In Revelation 2:20 the Lord says, “I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My slaves astray to commit fornication and to eat idol sacrifices.” The woman here is the very woman prophesied by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 13:33, the woman who added leaven (signifying evil, heretical, and pagan things) into the fine flour (signifying Christ as the meal offering for the satisfaction of God and man). This woman is also the great prostitute of Revelation 17, who mixes abominations with the divine things. The pagan wife of Ahab, Jezebel, was a type of this apostate church. The apostate church is filled with all manner of fornication and idolatry, both spiritual and physical.
In Revelation 2:20 the Lord indicates that the apostate church is a self-appointed prophetess. A prophet is one who speaks for God with God’s authorization. The apostate church presumes to be authorized by God to speak for God. She demands that people listen to her rather than to God.
The church in Pergamos had the teachings of Balaam and of the Nicolaitans, and these are continued in the apostate church signified by the church in Thyatira. Furthermore, the apostate church herself teaches, causing her people to listen to her rather than to the holy Word of God. Her adherents are all drugged by her heretical, religious teaching, not caring for Christ as their life and life supply, as indicated by the tree of life and hidden manna promised by the Lord to the churches in Ephesus and Pergamos (Rev. 2:7, 17).
Revelation 2:24 indicates that the apostate church teaches “the deep things of Satan.” “Deep things” means depths as in Ephesians 3:18. It figuratively denotes mysterious things. The apostate church has many mysteries or deep doctrines. Against the suffering church there was the synagogue of Satan (Rev. 2:9); with the worldly church there was the throne of Satan (2:13); and within the apostate church there are the deep things of Satan. The religion of the synagogue, the world under Satan’s throne, and the philosophy of the satanic mysteries are all used by Satan to damage and corrupt the church.
The church suffered persecution from the synagogue of Satan, and eventually she became worldly, dwelling in the place where Satan dwells and where his throne is. But in Thyatira there is something more serious than this. Now Satan has come into the church and has saturated the church with himself. In the apostate church are the deep things of Satan, the mysterious teachings of Satan. This is the satanic philosophy. The apostate church does teach the satanic mysteries. This indicates that the deep thought of Satan, Satan’s concept, has saturated the apostate church. Eventually, this church becomes the embodiment of Satan. The proper church is the Body of Christ, but the apostate church is the embodiment of Satan. Christ indwells the church, but Satan indwells the apostate church in a subtle way through the teaching of the deep things of Satan, the mysteries of Satan. The apostate church teaches mysteries, but not the mysteries revealed in the New Testament concerning God’s economy. Rather, the apostate church teaches the mysteries of Satan.
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