Satan in Thyatira

We see the controlling Jezebel spirit in full flight....

Revelation 2:18-29 NKJV  "And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, 'These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass:  (19)  "I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first.  (20)  Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.  (21)  And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.  (22)  Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.  (23)  I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.  (24)  "Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden.  (25)  But hold fast what you have till I come.  (26)  And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—  (27)  'HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON; THEY SHALL BE DASHED TO PIECES LIKE THE POTTER'S VESSELS'—as I also have received from My Father;  (28)  and I will give him the morning star.  (29)  "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." '

I think it useful to explain how I interpret prophetic text like the Book of Revelation.

I have these suppositions:

1. Yahuah is the inspiration for all that is written in the text;

2. The text is true;

3. The text reveals the message of the writer to the audience (and the audience is not us) of the text;

4. In the main, scripture reveals the meaning of scripture;

5. History determines fulfilment of prophecy.

The narrative of the Holy Bible is the creation, spiritual death, and redemption of mankind through the pure bloodline of Adam, then Noah, through Shem to Abraham (this is important), Isaac and Jacob (renamed Israel), through David to Yahusha. Yahusha is a pure bloodline Jew right back to Adam. We are not pure bloodline Jews, but Gentiles (wild olive trees as Paul calls us) grafted into the pure bloodline through faith in Yahusha:

Romans 11:16-17 NKJV  For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.  (17)  And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree,

This is the third part of a series outlining the activities of Satan within the Church Age, that period of the Age of the Gentiles between 95AD and concluding at The Rapture.

You can access the activities of Satan in Ephesus from this link.

Access the activities of Satan in Smyrna and Pergamum from this link.

You can view my essay on Satan’s activity from all history from this link.

This article on Thyatira WILL offend all of you that are Roman Catholics or Protestants that in delusion believe the Roman Catholic Church are Christian. Roman Catholicism is a pagan religion that substitutes the Pope for Yahusha for their followers, claiming the Pope is the sole representative for YAH on Earth. This is in contradiction of all the teachings of the New Testament writers.

The “he” in the above image verse is the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church explained in my previous article on Smyrna and Pergamum (the “and think to change times and laws” of Daniel 7:25 above).

Under the influence of Satan, the Roman Catholic Church from its breakout power of merging (marriage) with the Roman Empire has done all in its power to separate those with faith in Yahusha from the pure bloodline Jews. You must understand that our modern-day churches have all come from this basic premise. If we are to understand scripture, and particularly prophetic scripture, we must renew our minds with Truth, that we are spiritually grafted pure bloodline Jews post faith in Christ.

It is faith alone in Christ, not any doctrinal creeds or denominational bias, that saves us to eternity. This TRUTH is in perpetuity for any individual.

Historical hindsight provides evidence of the Thyatiran period, stretching around 1,260 years (the time and times and the dividing of time) from the rule of Byzantinian Emperor Justinian 1 to 1798 AD (when Napoleon arrested the Pope and imprisoned him) represents the period of greatest influence of the Roman Catholic Church throughout the expanding world of nations.

Under the Byzantinian (the eastern division of the Roman Empire) Emperor Justinian 1, and following the collapse of the western division of the Empire to the ten tribes of Europe, the Pope took full advantage of Rome’s disarray. Successive leaders of the Holy See sought more control over believers, and as night follows day, nations themselves.

The Crusades

In actuality, the crusades were responses to Muslim invasions on what was once land occupied primarily by Christians. From approximately A.D. 200 to 900, the land of Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey was inhabited primarily by Christians. Once Islam became powerful, Muslims invaded these lands and brutally oppressed, enslaved, deported, and even murdered the Christians living in those lands. In response, the Roman Catholic Church and “Christian” kings/emperors from Europe ordered the crusades to reclaim the land the Muslims had taken. The actions that many so-called Christians took in the crusades were still deplorable. There is no biblical justification for conquering lands, murdering civilians, and destroying cities in the name of Jesus Christ. At the same time, Islam is not a religion that can speak from a position of innocence in these matters.

To summarize briefly, the crusades were attempts in the 11th through 13th centuries A.D. to reclaim land in the Middle East that had been conquered by Muslims. The crusades were brutal and evil. Many people were forced to “convert” to Christianity. If they refused, they were put to death. The idea of conquering a land through war and violence in the name of Christ is completely unbiblical. Many of the actions that took place in the crusades were completely antithetical to everything the Christian faith stands for.

How can we respond when, as a result of the crusades, the Christian faith is attacked by atheists, agnostics, skeptics, and those of other religions? We can respond in the following ways: 1) Do you want to be held accountable for the actions of people who lived 900+ years ago? 2) Do you want to be held accountable for the actions of everyone who claims to represent your faith? Trying to blame all of Christianity for the crusades is analogous to blaming all Muslims for Islamic terrorism.

From GotQuestions.org in response to my question.

The Inquisitions

The first of the Inquisitions is known as the Medieval or Episcopal Inquisition and refers to the various tribunals that started around 1184. It includes the Episcopal Inquisition (1184-1230) and the Papal Inquisition (1230), which arose in response to large popular movements in Europe that were considered to be heretical by the Roman Catholic Church. It was during this time (1231) that Pope Gregory IX shifted the power to punish heretics away from the local bishops and put the inquisitors under the special jurisdiction and authority of the papacy. He also established severe penalties for those found guilty of committing heresy, and his decree set forth new guidelines for investigating and punishing heresy in the Holy Roman Empire. Generally, when an Inquisition was set up to investigate heresy in a particular area of the Holy Roman Empire, the Pope would appoint two inquisitors, each of which had equal authority in the Inquisition or tribunal. Because these inquisitors had the power to investigate and excommunicate even princes, they wielded enormous power and influence in the Holy Roman Empire.

While some of the inquisitors had reputations as being men of justice and mercy, others were known to subject people to cruel and unusual punishment, including many different kinds of torture, which is what the Inquisitions are generally remembered for. Because they could imprison suspects that they thought were lying, some inquisitors used torture as an attempt to get them to admit what the inquisitor wanted to hear. In 1252 Pope Innocent IV officially sanctioned torture as a way of extracting the “truth” from suspects. Prior to that time, this type of extreme punishment was foreign to church tradition and practice. During the Spanish Inquisition alone, as many as 2,000 people were burned at the stake within one decade after the Inquisition began.

The next major Inquisition period is known as the Spanish Inquisition. It was set up by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain in 1478 with the approval of Pope Sixtus IV. Unlike the previous Inquisition, it was completely under royal authority and was staffed by secular clergy. It mainly focused on Jews who had professed to be converts to Roman Catholicism but who were suspected of having continued to practice Judaism. Later on, with the spread of Protestantism into Spain, the Inquisition would also begin to persecute Protestants who broke away from the Roman Catholic Church. However, after the decline in religious disputes in the 17th century, the Spanish Inquisition essentially became more like a secret police that would investigate and retaliate against internal threats to the Spanish authorities. The Spanish Inquisition is probably the most infamous for its torture and the number of people executed as a result of it. Over the course of its history, the Spanish Inquisition tried more than 341,000 people, of whom about 32,000 were executed.

Another important period is known as the Portuguese Inquisition and was established in Portugal in 1536 by the king of Portugal, João III, and operated much like the more famous Spanish Inquisition. Later, in 1560, in India and other parts of the Portuguese Empire in Asia, the Goa Inquisition was set up in the Indian city of Goa to deal with converts from Hinduism who were suspected of continuing to practice or hold to some Hindu beliefs.

The last period is known as the Roman Inquisition, and it was established in 1542 when Pope Paul III established the Holy Office as the final court of appeals in all trials of heresy. This group was made up of cardinals and other officials whose task was to maintain and defend the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. This group played an important role in the Counter-Reformation, and it was also this body that condemned Galileo for “grave suspicion of heresy” and banned all of his works in 1633 for teaching that the earth and other planets orbited the sun. In 1965, Pope Paul VI reorganized the Holy Office and renamed it as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and it remains in effect today.

From GotQuestions.org in response to my question.

That Woman Jezebel

Jezebel was the controlling wife of the evil King Ahab, one of the worst Kings of the northern Kingdom of Israel:

1 Kings 16:33 LEB  Ahab also made the sacred pole, and he continued to provoke Yahweh the God of Israel more than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

Jezebel’s story is found in 1 and 2 Kings. She was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre/Sidon and priest of the cult of Baal, a cruel, sensuous and revolting false god whose worship involved sexual degradation and lewdness. Ahab, king of Israel, married Jezebel and led the nation into Baal worship (1 Kings 16:31). Ahab and Jezebel’s reign over Israel is one of the saddest chapters in the history of God’s people.

There are two incidents in the life of Jezebel that characterize her and may define what is meant by the “Jezebel spirit.” One trait is her obsessive passion for domineering and controlling others, especially in the spiritual realm. When she became queen, she began a relentless campaign to rid Israel of all evidences of Yahweh worship. She ordered the extermination of all the prophets of the Lord (1 Kings 18:4, 13) and replaced their altars with those of Baal. Her strongest enemy was Elijah, who demanded a contest on Mount Carmel between the powers of Israel’s God and the powers of Jezebel and the priests of Baal (1 Kings 18). Of course, God won, but despite hearing of the miraculous powers of the Lord, Jezebel refused to repent and swore on her gods that she would pursue Elijah relentlessly and take his life. Her stubborn refusal to see and submit to the power of the living God would lead her to a hideous end (2 Kings 9:29–37).

The second incident involves a righteous man named Naboth who refused to sell to Ahab land adjoining the palace, rightly declaring that to sell his inheritance would be against the Lord’s command (1 Kings 21:3; Leviticus 25:23). While Ahab sulked and fumed on his bed, Jezebel taunted and ridiculed him for his weakness, then proceeded to have the innocent Naboth framed and stoned to death. Naboth’s sons were also stoned to death, so there would be no heirs, and the land would revert to the possession of the king. Such a single-minded determination to have one’s way, no matter who is destroyed in the process, is a characteristic of the Jezebel spirit (emphasis mine).

From GotQuestions.org in response to my question

The highlighted statement above sums perfectly the manic determination of the historical Roman Catholic Church, under the influence of Satan, prophesied in the Letter to Thyatira, to dominate the minds of its assemblies. The history matches the prophecy.

How many Protestant church Pastors and Elders carry this spirit?

In my experience, too many to count…..

We will investigate this further when I delve into the Protestant Reformation in the Letter to Sardis.

The Antidote

Disavow any attachments to denominational indoctrinations…..

Repent and believe the Truth….

Seek Christ plus ZERO as your guide through diligent personal study of the Word…..

Be an overcomer!

Your Kingdom Priest (Rev 1:6)