26. THYATIRA

NEXT in order comes the Church which is ever offering sacrifices,¹ and to her the Lord presents Himself as the Son of God, thus solemnly vindicating His despised majesty against her idolatries, and the claims of the false prophetess. For, without any formal rejection, He has been virtually denied by the introduction of other objects of worship, and the heed given to spirits

¹ Θυάπειρα, that is, Θυῶν ἀπειρής, she that is never weary of presenting sacrificial offerings.

of darkness. And since Thyatira imagines that she has concealed her Heathenism under a cloak of Christianity, He speaks of His eyes of flame which can penetrate the inmost secrets of man, and detect all the depths of Satan; and intimates that He is shortly coming to trample down His foes beneath the feet which glow like brass in a furnace.

In this Church the great multitude of individual members are children of the adulterous Jezebel, and only a remnant belong to Christ. The latter are sincere, but, owing to the corruption with which they are surrounded, in great ignorance; and to them exclusively the Lord addresses Himself. He sees much to commend in them, abounding works, love, faith, ministry, and patience: nay, these good fruits are ever increasing. But their affection is unbalanced, and their power of resisting evil consequently weakened. They are better than the Ephesians in that their love, far from waxing cold, is becoming warmer; but inferior to them in that they have not learnt to test those who falsely claim to be apostles, and to find them liars.

Foremost among these pretenders was a woman, perhaps of noble extraction, certainly of great influence; but a worshipper of idols, a sorceress and harlot, who, while she seems to have borne the name of Jezebel, also resembled the infamous wife of Ahab in her character and actions. To understand what she was doing in Thyatira, and more especially what is her prophetic antitype, we must briefly consider the history of the Israelitish queen.

Jezebel was not by birth a daughter of Abraham, but a princess of idolatrous Tyre at a time when its

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royal family was famed for cruel savagery and intense devotion to Baal and Astarte. Her father Ethbaal, a priest of the latter deity, murdered the reigning monarch Pheles, and succeeded him. Her nephew, whom Virgil calls Sychaeus, afterwards became king and priest of Baal, and was the husband of Dido. He was assassinated by his brother Pygmalion, who ascended the throne in his stead, and through fear of whom the widowed Dido fled to Africa and founded the city of Carthage. Born of a family so distinguished for fanaticism and crime, Jezebel proved herself in every way worthy of her lineage, and found the condition of her husband's realm most favourable to her plans.

For the first monarch of Israel had disregarded the law of God on the ground of expediency, and had set up the golden calves at Bethel and Dan, incurring thereby so terrible a guilt that it is repeatedly said of later kings;—"He walked in all the ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and in his sin, wherewith he made Israel to sin." By acquiescing in this act the Israelites of the Ten Tribes were completely cut off from their brethren; nor was this the end of the mischief. Within their own borders, all true servants of Jehovah refused to be separated from His Temple, and, therefore, left their homes and migrated to Judah; so that the land was forsaken by the godly.¹ And restraints having been thus removed, the Israelites naturally inclined more and more to their Heathen neighbours, to whom, indeed, they had become assimilated in religion by

¹ 2 Chron. xi. 13-17. This migration sufficiently accounts for the presence of a few families of the Ten Tribes among the Jews in New Testament times.

the setting up of the calves, since they were now themselves image-worshippers, or idolaters.

But the lesser sins are pioneers of the greater. By thus adoring Jehovah under the form of an image, they were preparing their hearts for a still worse crime, the avowed worship of other gods; and, just at the right moment, Satan presented the temptation in the person of Jezebel. Aided, probably, by her youthful beauty, her winning fascinations, and popular manners, she propagated the religion of the Phoenician deities with fierce determination of character and fanatical enthusiasm; and the success attending her efforts was so great, that a temple with an altar and image of Baal was erected in Samaria, and Ahab also made "a grove"—which is not a plantation of trees, but an obscene symbol of Astarte. In fine, the gorgeous and lascivious worship of the Pagans was appreciated to such an extent that it soon became the national religion, completely obliterating the old faith; so that Elijah actually supposed himself to be the only God-fearing man left in Israel. For no voice of remonstrance was raised, although the altars of Jehovah had been broken down, and His prophets slain with the sword, and replaced by the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of the grove, that is, of Astarte. Elijah did, indeed, by calling down fire from heaven, make the renegade people fall on their faces and cry out for the moment, "Jehovah, He is the God!" Yet the influence of Jezebel was so powerful, that on the very next day he was flying for his life. And this influence she exercised, not only while her husband was alive, but also during the reigns of her two sons, Ahaziah

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and Jehoram. Moreover, the marriage of her daughter Athaliah to Jehoram, son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, supplied her with a lever by which to move that country also. Nor did Athaliah disappoint her mother's hopes, for she caused a house of Baal to be built in Jerusalem itself;¹ while her sons broke up the House of the Lord, and bestowed its dedicated things upon the Baalim.²

We may conclude our sketch of Jezebel's character by citing the words of Jehu to her son;—"What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?"

Returning to the Jezebel of Thyatira, we find the charges brought against her to be, that she falsely called herself a prophetess, and that she taught and seduced the servants of Christ to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed to idols. When we remember that the Christians of those days were even more closely surrounded by Heathenism than the Israelites of old, we may easily understand the process of corruption to which this lying prophetess was subjecting them. Time had been given to her to repent, but she repented not: therefore judgment was near. She had chosen the bed of sin: it should be changed into a bed of anguish: her paramours should be thrown into great tribulation, and her adulterous children slain. And their fate should cause a fear to fall upon the Churches, like that which men felt when they saw Ananias and Sapphira smitten with death in the midst of the assembly.

Having thus pronounced sentence, the Lord turns to His own, whom He calls "the rest"—for even in

¹ 2 Chron. xxiii. 17.

² Ibid. xxiv. 7.

Thyatira He had much people scattered amid the throng of idolatrous professors; just as there were seven thousand in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal, though Elijah was ignorant of them. These were, indeed, standing in rank side by side with the corrupters, but without consciousness of their real position: they were deceived by their seducers, and knew nothing of the depths of Satan and his dark plans.

The Gnostics, as their name implied, boasted of a deep insight into the things of God, and the mysteries of evil; and under the guise of assumed knowledge, led their followers step by step into an abyss of wickedness and uncleanness. But the remnant were guileless of this great iniquity; and, although they had occasional scruples which they sometimes boldly avowed, were, nevertheless, honestly disposed to look upon the evil around them as more than counterbalanced by the good, and did not at all perceive the intention of the whole system of doctrines presented for their acceptance. And so in His treatment of them, ignorant and bewildered as they are, the Lord is full of consideration and tender love. They have no power to fathom the Satanic depths; therefore, He will lay upon them no other burden than that they hold fast what little truth they have until He come.

It will be noticed that this letter deals with a far more settled state of wickedness than that which existed at Pergamos. The latter Church had, indeed, committed fornication with the world; but in Thyatira the children of the adulterous connection appear.

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For the present Epistle foreshadows the career of Ecclesiasticism, that mysterious power which was dominant during the period of the Dark Ages, and continues even in our days to exercise a baleful influence. The body of nominal Christians first attached themselves to the Heathen World-kingdom, which was under the influence of Mystery Babylon; and then suffered the Mother of Abominations to lay hold of them, and use them for her own purposes. For the initiated, having once begun to profess Christianity, diplomatized so skilfully that they presently succeeded in procuring the bishopric of Rome for one of their own leaders. This was effected in the years 366-367 A.D., when—after his faction had engaged in a bloody conflict with that of his rival Ursicinus, and had on one occasion stormed a church¹ out of which they dragged some hundred and fifty corpses—Damasus found himself in secure possession of the episcopal chair, and forthwith proceeded to complete the union of the Christian and Heathen communities. In the year 378 A.D., the emperor bestowed upon him the title and office of Pontifex Maximus,² and means were then taken for subordinating the universal Church to the See of Rome, just as the whole Heathen world was subject to the Grand Master of the initiated. And all who refused to acknowledge Astarte under her new name of the Virgin Mary, or who would not deny the second coming of Christ in His glorified flesh, were regarded as heretics.

In 381 A.D., the second general council met at Constantinople, and by its decrees the Pontifex

¹ Then called Liberius, now St. Mary Major

² This title is still retained by the Pope.

Maximus was recognized as Head of the universal Church, while the Bishop of Constantinople was to rank as second to him. The amalgamation thus became an accomplished fact, and before the year 400 A.D., "the tonsured priests of Isis, sworn to celibacy," were being received as the ministers of Christ. Just as in Israel the prophets of Baal and Astarte replaced those of Jehovah, so the false Church, the new Jezebel, introduced the hierophants of the very same deities, under changed names, among the followers of the Lord Jesus. Then all the doctrines of Paganism began to be preached, with a little change in the nomenclature, and were declared to be Christian—baptismal regeneration, justification by works, the sacrifice of the mass, extreme unction, prayers for the dead, and many others. The mystic tan was everywhere prominent as the sign of the cross; the wafer of Astarte was substituted for the broken bread; the bishop retained the crooked staff of the Roman augur, but called it a crosier; and wore on his head the fish-head mitre of the priests of Dagon.¹ Everything was Pagan except the bare names. The vast conspiracy to convert Christianity itself into Heathenism had succeeded, so far as the bulk of professing Christians was concerned.

To those who were not aware of this fearful mystery, and still clung to the visible Church in ignorance of the change which had taken place, the Lord speaks of knowing their works, and love, and faith, and

¹ Many curious illustrations of this mitre may be found among the Assyrian and Babylonian antiquities in the British Museum. It bore no resemblance whatever to the so-called mitre of the Israelitish High Priest; for the latter was a turban of fine linen, and its name מַצְלָפֶת is derived from צָגַף to roll.

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patience. For to these points the preaching of the innovators was mainly directed, in order that they might draw off the minds of Christians from doctrine, and so retain their influence over them. The sincere acted upon this preaching, and many wonderful deeds of love, labour, and self-denial, resulted. These works did not escape the Lord's notice: His grace rested upon the but partially enlightened Christians who did such things out of a pure heart; and His Spirit taught them, so that they often detected error, and resisted it even to the death. For the Roman Jezebel, like the Phoenician princess, soon began to slay the prophets of God. The latter should have had sufficient perception to discover that Rome had no part or lot with Christ, and so have disowned her. But they were blind: they suffered the woman to teach and seduce, looked upon her as the true Church, and strove only against particular errors, which they did not associate with the general system. Yet, after a while, some began to see the name "Mystery Babylon" upon the forehead of the Harlot.

The words, "till I come," seem to be an intimation that this apostasy will not altogether disappear until the Church has been summoned to meet her Lord. Indeed, we have already seen that the great ecclesiastical system will be broken up and destroyed by the Ten Kings, in order that they may give all power to the Beast; and that the latter does not arise out of the troubled waters until the Man-child has been safely conveyed to the Throne of God.

In this Epistle only the Lord adds something to the description of the one who shall obtain the reward, and designates him as "he that overcometh, and he that keepeth My works unto the end." For there would be strong temptation to keep other works, to serve the Church rather than Christ; and if any one were so influenced, however pious he might seem, he would not ultimately be found among the overcomers.

Again the promise is strikingly appropriate. After the toils of the wilderness, the Israelites were, if they remained faithful, to subdue the Canaanitish nations and possess their land. So shall the Church hereafter subjugate and rule over the world with Christ, as soon as the last weary traveller of her long procession shall have passed out of the desert of this life. In the present age, we are individually priests unto God, and should take heed that we do not neglect the priestly duties of interceding for and instructing the people; but, when the great King shall have gathered together into one the children of God that are scattered abroad, then will the time have come for the Saints of the High Places to possess the Kingdom.¹ The Roman Church wishes to reign now, without the presence of Christ, without His apostles, and without the countless members of His body who have already crossed the stream; but those who resist her seductions, and are willing to be esteemed as nothing in this world, shall, when the Lord comes, enjoy to the full that after which she is vainly striving. And so completely does the Lord identify Himself with His own that He gives

¹ It is, then, not without deep meaning that we find, in Rev. i. 6, the remarkable expression, "a Kingdom, priests"—such is, doubtless, the correct reading supplied to the Church. The difference of number points to the fact that, immediately after conversion, every member of Christ is a priest individually; but that believers can only become a Kingdom when all have been gathered together to the Lord.

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to them the very same power over the nations which He has received from His Father.

"Faithful is the saying: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him: if we endure, we shall also reign with Him."

But there is something more for the overcomer: he shall have the morning-star—a promise differing from that which was given to the pious Jew, upon whom the Sun of righteousness shall arise. The explanation is, perhaps, as follows. Those who anxiously wait for the dawn know its welcome harbinger, the silver planet, which emerges in the glimmer of early twilight, bright and conspicuous at first, and then growing fainter and fainter in the gradually increasing light, until at last it dies "on a bed of daffodil sky." But sometimes it is swept away in very different fashion; it may be that it has scarcely appeared when the storm-cloud comes on, obliterates it in a moment, shuts out the hope of day, and brings back the darkness of midnight. Yet, after a while, the roar of the tempest is hushed, the angry lightnings cease, the clouds part and float away, and lo! the sun has arisen, and is looking down upon the earth in all the splendour of his might.

Such a daybreak as this must, it would seem, be in our minds when we consider the promise of the morning-star. Those servants of Christ who are ever looking for His coming will see Him when He calls His own to Himself. But this manifestation, of which the slumbering world may be altogether unaware, will be but momentary, and then the storm-clouds of the Great Tribulation will bring back midnight darkness upon the earth. At the close, however, of the time of trouble, the Messiah will appear in all His glory to deliver the children of Abraham, and, as the clouds part, will be found to have arisen as the Sun of righteousness, with healing in His wings, over them that fear the name of the Lord.¹