The church in Pergamos also dwells where Satan’s throne is. This also refers to the world. The world is not only Satan’s dwelling place, but also the sphere wherein he rules. Now the church is not only one with the world but even one with Satan. This is dreadful! The worldly Christianity of today is still in union with the world and is still being saturated with the thoughts, concepts, theories, and even the practices of Satan. We must see the seriousness of this.
The enemy, Satan, is subtle. His welcome is more serious than his persecution. Firstly, Satan stirs up persecution, and then, when this fails, he changes his tactics and welcomes us instead. We have seen this very thing in the past. Firstly, religion persecuted us, and then, changing its strategy, tried to lure us into compromising with it. This is Satan’s subtlety. If we are snared by it, we shall eventually become worldly and not only be in union with Satan, but also one with him. The Lord has included the seven epistles in the book of Revelation that we may see the true situation of so-called Christianity and also see where and what the church should be. The church should be a pure golden lampstand outside of the world. The church must have nothing to do with the world and must not yield an inch to Satan’s evil and subtle saturation. The church must constantly stand against this.
The two meanings of the word Pergamos—“marriage” and “fortified tower”—correspond to two of the parables in Matthew 13, the parable of the great tree (Matt. 13:31-32) and the parable of the leaven (Matt. 13:33). In the parable of the great tree, a tiny mustard seed became a tree. This undoubtedly signifies monstrous Christianity, for Christianity has certainly become a great tree. In the parable of the leaven, we read of a woman who put leaven into three measures of fine flour. Leaven signifies all the sinful, worldly, evil, satanic, demonic, and devilish things. All these wicked things were put into the fine flour. In the Bible, the fine flour used in the meal offering signifies Christ as food for God’s people. The great tree is the equivalent of the high tower, and the woman with the leaven is the equivalent of the apostate church which has married the world. The meaning of the Bible in this matter should be very clear to us all. In the eyes of God, Christendom is a great whore, an evil woman who has mixed worldly, demonic, satanic, and devilish things with the good things of Christ to produce a hellish mixture. We must absolutely abandon this great tree, escape from this high tower, come out of this evil system, and be separated to God, returning to His original intention that the church be a pure golden lampstand having nothing to do with worldliness, idolatry, or Satan’s saturation. We are not in the place where Satan dwells, in the place where Satan sits on his throne. No, in the church there is no ground for Satan. Here there is no place for Satan to do anything.
In the first three epistles we see three churches—the desirable church, the persecuted church, and the worldly church. We certainly want to be a desirable church and a persecuted church, but we must refuse to be a worldly church. We must reject anything worldly. Be careful! After the enemy has persecuted you, his strategy may change. Instead of persecution, there might be a welcome. Do not regard this welcome as a good thing. Rather, you must fear being welcomed more than being stung by a scorpion. It is good for us to suffer persecution, opposition, and attack. But whenever people extend us a warm welcome, that is a most dangerous time. When you are attacked and are undergoing persecution, do not be discouraged, for that is a strong sign that you are on the right track and that you have not been distracted from following the Lord’s steps. But beware of a warm welcome. It is better to suffer persecution than to receive a warm welcome. The epistle to the church in Pergamos teaches us that we should not be in union with the world in any way, sense, or aspect. We must have nothing to do with the world. During the past fifty years, a warm welcome was extended to us quite a number of times in a subtle way, but thank God that we rejected it every time. As a result, throughout the years we have been preserved by being persecuted. We have never received a good name, because Satan will not allow you to have a good name unless you enter into union with him. This is why we in the Lord’s recovery are constantly involved in a battle and are continuously attacked. A war is raging all the time. The Lord’s recovery is not carrying out a common Christian work. No, this testimony is a warfare.