Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, I want to challenge you to think through what the letter to Pergamum in the book of Revelation has to say to the contemporary church today. And it does.

It has plenty to say, as we will see, one of the motifs that we have been outlining for you all through the book of Revelation, as we've been studying it here, is that each of these seven letters to the churches of Asia not only speak to the churches of Asia, but also to the church throughout redemptive history. There are issues here that every church faces, and taken in totality, the seven letters to the churches of Asia address every issue that each church will deal with in the course of redemptive history. And that is just how God works. His revelation is full and complete for all men and women, redeemed by the Lord.

This section of Revelation, very important. We aren't skipping over it lightly just to get on to the good stuff, the Revelation red heifer rapture issues. No, we're not passionate about who the beast is. We're not looking particularly for when the great seven-year tribulation will be. No, all of these things will be dealt with in their due time.

But in the meantime, we are also looking at the issues that the church of Christ faces throughout redemptive history during this period, already 2,000 years gone. But these letters have been sufficient for the needs of the church during that period, and will be until Christ returns again. I look forward to that day. I hope you do too. Well, let's read this letter, the letter of the apocalypse, to the church at Pergamum, and see what it has to say to us as well.

And I'm reading from Revelation chapter 2, verses 12 to 17, and it goes this way. To the angel of the church in Pergamum write, these are the words of him who has the sharp double-edged sword. I know where you live, where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city, where Satan lives.

Nevertheless, I have a few things against you. You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balaak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent, therefore, otherwise I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it. Unquote. Revelation chapter 2, verses 12 to 17, dealing with the letter to the church at Pergamum in Asia, all having to do very much with the control of power here as we come to the place of Satan's throne, as our Lord calls it, the place of Satan's throne. Great power central in Pergamum.

Normal people make the fatal mistake that people who seek that power, seek political power, and acquire and hold power over others, they make the mistake of thinking that those kind of people are just like us and all they want to do is serve. They just want to be public servants. Well, how wrong, tragically and irredeemably wrong. No, the people in power over your lives today in government are not like you. They do not feel the feelings you do.

They do not act from the same motives that you do. They do not seek the same ends that you do. There is a deep-seated flaw that is soul-deep in the lust for power that has brought pain, suffering, misery, and tyranny for millennia. George Orwell puts it this way in the mouth of one of his characters in his book, 1984. I quote now from 1984, George Orwell's book, the party seeks power entirely for its own sake.

We are not interested in the good of others. We are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means, you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites.

The German Nazis and the Russian communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where the human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means.

It is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution. One makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture.

The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me. Unquote. How he says it so plainly. Eloquently and succinctly put, George Orwell, you are incredibly naive if you think that most governments, including our own, wants your good and governs for the benefit of the people.

Most men who seek power do so for the reasons articulated by Orwell. We are not interested in the good of others. We are interested solely in power, pure power. Unquote. No one understands this better than Satan.

He tempted our Lord with this bauble in the wilderness. Do you remember from Luke chapter four in the temptation of Jesus? Luke says there, and the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said to him, to you, I will give all this authority and their glory for it has been delivered to me and I give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it will all be yours. Right?

You can almost hear him cackling. How many men have taken the bait, dear listener? All for power. The lust for power has a corrosive and debilitating impact upon the soul, doesn't it? Lord Acton famously said, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts, absolutely.

And Abraham Lincoln observed very trenchantly. He said, nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power. Unquote. This lust for power is a major motif in Revelation. I pointed this out to you before, especially in the introduction.

The false claim to power by Satan and his minions vies with Christ's soul and exclusive exercise of power throughout creation. What the illusion of absolute power does to the human soul, we will also see throughout the book of Revelation, beginning here in Pergamum, where is Satan's throne as our Lord puts it? Well, this letter, I have three points to make with you concerning these issues. And our first point covers verses 12 and 13. And that point is Pergamum, although you find yourself in the belly of the beast, you refuse to compromise your witness to me, even unto death.

Yes, the church in Pergamum found itself in the belly of the beast. But nevertheless, they refuse to compromise their witness to Christ, even unto death. Verses 12 and 13 read, to the angel of the church in Pergamum write, these are the words of him who has the sharp double-edged sword. I know where you live, where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name.

You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city where Satan lives. Our Lord begins by reasserting a very pertinent fact of his power, the fiat, original power of his word. He says, the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. Here, our Lord is reasserting because he has already asserted in the original vision of chapter one, the creative power of his word.

Remember back in chapter one, and we see all through these letters that they keep hearkening back to the original vision of Christ, where in verse 16 of chapter one, we read, in his right hand, he held seven stars. From his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength, unquote. And we have seen how majestic and sweeping is this power. Men need machines and manipulative methods and the coercion of other men to get us to do what they want or to get things done. God, all he needs to do is speak, and it is done.

This power accomplishes both blessing and judgment, depending upon the purpose of that word. Thus, the sword is two-edged, accomplishing either blessing or judgment. In the case of the cult of the emperor, the Nicolaitans, and the followers of Balaam, it is for judgment. In the case of the Pergamenes, it is for blessing, if only they conquer. Well, what are the Pergamenes doing for blessing?

They're doing two things, our Lord says. Number one, our Lord says they hold to my name, which is a way of saying that they identify fully with the Lord Jesus Christ and all for which he stands. And because they hold to his name, our Lord will bless them with a new name in just a few verses. We'll see that coming. But secondly, the second thing the Pergamenes are doing for blessing, they profess his faith.

That is all that is believed and put into practice. That's the idea of professing faith. You don't just repeat rote words. That is, they profess his faith. That is all that is believed and put into practice too.

They profess his faith negatively stated in that they did not deny my faith. It is put this way, since the local officials of the cult of Caesar would have required them to curse Christ and bless Caesar as Lord. Not the Pergamenes. They profess his faith. They did not deny my faith.

Now, we know this because we have records of how Roman officials went about handling these pesky Christians. For example, a Roman governor, Pliny the Elder, wrote this to his superior, the Roman emperor Trajan, about how he handled Christians who wouldn't worship Caesar, seeking confirmation for his behavior. Pliny, the governor, the elder, wrote this to the emperor. In the case of those who were denounced to me as Christians, I have observed the following procedure. I interrogated these as to whether they were Christians.

Those who confessed, I interrogated a second and a third time, threatening them with punishment. Those who persisted, I ordered executed. These are the kinds of things that Christians faced in those days. Well, Pliny goes on to his superior emperor Trajan. He says, for I had no doubt that whatever the nature of their creed, stubbornness and inflexible obstinacy surely deserves to be punished.

Those who denied that they were or had been Christians when they invoked the gods in words dictated by me, offered prayer with incense and wine to your image, which I had ordered to be brought for this purpose together with statues of the gods. And moreover, cursed Christ. These, I thought, should be discharged. Unquote. This was the procedure of Pliny the Elder, a governor of a precinct in Rome.

And this was standard procedure throughout the empire. But it was especially so in Pergamum, where Satan's throne is, as our text says. What? Satan's throne. Satan's throne.

It's not in hell. If only Satan's throne also has an annex here on earth in the rule and the authority of the beast. We'll see this in chapter 13, where it says, and I saw a beast rising out of the sea with 10 horns and seven heads, with 10 diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard. Its feet were like a bear's and its mouth was like a lion's mouth.

And to it, the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. Unquote. Now, as we will see with crystal clarity, dear listener, that beast is Rome. Pergamum was all about emperor worship. Pergamum was one of the first minor kingdoms to voluntarily cede itself to the Roman empire without a fight.

She had a temple to the emperor Claudius and Pergamum also strictly observed veneration of whomever, whomever, excuse me, was emperor as a god. Pergamum was a city built on a great conical escarpment that rose out of a flat plain in Asia Minor. Pergamum was festooned with pagan temples, including a prominent one at the top to Zeus and another one further down to Asclepius, who was the god of healing and medicine. Even without its devotion to the emperor then, Pergamum would have been the place where Satan dwells. But its pride, Pergamum's pride of place was as the center of emperor worship for the entire province.

Its temple to the emperor bore images of the current ruling emperor seated upon his throne. Thus, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, as our Lord says. Well, Revelation is not afraid to identify human government with evil, to Satan himself, and we shouldn't either. Romans 13 is not the end-all be-all of the Christian's response to government. It says in Romans 13, let every person be subject to the governing authorities.

One must be in subjection, Paul tells us in Romans chapter 13, to human government. But there are times when the Christian must manifestly not be in subjection to the governing authorities. And Revelation is a virtual handbook on resistance to them. Most people don't recognize this. This is a lost motif in the book of Revelation.

One of those means of resistance is what? Maybe join the local militia? No. One of those means of resistance is indeed the profession of the name and witness to Christ. This is our means of resistance, even to the point of death.

To this extremity, our Lord refers. In the case of one of the number of Pergamum, that is Antipas, our Lord says, killed among you where Satan dwells. That little phrase that he uses, among you, is important. Antipas was not an isolated individual who happened to get caught off the compound. No.

Antipas was an integral part of the community that was suffering itself as a community. All of those in Pergamum were standing for the name. All refused to deny my faith. Any one of them could have been killed. It just so happened that it was Antipas.

So often, dear listeners, this is how it is. The persecution under Nero, we must broaden our view here, step back and take a broader look because the persecution under Nero was vicious and intense, often random, irrational, and demonic in its imagination. Believers were coated with pitch, for example. Believers were coated with pitch, and they were used to illumine Nero's garden parties well into the night. Believers were also sewn into freshly killed animal skins, the barbarity of this.

Believers sewn into freshly killed animal skins and then thrown to wild animals to be killed and partially eaten, all for the entertainment of the emperor and his entourage. Remember what Orwell says. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power.

Now you begin to understand me, right? This is George Orwell. This is the impulse of power. Where Satan dwells indeed. And when you read the historical accounts before you go flying to Revelation Red Heifer rapture rants, you read the historical accounts available to you about Revelation.

One book I would recommend is a book called Pagans and Christians by Robin Lane Fox, or the author Suetonius in his Lives of the Caesar, a contemporary work. When you begin to read these historical accounts, you get a feel for the way of life, the atmosphere, the ethos of the time, and how it was to actually live among those possessed and owned and ruled by such gods and demons. Christians lived a life of stark contrast in comparison to them. And our own time, in our own day, our own culture and time, is quickly descending into the same kind of evil and demonic days. America herself is fast becoming a place where Satan dwells.

And I'm not being sensational or conspiratorial here. Look about you. Take the blinders off, listener. Please don't give me your condescension and your supercilious now, now, pastor. Because Luciferianism, for example, is on the rise, especially among the cultural elites.

Screen the movie Eyes Wide Shut by Stanley Kubrick, for example, which helped to mainstream occultism. And we also have the quaint new age astrology buff of the 60s who read her horoscope in the post register every day and was thrilled to be living in the age of Aquarius. This same one is now descending into spells and curses and animal sacrifice. Scattered heavy metal culture in the valley. There's one person I know of like this in our own valley in which we live.

The contrast is becoming more and more stark, dear listener. Pretty soon, no Christian who actually lives out his or her faith will be able to hide much longer, dear listener. By definition, we will be children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. This is how we were meant to live, as lights in the world. In contrast, then, to a crooked and twisted generation living in the dark.

We, as a Christian community, we will have to stand for the name and not deny my faith, as the Lord says. This will have to be the de facto stance of every believer, dear listener. Some of us, then, will, like Antipas, be killed among you where Satan dwells. This is something we must anticipate and plan for and not plan to be raptured out of such circumstances. Look about you.

The church is suffering all over the world, and you cheat, and you disillusion brothers and sisters like this by promulgating a doctrine of a pre-tribulational rapture. No, we are not going to be suffering then to build up our own righteousness. We are to suffer, to follow in Christ's footsteps. Our Lord himself said, like teacher, like student, like master, like servant. We are to be like Christ and follow in his footsteps.

And suffering for the name is part of that without becoming self-righteous, without building up righteousness for yourself as a consequence. No, we suffer because our master did. We suffer because our teacher did. And Christians are doing this all over the face of the globe without anticipating being raptured out of it. And you shouldn't either.

Listener, it is time indeed for us to be more like the church at Pergamum and stand for the name and be ready to face what we need to face. Certainly no mean commendation for them, right? No mean commendation. They indeed have stood for the name. They have not denied my faith.

Those saints in the precious town of Pergamum. But there is also then a word of caution and rebuke that our Lord has for them. And that brings us to point two, verses 14 to 16. Although you witness to be in the belly of the beast, you compromise your witness by admitting in the back door what you refuse at the front, verses 14 to 16. And we're going to take those up next time we're together because our time has run out.

But we will take up the rest of the letter to Pergamum the next time we meet. But in the meantime, this has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. And we, New Geneva, meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Now we are going through the book of Revelation right now as it stands. And it has been a great series.

I've gotten so much positive feedback, some negative. I know there are some of you that disagree with my presentation of the book of Revelation. And I encourage you to go ahead and give me some feedback, whether it's positive or negative. I always learn by all the feedback I get, whether it's good or bad. So I'm open to receiving maybe some critique or suggestions that you might have for my pursuit of this series.

But we're preaching through the book of Revelation in our congregation on Sunday morning. And we meet for holy worship at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. I invite you to join us. Perhaps you've been thinking of visiting. You've been in the shadows now for a while.

You've been thinking of visiting our church. And this is a good time to do it. We meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for more information or more feedback at area code 208-523-0196. Once again, come and visit us.

I just encourage you to receive a warm welcome. And more information, area code 208-523-0196. Area code 208-523-0196.