1. Topography of Pergamos
This writing affords additional proof that “Angel” is used in these letters as a noun of plurality. For example, “Thou,” the Angel, “hast there,” in Pergamos, “men holding the teaching of Balaam:” and again, “So hast thou also men holding the teaching of the Nikolaitans.” These “men holding”—κρατουντας—were constituents of the symbolical Star-Angel, or Presbytery; whose influence was only evil and that continually, until at length the truth was extinguished in Pergamos through them.
Pergamos was the name of a kingdom as well as of a city. The seat of government was in the city to whose “angel” the Spirit wrote by John. It was the metropolis of the Hellespontic Mysia, and the throne of the kings of the race of Attalus; and is situated about sixty-four miles to the north of Smyrna. It still retains its ancient name, which in the mouth of a Turk is pronounced Bergamo. There are some good buildings in the place, but more ruins.
p. 266 Attalus king of Pergamos died B. C. 138, and was succeeded by his nephew Philometer, who governed the kingdom in a most pernicious and extravagant manner. He was scarcely seated upon the throne before he stained it with the blood of his nearest relations, and the best friends of his family. He caused foreign troops, whom he had expressly sent for from the most savage and cruel nations, to make them the instruments of his enormous barbarity, to execute whole families. Having vented his ferocity, he thenceforth ceased to show himself abroad. Cruelty and folly were the characteristics of his reign, which happily for his subjects lasted only five years.
Previous to his death, which occurred before the birth of Christ 133 years, he made a will, by which he appointed the Roman people his heirs. Eudemus of Pergamos carried this will to Rome. The principal article was expressed in these terms, “Let the Roman people inherit all my effects.” They were not slow to take possession; but being resisted, a war ensued which lasted four years, at the end of which they had conquered Lydia, Caria, the Hellespont, Phrygia, in a word, all that composed the kingdom of Attalus, was reduced into a province of Rome, under the common name of ASIA in which the seven ecclesias were situated. This was consummated B. C. 126.
At the present time, the city is occupied chiefly by Turks, very few families calling themselves christian being left, and these but “dogs” and “swine.” Bishop Newton, looking at Pergamos from an episcopalian point of view, says, “Here is only one church remaining, dedicated to St. Theodorus; and that the name of Christ is not wholly lost and forgotten in Pergamos, is owing to the care of the metropolitan of Smyrna, who continually sendeth hither a priest to perform the sacred offices.. The cathedral church of St. John is buried in its own ruins; their Angel or bishop removed; and its fair pillars adorn the graves and rotten carcases of its destroyers, the Turk, who are esteemed about two or three thousand souls in number. Its other fine church, called Santa Sophia, is turned into a mosque, and daily profaned with the blasphemies of the false prophet. There are not in the whole town above a dozen or fifteen families of miserable christians, who till the ground to gain their bread, and live in the most abject and sordid servitude. There is the less reason to wonder at the wretched condition of this church, when we consider that it was the very “throne of Satan;” that they ran greedily after the error of Balaam, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication;” and that “they held the impure doctrines of the Nicolaitans, which Christ detested.” It was denounced unto them to “repent, or else he would come unto them quickly, and fight against them,” as the event evinces that, he hath done.”
p. 267 This is all the bishop has to tell us about Pergamos and the letter to its ecclesia. Its population is unequally divided between the Turks and Greeks, the former of whom, he says, “daily profane it with the blasphemies of the false prophet.” To our mind, Pergamos would be more intensely profaned were it peopled exclusively with Greeks in the full tide of Byzantine prosperity. It was their “blasphemies,” like the profanities of Sodom and Gomorrha, that brought upon them their overthrow, and the Turkish desolation. Instead of adhering to the truth, they worshipped demons called “St. Theodore” and “Santa Sophia,” to whom they dedicated bazaars, called “churches,” for the sale therein of clerical merchandize. The remnant are indeed “miserable christians,” with nothing of christianity but the name.
2. The Throne of the Satan
Pergamos having been, as we have seen, the metropolis of the kingdom in whose territory the seven ecclesias were situated, was fitly selected by the Spirit as the place of the throne of the Satan. From the writing to the ecclesia there, it would appear that the clerical influence was stronger there than in any other of the seven. They were Balaamites and Nikolaitans; teaching idolatrous practices, committing spiritual abomination, and Judaizers and Gnostics. The miniature kingdom of Pergamos in its connection with christianity had become the Kingdom of the Clergy, whose power in the days of John, was enthroned in the city of that name being opposed both to State-Paganism and to apostolic christianity. It was the head-quarters of the Synagogue of the Satan, who, like its symbolical predecessor, Philometer, left all its effects to Rome.
The seven apocalyptic epistles illustrate “the things that are”—the things that do exist while the Spirit speaks through John; the things constituting the christendom of the kingdom of Pergamos at the end of the first century, and in the beginning of the second. Pergamos was the throne of the clerical Satan as Rome is at this day; for Rome became the heir of all the effects of those in Pergamos who held the teaching of Balaam and of the Nikolaitans. But we shall not enter further at present into the consideration of the Pergamian Christendom a tpye of the Greco-Latin Christendom at the apocalypse of Christ in power and great glory until I have expounded in detail what remains peculiar to the ecclesias yet to be discoursed of.
Having dictated to John the superscription of the epistle as “To the Angel of the Ecclesia in Pergamos,” the Spirit in telling him to “write” p. 268 what follows, saith of himself that he is “He having the sharp two-edged longsword.” The reader can here refer to what I have already written upon the saying, “Out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword.” on page 183. In addition to what is there said, we may remind the reader that Paul testifies that “there is One Body and One Spirit”—Eph. iv. 4. The one Spirit is sometimes in singular, and at other times in plural, manifestation. As the apocalyptic Son of Man in plurality, he speaks “as the sound of many waters;” but in speaking as one person, as the head and mouth of the one body, it is the glorified Jesus speaking, whom Paul styles “the Lord the Spirit,” “the last Adam a life-imparting spirit,” “the second man, the Lord from heaven”—1 Cor. xv. 45, 47. The Lord Jesus, then, here styles himself paraphrastically, “He having the sharp two-edged longsword,” which is the word or testimony of Deity; for “the spirit is the truth.” “I am the truth,” said Jesus in discourse; and he discoursed by the Spirit: and when the Spirit raised him from the dead, he converted him into solid, substantial, and corporeal spirit; so that Jesus and the Spirit became One and Indivisible.
The sword that he hath is styled ῥομφαια, rhomphaia. There are two words used in the apocalypse for our word sword. Being different words we judge that their signification is diverse. The other word is μαχαιρα, machaira. The first occurs in chap. i. 16; ii. 12, 16; vi. 8; xix. 15, 21: the second, in ch. vi. 4; xiii. 10, 14. The rhomphaia was the longsword used by the Thracians; while the machaira was a short sword, or sabre, as opposed to ξιφος, xiphos, the straight sword. The machaira was the Roman military sword, the badge of office worn by the Imperial Lieutenant, to whom the power of the sword was delegated by the Emperor. This was not the sword with which he, the Spirit, threatened the Angel of the ecclesia in Pergamos, when he declared he would fight against the Balaamites and Nikolaitans among them “with the longsword of his mouth.” This was the word-sword, a sharper one than a steel-sword; for it destroys the soul eternally, slays it out of existence, when wielded against it.
3. “The Place the Satan Inhabits”
In the time of “the things which are” Pergamos was the place the Satan dwelt in. The reader can refresh his mind concerning the Satan by turning to a former page. The Satan in Pergamos, as elsewhere, was the Church Hierarchy claiming to be apostles and ambassadors of Jesus Christ, leading away disciples after them, and teaching perverse p. 269 things, by which the gospel of the kingdom and its obedience as inculcated by Jesus and his apostles, were abolished. They dwelt in Pergamos in full force; and therefore, in the days of John, it was apocalyptically represented as “the throne of the Satan.” These of the Satan did their best to separate the Saints from “the Name,” and from “the Faith” of the Spirit. Nevertheless, when John wrote, though the “Angel” had unfaithful constituents, yet the majority were true. The Angel-Presbytery dwelt side by side with the Satan. It was in daily communication with them; “contending for the faith once for all delivered to the saints,” as the true believers have done, and are doing to this day in tribulation and reproach. Still they “held fast the Spirit’s name and denied not his faith;” in other words, they were faithful to “the truth as it is in Jesus.”
The power of this Church—Satan, the rival and subsequent destroyer of the One body of Christ—destroyer of its tranquility and happiness for the time being—was enthroned in Pergamos, where they were more influential than the priests of the established superstition. This appears from Pliny’s testimony concerning the state of things in his letter to Trajan, A.D. 106, which is already before the reader on page 254. Speaking of christianity as a whole (for the pagans made no distinction between Apostolic Christianity and the rising Apostasy) the Roman governor of Bithynia says, “The contagion of the superstition hath spread not only through cities, but even villages, and the country.” Still he did not despair of suppressing it; and on expressing his hope gives us to know the depths in which he found idolatry when he first came to Anatolia. “Not that I think it impossible,” saith he, “to check and correct it. The success of my endeavors hitherto forbids such desponding thoughts; for the temples, once almost desolate, begin to be frequented; and the sacred solemnities, which had long been intermitted, are now attended afresh; and the sacrificial victims are now sold everywhere, which once could scarcely find a purchaser.” This is the testimony of a pagan ruler about four years after the death of the apostle John. In A.D. 106, the temples were almost desolate, idolatrous rites suspended, and “things sacrificed unto idols” could scarcely find any one to purchase them for food. But when Pliny came to Anatolia a considerable change was effected by his measures in favor of the old superstition. Many persons who had renounced idolatry, he says, returned to its abominations. These were called christians. They styled themselves such, and were so regarded by the pagans; but not by the Spirit, and those who held fast his name and had not denied his faith. They were such christians as “sinners of the world” call christians in our day. They were the catholics, protestants, and sectarians p. 270 of the second century, “the synagogue of the Satan,” the apostasy in embryo, ramifying and striking out its roots in all the habitable. The type of their principles was that of “easy virtue;” a very “charitable” community who would receive Socrates, Plato, and “the best of the heathen,” into their synagogue, and practice heathen customs, if their contemporaries would give honor to Christ, and forego the worship of images. On this principle variously expressed, they so popularized christianity as to make it palatable to the heathen mind, and to produce the effect deplored by Pliny. But he preferred pure and unmixed Paganism to the semiheathenism of the Satan’s synagogue, whose system of superstition had no images of gods, no visible altar, and no bloody sacrifices. He therefore commanded christians to frequent the temples, to attend to “the sacred solemnities,” and to purchase the idol sacrifices for food, upon pain of death. Many obeyed, but others were in his judgment sullenly and inflexibly obstinate. These were they whom the Spirit commends saying, “Thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith.” Pliny tried all he could to compel them. He commanded them to “perform sacred rites with wine and frankincense, to repeat after him an invocation of the gods, and of the emperor’s image and to execrate Christ.” To do this would have been to release their hold of his name and to deny his faith; which, Pliny says, he had been told “a real christian can never be compelled to do.” From this it is evident that the distinction existed in John’s day, between “real christians” and “christians.” The name christian comprehended all the adherents of Balaam and Jezebel, whether Ebionites, Gnostics, or by whatever name or denomination of heresy, they might be known. The “real christians” had no fellowship with such; though among them, as in Pergamos, the poison of the serpent might be detected. The ecclesia and “the synagogue of the Satan” were institutions as distinct as they are now; for in the nineteenth century a true believer of the gospel of the kingdom is against all who have not obeyed the same; yet a congregation of “real christians” may have in it some who are not true, as at Pergamos; these will sooner or later show themselves, for their sympathies are fleshly, and they become impatient of principles which they regard as “harsh, uncharitable, and severe.”
Such was the state of things in the place where the Satan dwelt in the days of John and Pliny, who were contemporaries. But though the Satan may still be found in Pergamos, or Bergamo, installed in the spiritual bazaars dedicated to St. Theodore and Santa Sophia; in which, “the Right Reverend Father in God, Thomas Newton, D.D., Bishop of Bristol,” a “lord spiritual” of their synagogue, informs us the Greek Metropolitan of Smyrna is careful to have “the sacred offices” performed p. 271 by a priest whom he continually sendeth there, and by which performance the name of Christ is not wholly lost or forgotten in Pergamos”—though this be so, “the throne of the Satan” hath long since been removed. It was only temporarily in Pergamos, until a more convenient season; when this should arrive the generation of the Satan then existing would plant it in a place more fitting for dominion. “Ye know,” said Paul to his contemporaries, “what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.” The “He” he refers to here in 2 Thess. ii. 6, is A POWER, not an isolated individual—a Power which is the subject of the prophecy in Dan. xi. 36-39. This power Daniel styles “the King that shall do according to his will;” and Paul terms it “that lawless one whose coming is after the working of the Satan.” The Satan here is evidently a christian agency; that is, a working under the christian name—“THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY already working” to the perversion of the gospel Paul preached. It was working “with all power, and signs and lying wonders;” and those in Pergamos, and elsewhere, who held the doctrine of Balaam, and the teaching of the Nikolaitans, and who possessed “spirits,” or spiritual gifts, were the workers, who prostituted their gifts to the confirmation of the teaching they promulged in opposition to the apostles. They worked “with all the deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish,” and therefore they were styled “deceitful workers.” They were like the Mormons of our time, who proclaim themselves to be “christians;” profess to believe in Jesus as the Son of God and Christ; in short, to believe all that “orthodox christians” approve; but with all their verbiage, having a political purpose to effect as the great end of all their enterprize. If they could carry this purpose into effect, they would abolish the constitution of the United States, and set up a kingdom which should rule the country according to the principles of Mormonism. But every one knows “what withholdeth;” namely, the power of the Union.
I have selected the Mormons as an example illustrative of the purpose and working of the generation of the Satan contemporary with the apostles, because they occupy a relation to the United States more resembling that of the Christians of the first, second, and third centuries to the Pagan-Roman government, than any other sect of Satan’s synagogue at present extant. They began their career with a doctrine, the vindication of whose scripturality seemed to occupy all their energies. But as they increased their proselytes, certain ambitious demagogues among them conceived the idea of turning the speculation to present political account. In a few years they had some two thousand votes to dispose of to any of the political factions in being, able and willing to promote their schemes. They proselyted to Mormonism to increase p. 272 their political influence with the factions, whose leaders and wireworkers would as soon profess this as any other ism, if it would help them to place, profit, and power. By working thus, though “persecuted,” they have become a Power, which this government finds difficult to control. It began with a doctrine, it ends, when it thinks itself sufficiently strong, with an appeal to the sword.
And thus it was in the first three centuries in the Roman empire. Christianity had its ambitious demagogues, and Rome its factions, and hypocritical and dishonest politicians. The factions contended for supreme power, and to obtain it, the politicians would as soon profess the christianity of Satan’s synagogue, as the paganism of the Diabolos. At first, the “ministers of the Satan” were zealous for doctrines, and for a righteousness of law and gospel commixed. Notwithstanding the opposition they encountered from the apostles and all real Christians, their numbers increased. Starting originally in their career as constituents of the elderships, they obtained position and a vantage ground; and with ability to work signs and wonders, which became “lying wonders,” because used for the confirmation of “a lie,” which became “a strong delusion” in all it took possession of. “Of your own selves,” said Paul to those of the Ephesian Star-Angel endowed with spiritual gifts, “shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.” Their numbers increased from this source, and by direct conversion to their “perverse things” from among the Jews and pagans; so that the apostolic party were placed in the minority, where it has remained to this day.
In two hundred and eighty years from the Pentecost of A. D. 33, the adherents of the perverse things of the Apostasy had become sufficiently numerous and influential to be an object of fear to the constituted authorities, and of hope to the aspirant of supreme power that might be fortunate enough to obtain their coöperation. They had got rid of the old-fashioned doctrine of non-resistance and passive obedience taught by Paul; and they were now ready to draw the sword, and fight for empire under the first champion who should present with claims upon their support. The “coming man” appeared A. D. 306, in the character of a worshipper of the sun, named Constantine. This pagan aspirant, ambitious of the supreme and sole dominion of the Roman Habitable, then ruled by six emperors, came to an understanding with “the Christian Hierarchy” of the Satan, which, for the sake of distinguishing it from the real christian community, may be styled “catholic.” Constantine and the Catholics made common cause to remove “what withholdeth” by force of arms, that their own Satanism might be enthroned. After a conflict of six or seven years, they succeeded in planting p. 273 the Cross, the symbol of the New Power, upon the Capitol in Rome. In consummating this, the Satan had worked as they have since worked in making Protestantism sovereign in Germany, Britain, and the United Provinces. The Satan’s throne in the little kingdom of Pergamos was transferred to Rome, the symbol of whose imperiality was “the Dragon”—“purpureum signum draconis,” the purple red ensign of the dragon.
But “the throne of the Satan,” and the metropolis the Satan inhabited, were not established in the city of the Tiber. The Roman dominion had become the Satan’s; but at the time of this great revolution, the city of Rome had become confounded with the dependent kingdoms which had once acknowledged her supremacy. In reference to this, Gibbon remarks, that “after the defeat and abdication of Licinius, his victorious rival, Constantine, proceeded to lay the foundations of a city destined to reign in future times the Mistress of the East. The motives, whether of pride or of policy, which first induced Diocletian to withdraw himself from the ancient seat of government, (on the Tiber,) had acquired additional weight by the example of his successors, and the habits of forty years. Rome was insensibly confounded with the dependent kingdoms which had once acknowledged her supremacy; and the country of the Cæsars was viewed with cold indifference by a martial prince like Constantine, born in the neighborhood of the Danube, educated in the courts and armies of Asia, and invested with the purple by the legions of Britain. The Italians, who had received him as their deliverer, submissively obeyed the edicts which he sometimes condescended to address to the Senate and People of Rome; but they were seldom honored with the presence of their new sovereign. During the vigor of his age, Constantine, according to the various exigences of peace or war, moved with slow dignity, or active diligence, along the frontiers of his extensive dominions; and was always prepared to take the field either against a foreign or a domestic enemy. But as he gradually reached the summit of prosperity and the decline of life, he began to meditate the design of fixing, in a more permanent station, the strength as well as the majesty of the throne. In the choice of an advantageous situation, he preferred the confines of Europe and Asia. Diocletian had selected and embellished the residence of Nicomedia,” about sixty-five miles east of Constantinople, and one hundred and fifty north of Pergamos. “But the memory of Diocletian was justly abhored by the protector of the Church; and Constantine was not insensible to the ambition of founding a city which might perpetuate the glory of his own name. During the late operations of the war against Licinius, he had sufficient opportunity to contemplate, both as a soldier p. 274 and as a statesman, the incomparable position of Byzantium; and to observe how strongly it was guarded by nature against a hostile attack, whilst it was accessible on every side to the benefits of commercial intercourse.” He determined, therefore, to make the site occupied by Byzantium the locality of the Capital, the policy, and the religion of the Satan, who had helped him in his wars.
In speaking of the foundation of the city which was henceforth to bo called Constantinople, Gibbon further remarks that “the prospect of beauty, of safety, and of wealth, united in a single spot, was sufficient to justify the choice of Constantine. But as some decent mixture of prodigy and fable has, in every age, been supposed to reflect a becoming majesty on the origin of great cities, the Emperor was desirous of ascribing his resolution, not so much to the uncertain counsels of human policy, as to the infallible and eternal decrees of divine wisdom. In one of his laws he has been careful to instruct posterity, that, in obedience to the commands of God, he laid the everlasting foundations of Constantinople: and though he has not condescended to relate in what manner the celestial inspiration was communicated to his mind, the defect of his modest silence has been liberally supplied by the ingenuity of succeeding writers, who describe the nocturnal vision which appeared to the fancy of Constantine, as he slept within the walls of Byzantium. The tutelar genius of the city, a venerable matron sinking under the weight of years and infirmities, was suddenly transformed into a blooming maid, whom his own hands adorned with all the symbols of imperial greatness. The monarch awoke, interpreted the auspicious omen, and obeyed, without hesitation, the will of heaven. The day which gave birth to a city or colony was celebrated by the Romans with such ceremonies as had been ordained by a generous superstition; and though Constantine might omit some rites which savored too strongly of their pagan origin, yet he was anxious to leave a deep impression of hope and respect on the minds of the spectators. On foot, with a lance in his hand, the emperor himself led the solemn procession, and directed the line, which was traced as the boundary of the destined Capital; till the growing circumference was observed with astonishment by the assistants, who at length ventured to observe that he had already exceeded the most ample measure of a great city. ‘I shall still advance,’ replied Constantine, ‘till HE, the invisible guide who marches before me, thinks proper to stop.’”
Constantinople was dedicated A. D. 330, or thereabout. Its foundation commemorates the union of the Greek Catholic Satan with the Roman Diabolos, whose ensign we have remarked, on the authority of Ammianus Marcellinus, a pagan writer, was the purple red dragon.
p. 275 Constantine made his city a partaker of the throne of the Roman Majesty—the Emperor and his Court residing on the Bosphorus, and the Senate on the Tiber. In process of centuries, however, the Dragon ceded his throne on the Tiber to the Beast of the Sea—Rev. xiii. 2; from which time Constantinople became alone the throne of the power whose symbolical title is “the Dragon, the Old Serpent, which is Diabolos and Satan”—Rev. xx. 2.
From these premises it will be seen that, before the Apostasy was allied with the civil power its throne was in Pergamos, a little over two hundred miles south by west of Constantinople. It was there, in fact; but only temporarily, until it could plant itself in the place appointed for it. In due time Constantinople was built, and the Throne of the Apostasy was erected there. At present, the place of the Satan’s throne is provisionally occupied by a race which does not belong to the apocalyptic synagogue of the Satan. The Satan is ecclesiastically Greek. They were Greek in Pergamos; Greek in Constantinople for more than a thousand years; and must be Greek there again when the crisis of binding the Dragon, or Satan, shall have arrived. Then will the Spirit, in the full and antitypical import of the prediction, “come quickly, and fight against them with the sword of his mouth.”
4. “My Name”
After reminding the Angel-Star of the Ecclesia in Pergamos that they dwelt where the throne of the Satan then was, the Spirit tells them that one of their works he had observed was, that they held fast his Name. This was a great thing in the midst of paganism, and the semiheathenism of the apostasy, with all its sanctimonious pretensions on every side.
In regard to this “Name,” we have already offered some remarks on page 98, to which the reader is referred. In addition to what is there written, it may be stated that the Spirit saith in Isai. xlii. 8, “I (am) Yahweh; this is my name.” The Spirit, then, declaring this to be his name, when he says that the saints in Pergamos held fast to it, the testimony is tantamount to saying, “thou holdest fast my name, Yahweh.”
In our remarks on “Jesus,” referred to above, we have spoken of the etymology of this name. We repeat that it signifies He shall be: and in the form אני יהוה ani Yahweh, signifies, “I, the Spirit, am He who shall be.” The individual who was to be—he who was promised to Eve in Gen. iii. 15; to Abraham in Gen. xv. 4; xxi. 12; to Judah p. 276 in Gen. xlix. 10; to David in 2 Sam. vii. 12-14; Isai. ix. 6, 7—was the personage indicated by YAHWEH He shall be, styled, in Hebrew, “the Messiah;” in Greek, “the Christ;” and in English, “the Anointed.” Now, the Spirit said by the prophets, I shall be he; and here, in the apocalypse, we find the Spirit and Jesus speaking as one.
Now, the “Seed of Abraham,” genealogically considered, must partake of Abraham’s nature—must partake of flesh and blood. The Spirit, therefore, in effect said, I shall become flesh and blood. But how could this be? The answer to this is, that the fact depends not upon our ability to explain the mode in which spirit may be elaborated into flesh and blood. The Bible testifies that all things are out of Deity, who is spirit. The Eternal Power formed Adam out of dust. Spirit is the basis of all created things; and, according to the will of the Creator, becomes rock, dust, sea, vegetable, and animal, in all their diversity of form and beauty. All the resurrected who shall be approved, will become spirit; “for that which has been begotten of the Spirit is spirit”—begotten subsequently to their post-resurrectional appearance at Christ’s tribunal. If, then, flesh and blood thus become spirit, (and some flesh and blood will become spirit without tasting of death, Paul says,) why may not spirit become flesh and blood? It is but a reversal of results from a change of process.
The name, then, in connection with the testimony of the prophets, indicates a conversion of Spirit into flesh and blood, developed by the formative power of the Eternal, independently of and apart from the will of man. In the case of the first Adam, spirit, as it were leaven, mingled formatively with dust, and a flesh and blood man was developed, styled “Son of God;” but in the case of the second Adam, spirit acted upon the nervous system of Mary, as it had previously done upon Sarah, and Hannah, but to a further degree (for in these, it had only imparted strength for conception according to nature) in that it operated germinatively upon the contents of Mary’s ovarium; and caused an ovum, or “seed of the woman,” to be deposited in her womb. Here, as the spirit-germ of the second man it remained the usual “set time,” subject to the laws of the animal economy. At the appointed time it was born the babe of Bethlehem; and duly named JESUS, or He shall be who shall save—both “Son of God,” and “Son of Man,” which the first Adam was not. Adam was Son of God and Son of the Dust; Jesus was Son of God and Son of Man, being a creation of the Eternal Power from the substance of David’s daughter.
Such was the babe Jesus in preparation for the Sacrificial Man. His germination was irrespective of the lust of the flesh, the propensity excited in the first Adam by his guilty companion, and of which Cain p. 277 was the fruit. In this particular, the generation of Jesus was different from that of all other men. If Joseph had been his father, he would have been born of blood, of the will of the flesh, and of man, instead of the Spirit. He would have been son of man only, and not Son of God; and consequently would not have answered to the testimony of the name.
The Yahweh-Name, then, presents itself to us in prophecy and in history. To Israel it is incommunicable so long as they reject Jesus; for he is the historical and practical personal illustration of it. The Yahweh-Name in prophecy comprehends the things concerning the Christ in his birth, life, sufferings, resurrection, and glory. To understand the Yahweh-Name, as exhibited in the writings of the prophets, is to “know the joyful sound”—to believe “the gospel of the Deity which he had promised before by the prophets in the holy scriptures,” concerning his Son the Christ, made of the seed of David according to flesh, and constituted son of Deity in power according to spirit of holiness—Rom. i. 1-4: and to understand the same name historically and doctrinally expounded, as it is in the New Testament, is to understand “the things concerning the kingdom of the Deity, and the name of Jesus Anointed” of the Spirit—Acts viii. 12. In the teaching of Jesus “the name,” “the gospel,” and “the kingdom of the Deity,” are interchangeably used. Thus in Matt. xix., 29, he says, that every one who forsaketh any thing “for my name’s sake shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit aion-life;” in Mark. x. 29, he says, that there is no man that hath left any thing “for my sake and the Gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundred fold in this time with persecutions; and in the coming Aionlife aionian;” and in Luke xviii. 29, he says, there is no man that hath left any thing “for the kingdom of the Deity’s sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this time, and in the Aion to come life aionian.” Hence, to hold fast the Spirit’s Name and not to deny his faith, is to be “rooted and grounded in the faith, and not to be moved away from the hope of the gospel,” as in the case of the Pergamians. They were suffering tribulation for the kingdom and glory of the Deity, to which they had been invited by the gospel of the name they had obeyed. They held it fast as their hope; and, as Pliny testifies, no power or terror could compel them to abandon the position they had assumed in regard to it.
Not so, however, the Satan; they did not hold fast the name, and did deny the faith. As we have seen in treating of the Nikolaitanes, they denied that Christ had come in flesh; the consequence was that they logically rendered the Yahweh-Name ineffectual to the remission of sin: for if Christ did not come in the flesh and blood nature common p. 278 to all mankind, the condemnation of sin in the flesh which had sinned, as represented in the lambs slain from the foundation of the world, could not have occurred when he was crucified; and moreover, if his body had not been identical with ours, he could not have borne the sins of his brethren, the saints, to the cross. The denial of his true and proper humanity made him logically unfit for a sacrificial man, by whose stripes obedient believers should be healed.
The sin-covering efficacy of the Yahweh-Name depended upon the person bearing it being a flesh and blood Messiah; for “without the shedding of blood there is no remission.” The Spirit plainly testifies this in the prophets and apostles. In Lev. xvii. 11, he saith, “I have given the blood to you upon the altar for a covering upon your souls; for the blood itself shall cover the soul.” The reason given for blood being thus used is “because the soul of the flesh is in the very blood.” The soul, nephesh, or life is in the blood. The blood contains or covers it, as it were; and as it is a question of life or death—life forfeited for sin, the wages of which is death—that is appointed to cover sin which covers life, namely, the blood. In this sense, “the life, or soul, of all flesh is the blood thereof;” because the vitality of all animals is in the blood. Hence, a bloodless man could not, upon the principles of the divine law, be a covering for sin. He must have real blood in his veins containing life, as in redeeming flesh and blood nature from death, he had to give the same sort of life for the life to be redeemed.
Now the blood of Jesus was more precious than the life-blood of any other man. If it had not been so, it would have been inadequate to the purchase of life for the world. The Spirit testifies in David, that there is no man rich enough to redeem his brother, nor to give God a ransom for his soul that it should live forever, and not see corruption; “for,” he says, “the redemption of their soul will be costly, and it ceaseth to the Olahm”—Psal. xlix. 6-9. If the wealthiest be impotent for the redemption of one soul, how precious must the blood of the Yahweh-Name be, seeing that it can ransom “a great multitude which no man can number!”—Rev. vii. 9. The blood of Jesus was the only blood of all the generations of Adam, that had not been generated by the lust of the flesh; and which had not energized a man to the commission of sin. Jesus was an unblemished man, without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; for “he was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.”
This precious “blood of sprinkling, which speaks better things than the blood of Abel,” the sanctifying blood of the covenant shed for the remission of the sins of many, (Heb. xii. 24; x. 29, 22; Matt. xxvi. 28,) is the principle which makes the Yahweh-Name sin-cleansing, or a p. 279 covering for the hiding of sin, so that the believer upon whom the name is invoked, may have “no more conscience of sins,” or, as Peter expresses it, may have “the answer of a good conscience toward God”—1 Pet. iii. 21.
The purifying or sanctifying property of the Yahweh-Name being connected with bloodshedding, as prefigured in the law, necessitates the death of him who becomes the medium of its manifestation. The prophetic testimony is direct upon this point. “Thou, O Serpent,” said the Spirit, “shalt bruise the heel of the Woman’s Seed”—Gen. iii. 15. And this seed was to come out of Abraham’s son, as it is written, “in Isaac a Seed shall be chosen for thee;” and to show that he was to be a sacrificial man, the Elohim told him to “offer him for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of the land of Moriah which should be shown.” In obedience to this command, Abraham travelled with Isaac a journey of three days, until they arrived at the mountain where the temple afterwards stood. He laid upon Isaac the wood upon which he was to be bound, and led him as a lamb to the slaughter. Having erected an altar, he laid him thereon upon the wood, and took the knife to slay him. This he would have done, but for the interference of heaven. God ordered him to spare Isaac, and to finish the offering by slaying a ram in his place. The release of Isaac was a resurrection to life—a type of the future literal resurrection of the Seed to descend from him—Gen. xxi. 12; xxii. 6, 9, 13. This was the death and resurrection of the Yahweh-Name bearer represented to Abraham dramatically. It taught him, that the Seed to be chosen for him, who was to “possess the gate of His enemies, and in whom all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,” should suffer a violent death, and then rise again to fulfil his destiny. Abraham saw this, and therefore named the place of the offering YAHWEH-YIREH, He who shall be will provide—“In the mount Yahweh shall be seen”—ver. 14.
The prophets are full of testimony illustrative of this remarkable representation. “The Songs of Zion” treat largely of the sufferings of the Spirit’s name. The Spirit in David says, “they pierced my hands and my feet”—Psal. xxii. 16; and “He shall be filled with iron and the shaft of a spear”—2 Sam. xxiii. 7; and in Dan. ix. 26, “Messiah shall be cut off;” and in Isa. liii., speaking of the Deity’s “righteous servant,” the Spirit saith, “Yahweh has caused to lay upon Him the iniquity of us all * * * for the transgression of my people was he stricken; when thou shalt make a trespass-offering of his nephesh, soul,” or life, “he shall see a seed; * * * through his knowledge shall my righteous servant make a justification for many; and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will apportion to him among the great p. 280 and the mighty; he shall divide the spoil; because that he hath poured out his nephesh or soul (contained in the blood) unto death.”
Such was to be the Name of the Christ in fact and doctrine—a personage, the descendant and antitype of Isaac, in his sacrifice and resurrection, who should be the Sin-Bearer and Justifier of his people, through their belief of the things, or knowledge concerning him. When Jesus appeared, and was crucified and rose again, the Yahweh-Name was no longer absolutely a testimony to be fulfilled; it became a living reality—the Truth Incarnate; and “the Name of Christ” became “the Name of Jesus Christ;” and all that is predicted of the Spirit’s Name is to be fulfilled in Jesus and his Brethren.
The New Testament treats very largely of the mystery of the Name. After Jesus rose from the dead, and before his assumption to the right hand of power, the kingdom and the Name were the especial topics of conversation between him and his disciples. They understood the doctrine of the kingdom better than of the name, until he opened their understandings that they might understand the scriptures of the prophets—Luke xxiv. 45. These in regard to the death, burial, resurrection, and assumption of the Name-Bearer, and the doctrinal use to be made of them, had been hid from their eyes—Luke xviii. 31-34. But when he had risen, the time had come to remove the veil, which still remains upon the understandings of all who do not comprehend “the truth as it is in Jesus.” “O fools,” said he to two of them, “and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken; ought not the Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself”—Luke xxiv. 25. On a subsequent occasion, when all of them were convened, he said, that according as it was written in the prophets, “it behoved the Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached IN HIS NAME among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem”—vers. 44-47. “In his name” is here an all-important phrase, for apart from this great name, there is no repentance nor remission of sins for Jew or Gentile. “There is salvation in no other; for,” continues the Spirit in Peter, “there is none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved”—Acts iv. 12; and again, he said, “to Him give all the prophets testimony, that whosoever believeth into him, shall receive remission of sins THROUGH HIS NAME”—ch. x. 43. The Name is expressive of a personal existence “among men.” In its first sojourn here, though it was the Deity’s Name, it was a name of no reputation; it was without rule, being the name of a servant, of a humiliated, oppressed, and afflicted man, absolutely p. 281 obedient to the will of the Deity, even unto the death of the cross. Wherefore “God also,” says Paul, in Phil. ii. 9, “hath highly exalted him, and given him a Name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of heavenlies and of earthlies, and of subterraneans; and every tongue confess that Jesus Anointed is Lord to the glory of Deity the Father,”
In this highly exalted name are repentance and remission of sins alone to be found. A man may be ever so intelligent in the scriptures, ever so excellently and piously disposed, ever so firmly convinced of “the truth as it is in Jesus,” still, if he have not been added to this name—if he have not laid hold upon it according to divine appointment—(and in no other way can it be laid hold of)—he is the subject neither of “repentance” nor “remission of sins;” and furthermore, if having laid hold of it, he follow not the example of the faithful in Pergamos, and hold it fast, the Spirit will “fight against him with the sword of his mouth.”
By grace are men saved, through faith that works by love, and purifies the heart—Eph. ii. 8; Gal. v. 8; Acts xv. 9. Assuming then, that a sinner “believes the things of the Kingdom of the Deity and of the Name of Jesus Anointed;” and that he has fallen in love with them; and that, loving what he believes, and the effect of this affectionate belief, or “believing with the heart,” has been to alienate his affections from “the pleasures of sin,” and “earthly things;” and has caused him to set them upon the things anew, or exalted, where the Christ is on the right hand of the Deity sitting; assuming this to be the state of his mind and disposition, he is then in a condition to receive repentance, and to be saved from his past sins, and to obtain a right to eternal life, through the Name of Jesus Anointed, who is “the Lord the Spirit.” But, if the sinner have not this affectionate belief, he can receive nothing through the name; because he has no faith for justification, and no disposition such as Abraham had, to be reckoned for repentance. Without the faith that works by love and purifies the heart, it is impossible to please the Deity.
On the day of Pentecost, in the thirty-sixth year from the birth of Jesus, Peter addressed three thousand Jews, whose understandings and affections had been thus prepared by the things they believed. When they asked Peter, saying, “What shall we do?” he replied, not knowing as yet, what their convictions were, “Change ye your mind, and every one of you be immersed upon the Name of Jesus Anointed INTO remission of sins.” They were to be immersed επι τῳ ονοματι, upon and for the name of Jesus Anointed; because the gospel of the kingdom was preached to them to separate them from that evil generation p. 282 of Israel “for the name;” as it was afterwards preached to the gentiles for the same purpose—“to take out of the nations a people, επι τω ονοματι, for the name of him”—Acts xv. 14. They were immersed “for” this name that they might constitute a part of this name; for it is a name of multitude, all of whose constituents are “IN Jesus Christ; in other words, “in Deity the Father, and the Lord Jesus Anointed”—1 Thess. i. 1. For a sinner, then, affectionately believing the truth, to be “immersed for the name,” is for him to be added to the name of Deity; that, when that Divine Name is complete, he with Jesus may be manifested in power and great glory. “The righteousness of God through Jesus Christ’s faith is εις, for all and επι, upon all the believing”—Rom. ii. 22.
This manifestation is the ultimate purpose of his addition to this name; but there is also a present reason and advantage resulting therefrom. “Be every one of you,” said Peter, “immersed upon the Name of Jesus Anointed INTO remission of sins.” When added to the name, the immersed believer is “εν τῳ ονοματι” IN the name (Acts x. 48) as a man is in a robe when he has put it on. The name is regarded as a covering by which his “sin is covered”—Psal. xxxii. 1, 2. Now, immersion is the divinely appointed action by which a true believer is, and a true believer only can be, united, added, or married to the name; and in order to this, that he may be “in the name,” it is appointed for him to be immersed “εις, INTO, or for, the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”—a formula which is equivalent to the phrase, “the Name of Jesus Anointed;” for Jesus Anointed is the Father manifested in the Son, Jesus, by Holy Spirit; in other words, DEITY MANIFESTED IN FLESH.
The believing and rejoicing sinner, then, who has followed the example of the Samaritans in faith and practice (Acts viii. 12) is immersed in water “upon,” “for” and “into” the name, which is the same as being immersed into remission of sins. The Spirit, the water, and the blood are the three witnesses on the earth that are convergent into the one name—1 Jno. v. 8. “The spirit” which “is the truth,” works in him, who understands it, to believe, to will, and to do; “the water” is the medium of induction into the name; and no one since Pentecost, A. D. 35, can prove that he has been added to the sin-covering name, who has not passed through the water. “Except a man be born εξ, out of water and spirit,” saith the King of Israel, “he cannot enter into the Kingdom of the Deity”—Jno. iii. 5. The water will not bear witness in favor of the unwashed. The third witness is “the blood.” By faith in the testimony concerning the sin-covering efficacy of the blood of Jesus, the sinner who believes the covenanted promises, p. 283 is brought into sacrificial relation thereto. By faith in the testimony of Jesus he believes that sin was condemned in his flesh when he was crucified; that his blood is the blood of the New, or Abrahamic, Covenant by which it was dedicated, shed for the remission of the sins of the many; whose sins Jesus bore in his own body to the Cross. Believing that, without the shedding of the blood of Jesus there would have been no remission through the name, the blood becomes to him an important and indispensable element of the name, which he embraces for its purifying efficacy imparted to it thereby. He goes into the laver of the water, that he may approach the altar, Jesus, and be sprinkled by faith with his blood. This done, and he is “justified by faith,” “by grace,” “by his blood,” and “washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God”—the truth, the water, and the blood all testify to his justification “through his name.”
Lastly, upon this subject we would at present remark, that there is a precise and definite point of time at which a sinner’s disposition and faith are granted to him for a change of mind or heart, and for remission; and this is in the act of obedience. Ananias said to Saul, “Arise be baptized and wash away thy sins, attaching thyself to the name of the Lord”—Acts xxii. 16. In the act of doing this, in rising from the water, Saul’s state of heart was granted to him for repentance, and his belief of the truth was counted to him for remission of sins—both in the act which effected his attachment to the name.
To perceive the force of the Spirit’s saying in the writing to the Star-Angel in Pergamos, “thou holdest fast MY NAME,” it is necessary to understand the doctrine of that name, therefore I have gone at some length into the exposition of it here; especially as there are so few in the world that have a scriptural comprehension of it. The teaching brethren in Pergamos still expounded it aright; although in such close neighborhood to the Satan’s head-quarters, where they were indefatigably sowing tares; and denying the foundation of the name, which is laid in the real humanity and sufferings of the sacrificial man, Jesus; “who was delivered for the offences, and raised again for the justification” of sinners, who affectionately believe the promises made to Abraham and David, and the truth as it is in Jesus. To these teachers resident in the Satan’s dwelling place and capital, the Spirit not only said “thou holdest fast my name,” but also, “and hast not denied my faith.”
p. 2845. “My Faith”
The Name and the Faith are terms comprehensive of the whole subject. “There is One Faith,” says Paul, “and one Hope of the Calling.” The name is that part of the faith just expounded; but when “faith” is used in connexion with “name” it embraces the things associated with it by Paul in his definition of it in Heb. xi. 1. In this place, he says, “Faith is a ὑποστασις of things being hoped for, an ελεγχος of transactions not seen.” Here faith, or belief, is said to be hypostasis and elenchos; that is, faith is reality and proof. The person who has it, embraces certain things promised as realities, and certain transactions as things proved. Hence, faith is the assured hope of things promised, the conviction of the truth of transactions not witnessed by the believer.
The English Version renders Paul’s words, thus; “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” This, however, does not give us the full import of his definition. The word ελπιζομενων rendered “of things hoped for,” is the present participle passive, the sign of which is “being;” the word should therefore be translated “of things being hoped for.” Faith is not the “hypostasis of things hoped for” once, and afterwards forgotten: nor “of things hoped for” by other people of old time, but never heard of by professors now: but they are things “by which ye are saved if ye keep in memory a certain word I preached unto you,” says Paul; “unless ye have believed in vain;” that is, by forgetting it—1 Cor. xv. 1, 2:—it is the hypostasis of things hoped for, being kept in memory, by the believer; who, understanding the things promised, is fully persuaded of them, and lives in hope even against hope, or present appearances, that what God has promised to Abraham and David, he is able and will perform—Rom. iv. 21, 18.
Another defect in the English Version is, that it does not fully translate the word πραγματων. The word pragma signifies “a thing done, a fact, deed, work, or transaction,” and is, therefore, a matter of history. In the phrase “of things being hoped for” there is no separate word in the original for “things;” but it is supplied, and correctly so, because elpizomenōn is of the neuter gender. But in the latter part of this definition Paul has inserted the word pragmatōn, that all the things of faith may be embraced in the definition—“the things of the kingdom,” which are “being hoped for;” and “the things of the Name,” which have been transacted and expounded in the mystery revealed.
It is evident, then, that what is termed “historical faith,” or the p. 285 mere belief of history, and which some “theologians” say is the best sort of faith, is a defective faith; and therefore, not what the Spirit styles “My Faith.” On the other hand, also, the mere belief of things hoped for, omitting faith in the pragmata, or transactions, is a defective faith. A faith perfect in kind and in degree must heartily embrace the things of hope, and the things transacted; in other words, “the things concerning the Kingdom of the Deity, and of the Name of the Anointed Jesus.”
This is what the Spirit styles “my faith,” which the teachers in Pergamos “had not denied.” The divines of “the synagogue of the Satan” in that city did however deny it. Their Nikolaitan speculations about “immortal souls” led them to deny it. Justin Martyr, who was fourteen years contemporary with the apostle John, though he did not embrace christianity till about thirty years after his death, in his dialogue with Trypho, a Jew, says, “I am not such a wretch, Trypho, as to say one thing and mean another. I have before confessed to thee that I, and many others, are of their opinion, (that of the prophets concerning the Millennial Reign,) so that we hold it to be thoroughly proved that it will come to pass. But I have also signified unto thee on the other hand that many, even those of that race of christians who follow not godly and pure doctrine (those of the apocalyptic synagogue of the Satan) do not acknowledge it. For I have demonstrated to thee that these (Nikolaitans) are indeed called christians, but are atheists and impious heretics, because that in all things they teach what is blasphemous, ungodly, and unsound.” These self-styled christians are the professors denounced in the letters to the seven ecclesias under the epithets of “those who say they are apostles, and are not, but are liars;” “blasphemers who say they are Jews, and are not, but the synagogue of the Satan;” “the Satan;” “those who hold the doctrine of Balaam;” “the Nikolaitans;” “that woman Jezebel, calling herself a prophetess, teaching and seducing the servants of God;” and “those who said they were rich, and increased with goods, and had need of nothing.” These all called themselves christians, but, as Justin truly says, they were atheists, or without God, and impious heretics; blasphemous, ungodly, and unsound teachers. He goes on, therefore, to say concerning these “Fathers” of Modern Christendom, “If therefore, you fall in with certain who are called christians, who confess not this truth, (of the thousand years’ reign of Jesus and his brethren on earth over all nations) but dare to blaspheme the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, in that they say there is no resurrection of the dead, but that IMMEDIATELY WHEN THEY DIE, THEIR SOULS ARE RECEIVED UP INTO HEAVEN,—avoid them, and esteem them not christians, etc.” In p. 286 affirming this, which is now called orthodoxy, because “the synagogue of the Satan” is now in the ascendancy under the current style, or title of “the Names and Denominations of Christendom”—they denied the faith termed by the Spirit “My Faith.” Justin protests that it is blaspheming the God of Abraham to say, that there is no resurrection of the flesh; and that they do say this who say, that souls are received up into heaven immediately they die. I believe Justin’s position is apostolic and scriptural; and that what was blasphemy, atheism, heresy, ungodly, and unsound, in the year 140, is the same in 1861. Justin, therefore, who is highly commended by the commentators, denounces them as not christians, and the sentiments of all christendom in our day as blasphemy. Where is the name, sect, or denomination, from the papacy to Mormonism included, but what teaches the dogma of immortal-soulism, and translation to heaven at death? Our contemporaries all deny the Spirit’s Faith; if any are to be found that hold fast the Name and have not denied the faith, which the Spirit styles his, they are not of the names and denominations of “the religious world.” They are outsiders, having no fellowship with “the Satan” in any of “the depths as they teach.”
No, the Spirit’s Faith is not the faith of Christendom. The “faith” of the religious world taught by all orders of its clergy, is mere heathenism, interlarded with some scriptural phraseology uttered in a tone called “holy.” The Spirit’s faith teaches what is promised “to them that overcome”—the resurrection of the mortal body; absolute dominion over the nations of the earth; Deification; a share in the throne of Omnipotence; and endless existence in glory. The dogma of an immortal soul in sinful flesh is not to be found in the Spirit’s faith; it knows nothing about the translation of such a vain conceit to heaven, but to condemn it in its logical consequents. The dogma of the transfer of such a fiction to heaven at death is subversive of the resurrection of the flesh; and of the kingdom covenanted to Abraham and David; and promised to the saints with eternal life and glory. The Spirit’s faith repudiates such trash; and threatens vengeance upon those who hold it.
6. Antipas
The Spirit says to the Star-Angel in Pergamos, “Thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, as in the days in which Antipas was my faithful witness, who was put to death with you where the Satan sojourns.” The Star-Angel was still faithful, and had been so in former days of trial, characterized as days in which Antipas was put to p. 287 death in Pergamos. Antipas is styled “my faithful witness.” Hence the name is identical with him, or them, who held fast the name and denied not the faith of Christ, whether in Pergamos or elsewhere, in the midst of persecution. The name is typical of a class at that time related to “the things that are.” The word Αντιπας signifies “against all;” and is doubtless introduced here as the apocalyptic designation of those who were the faithful in opposition to all pretenders to Christianity. Paul and all who adhered to his teaching were Antipas. They were against all Nikolaitans, Balaamites, children of Jezebel, false apostles, and spurious Jews, who, as Justin says, “are called Christians, but are atheists and impious heretics, because that in all things they teach what is blasphemous, ungodly, and unsound.”
The Antipas Christians were obnoxious to the hatred both of the Diabolos and the Satan. The Satan were sometimes persecuted by the Diabolos; but the Antipas were persecuted by both. The Satan, however, who called themselves Christians, when hard pressed by the Pagan Diabolos, would, as Pliny relates in his letter to Trajan, deny the faith to save their worthless lives; but the Antipas were always “faithful unto the death.” The Satan was contending with the Diabolos for supremacy in the Roman State, which brought them into collision and bloodshed; but the Antipas party were “contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints,” that they might be approved of God, save their contemporaries, and transmit it uncorrupted to the next generation. The Antipas, or Christ’s faithful witness, cared nothing about the riches, and honors, and power obtainable in the present evil world. His affections had loftier aspirations. Not so the Satan. They were ambitious of all these. They aspired to political ascendancy, and when they found themselves powerful enough, they appealed to the sword, and conquered. And when the Diabolos found that the cause of paganism was lost, the religion of the Satan, the catholic, became the religion of the State, under the old style of “the Devil and the Satan.” But Antipas still continued in affliction. The victory of the Satan professing christianity was of small advantage to Antipas. The faithful witness had to fly into the wilderness from the face of the New Power, which sought to sweep them from the earth.—Rev. xii. 6, 14-17.
But, it is said of Antipas, that he was put to death in the Satan’s kingdom—“Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death with you where the Satan sojourns”—at Pergamos, the place of their throne. When the Satan removed from Pergamos to Rome and Constantinople, Antipas fled into the wilderness, and was protected there during 1260 years. But at the end of that period, the adversary made war upon the Antipas, and slew them; for being against all, in their testifying, p. 288 they incurred the wrath of the self-styled christians who ruled and argued with the word—Rev. xi. 1, 2, 7.
Antipas, however, though put to death, hath been resuscitated; and they now “stand upon their feet,” and their enemies are afraid of them. The Satan of Pergamos is still prosperous in the enjoyment of the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life; with a dominion coextensive with christendom. Their church is large, and embraces within its pale all sects and parties, names and denominations, except Antipas; who is still, as in apostolic times, against all. Antipas, who holds fast the name and denies not the faith of Christ, has no fellowship for any of them; but protests against them all as the Satan. As he is against all, so all are against him. No “orthodox christian” of the Satan’s synagogue will admit an Antipas into their pulpits, because he is not in what they term “holy orders;”—he has not been ordained by the imposition of the hands of those “reverend divines,” who say that they are “apostles;” the ambassadors of Jesus Christ, and successors of his apostles; “and are not, but are found to be liars.” Antipas has no more respect for these than Jesus had for the “scribes, pharisees, and hypocrites;” or Paul for “the false apostles and ministers of the Satan,” who perverted the gospel, and sought to exclude him on every side. The author of this exposition is an Antipas; and would rather stand alone, faithfully adherent to the name and faith of the Spirit, than redolent of the odors of sanctity burned to his honor by all the clergy and pietists of “Christendom”. For farther exposition upon this subject see our remarks on “on the depths of the Satan” hereafter.