In this message we come to the third church, the church in Pergamos (Rev. 2:12-17). As we have pointed out, the name of each of the seven cities is very meaningful. In Greek Pergamos means “marriage,” implying union, and “fortified tower.” As a sign, the church in Pergamos prefigures the church which entered into a marriage union with the world and became a high fortified tower, equivalent to the great tree prophesied by the Lord in the parable of the mustard seed (Matt. 13:31-32). When Satan failed to destroy the church through the persecution of the Roman Empire in the first three centuries, he changed his strategy. He sought instead to corrupt her through Constantine’s welcoming her as the state religion in the first part of the fourth century. Through Constantine’s encouragement and political influence, multitudes of unbelieving ones were baptized into the “church,” and the “church” became monstrously great. Since the church is a spouse to Christ as a chaste bride, her union with the world is considered spiritual fornication in the eyes of God.
Verse 12 says, “These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword.” In this epistle, the Lord as the speaking Spirit declares that He is the One with the sharp two-edged sword. Such a worldly church is qualified to receive the Lord’s judgment in His sharp word.
In the epistle to the first church, the Lord advised the church in Ephesus to repent and to recover her first love. We must believe that His advice was heeded, for the second church, the church in Smyrna, truly loved the Lord and suffered persecution and became a suffering church. According to the facts of history, during the first three centuries, the church suffered a great deal as the Roman government tried its best to damage her. Eventually, the enemy, Satan, realized that persecution did not work very well. Therefore, being the subtle one, he changed his strategy from persecuting the church to welcoming her. In the early part of the fourth century, Constantine the Great accepted Christianity and made it a state religion. From that time onward, Christianity became a type of Roman state church. This welcoming of the church by the Roman Empire ruined her, because it caused the church to become worldly. As we all know, the church has been called out of the world and has been separated from the world to God. However, by being welcomed by the Roman Empire, the church went back to the world and, in the eyes of God, even married the world. God considers this type of worldly union to be spiritual fornication.
Due to this marriage, the church lost her purity and became worldly. Because the church had entered into union with the world, many worldly things came into the church. Worldly things are related to idol worship, for worldliness is always associated with idolatry. The church in Pergamos firstly became worldly and then idolatrous. Satan saturated her with the world and with idols. As a result, the church became absolutely different from what God intended her to be. God desires a church which is outside of the world, having nothing to do with the world. The church must be a golden lampstand, the pure expression of the Triune God, and must have no connections with the world. But after the Roman Empire had made the church a worldly religion, she became altogether impure, worldly, and idolatrous.
In verse 13 the Lord said of the church in Pergamos, “I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is.” Satan’s dwelling place is the world. Since the church has entered into union with the world and has become worldly herself, she now dwells where Satan dwells — in the world.
The church in Pergamos also dwells where Satan’s throne is. This also refers to the world. The world is not only Satan’s dwelling place, but also the sphere wherein he rules. Now the church is not only one with the world but even one with Satan. This is dreadful! The worldly Christianity of today is still in union with the world and is still being saturated with the thoughts, concepts, theories, and even the practices of Satan. We must see the seriousness of this.
The enemy, Satan, is subtle. His welcome is more serious than his persecution. Firstly, Satan stirs up persecution, and then, when this fails, he changes his tactics and welcomes us instead. We have seen this very thing in the past. Firstly, religion persecuted us, and then, changing its strategy, tried to lure us into compromising with it. This is Satan’s subtlety. If we are snared by it, we shall eventually become worldly and not only be in union with Satan, but also one with him. The Lord has included the seven epistles in the book of Revelation that we may see the true situation of so-called Christianity and also see where and what the church should be. The church should be a pure golden lampstand outside of the world. The church must have nothing to do with the world and must not yield an inch to Satan’s evil and subtle saturation. The church must constantly stand against this.
The two meanings of the word Pergamos — “marriage” and “fortified tower” — correspond to two of the parables in Matthew 13, the parable of the great tree (Matt. 13:31-32) and the parable of the leaven (Matt. 13:33). In the parable of the great tree, a tiny mustard seed became a tree. This undoubtedly signifies monstrous Christianity, for Christianity has certainly become a great tree. In the parable of the leaven, we read of a woman who put leaven into three measures of fine flour. Leaven signifies all the sinful, worldly, evil, satanic, demonic, and devilish things. All these wicked things were put into the fine flour. In the Bible, the fine flour used in the meal offering signifies Christ as food for God’s people. The great tree is the equivalent of the high tower, and the woman with the leaven is the equivalent of the apostate church which has married the world. The meaning of the Bible in this matter should be very clear to us all. In the eyes of God, Christendom is a great whore, an evil woman who has mixed worldly, demonic, satanic, and devilish things with the good things of Christ to produce a hellish mixture. We must absolutely abandon this great tree, escape from this high tower, come out of this evil system, and be separated to God, returning to His original intention that the church be a pure golden lampstand having nothing to do with worldliness, idolatry, or Satan’s saturation. We are not in the place where Satan dwells, in the place where Satan sits on his throne. No, in the church there is no ground for Satan. Here there is no place for Satan to do anything.
In the first three epistles we see three churches — the desirable church, the persecuted church, and the worldly church. We certainly want to be a desirable church and a persecuted church, but we must refuse to be a worldly church. We must reject anything worldly. Be careful! After the enemy has persecuted you, his strategy may change. Instead of persecution, there might be a welcome. Do not regard this welcome as a good thing. Rather, you must fear being welcomed more than being stung by a scorpion. It is good for us to suffer persecution, opposition, and attack. But whenever people extend us a warm welcome, that is a most dangerous time. When you are attacked and are undergoing persecution, do not be discouraged, for that is a strong sign that you are on the right track and that you have not been distracted from following the Lord’s steps. But beware of a warm welcome. It is better to suffer persecution than to receive a warm welcome. The epistle to the church in Pergamos teaches us that we should not be in union with the world in any way, sense, or aspect. We must have nothing to do with the world. During the past fifty years, a warm welcome was extended to us quite a number of times in a subtle way, but thank God that we rejected it every time. As a result, throughout the years we have been preserved by being persecuted. We have never received a good name, because Satan will not allow you to have a good name unless you enter into union with him. This is why we in the Lord’s recovery are constantly involved in a battle and are continuously attacked. A war is raging all the time. The Lord’s recovery is not carrying out a common Christian work. No, this testimony is a warfare.
This testimony was with Antipas. In verse 13 the Lord says, “You hold fast My name, and you have not denied My faith, even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.” In Greek, the name Antipas means “against all.” This faithful witness of the Lord stood against all that the worldly church brought in and practiced. Hence, he became a martyr of the Lord. In Greek the word martyr is the same word as witness.As an anti-witness, Antipas bore an anti-testimony, a testimony against anything that deviated from the testimony of Jesus. It must have been through this anti-testimony that in his day the church in Pergamos still held fast the Lord’s name and did not deny the proper Christian faith. Antipas took the lead to fight against the worldly church, pioneering the way for us to fight against the worldly church today. Whatever the worldly church was, had, and did, Antipas fought against it.
In verse 13 the Lord says, “You hold fast My name.” The Lord’s name denotes His Person; the Person is the reality of the name. The church in Pergamos still held fast the name of the Lord, the reality of His Person. The deviating tendency of the worldly church is to give up the reality of the Lord’s Person. But in the Lord’s recovery we must fight against this, that the church may hold fast the Lord’s name, the reality of the Lord’s Person, for eternity.
The Lord also said, “You have not denied My faith.” The faith of the Lord denotes all that we must believe in of His Person and work. It is not the subjective faith within us of believing, but the objective faith of the things we believe in. Because the church entered into union with the world, she began to disregard the Lord’s name and to deny the proper Christian faith.
Antipas was faithful in his anti-testimony, even unto death. Because of his testimony against the worldliness of the church, he was killed and became a martyr. To testify against the worldly church we need the spirit of martyrdom. We need to be faithful for the Lord’s testimony against the worldliness of the church even unto death.
We have seen that Antipas was an anti-witness and an anti-testimony. Today, we in the Lord’s recovery are also an anti-testimony. Ever since Protestant Christianity went to China in 1830, it has been, with some exceptions, rather worldly. Beginning in 1922, the Lord raised up the testimony of the local churches. This testimony did an excellent job for the Lord’s recovery. Although many Christians opposed the recovery, they nevertheless were positively influenced by it, and, as a result, they changed in many ways. They would not take the way of the Lord’s recovery, but they did feel its influence and they took from us many of our teachings. If you check with the missionaries who were in China between 1922 and 1936, they would tell you that the Lord’s recovery exercised a great influence upon Christianity. I was born and raised in Christianity, but I had never heard the word fellowship. But due to the influence of the Lord’s recovery, nearly every denomination began to use this word. Formerly, on their bulletin boards they had the words worship time. But because of our influence they changed the words to meeting time. There is a great difference between “worship time” and “meeting time.” Under the influence of the Lord’s recovery, during the past forty years Christianity in the Far East has become more fundamental and has come back to the Bible. They even use our books as the basis for much of their teaching and preaching. However, some of them dare not admit that they have learned from us. They take the teachings but oppose the way of the Lord’s recovery and criticize our testimony. Nevertheless, the Lord has gained something. I have been told that in Taipei the outsiders always purchase a good quantity of books from our bookroom.
A certain missionary was giving a report about Taiwan. When he was asked about our work on that island, he said that, except for a dead fly in the ointment, it was a good work. Do you know what that “dead fly” was? It was the church ground. According to his concept, if we would drop the church ground, our ointment would be purified. But he did not realize that for us to drop the church ground is to drop our life.
Three years ago, during a visit to Taipei, I met a Christian of high social standing. He said that one preacher had told him that they cannot understand why there is always so much new light in the churches. The reason is that the Spirit is speaking to the churches. The light is neither on the street nor in the outer court; it is in the Holy Place, that is, in the church. This is why we always have something fresh from the Lord.
We are here for all Christians. Thirteen years ago I had a talk with the brothers in Los Angeles about the human spirit, the church practice, and mingling. I said, “Brothers, wait for a period of time and you will see that the outsiders will begin to use these terms.” This is exactly what has happened. Some of the things we have been preaching and teaching have been taken up by others. On the one hand, they oppose us, but, on the other hand, they secretly use our materials. I know of a certain preacher who openly opposes me, yet he teaches people from the book, The Economy of God.
During a visit to Tyler, Texas, I gave a series of messages on transformation. One of the attendants, who took notes on every message, was a noted preacher in South America. At the end of the conference he asked for permission to use some articles from our Stream magazine. I granted him this permission. After several months, I returned to Tyler and was greeted by a brother who said, “Here is a book by Witness Lee.” As I looked at that book, I did not see the name Witness Lee; rather, I saw the name of that preacher who had attended our conference and had taken notes on all the messages. He had gone to another place, had delivered the messages, and then had them published as a book, under his name. What should we say about this? As long as God’s people are helped, we do not care about it. However, we are not standing here for this help — we are standing here for the testimony of Jesus. We must be today’s Antipas.
In verse 14 the Lord says, “But I have a few things against you, because you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumblingblock before the sons of Israel, to eat idol sacrifices and to commit fornication.” In these epistles, the Lord desires, according to God’s economy, that we should eat Him as the tree of life (Rev. 2:7), the hidden manna (Rev. 2:17), and the rich produce of the good land (Rev. 3:20). But the worldly church turned from life to mere teachings, thus distracting the believers from the enjoyment of Christ as their life supply for fulfillment of God’s purpose. The enjoyment of Christ builds up the church, whereas the teachings issue in a religion.
This verse mentions “the teaching of Balaam.” Balaam was a Gentile prophet who caused God’s people to stumble. For the sake of reward (2 Pet. 2:15; Jude 1:11), he brought fornication and idolatry to God’s people (Num. 25:1-3; 31:16). In the worldly church, some began to teach the same things. Today, in Protestantism as well as in Catholicism, the same teaching prevails. Idolatry always brings in fornication (Num. 35:1-3; Acts 15:29). When the worldly church disregarded the name, the Person, of the Lord, she turned to idolatry, which issued in fornication.
In today’s Christendom, many of the hired preachers do not teach people to take Christ as their life supply. Rather, they subtly teach people to eat idol sacrifices, that is, to take in evil, devilish, and demonic things. These teachings cause people to deviate from the Person of Christ, leading them into spiritual fornication. Christ should be the unique Husband to the church, the unique Bridegroom to all the saints. But so many teachings in today’s Christianity cause people to take in the demonic things and to be related to things other than Christ. This indeed is to eat idol sacrifices and to commit fornication.
What does it mean to deny the Lord’s name and to deny the faith of the Lord? As we have seen, faith here does not denote the subjective faith, the believing ability; it denotes the objective faith, the items in which we believe. The faith of the Lord includes what He has done for us in His redemptive work, His death and resurrection, and all the items which we must believe in order to be saved. These things constitute our faith. The name denotes the Lord’s Person. We should neither deny the name nor the faith of the Lord. We must always hold on to His name and believe in Him.
When I was young, I was baptized in a Chinese Presbyterian Church where there were some Balaams. On a particular Sunday morning, one of these Balaams delivered a lecture on sanitary education, talking specifically on how to kill flies. Later, someone proposed that a particular object be set up in the church building and that everyone in the congregation bow down to it. When some of us opposed this, that Balaam said, “Even if Jesus Christ would rise up from the tomb and tell me not to bow down to this object, I would still do it.” By this remark he revealed that he did not believe in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. This is an example of denying the Lord’s Person and of denying our faith in Him. If you read history and study today’s Christianity, you will discover many things like this. In many so-called churches modernism is prevailing. The modernists do not believe that Jesus is God, that He was born of a virgin, or that He died on the cross for our redemption. They merely believe that He was crucified as a martyr, and they do not believe that Jesus Christ was resurrected. The teachings of Balaam always cause people to enter into union with the worldly things. This is to eat idol sacrifices and to commit spiritual fornication.
In verse 15 the Lord says, “Thus you also have those who hold in like manner the teaching of the Nicolaitans.” The worldly and degraded church holds not only the teaching of Balaam, but also the teaching of the Nicolaitans. The teaching of Balaam distracts believers from the Person of Christ to idolatry and from the enjoyment of Christ to spiritual fornication, whereas the teaching of the Nicolaitans destroys the function of believers as members of the Body of Christ, thus annulling the Lord’s Body in expressing Him. The former teaching disregards the Head, and the latter destroys the Body. This is the subtlety of the enemy in all religious teachings.
In the church in Ephesus only the works of the Nicolaitans were found (Rev. 2:6), whereas in the church in Pergamos their works progressed into a teaching. Firstly, they practiced the hierarchy in the initial church; now they taught it in the degraded church. Today, in both Catholicism and Protestantism, this Nicolaitan hierarchy prevails in both practice and teaching. The Lord hates the Nicolaitan hierarchy because it kills the function of the members of the Body and builds up an organization in place of an organism. Consider the situation of today’s Christianity: there is no organism; rather, there is a strong organization. This hierarchy is evil and satanic, and the Lord hates it. In arranging the services of the church, we must be careful not to build up an organization. If we would have the proper church life, we must develop the function of all the members, encouraging them to function according to life in a living way that the Body might be built up as an organism. This vision must govern the church life, and we must never stray from it. However, if we are even a little negligent, we shall leave the organism and return to organization. Always be on the alert against the formation of any type of organization. We must come back to the organism that all the members of the Body may have the opportunity to function.
In verse 16 the Lord says, “Repent therefore; but if not, I come to you quickly, and I will war with them with the sword of My mouth.” Here the Lord says that He will come quickly and war with the sword of His mouth against some in this worldly church. This should not refer to the Lord’s coming back, but to His coming to war with the Nicolaitan teachers in the degraded church with the slaying word out of His mouth. The worldly church, signified by the church in Pergamos, issues in the Roman Catholic Church, signified by the church in Thyatira, and the worldliness and evil brought in by this degraded church will continue in the Roman Catholic Church until the Lord comes back to exercise His full judgment.
The degraded worldly church has a great need for the speaking of the Spirit. It has the Bible in dead letters, but it lacks the speaking of the Spirit. Mere Bible knowledge without the Spirit’s speaking cannot supply what is needed to a deadened Christianity. Its deadness in its degradation must be judged by the sharp sword out of the Lord’s mouth. The worldly church needs the sharp speaking with the living word by the Lord Spirit.
In verse 17 the Lord says, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.” To overcome here means specifically to overcome the church’s union with the world, the teaching of idolatry and fornication, and the teaching of the hierarchy.
The Lord promises to give of the hidden manna to the overcomer. The promise to the first church concerned the eating of the tree of life, and the promise to this church concerns the eating of the hidden manna. The worldlier the church becomes, the greater is the need for some to stand up and testify and to maintain intimate fellowship with the Lord. These will be privileged to enjoy the Lord as the hidden manna. Manna is a type of Christ as the heavenly food enabling God’s people to go His way. A portion of that manna was preserved in a golden pot concealed in the ark (Exo. 16:32-34; Heb. 9:4). The open manna was for the enjoyment of the Lord’s people in a public way; the hidden manna, signifying the hidden Christ, is a special portion reserved for His overcoming seekers who overcome the degradation of the worldly church. While the church goes the way of the world, these overcomers come forward to abide in the presence of God in the Holy of Holies, where they enjoy the hidden Christ as a special portion for their daily supply. This promise is fulfilled today in the proper church life and will be fulfilled in full in the coming kingdom. If we seek the Lord, overcome the degradation of the worldly church, and enjoy a special portion of the Lord today, He, as the hidden manna, will be a reward to us in the coming kingdom. If we miss Him as our special portion today in the church life, we shall surely lose the enjoyment of Him as a reward in the coming kingdom.
The hidden manna was placed in a golden pot. Gold signifies God’s divine nature. Thus, placing the hidden manna in the golden pot signifies that the hidden Christ is concealed in the divine nature. The open manna is for all the people of God, but the hidden manna is for those who are intimate with the Lord, those who have forsaken the world and every separation between them and God. They come into the very intimacy of God’s presence and here in this divine intimacy they enjoy the hidden manna in God’s divine nature. This is deep. It is not outward; it is absolutely inward. It is so inward that those who eat of the hidden manna are actually in the divine nature enjoying the hidden Christ.
How can we eat the hidden manna? This is something absolutely outside of the world. While the worldly church is going down into union with the world, we are coming up from Egypt to the wilderness, from the wilderness to the good land, from the good land to the tabernacle, from the outer court to the Holy Place, from the Holy Place to the Holy of Holies. After we have entered into the Holy of Holies, we must still dive into the ark, touch the golden pot, and enjoy Christ as the manna hidden there. The more the church becomes worldly, the more we need to enter into the Holy of Holies to eat the hidden manna. The manna is in the golden pot, the golden pot is in the ark, and the ark is in the Holy of Holies. By this we can see how inward it is. If we would enjoy it, we must abide in the deep intimacy of God’s presence. We must be in His divine nature where there is nothing worldly or distracting and where there is the intimate fellowship between us and God. Here we enjoy Christ as the hidden manna. Some of us have had this experience of the hidden Christ. We have said, “Lord, I don’t care for the world. I only care for You, Lord, not for any human relationship or friendship. Lord, I am willing to drop every tie. Lord, now I’m thoroughly free, and I love You from the depths of my being. I love You without anything frustrating me.” When we say this to the Lord, we are immediately in the golden pot, in the intimacy of the divine nature, partaking of the hidden Christ. Oh, we must eat such a Christ!
This promise of eating the hidden manna is also prophecy. In the millennium some overcomers will have a special portion of Christ for their enjoyment. That special portion is what is promised here as the hidden manna. However, in principle, even today we can enjoy Christ in such an intimate and hidden way. We enjoy Christ in a way in which those who only enjoy the open manna cannot understand.
The Lord also promised the overcomer, saying, “I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.” Enjoying Christ as the hidden manna produces transformation. How can we say this? Because after referring to the hidden manna, the Lord speaks of a white stone. A stone in the Bible signifies material for God’s building. Man was not made with stone but with dust (Gen. 2:7). In a sense, man is just clay, and Rom. 9 reveals that man is simply a clay vessel. However, when the Lord first met Simon Peter, He immediately changed his name from Simon to Cephas, which means “a stone” (John 1:42). Recall Jacob’s dream in Gen. 28. When he awoke from that dream, he took the stone which he had used for a pillow and called it the house of God. In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul indicates that precious stones are to be used for the building of the church, and in Rev. 21 we see that precious stones are materials in the New Jerusalem. As we put all these verses together, we see that a stone signifies a transformed person. We cannot understand a verse like Rev. 2:17 by itself; we must consider it in the context of the whole Bible. The Lord promises the overcomer to eat of the hidden manna and to give him a white stone. This indicates that if we eat the hidden manna, we shall be transformed into white stones.
In our natural being we are not stones, but clay. Because we have received the divine life with its divine nature through regeneration, we can be transformed into stones, even precious stones, by enjoying Christ as our life supply (2 Cor. 3:18). By eating Jesus as the hidden manna we shall be transformed into white stones for God’s building. If we do not follow the worldly church, but enjoy the Lord in the proper church life, we shall be transformed into stones for the building of God. These stones will be justified and approved by the Lord, as indicated by the color white, while the worldly church will be condemned and rejected by Him. In the book of Revelation the color white denotes approval. When we are transformed into a stone, we shall be approved by the Lord. This will make Him very happy. The white stone is for God’s building. God’s building, the building of the church, depends upon our transformation, and our transformation issues from the enjoyment of Christ as our life supply.
The Lord said that “on the stone” would be “a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.” A name designates a person, and the new name here is the designation of a transformed person. Every transformed believer as a “white stone” bears “a new name...which no one knows but he who receives it.” Such a “new name” is the interpretation of the experience of the one being transformed. Hence, only he himself knows the meaning of that name. A certain brother may still be quite muddy. Nevertheless, he loves the Lord, has forsaken the world, and has given up every separation. Thus, the Lord would say to him, “I shall give you to eat of the hidden manna.” The more this brother eats the hidden manna, the more he will be transformed into a white stone. As this brother eats the Lord Jesus as the hidden manna, he will have certain experiences and the Lord will write a new name upon him. This new name is simply the new designation of what this brother is. Since this new name is based upon what this brother is according to his experiences, others cannot know what it is.
Revelation 2:17 is a word spoken by the Lord to us. Do not take it objectively but as your biography. Consider it as a word for you. In a sense, we are living in the age of Pergamos, for the so-called church has become worldly. But, being an anti-witness, we are here fighting for the Lord’s recovery. Therefore, the Lord gives us this word in verse 17, and we all need to understand it and say, “Amen, Lord. Thank You for this promise. I may eat of You as the hidden manna, and this eating will transform me from clay into a stone which will please You, be approved by You, and be used by You for the building up of Your dwelling place. Lord, I agree with Your promise. From now on, I shall eat You in a hidden way and be transformed to become a white stone for Your building.” Is this not a wonderful promise from the Lord? Yes, the church may become worldly, but the Lord has promised that we may become a white stone for God’s building.
