Revelation

The Sword of Authority (Pergamos)

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Prerequisite/Law

Lesson: 4-30

Genre: Talk

Track: 172

Dictation Name: RR129B4

Location/Venue:

Year: 1960’s-1970’s

Our scripture is from the second chapter of Revelation verses 12-17; Revelation 2:12-17. The Sword of Authority, Revelation 2:12-17.

“And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;

13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.

15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate.

16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”

Since my childhood I have been a stamp collector. And I have learned that there are identifying marks which indicate the country of origin with all postage stamps. So that, for example in the past ten years, it has been very rare that a new stamp has perplexed me more than briefly. Knowing the identifying marks, I have known the point of origin. The same is true of coins. A coin collector very quickly comes to recognize those things which identify the coinage of a particular country.

This is true in other areas as well. I saw once the collection of a man whose hobby was American guns, and American weapons of war. Without even picking up a weapon, he could on sight whether it was in his own collection or in another mans, identify it and say that this was a weapon of such and such a period in the last century, manufactured by a particular company, or that it was during a set period of years, used by the U.S. Army. He recognized them because he knew the identifying marks. And he could also quickly detect the difference between for example, a gun that was used in the French army and the British army, as well as the German and Austrian armies. He knew the differences, and he could identify in a collection of bayonets and swords their point of origin, because each had its identifying mark.

Now this point is important and it has a basic connection to our text today. The letter of Christ to the church of Pergamos. Pergamos was a city North East of Ephesus, a capitol city, the greatest city in Asia Minor at that time. Pergamos has receded into the past, and we have forgotten much of what characterized its splendor. Among other things Pergamos had a library of over 200,000 books, which in that era was a very sizeable library. The very word Parchment comes from Pergamos.

Pergamos was dedicated above all the other cities of Asia Minor to Emperor worship, as the center and the greatest city of Asia Minor it was the natural focal point of the cult. And like Ephesus, Pergamos called itself: (Neocoras?) Temple sweeper or Temple slave. Ephesus so spoke of itself in relationship to the goddess Diana. Pergamos with respect to the temple of the Divine Caesar.

Now the symbol of the Roman Imperial power in Pergamos and in the far corners of the empire was a readily identifiable one. It was a Roman sword. And at that time the Roman sword differed from the swords of all surrounding countries and rival powers in that the other swords were single edged swords, and with various curvatures depending on the point of origin and the country of their manufacture. But the Roman sword was different in that it was two-edged, and the swords as we know it today that are two-edged swords are descendants of the Roman sword. The Roman sword represented the Roman imperial power, it was a symbol of the presence and power of Caesar, of his authority, of his claim on all peoples, that he had the power of life and death over all those under his jurisdiction.

So that the sword of Caesar, and of court, or in a place of authority indicated the absolute power of Caesar with respect to life and death over all people. But Jesus Christ began His letter to Pergamos: “These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges.” And there are two references in this very brief letter to Christ as the possessor of this sword, the Roman sword. And implicitly any and every sword, any and every authority in any and every state. This was addressed to the people in Pergamos. Had it been addressed to the people in Parthia it would have been a reference to a Parthian sword.

‘These things saith He that hath the two edged sword, in whose hands belong the ultimate authority over Rome, and over every power. So that it is I who have the power of life and death ultimately over all things, including Rome. And they who do not recognize my authority and bow down to me are under my judgment.’

There can be no neutrality with respect to Christ.

And to the angel of the church of Pergamos, and of Los Angeles, and of Washington D.C. and London, and Moscow, and Paris, and Rome, and Berlin: “These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges.” Whose authority is over all men and nations, and declares unto them, ‘You cannot be neutral to me.’

“I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is:”

Some people refuse to permit any Christian to say an unkind word about any governmental authority, this is a violation they say of Romans 13. I wonder what they do with the word of our Lord, who spoke of the center of Roman authority in Asia Minor as Satan’s seat? As the place where Satan dwells? Because if Christ does not dwell and reign in any place, there Satan dwells. And if the word of Christ does not govern the United States Supreme Court, and Congress, and the President, and the states and counties of America, those places are where Satan dwells. Either Christ reigns there or Satan does. You cannot throw Christ out and still insist that it is not Satanic.

And Christ makes it emphatic, again at the end of the verse He speaks of them being where Satan dwelleth.

“I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.”

‘You have been faithful, and you did not turn and defect, and it was a situation of martyrdom, when Antipas my faithful martyr was slain you were faithful. At that time you too were willing to die.’

The name given to Antipas is significant: “My faithful martyr.” Jesus Christ in the first chapter of Revelation in the 6th verse identifies himself as “The Faithful Witness”. Now, the word Witness in Greek is Martys, which is the same word that we translate also as Martyr, it means witness. Witness or martyr. A martyr is simply a witness who has witnessed unto death.

“But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.

So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate.”

There has been endless speculation as to who the Nicolaitanes were, after whom they were named, the point of origin; and while it would be interesting to know it would be basically a fruitless inquiry. Because our Lord has identified them sufficiently. He compares them to Balaam. Balaam was a false prophet who wanted to have a foot in both camps, in the camp of God and in the camp of the enemies of God. And in order to do that he set out to corrupt the people of God so that his own compromise would not become obvious. And we have today in the church all kinds of Balaamites, Nicolaitanes, who want to corrupt and to corrupt the people of God so their own corruption, their own compromise will not be apparent; who lead the churches astray so that they themselves will not appear to be that which they are, because if the whole church is apostasy, in compromise, in corruption, their own depravity will not appear.

And so Jesus Christ warns against them. ‘These are compromisers. And what are they compromising with? The state. And what does the state stand for? Really, nothing. Rome at that time was possessed by doctrines not unlike that which govern the world today, relativism. We have it in the United States today in the form of progressivism, Dewyism, Pragmatism, Existentialism, Instrumentalism, whatever name you call it. We have it in the form of the doctrine of equality; and all of these add up to one thing: if you say all things are equal you destroy meaning. If I say a handful of silver dollars is the same as a handful of sand, I have destroyed meaning, I have destroyed value. If I say that good and evil are equally ultimate and equally meaningful, I have also said they are equally meaningless together with all things. And this was the philosophy of Rome.

As Rendall has said with regard to the attitude of the Romans of the day, to be summed up thus: “Why repudiate evil, if it be but part of ultimate reality?” Why repudiate it? Insist on the total equality of all things. And this was stoicism. Stoicism said that life was equal to death, and good was equal to bad, that there was no differentiation because all things were basically equal. And so it was, Rome had lost the will to resist, because if all things are equal, what point is there in resisting anything? The only reason the delay is occasioned in the fall of Rome is because Rome was not sufficiently challenged by any strong rival. It simply, finally, crumbled. And disappeared.

This was the belief. This was the relativism. This was the kind of thing the church was compromising itself with. There was an attempt to merge the church and the world, to eliminate the offense of the cross, and to say: “We are all working for the same thing, we have a common goal. Why quarrel?”

And the word of Christ was blunt:

“Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna,”

Again the military language. ‘To him that overcometh. To him that wrestles, who struggles, who goes to war and triumphs over the powers of darkness, of evil. To him will I give to eat of the hidden manna.’

The hidden manna means supernatural provision and sustenance. It means provision and deliverance in our daily life. It means that to the world we become a mystery because the world cannot understand why we stand, though it can see that we stand. It can see the effects, but it cannot see the cause. We have a hidden manna, a hidden source of nourishment, of strength, of sustenance.

“To him that overcometh… will I give to eat of the hidden manna. and will give him a white stone.”

The white stone has a double significance. The significance is not specified here, as to either one or the other so that in effect the value of both meanings of a white stone accrue to the text. A white stone was used, and the kind of white stone depending on the use was sometimes of ivory, sometimes of other materials, either a rectangle or a cube. It was used at a trial, and it represented the vote of the jury, so that a white stone represented acquittal; it meant deliverance. And Jesus Christ said: ‘To him that overcometh, to him that stands in terms of me uncompromisingly, in terms of my word, will I give a white stone of acquittal. They are freed from the guilt of their sin, from the burden of sin and death.’ In the court of God they stand acquitted.

But the white stone had another meaning. One type of white stone was used when a war hero returned home, and it was handed to him, and it was a pass. And as long as he was allowed to have that, it was a free pass to food and to entertainment. He was a victor. A part of his victory was this kind of privilege.

And so Jesus Christ says: ‘To him that overcometh will I give a white stone, acquittal from the burden of sin and death, and the privilege of rest and refreshing in and through me.’

“and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”

We all have a name entered into the citizenship of our country. But Jesus Christ says: ‘I declare you thereby to be a citizen of my kingdom, with a new name, a name indicating your higher citizenship, your new nature, the fact that you have extraterritorial privileges and rights in my sight, in that you are a citizen of my kingdom and you bear my authority and my power in this world, and shall have this protection and its blessing.’

This then was the letter to the church in Pergamos. A church in a difficult situation, a church facing persecution, a church where Antipas had already died, a faithful martyr, a faithful witness. But Jesus Christ as He speaks to this church says: ‘Your real problem is not with Rome, it is with yourself. Separate yourselves from those who deny the faith, who compromise it. Refuse to be compromisers, be overcomers. Stand in terms of the faith, and summon others to stand. And to he that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in this stone a new name written.’

This is the word of God to the church in Pergamos, to every Pergamos of every generation, to us as we find ourselves in Pergamos. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, we give thanks unto Thee for this Thy gracious word. We thank Thee our God that Thou hast called us to be victors in Christ, and has given us such gracious promises of victory, and of the privileges of victory. Give us faith therefore to stand in terms of Thy word and by Thy Spirit, to overcome, and to rejoice in Thee. In Jesus name, amen.

Are there any questions now? Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Paul speaks of the fact that we are saved by faith, so that everyone who truly believes in Jesus Christ is saved. Then he says that we are rewarded according to our works, and he speaks of some being saved as by fire, that is coming out of a burning building which represents their life, and he says a building built of hay or stubble, which goes up in smoke, so they escape without a stitch, just with their bare lives. Others of wood, a little more is rescued, but others of solid materials, precious metals, this is how their life has been built, so that their reward is proportionate. And our Lord spoke of this in the parable of the talents when He said to some: ‘be Thou ruler over ten cities. In my eternal kingdom ye shall have a position of great authority.’ But to others that had not used their talents but were saved, it was another situation, and those of course who by their misuse failed to indicate any salvation, there will be a casting out.

Another question?

Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] How may we know that we are in the tribulation? I don’t feel that there is any certainty as to that, and much of how one answers that depends on how one defines the tribulation, that depends on the eschatology of the person. I would say there have been many tribulations, and saint Paul said that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of heaven, so that, it comes in different ways to different people, it comes to the earth or to the nation, or to a people, so that we can experience these things and know it when we are in it, but as far as defining a period of the tribulation as such, this depends on ones eschatology, and I won’t go into that at this time.

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Another question? Yes.

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Before the birth of Christ you had a number of different calendars. You had of course the Hebrew calendar, you had the Roman calendar, the Babylonian, the Egyptian, so that various peoples had different calendars. And these calendars depended on various national factors. Sometimes the calendar was renewed in the reign of each ruler.

Now, our present designation, B.C. and A.D. began in the Christian era, and there are those who within the Christian church believe that it should be altered, that we should instead of talking about B.C., begin with the year of creation and number forwards to the birth of Christ; and some Biblical chronologists have done this, they feel that it makes history much more logical.

Now, there is a difference of opinion with regard to that, some hold that this is questionable since we cannot very definitely affirm the date of creation. I think we have a great deal of data in the Bible to indicate that we do have a trustworthy chronology however. But the B.C. A.D. is a part of the Christian view of history.

Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Well, do you have any more on the lecture before we go off the lecture? Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Very good question. We have under any situation the requirement of Romans 13, to obey in so far as it does not contradict the word of God. We are to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves, and when we see a point of futility as far as resisting we must bend. Because we must recognize the futility of fighting where there is nothing to appeal to. For example, it is increasingly ridiculous to look to the courts for justice, because the courts are increasingly committed to a standard that is anti Christian. So that, we need to take heed today of our Lords injunction that it is better to settle out of court; and saint Paul’s… to do anything rather than go to court, because in most cases we are putting ourselves in the hands of the worst kind of people.

Today we have such a topsy-turvy world that, if you defend yourself against someone who invades your home, you can be guilty of murder or of assault, and it was several years ago I think about 4 years ago or 5, when I was on a trip in Texas, and in one of the biggest cities I arrived there and spoke at a Christian school, some children were pointed out to me and I was told: “They are the grandchildren of the woman you read about in the morning paper, who was brutally murdered.”

What had happened? A negro had come into her home and broken in, and she had taken refuge in her bedroom and barred the door, and he broke through, she reached into her nightstand for her revolver, but was so nervous she couldn’t even handle it. He killed her. And his plea was that he killed her in self-defense. The disposition of the trial I don’t know, but I do know that very powerful attorneys were flown in to defend that man, whose purpose was not only robbery but apparently rape as well.

And just recently we read, and this is something that is true in this country too, of the situation with regard to liable in Great Britain. A safe cracker had been arrested, and tried, and convicted, and was in prison. And the detective who cracked the case wrote a story for the newspapers, and was paid to write the story, in which he told how he arrested this man and so on and so forth, and described the details of how he had solved the case. The convict sued him for liable, and won a judgement against the detective of over $3,500. Why? Because liable is anything that is damaging to the reputation of a person. If you call attention to the fact that someone in your organization is a thief, instead of a good treasurer, you may be damaging their reputation, and be wide open to liable.

Now… what?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Even if it is true. Even if it is true it can be liable. So you see the predicament we are in with respect to the court, we need to be circumspect and avoid the courts because they represent not justice but evil. And today what are all these hoodlums doing? They are deliberately invoking the law, breaking it to get into the court, to invoke the law, to appeal to the Supreme Court in order to overthrow the law.

It is a regularly established pattern, all kinds of cases are deliberately set up with this purpose, it is in effect a kind of conspiracy. Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] It’s a very difficult one, there is no over-all statement, this is an area of Christian liberty. Some of us may feel that there are times when we are faced with a choice say of a respective candidate for senator, or mayor, or governor, where we can vote for neither, because the lesser of two evils is still too big an evil to vote for. Other times we may feel that we have to do something in order to oust at least an incumbent. Other times, perhaps still another attitude may govern our mind, or we may feel that it is important to work in order to get a third candidate on the field, at least to upset the establishment and the established pattern. Either, all questions of individual liberty, and it is not an area where we can in most cases issue an overall moral requirement. Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Well, along the same line you have the fact that increasingly our presidents are establishing their birth places and their homes as national shrines, so that one division of the government today handles these national shrines. The word shrine is literally used, and what is a shrine? It is a religious sanctuary, a place that houses an image or an icon or a God. And they are using this word deliberately, national shrines. Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Right. The law, if it is truly law, rests on and is an expression of the Ten Commandments. So the first point of upholding the law is for us, in our personal lives, to uphold it. That is the beginning of all law enforcement, we enforce the law on ourselves. Second, we enforce it in our community and in the organizations that we are associated with on the local level. And this I think is the big area where Christians have to work today if they are going to work on politics.

It is a little difficult now to do much about the national scene, we can hope that something will be done, and will lend our effort, but at least on the local scene the county still has the right to refuse any and all Federal and State fines. It can close down welfare. It can close down any and all such programs if it simply says: “We will not take the money.” It simply requires that act of courage. And this is an area where a great deal can be done politically, but you see we cannot hope to win on the national level if on the local level nothing is done, and today one of the problems is of course that everyone is for cuts in Federal spending, but not for anything that effects their district or their state.

So, a revival of law and order begins on the personal and then on the local level. This is basic, and this is an aggressive area of political activity by and large. The amount of money, millions upon millions poured into State and Federal elections, as against that dedicated to local elections is startling.

Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] No. You realize the wickedness of the world we are in, you realize that you cannot act with the total freedom you would in a day when you would do something about it legally, and take action because you had a Christian framework of law and order. You do what you can, as circumspectly as possible within the framework of your organization. That is the way to do it. And this is your only way out.

I have seen a few cases where something comparable to that has happened, and attempts at legal resource have failed; and in one case the only net result was that the Internal Revenue came around to the person to collect taxes on the extra income.

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] No, there it is an all-out persecution of anyone who is a Christian. So that it is Operation Obliteration to a great extent.

One of our groups passed on to me not too long ago this circular interplay, which is very interesting, they wrote to NATO under an assumed name to ask for some material, and they received it. But they also received this supposedly independent magazine ad, Interplay the Magazine of European/American Development. So it is quite obvious this new periodical which is going to be published, is very close to NATO. It is not subsidized (by it?). Now, the symbolism that is used here on the cover of this little brochure as well as on the envelop is very interesting. It is the yang and yin of ancient Chinese philosophy. The male and the female principles. And the thesis of the Yang and the Yin philosophy is that there is no right and wrong, no good or evil. The only thing you move by is in terms of the situation, what will work at the moment. What will advance you, what is personally most fitting. You have heard of the Confucian concept of propriety? This is it.

Now it is significant that this symbol is appearing now-a-days on more and more literature, and you find similar symbols representing the same basic kind of philosophy appearing on the literature of some university catalogs. The new religion is making itself manifest. The Yang-Yin philosophy has been the curse of China for a number of centuries. It has prevented progress, because if all things are equal and the only thing that is the criterion is what advances you, then progress is impossible, because whatever you might work for can be no better than what you have, because on principle all things are the same. All things are equal.

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Yes, this symbol is used for the interracial movement, there the colored’s are usually black and white, but it is the same principle of total equality of all things, there is no standard in any sphere. Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] It is a new creation, but there shall be time no longer; however there will be work. Now, when we have our poverty program people talking about a workless world we should remember that there was work in paradise before the fall, but it was work without a curse, there is work after the end of the world in the new creation, again without a curse. It is blessed work, in the purposes of God there is always work, except in heaven for the saints at rest in the stand between their death and the new creation. Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] It goes back very, very early. At least to the very early years of the Christian era, which was basic to the philosophy of Laozi, Daoism. It was basic to Confucius, it was basic in India to the philosophy of Buddha, and Buddhism took over very readily in China, even more readily than in India for this reason. And it has rapidly taken over much of Christianity, in the Orient, because they have reinterpreted the Bible in terms of this Yang-Yin philosophy, and some of them have used Hegel to help them to this end.

I knew one very brilliant Japanese theologian, some years ago, I believe he has since died, whose entire perspective towards the Bible was of this philosophy. He liked it, it was a marvelous tradition, he wanted incorporated in Japan, he wanted to see the people acknowledge Christ; but it was not a Christ you and I would recognize. It was a Christ whose basic principle was this Yang-Yin philosophy.

It was an incredible thing. But this has happened very extensively in the Orient. Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Right, Technocracy used the same Yang-Yin symbol. When you begin to think, you will find that it is very common all around us, and its meaning is always the same although it is disguised from us. Yes?

[Audience Member] ...?...

[Rushdoony] Their basic thesis is to promote a new kind of dialogue between Europeans and Americans, and of course to bring about a merger of cultures, Soviet, Western European, American, so that basically we become all one, and equality of all ideas governs their thinking.

Well, out time is up and we stand dismissed.