seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Revelation 2:8 “To the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. 9 I know your afflictions and your poverty—yet you are rich! I know about the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.
11 Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who is victorious will not be hurt at all by the second death.
Here's a link to the Study Guide I use.I've been using the same commentary for years. When all this AI stuff started to cast doubt on anything available on the internet, I figured I'd be ok if I stick to the one I have been using. So... I am comfortable saying this is not AI. I learned something new this morning and boy I think it's juicy!
Smyrna was into politics big time. In Smyrna Ceasar was Lord! This caused a problem for the Christians.
Here's a link to identify the Polycarp. Polycarp was a contemporary of John's. He was a Christian and he was martyred by Rome for refusing to put incense on the altar and state "Caeser is Lord".
In Smyrna they built temples to Emperors of Rome. Smyrna won the contract to build the temple to Tiberius Ceasar. Then the people started putting a pinch of incense on the altar at the temple of the emperor and saying "Caeser is Lord". This started out as a "come as you wish" kind of worship but then in the days of Domitian, this worship became compulsory. Once a year everyone was required to go to the temple of Tiberius and put a pinch of incense on the altar and say "Caeser is Lord".
Well of course no real Christian would do that. Polycarp refused and he was burned at the stake. Problem is.... Polycarp wasn't devoured by the flames. You really should read the commentary and the "got questions" links. One story says when they gouged him with a sword... [as they did Jesus] blood came out and doused the flames. Polycarp was martyred because he refused to worship the emperor.
The Christians at Smyrna were required to worship the emperor or face imprisonment and/or burning at the stake.
Yesterday I heard a "preacher" on TV state emphatically that God created government.
God did not want us to have kings or emperors. God agreed to allow us to have a king.... and that's when he chose Saul... a real man's man... a rich guy... a handsome man... and Saul turned out to be a dud... so, God put David on the thrown and things went downhill from there. God did not want us to rely on government.
God knew Christians would wind up putting a little incense on the altar. God can see the future. He knew where this king thing was going.
The commentaries want to say that God "allowed" Christians to be persecuted. The commentaries say God wanted us to be "tested". Why would a Father want His children to be persecuted? We did this to ourselves. We set ourselves up with Satan.... a king, a czar, a president.... because we wanted to be like everyone else. Big headed humans running the world demand a little incense on the altar... better agree or your Christianity will show.
Put God first and keep the incense available for when you stink up the joint by eating broccoli!
The Christians at Smyrna had to endure persecution. They were jailed... I think the 10 days part... well that just tags it as human punishment... like a 10 day jail sentence for snubbing the emperor.
Christians had to refuse to....
Burn a pinch....
