I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives.
Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. (Revelations 2:13-17)
It is claimed that Pergamum housed a famous temple to Asklepius, the Greek god of healing, symbolized by the figure of a snake. An evil dragon in one of John's later visions labeled "that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray" (Rev 12:9; compare 20:2). It is also believed that Antipas was martyred in this city.
The surroundings of the church in Pergamum were evil. Hostile, aggressive, intimidating and oppressive. Yet there was a remnant that remained faithful despite the hostility. They stood firm in the faith even when they watched in horror as one of them was murdered right before their eyes. Possibly the city was awash with satanic temples, sacrifices and godless practices by the people who lived there. It was a city of two extremes, the majority godless people and the minority devoted to the faith.
This gulf was noticeable. It made the majority uncomfortable. No wonder Antipas was murdered. That was one scheme of the enemy to try and bully the devoted Christians into abandoning the faith. It however didn’t work. So he unleashed plan B. This was less aggressive more accommodating. More middle ground and seemingly harmless approach. False teachings. It seemed to work for a section of the minority, ‘you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans’.
Whereas violence scared and made the minority to close in, falsehood calmed the anxiety and made some to open up. “Hey, come on. We mean no harm. We just want to tolerate each other. You worship your God and we worship ours. We are brothers, right? Perhaps we can even do a collabo worship. Doesn’t God say, ‘give and it shall come back to you?’ Let’s fellowship. We are brothers” falsehoods may have spread.
The basis of compromise by a section of the Pergamum church was two things, economic (food) and social (status) motivation. It is said, they were enticed by food offered to idols. This food must have been the choicest of delicacy. The sight of it made the stomach rumble. To someone who hasn’t tasted that food and hanged around VIPs, this was enticing, remember the garden of Eden anyone, ‘eve saw it was pleasing to the eye’?
The second motivation has got to do with status and acceptance. Perhaps the church in Pergamum was of ordinary people. They didn’t occupy lofty positions in the city. No one may have known much about them other than they were queer and rather conservative in their dealings. They may have passed for second class citizens. Now imagine young people born of families of these second class citizens who have buddies across the first class citizen divide. Their pals show up dressed differently, speaking differently and seemingly having all the freedom they need. What’s the secret? Come to our ‘church’ and you will find out. Bang! Compromise. Remember, garden of Eden anyone, ‘you will become like God’.
Is the genesis of compromise in present day church any different? If the devil showed up as a black, horny, taily, teethy creature, everyone wouldn’t even wait to have a conversation. But he doesn’t. He knows that’s what you will expect. So he takes subtle forms of the very things that appeal to the eye and raise our sense of significance. Pursuit of these things drive us away from God and before long we are deep in sin.
Look at what God promises to those who are faithful? They will be given food that will never run out and an eternal identity. Do you need to be fed, to have true identity? Forget the junk that the devil keeps throwing at you in the form of false teachings. Junk looks pleasing to the eye but it’s toxic to the gut. Flattery is good for the ego but draining for the spirit. Its time to do a spiritual detox and flush out all those toxins you have ingested. Behold there is manna yonder.
No comments:
Post a Comment