THE LOVELESS CHURCH
Dr. Stephen R. Phinney
“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false, and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.’” Revelation 2:1-7
A quick review of what the church is supposed to be according to what the Hebrew pictures communicate to us. The original definition of the church was a fire signal. Now, a church in the Greek means to call out. The common term we use today is to “bring the cream to the top.” The concept here is to call a group of unified believers to go public, as a body of free citizens, freely proclaiming the free gospel of Jesus Christ—that’s what is being revealed to us in the book of the reveal—the revelation of Jesus Christ. The word church is always associated with Israel—it’s critical we don’t forget that, and this is why the church is still referred to as she. God is referenced as He. Jesus is referenced as He. The Bride of Christ is referenced as she, and we are the Church. That is why Israel is referred to as she. The Old Testament, or Hebrew word, as I said, means “a fire signal.”
Some of you may have watched the movie The Lord of the Rings, and if you remember, one of the scenes within that series is a young lad working his way to the top of the fire tower and igniting the fire. Another fire tower would see that fire on another mountain, and they would then light their fire, and so on until they had the interest of the entire world who would later come to battle against their enemy. That is how the church was painted in a definition for us to remember. We are a fire signal—a light for all the ages.
When you look at our map of the seven churches, Ephesus is toward the bottom portion of Turkey, very close to the sea, and it carries an abundant amount of history.
Let’s take a look at the five points that Jesus was addressing in His letter to the church of Ephesus.
1. It was a portrait of Jesus according to the spiritual state of the church. What it was supposed to communicate to the people was love—that Jesus is love, and that everything starts with love. He is the portrait of love, and now Ephesus was supposed to be the portrait introducing people to God’s love.
2. He praised the people for their acknowledgments with a handful of positive points—everything from their deeds to the toils that they were suffering, and them persevering through all of those trials. They didn’t tolerate evil people, and they even tested people to make sure they were of the original, sincere Portrait. Well, something went wrong.
3. Jesus condemns and identifies their negative points.
4. Correction and counsel to restore the situation.
5. His promise and encouragement.
We must understand some of the History of Ephesus.
Neolithic Age
The Neolithic period was about 5000 BC (time of Cain). A lot of people forget, or they don’t even ask the question—where did Satan go after Cain was chased into the eastern end of the world? Well, Satan went with him. You see, Satan has to stay bonded to evil. That doesn’t mean that Satan wasn’t influential. For example, the battling and temptations that the descendants are coming from Abel (the son that seemed to get the spiritual inheritance of the righteousness which was assigned to the next brother) endured. So as Cain was chased into the eastern part of the world, Satan’s evil plan followed with him because Cain’s heart was well devoted to evil, which was why he was chased away. Now this “chased away” business—many people have not taken the time to ask, “Well, where was this place?” It was Ephesus. It has been proven through excavations that there was a civilization that existed 5000 BC on the very dirt that we reference today as Ephesus.
Bronze Age
In keeping an identification with Satan’s work with Cain’s descendants, we know what it produced—it produced an utterly vulgar generation that God Himself had to wash out with the flood. An interesting note about the Bronze Age is in 1500 BC, again, they found, through excavation, remnants of a community that was from Ham (Hittites). Any time you read about the Hittites, you are reading about Ham’s descendants. When we look at the three sons of Noah, Ham being the one that got cursed, Satan is going to follow that generation.
Dark Ages
The Dark Age is when things began to shift to being more of a female dominate society, and that’s because of the influence of the Greek female gods that were infiltrating many of the communities during this time.
Archaic Period
In 560 BC, there was a temple built in Ephesus called the Temple of Women. Now, this was not because of some feministic movement that was taking place, but this is based upon these female gods. Satan has some kind of thing about putting females in power. You see it in the book of Revelation as it talks about the great hoar; you see it in many of the writings of the Old Testament and so forth. I’m going to talk more about why Satan advances feminism and what it has to do with his end-times. But in 560 BC, we have the temple of women built.
Classical Period
During the Classic Period of 478 BC, the whole cultural dominant influence came through women’s rights. Almost everything you saw taking place in Ephesus was based on women’s rights. Keep the dark thread at the forefront of your mind of how Satan started with the Cainites and stayed with this area through what I consider to be the present day. But by 478 BC, they were pushing women’s rights.
Hellenistic Period
In 334 BC, something was going on that was so foul and immoral in the development of Ephesus that God steps in and destroys this city much like took place with Cain and Abel when Cain was chased far away from where Adam and Eve were to continue to populate. The flood was God destroying the influence of this feminized Satan, and then we find it again in 334 BC, where God just wipes out this community. Now it pops back in a little bit different in the Roman period.
Roman Period
In 27 BC, the Romans began to dominate and capture this particular area for financial reasons. The city became so influential that the Roman leadership made Ephesus their capital. Ephesus, for the most part, returned under Roman Rule. When Augustus became emperor in 27 BC, he officially made Ephesus the capital city instead of Pergamum. By this time, 27 BC, which sets up for the Christian history, Ephesus regained full power, primarily for economic reasons.
Christian Period
In 50 AD, Ephesus became an important center for early Christianity. Paul would make visits to build these seven churches, and Ephesus just happened to be one of the leading locations where the Lord was prosperous in advancing Paul’s ministry. Many people were converted, and the church took off and became very influential, not only in the city of Ephesus but also throughout the region that we know today as Turkey. One of the big things that Paul had to war within his mission with the Ephesians was the whole female goddess movement, which had pretty much retaken over the city. Much is to be said about Paul’s ministries in the New Testament as he made his trips to these Roman-controlled cities of the seven churches.
Key Cultural Issues
One of the most significant critical cultural issues, according to Act 19:35, is Paul had to re-emphasis and challenge the men to stand up and behave like men. The reason there was so much teaching on the issue of masculinity in men was that the men within the city of Ephesus were primarily dominated and run by the women. The women’s rights thing has always been there; the whole female goddess thing has always been there, and now the Christian men coming out of this are defaulting to their ladies, so this is why Paul puts such an emphasis on getting men back in line with what they were called to do by God.
The Apostle John lived in Asia Minor. After Patmos, he died in Ephesus at a grand old age. We must always remember that God did not allow John to be martyred like the other disciples. He was set aside for something extraordinary. It does not mean he did not have trials and tribulations, but he certainly was set aside to be a particular cut for a specific purpose. Therefore he was not able to be harmed in any way. He was the only one that died of old age and natural causes in the city of Ephesus.
There is so much that can be revealed to us about the movement of the enemy and female gods and female leadership. One of the classic ones that most people are aware of is that the house of Mary is in Ephesus. The Roman Catholics seized the home of Mary at a very early time in church history. Most believe that it was during the first generation. They turned it into a worship center, which is where we get our ideologies from the Roman Catholic Church—Mary being the mother of God, the holy mother, the mother of God that is given special privileges, and who didn’t have sin in her because she birthed Jesus. All of these false teachings that have come with Mary started in Ephesus. However, the reason the house of Mary still exists to this very day is that it parallels with all of the teachings and religious bondage that took place between Ephesus and the power of women—an interesting note to remember. The other thing I like to remember as a church historian is that this is the exact place the Third Ecumenical Council of the Universal Church in 431 AD took place in the house of Mary.
The result of all this is historic, but there is a lot of rich history with Ephesus and a lot of issues surrounding the maleness and femaleness. I think if we step back and look at some of the problems we struggle with today with Christian feminism—boys wanting to be women—it might parallel itself to this history.
The result of the shift of these Christians from their first love to their love of whatever the culture was saying is essential, threatened them in their relationship with Jesus Christ, enough for Jesus to come and say, “Because you’ve lost your first love,” and that’s the issue—“your first love.” Their first love was Jesus, and they had probably defaulted too many types of gods or goddesses, so Jesus was coming to address this. Jesus also happens to give them a compliment of hating the Nicolaitan beliefs.
Deacon Nicholas graduated from the school of Alexander. Alexander was known for their training and education to be based on paganism. What he was doing is bringing in doctrine into the Ephesus church pushing and emphasizing that there needs to be a priest between the people and God, or Christ. He became the father of each church and this where Roman Catholicism was born—another interesting point to keep close to your bosom. Deacon Nicholas also became the first official Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, and this is what Jesus was addressing when He said, “For I hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans.”
After John’s death, the city was taken by the Goths—the Arians. Most of you associate Arians with white supremacy—that would be a good connection because that is precisely how they were. But after John’s death, Ephesus goes through this horrific period of turning Arian. I’ll talk more about this later.
Revelation 2:6-7 tells us this: “Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To Him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.”
When Jesus talks about removing a candlestick from the throne room of heaven, it does not necessarily mean that every single Christian who was a part of one of these seven churches is removed. We, as a people, have to face the individual judgment of God. If we are genuinely indwelt with the life of Jesus Christ, we will escape the consequences of this judgment. But the church of Ephesus, as a whole, is being warned of being removed corporately from the throne room of God, and that is a significant piece of history.
God is very much into churches and their shepherds. God’s design is to establish shepherds to care for the sheep (body of Christ), not leaders to lord over them, and act as mediators between then and the Living God. Deacon Nicholas was whacked. I don’t care if you are insulted by the fact that this is the Roman forefather of your church or not, and the simple truth is that Jesus said He hates the deeds of deacon Nicholas; it was becoming a system. God makes it clear that the Christians who do not “buy into” this illusion, this deception, will be eating from the Tree of Life.
