REVELATION 2Revelation of Jesus | Revelation of JohnT: REVELATION 2:1-29TO THE SEVEN CHURCHESEPHESUS 2:1-5 FIRST LOVE2:2,6 FALSE APOSTLES AND NICOLAITANSSMYRNA 2:8,9 TRIBULATION, POVERTY, SYNAGOGUE OF SATAN2:10 PERSECUTIONPERGAMOS 2:12,13 THRONE OF SATANANTIPAS2:14 DOCTRINE OF BALAAMNICOLAITANS2:16,17 REPENT, OR ELSETHYATIRA 2:18-20 YOU TOLERATE JEZEBELTHE TRUE CHURCH2:21-23 JEZEBEL’S SICKBED2:24-29 HOLD FAST

2:24-29 HOLD FAST

“But to you I say and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they call them, I will put on you no other burden; but that which you have already, hold fast till I come” (Revelation 2:24,25).

This verse confirms the location of Thyatira in history. The phrase, “the rest in Thyatira” uses the Greek word loipos (remnant), the same word that is used in Revelation 12 to describe the faithful few that remained after the fierce persecution of the Middle Ages: "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17). The use of the Greek word “remnant” in both of these passages links them to the struggle of God's faithful people against the “Jezebel” persecution of the oppressive state Church.

For more than a thousand years the faithful underground Church struggled with the corrupting influence of the Roman Catholic Church. Through heroic sacrifice and at a high cost the church wrenched herself away from the papal system, in the end refusing to tolerate the idolatry of Jezebel, even though it meant facing her wrath. The false doctrines that support the Catholic tradition represent the “depths of Satan”, based as they are on subtle but fatal anti-Christian philosophy and theology (see chapter 18). Although the Protestant reformation did not totally recover the “faith which was once for all delivered to the saints”,[1] it did make significant progress. Jesus, knowing the counterattack that Satan would carry out, admonished the Church to “hold fast what you have.” Unfortunately it was not to be. The church of the next period, Sardis, has a name of being spiritually alive but is actually dead, and even the remnant is about to die (Revelation 3:1,2).

“And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. And He shall rule them with a rod of iron; like the vessels of a potter they shall be broken to pieces, even as I also have received of My Father” (Revelation 2:26,27). This promise demonstrates the justice of God. For centuries “the nations” persecuted those who wanted to be true to God. This should not be surprising—“all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). But God promises that someday the tables will be turned. Those very nations, which condemned the saints of God, will be judged by them-- “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” (1Corintians 6:2). Those who were slaughtered by the rulers of this world will themselves rule--“Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God…and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4). “And all those who despised you shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet” (Isaiah 60:14,15).

“And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit said to the churches” (Revelation 2:28,29). Jesus himself is the morning star (see Revelation 22:16). Those who in the darkest ages have believed in Him and lived for Him and died for Him have done so believing in “the prophetic word…as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (2 Peter 1:19). Someday soon those who beheld "the morning star" in the darkness will rise to everlasting life on that day when "all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord" (Numbers 14:21).



[1] Jude 1:3