The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

period. Those who remained true to the Lord, those who resisted the temptation of
worldly patronage and the desire to rule before the appointed time, constituted the
overcomers of this period.
The facts have been reviewed in an interesting way by one who, in referring to the great
change that took place in Christianity in this period, said:
"This fall from heavenly to earthly citizenship was accompanied, moreover, by a gradual
exchange of spiritual worship for carnal superstitions. Worse than carnal, indeed! Satan,
who had tempted the Church into accepting earthly dominion from his hands, now
seduced her into mixing his own ritual with her simple primitive services. For we must
not forget that, according to the explicit teaching of Scripture, paganism is really
demonism. 'The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not
to God' (1 Cor. 10:20), says the Apostle. Whether the deluded votaries of Jupiter and Mars
knew it or not, it was really true that demons were the instigators and recipients of their
worship. Idolatry is always and everywhere the religion of Satan, ordained for stealing
from God the homage of human hearts and turning it to himself. And so, little by little, the
elements of paganism began to mingle with the worship of Christ--holy water, candles, the
wafer, images, processions, the adoration of saints and relics, the idolatry of the cross, and
much more--of all which we may assert confidently what Cardinal Newman concedes
concerning the first, that they were originally 'the very instruments and appendages of
demon-worship.'"
Although the Church as a whole yielded to the subtle temptation of Satan, yet out of it was
preserved a faithful company, who will at last be numbered amongst the elect ones, the
one hundred and forty-four thousand who will constitute the Bride, the Lamb's Wife, and
reign with Him upon His throne. A portion of this faithful number of the Pergamos period
are referred to and addressed by the Savior under the symbol of "Antipas, my faithful
martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth." In the Greek anti means
"against," and papas signifies. "father." The true followers of our Lord at this and
subsequent times bore witness against this disobedience to His words, "Call no man
father." (Matt. 23:9.) It must be remembered that this was the period of Church history that
gradually merged into Papacy. A most prominent feature of Papacy is that of enforcing
celibacy upon its clergy, declaring them to be married to the Church, and teaching all its
members--sons and daughters--to call their clergy "father."
The sin of Balaam in Pergamos
We now consider the particular evils mentioned by Him out of whose mouth proceeded
the sharp, two-edged sword. One of these, that of Nicolaitanism, we have already
considered in the message to Ephesus. We observe a very significant difference between
the way it is mentioned in this message to Pergamos and that in the one to Ephesus. In the
Ephesus message it is designated "the deeds of the Nicolaitans." This was seen by true
believers in Ephesus to be an evil, and it is mentioned as being abhorred, "hated," by the
Savior. We noticed in our study of that period that Nicolaitanism referred to a tendency