What was Jesus' message to the church in Pergamum in Revelation?

12 And to the angel of the church that is in Pergamos write, These things saith he that hath the sharp two-edged sword: 13 I know [thy works, and] where thou dwellest, where the throne of Satan is; and thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein was Antipas, my faithful witness who was killed among you, where Satan dwelleth. 14 But I have a few things against thee, [because] thou hast there some that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication. 15 So hast thou also some that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes in like manner. 16 Repent therefore; but if not, I am coming to thee quickly, and will fight with them with the sword of my mouth. 17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, I will give him of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth save he that receiveth it.

The Lord here announces Himself to the of the church in Pergamos as One armed with all-piercing power by the word of God, the two-edged sword that judges (verse 12). In the book of Revelation the sharp sword is at the command of the Lord Jesus as the instrument of judgment. What the sword is in the hands of man, so is the word that reveals God searching out and cutting through all obstacles. This the Lord applies in power; it decides all questions that have to do with Him. There is always a great and beautiful connection between the way or title in which He presents Himself and the state of the church which He is addressing. It was because the word was no longer that which had living energy to judge in the church, that the Lord Jesus takes care to prove that it had never lost its power in His hands. As the first church shows us declension set in, even in the days of the apostle John, and Smyrna the time of persecution from the heathen, so here we have a totally different state of things. Pergamos is the scene of Satan's flattering power or seduction, which was just what he used after the violence of persecution had spent itself. It was a more dangerous device than the second; for when set on anything that is wrong, there is nothing that more shows a case far gone and desperate than God's giving one up to his own will without further remonstrance. "Ephraim is joined unto idols: let him alone." In the case of Smyrna we see the clean contrary of this: the Lord was intercepting the power of Satan through persecution from without, which was used of God to hinder the growing corruption within.

Satan's "throne" is the sense: in presence of it, who does not see the propriety with which the Lord presents Himself, as armed with the sharp two-edged sword? It is the same word as is used for "seat" as well as "throne" in other parts of this very book; but here it is properly a "throne," because Satan is spoken of in respect of authority. It is obvious that all this exactly describes the state of things in Constantine's time. Instead of being at the stake and suffering for Christ's sake, the church was now yoked with the world in a mere profession of Christianity; for as the world did not really rise to Christ, the church must sink to the world's level. No wonder the Lord says thereon, "Thou dwellest where Satan's throne is." Yet He allows all that He can, even where this miserable association was found — His assembly dwelling where Satan's throne was. They maintained still His name, and did not deny the faith which was given to the saints; but this was all. They held fast His personal glory, and did not deny that which was revealed of Him because of flesh and blood. They believed of Him what eye had not seen — His Deity. Against this Satan's wiles were directed, as of late he had sought to destroy those who confessed the truth. They had just come out of the great persecution in which Antipas was slain. But now the church at Pergamos, instead of suffering, was dwelling quietly in the world. Like Lot, they too had their righteous souls vexed with the ungodliness of those around.

Thus He "who has the sharp sword with two edges" said to Pergamos, "I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication" (Rev. 2:14). A fresh phase of the diabolical conspiracy of Balaam and Balak against Israel is here exposed. These men had zealously striven to array the forces of earth and Hell against the people of God, and their efforts had been turned to confusion by Israel's faithful Jehovah. The episode concludes in Num. 24:25 thus: "Balaam rose up and went and returned to his own place; and Balak also went his way." But before the soothsayer left his disappointed patron, he apparently made a vile suggestion to him. If Jehovah could not be turned away from His people, perhaps the people could be turned away from Jehovah! Balaam knew enough of God to be sure that if the people of Israel could be tempted into sin Jehovah's hand would come down upon them in judgment. Thus we read in Num. 25:1-2: "Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods; and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods." Balak was recommended by Balaam to bring out the women and girls of Moab, and thus cast a snare before the all too frail people of Jehovah! Moses became aware of this later, for he referred to it when reproving the people for sparing all the women after a campaign against Midian. "Have ye saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against Jehovah in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of Jehovah" (Num. 31:15-16). The record in Num. 25:1-9 is painfully solemn; a great lesson is here which we must not miss. As surely as Balaam sought to mingle the people of God with the ungodly in a by-gone age, the teachers of the doctrine of Balaam have laboured to mingle Church and world together in our own era and they have been sadly successful. History is continually repeating itself. Satan first endeavours to destroy, then, finding this impossible he seeks to corrupt, for a pure testimony for God in the earth is abhorrent to him.

After having praised all that He could praise, the Lord proceeds to point out the things that deserved His censure. "But," He says, "I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate." (vv. 14, 15.) The rapid progress of the church's decline, as has often been noticed, is seen in the fact that whereas in Smyrna Satan is outside as a roaring lion, a persecuting Satan, here in Pergamos he is inside as a seducing Satan, perverting the saints by false seductive teaching. The words used are very significant. It is not that the church has adopted the teaching, but there are those inside that "hold" the doctrine, and they were allowed, it would seem, to hold it unmolested and unrebuked. What then was the doctrine that drew forth the Lord's reprobation? It was the doctrine of Balaam — a very gross doctrine, as he taught it in order to seduce the children of Israel. But it is the thing signified which has to be ascertained. Speaking through Balaam, Jehovah had said that Israel should dwell alone, and should not be reckoned among the nations. The fact of the Lord's presence with them separated them, as Moses had said, from all the nations of the earth. Now it was just this separation from "the world" that Baalam was seeking to break down when he enticed Israel to unite with the Midianites in their worship and sins. Association with the world in its pleasures, sins, and pursuits is therefore the doctrine of Balaam; and the consequence of its acceptance is the loss of Nazariteship, the loss of separation from evil, and of devotedness to the Lord.

But there is more than this, more than the inability of the Church to be a faithful witness. There is a reason for it. The Lord continues, "I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam." This is positive wickedness. It was an endeavour to seduce the people of God, and at any price, into association with the world. For in speaking of Balaam, the Lord throws back the veil, and shows that which destroyed all possibility of devotion to Him. That hidden spring, working under the assumed guise of "increased liberality," is friendship with the world. Toleration accepted, there is then only a short step to amalgamation, and this is "the doctrine of Balaam." God's thought, the one great thought which can be traced like a golden thread running from Genesis 1:2-3, down to Revelation 22:14-15, is not toleration, not amalgamation, but everywhere "SEPARATION" from what is evil. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." You can introduce no toleration of evil, and His thought for His people is consistent with Himself. It is ever so; and even Balaam, the deluded tool of the enemy, has to declare that separation is God's thought. "The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." (Nam. 23.) But, unable to curse God's people, and compelled to speak only what the Lord would have spoken concerning them, what did Balaam teach? He "taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication."

He blames His own people for allowing the others among them at all. "I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold (or hold fast) the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication." "Repent; or else I am coming unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth" (Rev. 2:14-16). He says, "I am coming unto thee, and will fight (not against thee, but) against them."

As to the doctrine itself, it is "the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balac." It is not the case of a man overtaken in a fault: nor is it the case of those who having committed sin are ready to confess and mourn over it as sin in the presence of the Lord; but it is the case of those who hold fast sin in the shape of a doctrine. This is a very important distinction. It is the doctrine of Balaam, though I do not believe that those who held it made an open acknowledgment of Balaam in it any more than the Jews did of their father the devil, when they were doing his works and boasting in the names of the children of Abraham and the children of God. But names cannot alter things.

The doctrine is the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. What is it to eat things sacrificed unto idols? Eating is an emblem of participation and communion. As to the idols, we know that covetousness is idolatry: and those things which do not minister to the glory of God, but which yet are delighted in because they minister to what an evil heart of unbelief puts its dependence on instead of putting it on God, are things sacrificed to idols. Therefore, while the scriptures teach that the love of money is the root of all evil, the doctrine of Balaam teaches the very opposite, that it not only is no harm at all, but that it is prudent and praiseworthy. The scripture also teaches that women should adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works (see 1 Tim. 2:9-10). Such is the doctrine of the sacred scriptures; but whose doctrine is it that teaches that if women acted thus, they would be neglecting their future prospects in life, and that as for this shamefacedness and sobriety, that at least it is not to be valued, but that broidered hair, gold, pearls, and costly array are, more or less, proper adornments? Whose doctrine is this? Is it the doctrine of Christ? But then a person may say, We can hold the doctrine of Christ too. But what does Christ say to His servants? "I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam." The holders of this doctrine might like to be among those who held Christ's name: but Christ does not allow it. He tells His servants that He is coming to fight against the holders of this doctrine, and that they cannot have such among them.

"Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth" (Rev.2:16). The Lord thus seeks to arouse the whole church to self-judgment for allowing the evils of Balaamism and Nicolaitanism among them and for their dwelling where Satan's throne was. He calls upon the entire church to repent, to change their mind about these allowed evils, to judge them, and to take sides with Himself against them.

The promise is special and twofold: "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." (v. 17.) The overcomer differs again from the one in Smyrna. To overcome here is not merely to resist, and successfully to resist, the teaching of the sects named; but it is also to listen to the call to repentance. For though the proclamation is to saints individually, and the responsibility is individual to heed the communications made, it is not possible for a saint to divest himself of responsibility for the state of the assembly. The state of the assembly involves all, so that all have to be exercised on account of it in self-judgment before God. If, therefore, any would be overcomers in a Pergamos state of things, they must judge the evil of the doctrine of Balaam and of the Nicolaitanes, and they must humble themselves before God because these evils are, if not accepted, yet tolerated, mourning on account of the dishonour thus done to the Lord's name.

To all such there is a twofold promise; first, that they shall "eat of the hidden manna." There is a very distinct relation between the promise and the evil in Pergamos. The temptation was to eat of things sacrificed to idols; the Lord says, "I will feed you with that which alone can satisfy." In such a way He would encourage His own to resist the seductions and gratifications of the world. And what is the "hidden manna"? It is, as has been written, "Christ as known in His walk down here, though now in glory — the corn of that heavenly land. The 'hidden manna' was not the daily manna, but the manna which had been laid up in the ark, and kept as a witness in Canaan." What answers to this figure is clearly Christ in heaven; but His being in heaven, at the right hand of God, constantly reminds us of what He has been down here in the wilderness, of what He was as tempted and humbled; and, being ourselves in wilderness circumstances, beset, as in Pergamos, by special temptations, we delight to recall Him to our remembrance, and to feed upon Him, as the One who was tempted in all points like as we are, apart from sin, and we are sustained and strengthened. We thus, eat of the "hidden manna"; for, as the manna, Christ is no longer seen, being hidden in heaven.

Still there were things the Lord could commend. Pergamos had held fast the name of Christ, and had not denied His faith. The name of Christ is generally the expression of the truth of what He is; but put here in combination with the faith the meaning will be slightly different. It will probably be holding fast the confession of the name of Christ, confessing Christ boldly, though dwelling where Satan's throne was, and not denying the faith; that is, the truth concerning Christ. (Compare 2 Tim. 4:7; Jude 3, etc.) The first part of the commendation is stronger than the second, inasmuch as "holding fast" is more positive than "not denying." Still it was no small thing, and as such it was grateful to the Lord's heart, and hence His delight to notice it, that, notwithstanding the worldly circumstances of this assembly, His name was held fast and His truth not denied. Would that so much could be said in this day! For what do we behold? Alas! the confession of Christ given up on every hand, and His truth rejected, and this in the midst (and might it not be said as a consequence?) of the boasted progress and enlightenment of the nineteenth century.