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The Seven Churches: Pergamos (Worldly), Revelation 2:12-17
Updated: Oct 9, 2020
The Lord's Revelation
"These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword" (Revelation 2:12)
Isaiah 49:2: "And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; In the shadow of His hand He has hidden Me"
Revelation 1:16: "He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword"
Strengths of the Church
"I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells" (Revelation 2:13).
Faults of the Church
"I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate." (Revelation 2:14-15).
Numbers 31:16: "Look, these women caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to trespass"
Numbers 25: "Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab..."
Acts 15:29: "that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, , and from sexual immorality."
1 Corinthians 10:20-22: "Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?"
Revelation 2:20: "Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols."
Instructions to the Church
"Repent" (Revelation 2:16).
Warning to the Church
"I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth" (Revelation 2:16).
Isaiah 11:4: "But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked."
2 Thessalonians 2:8: "And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming."
Revelation 19:15: "Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God."
Challenge of the Church
"You have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam," and "the doctrine of the Nicolaitans" (Revelation 2:14, 15).
Promise to the Church
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it” (Revelation 2:17).
Manna
Exodus 16:33-35: "And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a pot and put an omer of manna in it, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations.” As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept. And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan."
John 6:48-49: "I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead."
John 6:50-51: "This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world."
A New Name
Isaiah 56:5: "Even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off."
Isaiah 62:2: "The Gentiles shall see your righteousness, and all kings your glory. You shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord will name."
Isaiah 65:15: "You shall leave your name as a curse to My chosen; for the Lord God will slay you, and call His servants by another name."
Revelation 3:12: "He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go out no more. I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God. And I will write on him My new name.
Background Information about Pergamos: The City of Authority
Pergamum (Pergamos), founded no later than 399 BC.
Location:
About 60 miles (97 km) north of Smyrna and 15 miles (24 km) from the Aegean Sea.
Boasts:
Pergamum was a center of learning, medicine, and religious books.
The library, rivaling the Alexandrian library, drew many princes, priests, and scholars.
Noted for marble carving, it excelled the other six cities in architectural beauty.
Worship Idols:
Zeus Olympus, the savior-god
Athena, patron goddess of Athens
Roman Emperor, as god
Dionysus, god of vegetation
Asclepius, god of healing
The animal cult worship of the god-Serpent and the god-Bull were also practiced.
Founding of the Church:
Some scholars believe that Gaius, addressed by John in the book of 3 John, was the first Bishop of Pergamum.
