Pergamos means "Much Marriage"
Exodus 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Today modern Pergamos is Bargama in Turkey. The name Bargama is masculine as is was the name of the city Pergama. It is God’s Spirit which has preserved the cities name in the feminine form to draw our attention to the wicked practices going on within the church (which is female) during this time.
This church has a double negative in that it contains two of the three things God hates from Ephesus and Smyrna. First, we will see the term Nicolaitanes reappear in Revelation 2:15. Second, we see that Satan now has a seat and not just a synagogue Revelation 2:13.
In church history it is a masterful stroke of Satan to begin with religion and move into political power. This has been the pattern of Satan since the beginning. In Genesis 3:1-6 Satan corrupts the heart of man through subtle attack on the Word of God by open ended questions designed to erode our confidence in the perfect nature of God and rely on our own senses (Lust of eyes, lust of flesh and the pride of life, 1 John 2:16). Satan uses division to corrupt God’s people and unity of false religious and political power to control and deceive the hearts of mankind.
As we see in Revelation, Satan starts a religion but ends up with a seat of political power. That is his ultimate Goal. Just as in the day of Nimrod, he replaced the worship of Jehovah God with false religion (synagogue of Satan) then established his seat of power in Babel under the rule of Nimrod (Satan’s seat). It is no coincidence that during the early church and throughout church history Satan has been using the same tactics to deceive the hearts of the simple and beguile the bride of Christ.
2 Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
In a very practical sense we can identify with the church of Pergamos in our culture today. In many ways the church is married to the world. The church is a business, the church is an “entertainment force” and the church is immoral. The divorce rate in the church has skyrocketed along with the culture in which we live. Marriages in the church reflect the church and the society in which we live. We are becoming popular as the girl who gave it up at school was popular, but we have lost our purity in many respects. We are not here to market to a lost and dying world. We exist to model to a lost and dying world our chastity as we await the joy of being united with our Savior. We should be the picture of stability, love, joy, purity, sincerity etc. to the world at large.
As our society is given over to idolatrous practices and compromised for the almighty dollar, we too will find ourselves compromised in our relationship with our Savior if we are not careful to guard our hearts and stay pure in our relationship and fidelity to him. It is not an issue of returning to the law (synagogue of Satan) but living in the liberty and not being entangled again with the yoke of bondage. It is the liberated Christian who delivers the biggest blow to those under the yoke of satanic bondage. Those set free from the forces of culture that are no longer enticed by the call of the harlot and need not go her way. We need not be any more or any less the beautiful bride adorned for our husband the Lord Jesus Christ at his return.
Our mission at HBF is to “equip the saints of God in the Word of God to accomplish the mission of God in the power of God.” in short what we do is make disciples. But by God’s grace that is not who we are. By the grace of God we will be the beautiful, faithful bride of Christ who is preserved blameless and harmless in this present age. (Philippians 2:15-16). By God’s grace we will hold forth the word of life until his return.
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