SEVEN ‘FROM The HEART of JESUS’ LOVE-LETTERS to the SEVEN CHURCHES of REVELATION - To The Church of Pergamos

Church #3 PERGAMOS:

REV 2:12-17

12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges; 13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. 14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. 15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate. 16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

The name Pergamos comes from a Greek word which was synonymous with “tower” or “citadel” that was associated with the goddess Roma, or in other cultures as Cybele, whose worshipers were engaged in religious fertility rites that resulted in women getting pregnant due to temple prostitution, and the infants born as a result were offered up as burnt sacrifices to their gods.


Although the majority of Pergamos’ monuments now sit in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum, enough remains of the Acropolis for the visitor to sense the former greatness of the city that once rivaled Alexandria, Ephesus and Antioch in culture and commerce (it was almost as wealthy as Smyrna), and medicine. 
The healing temple of the god, Aesculapius* was located here at Pergamos, where it was believed that serpents held the power to heal;  [and then there is] “Satan’s Throne,” as described by the apostle John of Patmos (REV 2:12-13), which some scholars interpret as referring to the Great Altar of Pergamon, one of the most magnificent surviving structures from the Greco-Roman world. Other temples in the Acropolis are those dedicated to Zeus as well as Athena.

[*- The symbol of Aesculapius was adopted by American Medical Officials and Institutions,

the caduceus (See image at this link) – a rod with two snakes intertwined however this is not the ancient symbol of healing, but the representation of commerce and trade! The actual symbol of the healing arts of Aesculapius is a rod with a single snake (see picture at this link)] 

Given the fact that the city represented the highest and most esteemed example of Hellenistic Greek culture, traditions and religion in both its [beliefs] and its very architecture, early Christians viewed it as a bastion of all that was anathema.

When Cyrus conquered Babylon (539 BC), they founded a new center at Pergamos and that king became the high priest of the pagan system: Pontifex Maximus (Pember).

Both Hislop and Pember trace the subsequent transfer of the cult from Pergamos to Rome, with the appointment of successive Caesars as high priest and ultimately, to that office in 378 A.D. of Damasus, the Bishop of Rome, with the complete and permanent absorption of “Babylonianism” into the Roman Church (re: Thyatira).

Once again, we read how that the LORD identifies Himself with attributes and virtues that the church He is addressing, needs:

12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;

Pergamos is known as the compromised church – from Constantine to the time of pre-eminence of the Roman Catholic church; it was a church of ‘mixed multitude’ or literally ‘per’ “mixed or corrupted” and ‘gamy’ marriage: “a mixed marriage” (between the church and the world, much like the children of Israel back in the days of the Exodus); they were a mix of believers and non-believers. 

The LORD is the One with “the sharp sword with two edges” – Who is able to divide (HEB 4:12-13) the true believers from the false.

¹³ I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

As we know, the word for martyr in the Greek is martos, and originally it meant someone who was a witness, a person who would testify in court. Yet it came to mean a person who would witness of the truth that is Jesus Christ and the Gospel and was willing, and often was, put to death for it. Antipas was such a witness, and the LORD testifies of him as well as those like him in the church of Pergamos “[His] faithful witness”; the LORD Himself is that faithful witness of the Father, as described in REV 1:5 as well.

The church of Ephesus was representative of the apostolic age of the church; the church of Smyrna represented that time in which the early church had known its most intense period of persecution, where Roman authorities did their best to annihilate them because they refused to worship Caesar, who was heralded as a god (a type of anti-Christ by the way)! That was perceived as not just unpatriotic but treasonous; but the more these Christians were persecuted, the more the church flourished.

The church of Pergamos represents that time-period of history that was a post-persecution time; the emperor Galerius ordered a halt to the persecution of the church, and authorized an Edict of Toleration in 311 AD. Two years later, the next emperor, Constantine issued another edict, the Edict of Milan:

The Edict of Milan gave Christianity a legal status, but did not make Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire; this took place under Emperor Theodosius I in 380 AD. (See the full article on Wikipedia here.)

Constantine, it is said, became a Christian, but this is doubtful – In 312 A.D., Constantine set out to defeat the forces of Maxentius, his rival, for supreme power in the empire. Constantine’s father, it is said, had prospered when he had prayed to the God of the Christians, and so he in his desperation and near-defeat by Maxentius, resorted to the same action.

The next day he said he saw a shining cross in the sky with an inscription above it: in hoc signo vinces. “In this sign you shalt conquer.” He defeated Maxentius and immediately declared his ‘conversion to Christianity’. He assumed headship of the church, repealed the persecution edicts of Diocletian, and advanced Christians to high office in the state.

His primary goal was to unite the empire by way of compromise, and bring an end of the multitude of factions between all the various pagan belief systems as well as the Christian church that was growing at an alarming rate.

Heathenism was then Christianized; pagan temples became Christian Churches; heathen festivals were converted into Christian holidays; pagan gods became venerable saints who had passed away, pagan priests slipped into office as Christian priests. But the changes were mostly in name only.
This eventually led to the Roman Catholic institution, but even in its earliest days, it didn’t quite resemble Romanism as we know it today.

And for all the mixture of hedonism, paganism and religious prostitution, the LORD still had faithful martyrs like the bishop of Pergamos, Antipas,who were killed for their witness of the truth amid the city of Pergamos.

And despite all of this, there were those among this mixed multitude, those faithful ones who did NOT deny the Name of the LORD, and who remained FAITHFUL – they did “not deny My faith” the LORD said – that is, they held to their biblical integrity, holding on to and following the Word of God, rather than the philosophies and beliefs that were precious to the citizens of pagan Pergamos.

Vs. 14-15 ^“But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. ¹⁵ So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate.”

Two false doctrines that the LORD spoke out against at Pergamos were: the doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes (which the LORD Jesus still hates): remember in Ephesus, it was the deeds of the Nicolaitanes. What was a practice performed in Ephesus became official church dogma (doctrine) in Pergamos – scholars agree that these deeds and that doctrine was an ecclesial priesthood that held authority over the churches.

This is unbiblical as all true disciples of Christ, according to 1 PETER 2:9, are already a “royal priesthood”. To have a priesthood in the church of Jesus Christ, other than the priesthood of all believers is to establish mediators between God and the church – and we know Scripture teaches that there is only ONE mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 TIM 2:5). 

A man-made priesthood only puts a distance between the LORD Jesus – Who is the Head of the Church and His body – they are guilty of a kind of ‘spiritual decapitation’ of the body of Christ, separating the Head.

What is the doctrine of Balaam? We read about the false way of Balaam in 2 PET 2 (see vs. 1-3, 14-15) and his greed in JUDE :8-16. 

Balaam taught King Balak of Moab, an enemy of Israel, to allow the women of his kingdom to seduce the men of Israel, and while they were ‘in the act’ of fornication, the women would bring out the idols of their false gods to worship them. Note the word “taught” – which is what doctrine is all about – it is instruction on how to perform something, and just as Balaam taught Balak how to lure God’s people astray and fall into sin, so too the clergy of Pergamos held doctrine that would lead the church there into sin!

So, in this compromised church of Pergamos, members would be persuaded to worship the false gods of the pagan society that was all around them, thinly disguised as saints to be venerated. Because it was now popular to be a ‘Christian’ – times were good, the church began to prosper, and money began to flow freely – from the pockets of the people into the hands of the priests! The positions of priesthood and bishops promised a lavish life of ease and prosperity, because the church now had friendship with the world and Pergamos’ wealth was substantial.

JAMES 4:3-6

3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. 4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. 5 Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? 6 But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

Here the LORD is calling on the saints at the church at Pergamos to repent of their affiliation with these ungodly and pagan practices, and to not follow those that taught these things. He specifically states that if they do not, then He will fight “against them” – those that taught these things, with the sword of His mouth. Judgment would not be delayed, as He said that “[He] will come to [them] quickly”.

17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

The “hidden manna” that the LORD is offering is Himself (JOHN 6:31-35, 48-51, 58); the true spiritual nourishment that brings health, wholeness and healing – as opposed to the mystical and oft-times occult methods of the pagan practice of healing at the Aesculapius. 

It is hidden in the sense that only those who know and love the truth will be able to partake of it. Those who hold on to ungodly, corrupt belief systems – as did the church leadership and their followers at Pergamos, would not know where to find it. Those that stood apart from these were faithful to the LORD, held onto the hidden manna of His Word – not denying “His faith”.

The white stone represents a judicious decision: in court trials, when a verdict was being rendered on the accused, if the juror believed they were innocent, they would drop a white stone into a bag. Others who believed they were guilty would drop a black stone in that bag, and once all the jurors rendered their decision, the stones were counted, and the decision of the court was made based on the majority decision.

Here the LORD is saying, that the overcomer is the one who will receive a “not guilty” verdict from the Judge of all the world (JOHN 5:22; ROM 8:1-2).

The next church to be examined in this series is church #4 - Thyatira. Until then, the LORD be with you all!