JUDGES, THE CHURCH AND FORESHADOWING: PART 3
Re 2:12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos say: These things says he who has the sharp two-edged sword:
13 I have knowledge that your living-place is where Satan has his seat: and you are true to my name, and were not turned away from your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my true witness, who was put to death among you, where Satan has his place.
14 But I have some things against you, because you have with you those who keep the teaching of Balaam, by whose suggestion Balak made the children of Israel go out of the right way, taking food which was offered to false gods, and going after the desires of the flesh.
15 And you have those who keep the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
16 See, then, that you have a change of heart; or I will come to you quickly, and will make war against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give of the secret manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name, of which no one has knowledge but he to whom it is given.
(BBE)
From
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/guzik_david/StudyGuide_Rev/Rev_2.cfm
And research from Revelation: Four Views edited by Steve Gregg
The oldest city there, Pergamos was the political capital of the Roman Province of Asia the Less. When John wrote, Pergamos had been the capital city of the region for more than three hundred years. The city was a noted center for culture and education, having one of the great libraries of the ancient world, with more than 200,000 volumes, second largest to the library at Alexandria.
Pergamos was also an extremely religious city. It had temples to the Greek and Roman gods Dionysus, Athena, Demeter, and Zeus. It also had three temples dedicated to the worship of the Roman Emperor. Any of which could have been the seat of Satan Jesus referred to.
Some 50 years before Smyrna won the honor of building the first temple to Tiberius, the city of Pergamos won the right to build the first temple to worship Caesar Augustus in the Roman province of Asia.
Pergamos was especially known as a center for the worship of the deity known as Asclepios. Represented by a serpent, Asclepios was the god of healing and knowledge. There was a medical school at his temple in Pergamos. Because of the famous temple to the Roman god of healing, sick and diseased people from all over the Roman Empire flocked to Pergamos for relief. Later the serpent staff became the symbol of medicine in america as well: the cadusius
"Sufferers were allowed to spend the night in the darkness of the temple. In the temple there were tame snakes. In the night the sufferer might be touched by one of these tame and harmless snakes as it glided over the ground on which he lay. The touch of the snake was held to be the touch of the god himself, and the touch was held to bring health and healing." (Barclay)
Possibly making it the beginning of holding snakes and possibly the reason the Bible suggested the Apostles of that time could hold POISONOUS snakes and not be hurt.
Later this god's medical power was included with Apollo. The son of the supreme Zeus in a attemt perhaps to quell the Christian rise.
Hang on now. We begin to bounce from the past to Revelation present to their future,
We spent time on Balaam earlier but we'll refresh the story.
And the other evil:
https://www.gotquestions.org/Nicolaitans.html
Question: "Who are the Nicolaitans mentioned in Revelation 2:6, 14-15?"
Answer: The exact origin of the Nicolaitans is unclear. Some Bible commentators believe they were a heretical sect who followed the teachings of Nicolas—whose name means “one who conquers the people”—who was possibly one of the deacons of the early church mentioned in Acts 6:5. It is possible that Nicolas became an apostate, denying the true faith and became part of a group holding "the doctrine of Balaam," who taught Israel "to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality." Clement of Alexandria says, “They abandoned themselves to pleasure like goats, leading a life of self-indulgence.” Their teaching perverted grace and replaced liberty with license.
Other commentators believe that these Nicolaitans were not so called from any man, but from the Greek word Nicolah, meaning "let us eat," as they often encouraged each other to eat things offered to idols. Whichever theory is true, it is certain that the deeds of the Nicolaitans were an abomination to Christ. They, like the Gnostics and other false teachers, abused the doctrine of grace and tried to introduce licentiousness in its place (2 Peter 2:15, 19; Jude 1:4).
Jesus commends the church of Ephesus for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans as He does (Revelation 2:6). No doubt the leaders of the Ephesian church protected their flock from these destructive heresies and kept their people from committing the same evil deeds. All sin is hateful to Christ, as it should be to His followers, as we hate men’s evil deeds, not the men themselves. For the church at Pergamos, Jesus had not commendation, but censure. Unlike the Ephesians, they actually embraced the teachings of the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2:15). Jesus warns them that unless they repent, they are in danger of the judgment that is sure to fall on those who teach false doctrine, attack His church, and destroy His people. The sword of judgment is poised over their heads, and His patience is not limitless (Revelation 2:16; 19:15).
The lesson for us is that the church of the Lord Jesus throughout the ages has been plagued by those of the Nicolaitan spirit. The only way to recognize false teaching is to be intimately familiar with truth through the diligent study of the Word of God.
And:
But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate: Jesus - probably so the Ephesians would not be overly discouraged - gives this church another commendation here. They are complimented because they hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans. But who are the Nicolaitans and what were their deeds? The doctrine of the Nicolaitans is also condemned in Revelation 2:15, and in that passage is related to immorality and idolatry.
i. Irenaeus (writing in the late second century) described what he knew of the Nicolaitans: "The Nicolaitanes are the followers of that Nicolas who was one of the seven first ordained to the diaconate by the apostles. They lead lives of unrestrained indulgence. The character of these men is plainly pointed out in the Apocalypse of John, as teaching that it is a matter of indifference to practice adultery, and to eat things sacrifice to idols." (Against Heresies, book 1, chapter 26. From the Ante Nicean Fathers Volume 1, page 352)
ii. Hippolytus, a student of Irenaeus (writing in the early third century) associated the Nicolaitans with the Gnostics: "There are, however, among the Gnostics diversities of opinion … But Nicolaus has been a cause of the wide-spread combination of these wicked men. [He] departed from correct doctrine, and was in the habit of inculcating indifferency of both life and food." (Refutation of all Heresies, book 7, chapter 24; ANF volume 5, page 115)
iii. Others have emphasized the root meanings of the words that make up the name Nicolaitans. Nikao-laos means literally "to conquer the people." Based on this, some point to presumptuous claims of apostolic authority and to the heart that sets up hierarchies and separates the "clergy" from the "laity." (Something that very obviously continues to today,) Perhaps the Nicolaitans fulfilled all these aspects, being both an idolatrous immorality and a presumptuous, hierarchical, "hidden mysteries" system typical of Gnosticism.
iv. The Nicolaitans, like all deceivers which come from the body of Christ, claimed "not that they were destroying Christianity, but that they were presenting an improved and modernized version of it." (Barclay)
f. Which I also hate: These are powerful words, in that they come from our Savior who is so rich in love. Whoever exactly the Nicolaitans were, and whatever exactly they did and taught, we learn something from Jesus' opinion of the. We learn that the God of love hates sin, and wants His people to also hate sin.
And that is what matters the most
From Judges:
Jg 3:12 Then the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord made Eglon, king of Moab, strong against Israel, because they had done evil in the Lord's eyes.
13 And Eglon got together the people of Ammon and Amalek, and they went and overcame Israel and took the town of palm-trees.
14 And the children of Israel were servants to Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years.
15 Then when the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord, he gave them a saviour, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man; and the children of Israel sent an offering by him to Eglon, king of Moab.
16 So Ehud made himself a two-edged sword, a cubit long, which he put on at his right side under his robe.
17 And he took the offering to Eglon, king of Moab, who was a very fat man.
18 And after giving the offering, he sent away the people who had come with the offering.
19 But he himself, turning back from the stone images at Gilgal, said, I have something to say to you in secret, O king. And he said, Let there be quiet. Then all those who were waiting before him went out.
20 Then Ehud came in to him while he was seated by himself in his summer-house. And Ehud said, I have a word from God for you. And he got up from his seat.
21 And Ehud put out his left hand, and took the sword from his right side, and sent it into his stomach;
22 And the hand-part went in after the blade, and the fat was joined up over the blade; for he did not take the sword out of his stomach. And he went out into the...
23 Then Ehud went out into the covered way, shutting the doors of the summer-house on him and locking them.
24 Now when he had gone, the king's servants came, and saw that the doors of the summer-house were locked; and they said, It may be that he is in his summer-house for a private purpose.
25 And they went on waiting till they were shamed, but the doors were still shut; so they took the key, and, opening them, saw their lord stretched out dead on the floor.
26 But Ehud had got away while they were waiting and had gone past the stone images and got away to Seirah.
27 And when he came there, he had a horn sounded in the hill-country of Ephraim, and all the children of Israel went down with him from the hill-country, and he at their head.
28 And he said to them, Come after me; for the Lord has given the Moabites, your haters, into your hands. So they went down after him and took the crossing-places of Jordan against Moab, and let no one go across.
29 At that time they put about ten thousand men of Moab to the sword, every strong man and every man of war; not a man got away.
30 So Moab was broken that day under the hand of Israel. And for eighty years the land had peace.
31 And after him came Shamgar, the son of Anath, who put to death six hundred Philistines with an ox-stick; and he was another saviour of Israel.
(BBE)
From Judges in Gospel Hall books.
"Notice (3:12) that it was the Lord who strengthened Eglon. This indicates that his ability to move against Israel was due to God’s hand allowing and enabling him. By his characteristics and link with Moab, we learn that this king typifies the power of the flesh to overcome the saints. It is a form of the flesh that is gross and corrupt. It is self-indulgence expressed in desires and practices. The fact that he was “a very fat man” with an army of fat men (Judges 3:17, 29) speaks of the natural tendency of the flesh to indulge itself and to grow out of proportion as a result. It is a “condition of things easily nourished” and needs to be combated in every one of us. None are without a natural tendency to indulge the flesh and to feed the “ego.”
"In this enemy, we see pictured to us the natural tendency of each one of us to allow the flesh and its evil inclinations to dominate a child of God. It is evident that whenever this is allowed, the flesh eventually becomes the master. Peter taught this in his second epistle: “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” (2 Peter 2:19). We see also that Eglon was one who indulged his comforts, sitting in his summer parlor, pampering himself and enjoying his life (Judges 3:20). How natural this is in all of us; it is a great hindrance to the saints possessing and enjoying their spiritual blessings!
(Moab represents the flesh and is a tribe right next to Israel, the Flesh in conflict with the Spirit. Moab in Judges and mentioned in Revelation.)
"We think of Moab as a country that represents those who have a Christian profession, but with the flesh still in control. This is something that seems very near at hand regarding Church testimony in any day, and particularly in the period represented by Pergamos. It is one thing to combat enemies that lie at a distance and are somewhat removed from the saints, but it is another thing and more difficult to resist what seems so near that it is almost a part of us. In this we see the stronger influence of the tendencies of the flesh, since it is an evil element that lies within, truly a part of us by nature. As such, we are more willing to tolerate it rather than deal with it in judgment as is necessary (Galatians 5:24). The believer must be careful not to accommodate evil practices that seem so innocuous and harmless! They may be just the things that will bring about his downfall."
...
"It is noteworthy that the extent of his (Eglon's) domination was only to Gilgal (3:19). If Jericho was the place of a great former victory, Gilgal was the place of judgment on the flesh pictured by the circumcision of the flesh (Joshua 5:2-9). As F. W. Grant has put it, “The memorials of death passed through and a resurrection standing will necessarily be outside of Moab’s possession.” The empty professor can see no value in a link with Christ in glory and a position that is outside the environs of the world’s influence.
"The fact that this was as far as he seems to have gone indicates that there is some measure of residual power in the believer’s life that stems from that judgment on the flesh that was a part of his salvation. Gilgal also was where they had fed on the food of Canaan for the first time, the “old corn of the land,” (Joshua 5:11) and that feeding seemed to restrain his ability to control. Feeding on this food would teach us the need to feed on Christ Himself, who is the firstfruits from the dead and is now the Risen Man in the glory. Colossians 3:1-4 tells us of this importance: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”
"We know that it is our occupation with Christ in the glory, triumphant over sin, hell and death that will preserve the child of God from fleshly domination. It seems that this attraction and truth had failed to speak to those who occupied the period that Pergamos represents. They were indulging themselves and enjoying the favor and acceptance of the world. No longer were they unpopular and persecuted; now they were accepted and others were being pressed into professions for Christ. As a result, the flesh and its desires for expression found more latitude and acceptance."
In both cases the flesh and the Spirit were mixing to the detriment of the believers. And this gives us the lead to the future,
To some futurists, Pergamos represents the imperial church from 313 to 606, when the church was no longer persecuted. Pergamos supposedly means "married to power." (Caringola. The Present Reign of Jesus Christ. p. 50)
From Revelation: Four Views
"It was during this time that the institution of the papacy had its inception. In 313, The Decree of Coronation mad Rome ("where Satan's throne is") the center of Christendom. Like Israel in the days of Balaam, the church of this period was being seduced into immorality and the worship of idols through the rise of the papal system. Some who take tis approach have suggested that Antipas does not refer to an individual, but to a class of men opposed ("anti-") to the popes ("papas") which men were martyred in great numbers in Rome and Constantinople. Christ threatens to fight this institution with the (double-edged) sword of his mouth-e.g., His Word."
As J Vernon McGee points out though, this era had loyal Christians and produced Augustine, who answered the Pelagain heresy that denied original sin and irresistible grace, and Athanasius of North Africa who defended the faith against the Arian Heresy which denied the divinity of Christ and cause the Council at Nicea in 325 A.D. to condemn it. But heresy derives from an uneducated or deceived angle on theology. It is a new, another "nation" neighboring God's "nation" the flesh distorting the Spirit's truth.
From Judges again:
"We think of Scriptural principles and practices that were given us in contrast to compromise with the world during that time of favor pictured by Pergamos. We relate that era represented in the letter to the assembly in Pergamos (Revelation 2:12-17) to the period of church history during which there was world favor. Constantine professed conversion to Christianity, and the result was that instead of being persecuted, to be a believer was popular.
"However, the simplicity of assemblies gathered under the leadership of local elders gave way to a hierarchy of pastors, bishops, archbishops and ultimately, popes that God’s Word never taught. The requirement for reality of life to prove the genuineness of profession was succeeded by reception into churches of those who simply agreed with accepted doctrines. The necessity of genuine conversion to God as a work of the Holy Spirit was supplanted by using the rite of baptism to make converts. The list could go on, but to summarize, unscriptural practices were introduced that catered to the flesh, which resulted in sad effects in the church sphere that are yet seen in their domination today."
We end up in the cycle again. The cycle of us against them. They were evil; they brought the idols; they seduced us. We are so much better; we have the Law.
But you need to look at the Law.
Le 24:22 You are to have the same law for a man of another nation living among you as for an Israelite; for I am the Lord your God.
(BBE)
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. (Lev 19:18)
If you come across your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it. (Ex 23:4-5)
When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. (Lev 19:33-34)
Do not oppress an alien; you yourselves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in Egypt. (Ex 23:9)
Even the Sabbath and its' variations had considerations for aliens:
For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove. Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed. (Ex 23:10-12)
The Jews were to treat the aliens with equality and welcome, realizing some would not have the training to find work to begin with and some would not have places to dwell and the objective was to let everyone know they were welcome with the Lord, to make Judaism attractive to them. And they were to kill off all the tribes of unbelievers around them. WHAT?
The thing was the spiritual evil of the aliens and then, in an attempt to follow the Law. aliens were allowed to bring their false worship into Israel which did not follow the Law against idols.
The alien was welcome but his religion was not.
I bring this up now because it was the obvious problem of the Pergamum church. One that haunts the Catholic Church still. We have religious holidays like Christmas placed in winter because it matched the winter solstice celebration of idolaters. We have icons as I mentioned in an earlier post. We see today the Emergent Church who wants to mix ancient religions with Christianity and call it a new revelation.
The same thing that brought down Israel again and again was in Pergamos..
The Law was designed so that Israel would be attractive to the alien and the worship of the true God would appeal to them as individuals, as people. They were supposed to evangelize the other tribes. Christianity is supposed to be that way, too. The Love your enemy, Love your neighbor, return his cloak to him, The poor will always be with you which Jesus quoted above which meant "you" were supposed live a life that made Jesus and following Him THE life for the lost and the hurting. Genuine care for the alien, for the lost involves living without their idols and living for God. You don't just get friendly and then not tell them about Jesus. The order to exterminate them meant to end their worship because God knew those tribes would not give it up. That and the bad biology spoke the reasons for the extermination order.
But something in the fallen flesh seeks after idols, after gods we can control who we can worship while things go our way and then discard when things go against our way. You can't do that with the real God who is always there and who will be there through all the good and bad, who may even have sent some of the bad your way to refine you, to bring you closer to Him, not further away, because it is not about getting your way but about setting your life course not just for now but for eternity. It is thinking wrong which leads to so much of our pain, which is why Paul stresses it and I keep finding it there.
Our unsaved minds saw the Christian dichotomy we may forget now. Jesus is exclusive in that only those who accept Him as Savior can be saved. Yet he is inclusive in that all may come to him, great and small, rich and poor, male and female. Once saved we understand the exclusive and inclusive is no dichotomy but truly the only way any real religion can be.
That exclusiveness and the acceptance of a God who required only one sacrifice led to major economic clashes with the idol makers and the folks who made their living off temples and meat sales from sacrificed animals and every industry created to profit from the various priesthoods. The new Christians didn't need special buildings or meetings since they met for meals almost every day and wanted to be with each other. They loved the Lord and didn't need to bribe him to love them in return. They were under attack from the start by the institutions of Israel and that followed into their spread into the world when Jerusalem was destroyed. Which brought the attacks from the idol-worshiping system.
And the Caesars who martyred untold thousands in the arenas and on crosses.
But the church held firm and resisted in love and grew. In the midst of a time when believing in
Christ would get them killed...THE CHURCH GREW!!!
So we mentioned Constantine, perhaps a genuine conversion, perhaps someone with political motives, makes no difference, the world seem to bow down and take the church in it's arms. But there was trouble leveraging one state religion into a system that accepted every religion. The Augustine mentioned above handled two huge objections.
First, the peaceful Christian faith seemed vastly at odds with Roman Imperial directives. The fear was that converted Christians would not take up arms to defend the empire or conquer another country.
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~jasingle/justwar.html
The classic Just-War Theory has its origins in Christian theology. Saint Augustine is usually indentified as the first individual to offer a theory on war and justice. The Saint referred to the Bible and regarded some wars as necessary to amend an evil. Saint Thomas Aquinas revised Augustine's version, creating three criteria for a just war: the war needed to be waged by a legitimate authority, have a just cause, and have the right intentions. The moral justifcations for a war are expressed in jus ad bellum; whereas, the moral conduct of the war is expressed in jus in bello. The Just-War Theory is a set of rules for military combat.
.
The second came from those who read the book of Daniel and Revelation and discovered that the country whose people killed Christ would be the country from which the Antichrist arose. Readers worried that Rome would be the origin of that being. Some suggested the End Time passages be struck from the Bible but Augustine developed an answer:
http://persweb.wabash.edu/facstaff/royaltyr/augustine.htm
In the City of God, Book XX, Chapter 7, Augustine writes: "Now the thousand years may be understood in two ways, so far as it occurs to me: either these things happen in the sixth thousand of years or sixth millennium (the latter part of which is now passing)..." This passage makes reference to Augustine's view of universal history in which six ages of human history are to be followed by a "chialistic" seventh age. During this seventh age, the saints and the just men of God will enjoy their sabbath on earth. In essence, Augustine viewed the age in which he lived as the millennium itself in which the "...kingdom of God (was) already manifest in the Church...the age between Pentecost and the return of Christ was the very millennium itself, marked by the ever increasing influence of the church in overturning evil..."
"Or, Augustine suggests, "...he (John ) used the thousand years as an equivalent for the whole duration of this world, employing the number of perfection to mark the fullness of time." (City of God, XX,7). In this Amillennial or Spiritual interpretation, the thousand years refers to a span of time between the life of Christ (dated either from the Incarnation or Pentecost) until the Parousia. This Spiritual interpretation of the millennium is consistent with Augustine's resistance to the equating of historical events with prophecies cited in the Book of Revelation. As our text points out, in the opening book of The City of God, Augustine makes reference to the sack of Rome by the West Gothic King Alaric in 410. Given the severity and widespread consequences of this attack, it would have been quite tempting for Augustine to refer to the prophecies of Revelation as being fulfilled. He did not. Similarly, Augustine resists identification of Gog and Magog with any particular countries or political entities of the time: "For these nations which he names Gog and Magog are not to be understood of some barbarous nations in some part of the world, whether the Getae and Massagetae, as some conclude from the intitial letters, or some other foreign nations not under the Roman government" (City of God, XX, 11).
"Augustine's offer of two explanations for the millennium - the Present Postmillennial and the Amillennial - may represent an incomplete shift in his thinking on the matter. In general, as he grew older, Augustine's view of Scripture became more literal in character. He worried that his use of allegorical and figurative explanations for Scripture in earlier writings were excessive and far too secular. Curiously, his acceptance of an Amillennial view of the thousand years seems inconsistent with the apparent hardening of his biblical interpretation as he aged. However, in other aspects, his later interpretation of Revelation does reflect literalism. For example, he did believe in the future appearance of an Antichrist, he anticipated a specific reign for the Antichrist of three years, six months, and he spoke at length about the binding/loosing of the devil.
"With either interpretation - the Present Postmillennial or the Amillennial - Augustine believed that he lived in the period of the millennium. From the perspective of Christians, he saw the course of history as generally improving. Constantine's Edict of Toleration in the Fourth Century was clearly a triumph for the Church and may have prompted Augustine to conclude, "Therefore, the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of heaven. Accordingly, even now His saints reign with Him..." (City of God, XX, 9). In Augustine's view, the Church was able to progress in stature and greatness because Satan was only partially bound. That is, Satan could influence the world but he was sufficiently tethered so that he could not mount an all out conflict with the forces of good. From Augustine's perspective, the binding of the Devil occurred each time the Church spread its influence through evangelizing and each time an individual was converted to Christ. To be sure, Augustine knew that the loosing of Satan would one day come and he would wage a massive war against God. This conflict was necessary, according to Augustine, to show the pious and righteous the power of their God in overcoming the assaults of the Devil."
(We will discuss this further when the End times posts begin.)
I personally suspect Augustine developed both theories to keep the church accepted and keep his brothers and sisters from going into further repression. That seems the reason both ideas are developed only to a certain extent as if he were expecting a time to arise when the Church would have a voice powerful enough to out shout the lay government on the issues.
But the Church that threatened as a growing force for Christ now became a place anyone could join. Church membership became a thing of prestige and personal glory, the way to heaven, and a way TO power as opposed to being subjected to death threats for joining. The persecution acted as a winnowing agent, eliminating the temptation for anyone who was only mild in their belief to join.
But then, things became worse. Next time.
Re 2:12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos say: These things says he who has the sharp two-edged sword:
13 I have knowledge that your living-place is where Satan has his seat: and you are true to my name, and were not turned away from your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my true witness, who was put to death among you, where Satan has his place.
14 But I have some things against you, because you have with you those who keep the teaching of Balaam, by whose suggestion Balak made the children of Israel go out of the right way, taking food which was offered to false gods, and going after the desires of the flesh.
15 And you have those who keep the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
16 See, then, that you have a change of heart; or I will come to you quickly, and will make war against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 He who has ears, let him give ear to what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give of the secret manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name, of which no one has knowledge but he to whom it is given.
(BBE)
From
https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/guzik_david/StudyGuide_Rev/Rev_2.cfm
And research from Revelation: Four Views edited by Steve Gregg
The oldest city there, Pergamos was the political capital of the Roman Province of Asia the Less. When John wrote, Pergamos had been the capital city of the region for more than three hundred years. The city was a noted center for culture and education, having one of the great libraries of the ancient world, with more than 200,000 volumes, second largest to the library at Alexandria.
Pergamos was also an extremely religious city. It had temples to the Greek and Roman gods Dionysus, Athena, Demeter, and Zeus. It also had three temples dedicated to the worship of the Roman Emperor. Any of which could have been the seat of Satan Jesus referred to.
Some 50 years before Smyrna won the honor of building the first temple to Tiberius, the city of Pergamos won the right to build the first temple to worship Caesar Augustus in the Roman province of Asia.
Pergamos was especially known as a center for the worship of the deity known as Asclepios. Represented by a serpent, Asclepios was the god of healing and knowledge. There was a medical school at his temple in Pergamos. Because of the famous temple to the Roman god of healing, sick and diseased people from all over the Roman Empire flocked to Pergamos for relief. Later the serpent staff became the symbol of medicine in america as well: the cadusius
"Sufferers were allowed to spend the night in the darkness of the temple. In the temple there were tame snakes. In the night the sufferer might be touched by one of these tame and harmless snakes as it glided over the ground on which he lay. The touch of the snake was held to be the touch of the god himself, and the touch was held to bring health and healing." (Barclay)
Possibly making it the beginning of holding snakes and possibly the reason the Bible suggested the Apostles of that time could hold POISONOUS snakes and not be hurt.
Later this god's medical power was included with Apollo. The son of the supreme Zeus in a attemt perhaps to quell the Christian rise.
Hang on now. We begin to bounce from the past to Revelation present to their future,
We spent time on Balaam earlier but we'll refresh the story.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
Balaam
(B.C. 1451), the son of beor, a man endowed with the gift of prophecy. (Numbers 22:5) He is mentioned in conjunction with the five kings of Midian, apparently as a person of the same rank. (Numbers 31:8) cf. Numb 31:16 He seems to have lived at Pethor, (23:4; Numbers 22:5) on the river Euphrates, in Mesopotamia. Such was his reputation that when the Israelites were encamped in the plains of Moab, Balak, the king of Moab, sent for Balaam to curse them. Balaam at first was prohibited by God from going. He was again sent for by the king and again refused, but was at length allowed to go. He yielded to the temptations of riches and honor which Balak set before him; but God's anger was kindled at this manifestation of determined self-will, and the angel of the Lord stood in the way for an adversary against him. See (2 Peter 2:16) Balaam predicted a magnificent career for the people whom he was called to curse, but he nevertheless suggested to the Moabites the expedient of seducing them to commit fornication. The effect of this is recorded in (Numbers 25:1) ... A battle was afterwards fought against the Midianites, in which Balaam sided with them, and was slain by the sword of the people whom he had endeavored to curse. (Numbers 31:8)
And the other evil:
https://www.gotquestions.org/Nicolaitans.html
Question: "Who are the Nicolaitans mentioned in Revelation 2:6, 14-15?"
Answer: The exact origin of the Nicolaitans is unclear. Some Bible commentators believe they were a heretical sect who followed the teachings of Nicolas—whose name means “one who conquers the people”—who was possibly one of the deacons of the early church mentioned in Acts 6:5. It is possible that Nicolas became an apostate, denying the true faith and became part of a group holding "the doctrine of Balaam," who taught Israel "to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality." Clement of Alexandria says, “They abandoned themselves to pleasure like goats, leading a life of self-indulgence.” Their teaching perverted grace and replaced liberty with license.
Other commentators believe that these Nicolaitans were not so called from any man, but from the Greek word Nicolah, meaning "let us eat," as they often encouraged each other to eat things offered to idols. Whichever theory is true, it is certain that the deeds of the Nicolaitans were an abomination to Christ. They, like the Gnostics and other false teachers, abused the doctrine of grace and tried to introduce licentiousness in its place (2 Peter 2:15, 19; Jude 1:4).
Jesus commends the church of Ephesus for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans as He does (Revelation 2:6). No doubt the leaders of the Ephesian church protected their flock from these destructive heresies and kept their people from committing the same evil deeds. All sin is hateful to Christ, as it should be to His followers, as we hate men’s evil deeds, not the men themselves. For the church at Pergamos, Jesus had not commendation, but censure. Unlike the Ephesians, they actually embraced the teachings of the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2:15). Jesus warns them that unless they repent, they are in danger of the judgment that is sure to fall on those who teach false doctrine, attack His church, and destroy His people. The sword of judgment is poised over their heads, and His patience is not limitless (Revelation 2:16; 19:15).
The lesson for us is that the church of the Lord Jesus throughout the ages has been plagued by those of the Nicolaitan spirit. The only way to recognize false teaching is to be intimately familiar with truth through the diligent study of the Word of God.
And:
But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate: Jesus - probably so the Ephesians would not be overly discouraged - gives this church another commendation here. They are complimented because they hated the deeds of the Nicolaitans. But who are the Nicolaitans and what were their deeds? The doctrine of the Nicolaitans is also condemned in Revelation 2:15, and in that passage is related to immorality and idolatry.
i. Irenaeus (writing in the late second century) described what he knew of the Nicolaitans: "The Nicolaitanes are the followers of that Nicolas who was one of the seven first ordained to the diaconate by the apostles. They lead lives of unrestrained indulgence. The character of these men is plainly pointed out in the Apocalypse of John, as teaching that it is a matter of indifference to practice adultery, and to eat things sacrifice to idols." (Against Heresies, book 1, chapter 26. From the Ante Nicean Fathers Volume 1, page 352)
ii. Hippolytus, a student of Irenaeus (writing in the early third century) associated the Nicolaitans with the Gnostics: "There are, however, among the Gnostics diversities of opinion … But Nicolaus has been a cause of the wide-spread combination of these wicked men. [He] departed from correct doctrine, and was in the habit of inculcating indifferency of both life and food." (Refutation of all Heresies, book 7, chapter 24; ANF volume 5, page 115)
iii. Others have emphasized the root meanings of the words that make up the name Nicolaitans. Nikao-laos means literally "to conquer the people." Based on this, some point to presumptuous claims of apostolic authority and to the heart that sets up hierarchies and separates the "clergy" from the "laity." (Something that very obviously continues to today,) Perhaps the Nicolaitans fulfilled all these aspects, being both an idolatrous immorality and a presumptuous, hierarchical, "hidden mysteries" system typical of Gnosticism.
iv. The Nicolaitans, like all deceivers which come from the body of Christ, claimed "not that they were destroying Christianity, but that they were presenting an improved and modernized version of it." (Barclay)
f. Which I also hate: These are powerful words, in that they come from our Savior who is so rich in love. Whoever exactly the Nicolaitans were, and whatever exactly they did and taught, we learn something from Jesus' opinion of the. We learn that the God of love hates sin, and wants His people to also hate sin.
And that is what matters the most
From Judges:
Jg 3:12 Then the children of Israel again did evil in the eyes of the Lord; and the Lord made Eglon, king of Moab, strong against Israel, because they had done evil in the Lord's eyes.
13 And Eglon got together the people of Ammon and Amalek, and they went and overcame Israel and took the town of palm-trees.
14 And the children of Israel were servants to Eglon, king of Moab, for eighteen years.
15 Then when the children of Israel made prayer to the Lord, he gave them a saviour, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjamite, a left-handed man; and the children of Israel sent an offering by him to Eglon, king of Moab.
16 So Ehud made himself a two-edged sword, a cubit long, which he put on at his right side under his robe.
17 And he took the offering to Eglon, king of Moab, who was a very fat man.
18 And after giving the offering, he sent away the people who had come with the offering.
19 But he himself, turning back from the stone images at Gilgal, said, I have something to say to you in secret, O king. And he said, Let there be quiet. Then all those who were waiting before him went out.
20 Then Ehud came in to him while he was seated by himself in his summer-house. And Ehud said, I have a word from God for you. And he got up from his seat.
21 And Ehud put out his left hand, and took the sword from his right side, and sent it into his stomach;
22 And the hand-part went in after the blade, and the fat was joined up over the blade; for he did not take the sword out of his stomach. And he went out into the...
23 Then Ehud went out into the covered way, shutting the doors of the summer-house on him and locking them.
24 Now when he had gone, the king's servants came, and saw that the doors of the summer-house were locked; and they said, It may be that he is in his summer-house for a private purpose.
25 And they went on waiting till they were shamed, but the doors were still shut; so they took the key, and, opening them, saw their lord stretched out dead on the floor.
26 But Ehud had got away while they were waiting and had gone past the stone images and got away to Seirah.
27 And when he came there, he had a horn sounded in the hill-country of Ephraim, and all the children of Israel went down with him from the hill-country, and he at their head.
28 And he said to them, Come after me; for the Lord has given the Moabites, your haters, into your hands. So they went down after him and took the crossing-places of Jordan against Moab, and let no one go across.
29 At that time they put about ten thousand men of Moab to the sword, every strong man and every man of war; not a man got away.
30 So Moab was broken that day under the hand of Israel. And for eighty years the land had peace.
31 And after him came Shamgar, the son of Anath, who put to death six hundred Philistines with an ox-stick; and he was another saviour of Israel.
(BBE)
From Judges in Gospel Hall books.
"Notice (3:12) that it was the Lord who strengthened Eglon. This indicates that his ability to move against Israel was due to God’s hand allowing and enabling him. By his characteristics and link with Moab, we learn that this king typifies the power of the flesh to overcome the saints. It is a form of the flesh that is gross and corrupt. It is self-indulgence expressed in desires and practices. The fact that he was “a very fat man” with an army of fat men (Judges 3:17, 29) speaks of the natural tendency of the flesh to indulge itself and to grow out of proportion as a result. It is a “condition of things easily nourished” and needs to be combated in every one of us. None are without a natural tendency to indulge the flesh and to feed the “ego.”
"In this enemy, we see pictured to us the natural tendency of each one of us to allow the flesh and its evil inclinations to dominate a child of God. It is evident that whenever this is allowed, the flesh eventually becomes the master. Peter taught this in his second epistle: “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” (2 Peter 2:19). We see also that Eglon was one who indulged his comforts, sitting in his summer parlor, pampering himself and enjoying his life (Judges 3:20). How natural this is in all of us; it is a great hindrance to the saints possessing and enjoying their spiritual blessings!
(Moab represents the flesh and is a tribe right next to Israel, the Flesh in conflict with the Spirit. Moab in Judges and mentioned in Revelation.)
"We think of Moab as a country that represents those who have a Christian profession, but with the flesh still in control. This is something that seems very near at hand regarding Church testimony in any day, and particularly in the period represented by Pergamos. It is one thing to combat enemies that lie at a distance and are somewhat removed from the saints, but it is another thing and more difficult to resist what seems so near that it is almost a part of us. In this we see the stronger influence of the tendencies of the flesh, since it is an evil element that lies within, truly a part of us by nature. As such, we are more willing to tolerate it rather than deal with it in judgment as is necessary (Galatians 5:24). The believer must be careful not to accommodate evil practices that seem so innocuous and harmless! They may be just the things that will bring about his downfall."
...
"It is noteworthy that the extent of his (Eglon's) domination was only to Gilgal (3:19). If Jericho was the place of a great former victory, Gilgal was the place of judgment on the flesh pictured by the circumcision of the flesh (Joshua 5:2-9). As F. W. Grant has put it, “The memorials of death passed through and a resurrection standing will necessarily be outside of Moab’s possession.” The empty professor can see no value in a link with Christ in glory and a position that is outside the environs of the world’s influence.
"The fact that this was as far as he seems to have gone indicates that there is some measure of residual power in the believer’s life that stems from that judgment on the flesh that was a part of his salvation. Gilgal also was where they had fed on the food of Canaan for the first time, the “old corn of the land,” (Joshua 5:11) and that feeding seemed to restrain his ability to control. Feeding on this food would teach us the need to feed on Christ Himself, who is the firstfruits from the dead and is now the Risen Man in the glory. Colossians 3:1-4 tells us of this importance: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.”
"We know that it is our occupation with Christ in the glory, triumphant over sin, hell and death that will preserve the child of God from fleshly domination. It seems that this attraction and truth had failed to speak to those who occupied the period that Pergamos represents. They were indulging themselves and enjoying the favor and acceptance of the world. No longer were they unpopular and persecuted; now they were accepted and others were being pressed into professions for Christ. As a result, the flesh and its desires for expression found more latitude and acceptance."
In both cases the flesh and the Spirit were mixing to the detriment of the believers. And this gives us the lead to the future,
To some futurists, Pergamos represents the imperial church from 313 to 606, when the church was no longer persecuted. Pergamos supposedly means "married to power." (Caringola. The Present Reign of Jesus Christ. p. 50)
From Revelation: Four Views
"It was during this time that the institution of the papacy had its inception. In 313, The Decree of Coronation mad Rome ("where Satan's throne is") the center of Christendom. Like Israel in the days of Balaam, the church of this period was being seduced into immorality and the worship of idols through the rise of the papal system. Some who take tis approach have suggested that Antipas does not refer to an individual, but to a class of men opposed ("anti-") to the popes ("papas") which men were martyred in great numbers in Rome and Constantinople. Christ threatens to fight this institution with the (double-edged) sword of his mouth-e.g., His Word."
As J Vernon McGee points out though, this era had loyal Christians and produced Augustine, who answered the Pelagain heresy that denied original sin and irresistible grace, and Athanasius of North Africa who defended the faith against the Arian Heresy which denied the divinity of Christ and cause the Council at Nicea in 325 A.D. to condemn it. But heresy derives from an uneducated or deceived angle on theology. It is a new, another "nation" neighboring God's "nation" the flesh distorting the Spirit's truth.
From Judges again:
"We think of Scriptural principles and practices that were given us in contrast to compromise with the world during that time of favor pictured by Pergamos. We relate that era represented in the letter to the assembly in Pergamos (Revelation 2:12-17) to the period of church history during which there was world favor. Constantine professed conversion to Christianity, and the result was that instead of being persecuted, to be a believer was popular.
"However, the simplicity of assemblies gathered under the leadership of local elders gave way to a hierarchy of pastors, bishops, archbishops and ultimately, popes that God’s Word never taught. The requirement for reality of life to prove the genuineness of profession was succeeded by reception into churches of those who simply agreed with accepted doctrines. The necessity of genuine conversion to God as a work of the Holy Spirit was supplanted by using the rite of baptism to make converts. The list could go on, but to summarize, unscriptural practices were introduced that catered to the flesh, which resulted in sad effects in the church sphere that are yet seen in their domination today."
We end up in the cycle again. The cycle of us against them. They were evil; they brought the idols; they seduced us. We are so much better; we have the Law.
But you need to look at the Law.
Le 24:22 You are to have the same law for a man of another nation living among you as for an Israelite; for I am the Lord your God.
(BBE)
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. (Lev 19:18)
If you come across your enemy's ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him. If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen down under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help him with it. (Ex 23:4-5)
When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. (Lev 19:33-34)
When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. (Lev 19:9-10)
When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this. (Dt 24:19-22)
At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year's produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. (Dt 14:28-29)
Even the Sabbath and its' variations had considerations for aliens:
For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove. Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed. (Ex 23:10-12)
The Jews were to treat the aliens with equality and welcome, realizing some would not have the training to find work to begin with and some would not have places to dwell and the objective was to let everyone know they were welcome with the Lord, to make Judaism attractive to them. And they were to kill off all the tribes of unbelievers around them. WHAT?
The thing was the spiritual evil of the aliens and then, in an attempt to follow the Law. aliens were allowed to bring their false worship into Israel which did not follow the Law against idols.
The alien was welcome but his religion was not.
I bring this up now because it was the obvious problem of the Pergamum church. One that haunts the Catholic Church still. We have religious holidays like Christmas placed in winter because it matched the winter solstice celebration of idolaters. We have icons as I mentioned in an earlier post. We see today the Emergent Church who wants to mix ancient religions with Christianity and call it a new revelation.
The same thing that brought down Israel again and again was in Pergamos..
The Law was designed so that Israel would be attractive to the alien and the worship of the true God would appeal to them as individuals, as people. They were supposed to evangelize the other tribes. Christianity is supposed to be that way, too. The Love your enemy, Love your neighbor, return his cloak to him, The poor will always be with you which Jesus quoted above which meant "you" were supposed live a life that made Jesus and following Him THE life for the lost and the hurting. Genuine care for the alien, for the lost involves living without their idols and living for God. You don't just get friendly and then not tell them about Jesus. The order to exterminate them meant to end their worship because God knew those tribes would not give it up. That and the bad biology spoke the reasons for the extermination order.
But something in the fallen flesh seeks after idols, after gods we can control who we can worship while things go our way and then discard when things go against our way. You can't do that with the real God who is always there and who will be there through all the good and bad, who may even have sent some of the bad your way to refine you, to bring you closer to Him, not further away, because it is not about getting your way but about setting your life course not just for now but for eternity. It is thinking wrong which leads to so much of our pain, which is why Paul stresses it and I keep finding it there.
Our unsaved minds saw the Christian dichotomy we may forget now. Jesus is exclusive in that only those who accept Him as Savior can be saved. Yet he is inclusive in that all may come to him, great and small, rich and poor, male and female. Once saved we understand the exclusive and inclusive is no dichotomy but truly the only way any real religion can be.
That exclusiveness and the acceptance of a God who required only one sacrifice led to major economic clashes with the idol makers and the folks who made their living off temples and meat sales from sacrificed animals and every industry created to profit from the various priesthoods. The new Christians didn't need special buildings or meetings since they met for meals almost every day and wanted to be with each other. They loved the Lord and didn't need to bribe him to love them in return. They were under attack from the start by the institutions of Israel and that followed into their spread into the world when Jerusalem was destroyed. Which brought the attacks from the idol-worshiping system.
And the Caesars who martyred untold thousands in the arenas and on crosses.
But the church held firm and resisted in love and grew. In the midst of a time when believing in
Christ would get them killed...THE CHURCH GREW!!!
So we mentioned Constantine, perhaps a genuine conversion, perhaps someone with political motives, makes no difference, the world seem to bow down and take the church in it's arms. But there was trouble leveraging one state religion into a system that accepted every religion. The Augustine mentioned above handled two huge objections.
First, the peaceful Christian faith seemed vastly at odds with Roman Imperial directives. The fear was that converted Christians would not take up arms to defend the empire or conquer another country.
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/~jasingle/justwar.html
The classic Just-War Theory has its origins in Christian theology. Saint Augustine is usually indentified as the first individual to offer a theory on war and justice. The Saint referred to the Bible and regarded some wars as necessary to amend an evil. Saint Thomas Aquinas revised Augustine's version, creating three criteria for a just war: the war needed to be waged by a legitimate authority, have a just cause, and have the right intentions. The moral justifcations for a war are expressed in jus ad bellum; whereas, the moral conduct of the war is expressed in jus in bello. The Just-War Theory is a set of rules for military combat.
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The second came from those who read the book of Daniel and Revelation and discovered that the country whose people killed Christ would be the country from which the Antichrist arose. Readers worried that Rome would be the origin of that being. Some suggested the End Time passages be struck from the Bible but Augustine developed an answer:
http://persweb.wabash.edu/facstaff/royaltyr/augustine.htm
AUGUSTINE AND THE MILLENNIUM
"Augustine's principal writing on the subject of the millennium is found in the Twentieth Book of The City of God. In discussing Rev 20:1-6, where the thousand year reign is presented, Augustine stakes out two possible positions. The first is what I call the "Present Postmillenial" position. Postmillenialism asserts that Christ will appear at the end of the millenium. Most Postmillenialist writers assume that the onset of the millennium is yet to come. Thus, most Postmillennialists are more accurately described as "Future Postmillenialists." However, Augustine suggests that the millennium has already started and will reach its climax sometime in the future; hence, he is a "Present Postmillenialist." The second position to which Augustine ascribes has been variously termed the "Spiritual," the "Amillennial, " or the "Immanent" interpretation. In this case, a literal thousand year reign of Christ is set aside in favor of a more allegorical or figurative explanation. Each of these two positions warrants further consideration.In the City of God, Book XX, Chapter 7, Augustine writes: "Now the thousand years may be understood in two ways, so far as it occurs to me: either these things happen in the sixth thousand of years or sixth millennium (the latter part of which is now passing)..." This passage makes reference to Augustine's view of universal history in which six ages of human history are to be followed by a "chialistic" seventh age. During this seventh age, the saints and the just men of God will enjoy their sabbath on earth. In essence, Augustine viewed the age in which he lived as the millennium itself in which the "...kingdom of God (was) already manifest in the Church...the age between Pentecost and the return of Christ was the very millennium itself, marked by the ever increasing influence of the church in overturning evil..."
"Or, Augustine suggests, "...he (John ) used the thousand years as an equivalent for the whole duration of this world, employing the number of perfection to mark the fullness of time." (City of God, XX,7). In this Amillennial or Spiritual interpretation, the thousand years refers to a span of time between the life of Christ (dated either from the Incarnation or Pentecost) until the Parousia. This Spiritual interpretation of the millennium is consistent with Augustine's resistance to the equating of historical events with prophecies cited in the Book of Revelation. As our text points out, in the opening book of The City of God, Augustine makes reference to the sack of Rome by the West Gothic King Alaric in 410. Given the severity and widespread consequences of this attack, it would have been quite tempting for Augustine to refer to the prophecies of Revelation as being fulfilled. He did not. Similarly, Augustine resists identification of Gog and Magog with any particular countries or political entities of the time: "For these nations which he names Gog and Magog are not to be understood of some barbarous nations in some part of the world, whether the Getae and Massagetae, as some conclude from the intitial letters, or some other foreign nations not under the Roman government" (City of God, XX, 11).
"Augustine's offer of two explanations for the millennium - the Present Postmillennial and the Amillennial - may represent an incomplete shift in his thinking on the matter. In general, as he grew older, Augustine's view of Scripture became more literal in character. He worried that his use of allegorical and figurative explanations for Scripture in earlier writings were excessive and far too secular. Curiously, his acceptance of an Amillennial view of the thousand years seems inconsistent with the apparent hardening of his biblical interpretation as he aged. However, in other aspects, his later interpretation of Revelation does reflect literalism. For example, he did believe in the future appearance of an Antichrist, he anticipated a specific reign for the Antichrist of three years, six months, and he spoke at length about the binding/loosing of the devil.
"With either interpretation - the Present Postmillennial or the Amillennial - Augustine believed that he lived in the period of the millennium. From the perspective of Christians, he saw the course of history as generally improving. Constantine's Edict of Toleration in the Fourth Century was clearly a triumph for the Church and may have prompted Augustine to conclude, "Therefore, the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of heaven. Accordingly, even now His saints reign with Him..." (City of God, XX, 9). In Augustine's view, the Church was able to progress in stature and greatness because Satan was only partially bound. That is, Satan could influence the world but he was sufficiently tethered so that he could not mount an all out conflict with the forces of good. From Augustine's perspective, the binding of the Devil occurred each time the Church spread its influence through evangelizing and each time an individual was converted to Christ. To be sure, Augustine knew that the loosing of Satan would one day come and he would wage a massive war against God. This conflict was necessary, according to Augustine, to show the pious and righteous the power of their God in overcoming the assaults of the Devil."
(We will discuss this further when the End times posts begin.)
I personally suspect Augustine developed both theories to keep the church accepted and keep his brothers and sisters from going into further repression. That seems the reason both ideas are developed only to a certain extent as if he were expecting a time to arise when the Church would have a voice powerful enough to out shout the lay government on the issues.
But the Church that threatened as a growing force for Christ now became a place anyone could join. Church membership became a thing of prestige and personal glory, the way to heaven, and a way TO power as opposed to being subjected to death threats for joining. The persecution acted as a winnowing agent, eliminating the temptation for anyone who was only mild in their belief to join.
But then, things became worse. Next time.
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