Dec ’10 | Blossom 11
(1) We have been studying the Book of Revelation in the last three issues. We had completed till the 7th verse of the book’s second chapter. Now, let us continue our study under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
(2) Chapter 2: Verse 8 – Jesus delivers the message for the second church in Smyrna to its angel. As we saw earlier, He begins the message with one of the signs (of him being the First and the Last who died and came to life again) of the verses Rev 1:12-20 (See Scripture Study – Blossom 10: November 10, Paras 02,03,05). Furthermore, as we studied before, the Smyrna mentioned here not only refers to the church in the city of Smyrna, but also the church of the second time period (See 
Scripture Study – Blossom 09: October 10, Para 06). First, let us look at the church in the city of Smyrna of those days. Like the city of Ephesus, Smyrna too was a port city by the shores of the Aegean Sea. It lay approximately 40 miles to the north of Ephesus. To help us recollect the location of the church of Smyrna and that of the other six churches as well, a map that had been illustrated in an earlier issue of Scripture Study has been published again on the right side here. Around 95 A.D., when John wrote the Book of Revelation, Smyrna was a popular and rich city with a thriving population of about 100,000 people. As a matter of fact, the still-flourishing city of Izmir in present day Turkey was the Smyrna of those days. The residents of the Smyrna of that period used to worship a goddess named Cybele. Smyrna of that time was indeed a city of many heathen gods and worship.
(3) Next, let us look at the church of the second time period that the church of Smyrna signified. In our last issue, we had seen in detail how and why the time period of the second church begun at 202 A.D. (See Scripture Study – Blossom 10: November 10, Para 06). To summarize, we had arrived at 202 A.D. as the beginning year because the heavy persecutions highlighted in the message to the second period church match with those that began in 202 A.D. when Christianity was banned by the Roman emperor Septimius. That being the case, how long did this church last? How do we figure that out? We do that by observing the fact that the message for the third church does not emphasize persecution. So, if we were to find out how long the persecution of the church lasted historically, we would be able to zero in on the exact time period of the second church. Taking this approach, we determine time period of the second church as, 202 A.D. – 313 A.D. God has shaped history so wonderfully that we could make this calculation with clarity and ease. How so? It is very clear from the message to the second church that hers would be a time period of persecution. Earlier we saw that a royal Roman ban had come out against Christianity in 202 A.D., and this helps us know when it began based on history. Amazingly, to similarly help us easily figure out the end of the persecution period of the second church, the Edict of Milan was issued by Roman emperors Constantine and Licinious in 313 A.D. Putting an end to Septimius’ ban on Christianity, the Edict of Milan granted freedom to preach and practice the Christian religion in the entire Roman Empire. So it is a proven historical fact that the persecution against Christians reduced immensely across the world after the Edict of Milan. This is how we can confirm that the period of the second church was from 202 A.D. – 313 A.D. Let us give thanks to God for making it easy for us to figure this out.
(4) Verses 9, 10 – First, let us study the explanation that applies to the church of the Smyrna city of those days. It is obvious from these verses that the church members of Smyrna were under intense suffering and persecution. As we noted earlier, a majority of the citizens of Smyrna were worshippers of a goddess named Cybele. And it was their belief that this goddess rose back to life at the beginning of spring every year. When Christians started preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ, those people would have definitely found that teaching as a competing religion and considered the Christians as enemies who insulted their goddess. So they subjected the Christians of their city to cruel sufferings. Even amidst such an environment of persecution, we come to know that the Christians of Smyrna continued to do the works of gospel. How great a lesson is this to us! Do we find ourselves withdrawing from gospel work at the first sight of trouble? Are our works of faith restricted to the little time we find left over from our personal lives and duties of our worldly jobs? The church members of the Smyrna of those days serve as role models giving us a wakeup call. An entire city was against them. But they were not frightened. They did not tire. Neither did they surrender. They marched on with their works of gospel. Furthermore Jesus says here that they were poor by worldly standards. But he praises them for being spiritually rich having accumulated wealth in heaven by means of their abundant works of faith. Yes, we might not have worldly riches. But if we dedicate ourselves to God, we would become owners of eternal spiritual treasures. At the same time, those who are worldly wealthy but fail to undertake any spiritual work would indeed attain eternal poverty. Jesus also mentions the Smyrna church members being troubled by the Jews as well. The Jews slandered the Christians as enemies of God and followers of a false Messiah. This was a quite frequent occurrence during the first couple of centuries. The Jews of those times were angered at this new group called Christians who were claiming traditional Jewish scriptures as their own and were also worshipping the Jewish God. But if those Jews had been true Jews who had properly understood the Law, they would have accepted Christ whom the Law foretold. But they did not accept Christ. That’s why Jesus refers to them as ‘who say they are Jews and are not’. Jesus comforts the church of Smyrna saying ‘do not be afraid’ and proclaims a prophecy as well. He says some of them will be put in prison and suffer persecution for ten days. There is very little chance for us to find out when and how this was fulfilled. But since Jesus foretold this ahead, it is certain that the Smyrna church members would have faced it boldly with calm. Jesus encourages them by promising them the victor’s crown of life if they were faithful even to the point of death. Yes, it is true that even as we have faced many trials and sufferings in our spiritual lives so far, we would get the victor’s crown of life only if we were to continue to be faithful till our deaths. Surprisingly for this church alone, Jesus does not mention any shortcomings. Surely, the Smyrna church of the first century still serves as a great model church for us. Let us do some soul-searching on whether our church is like the Smyrna church!
(5) Next, let us look at the explanation for the church of the second time period – 202 A.D. to 313 A.D. – signified by the church of Smyrna of those days. Like Jesus says here, Christians were heavily persecuted by the Roman Empire during this period. As we saw earlier, the persecution that began in 202 A.D. with Roman Emperor Septimius’ ban on Christianity intensified and spread wide through the Roman Empire. There is historical support proving that this ban resulted in persecutions starting against Christians even in far off places like Egypt and North Africa. Many Christian leaders including the famous Leonides of Alexandria, ordinary Christians and even entire Christian families were massacred by cruel methods during these times of persecution. Scores were imprisoned. Many exiled. History confirms that the intense sufferings of Christians continued under the reign of emperors who succeeded Septimius – Maximinus, Decius, Valerian and Diocletian. Moreover, as Jesus says, a majority of the Christians of this period were poor by worldly standards. That is not surprising at all. How could the Christians have flourished when the powerful Roman Empire itself was against them! Rather even the wealthy Christians would have had their wealth seized by the authorities. Even amidst such a bad situation, the church members of this period did not tire of their works of faith. Yes, during the time of the second church – a time of intense persecution, the gospel continued to spread wide. New churches were established in new places. Old churches continued to multiply in number. In that manner, the church members even as they were oppressed by the world, continued to accumulate spiritual wealth. When Jesus mentions Jews in the message to the second church, it denotes the fleshly Jews when the message applies to the Smyrna church of those times. But when it applies to the church of the second time period signified by the Smyrna church, it refers to Christians – the spiritual Jews. Likewise as Jesus says here, many who called themselves as Christians for name’s sake during the second time period had certain heathen beliefs like hell and angel worship. And those nominal Christians slandered the true Christians who rejected those pagan beliefs. All the Apostles of Christ had died about 100 years before the second church began (202 A.D.). Even after that many came into Christ due to the works of many Christian evangelists. But the pure faith of the Apostolic times started getting stained. This was the period when many pagan beliefs started creeping into Christianity (See Grace – Blossom 35: November 10, Para 03). It is those nominal Christians holding such heathen beliefs that Jesus signifies as ‘who say they are Jews and are not’. In this time period, those nominal Christians slandered the faithful Christian believers by demanding them to accept their pagan beliefs in order to be considered as true Christians. Moreover, what does the ten day persecution foretold by Jesus for the Smyrna church signify for the second church? In usual biblical symbolic terminology, a day represents a year (Ezek 4: 5, 6). In that case, did the second church undergo any ten year (i.e. ten day) persecution in particular? To our utter amazement, the Roman Emperor Diocletian we saw before – one of those who persecuted the Christians – issued many edicts against Christians starting 303 A.D. including one that ordered them to offer sacrifices to heathen gods. As a result of these, a great persecution came upon the Christians. As Jesus says here, many were imprisoned and murdered. So when did this horrible persecution that began at 303 A.D. come to an end? In 313 A.D.! Yes, that year as we saw earlier, the Edict of Milan brought this ten year (303 – 313 A.D.) persecution to an end. Thus, we can clearly see how the prophecy Jesus made was aptly fulfilled during the period of the second church as well.
(6) Verse 11 – Jesus instructs the hearers to benefit by listening to this message. Likewise, the angel of this church would have taken this message to the church members of Smyrna and the church of the second period. That would have comforted them, motivated them and also served them as benefiting advice. Jesus assures that those who listen and follow would be ‘victorious’ and would ‘not be hurt at all by the second death’. Now let us think about this a bit. Many were persecuted even to their deaths both in the church of Smyrna and in the time period of the symbolic second church. To those martyrs, Jesus’ message was not to worry about that first death, as they had conquered the second death. Wouldn’t that message have provided much comfort to them?
(7) Verse 12 – Next, Jesus provides the message to the angel of the third church in Pergamum. As we have continually noticed, at the beginning of the message for this church, Jesus identifies himself with one of the signs (‘him who has the sharp, double-edged sword’) mentioned in Rev 1:12-20 (See Scripture Study – Blossom 10: November 10, Paras 02, 03, 05, Para 02 of this issue). Here, Jesus again reminds the church that he holds the Word of God which is the sharp, double-edged sword. As usual, let us analyze separately the actual and symbolic meanings of the message to the Pergamum church (See Scripture Study – Blossom 09: October 10, Para 06). First let us look at the first century church in the city of Pergamum. This city of those times was about 55 miles inland to the north-west of Smyrna (See the map illustrated in the 2nd paragraph of this issue). In the first century, this city was famous for three things. Those being –
- Heathen temples and rituals thrived in Pergamum. As a matter of fact, it was a location of pilgrimage sought out by pagan believers from far off nations. In particular, its heathen landmarks like Acropolis, Sanctuary of Asclepius and Temple of Serapis were very popular.
- The library of Pergamum was also very famous. It was one of the very significant libraries of the ancient times with around 200,000 books.
- Moreover, Pergamum was known for manufacturing the parchments used in writing during those days.
(8) Now, let us look at the church of the third time period that was symbolized by the church in Pergamum. This third time period started from 313 A.D. – the year the second period ended – and lasted till 539 A.D. How do we know that? In the message to the next church, a woman named Jezebel has been mentioned to signify the reign of the Roman Catholic Church (Rev 2:20). Therefore, it’s clear that rule of the Catholic Church starts only during the time of the fourth church. As we know, that reign began during 539 A.D. indeed (See Grace – Blossom 22: November 09, Para 07). From that, we could deduce that the third church period represented by the Pergamum church ended in 539 A.D. as the message for that church clearly has no mention of the Roman Catholic reign.
(9) Verse 13 – First, let us see the explanation for the church in the Pergamum of those days. Jesus commends the members of this church for remaining true to his name even as they lived where Satan had his throne. Yes, truly the first century church in Pergamum was at Satan’s place. How so? As we noted earlier, the city of Pergamum itself was known for its heathen temples. The city was filled with such temples and altars of sacrifice. So from that perspective, the church was inside such a satanic city of heathen places. But what makes it more interesting is an information we find when we dig into traditional church history. What is that? We already saw that there was a famous temple at Pergamum for the then popular heathen god named Serapis. It has been said that the church used to gather very much inside that Temple of Serapis. Yes, as Jesus said, the church in Pergamum of those days used to assemble in a heathen temple that was Satan’s throne. Jesus adds that those church members remained true and faithful to his name even in such a situation. From this we realize that the place where a church gathers is not that important. The place of assembly might be small or large. It might be comfortable or not. Why, it might even be a satanic temple like in the case of the Pergamum church! What matters is the truthfulness in the hearts of the church members, their good faith and their works of faith. We might have seen some Christians fearing divine retribution or judgment coming upon them if they were to visit heathen places of worship. Many Christians are afraid of being possessed by evil spirits that reside in those idols. Tell those people about the Pergamum church! Paul declared, ‘An idol is nothing at all’ (1 Cor 8:4). Abiding by that, the church in Pergamum served Christ inside Satan’s
own temple! That shows the maturity of that church’s faith. For us too, it’s imperative to be mature Christians. Jesus continues that Antipas from the church in Pergamum had been his faithful witness and even during the days when he had been put to death in the city, the church members did not renounce their faith in Jesus. It has been said that this Antipas had been a physician and because of his witness for Christ he was cruelly fed to the flames by the heathen during 92 A.D. He was actually burnt in a brazen bull-shaped altar. The illustration on the right side shows the altar used to burn Antipas. Jesus praises the church members of Pergamum for not renouncing their faith even after seeing Antipas gruesomely murdered in such a way. The church members of Pergamum serve as an example for us not to lose our faith no matter what situation we find ourselves in.
(10) Now, let us look at the explanation for the church of the third period signified by the Pergamum church. Since this whole second world is under Satan, all the worldly kingdoms of present and past belong to Satan. That being the case, the symbol Satan’s throne denotes those particular kingdoms that dominated the whole world in particular times. Then, which worldly kingdom dominated the whole world during the period of the third church i.e. 313 A.D. – 539 A.D.? Indeed the Roman Empire was that Kingdom and hence it is the Kingdom being denoted by the symbol Satan’s throne. As Jesus says here, it was during this period that the church became a part of the Roman Empire. After 313 A.D., the heathen Roman Empire that had been persecuting the Christians till then, step by step changed into an empire that ultimately declared Christianity as the state religion. This change began in 313 A.D. and was firmly established in 380 A.D. by a decree issued by the Roman Emperor Theodosius I. Jesus Christ declared that his kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36). He also said that Satan is the prince of this world (John 12:31). That being the case, the yoking of the church of Christ with that of the empire of Satan, the prince of this world was not right indeed. Jesus says here that even then some preserved their faith. Likewise, there were true Christians during this period. Even as the church became a part of the Roman Empire, these true Christians did not let go of their simple faith. Continuing further, whom does Antipas of Pergamum signify in the message for the third church? Antipas of Pergamum was killed because he testified for Christ against the satanic temple where the church used to gather. In that case, who were those who went through persecutions for the sake of Christ against the Roman Empire that was the throne of Satan during the period of 313 – 539 A.D.? In 325 A.D., the Roman Emperor Constantine convened a great council of Christian bishops. The objective of that council was to attain consensus in the Christian doctrines and to change and refine it into the state religion of the Roman Empire. Therefore, the outcomes of that council that included the Nicene Creed and many other doctrines that got propounded around this time were in conflict with several beliefs of the pure Christianity of the Apostolic times. Those who opposed this wrong creed and doctrines were persecuted severely. The Roman Empire itself turned against them. Defying that, many Christian preachers and ordinary Christians continued to follow the pure Christian doctrines of the Apostolic times. The Roman Empire even put some of them to death. It is those martyrs that Antipas of Pergamum represents. And those who did not renounce their faith even after seeing such killings during 313 – 539 A.D., are signified by the faithful of the church in Pergamum.
(11) Verses 14, 15, 16 – First, let us look at how these verses apply to the church in Pergamum. Even though the church in Pergamum was a good church, Jesus says it still had two shortcomings. One was that there were some in the church who held to the teaching of Balaam, who had taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality. In an issue of Grace, we had studied that Balaam’s wrongdoing was his teaching that made the Israelites (God’s chosen people) sin (See Grace – Blossom 04: June 08, Paras 07, 08, 09, 10, 11). In that manner, Jesus says there were some among the church in Pergamum (the church being God’s chosen) who were enticing the church to sin. Some in the church had been arguing that it was not wrong to observe some pagan customs that were popular in the city along with Christian doctrines. For others in the church, this was an enticement to sin. Secondly, Jesus says that there were some in the church who held to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. We have seen in the last issue that followers of Nicolaitan teachings were in the church at Ephesus as well (See Scripture Study – Blossom 10: November 10, Para 09). It is also known that the Nicolaitans in Pergamum were more united with the church than their counterparts at Ephesus who had been a bit suppressed. Jesus says he hates them. He calls them to repent and warns them if they did not do so, he would expose their wrong beliefs and judge them with the word of God that is the sharp, double-edged sword. So if the church in Pergamum had not repented, Jesus would have allowed a trial on them that would have made them realize their wrongdoings.
(12) Next, let us study how these verses apply to the church of the third time period signified by the church in Pergamum. In the time period of this church as well – between 313 and 539 A.D. – many Balaams rose and brought teachings that enticed the church members to sin. In particular, history tells us that many debates arose in the church regarding what were the true Christian teachings, and to what degree the churches should associate with the Roman Empire or if not to. During those arguments, like Balaam many enticed the chosen people to sin by preaching false teachings like it was good to associate with the Roman Empire and that it was fine to accept certain heathen customs. In the last issue, we saw that the Nicolaitans represented power-hungry authority-seeking people and were hated and shunned by the first church (See Scripture Study – Blossom 10: November 10, Para 10). Jesus says those kind of people were here in the church of this period, holding important posts. Historically this is true indeed. The church had been simple before. But during this time period, the Roman Empire started supporting it. So stately titles and royal wealth began finding their way into the church. So many members, attracted towards such titles and wealth, started dominating the church with hardened Nicolaitan hearts. Since the Roman Empire endorsed such people, many did not have the courage to challenge them. To summarize, it was during this third time period, that the church that had been united so far by love, gradually started becoming a worldly center of power by integrating with the Roman Empire. Jesus calls the members of the third church to repent. In accordance to that, the angel of this church would have delivered an awareness of repentance to all the church members. But as history bears witness, a majority of the Christians did not heed to this call for repentance and continued to tread in their wrong paths. That’s why at the end of this period, i.e. in 539 A.D., the Pope became the Head of Christianity and its power center, thereby completely changing the fundamental simplicity of the apostolic Christianity. God knew that this would happen. But still His thought would have been to save at least the few who would heed that call to repent.
13) Verse 17 – Jesus asks whoever with ears to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. We saw in an earlier issue of Scripture study that our race is truly an individual race in the end (See Scripture Study – Blossom 10: November 10, Para 11). Therefore, let us keep in mind that we cannot cite our own church’s lack of works or the hostile surroundings of our times as excuses. Jesus continues that he would give some of the hidden manna and a white stone with a hidden new name written on it to the one who is victorious. Manna is the food that gave life to the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness. Likewise, here ‘manna’ signifies life – the life that is to be gained by the Church – the eternal life within Christ that is presently hidden and not attainable by the rest of the mankind (See John 6:51). Moreover, in the courts of those days, if the accused were proven guilty /punished, it was customary to give them a black stone, but if they were acquitted and released they would be given a white stone to indicate their righteousness. Jesus is using that custom as a symbol here. That is, those who lose in the battle of the Christian faith shall get the black stone of the second death and those who win would receive the white stone. Furthermore, during those times, there used to be a stone called the Royal Seal that would signify the King’s power and authority. Likewise the white stone here also indicates that the Church is to receive royal authority in God’s Kingdom. Moreover, the new name written on that stone might be the post/designation that we are to receive in the Kingdom. No one else could know this new name of ours, till we receive it. This brings out the special personal nature of the relationship that the victorious are to have with God. Let us strive to attain such a relationship! Amen.
–To be continued in the next issue –