SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/31/2015
10:18 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Concern
for Pergamum
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
2:14-15
Message of the
verses: “14 ’But I have a few things
against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who
kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat
things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. 15 ’So you also
have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.”
What we see in these verses shows us that there were some
in this church who held to error, and this reminds me of something that is going
on in many of our churches in, not only the United States, but around the world
and that is the teaching of evolution. I
have written about this in earlier SD’s, and have expressed my hatred for this “religion,”
yes that is what evolution is a religion.
We have many who like to take out what the Bible has to say about
creation and that is that in six literal 24 hour days God created the heavens
and the earth and all that is on the earth.
There is no room for any “gap” theory in the book of Genesis, which is
saying that there were millions of years between the days of creation. God could have created the heavens and the
earth in six seconds if He wanted to, but He had reasons to create it in six
days. People who hold to this view, and
there are many believers who do, it is just as sinful as those in the church in
Pergamum who held to the teaching of the Nicolaitans and those who held to the
teaching of Balaam, they are all three wrong and Christ comes down hard against
those who held to those teachings in this letter. The Bible is true and we need to take it
seriously and not try and pick and chose what we believe. Now I am going to, at this time quote again
from my first study on the book of Revelation dated 02/22/2005 and then will
give some additional comments on this portion of Scripture.
“In his book “Be Victorious” Dr. Warren Wiersbe points
out some interesting meanings to some names and this helps to explain what this
verse is saying. He writes that the
people who have infiltrated the church at Pergamos were called “Nicolaitans,”
and this name means, “to rule the people,” which is what they were trying to do
in this church. The Hebrew meaning for
“Balaam” means “lord of the people,” and these are similar meanings to these
two names. The story of Balaam is in
Numbers 22-25 and it is a sad story indeed, for Balaam was a true prophet of
the Lord, but he fell in love with money and thus compromised his beliefs
because of that. Balak hires Balaam to
curse Israel, because he was frightened of them, but God would not allow Balaam
to curse the Israelites so he figured another way to get at Israel. What he did was to get the people of Israel
to become friends with Moab, and they began to eat foods that were sacrificed
to idols, and to also cause the men of Israel to play the harlot with the women
of Moab. James writes about something
similar, “Jas 4:4 You
adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with this world makes you an
enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy this world, you
can’t be a friend of God.” The
sin that Israel committed was the same sin that the church Pergamos committed,
and that was separation from the Lord, and compromising their beliefs. Scofield has this to say about this verse, “The doctrine of Balaam (CF) See
Scofield "2Pe 2:15" See Scofield "Jude 1:11" was his
teaching Balak to corrupt the people who could not be cursed. #Nu 31:15,16 22:5
23:8 by tempting them to marry women of Moab, defile their separation, and
abandon their pilgrim character. It is
that union with the world and the church which is spiritual unchastity. #Jas
4:4. Pergamos had lost the pilgrim character and was "dwelling" #Re
2:13 "where Satan’s throne is," in the world. #Joh 12:31 14:30
16:11.”
“It is interesting to see that it probably did not take a
lot of people to get this church to fall into this sin, yet the problem was
that they compromised and did not stand up and get rid of these people who were
causing this trouble like they should of.”
This last paragraph tells the story of how so many
churches fall into worldliness and are eventually not worth much in the eyes of
the Lord. Now I read a story or heard
it, not sure which about a small man who was a boxer. He was in the navy and weighed about 105
pounds and he was looking for a sparring partner so he could hone his
skills. He found a much larger man who
said that he would be willing to spare with him, and this larger man did not
think that it would bother him at all.
He was wrong for as the skilled smaller fighter continued to fight with
him he began hurt him even though he was so big and strong, but not as skillful
as the real fighter. This is what
happens when the church does not do its job in making sure only believers are
members in their church, and when they do not take the time to discipline
members who are living in unrepeated error like what happened in Pergamum. We saw that the Ephesian church left their
first love and I believe that this is the first part of a downfall, that is not
corrected that it will end up in more serious situations, like what we read
about in this church, and as we will see the downfall will continue in the rest
of the churches with the exception of Philadelphia.
At this time I want to quote some verses from the 15th
chapter of the book of Acts. This
chapter is a critical chapter in the history of the church. The apostle Paul was being used of the Lord
to start churches primarily with Gentiles even though he would first go to the
Jews first. There arose a problem with
the Jewish believers in that they wanted the Gentile believers to follow the
Jewish laws including circumcision. What
we see in the 15th chapter of Acts settles this issue and at the end
of the chapter we read what the Gentiles were to follow and this has to do with
what the church in Pergamum was not following.
The following is the letter that was sent to the Gentile churches: “"The apostles and the brethren who are
elders, to the brethren in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia who are from the
Gentiles, greetings. 24 “Since we have heard that some of our number to whom we
gave no instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls,
25 it seemed good to us, having become of one mind, to select men to send to
you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, 26 men who have risked their lives for
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 27 “Therefore we have sent Judas and Silas,
who themselves will also report the same things by word of mouth. 28 "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay
upon you no greater burden than these essentials: 29 that you abstain from things sacrificed to
idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you
keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell."
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: There are times
when I have a problem with realizing that things are right in the site of God,
as sometimes things seem right, but when I begin to study more thoroughly I
find they are not what the Lord wants. I
believe that by studying the attributes of God that I have a better idea of who
God is and thus have a better idea of what I am to believe. I try and filter things through who God is,
and the church at Pergamum was not doing this and it cost them dearly.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the Lord with all of my heart, soul,
mind and strength, and to better understand the love that He has for me.
Memory verse for the
week: 2 Peter 1:5-9.
5 Now for this very reason
also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in
your moral excellence, knowledge 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in
your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, 7 and in
your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if these qualities are yours, and are
increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9
For he who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted, having forgotten
his purification from his former sins.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Peter” (Matthew 26:72).
Today’s Bible
question: “Lot pitched his tent toward
what city?”
Answer in our next SD.
1/31/2015 11:21 AM
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