Revelation 2 vs 12-17

Revelation Chapter 2 Verse 13

·    This is quite the commendation for such a problematic church! Jesus says, “I know your works, you hold fast to My name, and you did not deny My faith, even as days were difficult…” This gives light to a few things. One easier to palette than the other. The harder one, even in a church full of problems, there are things of virtue. I mean, if I’m being honest, there are no churches that don’t have problems (why? Cause y’all are here! HA!)!

·    Paul wrote in Philippians 4:8-9, and we would do ourselves a favor and walk in this one, “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.”

·    Second thing here that encourages me personally is that even though I see so much about me that is not worthy of showing to God or to others, God sees the good in me even when I cannot. Put on display here in Jesus’ commendation to the compromising, to the barely church….

·    And Jesus speaks of Antipas his faithful martyr. Antipas was ordained by John himself as the pastor of Pergamos during the reign of Domitian. Around the year 92, Domitian executed him by sealing him in a bronze bull and then heating the bull to incandescence.

Revelation Chapter 2 Verses 14 – 15

·    What is the doctrine of Balaam? The story can be found in the Book of Numbers. King Balak of Moab desired to stop the Jews from continuing their march to the promised land through nations like his and so he hired Balaam who was a diviner to curse them. Balaam came back to Balak after attempting to curse them three times but couldn’t. He’d open his mouth and rather than a curse, instead, blessings proceeded (just like that move Liar Liar)! And so, Balaam, cleverly scheming as to how he could still get paid, he devised a plan to get them from within. He told Balak to send his Moabite baddies into the camp of the Israelite army and entice the men to be with them…, which led to the men of Israel bowing down to the Moabites’ idols and in so doing, deny their own God! The idea was essentially…you paid me to get them cursed…if I can’t curse them, well, I can make them curse themselves… It worked!

·    So, what is the doctrine of Balaam? Corruption from within. The unholy, immoral, unnatural and unacceptable union of the world and foreign gods with God’s people! Jesus continued regarding the eating of things sacrificed to idols and rampant sexual immorality…both forms of neo-pagan worship.

·    And also, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans…which we already studied when we looked at the church of Ephesus however the Ephesian church hated…but the church in Pergamos embraced… Where did these things come from?

Heathen customs and practices were joined to Christianity under Constantine’s edicts and Pergamos was the progressive capital of it all. Why? Because when Babylon fell, the Babylonian priesthood essentially relocated to Pergamos. Why does that matter?

Before I go into this, let me just say, I am giving you origins. I am educating you, not telling you what you have to do with all of this. All you have to do is know it. Take it to the Lord, and see what He has for you. Some people learn this stuff and become zealots, Pharisees, bullies… It’s all they want to talk about and it can be an idol. This knowledge can be an idol. Because all we should want to talk about is Jesus, the grace and salvation of God to all men through Him, and the only other thing we should want to talk about is Jesus. And then after that, Jesus. If this helps in that conversation about Jesus, then great. But this is all too often an idol and the object of worship, this knowledge, even for Christians.

I want to remind you that Colossians 2:16 says, “Let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.” I share all of this first because whatever you decide to do with this, it should be done unto the glory of God and hating your brother for having a Christmas Tree or celebrating Easter or even some religious observances like Lent (which we will cover also) goes against the Word of God and does not glorify the Lord. Ok, ready?

Revelation Chapter 17 Verses 1 – 5; Revelation Chapter 18 Verses 1 – 3; Revelation Chapter 19 Verses 1 – 7. Notice, it is after Babylon, the great harlot, the mistress/mister of Creation has fallen that now the bride of Christ is fully ready, fully prepared, and all of heaven rejoices because THE opposition has been stripped of all power as we see here written, “Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!” This is a statement of solidary power and solidarity in power! All others that have assumed reign have fallen and only God is left…and here is the mystery, all other reigns are a single original counterfeit and nothing more…the harlot, Mystery, Babylon the Great. This is what you will know more of and possibly understand after today.

Babylon is and was not only a place but represents and was the spiritual birth of the worship of self. Which really boils all the way down to the very spirit of evil and sin. The essence of sin, all sin. The nature and character of rebellion and this false worship system, this great harlot to pull the affections, allegiances, and attentions of mankind away from God has been on the scene ever since Satan deceived Eve, and Adam rebelled against God. Just as Jesus said in Matthew 7:15, “Beware of false prophets (prophets of whom? The Great Harlot!) who come looking like sheep but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.” And all the inhabitants of the earth, all the kings, all the nations, all the times and all the cultures and all the generations have been deceived and lie under the deceit of the Great Harlot. In the end, what we just read in Revelation, is the finality of the judgement and condemnation of the very root and substance of man’s downfall. Let’s start at the beginning…

Two thousand years before Jesus was born on this earth, a great grandson of Noah, son of Ham, son of Cush comes on the scene by the name of Nimrod. You can read about him in Genesis Chapter 10 and 11. (Read Genesis 10:8-11) He is probably most well-known for constructing the Tower of Babel. Obviously, he settled in Babylon. He is the Biblical prototype of rebellious people. He is the first kingdom upon the earth, supplanting God’s omnipotence, God’s kingdom. This is the first religion of the earth and from this stems all religions of all peoples of all times… (remember Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship).

Major statement here, entirely Biblical, apart from Jesus Christ, the second most influential and pivotal man to ever walk the earth was this man, Nimrod. Why? Well, it’s so very interesting. Jesus brought light. He brought grace and truth. He brought salvation and that is His hinge upon which mankind pivoted. Nimrod works in the darkness. At work today and has been throughout all previous cultures and generations, and yet subtly hidden, but fascinatingly…in plain sight. It’s been said, “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.”

Nimrod and how he was used and still is used by the enemy brings rebellion…but slick rebellion. Slimy rebellion. Rebellion that is not fist in face obvious, but rather simply a lean towards the world, towards man and away from reliance upon God. Nimrod brings darkness when he is allowed to reign. Deceit and judgment and ultimately his reign devours the souls of men and women in every nation, tongue and time…

Nimrod literally means, “rebellion” or “rebellious one,” and the Bible tells us in Genesis 10 that he was a “Mighty one ON THE EARTH, a mighty hunter before the Lord.”  What did he do after the people were scattered…conquered. He set up his own kingdom…the first kingdom on earth…a kingdom apart from God. He was and is a prototype, a picture of Anti-Christ. He started with Babel which literally means “Heaven’s Gate,” to keep heaven out…and he went on from there to conquer and set up many nations of which some are given to us in Genesis 10.

So why is he still so relevant today you’re probably thinking…I mean this was Genesis and now he’s dead…true but here’s the rest of the story…According to Eusebius (and countless other historians, narrators and story tellers), Nimrod married a woman named Semiramis. Some accounts of this historical fact also name Semiramis as the wife of Cush which would either make her his mom, or a wife shared amongst father and son.

Either way, Semiramis was the wife of Nimrod. Nimrod became like a god to the people, a mighty hunter before the Lord, and in that he amassed great power which was shared with his wife, the Queen of ancient Babylon. Nimrod was eventually killed in battle and Semiramis, fearing that she would lose power, made the ideological proclamation to the people of Babylon that Nimrod had ascended to the sun and therefore his presence still would be real and felt everyday (allowing her to stay in her position of power) but now he is no longer the half man half god Nimrod, but now he was full god and he was called Baal which literally means, the chief…he was recognized in Ancient Babylon as deity from then on, as the Sun God. (Picture 1)

Semiramis proclaimed that Baal is present on earth and in heaven…in heaven as the sun and on earth as the flame and thus she was creating a mystery religion in which she eventually set herself up as goddess or priestess. She revealed to the people that she herself was immaculately conceived…the daughter of the moon as the moon went through its 28 days cycle and was fertile (ovulated) when full. She claimed that she came down from the moon in a giant moon egg that fell into the Euphrates at the first full moon after the spring equinox.

She became known by her goddess name “Ishtar” and the moon became known as “Ishtar’s egg.” Ishtar then conceived, claiming to have been impregnated by the rays of the sun-god Baal and she brought forth a son and named him Tammuz. As a boy Tammuz was especially fond of rabbits and they became sacred in the ancient religion because Tammuz was believed to be the son of the Sun God, Baal. Like his father, he became a hunter…often depicted with the bow.

Tammuz was hunting in the woods one day and encountered a wild boar. The legend goes that he was killed by that wild boar. (Some stories report that after three days, Tammuz revived…) Queen Ishtar told the people that Tammuz was now ascended to his father Baal and that the two of them would be with the worshippers in the sacred candle or flame as father, son and spirit…the spirit being the fire…Ishtar was now worshipped as the “Mother of God” and the “Queen of Heaven” and the Mystery Queen of Heaven Babylonian religion was born…and in some form, has passed to all peoples and times throughout the history of man…(Picture 2 and 3).

It was circulated that when Tammuz was killed by a wild pig some of his blood fell on a stump of an evergreen tree and the stump grew into a full new tree overnight. This made the evergreen tree sacred in the Ancient Mystery Babylon religion. Ishtar proclaimed a forty-day period of time of sorrow each year for Tammuz. Ezekiel mentions in Ezekiel 8:14, “So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.” During these 40 days no meat was to be eaten and worshippers were to meditate on the sacred mysteries of Baal and Tammuz by making cakes with a “T” on them and by making a sign of a “T” in front of their hearts in an act of worship… Already you see some even modern-day acts and traditions begin to emerge. From Christmas trees, to hot-cross buns, Lent, and even the making of the sign of the cross over one’s chest.

Every year, on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, a celebration was made. It was Ishtar’s Sunday and it was celebrated with the beloved rabbit and with eggs. (Picture 4) Pig or ham was also eaten in remembrance of her lost son Tammuz. So very interesting…this “form of religion” fell out of political, empirical favor when Christianity broke the scene with Constantine in 312 AD, but as the worship silenced, the festivals, the remembrances, the cultural traditions and rituals somewhat amplified…as Ishtar, Nimrod and Tammuz are still a part of mostly all world cultures in some way, even today and our culture, world culture…essentially all of the sacred elements prevail…

Still today, every year, on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox, we paint eggs, gift to one another chocolate bunnies and hide those eggs in the forest. The truth about Easter is that logistically it has only a familiar link to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Easter itself can be as much as three weeks away from the Passover because the holiday is always set as the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. 

And so, we have the ancient origins of the forty days of Lent, Easter, Easter eggs, the Easter Bunny, hot cross buns, the Easter ham and the crossing of the chest we see prevail in some religious traditions today…but we are only yet approaching the rabbit hole…Ishtar was said to have been impregnated on the first Sunday after the first full moon of the spring equinox…the ancient beginning of what we call Easter today and if you march 9 months from Easter, what do you arrive upon? You got it…Christmas. Known as Saturnalia in previous cultures, Winter Solstice, Winter Harvest, many names but is indeed a carryover of this Mystery Queen of Babylon Religion.

How was this holiday celebrated? We have that in the Bible…Jeremiah 10:1-4, in speaking about the warring gods, the prophet Jeremiah writes, “Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the gentiles are dismayed at them. For the customs of the peoples are futile; For one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple.” Wow, right? The Yule log…the candles in the windows, even jingle bells…(Picture 5) you can take almost all of what we love and enjoy today and have redeemed for the name of Jesus and you can trace it right back to this guy…Nimrod….

And all of that was joined to Christianity under Constantine. Pagan images and statues of Zeus/Nimrod, Ishtar, Ashtaroth, Baal and Tammuz were welcomed into the churches but they were given “Christian” names such as Peter or Mary. Specifically, Artemis or Diana or Isis or Ishtar or Semiramis worship was changed to Mary worship. Worshippers referred to her as the “great virgin” and the “Mother of God” which were titles previously ascribed to Semiramis. Some surviving images of Isis holding the child Horus…or Semiramis holding the child Tammuz…can be viewed today and you can’t tell them apart from modern statues depicting Mary holding Jesus. (Picture 6)

This may enrage you and if so, I’m so sorry. That is not my intention. My intent is to educate. Mary was highly favored and very special indeed and yet at the same time, we should be careful not to put her up on a pedestal equal with God. She became a very convenient and unfortunate target of attention when Paganism became “Christianized.” She would have been the last person to want to take any focus or attention away from Jesus Christ. Gabriel calling her “favored one” in fact shows that she was the recipient of and not the giver of grace. While she was a remarkable and godly woman, she was still a woman and still a sinner. As for the predominantly Catholic position to pray to Mary and even worship Mary, this goes directly against the commands in the Bible to worship the Lord God only. She has no ability to answer our prayers.

Neither was she a perpetual virgin as is taught. We see she had at least six other children besides Christ and none of those were born out of virginity. Neither is she somehow the mediator of God’s grace to us or was she sinless. In Luke we read her words, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (Admitting she needs a Savior) The last words we hear from her are John 2:5, “Whatever He says to you, do it!”

Back to the story, at the time of Pergamos, under Constantine, Heathen temples were turned into nominal churches and pagan feasts continued however were given Christian names...same old paganism…just under a new name. And as people came together seemingly unified and appeased…and while Constantine believed that he was using the church to conquer the world, the opposite was happening. The world was conquering the church. 

We don’t have time to look at an exhaustive study of pagan rituals absorbed into Christianity but I’ll just give you a few more. Mithraism (Picture 7) was a religion practiced in the Roman Empire beginning around the 1st Century AD. One of its key features was a sacrificial meal which involved eating the flesh and drinking the blood of a bull. When consumed, the people believed that the god Mithra was present in the flesh and blood of the bull, and would grant the worshippers salvation. This practice was replaced with the Christian communion by Constantine but is still very much alive even today known as the Eucharist/Transubstantiation. Mithraism also had seven sacraments or ceremonies that point to what is sacred…special occasions for experiencing God’s saving presence…the universal church has how many sacraments today? Seven.

A popular belief system in ancient Rome was henotheism. A henotheist believes in the existence of many gods but focuses on one primary or particular god, considering that god supreme over all the others. For example, the Roman god Jupiter was supreme over the Roman pantheon gods. Under Constantine these pantheon gods were renamed, as they had been done many times before, with the names of the saints. Just as the Romans had a god of love, a god of peace, a god of war, a god of strength…the traditional/orthodox church today has saints who are “in charge” of each of these, and many other categories. Just as many Roman cities had a god specific to the city, so the church now has “patron saints” for the cities.

The waving of incense, the chanting, the clergical garb…all originate in early neo-paganism…all the way back to Mesopotamian worship of the Queen of Heaven. (Picture 8) Ishtar became Easter and no longer was the miraculous impregnation of Semiramis worshiped but now the resurrection of Jesus Christ…yet the eggs and the painting of eggs remained…Saturnalia became Christmas and no longer was the birth of Tammuz celebrated but now the birth of Jesus Christ…yet the decorated trees, the yule logs and the jingle bells remain…

Constantine, instead of proclaiming the gospel and converting the pagans, he “Christianized” the pagan religions which didn’t Christianize them at all…what happened was Christianity became paganized. The questionable, unacceptable union…marriage of not the church to Jesus…but the church to the world! 

So, what are we to do? Jesus said in John 8:32, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” We are in the world, free, alive unto Christ, and not asleep and unaware of what John wrote in 1 John 5:19, “The whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” So, we draw near to God…and we, through allowing the Lord to live through us, in our lives, we light up the darkness…and the darkness is very thick…so thick that we don’t even perceive it anymore (final two pictures)…

And so, the words of Jesus to the Church in Pergamos…His message to us even today…

Revelation Chapter 2 Verses 16 – 17

·    I love this. Jesus says turn away from this mixture of the world with My church. Have an ear to hear Me and Me alone and by that you can overcome! What happens when it’s just you and Jesus? Hidden manna! You think you need this ritual or that priest or this ceremony to fill you…to suffice you…you don’t. The things of the world even…they don’t satisfy. The hunger is always for more…what satisfies the heart of man…it’s this hidden manna. Closeness with God.

·    You think you have identity in your career, accomplishments, religion or in your church. Not so. Your identity, your true identity, who you really are, who you really were made to be…God knows that…and He says here that He will write it on a white stone and no one knows it, or sees it, but you and the Lord. So intimate.

·    And you know what that also means? God is for you! You’ve heard the term to “black ball” someone? That refers to cutting someone off and it comes from an ancient form of voting where those for would place a white stone, and those against would place a black stone. Jesus says here, I vote for YOU! He alone affirms you…He can alone confirm you…you need no church or priest or ceremony of confirmation… He is the Great Satisfier because to know Him and to be near to Him…that’s our original design and intent!

·    Jesus says here, refuse this mixing of worldliness with your relationship with me. Set your mind on things above…on My word… I alone will fill you and I will cast a white stone for you securing a place for you with me forever...

·    In the eyes of the world, Constantine did a great thing…he brought peace, he brought stability, he brought unity…but in the history of the church…he brought tragedy. Because what he did confused and polluted the heart of the church, and it remains today…both protestant and Orthodox…