“He that hath an ear, let him hear / respond to what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Revelation 2:1-7
If we’re going to understand the prophetic value of these letters we need to know their historical reality.
Continue reading “187) The Calculating Church Rev 2:1-7”
Smyrna
“And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.”
During the Roman period, Smyrna was apparently a city of great beauty and impressive architecture that circled Mount Pagus like a “crown”... (cf. Revelation 2:10 “crown of life”). Walking through the city, one would a see…temples to Zeus (including a large altar), Cybele (the Mother Goddess, near the harbor), Aphrodite, Dionysius, and the Emperors (probably Tiberius in 26 AD and Domitian before 96 AD), the harbor, a library, and a massive agora…In the 2nd century AD, Smyrna built another imperial temple to Hadrian. Along with inscriptions honoring the emperors and statues of Domitian and Trajan, coins issued by the city often depicted emperors and even the imperial temples, so it is obvious that Smyrna was dedicated to the worship of the emperor and the imperial cult.
Continue reading “188) The Crisis Church Rev 2:8-11”
Revelation 2:12-17
“And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges; 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.”
Wow. Satan’s seat, his government headquarters where he keeps a permanent residence, would be the equivalent of Washington DC. Wouldn’t that be in Rome? But our Lord is telling us that it is in Pergamos! Why on earth in Pergamos?
Pergamon, whose ancient name…means “people of the high city”, had been inhabited since prehistory.
There must surely be a connection with the nearby prehistoric temple complex Gobekli Tepe.
Continue reading “189) The Cowering Church Rev 2:12-17”
Revelation 2:18-29
“And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass; I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
[Jan] Crouch was, perhaps, one of the most influential televangelists of the modern era.On television, she played the role of wife and mother, wearing elaborate outfits and outsized wigs and falsies; nodding along to her husband’s sermons, swaying to that idiosyncratic sound of Christian contemporary music and, of course, testifying about the good will of God.
“Momma Jan” was part of a multi-billion dollar empire. With her husband Paul Crouch, Jan founded Trinity Broadcast Network (now called TBN) in 1973, the 24-hour network dedicated to a particular kind of Christian programming. Crouch and her husband, long-time hosts of Praise the Lord, were the very memorable faces of “prosperity gospel,” a controversial brand of Evangelical Christianity that has a laser focus on “give and you will receive.” TBN, and the Crouches, raked in millions of dollars as they solicited donations from their sleek television sets while enacting a kind of contemporary worship…
Continue reading “190) The Corrupt Church Rev 2:18-29”
“And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.” (Revelation 3:1)
Around 612 BCE, the Assyrian Empire was conquered by the Neo-Babylon Empire. This opened up new horizons for the wealthy kingdom of Lydia in Anatolia, with its capitol at Sardis, which turned its attention from defending the eastern front to overrunning its western rivals, the Greek Ionian cities along the coast.
Lydian rulers, however, admired the Greeks and treated the Ionian cities leniently… Croesus, the last Lydian king, even paid for the construction of the temple of Artemis, which became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Thus, the Ionian coast city-states and the Lydians remained on peaceful terms with very tight cultural and commercial relations. Sardis was a centre for the traffic of goods and ideas between Mesopotamia and the Greek Ionian settlements, a crossroad of trade, and an ideal meeting point for the exchange of ideas, beliefs, customs, knowledge, and new insights. This rich exchange was one of the factors that, around 600 BCE, allowed the Ionian cities to turn into the intellectual leaders of the Greek world.
Continue reading “191) The Corpse Church Rev 3:1-6”
Philadelphia was established in 189 BC by King Eumenes II of Pergamon I…[who] named the city for…his brother, who would be his successor, Attalus II (159–138 BC), whose loyalty earned him the nickname, “Philadelphos”, literally meaning “one who loves his brother”.
Philadelphia was included in the kingdom of Pergamum that Attalus III Philometer bequeathed to his Roman allies when he died in 133 BC, assigned to the administrative district of Sardis. As noted above in the section on Sardis, the Jewish population was influential in Sardis and there was a synagogue of Hellenizing Jews in Philadelphia.
“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.
“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” (Revelation 3:14-19)
Laodicea was built by Antiochus II Theos in ~ 250 BC in honor of his wife Laodice. In 188 BC, the city passed to the Kingdom of Pergamon, and therefore after 133 BC fell under Roman control.
The early church was Jewish in leadership and membership. It functioned in synagogues and had Pharisaic traditions and it never lost its traces of Rabbinic Halakha [religious law]…
But as Gentiles were being converted to the God of Israel, too many power-hungry men saw an opportunity to use Gentiles who were poorly educated in the Jewish scriptures to build up their personal power base.
The split between Judaism and Christianity was gradual and happened at different rates in different places…from the middle of the first century CE to the middle of the fourth CE…
The process by which this happened was to split off the Jewish Scriptures.
Scholars propose that it was Melito of Sardis [d.180 AD] who originally coined the phrase Old Testament.
Continue reading “SECTION XXXVIII: Divide And Conquer”
Dispensationalism is a theological system of interpretation that makes a distinction between the church and the nation of Israel. Its roots are found in the earliest days of the apostate Christian church.
Justin Martyr is an imposing figure in the days of the early church, a philosopher by trade, and very skilled in the art of rhetoric. Justin noticed “several different economies”, i.e. dispensations, in the Old Testament in which history is revealed. There was an age prior to circumcision, an age prior to the law, and an age after the law.
Not according to Paul, there wasn’t.
Paul himself proved by his obedience to the law that he remained a law-abiding Jew to his death – as was Jesus the Christ. It is only Gentiles who are not required to follow certain elements of the law, such as circumcision, since these don’t apply to God’s people not living in the land of Israel.
Continue reading “194) God Has Not Cast Away The Jews”
“our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written…in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” (II Peter 3:15-16)
Philo of Alexandria (30 BCE – 45 CE) is a good example of a Jew who wrested the scriptures to suit his personal preference. He identified with Judaism through following ritual law while also identifying with high, i.e. Greek, society by melding Judaism’s God with the Greek concept of God, despite their inherent contradictions. The Greeks believed that God was inherently “unknowable.” Yahweh was the opposite – easily accessible and constantly occupied with the details of everyday life, reached easily just by calling out to him.
Philo postulated a two-part God: 1) an ousia of God, or a singular essence, which is the unknowable, and 2) an energeiai (energy) / Spirit which was the very thoughts of God. God’s energy could interact and touch the lives of mortals despite the remote ousia which was inaccessible to man through The Logos – a mediator for God; making it possible to realize the energy of God, and thus, by extension, the impossible ousia of God Himself.
Heraclitus of Ephesus used the word Logos around 500 BCE to describe his concept of the universe as a divine machine invisibly regulated by the Logos (literally the reason). The Greek cult of Hermes played on this construct, reporting that their prophet, in a trance state, met “the Mind of Authority” who shows the mystic a great light / reality and a great darkness / matter. From the Mind comes “a Holy Logos,” …the “shining Son of God.”
Philo’s Logos / Word was extremely popular among Jews and non-Jews alike because it allowed ecumenicalism in a multicultural empire, especially for those aspiring to be accepted by the ruling classes.
