Footsteps of Messiah, page 18. So the second church we come to is Smyrna. We looked at Ephesus last week. And Smyrna then, prophetically, is the church of the Roman persecution from 100 to 313 AD. So this comes after the apostolic church of Ephesus. Now we get into Smyrna. And this is what the scripture says in verse 8. And to the angel of the church of Smyrna write, These things says the first and the last who was dead and came to life. I know your works, tribulation and poverty, but you are rich. Spiritually is what he's talking about. I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. Now, that's an interesting phrase, and quite honestly, a lot of commentators are torn between what's being spoken here. One interpretation is that the term Jews is reference to God's people. And if they're dealing with the Romans, the Romans thought they were the God's people, not anyone else. And so the Romans were persecuting them. This would make sense because of Roman persecution. And so the idea is they're not literal Jews. It's a figurative term to those who think they're God's people who would be the Romans. It could very well be historically in that local situation that there were Jewish people persecuting the Smyrna church, especially if they were saying that Jesus is the Messiah, and that might have been happening locally. So you have both interpretations that are both acceptable. I think on a prophetic scenario, I think the broader term makes more sense because if there are Roman persecutions happening and they go all the way to 313, as you'll see here in a bit, it makes sense because the Romans thought they were doing their gods a favor by persecuting the Christians. They called the Christians atheists, believe it or not. And why did they call the Christians atheists? Because they didn't believe in the pantheon of gods of the Romans. So they said, you guys are a bunch of atheists. They called them cannibals, that they didn't like people, they were unsocial, things like that. So we can take that passage in both ways, one historical and then prophetically. And then I want you to see this. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have a tribulation in ten days." Now, that might have happened, and we do believe, we think it happened historically, that they had ten days of persecution, but then on prophetic level, something else happened. What we see in history between 100 AD to 313, or even before that, you can go with Domitian in 96, there are 10 official Roman persecutions of the church during this period of time, 10 of them. I don't think that's a coincidence. I think when you see the prophetic scenario, that's exactly what Christ was trying to tell this period of time in history is that you're going to have major persecution. This is what we talk about when they were thrown to the lions, and they were thrown into the gladiatorial arenas, and they were burned at the stakes, and stuff like that. That's what we're referring to as this epoch of history. And it's true. There were 10 of them. Now, the issue of 10 is significant. 10 typologically, anytime you see numbers in the Bible, they mean something. So you might wanna write this off to the side, but what does 10 mean when you see the number 10? 10 means a totality or an all-inclusiveness in what's being said, a totality or all-inclusive. It means a plurality or a unity made up of parts. a unity or a plurality made up of parts. It is basically the number of fulfillment. And the idea about this plurality or unity made up of parts is this, that you return to unity after you go through the individual experiences. You return to unity after going through the individual experiences. So there's 10 of these, but 10 is a plurality. So, the 10 persecutions, were as a set number that God had in store for the early church, no more nor less. And each experience gained the totality of the persecution he wanted the church to go through, or he allowed the church to go through. The number 10 is all over the Bible. In creation, there's 10 utterances of God about creation. In Genesis, there's 10 dreams. In the curse, during the fall, God utters ten cursings. There's ten nations in the Abrahamic Covenant, and of course the most famous is what? The Ten Commandments. So anytime you see the number ten, plurality, made up of individual parts. Think about the Ten Commandments. When we say the law, we're referring to the 613 commands. It's one unit, but it's a plurality of individual units. Does that make sense? So, out of the 10, the Decalogue, come the 613 that refer to the 10. But the 10 encapsulates the entire singular law. Don't ever let a reformed or covenantal person tell you that you can split up the law between civil, ceremonial, and moral. You cannot do it because the number 10 tells you it's a single unit. Because the Seventh-day Adventists want to do that. They always want to break up the law between moral, civil, and ceremonial. And we can't do that. When we say the law is rendered inoperative in Christ, it means all 613 commands are done away with. But there are carryovers in the New Covenant. So murder is still wrong, stealing is still wrong, but here's the deal, the Sabbath. What's the law of the Sabbath in the New Covenant? You can worship if you want it, or you don't. You have the freedom in Christ to do it or not. And this is what messes up the Seventh-day Adventists, because they want to bring in civil and moral and ceremonial types of things into the New Covenant. And you cannot do that. You have a mixing of the two, which is like oil and water. OK, so far, so good. He says, be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. OK, this is the martyr's crown that we talked about a couple of weeks ago. The crown of life is the martyr's crown, or those who suffer severe persecution. Notice what it says. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, plural. So this message goes beyond the local church of Smyrna, but to all persecuted Christians, even into today. Because he who has an ear, let him hear is a message to everybody. So this is where we know this message goes beyond the historical context. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death. The second death is separation from God in hell or a lake of fire. So that's the second death. And so you a believer. might have to face the first death, which is physical death, but they will never have to face separation from God in the lake of fire, is the idea. The idea of Smyrna, the name makes sense because the name Smyrna means myrrh, which is associated with death and embalming. And on letter H, I put down all the official Roman persecutions of the church, from Domitian all the way to Diocletian in 305, and there's all the church persecutions. Before we move on into Pergamum, which is going to take us some time, any questions on Smyrna? The definition of an overcomer is those who believe in Christ. And 1 John talks about that. It calls us overcomers. And the fact that we're overcomers, we have already become overcomers by believing in Christ. So when you see the term over he who overcomes, basically it says he who is a believer shall not have to experience a second death. So it seems to be, if you took that verse out of context, you could say it seems like someone's working for salvation. You overcome all this. If you survive persecution or you martyr, you get salvation. But he's already defined what an overcomer is. John has, actually, the one who wrote Revelation. So any other questions so far in Smyrna? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and it's a typical passage a lot of Armenians use for gaining salvation or keeping salvation that you have to overcome all the way to the end. You have to persevere to the end. It's almost like Calvinistic, you know, approving perseverance versus the Armenian saying, I need to keep my salvation by overcoming or keeping my faith in Christ. They believe they can lose their faith in Christ. So yeah, those kind of things get out of context. But the analogy of scripture, which is a basic hermeneutic principle, is if that verse seems like a question mark, it seems to contradict, there must be an answer somewhere else in scripture. And so you give yourself the benefit of the doubt and say, aha, God will probably answer this somewhere else. And he has. First John answers the question of, what does it mean to be an overcomer? Jesus said, I've overcome the world. He already stated that in the gospels. Then John defines that we too are overcomers because of relief in him. So you always want to give yourself or give scripture the benefit of the doubt that it's answered somewhere else. And until you find that, God will lead you to where it is. But don't run off and say, well, yeah, you know, someone said I can work for my salvation. Just hold your peace until you find another passage that explains that. Kenny. That's right. Yeah. And so you have that and other passages that verify what overcoming means. Yeah. So if you're a believer, you've already overcome. You've overcome the world already. You may not feel like that, but I sure don't feel like that. But you have because you won't be separated from God. That's right, that's a good point. Yeah, amen, that's good. I like that one. Clear as mud? Wait till you see this one next. I might not get through all of Pergamum, because there's a lot there. And we'll answer a lot of your questions about where did that come from. Okay, number three, let's move to Pergamum, the church of the age of Constantine, AD 313 to 600. Revelation 2, 12 through 17, until the angel of the church of Pergamon. This is in Turkey. They had a great library there. And by the way, I mentioned Mark Anthony and Cleopatra on Sunday. Mark Anthony is the one who took the library from Pergamon and sent it to Cleopatra in Egypt. Yeah, what we said a couple of weeks ago is that the way it's laid out, it's laid out in chronological order. And the fact of what we're trying to see is that there will be periods of time in church history that a certain church will dominate, a kind of church will dominate a particular era. And the dates correspond with certain events that happened in history, give or take a couple years here and there. But when we look back in history, what we do see is, yes, between 100 and 313 AD, It was massive persecutions going on. And then when we jump to the next one, we see the influences of paganism coming into the church. And we say, we can definitely see through these epochs of history that these particular churches dominated an era to where the last church is Laodicea. It was a historical church. Yes. But the passage, like we saw with Smyrna, there are promises that go beyond the local context. That's what gives us the freedom to go beyond that local context and just not see it just merely historical. Because when it says, he who has an ear, that just goes blanket. That blankets to every Christian that hears the Word. That's just not to the local context. And then the promises that are made are universal promises. Freedom from the second death is promised to every believer. Not just the believers at Pergamum. So that's why Yes, there's some the historical things in there, but then there's passages that go beyond the church itself to Prophetic or prophetic history of the church that makes sense. So you go beyond that because of hermeneutics Allowing you to do that Okay And then it says this And to the angel of the church of Pergamum write, these things say he who has the sharp two-edged sword. He's saying this for a reason, because he's going to judge them by his word. I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And that's interesting. Satan's throne is right there in Pergamum. Now, what do you mean by that? His power, his influence, his authority is centered right there at that point in time in history. He's going to say this twice. He talks with Antipas and says, where Satan dwells. OK, let's try to understand what's happening here. No doubt in Pergamum, high, high demonic activity with lots of temples, lots of paganism going on in Pergamum. But there's something unusual about Pergamum that I need to let you know what happened in this city. When Nimrod started the Tower of Babel back in Genesis, that was the first man-made world religion of works. You can read your Bible about the Tower of Babel. And it was under an Antichrist figure by the name of Nimrod. He had a wife named Semiramis, and they had a son named Tammuz. This is what started the mystery cults of the world, all the false religions. The mystery cult started in Babylon and stayed there for a long, long time. In fact, it stayed there until the Medes and Persians kicked them out. When the Babylonian priests got kicked out of Babylon itself because of the Medes and Persians, guess where they centered their activity at? Pergamum. They went up into Turkey and this became where all the mystery cult religions stayed. Okay. When we say that, you're going back ancient, ancient to the Tower of Babel. And you're going, I'm going to show you today how you can see mystery Babylon right in front of your very eyes today. The mystery cult is still with us. I'm going to give you some pieces of the puzzle in just a bit, but this is why he is stating that the seat or authority of Satan or the throne of Satan has moved. It's right there in Pergamum. So this church is right in the heart of the Babylonian mystery religions, right in the middle of all this. And this is a key understanding. Eventually, Julius Caesar will move the mystery religions to Rome. Julius Caesar starts calling himself Pontifex Maximus. He adopted the term from the Babylonian cult leaders. That was their high priest name, Pontifex Maximus. And that name means Keeper of the Bridge, Highest Keeper of the Bridge, the High Mediator between God and man, Pontifus Maximus. All the Roman Caesars had that name attached to them until one Caesar did not want that. And I'll talk about that in just a bit. But there's a tracing of where Mystery Babylon went. It went from Babylon, Pergamum, infiltrated the church there, and then was moved to Rome. Okay? I think you're starting to follow now. So, wherever the mystery cults are active, that's where Satan's throne is. He's the one who instigated the Nimrod man-made worship, because demons provide false religions. That's what inspires human beings to start false religions. So that's where the inception is. When they made the tower to the Babylonians, to the sky, what was Nimrod doing? Was he trying to make a stairway to heaven? No. He was making a place of worship on top of the tower to worship the heavens. Because they were worshipping the stars. Well, where's the abode of demons? In space. It's called the second heaven. Paul mentions this in Ephesians chapter 6, that the abode of space is where demons abode is. Now, yes, they can have access to the earth, and they do, and they come here frequently. Their abode is in space. Principalities, rulers of the air. Remember Ephesians 6, just read that. He is describing you where they're located at. The fact that Nimrod focused his worship to the stars was not per se that they're worshiping the stars, it was worshiping the deity behind the star. For instance, the dog star Sirius is Satan's star. They were worshiping Sirius. I know it messes up your CRSXM. I don't know why they called it the dog star. Every time I see Sirius XM, I'm thinking of Satan because that's the name of his star, the dog star. But anyway, all the stars had a demon behind it as you and I, but they thought these were gods. So they started worshiping these stars and that became the first zodiac. Okay. Then what they did is they brought the heavens down with them, and they formed idols of these gods that were behind the stars. Well, behind the idols, as Paul said, it was demons. So it's all demonic. But then what happened is the mystery cult started happening, and the worship of the mystery cults right there in Babylon started with this. Now let me explain this. Nimrod is a first Antichrist type of figure. His wife, Semiramis, had a baby by the name of Tammuz. Tammuz, apparently by legend, was killed and gored by a wild dog or animal or whatever beast of the field. He died but was resurrected. What then ended up happening is what was called the worship of the goddess and child, the mother-child cult developed in Babylon. Now Nimrod was worshipped, but so was Semiramis and her child Tammuz. The way Tammuz was worshipped, in many ways, was a 40-day fasting period in the spring. And it was the mourning of Tammuz, and then he was resurrected after 40 days. And each year in the spring, you went through this 40 days period. You were, she also created a priestly class that they dressed different than the people and you had to go to them. They sprinkled water on people. They had beads around them that they prayed through. They set up a prostitutional ring, a prostitutional worship in the cult center where you could worship the deities by having sex with the temple prostitutes. And therein lies some of the origins of things. The mother-child cult. You just go online and type in mother-child cult and you'll pull up all kinds of images of archaeology of a woman there with a baby and there was an idolatry thing going on there. Forty days of purpose, huh? That's right. That's right. Forty days of something, I can tell you that. Yeah, so let me break her name out in other ways. If you want to write these down, you can break it up. Her title is Queen of Heaven. Semiramis became known as the Queen of Heaven. In other religions, in the Phoenician religion, I believe it was Aphrodite. Sorry, in the Grecian religion, it was Aphrodite and Eros. Aphrodite was the woman, Eros was the baby. In Roman religion, she was Venus and her son was Cupid. In Egyptian, there's Isis and Horus. Horus, H-O-R-U-S, Isis was the female deity. Horus was her child in the Egyptian. And you can go on and on. In every cult, they had a mother-child deal, a worshiping thing. They had a thing where that after you died, you went there to be cleansed. It's a concept of purgatory. You had a calendar of observances in the religious feast days. You had confession to the priests. The big sign for Tammuz was a T, a T that went across, but no top to the T, just like a capitalized T. They made the sign of the T on their body. You had salvation by sacraments. I think you're on to something, aren't you? I think you're on to something. It's Mary. Now I'm telling you all this so you can see the connection. This is coming from Babylonianism. But I know what you're thinking right now. You're thinking, I see the Roman Catholics doing the same thing. Yeah, bingo, you got it. You got it. You got it. It's that bad. So let me continue on and tell you what the Babylonians practiced. Offering round cakes. Lighting candles. Dedication to the virgins, to the God, sanctified prostitution. I'll talk to you about that in the pornography in just a bit. The 40 days of weeping for Tammuz. What else do I have? Oh, let's talk about the priests, the priests of Babylon. The priests of Babylon wore a mitre. and his mitre was not like the Jewish ephod. The mitre went way sky high and was in the form of a fish head. And what it looked like, it was just this giant thing that went on top and then what it did is it made an indent inside looking like a fish that's going up. That's what the Babylonian priests wore, is this giant fish head. And across the label it said Pontifus Maximus. That's the Babylonian priests. He wore a giant fish head. Now, I want you to remember this because this cult of Dagon, which you know is the Phoenician god name, but it's the same worship that they did in Babylon. And you remember the god Dagon, remember with Samson, remember? In that whole episode with the Philistines. The Philistines had the Dagon god as well. And he was the fish god. Well, so did the Ninevites. Can you imagine the priest coming from Nineveh who worshipped Dagon with his priest hat, looked like a fish, and a prophet from Israel has been spit out by a fish. You think that didn't resonate with the people who worship the fish God? Yeah, that was big. A fish delivered you here, and you were dead in a fish, and you came back to life. Your God raised you from the fish, and you were swallowed by a fish. Big impact. That's why Jonah was very successful, because basically what God had done is show that the god Dagon really doesn't exist and is ineffectual, because I can bring my prophet here in a fish. Big news. Big news. So, with that being said, the fish head mitre is still worn today by the Pope. Guess what the Pope calls himself? Pontifus Maximus, the bridge keeper, the highest bridge keeper. So what I am telling you is Pergamum is the entry point for the mystery cult Babylon to enter the church. That's when it happened. And what caused it? Pergamum is the age of Constantine. And basically what Constantine did is married the church with the Roman Empire at that point in time. Persecution stopped. It completely stopped. And Christianity became the official religion of the Holy Roman Empire. But guess what it came with? If you were a citizen of Rome, you could be part of the church as well. So what Constantine did to lessen the blow of making this the official Roman religion is he allowed the pagans to continue to practice their pagan practices and didn't forbid them. And basically, oh, you have a female deity? So do we. You want to practice all these things? We'll let you practice some. And before you know it, the infusion of paganism crept into Christianity and has been with us every day ever since that day till today. So when you look at the Roman Catholic Church, which I was a part of, you are looking at ancient Babylon right in front of your very face. That's the robes they wore. That's the beads they had. That's the hats they had. That's the terms they used, man. It's still with us today. Do not think for a moment that the Roman Catholic Church is part of Christianity. It is an apostate Babylonian religion. I'm sorry. And I understand, I have Catholic family and friends, and they're nice people, but they are ignorant of the system they are in. They're completely ignorant. Because all you have to do is study history and pull this stuff out, and it'll freak you out. Well, the issue is, are we practicing the practices of the Babylonians? Because anytime we want to, we can worship, we can emphasize something, whether it's the birth of Christ or the resurrection of Christ, which the early church did. It got divorced from Passover. But nonetheless, what we're opposed of is not so much the celebration of the resurrection or the birth of Christ or whatever aspect we want to talk about, even the birth of the church. What we're opposed to is the pagan practices that they were doing. So under Romans 14, Colossians 2, you have the gray area, if you want to call it, or the freedom in Christ to say, OK, I'm going to set this day aside to worship, or not worship, but to practice a new moon festival. I can do that, but I don't have to. Or I can keep the Sabbath, but I don't have to. Or I can keep the seventh feast of Israel, but I don't have to. Or in church history, we can celebrate the resurrection, I don't have to. What God forbids is the syncretism of the practices of paganism. Not so much that you celebrate a day to one thing, like the resurrection, it's the fact that if Christians are doing 40 days of Lent, they are now practicing a pagan practice. If they're putting ashes on themselves for Ash Wednesday, that's pagan. So I think what you have to distinguish between is not so much the festival, but the practice of what's there. So you can take it out further, like at Christmastime, the word yule comes from the pagan practices, they're burning the yule log. So what the early church tried to do, and this is what they tried to do, is attempt to take over the holiday. They said, we're tired of them worshiping Saturn. We're going to focus in on worshiping Christ during that time. And they had good intentions of doing that. They wanted the worship of Saturnalia to go away. So their intentions are good, but here's what ended up happening. The good intentions were undermined by paganism that came into the church. So they started doing the practices and blending the takeover. Because Christianity was trying to take over, and they wanted to. The Christians said, we're getting rid of these pagan holidays. And we're going to, instead, replace them with our own holidays, which is fine. But then that's the problem, is the methodology got infused, and then you had the corruption. So it's like what we learned with the Jews coming out of Babylon. They had good intentions of we're never going to break the law again. This is not going to happen to us anymore. Good intentions. But when it ended up happening, the methodology to ensure that they don't break the law again came with what's called the fence around the Torah. And the fence around the Torah was man's laws to prevent them from breaking God's laws. And before you know it, you had law after law after law. And before you know it, you didn't know what God's law you had man's law. Sure. Yeah. Yeah, and you can resurrection day or something like that. Well, no. And I think what you're starting to see is a lot of lot of Christians are going towards resurrection day and stuff like that. But here's the deal. You say Christmas, that's Catholic. Christmas is Christ's mass. And so, you know, the problem is the dilemma we're in is a It's getting very hard to reteach this culture anymore. Not that we're giving into it, but if we were trying to use a different word than Christmas, we're fighting an uphill battle on that one. Because the culture, it's ingrained. And the culture doesn't know it's related to Catholicism. They don't know it's Christ's mass. And you start seeing the origins of it. But one of the things you can't do is we're in a pagan culture to begin with. Terms we use are pagan. And I don't know how to get that out of society. And so, and a lot of people are just ignorant of the fact. Yeah, I mean, if you talk to a pagan, they know Easter Sunday. They have no idea it refers to the goddess Ishtar. And even that's hard to do with Christians too. Because if they're not taking this class, they don't know. That's the problem. And it's not like we're caving in. I don't think we're acquiescing to anything. I don't think that at all. It's not a compromise. It's what Paul did on Mars Hill. And you guys got to understand what Paul was doing. He would quote their own poets. And people would say, wow, I can't believe he's quoting a pagan poet. Well, what was he doing with it? Why was he quoting a pagan poet? To win them to Christ. He's going to use what they already know to pull them in. And so when he goes on Mars Hill, you know, most people would, the Judaizer would have been aghast that he even referenced an idol to an unknown God. But why did Paul do that? Why would he even make a reference to their pagan practices to an unknown God? That's like going into India and say, oh, by the way, I know you worship three million gods, but let me tell you about three million and one. Why did he do it? He used something in apologetics that they were aware of, and they know, and they have a concept about, and he breaks that out. So a lot of churches, as you can see, they'll sell you on their banners, let me tell you the true meaning of Easter. That's very Paul-ish. To take what they know and then redefine it for them and tell them what that is. That's Paul. That's Paul, to an unknown God, or to quote their poets. I mean, Paul, even in 1 Corinthians, used the practice they were doing, which was unbiblical. You're baptizing people for the dead. Remember he said that? And he says, if you're doing that, then how is it you don't believe in the resurrection? So even Paul would take something that's wrong and take it out to its logical conclusion and unpack that for them. It's a very Paul-ish concept is, Taking a concept they understand and then bridging the truth to that concept is what he's doing. I know. We shouldn't use Saturday either, or Sunday for the sun god. I mean, that's what I'm saying. We're immersed into a pagan world, and you're going to have to use a nomenclature. you're forced to use the nomenclature. I mean, yeah, in Israel, in a theocracy, yeah, it was different. But we're among the Gentiles, and it's going to be hard to get away from cars that are named after gods, you know, and stuff like that. You know, oh, I'm not going to drive that car. I mean, after a while, it starts getting ridiculous. And I hope you see that, because here's the deal. If you're going to go in that direction and you say, I'm going to do everything I can to avoid pagan names, all my land, Good luck with that one, because you will have a very difficult time living, because we're immersed into a pagan world. The principle is we are in the world, but we are not of it. That doesn't mean that I become a hermit and isolate. I have to do things. So if I have serious XM, am I supposed to get rid of it? Did you know that referred to Satan? Oh, I'm going to get rid of my XM. Well, that's crazy. If you think you're going to get rid of your XM and there's some type of evil connotation, you're out of your mind because the whole connotation of that being the dog star and associated with Satan is lost. It's not there anymore. I know it because I studied history. I just told you that. So now you know it. But it's not going to mean I'm going to take off my XM. But you can see how ridiculous that could be, because eventually you're going to have to remove yourself from society. If you take the Apostle Paul, he never compromised, but he had to go right in the smack dab middle of all that paganism and deal with it. Don't think for a moment he didn't see it. Yeah, and basically turned it around, turned the whole Mediterranean upside down because he continued to confront it. And I think that's what you do with whatever these holidays. You keep telling them what they're for. It's for the resurrect. It's not about bunnies, bunnies and rabbits and stuff like that, because that's connected to paganism, eggs and stuff like that. That's that's what they worshiped in Babylon was the egg. You don't do that. But can we celebrate the resurrection? Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that's you almost have to pull out of society. It's just not feasible. It doesn't mean that you have to compromise because I want you to think about this. Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had to go into Babylon and see it firsthand. Daniel was in the school of magicians. But what did Daniel do? Did he try to escape from it? What did Daniel do to the school of magicians? He took over. He took over the entire school and he became the headmaster because of his interpretation of dreams, doing it correctly, and he turned that whole school around. So instead of retreating and isolating, he took over. So that's why the early church, when they saw these pagan holidays, they took it upon them to take over. We're going to take over this. And that was their mindset. The fact that the paganism entered the church was not their intent. That's just an outgrowth of what happened. And it would have happened no matter what paganism always gets into the church. Yeah, that's called syncretism. So we're against syncretism. And so the argument I would make with someone doing yoga is that every position in yoga is a position of worship to a Hindu god. So when you do that activity, you're worshiping a foreign deity. That's called syncretism. They may not know it. They're ignorant of it. But I would tell them that's wrong. Now, if I can't use the word yoga, I don't know what I'm going to use. Yoga, though, means yoked to the god. But I have to use the term so they can understand what I'm talking about. So it's not a matter of semantics, it's a matter of I need to communicate. And if I can't communicate at the same level they're at, I'm going to have a communication problem explaining the gospel if I can't talk to them on their level, if that makes sense. Talking to them on their level doesn't mean I'm compromising. I'm giving them something they understand. Oh, an unknown God, yoga. Let me tell you what yoga is. if that makes sense. So it's not so much the nomenclature, it's the practice. Because what was Israel's main problem? Israel's main problem was they were worshiping Yahweh through synchronistic practices. So they were saying it was to God, but it was the practice of it that was wrong. You can call it whatever you want, but it's the practice of it that gets them in trouble. If it offends you, if it offends you, because it's a Romans 14 Colossians 2. If that offends you, then you don't do it. You draw the line on your conscience. The problem with yoga versus dine and Easter egg is you're not putting any religious connotations into it. I know the practicers of yoga are not, they say they're not, but you can't get away from the difference between dine and egg versus a Hindu current religious practice. That's the difference. Yoga is a current, not an antiquated practice. It is something they do now to worship God. Now, the egg thing symbolized fertility. The Jews brought the egg back and put it in their Passover to represent a whole entire different thing. And as Richard Freeman talked about on the Passover, it symbolized the sacrifices and stuff like that. So they put an entirely different meaning. So the question is, what meaning are you pouring into it, I guess, into the egg? But with Hinduism, that's a religion. Yeah, they're exercising. And you're right, they don't have a clue. The problem is, okay, let me go a little step further. Because it's a current religious Hindu practice, it puts them in an altered state of consciousness at some point in time. Because the design of yoga is to create a blanking of the mind. So it's already geared towards having a what we call a religious experience or a spiritual experience. It's a spiritual practice versus dying an egg is not going to put you in an altered state of consciousness. That's where I'm going with this because a lot of people who actually practice yoga have heard voices. They have experienced certain things, and I would say, yes, that's what happens when you do that. Now, it doesn't happen all the time. It may not happen to the friend that's doing this to you, or doing it, but it does occur, because it's a methodology of getting in touch with the spirit realm. As far as syncretism, ignorance of the syncretism doesn't get you off the hook. So yes, if you're unknowingly doing it, yes, it could be an issue if you're unknowingly. And so that's why you can't remain silent on it. You've got to tell people this is a problem and let them know. And if they do it now with knowledge, then now they're doing it fully knowing what you've already told them to do. Warned them about but what you see what happened even like in the book of Judges or anytime in Israel's history Even though they were ignorant of what they were doing. It was still a problem For God because they should have known it's all there. They're the point that God said I've spoken. I've already said it They're guilty of it. Even if they don't know they're doing it because I've already said it and so This is why, I mean, I don't understand the medical profession continues to push yoga, transcendental meditation, and stuff like Hindu practices from the East that have infiltrated the medical field. And they're telling people, you're telling kids now to center and blank out your mind and meditate in school. And they're having preschoolers meditate and stuff like that. Well, you start doing that, You blank out your mind and you open yourself to the demonic world because of that. So it's a big problem a big problem So that's the difference. I mean If you want to go down that rabbit hole, that's the difference between that and versus like a coloring of an egg thing Yeah I understand that some people could take that out and go crazy on that and and really Get off and say we're you know, a real pagan would say yeah, we're worshiping fertility gods here but I think There's where the line's being drawn. I think what you start seeing is it's meat sacrifice to an idol. And what was the dilemma there? Christians were offended by eating meat that was offered to an idol. And what did Paul say about that? He says, it's a matter of your conscience. He goes, because I don't have a problem with it. I'll eat the meat right now, but if it offends you, I won't do it." But he is basically telling them it's the weaker brethren that won't eat the meat. The more mature brethren sees it for what it is. and says, huh, big deal, what's a piece of meat? The same thing would be true with an egg or whatever. You would say, huh, what's the big deal? I know there's no other gods. I know the Babylonian gods are false. I can eat an egg. Now, I understand if you're worshiping an egg and going through the ritual practices, that's not what Paul's talking about. He's talking about more mature believers have more freedom. But they're not supposed to use that freedom to make a younger brother or sister stumble in that freedom. But the point is, the reason they're offended is because they're the less mature believer. Does that make sense? The more mature believer is not going to be as offended anymore by things. So we're dealing with an issue of maturity. So some Christians don't put up a Christmas tree. OK. OK. No big deal. Some do. Some people don't want to, you know, do certain things. Okay, they'll do it. But that's where you have to understand you have the freedom in Christ in Romans 14 and Colossians 2 to say, they can do it, I can do it, or they don't have to do it, and I can't impose that. That's why I always get into these arguments with the Seventh-day Adventists who want me to do the Sabbath. And I say, you're out of your mind. I have the freedom in Christ not to keep it. You can keep it. I'm not going to get on to you about that. But I'm going to tell you this. If you're going to follow the Sabbath, you better follow it right. They go, what do you mean? You're not to have a holy convocation on that day. They go, what do you mean? I go, you're not supposed to meet. You're supposed to stay in your home. And you're supposed to do it from sundown to sunup. And you're not doing it correctly. And are you on the Jerusalem time or California time? And before you know it, they start seeing the problems. You can keep the law, but I guarantee you can't keep it like it's supposed to be kept, because you're not supposed to meet on the Sabbath. Israel only met three times. Passover week, Pentecost week, Feast of Trumpets, not Trumpets, Tabernacles, Feast of Tabernacles. That's the only time they met, and it's the only time they came together. Sabbath, they were supposed to stay in their homes. It was after Babylon that they started meeting in synagogues, on the Sabbath. They never were supposed to do that. They were supposed to stay home. And I said, you guys need to stay home and not have church service. And it just blows their mind. Because see, that's the problem. As James said, you're going to keep part of the law. You can keep all of it. You've got to be consistent. You can't just choose and pick the parts of the law you want to keep. Oh, I want to keep kosher. and don't put that on me. So anyway, the freedom in Christ gets tricky because some are really convicted by it and some are not. But that's the problem. Unless it's a law of the Messiah, you can't enforce it. That's what we have to understand. You can't put that on any other person. Otherwise, you're going to enforce legalism on people, and you're going to be a Judaizer all over again. Very, very difficult. And it's a balancing act. It's not easy. I'm telling you that. It's not easy. Let's do one more thing before we end, because if we don't have much time, we won't be able to get to the life of the Messiah tonight. Let's read real quick and finish this section in verse 13. He says, I know your works where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, we talked about that. And you hold fast to my name and do not deny my faith, even in the days in which Antipas, my faithful martyr, was who was killed among you where Satan dwells. It's mentioned twice. So there's the martyr Antipas. But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold to the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. What the doctrine of Balaam is, is spiritual adultery. Spiritual adultery. That's what Balaam did to the Israelites. He made them practice syncretism, He let them practice pagan practices and got them in a situation where they're going to be judged, but the principle is spiritual adultery, which is exactly what we are talking about. And then he goes, thus, you also have those who hold to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Now, one of the things we saw with the Ephesus church is that Christ commended them for hating the practice of that Nicolaitanism. But now, now by the third church, Pergamum, they're doing it. What is the practice of the Nicolaitanism? Niko means Lord, and laity means laity, lording it over the people. Nicolationism. So as you can expect, when the Babylonian cult infiltrates the church, guess what happens to the pastors now? They take on the title of priest, There is no priest in the New Testament. The high priest is Jesus Christ, and that's it. We're in the priesthood of all believers, but there's no class like the Levitical priesthood that's separate from the laity. We're all in the priesthood of believers. You have equal access to God through the Messiah. Now, that being the case, what the Babylonian cults taught was that the pastors were in a different class and therefore needed to wear different clothing. and that the pastors could confer special blessings on the people and were the mediators between the people and God. Guess where I had to go before every... I was supposed to do this, but I didn't. Before every Mass on Saturday, what I was supposed to do? I was supposed to go confess my sins to a priest and he would have the power to grant me absolution from those sins. Now that's crazy, but they had a special power given to them. At that point, that's where lording it over comes to the people. So now, early on, early in church history, that gets stuck in the church, and we are still with it today. Still with it. We still have it. It's still being practiced. Even in Protestant circles, the Nicolaitanism is still being practiced. That the pastor is looked at as he has some special in with God. And that he has to dress different and he has to wear special priestly garb. When you see a Catholic priest, folks, and you see the Pope and you see the Cardinals, they are wearing Babylonian clothes. That's what they wore, man. It is the same junk. The hats, little miters, all that stuff. That's what Jesus says, I hate. He goes, repent or else I will come to you quickly and fight against them with the sword of my mouth. The sword is the word of God coming from Jesus and it's going to divide. It will divide believers and unbelievers. And for believers, it will bless them. For unbelievers, it will curse them into hell. That's what he's trying to say. To him who overcomes, to the believers, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. Referring to the desert wilderness time when they were given manna. The idea that it's hidden manna to eat is kind of almost a sarcasm towards the mystery cults. Because in the mystery cults, All the information is hidden. And you're not privileged to get all the information. You're not privileged until you rise to certain levels or whatever, until you do all your seven sacraments, so to speak, or whatever. And then that stuff is hidden from you as a mystery. So Christ says, I'm the one who gives really the hidden manna. I have the hidden manna. I'll give it to all those who believe in me. And that, again, becomes a reward. And I will give him a white stone. It's a stone of acquittal. And on the stone, a new name written on which no one knows except Him who receives it." A new name is always given to those who have a transformation of their life. He's telling them, come out of Babylon and come into faith in Me and I'll give you a new name. Remember, in the Bible, the idea is that when God changes someone's name, it's always because they had a conversion. Jacob goes to Israel, right? He had a conversion. He finally trusts God. So Jesus is telling them, I will change your name. If you come to faith in me, I'll give you a new name. And that new name is connected to salvation.