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By Pastor Glenn Pease
Is there any truth to the popular idea that hell is right here on earth?
There were a lot of Minnesotans who believed it in Jan. of 1873.
The morning of the 8th was beautiful and the snow was melting.
Masses of people made plans to travel, visit, and shop.
But about 4 in the afternoon the wind came blowing in, the temperature dropped 40 degrees in one minute, and the worst blizzard in Minnesota history had begun, and it wouldn't stop for 3 days.
Hurricane winds driving the snow forced all living things to find shelter or perish.
A youth in school in New Ulm only had to cross the road to his house, but his body was later found 8 miles away.
Some buried themselves in snow drifts and survived.
William Trier and his bride and father were returning home to Fergus Falls.
The men got out of the sleigh to look for shelter and perished.
The bride stayed in t he sleigh and lived.
A St. Peter woman was just out feeding her chickens and died trying to find her door step.
Many died within feet of their own houses because they could not find them in the blinding blizzard.
Thousands of people narrowly escaped death, but 70 people actually died in this hellish storm.
If you took a pole then, the hell on earth would have won by a landslide.
People always tend to associate the hell on earth idea with terrible suffering and hardship.
This is legitimate, for that is what we see in the church at Pergamum.
They were having tough times, and at least one by the name of Antipas had died for his faith.
I want to call your attention to the fact that Jesus says in verse 13 that the throne of Satan was in that city.
He ends the verse by saying Satan lives there.
So here is the city where Satan lives, and where he has his throne.
This is none other than the capital of hell.
If the devil has his home and his office there, he does not commute from hell to do his dirty work.
He can do it all right there in Pergamum.
So there is truth then to the idea that hell is right here on earth.
Now this does not sound like the best place to start a church.
This is like trying to start a Sunday School class for the hell's angels.
But Jesus started His church there, and the Christians were remaining true to His name.
They were not renouncing their faith even though the pressure was on.
Why would Pergamum be any more the capital of hell than any of the other cities?
It had been a capital city for almost 400 years.
Pliny, the ancient, called it, "The most famous city in Asia."
Sir William Ramsay, the modern traveler and scholar wrote, "Beyond all other cities in Asia Minor, it gives the traveler the impression of a royal city, the home of authority."
There were a number of reasons that Pergamum was the capital of hell.
It was the center of Caesar worship.
In 29 A. D. a temple to the godhead of Caesar was erected there.
People had to call Caesar Lord or risk death by the sword.
The Roman governor had the power to kill anyone on the spot with his sword if they did not conform to the law of Rome.
That is why Jesus starts this letter by reminding them that He has the sharp two edged sword, and He will have the final word on who lives or dies.
Hell's headquarters has some tough swordmen, but their swords will be no match for the sword of the Savior.
Satan knows that power corrupts, and that is why Pergamum is his capital.
It was the capital of the seleucid kingdom back in 282 B.C., and it had remained a capital for nearly 4 centuries.
Where there is power to rule and make policy, and establish values, you can count on it, Satan will be present.
The implication is clear.
Any capital where the forces of power operate is a capital of hell, for that is where Satan can get most of his agenda accomplished the quickest.
Satan can get more evil done through those in high places than he can by means of the poor sinner who has no power.
But get evil into the laws that govern a nation, and then you have a real impact for the goals of hell.
Satan is no political dunce.
He knows where to set up his office.
Not only does he know the best place for getting his agenda done is where the power is, but he knows the best place is where the education is.
Pergamum was famous for its 200,000 volume library.
It was second only to the largest in the world in Alexandria, Egypt.
The king of Pergamum bribed the librarian of Alexandria to leave there and come to Pergamum.
He did and this enraged the king of Egypt when he lost his outstanding scholar Aristophanes.
He put embargo on the export
of papyrus to Pergamum.
If they had no paper, they could not have books.
But the scholars of Pergamum invented parchment made of skin, and this was better and more lasting for books, and it made papyrus obsolete.
Pergamum became a center for learning and culture, and that too is why Satan made it hell's headquarters.
It was the center of the latest fashions also.
You can get a lot more evil done with educated sinners.
Educated sinners can foul up whole nations and lead them astray.
Power and brains together can cook up schemes that the devil can really delight in.
The brilliant and powerful Nazi party was filled with educated and cultured people.
They did more evil than millions of poorly educated sinners could ever do.
Show me a center of power and learning and I will show you a capital of hell.
Pergamum was also the center of religious worship with temples to Zeus, Aphrodite and Aesculapius, the god of medicine.
Jupiter was supposedly born in Pergamum.
So if you add up power, education, and religious worship, you see why this was the capital of hell.
Politics, education, and religion are three of the most powerful tools in the world for evil.
This is why the church was there also, for these are three of the most powerful tools for good and the achieving of the will of God.
It was not just the capital of hell, it was heaven's headquarters as well.
Just because the devil uses something for his cause does not make it an evil tool.
Jesus can and does use it as well, and the church is to be as wise as that old serpent the devil, and use power, learning and the religious nature of man for the glory of God.
The church and hell are in the same town because they are competing for the same tools to be used for the cause of good or evil.
Jesus did not say to the church of Pergamum, "I am sorry I didn't realize I set you up in the capital of hell.
It's no place for a nice girl like you.
I'll relocate you in a better setting where you won't have to contend with the devil."
Jesus did not pull out for a better location.
He said stay there, keep up the fight, and be overcomers.
The church is not to run from evil, but stand fast and try to take that territory for the kingdom of God.
It is sword against sword-the Sword of the Spirit against the sword of Satan.
The Christian with the sword of the Spirit has the power of life and death.
It is this sword of the Word that Jesus used when He faced Satan head to head in the wilderness, and it is the sword by which the church still conquers and overcomes the temptations of Satan.
How do you fight evil power in government, education, and religion?
There is only one Christian weapon, and that is the sword of the Word.
It can succeed even in the capital of hell.
They were like Daniel in the lion's den with Satan going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, but his mouth can still be shut by the power of the Word.
He can be overcome even in his home court and capital city.
The gates of hell will not prevail against the church said Jesus, but by the use of the Word of God as the churches battering ram they can even penetrate his capital and claim it for the kingdom of Christ.
The church does not reject political power, learning, and religion, but rather, he links all of these tools to the Word of God and invades the capital of hell and turns it into a capital of heaven.
Don't give up any tool just because the devil uses it.
Use it for his defeat and be an overcomer of evil by the use of that same tool.
The problem with the Christians in Pergamum is they were themselves falling for some of Satan's clever tricks.
In the Old Testament they were represented by Sodom, and in the New Testament by the Nicolaitans.
It was a single teaching that seduced God's people in both Testaments.
They taught that God's people should use the same tools as the world does.
The difference is, they taught they should use them the same way as the world does, and not according to God's Word.
They said religion is good and so go along with the religions of the world.
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