Revelation Part 2


Submitted by wmfinck on Wed, 12/15/2010 - 21:01

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https://comparet.christogenea.org/sermons/revelation-part-2

THE BOOK OF REVELATION

By: Bertrand L. Comparet

Lesson #2 Of A Series Of 14, Transcribed From Audio Tapes

Transcribed By:

Clifton A. Emahiser’s

Teaching Ministries

1012 North Vine Street

Fostoria, OH 44830

Phone (419) 435-2836



[Unless in brackets, all of the message is by Bertrand L. Comparet.] You’ll remember that last month I started on the Book of Revelation, a big subject and a tough one. We are not going to be able to finish it this month or for several months to come, because I want to do it right. We noted that the Book of Revelation starts out with messages to seven “churches”, each representing a city in Asia, and that it has been the uniform understanding among Christian scholars that these messages were not directed, in fact, to those “churches” in those cities, because we have no record of the peculiar things mentioned as conditions in each one of them. We have no record mentioned in the Book of Revelation that it was so in that city any more than any other, and the uniform understanding of scholars has been that each of the cities named was representative of a stage in the total history of the Christian “Church” from the time of Yahshua the Christ to His eventual return. The first of these “churches” mentioned was the “Church” at Ephesus, where the message was that they were praised for their loyalty to Yahshua the Messiah’s teachings. This is a fact that when false teachers got among them, they saw they were false and expelled them. [See note #2 at end of lesson #1.]

They were criticized, however, because He said, “thou hast left thy first love.” Well this represents the early Christian “Church” during the 1st century of the Christian Era from A.D. 30; the death and resurrection of Yahshua the Christ, to the end of that century. Now, as you have noted, all that was said about the second coming of Christ was in such form that – you had to understand that it was not to be an immediate thing, and many of them misunderstood it, – they thought, “well, this means that in a matter of a year or two He’ll be coming back.” Time passed and He didn’t return, and there was the fall of Jerusalem and all that, and things seemed to be going from bad to worse, so a lot of them became, oh, perhaps skeptical is the word. They had lost their first enthusiasm. The second message was to the “Church” at Smyrna. There was no criticism whatsoever of that “church.” They were praised and encouraged to stand fast through terrible persecution that they would face. This covers the period of the pagan persecution of the Christian “Church”, beginning with 64 A.D. and extending to 313 A.D. when the emperor Constantine issued an edict tolerating the Christian “Church”, ending all persecution of it. You’ll notice that these dates are not altogether mutually exclusive. There are, in a number of instances, overlaps. One phase was gradually closing out during the same years that the following phase was gradually getting under way.

The third of these “churches” mentioned was the “Church” at Pergamos, and He praised them:“thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith”, even though dwelling where Satan’s throne is. The things that were said about the city of Pergamos as being the place where Satan’s throne is were in the past even as John wrote this. That authority had all been transferred to Rome, because the king of the city of Pergamos, having no heir, by his will, left his kingdom to the people of Rome (which was still a republic at that time), and left with it his title of Pontifex Maximus, the supreme pontiff, the high priest of the pagan Babylonian mystery religion. So this actually operated in Rome rather than Pergamos. The “church” was criticized, because “thou hast there those that hold the doctrine of Balaam.” Balaam you’ll remember, being asked to curse the people of Israel when they were on the march, said he couldn’t do so because Yahweh had only blessed them; but he did tell the pagan king Balak, “Now if you want to get rid of these people, the only way to do it is to lead them into idolatry, so when they abandon their Mighty One, Yahweh will abandon them.” And it was done, with the result that I think some 30,000 of the Israelites perished in a plague that Yahweh sent upon them as punishment for turning to idolatry. [Again, Comparet overlooks the more important part of that incident, inasmuch as the Israelite men were committing fornication (race-mixing) with Balak’s women.]

This refers to the period of the development of the power of the papacy, from 313 to 606 A.D. In the effort to build up converts more rapidly, the Catholic “Church” turned to adopting pagan holidays, pagan rituals, even adopted some of the pagan gods now under the title of saints, and there is no question but that it was a corrupting of the religion that they started with. On the other hand, they never did drop their recognition that Yahshua the Christ was the Messiah incarnate in the flesh, meaning “Yahshua the Messiah was Yahweh come in the flesh.” Thus, you had this curious combination. You had partial Christianity, but at the same time corrupted by a partial paganism creeping in. Now let’s go in detail from there. The next one of these “churches” (and this is Revelation 2, verses 18 to 29) is the “Church” at Thyatira:

“And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine bronze; I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a couch, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have already hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the “churches.”

Thyatira, the name, simply means “town of Thyra.” It was an ancient village that first became important when king Seleucus Nicator (he was one of the kings, you see, who upon the break-up of Alexander the Great’s empire, [divided it among themselves], he seized the Syrian quarter of it) founded there a Macedonian colony between 301 and 281 B.C., and it became and remained through ancient times a rich and busy commercial city. In its religion it was called the holy city of the god Tyrimnos. That was a Libyan sun god, and pretty much identified with the Greek sun god Apollo. They also had a temple of Artemis, and the high priestess or prophetess of Artemis was the wife of the high priest Apollo Tyrimnos. They had developed to a great extent, something which, while common in a good many places, seems to have reached its height here, the matter of the pagan trade guilds. I think you all know how during the middle ages all the different merchants and craftsmen had their guilds. You’d have the gold-smith’s guild, and the carpenter’s guild, and the leather-worker’s guild, and so on. They were mutual aid societies. They corresponded both to our modern Chamber of Commerce and our modern labor unions. In addition, these ancient trade guilds were a social order, something on the order of our modern clubs like Kiwanis and Rotary club and that sort of thing, which carried out works of charity and did quite a bit of good. [See note #1 at end of lesson.]

On the other hand, they were definitely pagan in their origin and composition. Their members were pagan. At their meetings, it was quite common that they would have a banquet. The people ate reclining on couches Roman fashion [which was also the Greek fashion, and the manner of eating evident in the New Testament Greek]. And Roman fashion, also, by the end of the banquet, they’d had enough wine that it was apt to turn into quite a lively occasion, to the detriment of good morals. We have found in the ruins of Thyatira some rather extensive inscriptions dealing with this. Which give us a pretty good picture of that. At the time John was writing, it would appear that the “church” at Thyatira was divided on the question, whether their members could retain their old memberships in these pagan trade guilds or not. And there was evidently someone there at Thyatira, a prophetess, who was preaching that you could, as long as you remembered you were a Christian, and you went to church on the Sabbath, it didn’t matter if you attended these pagan meetings. But the food served there was likely to be meat that had been offered in sacrifice to these idols, and of course it led to much immorality by the time they got fairly well drunk by the end of the event.

Probably Jezebel was not her actual name, but was used as an epithet. You’ll remember the very wicked queen Jezebel, wife of king Ahab of Israel, who brought in the 450 priests of Baal and led the kingdom of Israel into idolatry. The idea of there being prophetesses, as well as prophets, is nothing startling – the Old Testament mentions several: Miriam, Deborah, Huldah; and in the New Testament: Luke 2, verses 36 to 38, it speaks of “Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher.” There is also mention of prophetesses in Acts 21, verses 8 and 9. Thus, the prophetic office was not limited simply to men. The period represented in “Church” history by this would be from, say, 604 A.D. to the death of Pope Gregory the 1st. By that time he had developed and crystallized the power of the Pope to about as high a degree as it got, and it would carry, from that time up until what we can call the starting date of the Protestant reformation, 1517 A.D. During this period you had many pagan and unscriptural doctrines carried into the “church” doctrine; the adoption of pagan holidays and pagan ceremonies, the worship of the Virgin Mary, in order to bring into the “church” the people who were accustomed to worshipping Semiramis, the wife of Nimrod, under the title of goddess Ishtar, queen of heaven. Yahshua the Christ was reduced from the mature Yahshua the Messiah, who was the savior of his people, to just a baby carried in the arms of Mary. You go into any Catholic “church” today and you’ll see a statue there of Mary carrying the infant Yahshua in her arms, which naturally is reducing to the minimum any status that you can give to Him. The worship of saints as mediators between God and man, and that sort of thing, was another thing introduced at that time.

You had a period, running up to 313, when the Christian “Church” suffered terrific persecutions from the pagan Roman Empire. Then suddenly all that ceased, because with the issuance of Constantine’s “Edict of Toleration”, all persecution stopped, and about 30 years later he followed it up with an edict making Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. How come the sudden change? Here you had three centuries in which, in spite of their prayers for help, they were martyred by the hundreds. And now suddenly they escaped all this. Well, some self admittedly bright person came up with the statement: “Here are all these martyrs who were murdered for their faith, and by reason of their loyalty they undoubtedly have higher standings with God, and so they’re up there in heaven praying for us, and their prayers have now finally brought about what our prayers couldn’t, that God rescued us from persecution.” Therefore, if there is anything else you want, if the saints up there are the ones who have influence which you can’t have, why not pray to “saint who’s-it” for whatever you want.

Now that was definitely unscriptural, but remember by this time the Catholic “Church” had already reduced the Scriptures to a very low point. They said that tradition was of at least equal weight with the Scripture, and in fact, where there was any contradiction between whatever tradition they had established and Scripture, the Scripture lost out. If they had read the Bible, they could not have stumbled into this error. 1st Timothy 2, verse 5: “For Yahweh is One, and one mediator of Yahweh and men: a man Yahshua Christ” (WFT). Again, John 14, verse 6: “Yahshua saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” Not by “saint what’s-his-name.” And two of the Gospels, Matthew 15, verse 9, and Mark 7, verse 7, quoting Isaiah 29:13 [from the Septuagint] (when he was rebuking the “Jews” for their apostasy, the Pharisee religion placed tradition on the same footing as Scripture. In other words, they took the identical position that the Catholic “Church” took later. They said the Talmud, which was called the “traditions of the elders” in Yahshua the Christ’s time, is entitled to as much weight as anything the prophets have written.) So, Yahshua quoted to them the terrible words out of Isaiah, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for their doctrines the commandments of men.”

From Babylon on into Rome you had a well organized and very popular pagan religion worshipping the Queen of Heaven, which, as I say, was Semiramis, the wife of Nimrod, deified as Ishtar. And that was something that had gotten the people of Israel in trouble before. It’s inexcusable that a repetition of it should come about, when all they’d need to do would be to read the Book of Jeremiah. You will remember, the deportation of the southern kingdom of Judah was in two stages! They were first captured by Nebuchadnezzar in 606 B.C., and the leading citizens, those who were likely to be leaders in revolt, were all deported to Babylon, but not the bulk of the population. Then, after about 20 years, revolt came again because Egypt promised them help, which Egypt wasn’t able to deliver. Egypt had become a mulatto nation by that time. Jeremiah warned them not to revolt, but they did. They were again captured, nearly all the population deported, – some of them were left behind, enough to keep the vineyards and orchards from going back to jungle, and Jeremiah was left among them. [See note #2 at end of lesson.]

Then, when one of the Jews murdered the man whom Nebuchadnezzar had appointed as the governor over them, the rest fled to Egypt, taking Jeremiah along with them. And in Jeremiah 7, verse 18, and Jeremiah 44, verses 25 to 27, he is rebuking them for apostasy and paganism – that they had adopted the Babylonian worship of the Queen of Heaven. He says: “The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger.” Now, that wasn’t just Jeremiah’s words. He was quoting this as “thus saith Yahweh.” Again: “Thus saith Yahweh of hosts, the Elohim of Israel, saying; Ye and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hand, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her: ye will surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows. Therefore hear ye the word of Yahweh, all Judah that dwell in the land of Egypt; Behold, I have sworn by my great name, saith Yahweh, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying ... Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them.”

Well, you’ll remember in the message to this “church” here at Thyatira, Yahshua said that time had been given to this false prophetess to repent, but she didn’t, and therefore the penalty was coming upon her. Now, the things that I have mentioned here were not limited to the Roman Catholic “Church” in the west. You’ll remember that before the papacy became fully established in power in Rome, the popes attempted to extend their authority over the Eastern, or the Greek Orthodox “Church”, which was the “church” in Greece and Asia Minor. But they wouldn’t accept his authority. Although they maintained a separate “church”, they adopted all these same doctrines. The Greek “churches” were like pagan temples filled with the idols of all the different saints to whom the people were encouraged to pray, and that is the thing which brought down upon the Eastern or Greek “Church” the great Mohammedan raids. Mohammed said “This is plain idolatry and I am going to stamp it out.” Thus, they underwent a terrific scourge from the Saracen Mohammedans at a later time because of the same thing. Hence, both “churches” had done the same thing; they had not repented of their having altered their doctrines into paganism, and therefore they must eventually meet their judgment. What that judgment would be is prophesied later in the book, and when we get to that we’ll also show how it was fulfilled in history. The next of these “churches”, Revelation 3, verses 1 to 6, is the “church” at Sardis:

“And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of Yahweh, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

This town of Sardis was founded beyond the dawn of history. It was already there when the first records of any kind pertaining to it can be found. It was located on fertile plain at a point where it commanded the great east-west trade route. It was also a manufacturing center; very wealthy, and was probably the first city in the world to coin money. You notice that in the Old Testament, when it comes to paying for something, they mention how the money was weighed out in gold or silver ingots. They knew how much an ounce of gold was worth, but they didn’t know whether this particular ingot held an ounce, or more, or less, or what. Thus, it was weighed and was valued according to weight. But the city of Sardis produced the earliest coinage of a definite value that we can find. [See note #3 at end of lesson.]

That reference, to being on the watch or they would be taken by surprise, was something that all the people knew about. Close to the city was a fortified hill, their acropolis or fortification to which they could retreat in the case of siege. On three sides of this hill it rose in sheer vertical cliffs, up to a height of about 1500 feet. No possibility of attack. One side only, where there was a gentle approach, had to be guarded. With ordinary care and watchfulness, it was absolutely impregnable; and yet twice it was captured by surprise because they got over-confident and literally went to sleep on the job. Cyrus, in 549 B.C., and Antiochus the Great, 218 B.C., captured the fortress there. Hence, this was a well known thing which was used as an illustration that, “if you do not remain alert, looking for the things I’ve warned you about, you’re going to be taken by surprise at my coming.”

The historical period that this refers to is the period during the development of the Protestant Reformation beginning, say, 1517. It’s hard to fix the latter end of it. A number of writers have suggested about 1740, perhaps, could be taken as the end of this period. During the middle ages, all institutions, political and religious alike,suffered corruption. Morals, in general, were at an all-time low, along with general bribery and corruption. This was the state of society, and the “church” did not avoid the common fate of the whole people. There were, for the last couple of hundred years before the Protestant Reformation, people in the Catholic “Church” who saw that things were not right. They were trying to reform the “church”, to keep what was Christian and good, and to rid it of what things that were pagan, and what things that showed plain corruption on the part of the “church” hierarchy. But they were never numerous enough to accomplish anything. You notice the sarcastic reference “thou hast a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments.” Thus, the situation was reaching a pretty bad state.

The first glimmer of the Reformation did not come with Martin Luther; it really began in England with John Wycliffe. He lived from 1320 to 1384. He taught philosophy at the University of Oxford most of the time. The way the Reformation got its start in England was not anything to crow about either, because it was not with a demand for religious reform. It was a political and financial thing, and while it served the purpose of King Henry the 8th, it really accomplished nothing as to anything in their religion that needed touching up. The Pope was demanding all these larger and larger tributes from the “churches” in England. By this time the English “church” owned probably half or more of the land of England. Therefore, they collected the rents from all the people living on that land, in addition to collecting the tithe from all the people who lived on that land and, well, all who lived on the other lands for that matter. And additionally, all the extra money that they brought in through indulgences. It was just bleeding England white financially, and it wasn’t leaving the people enough money to pay the amount of taxes that the king needed to keep himself and his nobles on one long, drunken debauch all year long. Hence, you had a financial rivalry there.

Wycliffe defended the king against the Pope’s demands for excessive tribute in the bitter discussions that went on between the king and parliament, on one hand, and the “church”, on the other, from 1374 to 1378. In 1378 he translated the Bible into English, and he and his scholars saw that the accepted doctrines not only could not find any support in the Bible, but the accepted doctrines were squarely contrary to the Bible. Wycliffe was evidently a man of tremendous personality as well as a very brilliant mind, and he inspired his students with tremendous enthusiasm. So he started sending them out over the country as poor preachers. The “church” was maintaining itself in high financial glory and making excessive demands for money. Wycliffe’s men were content if they just got enough to eat, as they went out carrying the message of the Gospel to people and proving to them with the Bible in English, the people’s own language, that they didn’t need to pay these excessive sums of money to the “church” to buy salvation, because it couldn’t be bought. It had been given to them freely by the sacrifice of Yahshua the Christ upon the cross. Thus, he was really stirring up some opposition. He taught the direct relationship between man and Yahshua, without the need of priests as intermediaries. He taught that the Bible was supreme over any man-made doctrine. He denounced the pilgrimages.

You see, the Catholic “Church” had developed a doctrine that Chr