Today, we worked our way up the west coast to the third city listed in Revelation 2, Pergamum.
There are upper and lower sections of the city. The upper is called the Acropolis, and we had to take a gondola 🚠 to get there.

The Acropolis is where a multitude of pagan temples were, most of which had some form of a sex act as part of "worship." In the letter to Pergamum, Jesus criticized those who hold fast to the teaching of Balaam, which caused Israel to eat food sacrificed to idols and sexual immorality.

Jews, including Jewish believers, were exempted by Rome from this type of idolatry but gentile believers were not. They had a choice to make. Jesus called on them to repent, which tells us most were comprising. Let us make sure we’re not compromising with the idols in our day.

Rev 2:13 also says Pergamum is where Satan has his throne. This could refer to the general pagan atmosphere, or it could specifically be the massive temple of Zeus, the chief of the Greek gods. The Germans dismantled and relocated this temple to Berlin in the late 19th century, but we can still see remains of the temple and its huge footprint today.
They have an impressive theater built into the cliff where we heard a teaching on the letter to the church at Pergamum.
Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go to the Aescalapion, but the Aescalapion at Pergamum, is where our modern imagery of a serpent on a pole associated with the medical industry comes from.

Rather than focus on the evil, it’s better for believers to focus on the positives in Jesus’ letter to Pergamum:

Rev 2:17‘The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows except the one who receives it.’


The hidden manna and the white stone suggest intimacy with our Lord on a level we probably can’t even imagine. Remember, dining together in fellowship was a highly intimate experience in the first century. In the Old Testament, the meaning of person’s name was often associated with the persons prophetic destiny.
Below are some of the white stones from Pergamum.

And here are some coins from Pergamum:

Our hotel was near ancient Troy. Right outside our hotel was the Trojan horse used in the move Troy. Fight on!

Our next day is mostly a travel day as we move on to Greece.