"Then Is Finished The Mystery Of God"

Chapter 11

To the Angel in Thyatira

Revelation 2:18-29

UNLIKE Pergamum, the city of Thyatira had no emperor worship but had as its chief god Apollo, the sun-god and brother of the goddess Diana or Artemis. This city lay some forty miles southeast of Pergamum and was therefore farther away from the Isle of Patmos on which the apostle John was a prisoner. In the first century of our Common Era there was a congregation of true Christians in Thyatira. To its "angel," who shone like a star with heavenly spiritual light, John was directed to turn his attention with the following words:

"And to the angel of the congregation in Thyatira write: These are the things that the Son of God says, he who has his eyes like a fiery flame, and his feet are like fine copper, 'I know your deeds, and your love and faith and ministry and endurance, and that your deeds of late are more than those formerly.

" 'Nevertheless, I do hold this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and misleads my slaves to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent, but she is not willing to repent of her fornication. Look! I am about to throw her into a sickbed, and those committing adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. And her children I will kill with deadly plague, so that all the congregations will know that I am he who searches the inmost thoughts and hearts, and I will give to you individually according to your deeds.

" 'However, I say to the rest of you who are in Thyatira, all those who do not have this teaching, the very ones who did not get to know the "deep things of Satan," as they say: I am not putting upon you any other burden. Just the same, hold fast what you have until I come. And to him that conquers and observes my deeds down to the end I will give authority over the nations, and he shall shepherd the people with an iron rod so that they will be broken to pieces like clay vessels, the same as I have received from my Father, and I will give him the morning star. Let the one who has an ear hear what the spirit says to the congregations.'" — Revelation 2:18-29.

The Sender of this message by John identifies himself as being the Son of God and, in keeping with this fact, he speaks of God as "my Father," from whom he has received something to share with his conquering followers, "my slaves." About two years later the apostle John was inspired to write his Evangel or Gospel account to prove this identification to be true, "that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that, because of believing, you may have life by means of his name." (John 20:31) About sixty-three years before this, John had seen the resurrected Jesus, not like in this Revelation vision, but materialized in flesh in order to become visible to his disciples. But here in this glorious vision the Son of God appears as having "eyes as a fiery flame," this symbolizing well that he has more than human visual power, the ability to search "inmost thoughts [literally, kidneys] and hearts," to know what his disciples really are within themselves. He also appears with feet "like fine copper," in fact, "like fine copper when glowing in a furnace." (Revelation 1:14, 15) How brilliantly this pictures his clean standing in God's sight!

The message that comes from the resurrected Son of God to the congregation claiming to be Christian is therefore not to be taken lightly, indifferently. Nothing in the congregation escapes his vision, from the starlike overseer down to the least of the "slaves"

of Christ. As in the case of the congregation in Thyatira, this glorious Son of God well knows the deeds, the love, the faith, the ministry and the endurance of the congregation of the remnant of his anointed followers on earth today. We need not detail these things about the congregation as they were being manifested down till the year 1919 C.E. But the congregation may have all these commendable things to its credit, and its "deeds of late" may be "more than those formerly," and yet the standing of the congregation and its angellike overseer may be tarnished by the existence of something unclean within the congregation as a whole. This may be sexual immorality, together with false teaching and idolatry, the sad part of the matter being that all of this is tolerated, not ferreted out, nor purged out.

Sadly this was true of the first-century congregation in Thyatira. For persons familiar with the Holy Bible few names are more odious than that of Jezebel the wife of King Ahab of ancient Israel. Over a thousand years after the historical Jezebel was pitched by her eunuchs out of the window at Jezreel and devoured by street dogs (905 B.C.E.) there was a counterpart of her in the Thyatira congregation. That is why the glorified Jesus Christ with blazing eyes chose to call her, not by her real name, but by the reproachful expression "that woman Jezebel." She called herself "a prophetess." But was she? If at all, a false prophetess at most, not filled with the inspiring spirit of Jehovah God. Usurping the position of the male person in the congregation, "that woman Jezebel" was teaching and misleading the slaves of the Son of God "to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols." This certainly was not the conduct of a true prophetess of God, the only One worthy to be worshiped.

The pre-Christian Jezebel was the daughter of Eth-baal, the king of Sidon in pagan Phoenicia and priest of the false goddess Astarte, the consort of Baal. (1 Kings 16:31) She induced her husband, King Ahab,

to introduce Baal worship in the northern kingdom of Israel and to build a temple to his worship. She entertained four hundred false prophets at her royal table, besides which there then were four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal officially recognized in Ahab's kingdom. (1 Kings 18:19 to 19:2) Queen Jezebel was also notorious for practicing fornications and sorcery in the kingdom of Israel. (2 Kings 9:22-37)

Her ambitious daughter Athaliah murderously usurped the throne of the kingdom of Judah and reigned for about seven years. (2 Kings 11:1-20) Odious as Queen Jezebel was in ancient apostate Israel, her first-century counterpart whom Jesus Christ called "that woman Jezebel" was still more odious, because she played a like immoral, idolatrous role as a false prophetess in the Christian congregation.

THE CASE OF "THAT WOMAN JEZEBEL"

Because "that woman Jezebel" was being tolerated, even by the "angel of the congregation in Thyatira," the glorified Jesus Christ had been giving her time to repent of her subtle method of using her sex appeal to further her wicked course in the congregation. Likely, because the later works of the congregation were more than those formerly, she was persuading some "slaves" of Christ to believe that it was all right for them to commit fornication with her and to commit idolatry indirectly by eating things sacrificed to idols, seeing that they had such a good service record in trying to spread Christianity; their record of activities in the preaching of Christianity counterbalanced any moral violations and compromises with idolatry. Just as the unfaithful prophet Balaam taught King Balak of Moab how to seduce the ancient Israelites into fornication and idolatry by means of the female sex appeal, so "that woman Jezebel" coupled up her sex appeal with her false doctrine and prophesying and seduced Christians in Thyatira to indulge in fornication and idolatry. (Revelation 2: 14) She taught them how to salve their consciences.

Likewise in the twentieth-century congregation of Christ's anointed remnant Satan the Devil has tried to corrupt the Christian by means of female sex appeal, even under innocent guises. There has been no particular individual woman thus far during this century who outstandingly could be styled "that woman Jezebel," for now we are not dealing with one par-

ticular congregation like that of ancient Thyatira. Nevertheless, the records show that Satan the Devil has not been backward about using woman influence with effect in the wrong direction in the true Christian congregation, since he has been so effective with it throughout Christendom. Sad results have followed for those who have not repented of their immoral, idolatrous wrongdoing.

The glorified Christ abominates today those like "that woman Jezebel" just as much as he did that false, immoral, idolatrous prophetess of the Thyatira congregation nineteen centuries ago. His eyes, "as a fiery flame," blaze against such professing Christians. Since his coming to the spiritual temple with his heavenly Father in the spring of 1918, he has taken part in the fulfillment of the prophecy of Malachi 3:1-5, by becoming a "speedy witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against those swearing falsely." He has alerted the congregation of his anointed remnant against professed Christian women of the Jezebel type. He has made their consciences very tender against the sly inroads of seductive women who by sex appeal lure men into wrong thinking about immorality and forms of idolatry. As a safeguard he has caused increasing emphasis to be laid upon the rightness of the apostle Paul's inspired position: "I do not permit a woman to teach [inside the congregation], or to exercise authority over a man, but to be in silence." — 1 Timothy 2:12.

Leading up to an instance of the tenderizing of the Christian conscience on this issue, in the year 1905* a book entitled "Daily Heavenly Manna for the Household of Faith" was published by a Christian woman. This was distributed by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society and was used by the International Bible Students for years in their morning

religious devotions and especially at the Wednesday-night prayer, praise and testimony meetings. The book was used for keeping a record of birthdays and collecting signatures and addresses of fellow Bible students. About 1926 the offer was made by the book's compiler to revise the Manna book and bring it up to date. This offer was refused, in the light of 1 Timothy 2:12. Instead, in that year the first Year Book of the International Bible Students Association with Daily Texts and Comments was prepared by the president of the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society and the Society's writing staff, and was introduced to the congregations world wide for their use during the year 1927. Each succeeding year a new Yearbook has thus been published till now.

We have no record in the Bible or in Church history to show that "that woman Jezebel" of the Thyatira congregation repented. If she actually did not, we do not know how and when the glorified "Son of God" did what he spoke in warning to her, saying: "She is not willing to repent of her fornication. Look! I am about to throw her into a sickbed, and those committing adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. And her children I will kill with deadly plague, so that all the congregations will know that I am he who searches the inmost thoughts and hearts, and I will give to you individually according to your deeds." (Revelation 2: 21-23) That was no idle threat!

That warning really stands as a prophecy for our day, concerning "the things that must shortly take place." (Revelation 1:1) No less than in the case of congregations of nineteen centuries ago, "all the congregations" today must know that the glorified "Son of God" at the spiritual temple since 1918 is one who "searches the inmost thoughts [kidneys] and hearts" and gives to you Christians "individually according to your deeds." So it has come about that professed Christian women of the Jezebel type have been thrown by the heavenly Son of God, not into a bed of illicit

sexual lovemaking with the ecstasies of sensuous passion, but "into a sickbed," because of not repenting. Till now this has been done by the disfellowshiping of such immoral, idolatrous women from the true Christian congregation. This has been no happy religious bed for them to lie in, for it betokens spiritual death, the forerunner of absolute annihilation at one's bodily death in this disfellowshiped state. If, before then, they are overtaken by the destruction of religious Babylon the Great or the "war of the great day of God the Almighty," it will bring their everlasting execution at His hands.

Those professed Christian males who become guilty of "committing adultery with her" are properly thrown "into great tribulation" for not repenting "of her deeds." No less than the immoral, idolatrous women, those who have yielded to their sex appeal and seductive reasoning have been excommunicated from the congregation, thus to remove reproach and pollution from the congregation. (1 Corinthians 5:1-13) Spiritually this has meant "great tribulation" for them. But worse may lie just ahead of them. If the war of Almighty God at Armageddon overtakes them, it will spell their inescapable destruction by execution at His hands. (Revelation 16:14-16) They face doom at the outbreak of the "great tribulation such as has not occurred since the world's beginning until now," for they do not prove themselves to be permanently of God's "chosen ones" for whose sake the days of tribulation are to be shortened. (Matthew 24:21, 22) Even those who may be lured by such professed Christian women of the Jezebel type into immoral relations with this unclean world will be destroyed at Armageddon, at the latest, because of being friends of the world and enemies of God.  — James 4:4.

"Her children," the children of her fornication, have a poor outlook for life, since they are to be killed "with deadly plague." (Revelation 2:23) This may he a spiritual death-dealing plague. Certainly chil-

dren literally born to such illicit, unchristian sexual unions receive a poor spiritual heritage and poor prospects of being brought up as true Christians with hope of eternal life. Remaining in a spiritually diseased condition, such children will at last die spiritually and be in danger of everlasting destruction. This also bodes no good for persons who are "her children" in the sense of being religious disciples of that false prophetess, "that woman Jezebel." The way of the fornicatrix and adulteress leads down to death and destruction. — Proverbs 7:6-27.

ANTI-JEZEBEL

As back in the days of the Thyatira congregation, it is evident today that there are "those who do not have this teaching [of that woman Jezebel], the very ones who did not get to know the 'deep things of Satan.' " Satanic reasonings that lead to self-deception with pious salving of one's conscience, the faithful ones of the anointed remnant do not recognize. They do not enter into a knowledge of the "deep things of Satan" by trying them out for the sake of personal experience. Rather, they interest themselves in the "deep things of God," which God reveals to them through his holy spirit. — Revelation 2:24; 1 Corinthians 2:10-13.

To such faithful anointed disciples since 1919 the glorified Son of God says: "I am not putting upon you any other burden." So they dare not fall for the enticing argument of "that woman Jezebel" that it is not spiritually harmful for a dedicated Christian to indulge at times in sexual immorality and forms of idolatry provided that one has a fine-showing record for doing outwardly Christian works such as preaching Christian teachings to others. The "burden" or obligation to resist such spiritual enticement rests upon the faithful ones. It comes within the instructions given to Gentile Christians as contained in the decree of the Jerusalem Council of the first century, which read (in part):

"The apostles and the older brothers to those brothers . . . from the nations: Greetings! . . . the holy spirit and we ourselves have favored adding no further burden to you, except these necessary things, to keep yourselves free from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication. If you carefully keep yourselves from these things, you will prosper." — Acts 15:23-29.

For these vital reasons we can never go along with the clergymen of Christendom who today ignore the plain statements of the Jerusalem Council's decree. These men ignore also that warning word of the Son of God when they publicly say that there can be something beautiful in a life of homosexuality between adults who willingly consent to it, and that it is useful and not morally improper for engaged or betrothed couples to indulge in sex relations before marriage or for single persons to undertake trial marriages. Such clergymen, regardless of their religious denomination or sect, are adopting the immoral position of "that woman Jezebel" in the Thyatira congregation of nineteen centuries ago. We do not choose to suffer any execution of divine judgment like that of "that woman Jezebel" at the coming destruction of the world empire of false religion, Babylon the Great. Rather, we will bear the "burden" that the Son of God imposes upon us as his faithful followers. With a hearing ear we will listen to what the spirit says to all the congregations. We will hold fast to Christ-like purity and righteousness. This we will do, as Jesus says, "until I come."

SHEPHERDING THE PEOPLE WITH AN IRON ROD

In the special message to the Thyatira congregation all those who are members of the anointed remnant are encouraged to be conquerors: "And to him that conquers and observes my deeds down to the end I will give authority over the nations, and he shall shepherd the people with an iron rod so that they will be broken to pieces like clay vessels, the

same as I have received from my Father, and I will give him the morning star." (Revelation 2:26-28) While yet on earth in the flesh the faithful anointed ones gain a spiritual conquest over the enemy world and its wicked system of things. But for such conquerors another conquest lies still ahead, one that will mean destruction literally to the present system of things, in the "war of the great day of God the Almighty," at Armageddon. (Revelation 16:14, 16) How is this? By means of a resurrection from the dead before war begins.

Those members of the anointed remnant of Christ's followers who prove faithful and die since his invisible presence at the spiritual temple began in the spring of 1918 will not sleep in death. They will have an instantaneous resurrection in the spirit immediately after their death in the flesh, to join the heavenly Son of God at the temple. In this way they will be "happy" in a sense that was not true of the faithful anointed disciples who died prior to the presence of the Son of God at the temple and who therefore had to sleep in death waiting to hear his voice from the temple bidding them to arise from the dead to heavenly life. (John 5:28, 29) Even though they rest from their earthly labors, the "things they did go right with them" into the heavenly realm. (Revelation 14: 13) In their earthly labors they proclaimed to the nations "the day of vengeance on the part of our God," but now in their resurrected spirit estate they will share in the executing of that divine vengeance. (Isaiah 61:1, 2) To them the Son of God "will give authority over the nations." This they never had on earth.

Thus the Son of God will give them a share in his authority. From his heavenly Father he received the privilege to fulfill the prophetic words of Psalm 2: 7-9: "Let me refer to the decree of Jehovah; he has said to me: 'You are my son; I, today, I have become your father. Ask of me, that I may give nations as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your

own possession. You will break them with an iron scepter, as though a potter's vessel you will dash them to pieces.'" In agreement with that, the apostle John says concerning the newborn kingdom of God that this newborn kingdom "is to shepherd all the nations with an iron rod." (Revelation 12:5) The nations of this world have preyed like wild beasts upon the little flock of Christ's sheep, his Kingdom joint heirs. Now, in a reversal of matters, each one of that "little flock" who is resurrected before the war at Armageddon shall, with Christ, "shepherd the people with an iron rod so that they will be broken to pieces like clay vessels." This breaking of the nations to pieces will work for the glorious fulfillment of the Kingdom prophecy of Daniel 2:44.

The small portion of the anointed remnant who will be protected on earth through the battle of Armageddon will not take part in any physical violence in order to speed up or further the destruction of the Devil's visible organization on earth. Down till when the Son of God and his resurrected faithful followers begin shepherding the nations with an iron rod and dashing them to pieces like mere clay vessels of a potter, these preserved ones on earth will persist in declaring the impending execution of God's judgments upon the earthly enemies of His Messianic kingdom. Then, when the destruction begins from the invisible heavens, they will do like what the prophet Moses told the frightened Israelites when about to cross the Red Sea with the pursuing Egyptian military forces hot on their heels: "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and see the salvation of Jehovah, which he will perform for you today." (Exodus 14:13) They will take to heart the words of Jehovah's prophet to his worshipers in Jerusalem when it was threatened by the combined enemies in the days of faithful King Jehoshaphat, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 20:14-17:

"Do not be afraid or be terrified because of this large crowd; for the battle is not yours, but God's. . . . You will not need to fight in this instance. Take

your position, stand still and see the salvation of Jehovah in your behalf."

Their witnessing safely on earth the brandishing of the "iron rod" from heaven for the destruction of the wicked nations at Armageddon will be equivalent to the preserved remnant themselves having a direct part in 'shepherding the people with an iron rod.' They will thus feel that the promise of Revelation 2:27 has been fulfilled toward them. They will be satisfied and rejoice. — Psalm 149:5-9.

THE GIFT OF THE MORNING STAR

In due time the preserved remnant that will have survived the breaking of the vessel-like nations to pieces will finish their earthly course faithfully and Will enjoy with all the previously resurrected Kingdom heirs the fulfillment of the further promise made by the resurrected Son of God to each of his conquering followers: "And I will give him the morning star." (Revelation 2:28) They know that this symbolic "morning star" is the glorified Son of God himself, for he said to the apostle John near the close of the marvelous Revelation: "I, Jesus, sent my angel to bear witness to you people of these things for the congregations. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright morning star." (Revelation 22: 16) In Bible prophecy the kings of God's chosen people were likened to heavenly stars, even as the angellike overseers of the seven congregations of Asia were likened to seven stars in the right hand of the Son of God. (Revelation 1:16, 20) Fifteen centuries before this it had been prophesied concerning Jesus as the royal "offspring of David":

"A star will certainly step forth out of Jacob, and a scepter will indeed rise out of Israel.... And out of Jacob one will go subduing, and he must destroy any survivor from the city." — Numbers 24:17-19.

Above this "bright morning star" Satan the Devil, who was typified by the king of ancient Babylon, wanted to fix his own heavenly throne. He recalled

that the king of Babylon fixed his earthly throne above the starlike kings of Jerusalem in the years 617-607 B.C.E. In doing this the king of Babylon took two kings of Jerusalem into exile in Babylon and destroyed their royal throne-city, Jerusalem, all this in carrying out his expressed determination: "Above the stars of God I shall lift up my throne, and I shall sit down upon the mountain of meeting [at Jerusalem], in the remotest parts of the north." (Isaiah 14:4, 13; 2 Kings 24:10 to 25:21) The opposite of this has happened to Satan the Devil already since 1914 C.E., for he has been cast out of heaven and down to the neighborhood of our earth. After the destruction of his visible earthly organization at Armageddon he and his demons will be sealed up, chained, in an abyss. There they will await their destruction after the successful reign of the "bright morning star" for a thousand years over liberated mankind. (Revelation 12:3-13; 20:1-10) O how the "morning star" will shine then!

In view of all this, how will the glorified Son of God give to each faithful conqueror of his congregation "the morning star"? Evidently by giving them his own self, by taking them into the closest relationship with himself, to have an intimacy with him that none of the other heavenly creatures will enjoy. In this way they will share with him in the many privileges that are foretold for this "morning star" in the prophecies of God's Word, the Holy Bible. With him his fellow conquerors will shine forever to Jehovah's glory. — Daniel 12:3; Matthew 13:43.

In view of such grand promises it was most appropriate for the "Son of God" to close his message to the angel of the congregation in Thyatira with these words of wisdom: "Let the one who has an ear hear what the spirit says to the congregations."  — Revelation 2:29.