Bible Study Book Availability Update 12/2/2024

 Revelation 2:12 Amplified Bible

12 “And to the angel (divine messenger) of the church in [a]Pergamum write:

“These are the words of Him who has and wields the sharp two-edged sword [in judgment]:

Jesus’s description of Himself in this verse is frightening unless we understand that He did for us on the cross. Listen. We do not need to discount the seriousness of His statement, but should rather be filled with awe that the God of Judgment poured out His mercy on us. Thanks to His overwhelming love, His judgment is reserved for those who reject Him as Savior and Lord. Nevertheless, I can imagine the alarm when the believers at Pergamum read the first few words of His message to them. 

Revelation 2:13 Amplified Bible

13 ‘I know where you dwell, [a place] where Satan sits enthroned. Yet you are holding fast to My name, and you did not deny [b]My faith even in the days of [c]Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed (martyred) among you, where Satan dwells. 

When we talked about the church at Smyrna, we talked about the synagogue of Satan. To the church at Pergamum, Jesus says that they live where Satan sits enthroned, and as where Satan dwells. Is there a significance to the synagogue of Satan verses where he is enthroned and lives?  The footnote in the Amplified Bible explains a little about the city of Pergamum.

Pergamum (modern Bergama, Turkey) was built on a promontory about sixteen miles from the Aegean Sea. It was famous as a worship center for many pagan gods including Zeus (Jupiter, king of gods), Dionysus (Bacchus, god of wine and intoxication), and Asklepios (god of healing). The enormous altar dedicated to Zeus is on display in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Pergamum also had an important temple dedicated to the worship of Caesar. Refusal to take part in the imperial cult was considered treason. A culturally sophisticated city as well as a center for pagan worship, Pergamum’s library, believed to contain over 200,000 volumes, was second only to the Library of Alexandria. (Footnote from Amplified Bible)

I may be overspiritualizing or over politicizing here, so take what I write with a grain of salt. A synagogue could symbolize a place where people gathered to worship. A throne indicates governmental control over who and where people choose to worship. In Pergamum, people were required to worship the demonic false gods or were guilty of treason. As I mentioned in the post about Smyrna, we can see how we live where the synagogue of Satan is. We may be heading in the direction of the government limiting our right to worship Jesus as Lord and the freedom to speak freely of His precepts, but as of now, churches still have freedom from governmental control.

The believers in Pergamum have remained faithful to Jesus, even when Antipas was martyred. Antipas was either a pastor or church leader there. Think about the courage holding fast to your faith in Jesus required when your pastor had been killed for his commitment to Christ Jesus as Lord. If your pastor were killed for the sake of Christ, what would your attitude be?

Revelation 2:14 Amplified Bible

14 But I have a few things against you, because you have there some [among you] who are holding to the [corrupt] teaching of Balaam, who taught [d]Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, [enticing them] to eat things that had been sacrificed to idols and to commit [acts of sexual] [e]immorality. 

I talk a lot about total commitment, wholehearted submission to the work of God’s Spirit in us. I want that for myself, but clearly I have not attained that level of faith. I think we all struggle as long as we are in the flesh. And we have it a lot easier than the people in Pergamum. I’m not making excuses for them. Even though their faith was strong, they had been led astray by false teaching, or pressure from society, to participate in idolatry by eating the meat sacrificed to demonic false gods, and participating in or tolerating sexual immorality. Whoa. Contemplate that a minute in the context of our society. Are we maintaining our faith in Christ and still accepting false religions as a viable path to God? Are we tolerating sexual immorality and perversion? Is our tolerance a stumbling block to those who need to recognize their sin and turn to Jesus for forgiveness and redemption? 

Revelation 2:15 Amplified Bible

15 You also have some who in the same way are holding to the teaching of the [f]Nicolaitans. 

We learned a little about the Nicolaitans when we read the message Jesus spoke to the church in Ephesus. I’m pasting the footnote from Revelation 2:6 again here. 

Who are the Nicolaitans? This is what the footnote in the Amplified Bible says. “There is scant information about the cult of the Nicolaitans, but it appears they adopted a syncretistic worship, combining Christianity and idolatry. They may have held heretical views similar to those mentioned in vv 14 and 20.”

I expanded on my thoughts in the other post, so I won’t say the same thing again here. If you are interested,refer back to the post about the church at Ephesus.

Revelation 2:16 Amplified Bible

 16 Therefore repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, your sinful behavior—seek God’s will]; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war and fight against them with the sword of My mouth [in judgment]. 

God consistently calls us to repentance. When we refuse to repent, He executes judgment by the sword of His mouth. The Word spoken by God is powerful. Our fight is against principalities and powers of darkness, and our sword is scripture, the Word of God. 

Ephesians 6:12 Amplified Bible

12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places.

Ephesians 6:17 Amplified Bible

17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

Studying and applying scripture is our defense against the devil, but it is also our offense to reach those who have not accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord and are subject to the judgment that is coming for those who reject Jesus.

Revelation 2:17 Amplified Bible

17 He who has an ear, let him hear and heed what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God], to him I will give [the privilege of eating] some of the [g]hidden manna, and I will give him a [h]white stone with a new name engraved on the stone which no one knows except the one who receives it.’

When we hear what God speaks to us through His Spirit, we have a personal, intimate relationship with Him. He speaks to us personally. He gives us a name that is known only to Him and to us. When my granddaughter was little, I called her Paigee Wagey. (I used rhyming names for all my grandkids but she was the only one who picked up on this.) She calls me Nanna Banana. I still call her Paigee. (pay-gee) None of the other grandkids call me this name. It’s between just the two of us, our special names for each other. My daddy called me “Punkin” and my Uncle Johnny called me “Bird Legs.” No one else called me those names. We have names like that with Jesus. Isn’t that awesome!