“And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;
    I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works; and the last to be more than the first.
    Notwithstanding 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.
    And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
    Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.
    And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
    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.
    And 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; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.
    And I will give him the morning star.
    He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Rev 2:18-29

The church at Thyatira, let’s see how it relates to the current condition of the church, as well as look at it on a personal level to see how it applies to the individual believer.

Renown for Purple: Color of the Whore
Politically speaking, the city of Thyatira held little inheritance but was renowned for its commercial vitality. The natural resources of the area were implemented to produce world famous purple dye. Trade guilds abounded in this city. Lydia, a convert of the apostle Paul in Phillippi and a seller of purple (Acts 16:14), hailed from this ancient metropolis. The chief deity of the city, according to Unger’s Bible Dictionary was Apollo, worshipped under the surname of Tyrimnas.

The church at Thyatira, representing the Papal church established around 450 A.D. at the fall of the Roman Empire, was commended by the Lord for their many, many works and charitable service. However, Christ’s greeting to them in this letter is from one who has eyes like a flame of fire and feet like fine brass. Fire, in the Scriptures, represents the process of refinement and brass symbolizes judgement. Why would he refer to himself in such a manner if he had not some bone to pick with them?

The Teachings of Jezebel had infiltrated this Church
The bone was the woman Jezebel, a self-proclaimed prophetess who seduced the servants of the Lord into spiritual adultery. Jezebel of the Old Testament was an evil woman who enticed her husband, King Ahab, to commit idolatry against his God and ordered the prophets of the Lord to be slain. Her name has echoed through 3,000 years of history as a byword for anything that is reprehensible, polluted and idolatrous. Do we not instantly conjure up images of wickedness and evil manipulation when we just hear the name “Jezebel”?

It is interesting that Thyatira was known for its purple dye, probably used extensively for clothing. Could it be the same purple clothing worn by the great whore described In Revelation 17 with whom the “kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” Rev 17:2 Jezebel and this woman are one in the same, or at least a close relative, spiritually speaking.

The following name was written on this woman’s forehead: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS? Is Jezebel her daughter? This could be.

Who is this Mystery Babylon?

Who is this woman? What is ‘Mystery Babylon”?
It had its origins in ancient Babylon at the tower of Babel when men conspired to reach heaven by their inventions and make a show of themselves before heaven and earth while doing it. We all know the story from there, but why did the Lord have to confound the languages? Genesis 11:6 explains “And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” The Lord knew what men would do if left to their own devices and it was his mercy on us that he scattered the nations. He knew they were trying to reach heaven without Him. But the spirit of Babel was never destroyed and now, in this present day, we find it flourishing and permeating all aspects of life. Men are conspiring, in unity, to become the “brotherhood of man”. Language is no longer a barrier and with satellites, direct TV, cell phones, the internet and travel so enhanced, the whole world is at our fingertips and only a day away at most. The spirit of Mystery Babylon is at the heart of all these endeavors. Intoxicated with her own lust for power she will stop at nothing to achieve her goal.

This evil woman, Babylon, is drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. Revelation 17:18 tells us, “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” History proves that the city which has reigned over the earth for the last two millennia, in one way or another is Rome. When her political power was stripped, her spiritual power over the souls of men thrived. That power is still thriving today in the Roman Catholic church. In her, we find the epitome of the spiritual tower of Babel. Even her buildings are the finest in the world. You can go into any small city or town and find an ornately built Roman Catholic Church.

So who is this Jezebel and what does she have to do with Babylon? In Gordon Lindsey’s Revelation Series, The Seven Churches of Revelation, he states this; “Jezebel is the Papal Church which arose during the Dark Ages. While the name doubtless referred to someone in the local church of Thyatira, prophetically it symbolizes the rise of the Papacy of which Jezebel is a type. This is the accepted interpretation of all evangelical interpreters, and there can be no doubt but that it is the true interpretation. The aptness of the symbolism is obvious and striking.”

Though current Evangelical teaching is trying to sweep this knowledge under the rug it was not very long ago that every Bible-believing Christian understood about the whore of Babylon and the Jezebel spirit. The spirit of idolatry in the Christian church was given birth by Jezebel (Papacy) during this era of church history and has continued to flourish to this day. The many false practices and idolatries of the Roman system are too numerous to go into detail here, but to name a few: statue worship (graven images), Mary and “saint” worship, salvation by infant water baptism, transubstantiation (the mystery of turning bread and wine into the so-called “actual” body and blood of Christ – which is a feeble attempt to make oneself holy). The advances the Church at large made against these polluted teachings of the Dark Ages were hard won, sometimes men and women gave up their lives resisting the whore’s inquisitions and persecutions. We are saddened to see so many Christians cash in these doctrinal victories won by the blood of the saints for a false peace and ecumenism that will come to naught in the end. We urge every reader to ponder these rebukes of Jesus for themselves, and for those of you who seek the truth I encourage you to search the Scriptures and the Scriptures only, for only there will you find the true way to salvation and deliverance from the corruption that has seeped into the Church over the centuries.

But why does the Catholic Church have so many devotees you may ask. How can so many people be wrong? The answer is simply, Noah and his family were eight out of the whole world who were found righteous before God and obeyed His voice. That is why we must take seriously the voice of God speaking through Paul when He says,

“And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
   Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you”. 2 Cor 6:16-17

Repent and Christ will give you Great Reward
In the New Testament Jezebel represents the marriage of false doctrine with true Christian doctrine as exemplified in the Roman Church. She is given a chance to repent but refuses (Rev 2:21). Likewise, the Thyatirans are advised to repent or be thrown into great tribulation with her.

But to those who have not partaken of this doctrine and who have not known the depths of Satan, as Christ tells us in verse 24, he will put no other burden on them. The depths of Satan were felt in that dark period of church history with the atrocities of the inquisition and the martyrdom of faithful servants of Christ who refused to deny his name.

To quote Gordon Lindsey again,

“The horrors of the inquisition, (see The Holy Inquisition) the burning of ‘heretics’ at the stake, immorality among the Popes, a decadent priesthood forbidden to marry, doctrines of the harlot Babylon, image worship in its grossest forms, Mariolatry – all these evil things appeared in the Church of Thyatira. It was a time of gross darkness. It is an indication of the compassion and the love of Christ that He says to the people of this benighted time, ‘I will put upon you none other burden’. This is as much as to say that ‘to whom much is given, of him much shall be required.’ But to those who live in the darkness of Thyatira, if they will but keep themselves from evil, from ‘the depths of Satan’, into which so many had fallen, they will do well.”

The Lord’s pleadings to repent to this church are many and the consequences quite severe for those who don’t, as we see in verse 21. Being cast into great tribulation await those who refuse to repent of the spiritual fornication which they have committed with the spirit of Jezebel.

To the overcomer in Thyatira, as with all seven of the churches, there is wonderful promise. Christ offers hope and redemption for those who will come to Him and repent. It is ironic that the promise given to this particular church is power over the nations to rule them with a rod of iron. Rome has, for centuries, tried to do the very same thing in several different ways, especially, as mentioned earlier, through the spiritual hold of the Roman Catholic Church. And now, to those who overcome the depths of Satan, will he give them what Rome has lusted after – power over the nations. Not only that but, “…as vessels of a potter shall they (the nations) be broken to shivers” Rev 2:27. The rule this time will be under the one true God and His Son, Jesus Christ. That will surely be one sight to see! And the saints are invited to be in that army.

The other promise to the overcomer is that they will be given the morning star, which is only mentioned one other place in Scripture; Rev 22:16, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” And David, as we all know, was the greatest king Israel ever saw, the one who had a heart after God.