Good evening everyone!
Greetings to our audio and YouTube listeners!
Tonight we’re going to speak of the crux
of the Apocalypse, the horizontal bar of the
great cross that pervades the entire message
of this book.
The Letter to the Church of Thyatira is the
very crux of the Apocalypse.
It’s been nine or ten weeks since our introductory
overview which explained the chart of seven
sevens, making a table of 49 squares with
a big cross through the center.
Let’s take a moment to review that.
In that first conference I gave some reasons
why I believe that Mary’s locutions to Father
Steven Gobbi, back in the 1980s and 1990s,
were given in circumstances that lent authenticity.
You can look at my YouTube for all that.
But ultimately we’ll never know if a prophecy
is true until it comes true.
But Mary definitely got me started on this
difficult book because She kept telling this
simple, unscholarly Italian priest that She
wanted everyone to study the Apocalypse because
we were being called to live through it.
Over the years, She explained some of the
symbols, but only some.
So I kept studying commentaries, Catholic
and Protestant.
One day it really struck me that most of these
learned scholars spent their time arguing
with each other over one issue, whether to
divide the book into 4 sets of 7s, or 5 sets
of sevens.
All agreed that there were Seven Seals, Seven
Trumpets, Seven Signs and Seven Plagues, but
they had long and boring debates about whether
the Seven Letters were an integral part of
the Revelation or whether the letters were
only an admonition to the churches to read
and heed the Revelation.
Suddenly the light dawned for me!
We were all missing the forest for the trees!
Sevens!
Trumpets!
This book is about a great Year of Jubilee.
Trumpets are blown at the end of seven Sabbatical
years.
Of the three great feasts in the Mosaic Law,
Jesus fulfilled the Passover feast by his
death and Resurrection when He “passed over”
from earth to heaven.
The Feast of Weeks was fulfilled by the Holy
Spirit on the day of Pentecost the Greek name
for the feast meaning fifty days because it’s
celebrated 7 weeks, that is 49 days plus one
after Passover.
We don’t have to review the details.
But what about the third and greatest feast,
Tabernacles?
The feast of feasts!
This feast should correspond to the Father
from whom all goodness comes.
The old Feast of Tabernacles celebrates the
arrival and occupation of the Promised Land.
For seven days the Israelites lived in little
makeshift tents or booths to relive the time
when they were sojourning in the wilderness.
In the old Feast of Tabernacles, seventy bulls
are offered.
The rabbis saw this number as corresponding
to the Genesis Table of seventy nations of
the whole world.
Isaiah and other prophets foresaw a time when
all the nations of the world would acclaim
the true God.
The Book of Revelation celebrates the defeat
of evil in the world and the worship of the
true God on the whole earth by many nations!
When the Jews are journeying to Jerusalem
they sing the Hallel psalms, Hallelujah.
Allel-Yahweh!
Where do we hear Hallelujah in the NT?
Only in the Book of Revelation:
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem . . . and
I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“Behold, the dwelling of God is with men.
. . .By its light shall the nations walk;
and the kings of the earth shall bring their
glory into it . . . they shall bring into
it the glory and the honor of the nations
If that hunch was correct there has to be
seven groups of seven in the Book, not just
four or five.
So I opened the text to begin hunting for
two more groups of seven.
That search only took five minutes.
The last group of five ends in Chapter 16
with the seven bowls of plagues.
But the Apocalypse has another six more chapters
to go.
And what are these final chapters about?
A wicked harlot and a beautiful bride-city.
The harlot receives seven judgments and the
bride-city receives seven adornments.
These are not explicitly numbered and Mary
did not explicitly discuss them, but when
I built a table for the seven groups of sevens,
I saw something extraordinary!
Mary had focused her explanations to the “Seven
Signs.”
This is the fourth group of Sevens, so on
a table it forms the central column.
The first group of sevens is the “Seven
Letters.”
If the fourth Church is central to the Book,
then the Apocalypse is stamped with the Cross.
Tonight we’re going to see that Thyatira
is a very important part of the Apocalypse.
Let’s begin:
And to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira
write: Thus says the Son of God, He who has
eyes as a flame of fire, and whose feet are
like burnished bronze.
I know your works, your charity, your faith,
your service, your patience, and your last
works more numerous than the first.
But I have this against you, that you tolerate
the woman Jezebel, who, calling herself a
prophetess, teaches and leads astray my servants
to commit impurity and to eat idol-offerings.
I gave her time that she should repent and
she wills not to repent of her impurity.
Behold, I cast her upon a bed, and the companions
of her adultery into great tribulations, unless
they shall repent of her works; and her children
I will strike with death.
And all the churches shall know that I am
He who searches reins and hearts; and I will
give to each of you according to your works.
But to you I say, to the rest in Thyatira--whosoever
does not hold this doctrine, such as have
not (in their phrase), “known the deep things
of Satan”--I cast not upon you any other
burden.
Only hold fast what you have, until I come.
As for him that conquers and that keeps my
works till the end, I will give him power
over the nations, and he will rule them with
a rod of iron, as when earthen vessels are
broken in pieces, even as I myself have received
from my Father; and I will give him the morning
star.
He that has an ear, let him hear what the
spirit says to the churches [Rev 2:18-29].
Unlike the rest of the seven cities, history
and archeology have provided quite sparse
information on Thyatira.
Historians and ancient writers generally rarely
mention it.
There are ruins.
The city definitely existed, but the numerous
inscriptions which have been discovered and
published tell us only the bare minimum.
The community of Christians must have been
only a small portion of the population at
this time because a renegade Christian sect
called the A-logi (meaning against the Logos)
arose about 175 ad; (that’s not too many
years after the Apocalypse was written).
This heretic group denied the Holy Spirit
and also the Logos teaching of the Gospel
of St. John and his Apocalypse.
One of their strongest proofs for denying
the authenticity of the Apocalypse was that
there were so few Christians at Thyatira,
that they said it could hardly be called a
Church.
Luke, in the Book of Acts, tells us about
a devout woman named Lydia.
She was originally from Thyatira, but St.
Paul converted her at Philippi.
Was she only there on a business trip?
Did she return to Thyatira and convert some
friends and relatives?
We have no names of Christians and no real
information until a couple of centuries later
when the population becomes almost entirely
Christian.
A few coins from Thyatira provide some clues
about its deities.
It’s the most remote of the churches in
the seven-letter circuit, fifty miles southeast
of Pergamum.
In the Middle Ages the city became almost
entirely Moslem and the Turks changed the
name of Thyatira to Ak-Hissar (White Fortress).
As for the meaning of the original name, like
most everything else about the ancient city,
that too, is a bit uncertain.
The etymology suggests something like: “odor
of affliction.”
One thing we definitely know about ancient
Thyatira, and the modern Ak-Hissar, is that
its always been a busy trade center because
of it’s strategic location at the intersection
of important roads.
It was one of the cities where money was first
used.
Most historians believe that money was invented
by nearby Lydians in the 7th century bc, and
Thyatira a very important trade center soon
began stamping their own coins.
However, Thyatira’s location was also its
biggest problem because it was on an open
plain on a route that everybody wanted to
control.
Thyatira was captured successively by the
Seleucid Empire, the Attalid dynasty, and
by Mithridates VI of Pontus, then the Romans
gained control about 80 bc.
And this provides light on the problems in
the Church.
It’s multicultural.
It’s a melting pot.
There are many deities.
There’s a lot of syncretism among the pagans,
and this syncretism naturally has a strong
influence on the minds of the Christians.
Syncretism and tolerance are what Jesus is
warning the bishop about.
As we proceed we’ll see why this letter
and this Church is dead-center, the major
theme in the Apocalypse that’s going on
around us right now.
Let’s take it line by line.
And to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira
write: Thus says the Son of God, He who has
eyes as a flame of fire, and whose feet are
like bright bronze.
The word for burnished or fine brass is chalcolibanos
and it occurs only here in Scripture.
Bronze was a very hard alloyed metal used
for weapons.
Under proper treatment it would have a brilliant
polished gleam catching the light like gold.
Colin Hemer points out that the great English
archaeologist Sir William Ramsay suggested
that [the text in the Apocalypse] referred
to a local trade name for an alloy with a
special quality that had been produced by
the local guild of coppersmiths . . . The
guild of coppersmiths is attested in an inscription.
The frequent coin-types of [the deities] Hephaestus
and Athene, wearing helmets, reflect the city’s
association both with war and crafts.
And the same industry is carried on there
today [1990s].
In one section of the old town the metal workers
are grouped together: their workshops and
furnaces are seen behind the shop-fronts where
their products are sold.
The localized crafts of the modern town reinforce
the impression of continuity of life in this
place.
Dr. Wilson goes on to speculate:
The Thyatiran Christians are perhaps being
assured [by Jesus] that their [divine] leader
is clothed in an armor that flashes like the
metal from their own furnaces.
He knows their guilds, knows their circumstances,
recognizes their problems--but also reminds
them that He is the [true] Son of God.
He is more powerful than their most powerful
opponent, and He will not allow them to be
tested beyond what they are able to bear.
The Thyatirans have a coin with their deity:
the divine smith, Hephaestus, dressed as a
workman . . seated at an anvil (represented
by a small pillar), holding in his left hand
a pair of forceps, and giving the finishing
blow with his hammer to a helmet, for which
the goddess of war, Athene, is holding out
her hand.
Considering that a guild of bronze [copper]
smiths is mentioned at Thyatira, we cannot
doubt that this coin commemorates the peculiar
importance for the welfare of Thyatira of
the bronze-workers’ handicraft; and we must
infer that bronze work was carried to a high
state of perfection in the city.
Maybe it’s true that the particular Greek
term “chalkolibanos” is unique in the
Bible because it’s a special technique used
by the metalsmiths of Thyatira, but “burnished
bronze” is certainly an expression from
the Hebrew Bible.
The First Book of Kings and Second Book of
Chronicles go into great detail about the
metals used in Solomon’s temple.
The enormous pair of cherubim, fifteen feet
tall and each with a thirty-foot wingspread,
were carved of wood and overlaid with gold.
The walls of the Temple were covered with
gold and diamonds and a variety of gems, and
even the nails were gold, and the floor was
gold, and the Ark was gold, and the altar
of incense was gold, and the great lampstand
was one piece of seventy pounds of beaten
gold.
But everything connected with burnt sacrifices
had to be of a stronger metal.
The phrase “burnished bronze” appears
often for the pots, lavers, the shovels and
the great outdoor bronze altar itself.
This specially tempered, extra strong metal
was used for the great bronze sea which was
mounted on twelve bronze oxen for the ritual
cleansing of the priests.
It required so much bronze that they didn’t
attempt to figure out its weight.
The Babylonians had to work hard to break
it up before they could carry off the metal
to Babylon.
But the bronze item that I believe best corresponds
to the one whose feet were like burnished
bronze, refined as in a furnace [Rev 1:15]
were the two great pillars that Solomon placed
at the front of the Temple, inside the great
court which held the great bronze altar.
Because the Bible notes that these pillars
were hollow, most scholars tend to the opinion
that these were two freestanding pillars,
not a structural support for a porch roof.
I was surprised to discover that over the
centuries, Christian and rabbinical commentaries
have proposed a variety of meanings for these
two enormous bronze pillars but there is no
consensus.
They rarely agree with each other.
It’s all a guess.
I never found one commentator that agreed
with me.
It was a long time before it even occurred
to me to consult any commentaries, because
I assumed the meaning was obvious.
They were pillars!
They were free-standing.
They were at the front.
The burnished bronze would have caught the
sunlight and giving them the appearance of
columns of fire.
Doesn’t that suggest the pillar of fire
from the Exodus?
At the Temple the pillar could finally stop
wandering in the desert and park itself in
the promised land.
Does it not remind one also of the fiery cherubim
stationed at the entrance of paradise?
Alright, it’s true, there was only one pillar
in the desert, but the Hebrew idiom double-portion
is well-known.
Elisha asked for a double portion of Elijah’s
spirit.
Firstborn sons received the double portion.
In Israel they had the right to erect altars
anywhere they wished to offer sacrifices on
behalf of their families, but this Temple
in Jerusalem was the double portion, having
the altar of altars.
The south-side, right-hand, pillar was named
“Jachin” meaning “Yah establishes.”
The “Boaz” pillar means “strength.”
They seem to stand there as a double witness
of shining, fiery witness of the blazing Spirit
of God that this Temple holds the primacy
of worship.
In St. John’s vision, the legs of Jesus
were hidden by his long white robe.
Jesus is clothed like a high priest.
Only his feet are visible.
When Daniel beheld the Angel Gabriel on the
banks of the Tigris (that is, near Babylon),
Daniel said that the angel was dressed in
linen (that is, like a priest or Levite) and
his face had the appearance of lightning,
his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and
legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and
the sound of his words like the noise of a
multitude [Dn 10:6].
The Angel had been sent in answer to Daniel’s
prayer to understand the meaning of the seventy-week
captivity in Babylon.
Gabriel went on to speak of the end times:
At that time shall arise Michael, the great
prince who has charge of your people.
And there shall be a time of trouble, such
as never has been since there was a nation
till that time . . . But you, Daniel, shut
up the words, and seal the book, until the
time of the end . . . “How long shall it
be till the end of these wonders?”
The man clothed in linen, who was above the
waters of the stream, raised his right hand
and his left hand toward heaven; and I heard
him swear by him who lives for ever that it
would be for a time, two times, and half a
time . . . Many shall purify themselves, and
make themselves white, and be refined; but
the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of
the wicked shall understand; but those who
are wise shall understand.
. . . And from the time that the continual
burnt offering is taken away, and the abomination
that makes desolate is set up, there shall
be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
Blessed is he who waits and comes to the thousand
three hundred and thirty-five days
You might recognize that all these expressions,
spoken to Daniel by the priestly-angel whose
legs are of burnished bronze, are found in
the Apocalypse, but we haven’t discussed
them in detail yet and I’m going to pass
by them right now.
Ezekiel also had a vision of angels in Babylon,
four cherubim who escorted the Ark to and
from the Temple.
Their legs were straight . . . as were the
soles of their feet . . . and they sparkled
like burnished bronze [Ezek 1:5-7].
When Daniel saw this manlike angel with a
“face like the appearance of lightning,
his eyes like flaming torches” Daniel said
the men who were with me did not see the vision,
but a great trembling fell upon them, and
they fled to hide themselves . . . and no
strength was left in me . . . I fell . . . with
my face to the ground . . . [until] . . . a
hand touched me and set me trembling on my
hands and knees
All the commentaries, Protestant and Catholic
are unanimous that the Church of Thyatira
had problems with standing firm.
It’s a compromising Church.
Jesus appears tough.
To other Churches He is holding stars, or
keys or some symbol, but with Thyatira He
is scary.
His burning eyes can see right through them.
He comes to threaten them with all the anathemas
of a High Priest.
He is standing on the bronze legs of firm
doctrine.
The burnished bronze and priestly linen garment
tell a message that He expects right worship.
But it’s also the Good Shepherd.
Jesus begins gently, and He knows there are
worthy Christians in this wayward flock.
Thus says the Son of God, He who has eyes
as a flame of fire, and whose feet are like
burnished bronze.
I know your works, your charity, your faith,
your service, your patience, and your last
works more numerous than the first.
I won’t repeat the whole section from my
previous conference where I introduced the
reasons why it’s possible to see these ancient
cities as corresponding to regions in the
modern world, but very quickly:
First Church: Ephesus--Rome with the Cardinals
and the Curia
Second Church: Smyrna--Poor Churches, Africa
and South America
Third Church: Pergamum--Communist Dominated
Churches, especially Russia and China
Fifth Church: Sardis--Wealthy Churches, that
is, North America
Sixth Church: Philadelphia--Marginalized Christians,
this is a term much-used by the Blessed Mother.
We’ll see that these Christians form the
symbolic 144,000 selected from every tribe
and nation, that is from all regional churches
Seventh Church: Laodicea--Tepid Churches,
Europe
The Fourth Church, Thyatira, represents multi-cultural
Churches, namely India, Asia.
Jesus is praising these Christians with a
long list of virtues.
He begins with works of charity.
We don’t have a lot of details about Thyatira
but the citizens were definitely industrious
people, hard workers,
Perhaps the one salient thing about Thyatira
is the unusual prominence of trade-guilds
in the few available sources.
There are references to unions of clothiers,
bakers, tanners, potters, linen-workers, wool-merchants,
slave-traders, coppersmiths and dyers . . . Various
inscriptions indicate that unions had an important
place in the industrial and social life of
Thyatira . . . The guilds were in vogue even
before Roman times, and their importance was
enhanced by their establishment so long ago.
The Thyatirans were also charitable.
The guilds were devoted to good works.
Corporately the members subscribed to erect
honorific inscriptions and sometimes ostentatious
buildings and amenities for communal welfare.
Think of India.
In this country with a caste system and thousands
of beggars, it’s the Christians who do the
most for the poor.
Even the government admits that.
Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charities
are world-famous, but India has a long history
of hundreds of religious congregations, and
thousands of consecrated men and women in
schools, leprosariums, hospitals and orphanages.
Christian charity has been the most impressive
witness in India and Asia, and inspired many
converts.
Jesus praises their faith and their patience.
How hard it is to be Faithful in a place where
you are the minority, where you are surrounded
by a completely pagan culture where every
aspect of public life is permeated by another
religion.
Even in public hotels, Hindu priests enter
in the morning to perform rituals in honor
of the guests who are regarded as gods.
Almost everyone and everything is a divinity
in this religion.
Symbols abound in architecture, in music,
in clothing, in the schools.
Christians have to live and breathe this atmosphere
which is so unlike places like Canada where
the culture is so Catholic that the streets
are named for saints.
It’s hard for Americans to really imagine
what it’s like to be always on the fringes,
always in the minority, always having to scrutinize
and resist certain influences.
It would definitely try one’s patience!
How Jesus looks on these Christians with a
very special love and gratitude for their
patience and fidelity.
American Christians are total wimps compared
to Christians in India and Asia!
Jezebel
But I have this against you, that you tolerate
the woman Jezebel, who, calling herself a
prophetess, teaches and leads astray my servants
to commit impurity and to eat idol-offerings.
I gave her time that she should repent and
she wills not to repent of her impurity.
Behold, I cast her upon a bed, and the companions
of her adultery into great tribulations, unless
they shall repent of her works; and her children
I will strike with death.
Jezebel was so bad that her name entered the
English dictionary as a metaphor for shamelessness.
What were the Christians doing that Jesus
described as “going along with Jezebel.”
We have to go back to the Book of Kings and
the days of Elijah, who was sent to prophesy
when Ahab was King and he had taken the foreign
Jezebel as his wife.
Hebrew King Ahab wanted to syncretize the
religion of the land with the religion of
Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, king of nearby
Tyre and Sidon.
Actually, Jezebel is the anglicized of Yeza-baal.
These people worshiped Baal.
“Yeza Baal” was taken from a phrase in
the liturgy that invokes this God.
The character of the Baal cult has been much
illuminated by the discovery of the Canaanite
mythological tablets of Ugarit.
El the Bull was head of the pantheon, venerable
but not an effective ruler.
Dagon, his son is the grain god, a minor figure
who is the father of the great Aleyan Baal.
Aleyan Baal is the powerful god who rides
across the sky, standing upright on El the
bull.
The bull, was a symbol of strength, sometimes
of war, and always fertility because oxen
in an agrarian culture were necessary for
life.
Aleyan Baal rides standing, brandishing thunderbolts,
because he controlled the rain.
When the Israelites and Aaron made a golden
bull-calf in the desert, and bowed down before
it, calling its name Yahweh, this may have
already been an early sign of the syncretism
to come.
The bull was a conveyance of gods, Yahweh
rides on an ark.
Israelites could make an image of the throne
(ark, bull) but they didn’t dare make an
image of God.
Worshiping Baal was much more fun that keeping
the Ten Commandments.
We’ll see why in a minute.
The title Baal was applied to several gods.
It meant “Lord” in the sense of “one
who owns us.”
In Hebrew, the title Adonai also meant Lord,
in the sense of “one who rules us.”
Hebrews often prayed to Yahweh as Lord, so
it was an easy jump from Adonai to Baal.
This “Rider of the Clouds” is also called,
Hadad Baal, that is Mighty Baal.
As the violent storm-god Hadad Baal rules
the weather and is thus the giver of fertility
of crops and livestock Elijah calls down a
drought, which will be a direct challenge
to Mighty Baal’s power.
Like the Hindus, the Canaanites have many
myths about their gods.
In a prominent story Baal is killed by the
monsters spawned by his wife-goddess Asherah.
Anath, another one of Baal goddess wives,
attacks and kills Baal’s enemy Mot (who
is death personified).
Another myth says that Mot killed Baal.
Whatever.
The adversaries are always dying and then
rising, to mimic the autumn/spring cycle.
The religion goes nowhere.
It is purely cyclic.
Death is never ultimately conquered.
Perhaps all this seems harmless enough and
not too different from the other religions
in the surrounding nations of Israel like
Egypt which had it pantheon of deities.
But the Canaanite Baal religion is the only
one that merits the name “nature religion.”
In the other religions there were distinctions
between the common person and the divinity.
Pharaoh might be hailed as divine but the
common person was not divine, but only a humble
suppliant of the gods.
On the contrary, in the religion of Jezebel,
God was not distinct from nature.
Everybody could participate in the “great
life forces” and become part of the deity.
Baalism posed a very special danger to Israel
because it reduced Yahweh to the level of
a natural force (energy) and made religion
nothing more than a means of securing the
goods of nature.
The myth of the death and resurrection of
Baal represented the annual cycle with its
death of vegetation and the return of the
seasons of fertility, and this was acted out
with the ritual sex ceremonies in the high
places with lots of trees, “sacred groves.”
These orgies purported to integrate the worshipers
with the cycle and draw them into a deep participation
of divine forces that maintain life.
Because everything was a cycle, life itself
tended to be cyclic too, and not too important.
All these sacred ceremonies in the trees with
probably a variety of partners led to the
conception of unwanted and inconvenient children.
No problem, just offer them back to the gods
as a burnt offering, hence the cruel ritual
of burning infants alive.
Other religions sometimes engaged in human
sacrifice but the slain were usually war captives.
The religion of Jezebel is such a horrible
distortion of nature that the Canaanites have
no qualm about killing their own children.
And although moral standards in other religions
weren’t always very high, no religion sank
so low in sexual license as did Baal worship
which made it the central rite.
This is why the incident of worship of the
Baal of Peor with Balaam was a sin that Yahweh
punished severely.
Balaam was mentioned in another letter of
the Apocalypse so we spoke of this incident
in a recent conference.
Some people have the idea that the Israelites
were barbaric, and had no qualms about killing
other people as they entered occupied territory
to claim it as their Promised Land.
That’s a serious misconception.
God had doomed the Canaanites because they
were sinning against nature.
Sins against nature were regarded as sins
against the earth.
Yahweh regarded it as a sacred duty for Israel
to cleanse the land by wiping out seven groups
of people:
I will send an angel before you, and I will
drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the
Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and
the Jebusites . . . the Girgashites
Leviticus 18:20–24 lists four main sins
of those who practice Baalism:
vs 20: adultery
vs 21: the killing of children
vs 22: homosexuality, specifically singled
out as abomination, but in a moment God will
call all of these abominations
vs 23: bestiality
Do not defile yourselves by any of these things,
for by all these the nations I am casting
out before you defiled themselves; and the
land became defiled, so that I punished its
iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants.
. . . for all of these abominations the men
of the land did, who were before you, so that
the land became defiled; lest the land vomit
you out, when you defile it, as it vomited
out the nation that was before you . . . I
am Yahweh your God.
For whoever shall do any of these abominations,
the persons that do them shall be cut off
from among their people.
So keep my charge never to practice any of
these abominable customs which were practiced
before you, and never to defile yourselves
by them: I am Yahweh your God [Leviticus 18:24-28].
These groups were under the ban (literally
anathema).
The Israelites couldn’t even keep the booty.
Everything these people had touched was loathsome
to God.
But the Israelites had to treat other nations
and their religions with respect.
They were not allowed to attack them unless
they were attacked.
The Assyrians were cruel murderers and plunderers
but Yahweh finds this nothing compared to
these four sins which hinged on treating the
flesh as an end in itself and, furthermore,
using other bodies (human or animal) as an
end for one’s own pleasure.
The exact opposite concept is the Mystical
Body where no body uses any body but each
member is concerned for the other and strives
for unity in love.
But the Israelites never quite got rid of
the Baal worshipers during the great leadership
of Joshua.
The people always felt tempted by these seductive
people.
After Joshua died, God said he was done helping
them.
God would use the presence of these foreigners
as a test:
You have not obeyed my command.
What is this you have done?
So now I say, I will not drive them out before
you; but they shall become adversaries to
you, and their gods shall be a snare to you
[ Judges 1:2-4].
After the Israelites suffered defeat after
defeat, the prophet Samuel finally persuaded
them
“If you are returning to Yahweh with all
your heart, then put away the foreign gods
and the Ashtaroth from among you, and direct
your heart to Yahweh, and serve Him only,
and He will deliver you out of the hand of
the Philistines.”
So Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth,
and they served Yahweh only [1Sa. 7:3-4].
Another feature of Baal worship was the way
it was open to all races.
It was a very international religion.
There is evidence to show that in Thyatira
there was a great amalgamation of races.
Latin inscriptions are frequent, indicating
a considerable influx of immigrants from the
other nations on the Italian peninsula; and
there are Greek inscriptions with Latin words
mixed in.
Latin and Greek names, too, are found mixed
together in personal names--such as Titus
Antonius Alfenus Arignotus, and Julia Severina
Stratonicis.
Amalgamation of different races, in pagan
nations, always went together with a syncretism
of different religions, every relation of
life having its religious sanction
Life for a Christian in Thyatira wasn’t
easy.
A Christian convert who resolved to make a
clean break with his pagan past might find
himself obliged to withdraw [from the guilds].
Membership involved participation in idolatry
and the immorality which attended the feasts.
But it was also a necessary requirement for
practicing a trade in such a place as Thyatira”
As we have seen, Baalism focused on the body.
When the Greeks entered Israel at the time
of Alexander, many Jews were already compromised
with syncretism so it wasn’t hard to apostatize
and play the games at the gymnasiums which
were always in honor of various deities.
Sports and exercise can easily turn into a
form of idolatry.
Thyatira had the typical Roman gymnasium …The
social and educational life of the city centered
around the gymnasium, and to reject some of
the associated practices meant ostracism.
A commitment to Christianity involved a very
real spiritual “cross-taking.”
The gymnasium was accepted as the major civic
center, the school, the “club” and center
for leisure (including athletic contests)
as well as being the site for emperor worship.
Christians did indeed face problems!
. . . Although the gymnasium has not been
recovered at Thyatira, the record from coins
makes it clear that the Christians there would
have faced the usual problems faced by their
brethren in other cities controlled by the
Romans.
Even civic duties involved possible compromise.
If you were wealthy you were expected to share
the duties of gymnasiarchai--the officials
superintending the gymnasia--and also as agonothetai,
helping to run the athletic contests--at times
involving nakedness for male competitors.
This meant personal attendance and even financial
commitment for body oil, prizes and refreshments.
The religion of Baal mingled with Christianity,
as you must have noticed by now, would look
a lot like the New Age movement which has
many names, but everyone knows that its roots
are deeply entwined with Hinduism.
When did this eastern religion begin to mesh
with western religion?
Yoga
Before he left India in 1893, Swami Vivekananda,
“in America is the place, the people, the
opportunity for everything new,” And his
guru, Sri Ramakrishna, had taught that the
world’s religions “are but various phases
of one eternal religion” and that spiritual
essence could be transmitted from one person
to another.
Swami Vivekananda set about to bring that
transmission to our shores.
His first speech was at the World Parliament
of Religions in Chicago.
. . In 1920 Paramahansa Yogananda came to
address a conference of religious liberals
in Boston.
He had been sent by his guru, the ageless
Babaji, to “spread the message of kriya
yoga to the West.”
. . . Then in 1924 the United States immigration
service imposed a quota on Indian immigration,
making it necessary for Westerners to travel
to the East to seek teachings.
One of the earliest of these was Theos Bernard,
who returned from India in 1947 and published
“Hatha Yoga: The Report of a Personal Experience.”
It was a major sourcebook for yoga in the
1950s and is still read.
That same year, 1947, Indra Devi opened a
yoga studio in Hollywood.
. . But the person who introduced more Americans
to yoga than any other in those days was Richard
Hittleman, who in 1950 returned from studies
in India to teach yoga in New York.
He not only sold millions of copies of his
books and pioneered yoga on television in
1961, but he influenced how yoga has been
taught ever since.
Although he was a student of the sage Ramana
Maharshi and very much a “spiritual” yogi,
he presented a non-religious yoga for the
American mainstream, with an emphasis on its
physical benefits.
He hoped students would then be motivated
to learn yoga philosophy and meditation
There were more individuals and more books
but eastern ideas became mainstream in 1967
when the Beatles traveled to India and came
back with new music and a method of meditation
which they first called “Spiritual Regeneration
Movement” but later sanitized of its overt
religiosity as Transcendental Meditation:
the Science of Creative Intelligence.
Most of us have only a dim recollection of
the Beatles, but if you google Yoga and Beatles
you’ll come up with a world of amazing information.
The Hippie generation recognized similarities
in yoga’s altered states of consciousness
with those obtained by drugs.
Music and dance played an important role in
the relaxation techniques.
Several of the Beatles wrote new songs, inspired
by their instruction under swamis and gurus.
George Harrison wrote “My Sweet Lord.”
The Beatles used Hindi texts in their songs
and created new mantras by interchanging names
of eastern deities like Krishna and Rama with
Christian words like Hallelujah, and Lord
God.
Reincarnation became a positive spiritual
option.
Cremation became popular.
The merging of Christianity and the east had
begun a slow and serpentine course.
[In] 1980, few people had heard of the New
Age Movement.
[In 1991] nearly everyone had.
Related movements or labels are: Human Potential
Movement, Modernism, New Thought, Globalism,
and the Aquarian Conspiracy.
Parts of it include Mind Control classes,
the Holistic Health Movement, Transcendental
Meditation, Humanistic Psychology, Positive
Confession, Feminist Spirituality, Positive
Mental Attitude, the New Physics, and numerous
political organizations, as well as various
esoteric,, environmental and animal rights
movements.
Jesus said those who rejected Jezebel’s
syncretism:
But to you I say, to the rest in Thyatira--whosoever
does not hold this doctrine, such as have
not (in their phrase), “known the deep things
of Satan”--I cast not upon you any other
burden.
The merging of religions require a new form
of prayer to a new kind of God, leading to
“deep things”:
New Age meditation includes a variety of related
techniques.
These are often very similar to the practices
of the Hindu and other Eastern religions.
Frequently the same practices are . . . grouped
under the heading of occultism.
The term is one of pride to the occultists,
because it means “hidden.”
These occult or “hidden” powers of the
“ancient wisdom” have supposedly been
preserved by the “ascended masters” throughout
vast ages of time.
It is only in the past hundred years or so
that many of these “occultists” have been
allowed (by their masters) to write and speak
of the ancient wisdom.
Yoga, born in the East, is also widely practiced
in the West.
Movie stars do it.
Athletes and artists do it.
Priests, nuns, and even an American archbishop
do it.
The Hindi word “yoga” comes from the two
Sanskrit words, “yo” and “ga.”
“Yoga” means unity.
[Yoke is from AN Indo-European root].
The goal of Yoga is to unite [yoke] man with
the pantheistic god of Hinduism . . . This
union requires a heightened state of consciousness
or awareness, during which the yogi realizes
his oneness with god or the “higher self.”
It is oneness with god.
It is being god.
As such, from the Hindu perspective it is
salvation: No sin.
No guilt.
No savior.
Today 35 million American are into yoga.
There are many paths to yoga: one can focus
on a deity or focus on wisdom or
focus on good deeds.
Each yoga has a physical aspect, and a spiritual
aspect.
Classical Hinduism and yoga are synonymous,
asserting that this universe is the manifestation
of Brama, the infinite, all-embracing deity
which is consciousness.
This can be equated as “the Force” so
popular in movies of the Star Wars genre.
If you visit India you will see images of
snakes absolutely everywhere, far more so
than in China.
The snake is the image of the spine and the
spine is the path of life’s energy.
The spirit of Yoga is the spirit of the serpent.
The energy is like a coiled serpent at the
base of the spine.
Yoga exercises are serpentine, a series of
movements designed to connect the flow.
Every movement is bowing down to the god of
the serpent “the rising energy.”
Many of the poses imitate animals and nature
gods,
especially sun-god.
Hindus see almost everything as god.
They recognize 330 million gods.
In the Biblical world view: God is personal,
and outside creation, God forgiveness through
Jesus’ atoning sacrifice.
In the Hindu world view: God is everywhere,
humanity is divinity, a change of consciousness
“saves” man by taking him up into divinity.
A famous priest in India has a large website.
Let me quote him directly:
Yoga in philosophy and practice is incompatible
with Christianity.
As a Catholic Christian born in a traditional
Catholic family in Kerala, India, but one
who lived amidst the Hindus; and now as a
Catholic religious priest and charismatic
preacher in 60 countries in all continents,
I have something to say about the bad effects
of Yoga on Christian spirituality and life.
I know there is a growing interest in Yoga
all over the world, even among Christians--and
this interest is extended to other esoteric
and new age practices like Reiki, reincarnation,
acupressure, acupuncture, pranic healing,
reflexology, etc. which are methods against
which the Vatican has cautioned and warned
in her document “Jesus Christ bearer of
the water of life.”
For some, Yoga is a means of relaxation and
easing of tension, and for others is a form
of exercise promoting fitness and health,
and for a few is a means of healing of sicknesses.
There is much confusion in the mind of the
average Catholic-- lay and cleric--because
Yoga as promoted among Catholics is neither
entirely a health discipline nor entirely
a spiritual discipline, but sometimes one,
sometimes the other, and often a mixture of
both.
But in fact, Yoga is primarily a spiritual
discipline and I know that even priests and
nuns in seminaries and novitiates promote
Yoga as a help to meditation and prayer.
It is sad that nowadays, many Catholics are
loosing trust in the great spiritualities
and mysticisms of prayer and discipline handed
over to them by great saints like Ignatius
of Loyola, Francis of Assisi, Francis of Sales,
St. Theresa of Avila, etc. and are now going
after the Eastern spiritualities and mysticisms
coming from Hinduism and Buddhism.
It is in this regard that a sincere Christian
should inquire into Yoga’s compatibility
with the Christian spirituality and the wisdom
of incorporating its techniques into Christian
prayer and meditation.
What is Yoga?
The word Yoga means “union,” the goal
of Yoga is to unite one’s transitory (temporary)
self, “JIVA” with the infinite “BRAHMAN,”
the Hindu concept of God.
This God is not a personal God, but an impersonal
spiritual substance which is one with nature
and cosmos.
Brahman is an impersonal divine substance
that “pervades, envelopes and underlies
everything.”
Yoga has its roots in the Hindu Upanishads
. . . saying that . . .the Divine dwells within
each one of us through, his microcosmic representative,
the individual self called Jiva.
. . . In ad 150, the yogi Patanjali explained
the eight ways that leads the Yoga practices
from ignorance to enlightenment – the eight
ways are like a staircase – They are self-control
(yama), religious observance (niyama), postures
(asana), breathing exercises (pranayama),
sense control (pratyahara), concentration
(dharana), deep contemplation (dhyana), enlightenment
(samadhi).
It is interesting to note, here, that postures
and breathing- exercises, often considered
to be the whole of Yoga in the West, are steps
3 and 4 towards union with Brahman!
Yoga is not only an elaborate system of physical
exercises, it is a spiritual discipline, purporting
to lead the soul to samadhi, total union with
the divine being.
Samadhi is the state in which the natural
and the divine become one, man and god become
one without any difference.
Such a view is radically contrary to Christianity
which clearly distinguishes between Creator
and creature, God and man.
In Christianity, God is the “Other” and
never the self.
It is sad that some promoters of Yoga, Reiki
and other disciplines and meditations, had
misquoted some isolated Bible quotations to
substantiate their arguments such as, “you
are the temple of God,” “the living water
flows from you,” “you will be in me and
I will be in you,” “it is no longer I
that lives but Christ lives in me,” etc.
without understanding the context and the
meaning of those words in the Bible.
There are even people who portray Jesus as
a yogi as we can see nowadays such pictures
of Jesus in convent-chapels and presbyteries
- Jesus presented in yogi postures of meditation!
To call Jesus “a yogi” is to deny his
intrinsic divinity, holiness and perfection
and suggest that He had a fallen nature subject
to ignorance and illusion (Maya), that He
needed to be liberated from the human condition
through the exercise and discipline of Yoga.
Yoga is incompatible with the Christian Spirituality
because it is pantheistic . . . The center
of Christian faith is the Holy Trinity, Father,
Son and the Holy Spirit, three persons in
one God-Head, the perfect model of loving
relationship.
Christianity is all about relationships, with
God and among men, “You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, with all your
soul and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it, you shall love your
neighbor as yourself” (Mt 22: 37-39).
In Hinduism, good and evil, like pain and
pleasure are illusory and therefore unreal.
. . Hinduism says “good and evil are one
and the same.”
In Christianity the vexing problem of sin
as an offence against the holiness of God
is inseparable from our Faith, because sin
is the reason why we need a Savior.
The Incarnation, the Life, the Passion, the
Death and the Resurrection of Jesus are for
us means for salvation, that is to set us
free from sin and its consequences.
We can not ignore this fundamental difference
in order to absorb Yoga and other Eastern
meditation techniques into Christian Spirituality.
The practice of Yoga is pagan at best, and
occult at worst.
This is the religion of Antichrist and for
the first time in history it is being widely
practiced throughout the western world and
America.
It is ridiculous that even yogi masters, wearing
a Cross or a Christian symbol, are able to
deceive people saying that Yoga has nothing
to do with Hinduism and it is only accepting
the other cultures.
Some have masked Yoga with Christian gestures
and call it “Christian Yoga.”
. . . It is really accepting another religion.
. .
The desire to become God is the first and
second sin in the history of creation as chronologically
recorded in the Bible [First of all Satan]
“You said in your heart, I will scale the
heavens, above the stars of God I will set
up my throne; I will take my seat on the mount
of Assembly, in the recesses of the north.
I will ascend above the tops of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High” [Isa 14: 13-14].
[Then Eve] The serpent said to the woman,
“You will not die.
For God knows that when you eat of it your
eyes will be opened, and you will be like
God who knows what is good and what is bad”
[Gn 3: 4-5].
The philosophy and practice of Yoga are based
on the belief that man and God are one.
It teaches one to focus on oneself instead
of the One True God.
It encourages its participants to seek the
answers to life’s problems and questions
within their own mind and conscience instead
of finding solutions in the Word of God through
the Holy Spirit as it is in Christianity.
It definitely leaves one open to deception
from God’s enemy, who searches for victims
whom he can take away from God and the Church
[1Pt 5: 8].
For last eight years, I have been preaching
the Word of God in European countries, which
once were the cradles of Christianity, producing
evangelists and missionaries, martyrs and
saints.
Now can we call Europe Christian anymore?
Is it not true that Europe has erased all
its Christian concepts and values from lives?
Why is Europe ashamed to say that it has Christian
roots?
Where are the moral values and ethics practiced
by Europeans from down the centuries and handed
over to other countries and cultures by the
bold proclamation of the Gospel of Christ?
From the fruits we shall know the tree!
I believe that these doubts and confusions,
apostasy and infidelism, religious coldness
and indifference came to Europe ever since
the Eastern mysticisms and meditations, esoteric
and New Age practices were introduced in the
West.
In my charismatic retreats, the majority of
the participants come with various moral,
spiritual, mental and physical problems in
order to be liberated and healed and to have
a new life through the power of the Holy Spirit.
With all sincerity of heart I will say, 80
to 90% of the participants had been into Yoga,
Reiki, reincarnation, etc. and in these Eastern
religious practices they had lost faith in
Jesus Christ and the Church.
In Croatia, Bosnia, Germany, Austria and Italy,
I had clear instances where individuals who
were possessed with the powers of darkness
cried out “I am Reiki,” “I am Yoga,”
identifying themselves to these concepts as
persons while I was conducting prayers of
healing for them.
Later, I had to pray over them by the prayer
of deliverance to liberate them from the evil
possessions.
There are some people who say, “there is
nothing wrong in having the practices of these,
it is enough not to believe the philosophies
behind.”
The promoters of Yoga, Reiki, etc, themselves
very clearly state, that the philosophy and
practice are inseparable.
So a Christian cannot, in any way, accept
the philosophy and practice of Yoga because
Christianity and Yoga are mutually exclusive
view points.
Christianity sees man’s primary problem
as sin, a failure to conform to both the character
and standards of a morally perfect God.
Man is alienated from God and he is in need
of reconciliation.
The solution is Jesus Christ, “the lamb
of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
Through Jesus’ death on the Cross, God reconciled
the world to Himself.
He, now calls man to freely receive all the
benefits of his salvation through faith in
Christ alone.
Unlike Yoga, Christianity views salvation
as a free gift, it can only be received and
never be earned or attained by one’s own
effort or works.
Today what is needed in Europe and elsewhere
is the powerful preaching of the message of
Christ coming from the Bible and interpreted
by the Church in order to remove the doubts
and confusions wildly spread among the Christian
in the West and to bring them to the Way,
the Truth and Life : Jesus Christ.
Only Truth can set us free.
Father James Manjackal, MSFS
This dynamic priest is a member of a large
religious congregation in India.
They are working hard to have instruct their
people.
Fr.
Manjackal said it.
I say it too: Yoga or Hinduism is the religion
of the Antichrist.
This is the central crossbeam of our times,
the center of the battle with the serpent
dragon and the beasts of the Apocalypse.
Although people today like to say the mark
of the beast is the computer chip embedded
in your hand, consider the little red dot
that the Hindus wear.
The area between the eyes is the known as
the “third eye.”
This is the sixth chakra (wheel), the seat
of concentrated wisdom where yoga tries to
drive the force up through the spine.
The other chakras start at the base of the
spine and run upwards with psychic energy.
Yoga awakens the “cobra” which uncoils
and rises up the spine.
Artists portray advanced persons as surrounded
by uncoiled snakes.
Many who practice yoga experience revelations
of “higher truths” in “dreams.”
They don’t understand that demons are speaking
to them.
The main technique of yoga is to quiet the
mind, to reach the place of no thought, where
you “transcend thinking.”
This is opening wide the door to demons.
Satan hates reason, rational thinking.
Jesus Christ is the Truth, the Logos.
Satan wants us in darkness, ignorance, confusion
and ultimately dependence on him.
Yoga is represented by the python.
It’s not a poisonous snake.
It kills you in a sneaky way.
It quietly wraps around you, then squeezes
hard and swallows you whole.
Get far away from yoga!
But like the people of Thyatira.
We’re surrounded by a pagan occult culture.
Target offers 4235 yoga products.
Walmart offers 990 products.
Amazon offers 18,700 yoga books.
Yoga is a $27 billion industry.
YMCA/YWCA and thousands of clubs offer yoga
as part of physical eduction, wellness techniques,
physical fitness exercises.
It’s popular.
It’s all about self.
It’s marketed as a self-realization program.
Best of all, you don’t have to think.
There is no guilt, no sin, no concept of good
or evil.
It’s the ultimate religion of tolerance.
The way of yoga is the way of death.
That’s actually what the Hindus call it.
Reincarnation is regarded as a hopeless cycle
of imprisonment.
The aim of Hinduism is liberation from the
human condition, to escape into the force,
into a feeling of nothingness.
It’s antisocial, anti-humanity.
It separates the body from the spirit.
Best to cremate that.
Throw it in the Ganges.
It doesn’t go to Hindu heaven.
Hindu heaven is nothing, nothing and nothing.
And this brings us to a new form of Christianity
which is being called the “Emergent Church.”
Pastors are telling themselves or being told
by their congregations that they have to change
in order to become relevant.
It must be all about experience over reason,
subjectivity over objectivity, spirituality
over religion, images over words, outward
over inward, feelings over truth.
The emerging church rejects any standard methodology
for doing anything.
Some groups go only a little way into this,
and remain biblically sound.
Most groups, however, embrace post-modernist
thinking, which eventually leads to a very
liberal, loose translation of the Bible.
This, in turn, lends to liberal doctrine and
theology.
Truth becomes relative.
If the Bible is not our source for absolute
truth, and personal experience is allowed
to define and interpret what truth actually
is, the person and mission of Jesus Christ
is rendered meaningless.
There is also anti-biblical form of ecumenism.
Unity among people coming from different religious
backgrounds and diversity in the expression
of corporate worship are strong focuses of
the emergent church movement.
Being ecumenical means in this environment
simply compromise not dialog in a path to
agreeing on revealed truth.
But there is no compromise with truth.
You either end up with truth or non-truth.
Christianity or something dark.
Thyatira was on the crossroads.
It’s duty was first of all to be a garrison-city
to keep the wrong people from crossing over.
The military spirit of the soldier citizens
had to be encouraged to the utmost.
You hear that in Jesus promises:
But to you I say, [that is] to the rest in
Thyatira . . . hold fast what you have, until
I come.
As for him that conquers and that keeps my
works till the end, I will give him power
over the nations, and he will rule them with
a rod of iron, as when earthen vessels are
broken in pieces, even as I myself have received
from my Father; and I will give him the morning
star.
He that has an ear, let him hear what the
spirit says to the churches [Rev 2:18-29].
Jesus Christ is the dawn from on high, the
Orient, the Rising Sun.
To give us this morning star is to hand us
a new day.
The Great Day of the Lord, the Feast of Feasts,
when He will be Lord of all nations.
Let us hold fast to what we’ve received
of the truth.
And let us share it with others, shining light
on them, to deliver them from the darkness
of many errors.
