"And to angel of the church in Pergamum, write:
The One who has the sharp two-edged sword
says this: . . . Rev.2:12-17
Porno theaters. Plush offices paneled with
cutthroat greed. Abortion clinics. Slums. Prison
of the deformed, the damned, the forgotten. . .
Satan has many strongholds. He has many
places of retreat where the cacophony of human
suffering soothes his twisted soul.
We cannot see Satan, yet his dwelling places
carry the unmistakable marks of human
suffering and moral perversion. Consider
Nicolae Ceausescu's orphanages. Khmer Rouge
killing fields. Russian gulags. Nazi
concentration camps. The Spanish Insuistion.
The chambers and instruments of torture
throughout the Middle Ages. And going all the
way back to the first century--Roman's brutal
slaughter of Christians Even today!
One of Satan's favorite place in the Roman
Empire was Pergamum. With its temples to Dea
Roma, the goddess Rome, the spirit of Rome, it
was home to Satan. A place of Roman imperial
power backed by the Prince of the powers of
darkness. Yet even there, in the Evil One's own
backyard. Christians dared to play out their
lives. Theirs was a courageous faith, a daring
stronghold in the heart of enemy territory. Every
day Satan pitched his forces against them in a
frontal attacked of persecution. And though he
managed to kill and imprison a few individual
Christians, he could not conquer the church.
At least not that way. In a clever change of
tactics, he went gently knocking on the back
door with gift. a Trojan Horse called
compromise.
The same knock can be heard in the life of
every believer in every church and every century.
You hear it in that "little white lie," that
rationalization for materialism, that indifference
toward the poor, that excuse for not getting
involved.
Do you hear knocking? Before you open the
door, let's look through the window of Christ's
letter to the church at Pergamum and see if it's a
gift horse disguised as compromise. Read (v.12)
William Barclay gives us some historical insight
into the significance of this image.
Roman governors were divided into two
classes those who had the ius gladii, the right
of the sword, and those who had not. Those who
had the right of the sword had the power of life
and death; on their word a man could be execute
on the spot. Humanly proconsul, who had his
headquarters at Pergamum, had the. . . right of
the sword, and at any moment he might use it
against any Christians; but the letter bids the
Christian not to forget that the last word is still
with the Risen Christ, who had the sharp two
edged sword. The power of Rome might be
satanically powerful; the power of the Risen
Lord is greater yet.
The One who has the sharp two-edged sword
says this: . . . Rev.2:12-17
Porno theaters. Plush offices paneled with
cutthroat greed. Abortion clinics. Slums. Prison
of the deformed, the damned, the forgotten. . .
Satan has many strongholds. He has many
places of retreat where the cacophony of human
suffering soothes his twisted soul.
We cannot see Satan, yet his dwelling places
carry the unmistakable marks of human
suffering and moral perversion. Consider
Nicolae Ceausescu's orphanages. Khmer Rouge
killing fields. Russian gulags. Nazi
concentration camps. The Spanish Insuistion.
The chambers and instruments of torture
throughout the Middle Ages. And going all the
way back to the first century--Roman's brutal
slaughter of Christians Even today!
One of Satan's favorite place in the Roman
Empire was Pergamum. With its temples to Dea
Roma, the goddess Rome, the spirit of Rome, it
was home to Satan. A place of Roman imperial
power backed by the Prince of the powers of
darkness. Yet even there, in the Evil One's own
backyard. Christians dared to play out their
lives. Theirs was a courageous faith, a daring
stronghold in the heart of enemy territory. Every
day Satan pitched his forces against them in a
frontal attacked of persecution. And though he
managed to kill and imprison a few individual
Christians, he could not conquer the church.
At least not that way. In a clever change of
tactics, he went gently knocking on the back
door with gift. a Trojan Horse called
compromise.
The same knock can be heard in the life of
every believer in every church and every century.
You hear it in that "little white lie," that
rationalization for materialism, that indifference
toward the poor, that excuse for not getting
involved.
Do you hear knocking? Before you open the
door, let's look through the window of Christ's
letter to the church at Pergamum and see if it's a
gift horse disguised as compromise. Read (v.12)
William Barclay gives us some historical insight
into the significance of this image.
Roman governors were divided into two
classes those who had the ius gladii, the right
of the sword, and those who had not. Those who
had the right of the sword had the power of life
and death; on their word a man could be execute
on the spot. Humanly proconsul, who had his
headquarters at Pergamum, had the. . . right of
the sword, and at any moment he might use it
against any Christians; but the letter bids the
Christian not to forget that the last word is still
with the Risen Christ, who had the sharp two
edged sword. The power of Rome might be
satanically powerful; the power of the Risen
Lord is greater yet.
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