Thyatira comes from two words, one meaning sacrifice and the other word meaning, "goes on continually". Put these together we get, "continual sacrifice". This is significant in that the church of Thyatira started a period which resulted in the union of church and state. The time was the 7th century and the Bishop of Rome was recognised as the head of the church and as Christ's vicegerent (a person exercising delegated power on behalf of a sovereign or ruler.) This was, properly speaking, the beginning of the papacy.
Location: Thyatira in in a long valley that connects the Hermus and the Caicus rivers. Location was what this city had going for it.
1. Thyatira was the gateway to Pergamum, the capitol of the province. Thyatira was a Macedonian troop armed garrison. The purpose of Thyatira was to protect Pergamum. The problem here was the location of the open valley and the difficulty of any prolonged defense. All Thyatira could hope to ever do was to delay invaders of Pergamum until Pergamum could prepare to meet the invaders.
2. Thyarira was a commercial town due to the roads running to Pergamum, which connected to Sardis and then to Philadelphia and Laodicea then linking up to Smyrna and Byzantium. The is the road the imperial persons traveled the most.
3. There was no significant heathen religion there. There was a fortune telling shrine at Thyarira. It was run by a female oracle named Sambathe. Hardly any competition or issue for the Church.
4. Thyarira's specialty goods were the dyeing industry and the woolen goods. Lydia (Acts 16:14) came from Thyaria with her speciality as the seller of purple. Thyarira had the largest number of guilds and guild workers: wool, leather, linen, bronze, makers of outer garments, dyers, potters, bakers, slave-dealers etc.
So, what was the church of Thyatira's issue? The issue was of an "inside" nature; there was a women addressed only as Jezebel. She wanted to compromise with the world in the business and prosperity area. She felt the Holy Spirit would keep them safe in there endeavors.
**I feel led to put an additional word for word reading attached to this blog. I think it needs to be separate from the body of the above due to it's unique significance.
Quoted form the , Lectures on the Revelation by H.A. Ironside.
"I said the Thyatira seemed to imply a continual sacrifice. You will see the significance of this in the great fundamental error of the church of Rome- the sacrifice of the mass. The Roman Catholic priest declare that, in the mass, they offer a continual sacrifice for the sins of the living and the dead. Other errors of the church of Rome spring from that. There are many things that Prostestants might be able to condone. This is the central, the root, blasphemy- the denial of the finished work of the Lord Jesus on Calary's cross- the one, only and all-sufficient offering for the sins of a guilty world. Every time the priest stands at Rome's altar to offer the sacrifice of the mass, he denies the unchanging efficacy of the work wrought by the Lord Jesus on Calvary's cross."
This basic concept is the basis of the letter to Thyatira. Christ died on the cross for us and our sins. Jesus said, "It is finished."(John 19:30). There should NEVER be a continual sacrifice, no other sacrifice should ever be needed.
Next blog starts the letter and gets into the meat of the Church of Thyarira and the woman and her influence. Join me, won't you?
Blessings on all,
Calabash
Amazing word today! I am flattened by the understanding of this immense and pivotal mistake of continual sacrifice.
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