SMYRNA: THE CAUSE OF THE TROUBLE

Revelation 2:8—11 (contd)

THE instigators of persecution were the Jews. Again and again in Acts, we see how the Jews stirred up the authorities against the Christian preachers. It happened at Antioch (Acts 13:50), at Iconium (Acts 14:2, 14:5), at Lystra (Acts 14:19) and at Thessalonica (Acts 17:5).
The story of what happened at Antioch shows us how the Jews often succeeded in moving the authorities to take action against the Christians (Acts 13:50). Round the Jewish synagogues gathered many ‘god-fearers’. These were Gentiles who were not prepared to go the whole way and to become full converts but were attracted by the preaching of one God instead of many gods and were attracted especially by the purity of the Jewish ethic as compared with life in Roman society. In particular, women were attracted to Judaism for these reasons. Often these women were from the higher social levels, the wives of magistrates and governors, and it was through them that the Jews gained access to the authorities and persuaded them to persecute.
John calls the Jews the synagogue of Satan. He is taking a favourite expression of the Jews and reversing it. When the people of Israel met together, they loved to call themselves ‘the assembly of the Lord’ (Numbers 16:3, 20:4, 31:16). Synagogue is in Greek sunagōgÄ“, which literally means a coming together, an assembly, a congregation. It is as if John said: ‘You call yourselves the assembly of God when, in fact, you are the assembly of the devil.’ Once, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, said of certain people who were presenting a crude picture of God: ‘Your God is my devil.’ It is a terrible thing when religion becomes the means of evil things. It has happened. In the eighteenth century, in the days of the French Revolution, Madame Roland uttered her famous cry: ‘Liberty, what crimes are committed in your name!’ There have been tragic times when the same could be said about religion.
Six slanders were regularly levelled against the Christians.
(1) On the basis of the words of the sacrament–this is my body, and this is my blood–the story went about that the Christians were cannibals.
(2) Because the Christians called their common meal the Agape, the Love Feast, it was said that their gatherings were orgies of lust.
(3) Because Christianity did, in fact, often split families, when some members became Christians and some did not, the Christians were accused of ‘tampering with family relationships’.
(4) Worshippers in the traditional ancient religions accused the Christians of atheism because they could not understand a worship which had no images of the gods such as they themselves had.
(5) The Christians were accused of being politically disloyal because they would not say: ‘Caesar is Lord.’
(6) The Christians were accused of being fire-raisers because they foretold the end of the world in flames.
It was not difficult for maliciously minded people to circulate dangerous slanders about the Christian Church.

Barclay, W. (2004). The Revelation of John, Volume 1 (3rd ed. fully rev. and updated). The New Daily Study Bible (88—90). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.

On this day...

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• Hebrews 13:5 - 2009
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• God's Merciful Warnings - 2007
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• Opposition To Self Pride - 2007
• Contending For Supremacy - 2007
• Fall of Satan - 2007
• Solipsism - 2007