Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

2:11-13
Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord”
(Job 1:21). 10 So the divinely ordained purpose for the
devil’s wicked activity is that you may be tested: as
Samuel Rutherford wrote, “the devil is but God’s
master fencer, to teach us to handle our weapons.” 11
The trials of Christians are not ordained ultimately by
Satan, but by God; and the outcome is not destruction,
but purity (cf. Job 23:10; 1 Pet. 4:12-19). The
tribulation of the church at Smyrna would be fierce,
but relatively short in duration: ten days. Daniel and
his three friends had been tested for ten days, but they
passed the test, and were promoted to high privilege
(Dan. 1:11-21). Similarly, the Jewish persecution of the
church in Smyrna would be allowed to continue for
only a short while longer, and then the church would
be free: Ten days of tribulation in exchange for one
thousand years of victory (20:4-6). Even so, the time of
testing was to cost the lives of many in the church, and
they are exhorted to be faithful until death, in order to
win the crown of life. This is not a blessing reserved for
some unusually consecrated class of Christians, for all
Christians are to be faithful until death. The Bible
simply does not know of any other kind of Christian. “If
we endure, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny
Him, He also will deny us” (2 Tim. 2:12). “You will be
hated by all on account of My name,” Jesus said; “but it
is the one who has endured to the end who will be
saved” (Matt. 10:22). The crown of life is salvation
itself.
11 The faithful Christian who overcomes opposition
and temptation shall not be hurt by the Second
Death. The fact that this was originally said to a firstcentury
church helps us understand the meaning of
another passage in this book. Revelation 20:6 states
that those who are not hurt by the “Second Death” are
the same as those who partake of “the First
Resurrection; and that they are priests and kings with
Christ – a blessing St. John has already affirmed to be a
present reality (1:6). Necessarily, therefore, the First
Resurrection cannot refer to the physical resurrection
at the end of the world (1 Cor. 15:22-28). Rather, it
must refer to what St. Paul clearly taught in his epistle
to the Ephesians: “And you were dead in your trespasses
and sins. . . . But God, being rich in mercy, . . . even
when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive
together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
and raised us up with Him” (Eph. 2:1, 4-6). The
Christian, in every age, is a partaker in the First
Resurrection to new life in Christ, having been
cleansed from his (first) death in Adam. 12 He “has
eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has
passed out of death into life” (John 5:24).
Pergamum: Judgment on the
False Prophet and Godless King (2:12-10
12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The
One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this:
13 I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s
throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny
My faith, even in the days of Antipas, My faithful
witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
14 But I have a few things against you, because you have
there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept
teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons
of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit
fornication.
15 Thus you also have some who in the same way hold the
teaching of the Nicolaitans.
16 Repent therefore; or else I am coming to you quickly, and
I will make war against them with the sword of My
mouth.
17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to
the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give
of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone,
and a new name written on the stone which no one
knows but he who receives it.
12 Pergamum was another important Asian city, and
played host to a number of popular false cults, the most
prominent being those of Zeus, Dionysos, Asklepios
(the serpent-god who was officially designated savior),
and, most importantly, Caesar-worship. Pergamum
boasted magnificent temples to the Caesars and to
Rome, and “of all the seven cities, Pergamum was the
one in which the church was most liable to clash with
the imperial cult.” 13
To this major center of deified statism, Christ
announces Himself as the One who has the sharp twoedged
sword. Rome claimed for itself the position of
Creator and Definer of all: The Empire’s power over life
and death was absolute and final. But, whereas Rome
asserted that its right of execution was original, the
message of Christianity was that all power and
authority outside the triune God was derivative – the
various rulers and authorities are created, and receive
their dominion from God (Rom. 13:1-4). It is Jesus
Christ who wields all power in heaven and on earth
(Matt. 28: 18), and the ultimate power of the sword
belongs to Him. As the Sovereign Lord and Ruler of
the kings of earth (1:5), He has laid down the law to
the nations. If the rulers do not apply and enforce His
commands throughout their divinely-ordained jurisdiction,
He will bring his sharp sword down upon their
necks. 14
13 The believers of Pergamum are living where Satan’s
throne is (cf. comments at 1:4 on the centrality of the
throne-theme in Revelation). Robert H. Mounce notes
several of the suggestions as to the meaning of this
10. See John Calvin’s comments on this passage in his Institutes of the Christian
Religion, ii.iv.2.
11. The Letters of Samuel Rutherford, Frank E. Gaebelein, ed. (Chicago: Moody
Press, 1951), p. 219.
12. Of course, there will also be a second resurrection (a physical one) at the end
of history, but that is not mentioned in Rev. 20:6. See John 5:24-29, where
Christ discusses both resurrections.
13. Robert H. Mounce, The Book of Revelation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1977),
p. 96.
14. That this is true for all nations, and not just Old Testament Israel, can be
seen by reading (for example) Psalm 2 and Daniel 4. Comprehensive discussions
of God’s law as it relates to nations and rulers are contained in James B.
Jordan, The Law of the Covenant: An Exposition of Exodus 21-23 (Tyler, TX:
Institute for Christian Economics, 1984); Rousas John Rushdoony, The
Institutes of Biblical Law (Nutley, NJ: The Craig Press, 1973); and Greg L.
Bahnsen, Theonomy in Christian Ethics (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and
Reformed Publishing Co., second cd., 1984).
53