Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

2:17
of by St. Paul in terms of fornication (2 Cor. 11:2-3).
But those who overcome the Nicolaitan enticements,
St. John says, will be granted access to the Tree of Life
(2:7). Those who refuse to eat Balaam’s food will eat
manna from heaven, and will be included in the
number of those whose names are written on the stone
(2:17).
If the church is to be blessed, however, the false
teaching must not be permitted. Christ, speaking to the
rulers of the church, orders them to repent. The
offenders must be recognized in their true character as
heretical apostates, who will cause the downfall of the
church if they are not excommunicated. The church
that fails to discipline its members will be destroyed –
even an otherwise faithful and exemplary church such
as that at Pergamum. The Lord threatens that if they do
not repent, I am coming to you quickly, and I will
make war against them with the sword of my mouth;
the Angel of the Lord had met Balaam with a drawn
sword (Num. 22:31), and a sword was used to kill him
(Num. 31:8). As we have observed already (see on 1:7
and 2:5), this warning of Christ’s Coming is not a
statement about the Second Coming of Christ at the
end of history, but rather refers to a judgment within
history. It is a judgment that was imminent to the
church in Pergamum, especially in light of the fact that
judgment was about to be unleashed upon the whole
world (3:10). The same principle has been repeated
again and again throughout the history of Christianity.
Wherever heretics are indulged by the people or by the
leadership, the church is on the verge of being
destroyed by the jealous wrath of Christ.
17 The overcomer is promised three things. First,
Christ will give him of the hidden manna (i.e., the
manna hidden in the Ark, which is Christ: Ex. 16:33-
34; Heb. 9:4) – a symbol taken from the supernatural
gift of “angels’ food” (Ps. 78:25), giving daily strength
and sustenance to the people of God during the Exodus
from Egypt. In essence, that is what Christ
communicates to His Church at every moment.
Definitively, we have been restored to Edenic provision
for our needs, and that will be progressively realized in
history until the final consummation and fulfillment of
all of God’s plans and promises for His people.
Second, the Christian is promised a white stone. This
has been seen variously as referring to a ticket to a feast,
a token of acquittal (i. e., justification), or some such
reflection of a common practice of John’s day. While
these interpretations do not need to be excluded, of
course, there is a much more satisfactory way to look at
this stone in terms of Biblical revelation. There is a
white stone connected in the Bible with manna, and it
is called bdellium (cf. Ex. 16:31 with Num. 11:7). 18
Moreover, this stone is connected with the Garden of
Eden, and is intended to be a reminder of it (Gen.
2:12): Salvation is a New Creation, and restores God’s
people to Paradise.
Third, the Christian is granted a new name, speaking
of the new character and identity of those who belong
to Christ. As always, God the Lord is the Definer, who
has called us into being and wholly interpreted us in
terms of his predetermined plan:
The nations will see your righteousness,
And all kings your glory;
And you will be called by a new name,
Which the mouth of the LORD will bestow. (Isa. 62:2)
The fact that the name is written on the stone would
seem to argue against the interpretation of the white
stone given above, for we are never told in Scripture of
any writing of names on the bdellium. Yet this only
serves to confirm the interpretation. The stone which
was marked with a name in the Old Testament was the
onyx stone. Two onyx stones were placed on the
shoulders of the High Priest, and on them were
engraved the names of the tribes of Israel (Ex. 28:9-12).
Yet the onyx stone was not a white stone – it was black.
The explanation for this seems to be that the bdellium
and onyx are simply combined in this imagery (a
common device in Scripture) to create a new image
that still retains the older associations. The connecting
link here is the bdellium: it is associated in Genesis
2:12 with onyx, and in Numbers 11:7 with manna.
Together, they speak of the restoration of Eden in the
blessings of salvation.
One further point about this promise should be
explained. No one knows the new name, Christ says,
but he who receives it. The meaning of this expression,
rooted in a Hebrew idiom, is that the name is “known”
by the receiver in the sense of owning it. In other words,
the point is not that the new name is secret, but that it
is exclusive: Only the overcomer possesses the name,
the divinely-ordained definition of himself as belonging
to the covenant of the Lord Jesus Christ; no one else
has the right to it. 19 In its particular application to the
situation at Pergamum, the Nicolaitan heretic, who by
his doctrine or life is a traitor to the cause of Christ,
does not truly own the designation Christian. The name
belongs only to the overcomers. They, and they alone,
are granted readmittance to the Garden. They gain
entrance through the sacrifice of Christ, in whom they
have been redefined and renamed.
Thyatira: Judgment on the Royal Harlot (2:18-29)
18 And to the angel of the church of Thyatira write: The
Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet
are like burnished bronze, says this:
19 I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service
and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater
than at first.
20 But I have this against you, that you tolerate your wife,
Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches
18. See Chilton, Paradise Restored, pp. 33 f.; cf. Ruth V. Wright and Robert L.
Chadbourne, Gems and Minerals of the Bible (New Canaan, CT: Keats
Publishing, 1970), pp. 16f.
19. This passage should be compared to 19:12-13 and 15-16. In the chiastic
arrangement given there, v. 15 explains the meaning of v. 13 (how the blood
came to be on the robe); and v. 16 explains v. 12 (the name written on the
Lord). There, too, the point is not that no one knows what His name is– for
the text itself tells us His name! – but, rather, that He is the only One who
knows it in the sense of possessing it as His own. (See Kline’s discussion of this
point in Images of the Spirit, p. 130.)
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