Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

2:18-23
and leads my servants astray, so that they commit
fornication and eat things sacrificed to idols.
21 And I gave her time to repent; and she does not want to
repent of her fornication.
22 Behold, I will cast her upon a bed, and those who commit
adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they
repent of her deeds.
23 And I will kill her children with death; and all the
churches will know that I am He who searches the minds
and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according
to your deeds.
24 But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not
hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things
of Satan, as they call them – I place no other burden on
you.
25 Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come.
26 And he who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds
until the end, to him I will give authority over the
nations.
27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; like the vessels
of a potter they shall be broken to pieces, as I also have
received from My Father.
28 And I will give him the morning star.
29 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to
the churches.
18 One of the most significant things about the city of
Thyatira was the dominance of trade guilds over the
local economy. Every imaginable manufacturing
industry was strictly controlled by the guilds: In order
to work in a trade, you had to belong to the appropriate
guild. And to be a member of a guild meant also to
worship pagan gods; heathen worship was integrally
connected with the guilds, which held their meetings
and common meals in pagan temples. Two central
aspects of the required pagan worship were the eating of
meat sacrificed to idols, and illicit sexual relations. Any
Christian who worked in a craft or trade was thus
presented with severe problems: his faithfulness to
Christ would affect his calling, his livelihood, and his
ability to feed his family.
The local god, the guardian of the city, was Tyrimnos,
the son of Zeus; and Tyrimnos-worship was mixed in
Thyatira with the worship of Caesar, who was also
proclaimed the incarnate Son of God. The conflict of
Christianity and paganism in Thyatira was immediate
and central – and so the first word of Christ to this
church is the proclamation that He alone is the Son of
God (the only place in the Revelation where this
specific designation of Christ is used). The letter to this
church begins with an uncompromising challenge to
paganism and statism, affirming the definitive, absolute
uniqueness of Jesus Christ.
19-20 There was much that could be commended in
the church at Thyatira. It was active in love and faith
and service and perseverance – in fact, its activity was
increasing: Your deeds of late are greater than at first.
But, in spite of all good works of the church, its great
defect in the eyes of Christ was its doctrinal and moral
laxity (the Thyatirans were thus the opposite number
of the doctrinally correct Ephesians). The elders were
allowing false doctrine to have a place in the church.
Christ again calls the heresy by a symbolic name, as He
had before (Nikolaos and Balaam); this time, the cult is
identified with Jezebel, the wicked queen of Israel
during the ninth century B. C., who led the covenant
people into the idolatrous and adulterous worship of
pagan gods (1 Kings 21:25-26; cf. 2 Kings 9:22, where
her actions are specifically called “harlotries” and
“witchcraft”).
The “Jezebel” of the Thyatiran church similarly
advocated compromise with paganism. Of course, very
pious-sounding terminology would have accompanied
this – perhaps to the effect that, after all, there is only
one God, so any worship rendered to false gods is
“really” offered to the true God; or, that by joining
pagans in their religious services one might be able to
witness for Christianity; or, that going along with the
heathen will enable Christians to survive rather than
be wiped out by persecution; or perhaps that all
religions have something to teach each other, and that
we Christians should abandon our arrogant absolutism
and seek to combine the best of our traditions with the
best in the heathen traditions, thus creating a truly
universal faith, one which answers the needs of all
people and all cultures.
Regardless of the rationale involved, the doctrine was
heresy, and was not to be tolerated. That is the precise
term used here: You tolerate this woman, the Lord
accuses them. And by tolerating her, the elders were
placing the entire church in jeopardy, for she teaches
and leads My servants astray, so that they commit
fornication and eat things sacrificed to idols. This must
be clearly understood: Orthodox, Biblical Christianity
is intolerant. A church that tolerates evil and false
doctrine is a church under judgment; God will not long
tolerate her. This is not to say that Christians should be
intolerant of each other’s mistakes, idiosyncrasies, and
differences over nonessentials. But when it comes to
clear violations of Biblical law and orthodox doctrine,
the government of the church is required by Scripture
to put a stop to it before it destroys the church.
“Jezebel” was, figuratively if not literally, leading
Christians into fornication and idolatrous communion,
the effective abandonment of the Christian faith for
paganism and state-worship. Was there literally a
woman leading the Judaizers in this local area? The
possibility is at least indicated by the specific accusation
against the angel/bishop of Thyatira: “You tolerate
your wife, Jezebel. “It may be that the arch-heretic of
Thyatira was the leading pastor’s wife! On the other
hand, Christ may be pointing in a more general way to
the angel’s failure, like Adam, properly to guard the
Bride – a central function of the priestly calling.
Because he had failed, she had become a Harlot. 20
21-23 Christ had given Jezebel time to repent . . . of
her fornication, and she had refused. We must
emphasize again that this term is used in both a literal
20. This is a major theme in the Book of Judges. See James B. Jordan, Judges: God’s War Against Humanism (Tyler, TX: Geneva Ministries, 1985).
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