The Seven Churches of Revelationமாதிரி

One of the most stunning events I have learned about is what happened among the pastors and leaders in the post-World War II, post-Hitler churches. The question from everyone outside Germany was how complicit these pastors were in the tragedy called the “German Christians.” German Christians, Die deutsche Christen, formed a Nazi Germany church that, to put it bluntly, de-Judaized the Bible and created a national church that was a profound disaster (Nazi shortens in German the word “national”). Some pastors and theologians spoke up; most didn’t. Some who did, like Ernst Käsemann, Martin Niemoeller, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, went to prison. Käsemann was in a prison camp; Niemoeller was Hitler’s own prisoner; Bonhoeffer was murdered. Post WWII, German Christianity was profoundly divided because of its compromise with the political powers (see Hockenos, A Church Divided). They were dissidents of Babylon. The church in Thyatira accommodated itself to the powers of Babylon in a way that, when taken to an extreme, led to the German Christian movement. A nationalized church not only accommodates itself to the powers but eviscerates the gospel and the church’s capacity to speak truth to the powers. The USA’s churches today are more like Thyatira than they may realize. Too many have capitulated to Babylon creep.

Colossus Christ and His Commendation

The Colossus Christ who sends a message through John to Thyatira is “the Son of God, whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze” (2:18). As with the other titles for Jesus in these letters, we find the same expressions in the vision of chapter one (1:14, 15). Only in today’s passage does “Son of God” appear in Revelation, but at least some would hear an echo of the title often used of Roman emperors, divi filius (son of a god). This Jesus challenges the imperial cult, merged as it was with the worship of Apollo Tyrimnos in Thyatira. The Son of God’s eyes (Daniel 10:6) describe a penetrating perception of the conditions at Thyatira, and the “burnished bronze” feet may well describe a special metal made in the guilds of Thyatira (Weima, Sermons, 132).

The Son of God’s commendations tumble out of a carton of virtues: good works, love, faithfulness, service, perseverance, and “now doing more than you did at first” (2:19). Their behaviors are in order, but Jesus knows there is a deep problem at work in Thyatira: they are divided. Some have fallen yet again for the compromised position of trying to follow the Lamb and Rome at the same time. One foot in Babylon and the other in New Jerusalem. First, Jesus turns to the accommodationists.

Babylon Creep and Correction

Jesus turns from labeling others with Balaam and Nicolaitans to “Jezebel,” which became a trope in the Jewish world for an unfaithful woman. She was the Phoenician wife of the corrupted king Ahab, and she was known for murdering prophets (1 Kings 18–19). The label changes, but the sins are identical to the sins in Pergamum: that strange mixture of idolatry and sexual immorality (2:20). Jezebel fashions herself as a “prophet,” which suggests to many that there is an actual woman in the church teaching these ideas. That the prophetess of Thyatira’s name was Jezebel is unlikely. Babylon was surely creeping into the church.

One more time: the idolatries of western Asia Minor were more often than not tied to religious cults and public allegiance to the ways of Rome. Many scholars today think the Thyatiran idolatries and food practices connect the people to Thyatira’s well-known and abundant trade guilds—unions of wool workers, bakers, etc.—that both sustained their income and provided feasts involving food offered to idols. Economics, religion, and politics were so mixed in that world that one could not have perceived a difference. Good citizens of these cities were public worshipers of the gods, and those who worshiped the gods expressed political support of the emperor. And when Christians mix faith with political religion, they compromise allegiance to Jesus. Either Jesus is Lord or Caesar is, Jesus is saying to Thyatira.

Yet, instead of a complaint, this divided church hears as well the commending words of Jesus to the faithful group: “the rest of you” here that have not been led to follow in the ways of Jezebel (=Babylon) and, speaking sarcastically, neither have they “learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets” (2:24). So Jesus tells them he will not add any other burden than what was given in the Apostolic decree in Acts 15:28–29, which explains Jesus’ concern with the idolatries and eating food offered to idols. So, he simply tells them to “hold on,” or grip or grasp, “until I come” (2:25). Isn’t it the truth that the problem people get all the attention in churches? I’d like to hear about the faithful holder-ons in Thyatira. What we can say for sure is that they are the ones whose virtues are given public affirmation in 2:19 above.

Consequences

As one group gets complaint and another affirmation, so there are two consequences in the message of Jesus. The ones about whom Jesus is most concerned here are threatened with an awful judgment. The offer of repentance rejected, Jesus turns to graphic language of divine discipline of “suffering” and those who follow her ways will encounter the greatest of enemies, death itself. Their ends correspond to their “works” (NIV has “deeds”; 2:23). The faithful group of dissidents will be “victorious” and will be handed “authority over the nations” and, along with that opportunity to rule in the New Jerusalem (which sounds like Psalm 2:9 and Matthew 19:28 and 1 Corinthians 6:2), they will also be given the “morning star,” which could evoke Numbers 24:17, but the book of Revelation itself resolves this: the morning star is Jesus (Revelation 22:16). Again, the promise for the victorious is participation in New Jerusalem.

Questions for Reflection and Application

1. What happens when churches capitulate to the Babylons of their day?

2. How does the church of Thyatira help illustrate the problems when behaviors seem right on the surface, but beliefs underneath are wrong?

3. How did the Thyatiran Christians make accommodation to public allegiance to Rome?

4. In what ways do you see economics, religion, and politics mixed in your world?

5. How do you struggle with “holding on” in your faith life?