Thyatira—Church of the Middle Ages

Leaving Pergamos, the Roman imperial road led to Thyatira, the city whose church received the fourth of the seven letters of Revelation. Travel there today is much like New Testament times, with oxen, donkeys, and horse- or oxendrawn carriages in much wider use than modern vehicles.

Few trees break the monotony, but finally a sign welcomes the traveler to Akhisar, a town of 48,000 inhabitants that occupies the site of Biblical Thyatira founded about 300 B.C. by Seleucus I, Alexander's general. Thyatira's chief deity during Roman times was Apollo, the sun god. Here was the home of Lydia, Paul's first European convert to Christianity at Phillipi (Acts 16:14). The town's central square today features a monument to Kemal Ataturk, Turkey's national hero, but the visitor searches in vain for anything that may remind him of the ancient city.

In Roman times Thyatira became a center of manufacture and ex change, specializing in dyed garments, the most popular being the royal purple. Significantly, the harlot woman of Revelation 17 is pictured clothed with the purple for which Thyatira was famous.

The old city has little to offer the traveler today, but the message ad dressed to the church of Thyatira is still meaningful, especially the rebuke regarding the church's intimacy with Jezebel. It reads, "I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols" (chap. 2:20).

The mention of Jezebel takes us back to the days of King Ahab and Elijah, the prophet. Ahab, the king of Israel, married Jezebel, a Phoenician Baal-worshiper. The record says, "He took to wife Jezebel . . . and went and served Baal" (1 Kings 16:31). God warned Israel's kings against intermarriage with the heathen, for He knew that marriage to heathen wives usually led to heathen worship. Ahab's marriage was no exception. Through Jezebel, Baal worship was introduced into Israel. It was carried on in the name of Jehovah, but it was Baal worship, nevertheless.

So it was in Thyatira. Pagan temples were transformed into Christian temples. Pagan symbols became Christian symbols. Pagan religious festivals became Christian festivals. But this fusion of paganism with Christianity was accomplished in the name of true worship.

Of this transformation Arnold J. Toynbee writes: "In winning the competition between the higher religions in the Roman Empire, Christianity did not really eliminate [them]. . . . One of the means by which it won . . . was that it ... [absorbed] into itself what was valuable in those rival religions." —Christianity Among the Religions of the World, pp. Ill, 112.

This synthesis of Christianity with the so-called "valuable" elements of paganism was believed by the church to be vital to the growth of Christianity. Of this the Twentieth Century Encyclopedia of Catholicism declares: "The missionary history of the Church clearly shows her adaptability to all races, all continents, all nations. In her liturgy and her art, in her traditions and the forming of her doctrine, naturally enough she includes Jewish elements, but also elements that are of pagan origin. In a certain respect, she has copied her organization from that of the Roman Empire, has preserved and made fruitful the philosophical intuitions of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, borrowed from both Barbarians and the Byzantine Roman Empire, but always remains herself, thoroughly digesting all elements drawn from external sources. In her laws, her ceremonies, her festivals and her devotions, she makes use of local customs after purifying them and 'baptizing' them. 'This adaptation of pagan customs,' says Fr. Sertillanges in Le Miracle de I'Eglise, p. 183, 'prudently regulated, allows for the utilization of instincts and sentiments that preserve local traditions, and so lends powerful aid to the furthering of the Gospel. . . . The Church's cultus of saints and martyrs is a helpful substitute and replaces popular divinities in the minds of the populace.'" —Vol. 88, p. 85.

The letter to Thyatira is the long est of the seven, a fact particularly appropriate to the long history of the church through the Middle Ages. The date A.D. 538 is suggested as the beginning date for this period, for it was then that the decree of Emperor Justinian uniting church and state went into effect. The Thyatira period continued in the time of the Reformation.

In Revelation 2:21 Jesus declares to the angel of the church of Thyatira, "I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not." Just as God raised up Elijah with a message of reform in the days of Jezebel, so God raised up those within the church during the time of Thyatira who called for reformation.

Foremost among the early re formers was John Wycliffe, "Morning Star of the Reformation" (see Rev. 2:28). Huss, Jerome, and Savonarola followed. These all urged the church to repent, but their voices were silenced. Then came Martin Luther—the Augustinian monk who on October 31, 1517, nailed the 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg church—and John Calvin.

These men originally had no intention of leaving the church. They called it to repent. But when "she repented not" their dedication to the principle of sola scriptura gave them no alternative to leaving.

As the Reformation spread, the emperor, kings, leading statesmen, and church officials demanded a council of both Catholics and Protestants to consider needed reforms so that the unity of the church could be preserved. Finally in 1545, under compelling pressure from Emperor Charles V, a council was convened at Trent.

The majority of Protestants were not adverse to reunion with the church on the basis of a thorough reformation. But Thyatira would not heed the call. The reform messages were rejected as pestilential heresy.

God "gave her space to repent. . . and she repented not." Another general council of the church would not be convened until 1869, 306 years later. So with adjournment of the Council of Trent in 1563 the door was shut to reform, and the Thyatira period closed.

In the parallel prophecy of the seven seals this long period of the Middle Ages is represented by the opening of the fourth seal, symbolized by a rider on a pale horse, the very color of death, an appropriate symbol of the church's dying condition (chap. 6:7, 8).

But the letter to the church of this period includes words of encouragement to the faithful, as well as condemnation of the unrepentant. In all periods of the church there have been those who loved the Lord supremely and served Him to the best of their knowledge. Also, in pointing to the weaknesses of the church during this time, we must recognize that the Protestant churches that followed had serious flaws too.

To the faithful of Thyatira the Saviour declared, "But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have already hold fast till I come" (chap. 2:24, 25).

History records the deeds of those who sought to preserve the Apostolic faith. Although the light dimmed through the long centuries of darkness, some still held fast to what they had. One such was Columba. Having received the Celtic faith as proclaimed by Patrick in Ireland, he, with twelve followers, founded a missionary center on the island of lona, off the coast of Scot land. From it missionaries went out to Scotland, England, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. Today the historic remains of lona's picturesque village make it a tourist at traction. Along the path to the abbey stands a well-worn bench on which are inscribed the appropriate words "Rest and Remember." In front of the abbey stands the Celtic cross, which, in the lands the missionaries entered, bore witness; to their zeal. Columba spent much of his time copying the Scriptures, which were then carried by the missionaries to other lands.

Among those to receive their training at lona was Aidan, who in turn established a similar missionary center at Lindisfarne, off the western coast of northern England. Be cause of his work it came to be known as Holy Island, Visitors today can see the ancient remains of the church and school of Aidan, from which the Celtic missionaries carried the gospel. In the cemetery, beside the familiar Celtic cross, stands a memorial statue to Aidan. His right hand holds a shepherd's staff, symbol of his ministry to his people. His left hand holds a torch, symbol of the truths he proclaimed. As at lona, much time was spent at Lindisfarne in copying and circulating the Scriptures. A copy of the Lindisfarne Gospel is on display in the British Museum.

The faith of Columba, Aidan, and their successors found its way to Bohemia, where Huss and Jerome became its leading exponents. It was spread in France through the witness of the Huguenots and Albigenses. Persecution well nigh exterminated these groups in the valleys of southern France, but the same truths were kept alive by the Waldenses amid the Alpine mountains of northern Italy, where the towering mountains around their headquarters at Torre Pellici, about forty miles southwest of Turin, gave protection in times of danger. The Waldensian motto Lux lucet in tenebris ("The Light Shines in Darkness"), symbo lized by a burning candle or torch, still appears in their churches and schools.

High in the mountains, not far from the ancient church of Ciabas, hidden beneath rich foliage, is a huge cave. The inscription on a large stone near its mouth reads, "Church of the Earth." Here in times of danger the worshipers congregated. At times of greatest danger they would make their way up narrow ledges and crevices to even higher retreats.

Far up the Angrona Valley at the height of the Pra Del Tor was the "School of Barbes" or "uncles," the name given to Waldensian ministers. A commemorative plaque on the wall of the present seminary school reads: "The school of the uncles which, according to tradition was in this very place, opened its doors from the 14th through the 16th century to all the young Waldensians who wanted to become ministers. The Bible was their only textbook. They stayed here for three or four years during the winter season. Their studies finished, they went to another place for a whole year of meditation and spiritual maturation. Then, ordained at the time of the yearly meeting of the uncles, they left their valleys, two by two, to begin a long and arduous task which lasted all their life, till they met their death or martyrdom came and put an end to their ministry."

In the middle of the one-room school is the old stone table on which, by the light of small oil lamps, the students copied the precious Scriptures, which they would then take with them on their journeys, circulating them far and wide. The stories of Waldensian valor are carefully recorded by Ledger, one of the pastors, and by Samuel Morland, who got them from eye witnesses. Today these stories are carefully preserved in the museum at Torre Pellici and in the library of Cam bridge University.

It was the Waldensian church that became the door by which the freedom- of-conscience clause was incorporated into the Italian constitution. Because of this witness "the light still shines."

To the faithful of the Thyatira period the appropriate promise is given, "He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron" (verses 26, 27).