The third church Jesus addresses is the church at Pergamos and to me it is the saddest of all. It is the compromising church. It is the church that has turned a blind eye to the idolatry and sexual immorality that exists in its midst. This is the church that decided to live just like the culture around them (and if anything, our current culture can be defined with those words, idolatry and sexual immorality).
“There are those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.” [Rev 2:14 NKJV]
Perhaps more than any other, this church defines what we have seen in recent decades. At the turn of this last century, churches adopted the entertainment model. Sunday services became all about keeping people entertained – no more boring Bible-based teaching where people had to actually pay attention. We tried to respond to that old complaint, “church is boring,” not by turning people on fire for God, but by providing theatre and amusement.
When we did that, we morphed from self-sacrificing servants into self-absorbed consumers. The Holy Spirit and along with Him, holiness, was driven from our midst. We no longer “offended” others by reminding them that God calls us to a higher standard than our culture. We quit talking about sin and started talking about self-fulfillment and prosperity.
The result is that we live in a way that looks exactly like the people who do not have God in their lives.
“What has the church gained if it is popular but there is no conviction, no repentance, no power?” A. W. Tozer
