“And to the angel of the Church in Pergamos write: These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges” (Revelation 2:12).

Upon careful examination of the meaning and derivation of the word Pergamos, we have a suggestion as to the condition of that Church, and also of the condition of the Church during that period in history repre-

sented by Pergamos; for we see in this Church and the period it covers that which corresponds to its name, just as in the cases of Ephesus and Smyrna. The name signifies “fortified,” “height” — the thought, therefore, seeming to be, that which is exalted in an established or fortified position. Considering this in connection with the Savior’s words, “I am aware where you are dwelling where Satan’s throne is” — Satan being called “the god [ruler] of this world” — the name suggests worldly height or elevation. This seems to be in perfect harmony, as we shall see, with the general picture presented in the Savior’s words describing this Church. Some very worthy and able expositors have offered some inter- esting suggestions as to the significance of the word Pergamos.

Mr. Grant observes: “It is remarkable that the word ‘Pergamos’ has a double significance. In the plural form, it is used for the ‘citadel of a town,’ while it is at least near akin to purgos, ‘a tower.’ Again, divide it into two words into which it naturally separates, and you have per, ‘although,’ a particle which ‘usually serves to call attention to something which is objected to’ (Liddell and Scott), and gamos, ‘marriage,’ Pergamos — ‘a marriage though.’ It was indeed by the marriage of the Church and the world that the ‘city and tower’ of [symbolic] Babylon the Great was raised; and such are the times we are now to contemplate [in this message of Christ].”

Mr. Seiss remarks: “Contemporaneous with the flowering of Nicolaitanism was another influential and characterizing feature manifested in the Church, of which the name Pergamos itself is significant — a certain marriage with worldly power, which the Savior pronounces as adulterous, idolatrous, and Balaamitic. … Its development is located in the period immediately succeeding the Pagan perse- cutions [the days of Constantine the Great, and of the emperors succeeding], when the Church, according to all historians, sacred and secular, did consent to one of the most marked and marvelous alliances that has occurred in all its history. We know that there was then formed a union between the Church and the empire, which the fall of that empire hardly dissolved, and which has been

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perpetuated in the union of church and state in the greater part of Christendom, down to this very hour. It was an alliance cried up at the time, and by many since, as the realization of the Millennium itself, and the great consummating victory of the cross. But Christ here gives his verdict upon it, pronouncing it an idola- trous uncleanness; Israel joining himself to Baal-peor; a fearful and disastrous compromise of Christianity with the world, which disfigured and debauched the Church.”

Mr. Russell’s view conforms to the foregoing: “Pergamos means an earthly elevation. The speaker is ‘He who hath the sharp sword with two edges’ [Greek, two mouthed] — the Word of God. During this period, while the nominal Church was growing popular, the true Christians were tested and proved by the intro- duction and development of Pagan and Papal ideas. The Pagan priests, unwilling to lose their positions of honor and influence amongst the people, sought to bend their ideas to fit the new religion. Thus while nominally professing Christianity, they brought many of their former ideas with them into the Christian Church. These were eventually grafted upon the true stock — ‘the faith once delivered to the saints’ (Jude 3).”

Another eminent Christian writer, A. J. Gordon, describes this period in Church history: “When the Church under Constantine became enthroned in the world, she began to be dethroned from her seat ‘in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.’ For then did she forget her high calling, and became enamored of earthly rule and dominion. This, let us not forget, was the fatal temptation through which the Church lost her primitive purity, and brought upon herself all manner of dishonor and apostasy. What a tender, prophetic warning of such temptation is contained in that saying of Paul to the Corinthian Christians: ‘I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve, through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ’ (2 Corinthians 11:2). In the world, but not of it, the Church, the Bride of Christ, was to await the return of her betrothed Husband from heaven, that, arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of saints, she might be presented to him a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. If, during the time of her espousal, Satan could only alienate her affections by getting her enamored with the kings of the earth, so that she should accept their dowries instead of her heavenly inheritance, and put on their royal purple instead of her virgin white, his triumph would be assured. And this is literally what he did.”

The same temptation under which the professed Church fell was presented by Satan to our Lord. The object was to seduce him from his love for the Church, that was to be redeemed by his own precious blood. That which was offered to him was, “all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them.” “All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me,” was the alluring prize set before our Lord by Satan. This very prize that Satan offered was in God’s due time to be given to Christ. But the Divine program was that he should first suffer and then reign; that after he had suffered, he should first for a time appointed,

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sit upon his Father’s throne, “till his enemies be made his footstool.” The Savior, however, resisted the temptation: “Get thee behind me, Satan,” were his words. On another occasion, when he had spoken of his going up to Jerusalem to be rejected and suffer death, Simon Peter, doubtless having the thought of a reigning Messiah, and not understanding that he must first suffer, said to him, “Be it far from Thee Lord: this shall not be unto Thee” (Matthew 16:23). The Savior recognized immediately the old temptation, and resisted it with the same rebuking words, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” Thus was the Savior true to his vow of consecration unto death, and true to his Church, for whom he was to pour out his life’s blood; thus “accepting a present cross and rejection, instead of a present crown and dominion; choosing to be cast out by a world that knew him not, until after the ‘times and seasons which the Father hath put in his own power should be fulfilled’ and the announcement made, ‘The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.’ ” Thus the prospective Second Adam resisted the temptation, of the old serpent.

Pergamos Yields to Fatal Temptation

The Church, which had passed through the terrible sufferings of the Smyrna period, was now to have another, and in many respects a more severe trial — a test of her loyalty to her Divine Master. It was at this time that the primitive hope, the Lord’s Second Advent, which had for some time been growing dim to the vision of many of the professed followers of the Lord, suffered an eclipse, and even many of the true followers of the Lord were, for a time at least, deceived by the Arch-enemy. The Historian Gibbon, in referring to the effect the belief in Christ’s Second Advent had upon his followers for two centuries, said that “it was productive of the most salutary effects on the faith and practice of Chris- tians, who lived in expectation of that moment when the globe itself and all the various races of mankind should tremble at the appearance of the Divine Judge.” The terrible persecutions which the Christians underwent in the long period from Domitian to Diocletian had the effect of keeping alive this hope of the Second Advent; particularly was this so on the part of the truly consecrated

— “earthly disfranchisement making heavenly citizenship more real and dear.”

When the political controversies and wars in the empire were finally settled, and Constantine ascended the throne, the more perilous trial of peace was encoun- tered. Constantine, influenced largely no doubt by worldly policy, became the patron of the professed Church of Christ, and sent forth an imperial decree that all persecution, should cease. The true followers of Christ, for a time at least, enjoyed, with the nominal Church, this cessation of persecution. Now came the great test: Would the Church “endure the test of imperial patronage as she bore the test of imperial persecution”? This was the chief test or trial that came to believers in Christ during this period. Those who remained true to the Lord, those who resisted the temptation of worldly patronage and the desire to rule before the appointed time, constituted the overcomers of this period.

The facts have been reviewed in an interesting way by one who, in referring to the great change that took place in Christianity in this period, said: “This fall

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from heavenly to earthly citizenship was accompanied, moreover, by a gradual exchange of spiritual worship for carnal superstitions. Worse than carnal, indeed! Satan, who had tempted the Church into accepting earthly dominion from his hands, now seduced her into mixing his own ritual with her simple primitive services. For we must not forget that, according to the explicit teaching of Scrip- ture, paganism is really demonism. ‘The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God’ (1 Corinthians 10:20), says the Apostle. Whether the deluded votaries of Jupiter and Mars knew it or not, it was really true that demons were the instigators and recipients of their worship. Idolatry is always and everywhere the religion of Satan, ordained for stealing from God the homage of human hearts and turning it to himself. And so, little by little, the elements of paganism began to mingle with the worship of Christ — holy water, candles, the wafer, images, processions, the adoration of saints and relics, the idolatry of the cross, and much more — of all which we may assert confidently what Cardinal Newman concedes concerning the first, that they were originally ‘the very instruments and appendages of demon-worship.’ ”

Although the Church as a whole yielded to the subtle temptation of Satan, yet out of it was preserved a faithful company, who will at last be numbered amongst the elect ones, the one hundred and forty- four thousand who will constitute the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife, and reign with him upon his throne. A portion of this faithful number of the Pergamos period are referred to and addressed by the Savior under the symbol of “Antipas, my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.” In the Greek anti means “against,” and papas signi- fies. “father.” The true followers of our Lord at this and subsequent times bore witness against this disobedience to his words, “Call no man father” (Matthew 23:9). It must be remembered that this was the period of Church history that gradually merged into Papacy. A most prominent feature of Papacy is that of enforcing celibacy upon its clergy, declaring them to be married to the Church, and teaching all its members — sons and daughters — to call their clergy “father.”

The Sin of Balaam in Pergamos

We now consider the particular evils mentioned by him out of whose mouth proceeded the sharp, two-edged sword. One of these, that of Nicolaitanism, we have already considered in the message to Ephesus. We observe a very signifi- cant difference between the way it is mentioned in this message to Pergamos and that in the one to Ephesus. In the Ephesus message it is designated “the deeds of the Nicolaitans.” This was seen by true believers in Ephesus to be an evil, and it is mentioned as being abhorred, “hated,” by the Savior. We noticed in our study of that period that Nicolaitanism referred to a tendency toward lordship in the Church — separating the Lord’s people into two classes, the clergy and the laity. We see that what in the Ephesus period was manifested only in “deeds,” gradually, in the Smyrna period, was developing (although under another name

— “synagogue of Satan”), and in the Pergamos period had merged into a full-

fledged doctrine (clericalism), becoming an important principle in its creed, and has been held as such ever since by the great professing church systems. We

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have already dwelt upon this quite extensively, in considering the messages to Ephesus and Smyrna, and therefore rest the matter, to take up another very remarkable feature of this Church — one which describes another noted evil that became manifest in this period of Church history.

“But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication” (verse 14). It is generally understood that the meaning of the word Balaam is “destroyer of the people.” Brown’s Bible Dictionary gives it as a “swallower of the people,” which means practically the same. Balaam seems to have been a prophet at one time, in at least outward nearness to the Lord. We may form a correct idea of his character as we read Jude’s brief description of some teachers of his time, of whom he says, they “ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward.” He seems to have been a prophet who apostatized. “It will be remem- bered that Balaam, who had been a prophet of God, instructed King Balak how to tempt Israel to sin, and thus brought about what he could not accomplish by his own powers” (Numbers 23, 24, 31:16).

Balaam’s sin was that for wages he counseled with the enemies of Israel, the Moabites, and advised Balak, their king, to draw the Israelites into forbidden friendships, and adulterous and idolatrous alliances, the result of which was that “twenty-four thousand were destroyed” (Numbers 25:9). The sin of Balaam evidently refers to the acts of those professed Christian teachers, the clericals, who counseled a union with the state, and a mingling on the part of God’s professed people, in worldly gatherings, feasts, and pleasures. “When the Church and the world become on good terms with one another, and the Church has the things of the world to attract the natural heart, the hireling prophet is a matter of course, who for his own ends will seek to destroy whatever remains of godly separateness.”

Regardless of how it may be with individuals who allow the natural heart to draw them away from heavenly, spiritual things, and regardless of how often individuals may be delivered and brought back, it is a fact proved by history that a church which has thus departed is never recovered. There may be many reformations or attempts to this end, but these are always more or less partial. The Church as a whole, in the age of Constantine, fell away to the world, and there has never since been a full recovery. This is one of the most vital matters connected with both individual Christians and assemblies of such. It is then a most important question: “How far are we as individuals and churches to main- tain a separateness from the world?” It is certainly true that “our associations are judged of God as surely as any other part of our conduct.” “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers,” is God’s Word. That this is a very important matter, indeed vitally important, we know from the fact that it is stated that God cannot be to us a Father and we be to Him sons and daughters except as we heed his Word: “Come out from among them, and be ye separate.” The “yoke” that is forbidden has various applications. It may be applied to anything in which we voluntarily unite to attain a common object. Among social relations, marriage is

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such a yoke; in business relations, partnership is such a yoke; and in the fore- most rank of all — ecclesiastical associations, worldly alliance is such a yoke.

This matter of the Christian’s call and duty to separate himself from the world is well illustrated in Pharaoh’s four subtle objections to the full deliverance of God’s ancient people from the land of Egypt. The first objection is expressed in his words to Moses: “Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land [of Egypt]” (Exodus 8:25). The object in this proposal of Pharaoh, doubtless instigated by Satan, was to hinder full obedience to the command of the Lord to separate entirely from Egypt and its evil, idolatrous influences. Egypt is very generally understood to represent the world. Deliverance from Egypt represents deliver- ance from this “present evil world” (Galatians 1:4). The tendency of professed Christians in defining what constitutes “the world” or worldliness is to place it a point or two lower than the standard they themselves have reached. God’s Word, however, defines it very explicitly and informs us that it is “all that is not of the Father” (1 John 2:16); hence the deeper our sense of fellowship with the Father, the keener will be our sense of what is worldly. “The more we are enabled in the power of an ungrieved spirit to drink in Christ’s revelation of the Father, the more accurate does our judgment become as to what constitutes worldliness.” It is most difficult to define where worldliness begins. One has said that it is shaded off gradually from black to white. It seems impossible to place a bound and say, “this is where worldliness begins”; but as the Christian walks close to the Lord, the keen sensibilities of his inner spiritual nature discern it. Possessing the power of the “new life” enables the individual Christian to mark the dividing line.

Moses’ reply to Pharaoh was: “It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as He shall command us” (Exodus 8:26,27). There seems to be illustrated in Moses’ reply what is meant by true separation from the world. The “three days’ journey into the wilderness” seems to represent what the death, and the resurrection of Christ three days after, signify to a true Christian believer, namely his identification with him in his justification, and his identification with him in his consecration, being quickened by the spirit of Truth, to walk in a new life of separation from sin and worldliness.

Pharaoh’s reply, “I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only ye shalt not go very far away,” indicated that “if he could not keep them in Egypt, he would at least keep them near it, so that he might act upon them by its varied influences. In this way they might be brought back again, and the testimony more effectually quashed than if they had never left Egypt. There is always much more serious damage done to the cause of Christ by persons seeming to give up the world and returning to it again, than if they had remained entirely of it; for they virtually confess that, having tried heavenly things, they have discovered that earthly things are better and more satisfying.”

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The third objection of Pharaoh was to the Israelites taking their children when they should go to worship and sacrifice to God in the wilderness. The lesson seems to be to spiritual Israel — that they are required to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4), a lesson to which many Christians fail to take heed.

Pharaoh’s fourth objection was to their taking their flocks and herds. Moses’ reply to this last attempt of Pharaoh to cause the Lord’s people to compromise, is a grand illustration of how in consecration, the Lord requires not only that we give ourselves, but all that we have — all that we possess. “Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind” (Exodus 10:25- 27). It is only when God’s people take their stand upon this elevated ground of entire consecration, on which by faith Christ’s death and resurrection places them, that they can have any clear sense of what the claims of consecration are. Moses’ words, “We know not with what we must serve the Lord, until we come thither” seem to teach that no one can have a knowledge of the Divine claim, or their responsibility, until they have, figuratively speaking, gone “three days’ journey into the wilderness.” It is only then that we know that “we are not our own; we are bought with a price.”

The promise to the overcomer of Pergamos, like those of the other epistles, is to be realized by all the overcomers; and yet, like each of the other promises, it emphasizes the condition of those to whom it is primarily addressed. And the conditions under which these in Pergamos found themselves, and which they fully overcame, exist today. Therefore, the exhortations, the warnings, yea, the promises applicable to them, are no less applicable to us of today. The promise contains Christ’s words of encouragement for those who are battling with and overcoming the world, and carries us beyond the scenes of strife, to the inheri- tance of which we already have the foretaste. The promise is twofold; the two things referred to being closely related the one to the other. It reads: “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it” (Revelation 2:17). The manna that fell in the wilderness, which was the food of the people of Israel, speaks of Christ himself — Christ coming down from heaven, becoming flesh, and giving his flesh for the life of the world, of which we are a part. He is our food. It is the design of the Word of God to reveal him — what he has done for us — to us. It speaks of our apprehension of him in his dying for us, and his living for us at God’s right hand. The “white stone,” on the other hand, speaks of the close relationship existing between Christ and the faithful believer. “In ancient times the Greeks and the Romans had a custom of noting and perpetuating friendship by means of a white stone. This stone was divided into halves, and each person inscribed his name on the flat surface, after which the parts of the stone were exchanged. The production of either half was sufficient to insure friendly aid, even from the descendants of those who first divided the stone. A similar custom was sometimes observed by a king, who would break a white stone into two parts, one of which he would retain, and the other part give to a special ambassador. That part could be sent

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to the king at any time and would insure aid. Thus the divided stone became a mark of identification.

“Revelation 2:17 seems to refer to this ancient custom. The white stone signi- fies a precious token of the Lord’s love, and the new name written in the stone suggests the Bridegroom’s name. The statement indicates a special acquain- tance with the great King of kings, secret between himself and the individual. The overcomers are not to be recognized merely as a class — the Bride class — but each will have the personal favor of the Lord. Of this no one will know save himself and the King. There is an individual and personal relationship between the Lord and the overcomers, who may be said to receive the mark of identifica- tion — the antitypical white stone — now, in this life.

“This mark is the sealing of the holy Spirit by which the Lord identifies the overcomers. While this is said to be a part of the final reward of the Church, yet from the very beginning of our experience we have this personal acquaintance with the Lord. The full seal of the holy Spirit will be given in the resurrection, when we receive the new body. Then we shall have the complete knowledge of the name by which we shall be known to the Lord and he to us forever.”

The manna eaten in the wilderness, then, represents Christ himself and our apprehension of what He is to us; the white stone is a figure, expressive of his appreciation of us. How blessed is the interchange of affection thus expressed! The manna that fell down from heaven is wilderness food. It was in the wilder- ness that it fell. In Egypt, the world, it was not known. When the Israelites arrived in the borders of the land, the manna ceased. This speaks to us of the Divine provision in Christ for those who have come to him, for those who have come to realize that they need him, who realize that they are brought into a place where no natural provision can supply the food necessary to sustain the new life

— a place where they are wholly dependent upon God for such food. God has, promised — made himself responsible — to supply all our varied needs; each need itself is designed to draw out new evidences of the Divine resources, new evidences of the riches of his grace in Christ. It is thus that the Lord speaks to the one who, true to his calling, finds in Christ his one necessity and satisfaction. “Bread shall be given him; his water shall be sure.” “Meat” shall be given which “endureth unto everlasting life,” and “water” which shall be unto him “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

It is very significant to notice, however, that the promise of the text, while it is the manna of the wilderness, it is not the manna partaken of in the wilderness. It is the “hidden manna.” The hidden manna was that placed by God’s command in the Ark and carried into the land, that after- generations might see and be reminded of the bread wherewith He had fed them in the wilderness. In this case, however, it was not eaten; but the Lord promises to the overcomer here that he shall eat of it. The hidden manna was the memorial sample of what had fallen long before; from one viewpoint it is typically the abiding remembrance of what we once tasted — the fresh reminder throughout eternity of Christ’s work for us here. To “eat of the hidden manna,” therefore, would mean to partake of

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the Divine, incorruptible, immortal life. In one sense it is a continuation of what we now receive; hence we see how closely connected is the present with the life beyond. It is thus that the promise of the hidden manna appeals most solemnly to us while here. It is the way we live here that affects our reward there. The hidden manna and the white stone are eternal recompenses of the present time. In other words, it is but the “meat” that faith lives on now, that is, the “meat that endureth unto everlasting life.” So that the spiritual experiences of the present time are the beginnings of what will continue in the life beyond. He who has fed of the antitypical manna in the wilderness and knows its taste, can feed of the hidden manna in the future.

In concluding the comments on this message, we note the inseparable connec- tion between the two parts of the promise: The manna that fell in the wilderness speaks of our apprehension of Christ — his ransom sacrifice for us, as also his power to keep us — now; the hidden manna speaks of that Divine, immortal, incorruptible life, the reward of the future. The white stone speaks of Christ’s appreciation expressed in his approval of us, both in the present life and in that which is to come. “The appreciation of Christ by us, manifest in our bearing the fruit of the Spirit, is the necessary basis of his answering approbation of us.” The greatest reward we can possibly conceive of is to have now in this present life, his approbation, his approval, and at the end of our course to hear his “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”