The 7 Churches of Revelation

Pergamos - The Compromising Church

The 3rd church in this study is the Church of Pergamos - the compromising church. Pergamos is an interesting church; although they follow Jesus and hold fast to his name, they also allow others to commit a myriad of sins in their midst without rebuke.

Satan's Seat

The Church of Pergamos like the . They seem to have faced or are also facing their fair share of persecution which again Jesus sympathizes with. They hold fast to Jesus' name and they don't deny him even to their death which Jesus in speaking to the Church of Smyrna, rewards them for with the crown of life (Revelation 2:13). However, Jesus continually references "Satan's seat" or where Satan dwells when addressing Pergamos. This first strikes me as strange when I first encountered the wording.

However, once we read on we catch a glimpse as to why Jesus may be choosing this wording; the Church of Pergamos has those that participate in idolatry as well as sexual immorality, "But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak 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 thing I hate," (Revelation 2:14-15).

Notice that Jesus didn't say that the Church of Pergamos has a whole is participating in these things. The word choice here is very intricate and specific. Jesus in verse 13 says he even knows where "Satan's seat" is.

Later in this verse he commends them for their good faith and talks about Antipas a "faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells" (Revelation 2:13). Christ is using specific language to point out to the Church of Pergamos that they need to be weary of who is among them, because it's those people that are worshiping other idols and committing fornication and other sexual sins and maybe even more specifically, eating food offered to idols and partaking in ritualistic sexual intercourse.

He says that it's these people that are among them that "hold the doctrine of Balaam" (Revelation 2:13). Jesus' references to Balaam and Balak may be confusing at first if you're not too familiar with the Old Testament (specifically the book of Numbers) but we'll take a look at that a little later.

So the problem that Jesus has here with Pergamos isn't necessarily what they are doing it's what they could eventually be doing or being exposed to that he's concerned about. It happened with Israel and it could very well happen with the Church of Pergamos. Jesus also later states that these people also hold the doctrine of Nicolaitanes.

If you remember, the also hates them and this was something Jesus commends them for; for hating what he hates (Revelation 2:6). This raises several questions that may help fully grasp these characters Jesus alludes to and why following in their footsteps isn't recommended: who is Balaam and what is his doctrine? Who is Balak that he taught this doctrine too? And who are the Nicolaitanes and what do they believe?

Balaam and Balak

Balaam was one of God's prophets – although wicked in nature. Balak, the king of Moab sought his counsel to help him curse the Israelites that appeared in Moab (Numbers 22:6-7). He was threatened by them due to their large numbers stating "behold, they cover the face of the earth..." (Numbers 22:5) and was worried that due to those numbers they would quickly consume the lands resources (Numbers 22:1-4).

However, Balaam seeks Gods advise on the matter and is warned to not curse the Israelites because they are blessed (Numbers 22:10-12). This game of Balak asking Balaam to curse the Israelites and Balaam blessing the Israelites due to God's stern warning happens three times until Balak, out of anger, tells him to return to where he came from (Numbers 23-24). But this isn't where the story ends. Immediately in Numbers 25:1 we see that the Israelites are sinning against God,