Post by Admin on Oct 11, 2018 6:40:12 GMT
We enjoyed a rollicking discussion tonight, starting with background provided by the author of the study. He postulated that when Constantine succeeded as Emperor and made Christianity the state religion in 313 AD, persecution of Christians ended and so did the purity and closeness of the early church. Instead, large numbers of people were baptized or claimed to be Christian, possibly motivated by meeting social expectations, rather than experiencing genuine conversion. This background set up the congregation in tonight’s letter, Pergamum, showing themselves as believers on the outside, while tolerating any ideas on the inside, even though the original letter is written long before the Constantine situation in the 4th century.
Jesus states that Pergamum is true to Him, which is a powerful endorsement, and that the congregation stood fast in the face of watching one of their own martyred for Christ. So far, pretty good. Then He continues that some members are entertaining false teaching or immoral activity. We engaged in much discussion over how the members of Pergamum could discern false or impure ideas to guard against them. “Test the spirits,” Paul told the early Church and still says that to us today. We can use Scripture to help us today. In the time of John, a congregation was lucky to have a gospel or letter to two as written doctrine. That leaves what method of testing? Examining ideas, discussing their evolution and enactment, considering their consequences, and doing all these with the help of the Holy Spirit. This is a process we can also use today.
One observation is that the situation at Pergamum might be described overall as the congregation straying from their connection to Christ, thus allowing non-Christ perspectives. They look connected, and maybe they felt connected, which is why Christ speaks to them. He asks them to “repent.” That means they have something they need to change.
The individual reward for repentance in this case, manna, and a white stone with our name on it (construed to be a token to enter the temple), seemed to us to represent the daily love and support God provides to us, and our daily opportunity to come to him in praise and prayer.
Jesus states that Pergamum is true to Him, which is a powerful endorsement, and that the congregation stood fast in the face of watching one of their own martyred for Christ. So far, pretty good. Then He continues that some members are entertaining false teaching or immoral activity. We engaged in much discussion over how the members of Pergamum could discern false or impure ideas to guard against them. “Test the spirits,” Paul told the early Church and still says that to us today. We can use Scripture to help us today. In the time of John, a congregation was lucky to have a gospel or letter to two as written doctrine. That leaves what method of testing? Examining ideas, discussing their evolution and enactment, considering their consequences, and doing all these with the help of the Holy Spirit. This is a process we can also use today.
One observation is that the situation at Pergamum might be described overall as the congregation straying from their connection to Christ, thus allowing non-Christ perspectives. They look connected, and maybe they felt connected, which is why Christ speaks to them. He asks them to “repent.” That means they have something they need to change.
The individual reward for repentance in this case, manna, and a white stone with our name on it (construed to be a token to enter the temple), seemed to us to represent the daily love and support God provides to us, and our daily opportunity to come to him in praise and prayer.