Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #16 of Revelation 2, and we are going to read Revelation 2:13:

I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

Here, we read that Satan has a seat, and this was in church at Pergamos.  The Lord is writing to the angel, or messenger, of that church.  Just to remind us, He is writing to all the New Testament churches and congregations, so what we are reading here would be true of the churches to a certain degree during the church age.  Therefore this is teaching us that Satan would have a seat in the churches during the church age.

We are very interested in that because we understand that in the Bible “to be seated,” or “to take a seat,” often points to ruling.  In this verse, the word “seat” is the Greek word “thron'-os,” which is normally translated as “throne.”  For instance, this same word that is translated as “seat” in our verse is found in Revelation 4:1-4:

After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.

In this passage, we see the word “throne” three times, and it is the same word translated as “seat” in our verse in Revelation 2:13.  The throne in heaven is describing God’s throne, so obviously we can understand that this “throne” or “seat” in Revelation 2:13 has to do with great authority.  Actually the Greek word “thron'-os” is again translated as “seat” in Revelation 13 after the beast rose up out of the sea, and it says in Revelation 13:2:

And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

This is referring to Satan’s rule during the period of the Great Tribulation, and God likens him to the “beast” during that particular period of time, and he is ruling because the Lord had loosed him and allowed him to enter into the churches and congregations of the world to rule.  Satan had been infiltrating the churches from the very beginning.  What we are reading in Revelation 2 happened in the churches, and it applied to all of the church age. 

So why is it different at the end of time when he entered into the churches as the man of sin?  Remember what it said in 2Thessalonians 2:3:

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

Here, we see Satan spoken of as “the man of sin,” and he had entered into the temple, representing the churches.  He had always wanted to be like God from the very beginning.  That is why he deceived Adam and Eve into believing the lie rather than the truth.  In so doing, they would serve him, the father of lies, rather than God who is completely identified with truth.  That is why Satan has always come against the churches seeking to set himself up as king over a congregation, or even over a whole denomination.  Satan had been very active in the churches for centuries, and he overcame certain churches through his method of sowing tares among the wheat, and he would multiply the tares until the tares assumed positions of power and authority in those churches, and he would begin to rule through these emissaries.  He then had the “seat” or “throne,” and he was the one who developed (ungodly) doctrines and gospels.  He was the one who was then ruling, for all intents and purposes, in that church, and that happened throughout the course of the church age.

But it was not until the end of the church age (and that is what Revelation 2:13 and Revelation 13:2 are referring to) when God loosed him that Satan was able to rule over all the churches and congregations of the world.  God vacated His position of being in the midst of the “candlesticks,” or the churches, and the Holy Spirit left the congregations, and Satan entered in, and the corporate churches as a whole were completely given over to Satan.  This is what he had always desired.  This was the object of his assaults upon the congregations, and at the time of the end he ruled in all the churches.  It did not matter what denomination it was, whether a person went to a Reformed church, or liberal church, or conservative church, or modern church, or mainline church, or independent church, or even a house church.  It did not matter if people attended a church in America, or in Africa, or in India, or in China, or any place on the earth.  At that point, the church age ended all at once, and God was finished with the churches and congregations, and they were no longer His representatives to the people of the earth.  They all belonged to Satan, and that is the tremendous difference that took place at the end of the church age (in 1988).

Let us go back to our verse in Revelation 2:13:

I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

Here, the Lord is recognizing His people that were in the midst of the congregations throughout the church age over the many centuries from 33 A. D. to its conclusion in 1988 A. D.  They were those that held fast to His name, and not denying His faith, even in the days wherein Antipas was his faithful martyr, who was slain among them where Satan dwells. 

This is not a light thing, or a little thing, that God is mentioning.  They held fast to the Word of God and the faith of the Gospel, despite the death of Antipas who was martyred.  It did not shake their faith or cause them to turn away from confessing the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.  So Jesus was commending them for holding fast to His name, and did not deny His faith.  Again, this would have been true throughout the entire church age.  The Lord’s people continued to faithfully serve Him despite the workings of Satan in the churches in opposition to the Word of God. 

Of course we can see instances of this throughout the church age, even on a physical level when the Lord’s people were martyred for holding fast to the truths of the Gospel, and holding fast to the Word of God.  Sometimes it cost them their lives.

And we understand that this would apply spiritually to those who were driven out of the congregations, and their names were put forth as heretics.  Just think of the Reformation when some of the Reformers had edicts and bulls pronounced against them that labeled them as heretics, basically saying they were unsaved and outside of the blessing of the church.  They were spiritually killed in that sense, and yet God’s people adhered to the Word of God and held fast to the name of Christ.

It also says in 2Thessalonians 2:14-15:

Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.

Here, we find that same language of “holding fast,” and here it regards holding the traditions which they had been taught.  Normally, we associate the word “traditions” with something that is contrary to the Word of God and the teachings of the Bible.  But there is nothing wrong with the word “traditions,” but it is just a matter of what traditions we hold.  If we hold to traditions we have been taught in a proper way according to the Bible’s methodology, and these doctrines have been confirmed through the Bible itself as we compare Scripture with Scripture, and the conclusion of that doctrine harmonized with all the rest of the Bible, then we can hold “the traditions” that others before us have held.  There is nothing wrong with that because it is the tradition taught by Word, or epistle, the Word of God.  And it is our duty and responsibility to hold to that tradition.

Occasionally someone will say, “That teaching you hold to is a traditional teaching.”  It is as if by using the word “traditional,” it makes it wrong.  But that is not what would make it wrong.  Sometimes we hold to a traditional teaching because it has been checked out, examined, and even cross-examined against the Word of God, and therefore we hold to it.  So we would hold to that just as we would hold up to the things the Lord has opened to our understanding in this Day of Judgment.  The Bible has been unsealed.  Yes, we have been corrected in some areas, but that does not mean that everything we previously held to is wrong.  For instance, we continue to teach that there is not to be divorce for any reason.  That is something that has been traditionally taught by God’s people for quite a long time.  I know of instances where people have said, “Well, we are living at a time when God has opened up the Scriptures, so we need to re-examine the area of marriage and divorce.”  That is fine.  We can re-examine it.  But as we do, what do we find?  We find that God still teaches that there is not to be divorce for any reason.  And if one is divorced, one is to remain divorced.  In other words, we find the traditional teaching is still correct, so we hold fast to that tradition which we have been taught because it is the truth of the Word of God.  We do not budge.  We do not compromise.  We do not give in on any level in holding to a truth of the Word of God.

There may be compromising in politics.  There may be compromising in our lives with our spouses or others.  We may not want to hold to certain ideas and things of this world, and we may give in.  But when it comes to the truth of the Bible, we never compromise.  We never give in.

Let us go to Mark 7 where we will see why “tradition” can have a negative connotation.  It says in Mark 7:1-9:

Then came together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, which came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say, with unwashen, hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders.  And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes asked him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.  And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.

Therein lies the problem.  This is a very up-to-date description of the churches of today.  They maintain and hold to their traditions, confessions, creeds, church doctrines, and so forth.  They hold to what their pope says, or they hold to what the Reformers say, as “Gospel.”  And it is not necessarily the Gospel of God that came from the mouths of Calvin, Knox, or Zwingli, although they may have truly been saved individuals, and yet everything they may have said or wrote may not have been the true Gospel.  Some of it may have been faithful, but some of it may not have been, and we cannot allow their standard to be the standard of truth.  The Bible is the ultimate standard of truth.  The Bible alone is our authority.  It determines the Gospel, not man.  So we hold to the “traditions of God” through His written Word and what it decrees.  We do not hold to the teachings of men, or to churches that adhere to their manmade traditions.  They have no authority over us at all.

The child of God holds fast to the name of Christ.  We hold fast to the faith of Christ, which is the Word of God.  The name of God and the faith of God are basically interchangeable words that identify fully with the Word of God, the Bible.  How do we hold Christ’s name fast?  It is by holding His Word fast.  How do we not deny His faith?  It is by not denying His Word.  We stand on the Word of God.  If the world thinks we are crazy, so be it.  If the churches think we are heretics, that is acceptable to us because it is not what they think that we are concerned about, but we are concerned about what God thinks, and He is telling us in this verse in Revelation 2 that Satan’s seat was found there.  We have gone through the experience of ministering the Gospel at the time when Satan had taken his seat in all the churches and congregations of the world, so this would have some application to us, as it says in Revelation 2:13:

I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

Despite the conviction of the churches that the people of God who left the congregations were acting ignorantly, or even rebelliously, and going contrary to the authority of the churches, the Lord’s people realize that it does not matter what they think because Satan dwelt there.  They had become emissaries of Satan that failed to hearken to God’s command to leave the congregations.  It does not matter anymore.  They have no more say to the child of God than the world does, and we do not listen to the world because we know the world has no understanding of the Word of God.  Likewise, we know the churches and their inhabitants, which includes all of professed Christendom today, have no understanding of the Word of God.

Our desire is to serve Christ, and He made it very clear that service to Him had to be performed outside of the churches and congregations of the world during the time of the Great Tribulation, and He has continued to make it clear that our service must continue outside of the churches and congregations because the church age has ended.  They no longer represent God in any way.  God has forsaken them, and He will never return to them just as He never returned to the synagogues.  They are not the representatives of the kingdom of God on the earth, but the Word of God, the Bible, continues in that role.