The 7 churches

The apostle John mentions the seven churches in the province of Asia in the first chapter of Revelation but doesn’t go into detail about each one until chapter two. I used a photograph of a church with a black crow on it to create this digital piece of art but the only church with the crow is the church of Pergamum because it’s ‘The Church of Satan’s City.’ The reason I used the crow is because of its color (black)
Black is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery. Black is a mysterious color associated with fear and the unknown (black holes or the abyss) It usually has a negative connotation (blacklist, black humor, black death). Black denotes strength and authority; it is considered to be very formal, elegant, and prestigious color (black tie, black Mercedes). In heraldry, black is the symbol of grief. Black gives the feeling of perspective and depth, but a black background diminishes readability. Black contrasts well with bright colors. Combined with red or orange black gives a very aggressive color scheme.
Satan knows the weaknesses of the churches just like he knows our weaknesses. His strategies are not random; rather, they are specific and calculated. Removing love for Christ was his strategy at Ephesus, and persecution by the Roman Empire was the strategy in Smyrna. In Pergamum, he is going to try and weaken the church through compromise. The same strategy Balaam used against Israel was the strategy Satan brought against the church in Pergamum.
The doctrine of Balaam
It’s impossible to understand Revelation with knowing the Old Testament, in this case, Numbers Chapters 22-25. Balaam was a pagan prophet in the Old Testament who ran a business of getting the gods to grant favors. He would intercede with any god as long as the price was right. Balak, the king of Moab which was an enemy of Israel, wanted Israel destroyed. So, he went Balaam and offered to pay him to cause a curse to fall upon Israel. Balaam agreed, but try as he might he was unable to curse Israel. Every time he opened his mouth a blessing upon Israel came out. So, Balaam taught Balak how to put a stumbling block in the path of Israel in the form of enticements from the Moabite women. These women enticed Israelite men to take part in Idolatrous sacrifices and commit sexual immorality (Numbers 25:1-3). In response, God killed 24,000 Israelites because they compromised their faith, because Balaam taught Balak how to make the Israelites stumble and fall.
The doctrine of Balaam is “If you cannot curse them, corrupt them.” Balaam coveted money and was willing to do anything for it. (2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11), including telling someone else how to lead them to sin. Christ brings the evil example of Balaam to light in the church at Pergamum. There were apparently some there who “[held] the doctrine of Balaam” (Rev. 2:14) thinking they could indulge in the pagan practices around them without harm to their own spirituality. Though they had been courageous in maintaining their faith, they were beginning to compromise their faith by adding to it the practices of the pagans in Pergamum.
Ephesus represented the apostolic church and Smyrna the persecuted church. But Pergamum represents the church that got married to the world. This happened when Diocletian, the evil Roman Emperor, died and Constantine won control of the Empire. He decided the whole Empire should become Christian and declared it to be so. This unholy marriage of church and state resulted in Christianity being forced upon people, almost like emperor worship had been. With all official recognition of Christianity by Constantine there remains no evidence that he was a born-again Christians. Click here to understand what a Born-again Christian is.
Pagan temples became churches, pagan holidays became Christian holidays, pagan statues became Christian icons and pagan priests slipped into positions of Christian influence. The marriage of church and state was underway, and the Pergamean period of church history was born. The world entered the church with the blessings of the emperor.

History lesson on Constantine
Civil war broke out in 305 B.C after Diocletian and Maximian retired. During the strife Constantine replaced his father Constantius as ruler in the Eastern part of the Empire. Constantine devoted himself to Sol Invictus (Unconquered Sun) The official Sun god of the later Roman Empire and a patron of soldiers.
In 312 Constantine wins the battle of Milvian Bridge and attributes victory to Christ in a vision he had seen. In 313 a religious freedom is introduced into the Roman Empire and Christianity becomes a way to move up politically in the Empire. As Constantine accepted Christianity the numbers of converts exploded. The sheer numbers of Christians required a new organization. The organization made it so each city had a Bishop. The Bishops in large cities were called metropolitans and those that served the largest Christian communities became patriarchs. Many assumed that the patriarchs of Constantine’s new city would rule Christianity but instead Rome became the center of the faith.
The warning for us today is never to bow the knee to anyone but Christ.; never compromise our faith. We can do lots of good things for Christ, but bringing the world into the church can be the beginning of the end.

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