Bible Study no 6 of Revelation

Well, good evening, brethren. Welcome to this evening's Book of Revelation study.

And we're going to continue with the study by first looking at a review of material cupboard. I'm going to do quite a little bit of review, a little bit more extensive, maybe than previous times. And first is to show how pagan ideas grew. And please take note how the counterfeiting of Christianity started filtering into the church over time and time and time and got worse and worse. This was along the lines of a concept called Gnosticism, initially proton Gnosticism, that was taking basically Greek ideas in the Roman world and taking from different religions and quote-unquote, let's call it modernizing them and impacting different religions. That was the concept of this Gnostic or knowledge that people had, and that clearly also affected the Christian church. So what happened is at the end of the first century, there was a substantial backlash by true Christians against proto Gnosticism, that is the early versions of Gnosticism in the Christian world. And so what happened because of this backlash, a number of so-called patina inverted comments, Gnostic Christians left the church to start their own independent movements. And basically, that's why when we look at Gnosticism, we don't find a unified single body of Gnostic doctrine, but rather we find various dozens of individual sects, each offering conflicting ideas such as the fall of man or what's pretty or what spirituality means. And most specifically, what practices to follow to, quote unquote, liberate oneself from the physical world, because understand in the Gnostic thought, physical, physical world that would represent sin. Now, Gnosticism, therefore, the basic approach of Gnosticism was to take Greek ideas and tradition of thinking, because the Greeks were thinkers, you know, they had a lot of these ideas, so they were reinterpreting all the religious systems, and particularly talking about in the, let's call it, in the hermeneutics or concepts that I showed you earlier on of understanding Scripture. That's what I called human reasoning apart from God. You remember I went through that. So Gnosticism, therefore, relied on a concept or a theory that revelation would go on progressively over time, it would progress, and it would move more and more, it would be a progressive revelation, insisting that its teachings were seen, by them, of course, as more advanced revelation of Christianity. If you think about it, it's like a concept of intellectual arrogance, intellectual pride that I know better than you, because I have this special knowledge. So really, that's what Gnosticism is all about, is this progressive inter-reinterpreting and different people at the five years, and they're interpreting in different ways. And we can see that being referred in a number of places in the Bible, and one of the branches of Gnosticism is called Dowsopism, in which they believe that Christ was a spiritual being who landed on or entered into the man, the physical man, Jesus, and that Christ then would throw himself just before, from the man Jesus, before the crucifixion, and therefore it was the man, Jesus, who died on the cross. And then we read, therefore, in John 2, John verse 7. We read that in 2 John verse 7 about that concept I was coming into the church.

2 John 7, it says, For many deceivers and gone out into the world, who do not confess Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. So this is what it is. They didn't confess that Jesus Christ was the word that really was in flesh, and he died for us. So this is that Dowsopism, separation of those to Jesus from Christ, quote unquote. And then we read in verse 9, it says, it says, Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ, does not have God. So therefore they transgressed. I looked at the concordance for the Greek word, parabaino, which means overstepped, went past, turned from, and did not abide, did not stay in the doctrine of Christ. So they transgressed, transgressed what Christ or the doctrine of Christ is all about.

And you can see how, by the explanation I have just above of 2 John 7, which they're separating the man Jesus from Christ, you can see they transgressed the doctrine of Christ, who Christ is. And that's why it says that is that is a deceiver and an antichrist. So there was other approaches, other Gnostic ideas as well. And that was in that sort of concept, Nicolaitans. They chose to accept indifference to material life as a license to give in to their passions. Jude 1, there's only one chapter of Jude, but Jude verse 4, we read, certain men have crept unnoticed for long ago and marked out for this condemnation ungodly man who turned the grace of our God into lewdness. So that was that Nicolaitans type of approach. I went into that quite a bit in the past, so I'm just summarizing what that was. It's this use of giving in to passions, to sexual immorality and things like that, basically lewdness. And therefore, grace, for those sort of people, become an excuseful sin. That's why I say turn the grace of God into licentiousness or into lewdness. So, and many people follow these Gnostic ideas. We read that in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 2, 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 2, which is, it says, and many will follow their destructive ways because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. So when people say, well, these are Christians that are doing this, wow, they're giving a bad name to the way of truth. So that was how false doctrine was filtering into the church. And this was a process that over time increased and became more and more and more.

Then we started by going to the messages to God's church. And we first started with Ephesus, the church that lost the first love. And we saw that the overcome of the Ephesian era was promised to eat from the tree of life. We read that in Revelation 2 verse 7. It says, you actually hear to hear, let me hear what the Spirit says to the churches, to him overcomes, I'll give him, I'll give to him from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. So we see there about, there were promised to eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God. And that is, we read of that in the new heavens and new earth. And that will be the paradise of God in the heavens and new earth. And we also, those who were the overcomers, they were promised to eat from that. For they were faithful to the doctrine, in relation to what 2 says. And now your works, the labor, your patience, you cannot bear those are evil. And you have tests, those who say they are apostles and not, and we found them wise. They were faithful to the doctrines. They didn't deviate. And they rejected Gnostic sex, like in Revelation 2 verse 6. It says, but thus you have that you ate the deeds of Nicolators, which are also hate. And if you read in 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 20, 1st Timothy chapter 6 verse 20, 1st Timothy chapter 6, 1st Timothy chapter 6, 1st Timothy chapter 6, 1st Timothy chapter 6, it's saying, concluding here on the letter, it says, 1st Timothy, God, what was committed to your trust, avoiding profane, the profane and other babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. Falsely called knowledge. And this is a problem that for instance, the Corinthians had. Paul writes to Corinthians. He highlights Corinthians, the Corinthians Church, with many problems. And one of them is saying, you are puffed up. Knowledge puffs up. You are a problem with this knowledge, falsely called knowledge. And there is a problem. They were mixing understanding the truth with other knowledge, and therefore, that was that Gnostic concept.

So they were promised a reward for being faithful and rejecting Gnostic teachings. The Church in Ephesus, in other words, in that first year, they managed to reject those false texts, but they were warned because they lost their first love. And remember, we went through that. We talked about why we called, obviously, to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We get that from 2nd Peter 3 verse 18. And then we get other scriptures like the love for one another, whilst not compromising the truth, is key. Christ also said, by this you'll know that you are mine if you love one another. And then Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says, Roe, or speaking the truth in love, or being truth in love, that is an important concept. And it is very important. You're going to hear more of that coming from the Church, emphasis on that, being truth and being loving. So, at the end of the church area, which is probably about the year 300 and the current year, they lost their initial enthusiasm for the truth in love, which led to the first works. So that initial enthusiasm for the truth, but with love, truth in love. They lost the love side. They kept being faithful to the doctrine, to the truth, but they started losing that love dimension, and that was a problem.

Then we talked about the church in Smyrna, and that is a church, probably between the years 300 to 650 of the current era, that age, era. Obviously, it affected or talked about the physical congregation of Smyrna as a type of the age, of the era, but also as a type of attitude that we've got to be watching and be careful. So, there we can see, and from other scriptures, we can see that the persecution to the church during those Middle Ages and those dark years was going to be for 1260 years, beginning with the Smyrna era, and we'll go on for the next centuries during the Smyrna era, as well as beyond the Smyrna era. It was the persecution under the Roman Empire, dominated by the Catholic Church, starting with great force during a period of 10 years, which occurred after the Council of the Sye in 325 of the current era. So, then I went through lost time as well. So, historically, we see that Gnostic ideas infiltrated into the church, and we're reading verse 8, it says about himself, Christ, who was dead. And that is clearly saying, attacking that dossatism of that branch of Gnosticism called dossatism, because they do not believe that Christ died, they believe Jesus died, but not Christ because of that separation, as I explained to you a little earlier. So, that was clearly a reference to dossatism.

The church itself, called Christian, then it started deviating from the truth. It then became the Catholic Church, and it went wrong in various ways. Not going to go into all of these details, you can look at these references later. And then it even refers to, in verse 9, those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Some people say, well, what are these? But yeah, it's talking, I understand, that these are letters.

The book of Revelation is written, as you read in chapter 1 verse 1, and it says that this is written to us, to the church, to show the servants, which are God's servants. It was God's church, things that are going to happen. So, it's actually literally the orgis is God's church, and these seven letters are to the churches of God, going through, or congregations of God, going through certain changes over these two thousand years.

And so, it's addressing these things. So, when it's saying to those who are Jews and not, it's once again not necessarily talking about physical Jews, but spiritual Jews. In other words, those that say they're really true Christians, really disciples of Jesus, but they're not, because they are a, not the, but a synagogue of Satan.

In other words, a group of people that belong to Satan, even though they claim to be Christians. So, that's the evolution or the beginnings of what today we have the Catholic Church. So, it identifies it here very clearly as a synagogue of Satan. Now, the early church in Smyrna was basically saying that they were following God and Christ, but they were allowing, and that is the blasphemy that they would experience, they were allowing the doctrines which were against God's laws to filter in to the church. And that is the problem. In other words, like today, a lot of Christians say, well, just accept Christ, it's all by grace, and you'll be saved by that.

No, that is not the case. So, we really have to be aware of this danger of ideas filtering into the church that says, well, we don't have to obey God's laws. Now, we do have to have an outgoing love concern. We do have to have grace. We are saved by grace. We're justified by grace. But that does not mean that we do not need to keep God's laws.

I've been going through that quite extensively, and it's important to understand that. Right then, in Smyrna, it also says, the overcome of this era is promised that he shall not be heard by the second death, as we see in Revelations 2 verse 11. It says, he who overcomes shall not be heard by the second death, because they were killed, persecuted and killed, the first death by that Catholic church, that woman that persecuted them. And so, because of that, we can see it was a church, a year, shall I call it, that great persecution appeared or affected the church.

And then, as a point of encouragement, maybe he says, don't fear the things that are going to suffer, because you're going to have eternal life. So, don't fear. So, there are a few lessons that are important for us from so far up to here, that as a summary of the review, is that we need to stay true to the doctrine, as false teaching is grown. As false teaching is grown.

Now, this is important for us to understand, because as we're going to go on to the next church era, it's a church that starts compromising with the truth. Why? Because this false teaching is becoming so dominant, has been growing for all these centuries, is becoming so dominant, that now some start compromising with it. So, we have to be careful. So, that's why Christ wrote these different letters, because it's different phases or years of the church over the centuries, showing how this false teaching is growing. So, the key thing here is this false teaching. We need to focus on what is, let's put it this way, what is the theme.

The theme is this perversion of Christianity through these Gnostic concepts that is perverting Christianity. This paganism filtering into the church and being dressed up as Christianity. That is the main issue. That is the main issue. In other words, Babylon filtering into the church, albeit dressed up a little different.

And therefore, we need to stay true. We need to have truth. But it's going to be with love. We must hold on to God's love, to Christ's love. We must not lose that first love, that outgoing concern for one another. And it's works that are an outcome of that love, the works that come from that love, the results, the fruits from that love. When we have truth in love, truth in love, like I say, speaking truth in love or being truth in love, when you have truth in love, we need not to fear trials and difficulties that will come.

Why? Because Satan hates them. And Satan is going to inspire others as pawns to attack us. So we must not fear these trials and difficulties that are going to come, because God is in control. And he will sort it out. But we have to grin it, unfortunately, for a little while. Ultimately, we will receive eternal life in the true paradise of God, which means is in the new earth and beyond.

That is that. And therefore, we will not be subject to eternal death, whilst the others will. And therefore, these are in a summary, a summary of the review that I've done in the lessons in the past. So let's now move to the next church era, which is verses 12 through 17.

And that's what we're going to cover today as additional message to the church in Pergamos. And the church that ended up compromising.

They ended up some, some ended up compromising. Now, if you look at this map, we can see we talk about Ephesus, Smyrna, and now we go to Pergamos. So that is the male root, and then goes inland to Phiatalis, Pheidophila, and now we see it. And then we'll go back here, and that's how the male root would follow. So we're going to now move to Pergamos.

Ephesus, the first one, was the largest city in Asia, but it was not the capital.

Pergamos was the principal governmental city in the entire region of Asia. It was, was the capital, was the center of government. Like, for instance, it was like in the States, like, like Washington, D.C. In Canada, if I'm not mistaken, it would be like Ottawa. It was the main government city of the country, and so it was the seat of the government for that region, Asia Minor. Pergamos is its modern name, and it stood upon a large hill that overlooks the river plain and dominated the entire region around that area, Pergamos.

So, yeah, it is a view from the top. By the way, I'm taking some of these pictures from a study that was done on Beyond Today by Mr. MacNeely. So, I'm referring to some of the material and the pictures that he put into the Beyond Today program that is on the Church's website, and so he covers into a lot more detail about the physical details of these different cities, and he's actually doing a series about those. Currently he's recording some of those as well, just more details about the physical cities. I am more focusing on the attitudes of these areas and how that impacts us. So, I'm focusing on a different angle, but I'm also including a little bit of detail about the city. So, it actually was on the hill. You can see on top of the hill, this is the ruins of that area, and it would look down towards that valley, that river plain.

It also had a large library, which was, let's call it in competition, against a very big library in Egypt, Alexandria. So, there were two libraries in the sense. Now, at that time, books were copied by hand, being very rare and precious. They don't know how to have the printing press. They have to write it over hand. And usually, they were made from papyrus, which is like a type of paper produced mainly in Egypt. I understand it was also produced in China, but for that area, it was mainly in Egypt. And therefore, because of conflicts and trade problems, sometimes it can be countries and difficult of getting this papyrus, they developed their own form of paper made from the scheme of an animal and became known parchment. And parchment is a derivative from the word pogomos. It's a derivative from that city. So, there's parchment, a type of scheme like paper, and then there's paper, papyrus, let's just call it, in simple terms that way. And there was, therefore, that competition between the two libraries.

And there were some sanctions, you know, like trade sanctions with one and the other, and whatever. And there was this intellectual property, that fighting between one and the other. And the history books that would be in the Pergamon Library, if we had them today, would have certainly have information that you and I would love to know. Really, I mean, a lot of those books were destroyed. There's been wars, and nations take over, and what they do, they go and destroy everything, and then rebuild, allegedly. Rebuild back better. You know, you need to destroy first before you need to rebuild, right? So, destroy and then rebuild. And that's what those books got lost. So, those books probably would have told the story of man from the earliest days. Stories about the peoples of the Chaldeans, and the land of Ur.

People like Abraham would have been mentioned in some of those works.

And therefore, how do we have those literatures, those books that were written? We would have amazing windows of understanding of the world of that time, and if we still had these books today.

Now, the city at that time, pagan was became the center of Roman authority, and emperor worship. Now, it's very important to understand this detail. Emperor worship.

Because that comes back later when this understanding of the beast and the false prophet, because it says you worship the beast. So, there was this emperor worship. There's this worship of this leadership entity. So, it's very important to understand that. And we have Yarra coin from the temple of Augustus Caesar in Pergamos. Now, the founder of the Roman Empire was Caesar during the ministry of Jesus. After the assassination of Julius Caesar, he then established the so-called Pax Romana, which you heard. So, this whole thing developed. And then they had other temples.

They had a temple not only to the emperor, but they had a temple, for instance, to the serpent god. It was Colapius, who was also called the god of Heli. And so, they had various temples. There were also other pagan cults. Besides the worship of Caesar and ill Colapius, there was also the worship of the god of joy Dionysius. And so, there was a lot of paganism. So, Pergamos was like a pagan headquarters. That's what it says.

It was really a pretty bad area. A pretty bad area. And therefore, now, let's start reading in verse 12 in Revelation chapter 2. It says, to the angel of the church in Pergamos, right, this thing says, he who has the sharp two-edged sword. Now, you may wonder, why this analogy?

Well, because a double-edged sword was the realm sword of the time. And therefore, it was the symbol of Roman authority. So, you think about this, it was like Roman capital city of the area, like a lot of emperor worship. And then Christ says, I've got the real sword that counts. I've got the real sword that counts, not your sword, but the real sword. So, Christ has a sharper sword and of a far superior authority, which is truth of God's word and of his toast, testimony.

So, he's explaining that.

Right, and let's go on to verse 13. I know you works and will you dwell with Satan's throne ease.

And he says, and he holds fast to my name, and you do not deny my faith, even in the days in which Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was killed among you where Satan dwells.

Now, notice that it mentions Satan's throne ease, and also in the same verse mentions where Satan dwells. So, Christ mentions where Satan's throne is, or where he dwells, twice.

So, it is a clear reference to a lot of satanic power and influence in this city, and not only in this city during that time, but by extension, by looking at the era, there was a lot, there is or has been a lot of satanic power during this era in which started the persecution on God's people, particularly those first 10 years. That was very intense.

And then from there, it went on. It continued, because it continues with that persecution, as we saw it started at the time of the castle of Isaiah, and now it just is growing more and more and more. And now, because it grows, the people start compromising. People start compromising.

So, let's look at, with Satan's throne ease, look at the view of that area.

As I mentioned, I took these pictures from Dharus McNeely Bible study, and it shows the area where the Pergamon Temple was there. That red-marked area there is where the temple was. And then, and that it was the what they call the temple of the gods, Zios, Zios, pagan god.

And then, if, as McNeely has been in Berlin, and the Keneathas areas, and he's seen there the models of the Pergamon's temples on this hill. You can see the models of these temples on this hill. So, there is this temple which was marked in red in the earlier picture that I showed you.

And YH is the actual museum today in true life size, because they've taken certain stones and certain pieces of it, and they've reconstructed this temple of Zios, this in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. So, there you see the size of the people and in this temple alone. And you can see also some pictures, yeah, engraved, which I will show to you a little bit more.

Yeah, they are, which showing different wars between these gods depicted on the wall of this temple.

All right, so we've talked about that Christ mentions Satan's throne there twice, and we've talked about that this is a reference to satanic power and influence in that city.

So now let's move on a little bit more, read a little bit more about this verse, and understand a little bit more. First, the Satan influenced human policy in the Eastern Roman Empire. During that time, we can see that there was a very strong influence there in Pergamon, initially in that area, which is in the eastern side of the Roman Empire. It was not on the western side because that's what the eastern side was like, the turkey side. The western side was Greece and the western areas from there, like Rome and things like that, Italy and others.

So Satan influenced human policy in the Eastern Roman Empire.

It is possible that, in that we're talking about Satan's throne that was there, that's referred, that it was moved to Rome. In other words, to the western Roman Empire later, when Justinian restoration, imperial restoration, in the year 554 of the current era, it's possible that it took place then when the head of the beast was healed. Now, these are things that we're going to cover in more detail in future lessons. So just for information, we'll cover this in more detail in the future.

So going back here to where we were talking, it says that, it says, Yeah, and you hold fast to my name and do not deny my faith. So they did not deny Christ's name and the faith, the truth. They didn't deny it. So that was a good point. And then it says also, Yeah, even in the days in which Antipas was my faithful martyr, was killed amongst you with Satan dwells. Now, there is a lot of speculation about who this Antipas is or was.

The word, the name, means against all. So, and this is the only place where this name is mentioned as a martyr of the faith. And so we don't know anything else about him. Probably there are various speculations, various people saying different things, always is, but there is no evidence that we can pin down and say, this is the case. So we have to just speculate as well and say probably was a well-known person, a Gentile, was killed in public and was a faithful, faithful, true disciple of Jesus Christ. So probably a well-known person. And that's why it's got this name sticks out as a very prominent person and obviously a Gentile, the name being a Gentile part name. All right, so let's now move on to verse 14 and 15. I'm going to read it.

Verse 14 and 15. We have a few things, but I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balaic to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

Thus, you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which think I hate. Now, we have discussed sufficiently about Nicolaitans, and we say those lead to a license to giving to their passions, Jude 1.4, Ludeness, etc. So I'm not going to cover any more on that verse 15, but along the same lines, I'm going to cover a bit more about verse 14, which is the doctrine of Balaam. Now, to do that, let's go back to Numbers 22 through 24. So let's go back to Numbers 22 through 24. In Numbers 22 through 24, we see the story of Balaam and Balak. And and Balak basically wants the Israelites to be cursed, and Balaam talks to God, and God says, no, you can't. You can't. They are being protected. You can't. And there's this debate here from Numbers 22, 23, and 24. And you can read that story. It's a very interesting story, and in the end, it appears right at the end in Numbers 24 verse 25, it says, so Balaam rose and departed and returned to his place, and Balak also went his way. And it kind of appears to be the end of the story, but it isn't. It isn't. Because now we see the results of something else Balaam did.

And it says, now Israel remained in Keshia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab, and they invited the people to the sacrifices of the idols, and the people ate and bow down. So they were invited to this pagan worship, to these pagan festivals. And they had a party, and they went wild. And what they did is they ate those food, those food sacrifices, they sacrificed to idols. Why? Because they were keeping those pagan festivals. They were worshiping pagans. And it says, continuing. So, verse 3, so Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was around against Israel.

You see, the anger of God was around Israel, and it doesn't say much more. Yeah, nearly it says that in chapter 24-25, it says, Balaam rose and departed, and then verse happened. But you know what happened before he departed. He gave some advice to Balak and his people. And that advice is described in Numbers 31 verse 16. Numbers 31 verse 16, he says, look, these women caused the children of Israel through the Council of Balaam to trespass against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and it was a plague amongst the congregation of the Lord. So, what was the Council of Balaam? The Council of Balaam says, hey, I can't curse the people, but if we make the people to do things against God, to worship idols, then they will not be able to be blessed by God, and therefore the consequence will be they'll be cursed. So, you want to curse the Israelites? This is how you do it. Get your woman to get in and convince the Israelites people to mingle with them and lead them through their passions and their sexual things to attend these pagan festivals where these sexual things would happen. And so, they mingled with that and they committed idolatry and not just idolatry, but also sexual immorality. That's what happened. That was the Council of Balaam. Yeah, you read in verse 16, the Council of Balaam. So, basically, Balaam induced the Israelites to practice idolatry and commit fornication, particularly spiritual, because they were worshiping idols. Remember, fornication is going with somebody else that you're not committed, and basically, spiritually speaking, you are committed to God and they were going to pagan gods, idols, and keeping their feasts, and when they go and have their feasts and their parties and their revelries and their drinking and what they do. Well, when they do that, they start worshiping those false gods and there's all the sexual immorality. Now, let's think about it. Remember when Moses came down the mountain, and then he saw what they were doing, and all they were feasting and eating and drinking? Well, this was this orgy that they were having, and so Moses got so upset, he broke the two tablets of standard God and ripping on them to ten commandments. You remember that? It's the same thing. And so what was happening in this era of Pergamos is the same concept, this doctrine of Balaam, this council of Balaam, what? To mix and mingle and whatever Christians with non-Christians, those of the faith with those not in the faith, and pull them aside to idolatry and therein cause God to be angry.

And so these unconverted teachers at the time of Pergamos, instructed teachers, false teachers, ministers introduced into the church various pagan holidays with their things that are pagan.

And with those being, they would go in there, and therefore they would eat and feast with those people, and they eat with them, and therefore that was the problem that was happening there.

And in parallel with that, in a more, let's call it, in a more secular way, was also because that city was the capital city of politics of that society.

If the people would get involved in politics, maybe they would protect themselves from the problems to come, because they were getting involved in the politics of that society. And so that is a game going wrong. You can't get involved with the politics of this world.

You've got to stick with the truth and the clean truth, not get yourself polluted with the politics of this world. And this is something that really should ring in our ears, and we've got to be careful today, because many people are getting involved in worldly politics, and it's going to be a trap. We've got to be careful. So, Barnes' commentary on this section says, Bairam taught the Hebrews to do this. Perhaps in some way securing their attendance on the riotous and gruteness feasts of idolatry celebrated amongst the people among whom they so joined.

Such feasts were commonly held in idol temples, and they usually led to the seams of dissipation and corruption. A little later on, Barnes also says, the custom of attending on the festivals of idols led commonly to licentiousness, and they were gross and sensual in their lives, with fit subjects to be persuaded to attend on idol feasts. For nowhere else would they find more unlimited toleration for the indulgence of their passions. Quite significant, quite a profound understanding of what we are encountering here in the era of Bergamot.

So, we have in Revelation 2 verse 16, it says, Repent, or else I'll come to you quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. So, it's giving a warning. Don't go that way. Repent, or you're going to get into trouble.

You see, the Bergamot area, we study that it's possibly between the year of 650 of the current era to a thousand of the current era. Now, there is a book called The Key of Truth, translated in English during the beginning of the 20th century, and speaks of these Christian people during that time, during that time period, known as the Anfingani, meaning those who understand prophecy and politics, those who follow Paul, who observe the Sabbath and God's early days. For instance, the Passover on the 14th. So, this book describes that there were those Christian people that were obeying God, they were keeping the Sabbath, they were keeping the Holy Days, and they were called Anfingani, and also they were called Palatins, the ones that follow Paul. So, they were basically God's people through these ages in this era, the Pergamum era. But it says many of those people got polluted and got mixed up with political alliances and things like that, and took that warning lightly, until it was too late. They trusted in their political alliances with the Arabs rather than Jesus' protection, and it says that 100,000 were betrayed and slaughtered, and some escaped then to southern eastern Europe and became known as the Bogu Milos, that's page C-I-V, which means one under them four, if I remember correctly, in Roman literals of the book The Key of Truth. So, it just shows how once we start pouring these errors into their time frames and we start plugging in bits of history, we start getting a little bit of a picture of what happened. So, and then he concludes, in the section says, who has a year to year, let him year what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I'll give some of the Eden Manor to eat. I will give him a white stone and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it. So, the Eden Manor, that applies in a way to Christ being the bread of life, you know, he's the manna, he's the bread of life. He's the one that came from heaven, you know, there is an analogy into that. And then Christ is saying, I'll write your name on a white stone. You know, he's not going to write your name on papyrus, nor on parchment, but on a white stone, which is permanent. Your name will be permanent, will be in the kingdom, it will be a new name as a member of God's family. So, yes, in conclusion, brethren, yes, we do have trials, but we have to stay true to the sound doctrine, to the truth. Obviously, we're going to do it in love, and we cannot give in under pressure to worldly teachings and practices.