Revelation 2:14 "I have a few things against you, for you have those who hold the teaching of Balaam..."

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OUR BORDERS [within and without]:

So Went Israel, So Goes the Church – Caught in the snare of idolatry & fornication through teachings of Balaam & Nicolaitans:

We continue seeing an increase, within our nation and those around the world, seduced into idolatry, immorality, and lawlessness, including within many churches. When we can look past the deceptions and understand the type of war we are in, we can better position ourselves in Christ for what’s coming next. But we are witnessing the unseen enemy working through nations’ governments, ruling authorities, and many church leaders, setting a snare, or, better said, a “stumbling block” before the people they proclaim to serve.

The letters written to the churches in Revelation are crucial for us to heed. From forsaking one’s first love to setting stumbling blocks through seductive false teachings to other rebukes given to churches we still need to wrestle through, we see these issues growing in many modern churches. The state of today's churches is the greatest sign of the lateness of the hour we are living in, as we move fast toward the Beast’s Golden Age system, now made ready for him. This system will bring a false forced righteousness with a form of godliness without the Spirit of God as religions of the world combine with governments united in an unholy union. Friends, stay alert with me, as this is all unfolding rapidly. Let no man deceive us, and take to heart what Jesus has written to us through the apostle John.

As God quickens His Word prophetically in every way right in front of us, He is both shaking and awakening those within the church and those in the world through diverse challenges, thereby driving individuals towards Jesus Christ our Lord in repentance or further away from Him towards the deceptive lies of this world. Let us prepare ourselves and seek greater discernment in this final season we find ourselves in.

With this intent, I am pressed by our Lord in my spirit to continue in Part 3 of my blog miniseries, “So Went Israel, So Goes the Church,” where many churches have been caught in a deceptive snare and are being led away, not just from their first love of God, but into idolatry and fornication. May we examine ourselves and the message Jesus gave to this church in Pergamon, as written in Revelation 2:12-17, and compare Israel with many modernized churches who have strayed, bringing judgement on themselves.

These letters follow a pattern: a description of Jesus, a commendation, a rebuke, a call to repentance, and a reward to those who overcome. It is worth repeating that as we examine ourselves, we set aside our preconceptions, traditions, denominational ties, political persuasions, ideologies, and our unique cultural differences, for if our identity is not rooted in Christ Jesus alone, our faith is displaced, and we may find we have slipped into this snare unaware.

To the church of Pergamon, Jesus gives a warning based on His own description as “the One who holds the sharp, double-edged sword.” This sharp, double-edged sword cuts two ways and demonstrates His authority and the power of His Word – the authority to judge and discern our hearts, whether they are genuine or found to have been caught in deception, thus departing from the way. The passage in Ephesians 6:13-18 admonishes us to put on the full Armor of God [who is Christ], and in verse 17 to specifically “take the helmet of Salvation, and the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” This is why when we read that “the Word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword” in Hebrews 4:12, it rings true to a believer's ears. Jesus is Alive! Jesus is Active! And that Sword that comes forth from Him judges us. We cannot separate this spiritual reality from the physical letters written us in the Holy Scriptures.

In Isaiah 49:2, we read, “He made my Mouth like a sharp sword. He hid Me in the shadow of His hand. He made Me like a polished arrow. He hid Me in His quiver.” That’s powerful, isn’t it? In Matthew 10:34, Jesus said, “Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a Sword.” This verse doesn’t contradict the angels' proclamation to the shepherds in Luke 2:14, stating, “Glory to God the Most High, and peace on earth to men” at His first advent. This verse qualifies those who get this peace in the next phrase, “among men with whom He is well pleased!” Consider the significance and understand this two-edged Sword of the Spirit of the Word of God within its full weightiness.

Beloved, we who have placed our faith in Christ alone, having been born again after His seed, are a new creation! We have His peace, if we are abiding in Him, even when the trials and struggles of life here and now come upon us. His favor is resting on us and in us! But this Sword will also cause division when the Truth confronts the world of lies and deceptions, of self-gratification, of self-comfort. This Sword will cause tension – tension in our families, with friends, and with this world we sojourn in.

Pray with me for greater discernment as we take our “Readiness Test” so that the Sword of the Spirit of the Word of God will drive us towards Him in repentance and not away from Him as we look at this message given to this church type, one that is compromised.

Pergamon, in modern-day Turkey, was noted as the original location of the “Synagogue of Satan,” which was moved stone by stone to the Pergamon Museum in Berlin in the mid-nineteenth century, a detail that may be significant to us today. But here again, these believers didn’t deny Jesus’ name, nor their faith in Him, even after a faithful witness of Christ was killed among them.

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However, Jesus brings His rebuke in Revelation 2:14-15: “But I have a few things against you, because you have there some holding the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block before the Israelites so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit fornication [i.e., to act like a harlot, indulging in all forms of immoral self-pleasure practices and idolatry]. So too, you have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.”

You may be familiar with the account of Balaam in Numbers, but I encourage you to revisit it, as it relates to this warning. Balaam, a seer for hire back in the day, showed his greediness for wealth and gain through deceit. The Nicolaitans, similarly, emerged in the early church and promoted antinomianism, literally meaning “against the law.” This belief system taught that there were no longer any moral laws God expects Christians to obey. It encouraged indulging in every fleshy self-pleasure while claiming they are followers of Christ, misleading many.

The truth is, if we do not obey Jesus’ command to love God and our fellow man, then we have gravely misunderstood His purpose in dying and rising again in victory and what loving God and our fellow man means. Jesus crushed the enemy’s head, thereby setting us free from the bondage to sin and enabling us to overcome it in Him, not to give license to continue in it. For though we are no longer under the “letter” of the Law, as Christ fulfilled it for us in perfection, note what Paul makes clear in Romans 6:1-2: “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?”

With that intro, let’s consider individually the final warning given to Israel through the prophet Jeremiah, and the final warning given us by Christ to His churches in Revelation 2-3, specifically here relating to His warning to the church in Pergamon. Although these messages are echoed in numerous other scriptures from Old Testament and New Testament prophets and apostles, and this is by no means an exhaustive list, the following are six warnings given to Israel then, and to us, the church, now. I encourage you to cross-reference them with related scriptures for deeper understanding.

1. Jeremiah is lamenting to the LORD: “To whom shall I speak and give warning, that they may hear? Indeed, their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot give heed. Behold, the Word of Yahweh is a reproach to them. They have no delight in it. I am weary of holding it in.” [Jeremiah 6:10-11]

   • Today the time has come when many no longer endure sound teaching, but with itchy ears gather themselves to teachers to suit their own desires. [2 Timothy 4:3] / Jesus’ statement to the scribes and Pharisees: “The one being of God hears the Words of God; therefore, you do not hear, because you are not of God.” [John 8:47]

2. Balaam-like greed-driven teachings through deceit: Yahweh says, “Because from the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is given to coveting greediness. And from the prophet even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have also healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed, nor did they know even to blush. Therefore, they shall fall among the fallen. When I punish them, they shall be cast down,” [Jeremiah 6:13-15]

   • Today the time has come when “through their coveting greediness they will exploit you with fabricated (artificial, fictitious) words, for whom the judgment of long ago is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.” [2 Peter 2:3] / We are seeing to an unprecedented degree that which Paul lamented, saying, “For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now I say even weeping, are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly and whose glory is in their shame, those whose mind is set on earthly things. [Philippians 3:8-19]

   • We have lived in a time where we continually hear “Peace and Security!” And while they are saying, “Peace and Security,” then sudden destruction comes upon them as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. [1 Thessalonians 5:3]

3. Nicolaitan-like teachings that defile the temple: “They have set up their abominations in the house that bears My Name, and so have defiled it.” [Jeremiah 7:30] / “Woe to the shepherds [pastors] who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture!” declares Yahweh. [Jeremiah 23:1] / “Among the prophets of Samaria, I saw an offensive thing. They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray. (14) And among the prophets of Jerusalem, I have seen a horrible thing. They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on evil. They are all like Sodom to Me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.” [Jeremiah 23:13-14]

   • The time has come when there is an unprecedented number of false prophets and false teachers who “are secretly introducing destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. (2) Many will follow after their licentiousness (i.e., self-indulging in unrestrained fleshly liberties in contempt of the just restraints of the moral laws) through whom the way of the Truth will be blasphemed. [2 Peter 2:1-2] / “Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Korah.” [Jude 1:11]

   • The time has come to heed this warning: “Be shepherds of God’s flock among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain [greed], but with eagerness.” [1 Peter 5:2]

4. The LORD said, “I also set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen.’ Therefore, hear you peoples, and know, O assembly [congregation], what is among them. Hear, O earth! Behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people; the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not heeded My Words nor My law, but rejected it.” [Jeremiah 6:17-19]

   • The time is now when, despite the cry of the few true watchmen and watchwomen, people seem not to heed the warning and command of Jesus to “Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” Many have fallen asleep when we have been admonished to “not be like others, who are asleep, but to be awake and sober.” [1 Thessalonians 5:6] The church is not heeding the command to “Watch!” [Mark 13:37] / Note what Paul writes, “But you, brethren, are not in the darkness, that the day (of the LORD) should overtake you like a thief. You are all children of Light, and children of the Day. We are not of the night, nor of darkness.” [1 Thessalonians 5:4-5] Watching is a command given to us, so that through the Spirit we may understand the season and are not overtaken by it like a thief.

5. They set stumbling blocks before the people: “For what purpose to Me comes frankincense from Sheba, and sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet to Me.” Therefore, thus says Yahweh, “Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall on them. The neighbor and his friend shall perish.” [Jeremiah 6:20-21]

   • Today many are stumbling ‘over the Word’, rejecting the ‘chief cornerstone’ who is Christ, and are easily offended by the Truth. “Wherefore, thoroughly take hold concerning the Scripture, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone. And the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.’ Therefore, to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,’ and ‘A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, who stumble at the Word, being disobedient, to which they also were appointed.” [1 Peter 2:6-8]

6. Lying prophets are abounding today in the name of the LORD: “I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ How long will it be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed, they are prophets of deceit of their own heart.” [Jeremiah 23:25-26]

   • Jesus often warned us not to be deceived: “Be aware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. [Matthew 7:15] / “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. [1 John 4:1] / “For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.” [2 Corinthians 11:13] Consider this: Not every sign, wonder, and “move of the 'Spirit'” is necessarily of God. Watch therefore; discern the spirits.

These passages warn us of those who are compromising the Truth. As believers, we need to be discerning in this critical season of the last hour. Let’s consider together where we may be compromising our faith. Is it through and for social acceptance? Fear of being unfriended or ridiculed? Are our ears circumcised and hearing? We live in a self-obsessed world that prefers ease and comfortable messages. May we honestly lay ourselves open before Him and let His Sword of the Spirit discern our hearts and minds, revealing that which needs to be cut away, repenting (having a change of mind in recognition of it), and turning towards Him to remove it. We need to know His Word intimately with the Spirit in us to recognize the difference between the genuine and the deceivers (i.e., liars). Furthermore, we must love one another enough to hold each other accountable to the Truth, offering encouragement, admonishing one another in love, and even giving correction when necessary. This is what love does.

Let's watch, pray with all diligence, and seek Him to know Him and make Him known in this late hour. Maranatha! His is the only One Worthy!

Revelation 22:20: He who testified to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! / Listen to the song of the hour: In Christ Alone [Shane & Shane]

Related resources and information: Account of Balaam and Balak - Numbers 22, 23, 24, 25 [BibleHub.com] / Nicolaitans [BibleHub.com] / Who are the Nicolaitans [Got Questions] / What is antinomianism? [Got Questions] / Danger of Rejecting God’s Word [BibleHub.com] /

Wake Up From Slumber – Proclaiming Our Blessed Hope. Don’t be shy. I would love to hear from you all out there!