In the first chapter we saw God’s economy and man’s failure. In this chapter we want to begin to fellowship concerning all of the things which we need to overcome.
In the seven epistles to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, there is not much concerning the overcoming of sin, self, and the world. Instead the Lord stresses that we need to overcome three things, which I call three “isms.” Every “ism” refers to a religion. Throughout human history and even until today there have been three main religions, three “isms”-Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism.
In the epistle to the church in Smyrna, the Lord referred to the “synagogue of Satan” (Rev. 2:9). The synagogue is a strong sign of Judaism. Since the time that the Jews lost their temple and were scattered throughout the whole world, they began to worship God in places other than the temple. According to Deuteronomy 12, no one has the right to worship God anywhere except in the place chosen by God, the place where His temple was built. The temple could be built on this earth only in the place, in the very spot, which God had chosen. Jerusalem was the spot where the temple was built, but the Roman prince Titus destroyed that temple, not leaving one stone upon another stone (Matt. 24:2). The temple with the city of Jerusalem was thoroughly devastated in A.D. 70. Since then all the scattered Jews have worshipped God in their synagogues. Thus, the synagogues are strong signs of the Jewish religion. The Jews even refer to their synagogues as temples, but they are not the temple. Apparently those in the synagogue were worshipping God, yet the Lord Jesus said that the synagogues were not of God but of Satan. Judaism has been greatly usurped and utilized by Satan to damage God’s interest on this earth and to persecute and martyr many faithful ones (see Rev. 2:9, note 95-Recovery Version).
In the fourth epistle, to Thyatira, we see another “ism,” Catholicism. In this epistle the Lord refers to a woman by the name of Jezebel (Rev. 2:20). In Matthew 13 He speaks of a woman who mixed leaven with three measures of meal to thoroughly leaven it (v. 33). This woman in Matthew 13 is Jezebel in Revelation 2, signifying Catholicism.
We can see Protestantism in the fifth epistle, to the church in Sardis. The Lord told those in Sardis that they had a name that they were living, but actually they were dead (Rev. 3:1). Protestant Christianity is dead and dying. Some may consider the reformed Protestant Church to be living, but the Lord said that she is dead. Hence, she needs the living Spirit and the shining stars (v. 1).
Later in this book we will see that these three “isms”- Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism-are the damaging factors on this earth to interrupt and to annul God’s interest. In the seven epistles to the seven churches, what the Lord charges us to overcome is mainly these three “isms.” These three religions were invented according to and based upon God’s holy Word, but all of them have deviated from God’s holy Word to become something different in nature from the church revealed in the holy Word. We all have to respond to the Lord’s charge to overcome these three religions.
Now we need to consider the history behind the formation of these three religions. In Genesis God created man in His own image and in three parts with a spirit which is full of capacity to contact God, to receive God, and to retain God (1:26; 2:7). Then God placed man before the tree of life with the intention that man would receive Him as life (2:9). But right away Satan came in, seducing Adam to take the wrong tree. That tree is the tree of death, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That devastated the very man whom God had created for His purpose.
Then this man, a corporate man which we call mankind, became altogether the flesh, full of lusts. This is clearly unveiled in Genesis 6 (vv. 3, 5-6). God could not tolerate such an evil world any longer, so He decided to judge the world by the flood. He charged Noah to make an ark for his and his family’s salvation from the damage of Satan (vv. 11-14). Then Noah became a new beginning for God. But later the descendants of Noah became one with Satan at Babel, which was full of idols (Gen. 11:1-9). Thus, the man whom God had created failed utterly in fulfilling God’s purpose, becoming one with God’s enemy.
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