PERGAMUM= TURKEY! KEEP WATCH “To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘I know your works, and where you dwell... where Satan’s throne is. And you hold fast to my name, and did not deny my faith even in the days in which Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. Revelation 2:12 Today, all thats left of the city of Pergamum, now in modern-day Turkey, are ruins. But when the Apostle John wrote his letter to the church there, it was one of the most influential cities in the Roman Empire. “Pergamum had a unique status that was different than any other city because it was the political center, says Rick Renner, the author of A Light in the Darkness, a study of the seven churches of Asia Minor. “It was from there that all the rulings were made that affected the whole of Asia Minor.” The people of Pergamum were inventors and innovators. They perfected a parchment made out of calfskin and built the worlds first psychiatric hospital. Pergamum was also a well-known center for the arts. The city’s theater seated ten thousand people a night. The acoustics were so good that a whisper on stage could be heard all the way in the top row. The citys acropolis rivaled Athens, and its library was the second largest in the ancient world. Its collection was so great that the Roman general Marc Antony presented it as a wedding gift to Cleopatra. At the end of the first century, Pergamum was a thriving city. So why does the book of Revelation call it the dwelling place of Satan? The answer lies in the ruins of the citys temples. “On one side, it was a very beautiful city,” says Renner. “But on the flip side, it was one of the darkest, eeriest cities in the whole Roman Empire.” The people of Pergamum were known as the Temple-keepers of Asia. The city had three temples dedicated to the worship of the Roman emperor, another for the goddess Athena, and the Great Altar of Zeus, the king of the Greek gods. Many scholars believe this altar is the “Throne of Satan” mentioned in the book of Revelation. “That word ‘throne’ was used in a personal private residence, and it was a chair for the lord of the house, the master of the house,” says Renner. “The very fact that Jesus would use this word means that Satan felt at home there. He sat on a throne there. It was his territory. He was the master of that house.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 06:07:21 +0000
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