The Seven Churches of RevelationSýnishorn

Perhaps I’m unusual but it is hard for me to visit the various sites of churches in western Asia Minor and not have a thought go through my head. I’ll explain. Not only is the presence of a church barely noticeable in this Muslim country, but the sites of these cities are mostly ruins. One cannot stand in the ancient sites of Pergamum or Ephesus or Sardis or Laodicea, which are indeed wonderful sites to visit, and not think about “what was and is no more.” The warnings Jesus gives to these churches at times have haunted me when leading students around these sites. One can give a variety of explanations—like earthquakes and burgeoning cities in the flat plain below Pergamum—and they do bring me back to reality. But I never fail to experience the haunting warnings of these letters, not least the warning to Ephesus that Jesus will remove their lampstand (Rev 2:5).

One reason for the collapse of churches throughout the history of the church is when the teachings of the church wander from the gospel about Jesus into something catchier or political and modern and, well, you know the drill. Pergamum’s problem was bad theology, and its bad theology exemplifies Babylon creep all over again. Bad theology is not just bad ideas; bad theology is a compromised discipleship. For the Apocalypse, this compromise means accommodating oneself too much to the ways of Rome, in which one’s behavior reveals that one’s theology is off base. American Christianity has far too many people captured by grasping for political power. The resemblance of this grasping and what was happening in the seven churches ought to be a loud trumpet blast of warning.

Colossus Christ and His Commendation

One way to get people to listen to your ideas is first to affirm them publicly. It has a Latin name because one of the most famous orators of ancient Rome, Cicero, called it captatio benevolentiae, which means “capturing someone with good will.” I get lots of emails from readers. When someone begins the letter with their version of a few lines of captatio benevolentiae, my eyebrows go up because almost always what follows is a criticism of something they disagree with in my writings. Fundraisers, evangelists, administrators, and leaders all do this—and the rhetorical technique of being nice before lowering the boom can be manipulative, and often is.

It can also be helpful and wise and pastorally warm. When done by the right person, in the right setting, to the right person. As when Jesus does it in these letters. The traits of Jesus in the message to Pergamum must have put the house churches in Pergamum on their heels: “These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword” (2:12; cf. 1:16; notice also Isaiah 49:2 and Revelation 19:15). Gulp. One of the Roman emperors’ symbols was a sword or dagger, which means Jesus has removed the dagger from the emperor to enact divine justice. When Nero died and Galba became emperor, Suetonius tells us that Galba “began his march to Rome in a general’s cloak with a dagger hanging from his neck in front of his breast” (Suetonius, Galba, 11). The sword used of Jesus here has a two-foot wooden handle with a double-edged, curved blade.

Such a sword, proceeding from the mouth of this Colossus Christ, judges and saves, deconstructs and reconstructs, ends injustice and forms justice. The sword-word of Jesus will not only act in the public sector against Babylon’s injustices and idolatries, but in the church, the sword of Jesus prunes and pierces. Those who obey Jesus become dissidents of both Babylon and Babylon creep.

First, the pruning begins with recognizing what’s healthy in Pergamum’s Jesus movement (2:13). They are surrounded because they live “where Satan has his throne,” which is both the Rome-anointed capital of Asia but also the seat of idolatrous worship and allegiance. Perhaps this “throne” refers to the massive, historic altar to Zeus on the acropolis of Pergamum, an altar now in a museum in Berlin. Perhaps, too, Satan’s throne points to the healing center of Asclepius in Pergamum, and Asclepius typically had a serpent wrapped around his walking stick (Weima, Sermons, 97, has a picture of an Asclepius statue). Another: perhaps the throne refers to the imperial cult of Pergamum or to the pressure of persecution in the city. In that location they “remain true to [the] name [of Jesus],” that is, when they observed Antipas’ murder for his allegiant witness to Jesus, they “did not renounce” their allegiance to Jesus. One of the marks of Babylon was its murderousness, so much so that John says they were intoxicated on the blood of martyrs (17:6).

Babylon Creep and Correction

Their allegiance was not enough for Jesus because though they stuck it out in the midst of threats of death, their theology got mixed with “Balaam” and the “Nicolaitans” (2:14–16). These terms evoke more than define, but the evocations appear to be about the mixture of the gospel with the ways of Babylon’s idolatries. The worship of Baal mixed idol worship with sexual indulgences of all sorts (Numbers 25:1–5; 31:16), and this is the same kind of description used of the whore of Babylon in Revelation 17 (cf. 17:2, 3, 4, 13, 14; 18:2–3, 9; 19:3). So, I take the teachings of Balaam to be Babylon creep into the churches. Believers were participating too much in the public religious worship and in eating food offered to idols, which was at the same time an expression of allegiance to Rome. Balaam is a reasonably clear reference, but “Nicolaitans” is not. The same form of Babylon creep was mentioned about Ephesus as well (2:6), the difference being the Ephesians hated the teachings of the Nicolaitans. Perhaps this is the teaching of a man named Nicolaus; more likely it is a term for false teachings that combined idolatry, sexual misconduct, and allegiance to the emperor of Rome. Something similar will appear in his message to Thyatira (2:20). Jesus’ word of correction is “Repent!” (2:16).

Consequences

If Pergamum’s believers don’t repent, Jesus will return to “fight against them with the sword of my mouth” (2:16). If they do and so become “victorious” in their allegiance to Jesus, Jesus will give to them both “some of the hidden manna” and “a white stone with a new name written on it” (2:17). Manna refers to God’s special provisions (Exodus 16) and it became a promise for divine provisions in the final kingdom, with the word “hidden” referring to the jar of manna in the ark in the temple (16:32–34). The “new name,” which sounds like Revelation 3:12 and 19:12, most likely points to a private name assigned by Jesus to each of his followers. The “white stone” probably refers to an admission ticket to New Jerusalem’s banquet.

The ones who repent, who are victorious, are the ones like Antipas who was put to death. His trademark was that he was a “faithful witness” (2:13). The primary term used for the best way for believers to live in Babylon is to be a witness, and this term deserves now a brief explanation. The term belongs to a courtroom where someone was presented to a judge to witness or to testify about what they heard or saw. So the term becomes a “see” that is combined with a “say” that in Pergamum can lead to “suffering.” A witness is someone who has seen something about Jesus that the witness knows is true, and that person has the courage to say what they believe to be true, knowing that the consequence of seeing and saying is that they could suffer for it. Brian Blount sums it perfectly when he writes “it is a word of provocative testimony and therefore active engagement, not sacrificial passivity” (Blount, Revelation, 29).

Questions for Reflection and Application

1. When you reflect on the eventual destruction of the cities in these messages, how does that impact your understanding of the corrections and warnings?

2. How do Jesus’ sword-words function when facing Babylon and the church?

3. What did the Christians of Pergamum do wrong in mixing their worship of the Lamb with worship of idols?

4. Consider McKnight’s words, “bad theology is a compromised discipleship.” How has bad theology impacted your discipleship journey?

5. What would it look like for you to grow as a witness for Jesus, who sees things about Jesus and says them, in spite of possible suffering?