Revelation 2 |

Jesus’ Letter to Thyatira

Church History, Overcoming, Relationship with God / By Tom Stuart

To the angel of the church in Thyatira write. Revelation 2:18 NIV

Thyatira was the fourth of the seven churches in the book of Revelation to whom the Apostle John wrote from the Isle of Patmos. Located in the modern day city of Akhisar, Turkey, the only significant remains of the ancient city are preserved in a fenced area the size of a city block near the center of town. The two major features of the site are the ruins of a Roman columned street and the walls of a 6th century administrative building which is thought to have at one time served as a church. That would not be unusual as the city of Thyatira was almost completely Christianized by 200 AD and continued with a strong Christian presence onward for centuries. Bishops from Thyatira are known to have attended the Councils of Nicea in 325 and of Ephesus in 432. This strong Christian presence and witness endured for nearly two millennium, right up until 1922 when the last vestige of Christianity, the Greek Orthodox population, was deported by the Turkish government.

Jesus’ Letter to Pergamum

Church History, Overcoming, Relationship with God / By Tom Stuart

To the angel of the church in Pergamum write. Revelation 2:12 NIV

Pergamum was the third of the seven churches that Jesus addressed in His letters dictated to the Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos. It is located adjacent to the modern day city of Bergama, Turkey, approximately 70 miles north of Smyrna (Izmir). Pergamum, or Pergamon to which it is sometimes referred, was at its zenith a city of 200,000 inhabitants and was briefly the Roman capital of Asia Minor before the capital was moved to Ephesus. Indications are that there was a small Jewish population in the city from which undoubtedly an embattled band of believers grew, in spite of the oppression of the worship of pagan idols and the pursuit of worldly wisdom that engulfed the city.

Pliny the Elder declared Pergamum “the most famous place in Asia” and it was not without reason. At the time the city could boast of being the world center for the worship of the deities Zeus (king of the gods), Asclepius (the god of healing), and Athena (goddess of wisdom).