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Some were killed outright, while others suffered harassment or ostracism on account of their faithfulness to Christ. Antipas was roasted inside a bronze bull. Such was the fate of many early Christians.
Jesus called Antipas "my faithful witness." Ordained by the Apostle John, Antipas was the bishop of Pergamum, and his faith got the attention of the priests of Asklepios, the Greek serpent-god. These priests had charge of a healing center called the Asklepion, built in honor of Asklepios, which was a cross between a hospital and a health spa, where patients could get everything from a mud bath to a major surgery. According to Rick Renner, the author of "A Light in the Darkness," a study of the seven churches of Asia Minor. Patients entered through an underground tunnel. Then they drank a sedative and spent the night in the dormitories of the Asklepion, while non-poisonous snakes crawled around them all night. They were told that the serpent-god Asklepios would speak to them in their dreams and give them a diagnosis. "It was believed that the snakes carried the healing power of Asklepios," and if a snake slithered across you while you were sleeping at night, that was a divine sign that healing power was coming to you.ã The next morning, the patients told their âdreamsã to the priests, who prescribed their treatments. Finally, the patients made clay sculptures of the body parts that needed healing and offered them to Asklepios.
The people of Pergamum worshipped a myriad of Greek and Roman gods, but when Christianity arrived with the belief in just one god, the cityás pagan priests went on the attack and their most famous victim became Antipas.
âHe had cast out so many devils that the demons had been complaining to pagans, saying, àYouáve got to do something about this Antipasá,ã says Renner.
The pagan priests went to the Roman governor and complained that the prayers of Antipas were driving their spirits out of the city and hindering the worship of their gods. As punishment, the governor ordered Antipas to offer a sacrifice of wine and incense to a statue of the Roman emperor and declare that the emperor was âlord and god.ã
Antipas refused.
âIf you reject the divinity of the emperor, then that is the equivalent of rejecting the city of Rome,ã says Renner, âand believers were killed for this.ã
Antipas was sentenced to death on the Altar of Zeus. Most of that altar still survives today, and surrounding it are some of the worldás most famous marble friezes. They depict the Gigantomachy, or the battle between the Greek gods and the giants. At the top of the altar was a hollow bronze bull, designed for human sacrifice.
Renner describes the method of execution suffered by Antipas.
âThey would take the victim, place him inside the bull, and they would tie him in such a way that his head would go into the head of the bull. Then they would light a huge fire under the bull, and as the fire heated the bronze, the person inside of the bull would slowly begin to roast to death. As the victim would begin to moan and to cry out in pain, his cries would echo through the pipes in the head of the bull, so it seemed to make the bull come alive.ã
Even in the midst of the flames, the elderly bishop Antipas died praying for his church. The year was AD 92.
A few years later, the Apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation, mentioning the death of Antipas in Pergamum. Johnás vision is a call to courage and endurance in the face of persecution and compromise.
12ãTo the angel of the church in Pergamum write: These are the words of him who has the sharp, double two-edge sword.13I know where you live-where Satan has his throne, yet, you remained true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city ä where Satan lives.ã
Johnás vision reveals whatás on the other side of the persecution. A Christian living in Pergamum could not avoid participating in the festivals or eating idol food without severe repercussions. Believers who refused to promote the imperial cult were ostracized from the trade guilds and even experienced confiscation of property, prison, and possibly death. Pergamum was one of the few cities that received from Rome the âright of the sword,ã enabling it to execute criminals at its discretion. Antipas, whom Christ praises as âmy faithful witness.ã was the first of the Christian martyrs in this city.
Christás appearance as one âwho has the sharp, double-edged swordã is a direct challenge to âthe right of swordã exercised by Pergamum. No one has the authority to judge Godás people except Christ.
As judge, Christ warns the âBalaamã group, a code name for false teachers, that he will wage war against them with the sword of Godás word. John identifies someone in the church as the false prophet Balaam. Balaam was a âseerã from Aram, was âhiredã by Balak, King of Moab, to curse the Israelites, who outnumbered him in battle. But God had another plan. Putting Godás words into Balaamás mouth, he could only bless the Israelites rather than curse them. In his final prophesy, he told Balak that the Israelites would one day defeat him. Frustrated, Balak sent Balaam back to his own country.
âBalaam, motivated by greed, instead of returning to his country, stayed in the region and joined the Midianites. He suggested that the way to defeat Israel was to encourage the Israelites to be immoral and promiscuous.ã In that way, they would curse themselves. He may have had to âvoiceã Godás blessings and declare Godás prophecies, but his spirit was not in tune with the Holy One and Only God.
Some say the âNicolaitansã were those who engaged in such promiscuity as some of the early Fathers suggest. Others contend they practiced syncretism between Christianity and their neighborsá pagan religious rites. Other are convinced they subscribed to early gnostic myths, as other church Fathers declared. We donát know for sure. The historical record is not clear. What we do know is that they practiced heresy.
But we know something about the teaching of Balaam. John puts it like this: âYou have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.ã
The word John uses is the Greek word âskandalon,ã meaning stumbling block or snare, the same word Jesus uses of Satan as he is tempted in the wilderness, the same word he uses of Peter, as Peter tries to tempt him to swerve from his mission. To âput a stumbling stoneã before someone is to be a tempter, to lead people into temptation, to âtrip them upã or âsnare themã into behaviors that go against their beliefs and their allegiance to Jesus. Some of these were infiltrating the church at Pergamum. The people couldnát see it. They were blinded by those who masqueraded as Christians, who acted like Christians, who talked like Christians, but whose spirit was not that of Christ.
Similarly, Christians who eat idol food, particularly during the cultic feasts, are guilty of the same spiritual adultery as Israel. Those who teach idol foodás permissibility are guilty of the same kind of false prophecy as Balaam. The Balaam sect at Pergamum was probably a local manifestation of the wider Nicolaitan movement. Itás possible they justified their participation in the imperial festivals on the basis that an idol is nothing and thus cultic feasting was harmless.
During the Civil Rights Movement, the Bible and Christianity were exploited by Klan leader Sam Bowers to justify violent Klan activity, while popular pastor Douglas Hudgins used them to ignore the segregation and violence being promoted even by members of his church. By contrast, the civil rights struggle revealed Christians committed to stand against the values of their culture. Black activist Fannie Lou Hamer both forgave her white persecutor and stood for justice in Jesusá name, and white Mississippian Ed King shared in the suffering of his black colleagues, recognizing that âif a person calls himself a Christian, he must give up everything and follow Christ.ã
When we value what the world does instead of valuing the kingdom, we forfeit our role as witnesses for Christás kingdom in this world. Too much of the world has become indistinguishable from our culture, too much of our effort is geared toward trying to persuade our world that we are acceptable because we are just like them. If we affirm what the world affirms, or live as the world does, to what then do we invite people to that differs from what they already experience?
Christ calls the church to wake up to the reality that the world and the church are locked in a fight to the death, and that the church could âovercomeã only by being faithful and risking martyrdom in its uncompromising witness.
He also calls all the house churches in Pergamum to repent for their sin of neglect. Perhaps not all will âovercome,ã but to those who do, who recognize and resist the temptations of those who would lead them astray, will taste the âhidden mannaã of Christ, and will receive the white âstoneã onto which will be inscribed a ânew nameã that only they will recognize.
People have used stones in various symbolic ways. A white pebble was cast as a vote of acquittal during a trial. Inscribed small stones were sometimes used as an admission pass to public assemblies or festivities. The white stone mentioned in Revelation may be the pass to the celebration of heaven and the new manna of the messianic wedding banquet with Christ. To get one is not hard, only believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ, that he died for your sin, repent and surrender your life to him. With his help, resist those who would lead you astray. Be an âovercomerã.
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The Rev. Charles Eldredge is pastor of Maitland Church of the Brethren, Lewistown, PA where he is currently serving in his 27th year. He graduated from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in S. Hamilton, MA.