“And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, ‘These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword…’” Revelation 2:12.

The name Pergamos means thoroughly married and it represents the period in the church age from 312 to about 590 A.D. and should be considered a period of disastrous change in the history of the visible church.

After murdering an estimated five million innocent human beings during the Roman persecution, Satan realized that torturing and killing Christians was not going to work to destroy the church of Jesus Christ, in fact, it only grew.

Much as Satan and his legions of fallen angels love inflicting pain and causing misery, he knew that he had to come up with a better plan, which he did by using an old one that had worked with the children of Israel.

Pergamos was the capital city of Mysia in Asia Minor and a Roman province, noted for its wealth, fashion and particularly its religion.

The city was filled with temples to the various gods of the day, Zeus, Aphrodite and the god of medicine Aesculapius which is represented by the symbol of a serpent.

Satan, by the way is known as, “…that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan…” Revelation 20:2. Little wonder as to why the Lord refers to this place as “where Satan’s throne is”. The two-edged sword as discussed earlier is the word of God and will be examined further on in this article.

“I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith [your faith in Me] even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.” Revelation 2:13.

It has been pointed out, and rightfully so, that Satan’s throne is not in hell, in fact I doubt that he has even visited his future home, Satan is known in Scripture as the god of this world, and the prince of the power of the air. The Bible refers to him and his government in the following way.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12.

Some commentators have stated that Satan has had three thrones, or seats of power; the first was in Babylon (Genesis 10:6-12 and 11:1-9) because that is the starting point of many, if not all of the gods.

Idolatry began in Babylon with Nimrod and his wife Semiramis, who after his death became pregnant and claimed to have given birth to him once again, naming him Tammuz.

The rite of weeping for Tammuz originated from this cult and this unholy thing was actually practiced about two thousand years later in the temple in Jerusalem.

“So He brought me to the door of the north gate of the Lord’s house; and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz. Then He said to Me, ‘Have you seen this, O son of man? Turn again, you will see greater abominations than these.’” Ezekiel 8:14-15.

Semiramis who was also called Queen of Heaven is the origin of the mother of god heresy which is repeated throughout the world under different names such as Diana, Astarte, Aphrodite, Ceres, and Isis (Isis the goddess, not the murderous ISIS of today).

For those who would like to pursue the study of gods and their origins, “The Two Babylons” by Alexander Hislop, published by Loizeaux Brothers; is like seeing ancient history as one big library.

Caution the book was written in the mid-eighteen hundreds, so it is not an easy read, and the intent is to trace many of the pagan practices from Babylon to the extra-Biblical practices in the Roman Catholic Church.

The second throne of Satan is in Pergamos, “where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is”.

The third location is in Rome; Revelation chapter 17 describes a woman who rides on a scarlet beast.

The woman riding the beast represents the murderous apostate worldwide church which will control world government for the first half of the tribulation (3 ½ years).

“And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Revelation 17:5.

The woman is further described in the last verse of Revelation 17.

“And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.” Revelation 17:18.

At the time this was written Rome reigned over the earth.

However by the second half of the tribulation Satan will have come full circle, for he will again reside in Babylon.

Little is known about Antipas mentioned in Revelation 2:13 but he is called the Lord’s faithful martyr, not too surprising in a city so filled with idolatry that it is called Satan’s throne.

There is one clue though as to what happened, Antipas means, against every man. One man stood up against the pagan pressure for the Christian church to conform to their standards.

These pagans seem to have been able to live together even though some religious beliefs may have differed, even so, men’s sinful nature guarantees some friction among them, yet they would all agree that the Christian church needs to lighten up and wink at sin.

To further illustrate, the Shiite and Sunni Muslims slaughter each other without mercy, but they are united when it comes to the destruction of Israel or Christianity.

Islam is in every point absolutely opposed to what atheists believe yet the two would join to destroy Christianity. The reason is given to us by the Lord Jesus as follows.

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” John 15:18-19.

And in John’s first epistle the warning is given again.

“Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.” 1 John 3:13.

They may say that they hate the church because they are a bunch of self-righteous hypocrites, which is true in some cases, unfortunately. Often those “hypocrites” are unsaved people who appear to be Christians in the church.

The tragedy here is that folks who reject Christ because of the hypocrites will join them in hell for eternity; eternity with the very people who disgust and offend them.

However, the church that properly reflects the teachings of Jesus Christ is hated by those who reject Him because it convicts them of their sin and their need of a savior.

“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 things I hate.” Revelation 2:14-15.

Antipas may well have been alone in his fight for the purity of the Christian church, for in spite of the fact that they were true to their faith in Jesus, they were evidently lax in their fight against demonic doctrine mixing itself with the Lord’s teachings.

This is the idea of the two-edged sword which is the word of God mentioned in Revelation 2:12 quoted earlier.

Had this sword been used rather than abandoned, the church at Pergamos may have kept a strong witness for Christ rather than becoming polluted with false doctrine.

“For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12.

Another, more literal use of the two edged sword occurred in Pergamos a number of years later.

In 262 B.C there was a devastating earthquake which severely damaged the city and around that time Pergamos was sacked by the Gauls. The city never really recovered after that.

Another history site stated that the city was sacked by the Goths. The Goths were Germanic tribes, while the Gauls occupied France, Belgium, Luxemburg and parts of the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Italy.

Both the Goths and the Gauls are part of various tribal groups known as Celts.

Whatever the case, the final nail was driven into the coffin when in 611 A.D. the Persians overran and devastated Anatolia which is located in Turkey and the location of Pergamum.

Incidentally all seven of the churches that the Lord Jesus addresses in these letters are located in Turkey.

The rest of the letter to Pergamos, Revelation 2:16-17 will be covered in the next post.

Revelation 2:12-15 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 9-29-16, updated on 4-22-22.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.