. He offered him reward if he would curse Israel. Now what happened? God appeared to Balaam and warned him not to go.
Balak sent his princes back to Balaam, offering him silver and gold and honors if he would come. Balaam, lured by the hire, started, and on his way encountered that remarkable incident of the appearance of the angel and speech of the dumb ass. The result of Balaam's conversation with the angel was that the angel warned him not to go.
Balaam, terrified, offered to go back, but now the angel said, You must go forward. He came to Balak, and on a high mountain seven sacrifices were offered, and he opened his mouth to curse and instead spoke words of blessing. Balak took him to yet another mountain, with like result.
He hoped that a third place might bring the desired cursing, and again the sevenfold sacrifice was offered, and Balaam spoke. There are, however, no prophecies in the whole book of God more wonderfully beautiful than the things that fell from his lips. The anger of Balak was naturally then kindled, and he said, I called you to curse, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times.
He rid himself of Balaam, who returned home. So ends the twenty-fourth chapter. What, then, is the doctrine of Balaam? Now the fact is that it has not appeared at all in the story as contained in these chapters.
To discover it we must pass into chapter twenty-five, and there we read these startling words. And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab, that is, with the daughters of this king Balak and his people. Now specially note, for they, that is the children of Moab and the daughters of Moab, called the people unto sacrifices of their gods.
And the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baal-pur, and the angel of the Lord was kindled against Israel. Now this is the strangest thing possible.
Balaam, instead of cursing the people, had blessed them, and the next thing we read is that these very people Moab wanted to destroy are enticed to the lewd feasts of Moab, and to all the awful corruption that follows upon such a proceeding. How has this come about? The answer is to be found by passing still further into the twenty-third chapter of the book of Numbers, and the sixteenth verse. And in the words therein contained, the whole mystery is solved.
Moses is speaking, and he says, Behold, these, that is, the women of Moab, caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord, in the matter of pure. Here we touch the secret of the whole thing, and it is a startling revelation. It is evident that when Balaam utterly failed to curse, he went home with the lust of higher still in his heart, and began to corrupt Israel.
This he did by persuading them to social alliances with Moab, saying that according to the prophecy he had been forced to utter, Moab would be unable to harm them. The doctrine of Balaam, broadly stated, was undoubtedly that seeing that they were the covenant people of God, they might with safety indulge themselves in social intercourse with their neighbors, for no harm could happen to them. Both Peter and Jude refer to Balaam, and they both tell us that the motive of his teaching was that of higher, but neither of them declare what the teaching was.
There can be no reasonable doubt that in effect his declaration to the children of Israel was that their covenant with God was so sure, as would witness the blessing he had been compelled to pronounce, that they need not be anxious about their conduct. His teaching issued, as Jesus says, in the eating of things sacrificed to idols, and the committing of fornication. It was the perilous and damnable heresy that sin cannot violate a covenant.
Then a second fact in the complaint. So hast thou also some that hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans in like manner. What that doctrine was I do not profess to know, but I know its issue, and I am not sure that the in like manner do not refer to the similarity between the teaching of the Nicolaitans and that of Balaam, rather than to the fact that men held that doctrine as well as the other.
Technically there may have been a difference. The issue of both was the same. What then was the danger in the church at Pergamum? There were persons associated with the church, who held a doctrine which gave them license to indulge in sins which were the special peril of all life in Pergamum.
There was the splendor of a great temple worship, with its seductive feasts, and impure gaieties. This question of things sacrificed to idols, and of fornication had arisen long before, and had been remitted to a special council of the church at Jerusalem. The story of that council is recorded in the Acts, chapter 15.
Its decision was that while they did not desire to insist upon the right of circumcision, they charged the Christians dwelling in these Asiatic cities, that they should not eat things sacrificed to idols, nor commit fornication. In the first letter to the Corinthians, beginning with the sixth chapter, the apostle deals with this very subject of fornication, and of things sacrificed to idols, and he distinctly forbids them on apostolic authority, not merely to the one church accord, but to all the churches of the district. For note well these words, And so ordain I in all the churches.
Thus that church had the definite teaching of the apostle, that it was wrong to eat the things sacrificed to idols, and yet it was tolerating persons who were finding a way to excuse these popular sins of the city. They held fast the name, they did not deny the faith, but they put false emphasis upon the value of the name, and false application of the force of the faith, claiming that these things were of such value, and such force, as to cover, and make of no vital importance, certain forms of popular wrongdoing. Thus there was heresy in the church at Pergamum, the heresy which has come to be known in latter days as the antinomian heresy, the heresy which says, You are so safe in the name and in the faith, that it matters little about your conduct.
You may mix with the sinners of Pergamum, and follow their habits, and yet share the benefits of the covenant. This is the teaching of Balaam, and it had its recrudescence in the church at Pergamum. The Lord is terribly severe in His denunciation.
The church at Pergamum, in its corporate capacity, had not indulged in these forbidden sins, neither endorsed the teaching of Balaam. Its fault lay in its lack of discipline, in that it tolerated within its borders those holding the doctrine. The whole church did not hold the doctrine, but for some mistaken idea of expediency and policy, these people were permitting those who did hold it, to remain in fellowship.
Said Christ, Thou hast them there. Thou art tolerating the people who hold the doctrine, which can only issue immoral corruption. Turn now to the counsel.
Repent. This word is addressed not to the people holding the doctrine, but to the church and to the angel. In what sense can they repent? The only repentance possible to the church was that of the exclusion from its fellowship of the persons who held the pernicious teaching.
That doctrine must not be tolerated. The warning is very solemn. I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth.
Unless you exercise your discipline as a church, and exclude these people, I will come and fight against them. What an inference of love lies behind this threat! It is as though the Lord would say, Discipline these people, for the judgment will be swift and heavy if they are not excluded. For the sake of the men that hold pernicious doctrine, they should be excluded from the churches.
There are men in the borders of our churches, to whom we are doing incalculable harm by allowing them to remain there. We allow them to remain, and they imagine that they are in a place of safety, when they are in the place of death. We are sometimes inclined to treat this warning as though it were not alarming, but I want to say that it is one of the most solemn in all the epistles.
It is a warning that the Lord Jesus will come, and by exercise of righteous judgment, will remove what the church itself refuses to remove. The supreme illustration of the solemnity of it is to be found in the letter to the church at Corinth, where disorders had arisen, and Paul wrote words which must have made men tremble before them as to what should be done with the wrongdoers. In that same epistle, you will find that the apostle marks this solemn fact, that Jesus Christ, in dealing in judgment with the church, has before now had to remove by death the wrongdoers for the purification of the church, and for the making possible for its testimony of light in the midst of the darkness of the age.
If, therefore, I understand this message of the letter to the church at Pergamum, it is as though the Lord had said, Unless you repent and deal in discipline with these men, I must fight against them with the sword of my mouth, and that sword will not be found to be a method of argument or a new enunciation of truth. It will be a judgment swift and sure upon the evil workers, in order that the church itself may be free and may be pure. Then the Lord, in whose heart there was a tenderness even toward the evildoers, utters his promise, To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna.
That is the first half of the promise, divine sustenance. And why did Jesus speak of it as manna? Because manna was divinely supplied, and yet had to be humanly gathered. Hidden manna, the word of God upon which man lives, as against the doctrine of Balaam, in accepting which man perishes.
The true bread, the bread of life. The applicability of this promise to these people is seen when it is remembered how the very heart of the false religion of Pergamum consisted in the attempt to feed upon secret mysteries of life. Those who overcome these subtle temptations, the Master promises that they shall feed upon hidden manna.
And then the other portion of that sweet promise, To him that overcometh, I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it. The suggestiveness of that white stone is not perfectly clear. There have been many interpretations.
Personally, I would be inclined to think that they all have some value. From them let me select four. The white stone was given to a man who after trial was justly acquitted and went forth clear from condemnation.
The white stone was given to one who, returning from battle, having won victories, bore his triumphs with him. It was the reward of victory. The white stone was sometimes given to a man as a token that he was made a free man of the city.
It indicated his free citizenship. And yet there is one other meeting, perhaps the more beautiful than all, very sweet and tender. There was the white stone known as the terra hospitalis.
Two men, friends, about to part, would divide a white stone into two, each carrying with him half, upon which was inscribed the name of his friend. It may be that they would never meet again, but that stone in each case would be bequeathed to sun, and sometimes generations after, a man would meet another, and they would find that they possessed the complementary halves of the one white stone, and their friendship would at once be created upon the basis of the friendship made long ago. All these seem to me to be probably suggested by this white stone.
First, the white stone of acquittal, which is justification. The white stone of victory, being triumph over all foes. The white stone of citizenship, which marks the freedom of the city of God.
And then the white stone of unending friendship, my name written on his half, his name written on mine. The central lesson of this study is a very solemn one. The Church of Jesus Christ must not tolerate within her borders those who lower the standard of truth's requirements.
This is not a question of holding the truth. The Church at Pergamum was orthodox. It is a question of the right application of truth.
The error of these men is one that in subtle form threatens all churches even until this hour. It is that if a man's creed be right, his conduct does not so much matter. Truth never excuses sin.
All forms of sin are to be treated with ruthless and pitiless severity. And if a man holding any form of teaching should attempt to excuse sin, he is to be excluded from the fellowship of the saints. Purity of doctrine has its danger.
A man may be so loyal to the name and the faith that almost before he knows it, his zeal for these things may make him blind to the presence of teaching which will undermine their value. The test of doctrine is purity of conduct and character. The seal of the Master has two sides, on each an inscription.
On the one side the words are graven, The Lord knoweth them that are his. On the other side these words, Let him that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Any attempt to efface the second side of the seal is blasphemy, an error to be banished with exclusion from the fellowship of the church.
God's order is the order of peace. But it is always peace based upon purity, for the wisdom that is from above is first pure and then peaceable. End of chapter 5