“Name, Office & Role of Lucifer – Charles Lawson”

A look at Pergamum, or the seat of satan

After viewing/listening to the PPSIMMONS report on “the seat of satan”, I became very intrigued. I reblogged my source here, which contains the link to the report.

After a thoroughly interesting search as to the history of the city of Pergamos /Pergamum(you may recall that Pergamum is one of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation), I thought I’d share some of what I found.

A brief history of Pergamum:

It was located in what is now known as Bergama, Turkey.  It was the center for emperor worship and a home to temples of idolatry during the Roman empire.

Jesus refers to it in Revelation 2:13 as satan’s throne, where satan dwells.

Now, Babylon has been commonly viewed as the original dwelling place of satan, dating all the way back to Cush, the son of Ham. Cush’s son Nimrod is who developed it into a powerful kingdom. It’s original name is Babel; we all know the story of “the tower of Babel”. It is thought that before Cush, particularly his son Nimrod, there was only one religion-recognition and worship of the One True God. Nimrod’s arrogance and determination to establish his own religion was proven successful. Thus, the birth of now two religions: One True God and Babel’s rebellious religion; which we know to be the original satan worship. Babylon’s spreading of science (which was welded with its religion) to Egypt catapulted this worship of satan throughout the rest of the world-taking on various forms and names of course.  When Babylon was invaded by the Persians, the priests found refuge in Pergamum-taking their religious practices with them. In 133 b.c. Pergamum king Attalus III bequeathed the city, its religion etc to Rome in his will.

Quoting from bible.org:

When the Babylonian cult of the Magians was driven out of Babylon, they found a haven in Pergamum.

Pay close attention to the next quote! It may not be news to some of you, but I’m still new at this and find it most intriguing:

The title of the Magian high priest was “Chief Bridge Builder” meaning the one who spans the gap between mortals and Satan and his hosts. In Latin this title was written “Pontifex Maximus,” the title now used by the Pope. This title goes all the way back to Babylon and the beginnings of the mother-child cult under Nimrod of Genesis 10 and his wife Sumerimus. Later, Julius Caesar was elected Pontifex Maximus and when he became Emperor, he became the supreme civil and religious ruler and head of Rome politically and religiously with all the power and functions of the Babylonian pontiff.

!!!! Read the full historical summary here.

If you had not known this connection before, it is shocking to say the least. But I digress.

So, satan’s seat was moved from Babylon to Pergamum when the Babylonian priests fled there.

In 1901 the Pergamum temple was moved to Berlin, as part of a museum. Thus, some speculate that satan’s dwelling place was thus moved to Berlin. In 2008, our illustrious commander-in-chief erected a replica for his presidential nomination acceptance speech at the DNC in Denver.

No, I am not saying satan now dwells in Denver-so don’t even go there.

In fact, before today I had never even given Revelation 2:13 any thought. It does make sense, however.  After all, the Spirit of God dwelled in Holy of Holies. satan, the great imitator and god wannabe would naturally choose for himself a similar earthly dwelling.

Does the father of lies continue to dwell in the Pergamum temple? I’m certainly in no position to say. What I do know, that since Babel and the spread of its false religions throughout the ages-satan really is the prince of this world and the signs of his rule grow more apparent every day.

A Buffet of Deception

Most of us-dare I say ALL?-have been to an all-you-can-eat buffet at some time or another. If you are American, chances are excellent that you’ve been to more than one! Choice after delicious choice of food all lined up in a tantalizing row.  More often than not, we usually over indulge ourselves; after all, we want our “money’s worth”.  Sickening really.

Just like our American food service industry is more than willing to provide an abundance of choice “delectables” to satisfy our appetites, the enemy of our souls is stocked up on every deception imaginable to satisfy our sinful desires. And we are sprawled out, an all-too-willing buffet ourselves.

⁸ Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5 (NASB)

Here are just a few of the deceptions satan (come on, he really doesn’t deserve a capital at the beginning of his name) has perfected in these last days, in his effort to keep the lost damned.

*“You Shall Be Like God”- one of his oldest tricks, since the garden of Eden.  Mankind today relies upon his intelligence and innovation to “solve” the world’s problems. Not giving a bit of thought to the source of that intelligence. Paul warns us in 2 Timothy that in the last days, men will be

⁷ always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 Tim.3

 

* Twisting the Word of God. Not only does “the world” do this to push their own agendas, but sadly those behind a pulpit do the same and the people gobble it up.

³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, ⁴ and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 2 Timothy 4

Apostasy, or the falling away of the church, is rampant. I will go into more detail in an upcoming post.

 

*Aliens/UFOs/Ghosts-No, I’m serious. There has been an influx in UFO sightings in the past few years. Shows such as Ghost Hunters have taken the interest in ghosts/spirits and the paranormal to a whole new level. This great deception is used by the enemy to create confusion in the immature Christian, and fuel the ignorance of unbelievers. Alien abduction, I believe, will be the primary way the world will try to explain the disappearance of so many people after the rapture. Why these aliens decide to take the “Jesus freaks” will be easy for them to try and explain; I am curious as to how they will explain the disappearance of every baby and young child. It will probably be something like, “the aliens want to train our future leaders, our children, to be more enlightened” or some other such garbage. Let me be clear where I stand on this: aliens, UFOs and ghosts are nothing more than visual manifestations of satan’s crew of fallen angels, meant to, as I said, create confusion, fear and a false belief system.

¹⁴ No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 2 Corinthians 11

¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6

 

*New Age movement -Eastern religions/mysticism play a huge role in this false world view.  “Everything is one. God is in every one. I am God. We just to need to reach our enlightened states…..yada yada yada”. Unfortunately, this plays an increasing role in, not just American culture, but the emerging evangelical church as well.

 

*Roman Catholic Church- Guess what, I’m still sitting here. Lightening has not struck me because I listed “The Mother Church” as a tool that satan uses to deceive the world. Most of the world, certainly the media, looks to the Catholic church when discussing issues of religion and theology.  This is sad, because the RCC is not an accurate (by a long shot) representation of Christianity. Don’t get me wrong, there may be some very sincere Catholics who trust in Jesus as Lord and Savior. As a whole though, the RCC is a false religion with false teachings. They are wolves in sheep clothing with their own sinful, proud agendas. Don’t believe me? Research it for yourselves. Idol worship, false doctrines and, some would argue even satanism, make up “The Holy See”.  The RCC is a dangerous, DANGEROUS, organization with satan’s hands all over it.

⁶ I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; ⁷ which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! ⁹ As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! Galatians 1   Their teachings on Mary, worship of dead saints, usage of the rosary, the fact you must have absolution through a priest etc etc are false teachings and do not align with the Gospel or Word of God!

So there we have it, a list of just a few ways lucifer is deceiving the world in these last days. The difference in our buffet metaphor is, satan will not ever regret having gorged himself on too many souls.