A Historical Analysis of Revelation 2 – 3
Lorin Friesen, November 2024
Introduction
The letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2-3 are interpreted by many as representing seven different periods in the history of the Western church stretching from the time of Paul until the return of Jesus Christ. This is similar to the way that Revelation 4-22 has been interpreted as a continuous sequence of history and prophecy in other essays. However, even though the seven letters are interpreted as a prophetic sequence and I have been analyzing many prophetic sequences in the New Testament, I could not decipher this sequence until recently.
I suggest that two principles are critical for accurately interpreting these letters: First, the common perception is that this prophetic sequence will end with the rapture of the church to heaven, which implies that we are currently in the ‘lukewarm church’ of Laodicea. However, a detailed analysis of prophecy, history, and cognitive development suggests that we are only in the middle of the sequence, in the church of Thyatira. That is because the current version of Christianity that is based in the absolute truth of the Bible needs to be reformulated as universal truth based in cognitive principles and cognitive development. Thus, the current form of Christianity based in absolute truth may be coming to an end, but further stages are possible if Christianity becomes reformulated as a rational understanding as described in the second half of Luke 24.
Second, these letters are explicitly written to the angels of churches. Church means ‘people called out from the world and to God’. This means following the TMN of a concept of God in Teacher thought rather than MMNs of culture and society. Many groups that claim to be churches fail this definition. For instance, most traditional churches strongly defend cultural MMNs and regard TMNs of rational understanding as a distraction from following God. Similarly, the ‘seeker friendly’ church modifies TMNs of theology and morality in order to appeal to MMNs of secular culture. In contrast, these letters describe the focus of those who are attempting to go beyond culture to follow an unseen God. Angel means ‘messenger’ and can refer to either a human or angelic messenger. A messenger obviously focuses upon messages rather than experiences and culture. Thus, a letter to an angel describes the paradigm of some society and what is required to pursue the required paradigm.
Stated briefly, I suggest that the seven letters correspond to seven eras of human history. These seven letters or eras are described in more detail in the rest of Revelation. Each letter can also be mapped onto a certain section of Revelation. However, the details of each letter do not necessarily correspond to a specific range of verses. That is because two different perspectives are being taken. The seven letters are to ‘the angels of the churches’. These focus upon paradigms and paradigm shifts because the word ‘angel’ means ‘messenger’. Revelation 4-11, in contrast, maps onto human history, and presumably this mapping would continue in the future for the rest of Revelation.
1) Ephesus: Roman era, Revelation 4-5
2) Smyrna: Medieval era, Revelation 6:1-8
3) Pergamum: Renaissance era, Revelation 6:9-7:3
4) Thyatira: Scientific era 7:4-11:10
5) Sardis: Spiritual economy of Revelation 11:11-13
6) Philadelphia: Spiritually reborn society of Revelation 14-16
7) Laodicea: The Reign and Fall of Babylon in Revelation 17-18
This essay will be quoting from the Berean Literal Bible (BLB) because it is closest to the interlinear text and leads to the least problems when looking at the original Greek. As usual, we will be taking our definitions from Biblehub.com.
Table of contents
2:1-7 Ephesus
2:4 Leaving the First Love
2:7 The Tree of Life
2:8-11 Smyrna
2:9-10 Papal Persecution
2:12-17 Pergamum
2:14 The Teaching of Balaam
2:15-16 The Teaching of the Nicolaitans
2:17 A White Stone
2:18-29 Thyatira
2:20-21 Tolerating Jezebel
2:22-23 Cast into a Bed
2:24-25 The Rest of Thyatira
2:26-27 Authority over the Nations
3:1-6 Sardis
3:4-6 Clothed in White
3:7-13 Philadelphia
3:8-9 An Open Door
3:10-11 Hour of Trial
3:12 Pillars in the Temple
3:14-22 Laodicea
3:17-18 Buying Refined Gold
3:19-21 Knocking at the Door
Ephesus 2:1-7
Verse 1 begins, “To the messenger of the church in Ephesus write:” As mentioned, both ‘messenger’ and ‘write’ indicate a focus upon words and theories in Teacher thought. Ephesus was a city in Asia Minor and probably means ‘city of the mother goddess’. Consistent with this meaning, Ephesus was well-known for a major temple to the goddess Artemis, a many-breasted figure of female fertility. This can be interpreted cognitively as being birthed and nurtured by MMNs of culture, society, and personal authority. This describes the original church that was guided by experiential memories of the life of Jesus, ruled by the disciples of Jesus, and guided by the church fathers. Similarly, the Roman civilization was based in heroes and guided by a religion of heroic gods.
Verse 1 continues, “These things says the One holding the seven stars in His right hand, walking in the midst of the seven golden lampstands.” Holding means to ‘seize hold of, put under control’. A star is a bright light in the sky which is interpreted cognitively as some luminary of expertise within the heavenly realm of thought. The seven stars are mentioned three times in Revelation 1. 1:16 describes the Son of Man holding seven stars in his right hand and this phrase is almost identical to 2:1 except that holding in 1:16 simply means ‘to have, hold’. The seven stars are described in 1:20 as a mystery which is then defined as ‘the angels of the seven churches’. Right hand is a single word. The hand is interpreted as technical thought because hands are used to perform technical manipulation, and the right hand is interpreted as left hemisphere thought which corresponds to the technical actions of Server thought. Holding the seven stars in his right hand implies that rituals and procedures are being established that will determine the Teacher understanding of the seven eras. This is an accurate statement, because many church experts throughout the centuries have looked back at the practices of the early church as authoritative, ignoring the fact that the early church did not have an understanding or a developed theology but rather was following the example of the historical Jesus under the guidance of the disciples and the church fathers.
A lampstand comes from a word that means ‘a portable lamp’. Light represents Teacher understanding but this is not the general understanding of a sun that illuminates all of society but rather some personal light that illuminates some specific region. Golden means ‘golden, or overlaid with gold’. Gold and silver both represent wealth, but silver represents the exchange of wealth whereas gold represents the accumulation of wealth. Golden would indicate the appearance of the accumulation of wealth. Putting this together, a golden lampstand would represent a limited light of Teacher understanding based in the appearance of accumulating wealth. This definition could apply to the New Testament. The early church determined which writings of the disciples and apostles had deep value and accumulated this appearance of wealth into the Canon of the Bible. The Bible has been set up as a lampstand for Christian believers and it has brought light to many over the centuries, but it has primarily been the light of a lamp that has illuminated the paths of individuals. Going further, the initial Christian accumulation of wealth was primarily an overlaying of gold that focused upon the external elements of books, procedures, official experts, and institutions rather than developing the wealth of deep understanding.
The term ‘seven golden lampstands’ was used in 1:12 where John saw the Son of Man in the midst of the lampstands and was defined in 1:20 as ‘the seven churches’. Verse 1 describes walking ‘in the midst of the seven golden lampstands’ and walking means ‘walk around’, ‘conduct my life’. ‘Golden’ is only used once in the seven letters to the churches, suggesting that the church was characterized by an initial era during which wealth of various kinds was accumulated. This summarizes how absolute truth is formed. Absolute truth comes from some ancient society that lived in the era during which the ‘gold’ of absolute truth was being accumulated. The people of that era do not view absolute truth as absolute truth but rather as the words of living people. These living words turn into absolute truth as the wealth of living speech is accumulated in the form of a written record. This written record is then viewed by future generations as absolute truth.
Verse 2 describes the behavior of this initial era. “I know your works and your labor and endurance, and that you are not able to tolerate evil ones.” Know means ‘seeing that becomes knowing’ and is interpreted as empirical knowledge. Work means ‘a deed that carries out an inner desire’ which is interpreted as self-initiated action. Stated simply, people living during this era could physically see that the early Christians were internally motivated by something different than the normal drives of society. These early Christians had no example to follow except for the example of Jesus whose physical presence had turned into a memory. Wikipedia describes the appeal of early Christianity, “Christianity appealed to marginalized groups (women, slaves) with its message that ‘in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, neither slave nor free’. Christians also provided social services to the poor, sick, and widows.”
Labor means ‘laborious toil’. Endurance means ‘remaining under, endurance’. In other words, the early church had to perform the exhausting labor of setting up the church and gathering up its wealth while remaining under the domination of the Roman empire with its idolatry. The goal of the early church was not to overthrow the government or establish a new civilization but rather to setup the church and gather the initial wealth of the sayings of Jesus and the writings of the apostles.
Able means ‘to have power’ and is interpreted as active Perceiver thought. Tolerate means ‘to take up, carry’. Evil means ‘inwardly fouled, rotten’ and ‘ones’ is implied. Thus, a more accurate translation would be, ‘You did not have the power to carry inward foulness’. Looking at this cognitively, the early church had no institutions or cultures within which inward foulness could hide and it was still being guided by the living memory of Jesus who had no inward foulness. Going further, the inward foulness of the late Roman empire provided a continuing example of how one should not live. The English translation gives the impression that verse 2 is describing moral fortitude but the Greek seems to indicate an inability to behave immorally because of various social factors. Wikipedia describes the Roman condemnation of early Christianity because of their refusal to participate in normal social activities. “Romans had a negative perception of early Christians. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote that Christians were despised for their ‘abominations’ and ‘hatred of humankind’. The belief that Christians hated humankind could refer to their refusal to participate in social activities connected to pagan worship—these included most social activities such as the theater, the army, sports, and classical literature.”
Verse 2 continues, “And you have tested those claiming to be apostles and are not, and you have found them false.” Tested means temptation rather than testing. Temptation can have positive benefits if one survives temptation, but the goal of temptation is for something to fail. The word apostle is only mentioned once in the seven letters, and an apostle is interpreted as someone who pays a heavy personal price to achieve a major breakthrough. For instance, the original apostles paid a heavy personal price to achieve the major breakthrough of establishing Christianity. Claim is the normal word for speech. Thus, the goal of verse 2 is not establishing who is a genuine apostle but rather disproving those who are verbally claiming to be apostles. Are is explicitly mentioned. Thus, claimed apostleship is being refuted by looking beyond words to the being of personal identity. Saying this more clearly, the early church had a simple experiential test for valid apostleship as described in Acts 1:21-22. A legitimate apostle had to have personal experience of Jesus and be a witness of his resurrection. Notice how early Christianity is being nurtured by the Mercy mental networks of experience, consistent with the idea of living in the midst of the golden lampstands.
Found means ‘to discover, especially after searching’. False is is the word ‘pseudo-’ which means ‘lying, false’. This indicates that rejecting claims to apostleship went beyond merely erasing someone from some list. Instead, it involved a process of searching and inquiry and it led to a conclusion regarding truth as opposed to focusing specifically upon the false apostle. Looking at this historically, the early church went through several major doctrinal crises in which the verbal claims of false apostles were carefully investigated and then rejected as heretical. Wikipedia observes that “The Post-Apostolic period was extremely diverse both in terms of beliefs and practices. In addition to the broad spectrum of general branches of Christianity, there was constant change and diversity that variably resulted in both internecine conflicts and syncretic adoption. These various interpretations were called heresies by the leaders of the proto-orthodox church, but many were very popular and had large followings.” Notice how many false prophets are being investigated and then rejected.
Wikipedia also describes the focus of the early church upon rejecting unorthodox doctrine guided by the Mercy examples of ‘holy tradition’. “Christianity differed from Roman religions in that it set out its beliefs in a clearly defined way. The process of determining orthodoxy (right belief) began with the writings of the New Testament and continued through the period of the first seven ecumenical councils. Orthodox teachings were those that claimed to have the authentic lineage of Holy Tradition. All other teachings were viewed as deviant streams of thought that were sometimes viewed as heretical.”
Verse 3 describes the character of the early church. “And you have perseverance, and have endured for the sake of My name, and have not grown weary.” Perseverance means ‘remaining under’. Have refers to the peripheral realm of ‘having’ as opposed to the more central realm of ‘being’. Having perseverance implies being willing to remain within a situation objectively but not subjectively. This describes the early church. On the one hand, they continued to follow the Christian faith even though subject to state persecution. Wikipedia summarizes, “Early Christianity’s teachings on morality have been cited as a major factor in its growth. Christians showed the poor great generosity, and according to professor of religion Steven C. Muir, this ‘was a significant factor’ in the movement’s early growth.” But on the other hand, they practiced emotional and spiritual and escapism through the development of various forms of mysticism. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The Antiochene Fathers, in particular, saw in every passage of Scripture a double meaning, both literal and spiritual... Origen, who had a lasting influence on Eastern Christian thought, further develops the idea that the spiritual realities can be found through allegorical readings of the scriptures, but he focuses his attention on the cross and on the importance of imitating Christ through the cross, especially through spiritual combat and asceticism.” These essays are also guided by the hypothesis that a deeper meaning of Scripture can be found through an allegorical reading, but we are attempting to interpret Scripture allegorically in a semi-rigorous manner that is consistent with cognition and science guided by the theory of mental symmetry. The early church thinkers lacked this intellectual rigor and had no theory of cognition willso their allegorizing turned into spiritual escapism.
Endured means ‘to take up, carry’ and the same word was used in verse 2 to describe what they lack the power to endure. For the sake of means ‘for the sake of, because of’ when followed by the accusative. Name refers to a Teacher label that describes some person. Weary means ‘exhausting labor’ and the noun form was used in verse 2. Early Christian persecution was often driven by the refusal of Christians to dishonor the name of Jesus. In the words of Wikipedia, “Caesar was seen as divine. Christians could accept only one divinity, and it wasn’t Caesar. Cairns describes the ideological conflict as: ‘The exclusive sovereignty of Christ clashed with Caesar’s claims to his own exclusive sovereignty.’” Wikipedia adds that honoring the name of Christ was a long-term position of which the early Christians did not grow weary. “According to Wilken, ‘The polytheistic worldview of the Romans did not incline them to understand a refusal to worship, even symbolically, the state gods.’ MacMullen explains this meant Christians were ‘constantly on the defensive’, and although they responded with appeals to philosophy and reason and anything they thought might weigh against ta patria (the ancestral customs), they could not practice Roman religion and continue fealty to their own religion. Abel Bibliowicz says that, amongst the Romans, ‘The prejudice became so instinctive that eventually, mere confession of the name ‘Christian’ could be sufficient grounds for execution’.” Looking at this cognitively, the primary struggle involved name—the Teacher label applied to some person in Mercy thought. Caesar claimed the name of God because he ruled over the military might of the Roman empire. Jesus was ascribed the name of God because he had risen from the dead.
Leaving the First Love 2:4
Verse 4 mentions a negative aspect. “But I have against you that you have abandoned your first love.” Have means ‘to have, hold’. ‘Having against you’ would mean a contrary position at the objective level of having. Love is ‘agape’ which refers to Teacher love. First means ‘first, foremost’. And abandon means ‘send away, release’. Teacher thought is driven by generality and universality. And this can be seen in early Christianity. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Early Christian communities were highly inclusive in terms of social stratification and other social categories, much more so than were the Roman voluntary associations. Heterogeneity characterized the groups formed by Paul the Apostle, and the role of women was much greater than in either of the forms of Judaism or paganism in existence at the time. Early Christians were told to love others, even enemies, and Christians of all classes and sorts called each other ‘brother’ and ‘sister’.” Notice how Christian love is being applied in a universal manner guided by a Teacher understanding of God that bridges MMNs of culture and social identity.
This universality was objectively abandoned by the development of monasticism. As Wikipedia summarizes, “The basic idea of monasticism in all its varieties is seclusion or withdrawal from the world or society.” Christian monasticism began with a desire to physically abandon the initial Teacher love of Christianity. Quoting Wikipedia again, “Christian monks did not live in monasteries at first; rather, they began by living alone as solitaries, as the word monos might suggest. As more people took on the lives of monks, living alone in the wilderness, they started to come together and model themselves after the original monks nearby... ‘By creating an alternate social structure within the Church they laid the foundations for one of the most enduring Christian institutions’.” Saying this simply, the first Christian love was following God in Teacher thought in a way that transcended social and ethnic boundaries. This was abandoned by monasticism which followed God in a separate way that created its own social and ethnic boundaries. And these desert fathers became the inspiration for Christian mysticism. As Wikipedia explains, “The eastern monastic tradition at Mount Athos and the western Rule of St. Benedict both were strongly influenced by the traditions that began in the desert. All of the monastic revivals of the Middle Ages looked to the desert for inspiration and guidance. Much of Eastern Christian spirituality, including the Hesychast movement, has its roots in the practices of the Desert Fathers.”
Verse 5 responds to this abandoning. “Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the first works.” Remember means ‘to call to mind’. Therefore means that verse 5 follows logically from verse 4. From where means ‘from where’. Fall means ‘to fall’ and is interpreted is heading from Teacher generality to Mercy specifics. Repent means to ‘think differently afterwards’ and this word is repeated later in the verse. First is the same word used in verse 4. Work means ‘a deed that carries out an inner desire’ and is interpreted as self-initiated action. And do refers specifically to Server actions. Putting this all together, verse 3 talked about ‘enduring for the sake of my name’ which indicated holding onto God and Christ in Teacher thought. This name needs to be remembered when descending from verbal proclamation in Teacher thought to personal application in Mercy thought. Instead, desert monasticism explicitly forgot this name when falling from Teacher words to Mercy experiences. This happened because living in the desert was seen as an alternative to government persecution when this persecution ended. Wikipedia explains, “Those who left for the desert formed an alternate Christian society, at a time when it was no longer a risk to be a Christian. The solitude, austerity, and sacrifice of the desert was seen by Anthony as an alternative to martyrdom, which was formerly seen by many Christians as the highest form of sacrifice. Anthony quickly gained followers eager to live their lives in accordance with this solidarity and separation from material goods.” Notice how following the name of God is being lived out by separating from the world in order to deny self in the desert. The ‘first works’ were the morality, universality, and social care shown by the persecuted Christians to their society. These first works are not being done anymore but rather are being forgotten. Wikipedia describes the underlying reasoning. “The hermits doubted that religion and politics could ever produce a truly Christian society. For them, the only Christian society was spiritual and not mundane.” Verse 5 instructs to ‘do the first works’, but the desert fathers thought that it was impossible to do the first works and that following God meant no longer doing works in society. This was a mental problem because following God was associated mentally with denying self. This will naturally happen when absolute truth is starting to be established because one will feel that the source of truth is far more important than personal identity. Escaping this mindset requires a change in thinking which the desert fathers were unwilling to undergo. I know that these desert fathers are revered as holy men in most Christian traditions, but that is because they epitomize the mindset of religious self-denial that naturally accompanies a mindset of absolute truth. The point is that it is a fundamental contradiction to claim that the name of God is a universal name in Teacher thought that rules over all of society and then follow God by turning one’s back on society. God cannot simultaneously be the ruler of everything in Teacher thought and the ruler of nothing. What becomes deified is not God in Teacher thought but rather the personal attitude of religious self-denial.
Verse 5 continues with the warning. “But if not, I am coming to you, and I will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you should repent.” Coming means ‘to come, go’ and you’ is explicitly mentioned but not ‘I’. Remove simply means ‘to move’. Lampstand is the same word that was used in verse 1 and this is the only other time it is mentioned in the seven letters. This lampstand is being moved ‘from out of the place of it’. The lampstand represents the light of a certain church. Moving a lampstand from out of its place would indicate that the light of this church is being moved from the place of being a light for Christianity to be a light for something else. This is happening because there is no repentance of ‘thinking differently afterwards’. Putting this together, the desert fathers moved from being an example of Christianity to be an example of mysticism because they were unable to repent from their attitude of withdrawing from society in order to follow God.
This ultimately led to a moving of the light of the church from Byzantium and Orthodox Christianity to Rome and the Catholic Church. Pope Leo I, Bishop of Rome from 440 AD to 461 AD, played a major role in this transition. One primary reason is that he added extensive Server actions to his faith. Wikipedia explains, “From a pastoral perspective, he energized charitable works in a Rome beset by famines, an influx of refugees, and poverty. He further associated the practice of fasting with charity and almsgiving... It was during Leo's papacy that the term ‘Pope’, which previously meant any bishop, came to exclusively mean the Bishop of Rome.” Theologically speaking, “A central idea around which Leo deepens and explains his theology is Christ’s presence in the Church, more specifically in the teaching and preaching of the faith, in the liturgy, in the life of the individual believer and of the organized Church, especially in a council.” Leo’s emphasis upon papal authority introduced major problems later on, but it also moved the lampstand of the early church away from the Orthodox Christianity of Byzantium with its focus upon mysticism and withdrawal from the world to the Catholic Christianity of Rome with its honoring of the name of Christ and its emphasis upon doing good works within society. Historically speaking, even though Constantinople was the largest and richest city in Europe, Byzantine Christianity became a theological backwater. More generally, the lampstand was moved away from the surviving Roman empire of the East to the reborn Western civilization of the West. The common perception is that the Roman Empire fell when Rome was conquered by barbarians in the fifth century. However, the Roman Empire actually lasted until the 15th century when Constantinople was conquered by the Ottomans.
Verse 6 mentions a positive point. “But you have this, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” Work means self-initiated action. Thus, the focus is upon Nicolaitan behavior rather than doctrine. Hate means ‘to renounce one choice in favor of another’ and is mentioned twice. This is the only mention of hate in the seven letters. Nicolaitan is only mentioned in this letter and in the letter to Smyrna where ‘some hold the teachings of the Nicolaitans’. The word itself means ‘victorious over the people’. Looking at this cognitively, one is following the wrong goal of attempting to gain personal status within Mercy thought rather than submit to a concept of God in Teacher thought. The Nicoaitans were followers of Nicolaus. Wikipedia quotes several early writers telling similar stories, such as Nicolaus “had an attractive wife, and had refrained from intercourse as though in imitation of those whom he saw to be devoted to God. He endured this for a while but in the end could not bear to control his incontinence.... But because he was ashamed of his defeat and suspected that he had been found out, he ventured to say, ‘Unless one copulates every day, he cannot have eternal life.’” Looking at this cognitively, people are being driven by feelings of religious self-denial to assert that following God in Teacher thought means denying physical desire. They are then being tempted by Teacher feelings of beauty generated by the physical body. Instead of allowing God in Teacher thought to morally guide human feelings of Teacher order and beauty, they are attempting to gain victory over physical desire, failing, and then mentally splitting between God and humanity by asserting that the holiness of God has no bearing upon human physical desire. This is a natural result of mysticism, because a God that transcends human nature can have no moral impact upon human nature. Hating the works of the Nicolaitans would mean not taking this step of divorcing the actions of human hedonism from a verbal faith in God. Looking ahead, the medieval church that Smyrna represents did often allow hedonism to coexist with religious worship.
The Tree of Life 2:7
Verse 7 concludes, “The one having an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” This same precise phrase occurs at the end of each letter. This means that this is generic advice that applies to all ages. ‘Having an ear’ implies that one is capable of using words to formulate theories in Teacher thought. Hear means ‘to comprehend by hearing’ which means that words are being used for rational thought. Spirit is interpreted as the internal world of Platonic forms as opposed to MMNs of culture and identity. And church would refer to those who are attempting to follow God in Teacher thought rather than culture or personal status in Mercy thought. ‘Churches’ is in the plural which suggests that one should not limit oneself to one viewpoint in Teacher thought. Putting this together, if one wants to understand what is happening, one should not focus upon social trends in Mercy thought. Instead, one should focus upon those who are attempting to follow Teacher understanding rather than culture or personal status. And one should examine what they are discovering about the internal needs and desires of society.
For instance, I think that Augustine’s The City of God is an example of ‘hearing what the Spirit says to the churches’ for this first era of Ephesus. Wikipedia explains that “The sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410 left Romans in a deep state of shock, and many Romans saw it as punishment for abandoning traditional Roman religion in favor of Christianity. In response to these accusations, and in order to console Christians, Augustine wrote The City of God as an argument for the truth of Christianity over competing religions and philosophies.” Notice that the sack of the Imperial city of Rome led to an internal crisis for Roman citizens. Wikipedia adds that Augustine approached this from a spiritual perspective. “Despite Christianity's designation as the official religion of the Empire, Augustine declared its message to be spiritual rather than political. Christianity, he argued, should be concerned with the mystical, heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, rather than with earthly politics.” I am not suggesting that Augustine’s formulation was complete. However, he did take the critical step of directing attention away from visible people and visible institutions to the Platonic form of an invisible and the ideal civilization. Unlike the desert fathers, he was not just turning his back upon visible society to pursue a mystical feeling of unity with God prompted by feelings of religious self-denial. Instead he was recognizing that there was a more ideal invisible society that lay behind visible society and he traced the development of this invisible society through the Old Testament.
Verse 7 concludes with a promise. “To the one overcoming, I will give to him to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” Overcoming means ‘to conquer, prevail’ and this same verb is used at the end of each letter. Give simply means ‘to give’. ‘Overcoming’ is in the singular which means that individuals will receive personal rewards for going beyond the stream of society to make some personal breakthrough. Eating is interpreted as consuming intellectual food. Of means ‘from out of’. This is the only mention of a tree in the seven letters. A tree is interpreted as academia with its various branches emerging from the ‘tree of knowledge’. Thus, ‘eating of the tree of life’ would mean developing a system of academia that leads to life.
This relates to the distinction between the ‘tree of the knowledge of good and evil’ and the ‘tree of life’ in the garden of Eden. The underlying problem is that developing a universal understanding in Teacher thought requires a combination of openness in Teacher thought and limitation in Mercy thought. On the Teacher side, one must be willing to look beyond the MMNs of one’s own tribe and culture to search for universal principles that apply to all cultures. On the Mercy side, one must choose to pursue good experiences and avoid painful experiences in order to prevent traumatic MMNs from warping Teacher understanding. Eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil implies that MMNs are based upon both pleasant experiences and traumatic experiences. The Greek and Roman system of gods illustrates where this leads. One will gain some wisdom in Teacher thought but one will not discover universal truth. More specifically, one will not break through to science with its Teacher theories of the universal laws of nature. Science may be incomplete but it is a tree of life in the sense that it continues to develop and grow without reaching a dead-end and it leads to technology that has massively improved the quality of life. Consistent with this, the word life refers to both physical and spiritual life.
One of the primary reasons that Western civilization discovered science is that scholars believed that the universe was created and guided by a God of universal Teacher order and theology who transcended MMNs of human culture and experience. Saying this more simply, those who overcame the Roman fixation upon idolatry and personal might in Mercy thought became mentally capable of eating from an intellectual tree of life. In the words of Wikipedia, “Not only did the monks save and cultivate the remnants of ancient civilization during the barbarian invasions, but the medieval church promoted learnings and science through its sponsorship of many universities which, under its leadership, grew rapidly in Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. St. Thomas Aquinas, the Church’s ‘model theologian’, not only argued that reason is in harmony with faith, he even recognized that reason can contribute to understanding revelation, and so encouraged intellectual development... Some of today’s scholars, such as Stanley Jaki, have claimed that Christianity with its particular worldview, was a crucial factor for the emergence of modern science. According to professor Noah J Efron, virtually all modern scholars and historians agree that Christianity moved many early-modern intellectuals to study nature systematically.” It should be added that much of Christianity turned its back upon rational thought in the 19th century, but we are looking at here at setting the historical foundation for the birth of science.
Verse 7 says that the tree of life is ‘in the paradise of God’. ‘Is’ is explicitly mentioned which means that one is dealing with the realm of being. Paradise ‘comes from an ancient Persian word meaning ‘enclosure, garden, park’. It is mentioned two other times in the New Testament, in Luke 23 where Jesus says that the thief who was crucified with him will be with him in paradise and in 2 Corinthians 12 where Paul talks about being caught up into paradise. The Greek refers to ‘the paradise of the God’, which is precisely what has just been discussed. On the one hand, one is focusing in Teacher thought upon ‘the God’ who rules universally over all cultures and experiences. On the other hand, one is remaining in Mercy thought within the enclosure of a garden of pleasant Mercy experiences. This combination existed, for instance, in more moderate monasterial orders such as the Benedictines, which combined thinking about God in Teacher thought with living a moral life in Mercy thought. In contrast, the Greek and Roman mindset was ruled by athey plethora of gods who fully participated in the human savagery outside of ‘the paradise of the God’.
Smyrna 2:8-11
The second letter to the church of Smyrna is interpreted prophetically as the medieval age. This letter opens with the same phrase as the first letter, referring to Smyrna instead of Ephesus. Smyrna is mentioned twice in the New Testament and means ‘myrrh’. Wikipedia explains that “Myrrh resin has been used throughout history in medicine, perfumery, and incenses. Myrrh mixed with posca or wine was widely used in many ancient cultures to produce pleasurable feelings and as an anti-inflammatory and analgesic.” Wikipedia also explains how myrrh is produced. “When a wound on a tree penetrates through the bark and into the sapwood, the tree secretes a resin. Myrrh gum, like frankincense, is such a resin. Myrrh is harvested by repeatedly wounding the trees to bleed the gum, which is waxy and coagulates quickly.” Looking at this symbolically, perfumery and incense use smell to trigger mental networks which are composed of emotional memories. Pleasurable feelings describe positive emotions while analgesic minimizes negative emotions. This is coming from a tree, which represents academic learning. This suggests that academic learning is focusing upon emotional effects and not necessarily upon rigorous thinking. Repeatedly wounding the tree implies that scholars and institutions are functioning within a system of personal pain and personal self-denial.
This combination can be seen in medieval scholarship. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Monasteries had a deep effect on local society, acting as land trusts for powerful families and centres of political authority; they were the main (and sometimes only) outposts of education and literacy in a region. Many surviving manuscripts of the Latin classics were copied by monks. Monks were also the authors of new works on history, theology, and other subjects.” A primary purpose of a monastery is to provide an environment of personal self-denial. In the Middle Ages, most education and literacy occurred within monasteries. Wikipedia also describes the type of literature that was being written. “Theological works were the dominant form of literature typically found in libraries during the Middle Ages. Catholic clerics were the intellectual center of society in the Middle Ages, and it is their literature that was produced in the greatest quantity... Hagiographies, or ‘lives of the saints’, were also frequently written, as an encouragement to the devout and a warning to others. The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine reached such popularity that, in its time, it was reportedly read more often than the Bible. Francis of Assisi was a prolific poet, and his Franciscan followers frequently wrote poetry themselves as an expression of their piety.” Notice the focus upon emotions as well as a desire to promote religious piety by using literature to trigger the appropriate mental networks.
Stated simply, Smyrna is an appropriate label for the Middle Ages.
Verse 8 continues, “These things says the First and the Last, who became dead and came to life.” Says is the normal word for speech. First was used earlier and means ‘first, foremost’. Last means ‘end, last’. These two words are linked by an ‘and’ which implies that they are simultaneously true. This combination applies to the medieval Catholic Church. On the one hand, it was the last surviving institution of the Roman Empire. On the other hand, it became the first and dominant institution of medieval society. Wikipedia explains, “After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, there emerged no single powerful secular government in the West. There was however a central ecclesiastical power in Rome, the Catholic Church. In this power vacuum, the church rose to become the dominant power in the West.” Thus, the medieval church was the first. Wikipedia describes the role played by by the Emperor Justinian in this transition. “During the 6th century, Roman Emperor Justinian I launched a military campaign in Constantinople to reclaim the western provinces from the Germans, starting with North Africa and proceeding to Italy. Though he was temporarily successful in recapturing much of the western Mediterranean he destroyed the urban centers and permanently ruined the economies in much of the West. Rome and other cities were abandoned. In the coming centuries the Western Church, as virtually the only surviving Roman institution in the West, became the only remaining link to Greek culture and civilization.” Thus, the medieval church was also the last.
Became means to ‘come into being’. Dead means ‘a corpse, a dead body’. Life refers to both physical and spiritual life. Death is not normally described as something that comes into being. But this describes the death of the Western Roman Empire. It did not die in a single event but gradually ceased to exist as a functioning body. Wikipedia summarizes. “In 376, a large migration of Goths and other non-Roman people, fleeing from the Huns, entered the Empire. Roman forces were unable to exterminate, expel or subjugate them... By 476, the position of Western Roman Emperor wielded negligible military, political, or financial power, and had no effective control over the scattered Western domains that could still be described as Roman... While its legitimacy lasted for centuries longer and its cultural influence remains today, the Western Empire never had the strength to rise again.” The role played by Justinian in the death of Rome was mentioned earlier. Quoting from Wikipedia, “In 554, Justinian promulgated a pragmatic sanction that prescribed Italy’s new government. Several cities in northern Italy held out against the Byzantines until 562. By the end of the war, Italy had been devastated and depopulated. It was seen as a pyrrhic victory for the Byzantines.” Thus, the Roman Empire took at least two centuries to turn from a functioning Empire into a lifeless corpse.
The life can be seen in the rules of St. Benedict, written in about 530 by St. Benedict. Wikipedia describes the spread and lasting significance of these rules. “The Rule of Saint Benedict has been used by Benedictines for 15 centuries, and thus St. Benedict is sometimes regarded as the founder of Western monasticism due to the reforming influence that his rules had on the then-current Catholic hierarchy.” More generally, “Charlemagne had Benedict’s Rule copied and distributed to encourage monks throughout western Europe to follow it as a standard. Beyond its religious influences, the Rule of St Benedict was one of the most important written works to shape medieval Europe, embodying the ideas of a written constitution and the rule of law.”
Verse 9 describes the social and economic conditions. “I know your tribulation and poverty—but you are rich.” Know means ‘seeing that becomes knowing’ which is interpreted as empirical evidence. Thus, verse 9 is describing physical conditions that can be visually observed. Tribulation means ‘a narrow place that hems someone in’, ‘feeling there is no way of escape’. Poverty means ‘to be a begger, be destitute’. Both of these terms apply to the early Middle Ages. The breakdown of central government caused peoples’ worlds to become physically narrow and hemmed in. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The pax Romana had provided safe conditions for trade and manufacture, and a unified cultural and educational milieu of far-ranging connections... The gradual breakdown and transformation of economic and social linkages and infrastructure resulted in increasingly localized outlooks. This breakdown was often fast and dramatic as it became unsafe to travel or carry goods over any distance; there was a consequent collapse in trade and manufacture for export.” This is different than the typical tribe that has no knowledge of the external world and thus does not feel hemmed in. In contrast, people in the early Middle Ages knew about the wider world and were consciously aware of their world becoming much narrower. Wikipedia describes the state of poverty to which the city of Rome was reduced. “Around 100 AD, it had a population of about 450,000, and declined to a mere 20,000 during the Early Middle Ages, reducing the sprawling city to groups of inhabited buildings interspersed among large areas of ruins and vegetation.”
These two terms apply even more to the monastic environment. A monastery deliberately created an environment of being hemmed in with no way of escape. Worldhistory describes this narrowness. “Silence was a method to remind monks they were living in an enclosed society quite different from the outside world. Monks were generally not allowed to speak at all in such places as the church, kitchen, refectory or dormitories... Monks were further restricted in that they could only talk to each other as speaking at all to lay brothers and novices was not permitted, not to mention to outside visitors of any kind... Monks were not usually permitted to leave the monastery unless they had some special reason and were permitted to do so by their abbot... For most monks, though, their daily life was entirely contained within the grounds of the monastery they had joined as a novice and which they would one day die in.” The poverty is also described. “Made from the cheapest and roughest of cloth, a monk usually had no more than two of each clothing items but he did receive a new cowl and robe each Christmas... A monk did not own very much of significance besides his clothes. He might have a pen, a knife, handkerchief, comb and a small sewing kit. Razors were only distributed at a prescribed time. In their own room, a monk had a straw- or feather mattress and a few woollen blankets.”
Rich means ‘fully resourced, rich’ and ‘am’ is explicitly mentioned, indicating richness at the level of being. This paradoxical richness of the early Middle Ages is illustrated by the fact that this period of history is no longer referred to as the Dark Ages but rather as the early Middle Ages. Wikipedia summarizes, “The days when archaeologists and historians referred to the fifth to the tenth centuries as the ‘Dark Ages’ are long gone, and the material culture produced during that period demonstrates a high degree of sophistication.” Looking specifically at the Benedictine monasteries, Wikipedia summarizes, “The early Middle Ages have been called ‘the Benedictine centuries.’ In April 2008, Pope Benedict XVI discussed the influence St Benedict had on Western Europe. The pope said that ‘with his life and work St Benedict exercised a fundamental influence on the development of European civilization and culture’ and helped Europe to emerge from the ‘dark night of history’ that followed the fall of the Roman empire.” Thus, the same monasteries that provided narrowness and poverty for monks within an age of narrowness and poverty also laid the foundations for the richness of European civilization and culture.
Papal Persecution 2:9-10
Verse 9 describes further empirical knowing. “And the blasphemy of those claiming themselves to be Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” Blasphemy means ‘slow to call something good that really is good’. Claiming is the normal word for speech. ‘Be’ is explicitly mentioned, ‘as is themselves’. Thus, there is a contrast between the richness of being of one group and the verbal claims of being made by another group. The word Jew means ‘praised’ and is interpreted as a form of religion that focuses upon praising God and being praised by people. ‘Are not’ explicitly repeats the verb ‘to be’ indicating that this verbal claim of personal character is invalid. Synagogue means a ‘bringing together, an assembly’, which would refer to some sort of religious or academic group that functions as an assembly. Satan means ‘adversary’ and will be mentioned four more times in the seven letters.
‘Claiming themselves to be Jews’ would refer to the Catholic Church. There was some truth to this claim of ‘being Jews’ in the early Middle Ages but a conflict of interest arose in 756 when the Catholic Church was given the Papal States. Wikipedia explains, “The land given to pope Stephen in 756, in the so-called Donation of Pepin, made the papacy a temporal power and for the first time created an incentive for secular leaders to interfere with papal succession. This territory would become the basis for the Papal States, over which the popes ruled until the Papal States were incorporated into the new Kingdom of Italy in 1870.” This donation put the Catholic Church into a conflict of interest because it claimed to be worshiping and following God but have actually become a secular power like any other ruler. This entanglement became blatant during the rise of the Theophylacti. Wikipedia explains, “The counts of Tusculum, also known as the Theophylacti, were a family of secular noblemen from Latium that maintained a powerful position in Rome between the 10th and 12th centuries. Several popes and antipopes during the 11th century came from their ranks. They created and perfected the political formula of noble-papacy, wherein the pope was arranged to be elected only from the ranks of the Roman nobles.” Notice how church leaders during this period claimed to be worshiping God but were in fact secular leaders who were blaspheming the nature of the church.
Wikipedia adds that the popes of this era were not all corrupt. “It would be misleading to portray all, or even most, of the popes of the era as worldly and corrupt. Surviving documents make it clear that many were competent administrators, and skilful diplomats in difficult and dangerous times. Some were even reformers, keen to root out discreditable practices such as simony... Rather, it is the manner of the election of many of them and their symbiotic relationship with the Roman aristocracy that has earned their regime the designation pornocracy.” Notice that verse 9 does not describe these leaders as corrupt but rather as blasphemers, and bringing the TMNs of Christianity down to the level of MMNs of secular power qualifies as blasphemy, even if one does so in a competent manner.
The term ‘synagogue of Satan’ is also an accurate description of the papacy during this period. Wikipedia reports that “Historian Will Durant refers to the period from 867 to 1049 as the ‘nadir of the papacy’.” Wikipedia elaborates that “The assassination of Pope John VIII [in 882] inaugurated a period marked by brief pontificates, in which as many as twelve popes were killed, sometimes after resignation, three more deposed, and two abdicated—a period known to historians as the ‘pornocracy’ (Greek for ‘rule of the harlots’) or ‘saeculum obscurum’ (Latin for ‘dark age’). The papacy during this time was functioning as a synagogue because people were assembling together and operating as an organization but when 12 Popes are killed and three more deposed, then this can accurately be described as an ‘adversarial’ synagogue.
The adversarial nature of the medieval Catholic Church can also be seen in the Crusades. Wikipedia explains that “The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Christian Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these military expeditions are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291.” In other words, those who claimed to be worshiping God and who demanded worship as representatives of God were initiating, supporting, and directing two centuries of adversarial warfare. Wikipedia adds more details, “Pope Urban II launched the First Crusade in 1095 when he received an appeal from Byzantine emperor Alexius I to help ward off a Turkish invasion. Urban further believed that a Crusade might help bring about reconciliation with Eastern Christianity. Fueled by reports of Muslim atrocities against Christians, the series of military campaigns known as the Crusades began in 1096. They were intended to return the Holy Land to Christian control. The goal was not permanently realized, and episodes of brutality committed by the armies of both sides left a legacy of mutual distrust between Muslims and Western and Eastern Christians. The sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade left Eastern Christians embittered, despite the fact that Pope Innocent III had expressly forbidden any such attack.” Notice all the adversarialism: a Turkish invasion is being warded off, people are being motivated by reports of Muslim atrocities, there is a series of military campaigns, episodes of brutality are being committed, there is a legacy of mutual distrust, and capital cities of supposed allies are being sacked.
However, at the same time there was a focus upon the ‘Jews’ of religious praise, exemplified by the Cluniac movement. In the words of Wikipedia, “During its height (c. 950–c.1130), the Cluniac movement was one of the largest religious forces in Europe. At least as significantly as their political consequences, the reforms demanded greater religious devotion. The Cluniacs supported the Peace of God, and promoted pilgrimages to the Holy Lands. An increasingly rich liturgy stimulated demand for altar vessels of gold, fine tapestries and fabrics, stained glass, and polyphonic choral music to fill the Romanesque churches.” Notice the emphasis upon religious praise: vessels of gold, fine tapestries, stained glass, polyphonic music, and religious devotion.
Verse 10 warns about persecution. “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison.” Fear means ‘to put to flight, to terrify’. Suffer means ‘to feel heavy emotion, especially suffering’. Behold means ‘look, behold’ which suggests that something new and unexpected is appearing. Devil means ‘a slanderer; a false accuser’ and is mentioned once in the seven letters. Cast means ‘to throw, cast’ and is interpreted as moving through the ‘air’ of Teacher theory. Some of is actually ‘from out of’ and into means ‘motion into’. Prison means ‘a watching, keeping guard’. Putting this together, people are going to experience strong emotion and suffering because of something new. Slander and false accusations will be used to theoretically take individuals out of the normal group and place them into a special state of being watched and observed.
This describes the Inquisition. Wikipedia summarizes, “The Medieval Inquisition is a series of inquisitions from around 1184, including the Episcopal Inquisition (1184–1230s) and later the Papal Inquisition (1230s). It was in response to movements within Europe considered apostate or heretical to Western Catholicism, in particular the Cathars and the Waldensians in southern France and northern Italy. These were the first inquisition movements of many that would follow.” Notice that certain groups are being ‘cast out’ of Christendom and are being regarded as heretics. ‘The devil’ is in the singular and is preceded by ‘the’, which implies that this is slander is coming from a single unified source. This describes the Inquisition which was coordinated by the central authority of the Catholic Church.
The Cathars were a heretical group mainly in the South of France who believed that the ‘good God’ had created the spiritual world while the ‘evil God’ had created the materialistic world. Wikipedia relates, “The Albigensian Crusade resulted in the defeat of the Cathars militarily. After this, the Inquisition played an important role in finally destroying Catharism during the 13th and much of the 14th centuries. Punishments for Cathars varied greatly. Most frequently, they were made to wear yellow crosses atop their garments as a sign of outward penance. Others undertook obligatory pilgrimages, many for the purpose of fighting against Muslims. Another common punishment, including for returned pilgrims, was visiting a local church naked once each month to be scourged.” Notice that Cathars are being cast into a special social group that is being watched and punished by the church leadership. Wikipedia adds that this was a new use of the Inquisition: “An inquisition was a process that developed to investigate alleged instances of crimes. Its use in ecclesiastical courts was not at first directed to matters of heresy, but a broad assortment of offenses such as clandestine marriage and bigamy.” In other words, inquisitions had been used previously to deal with moral offenses, but they begin to be used in a new way to address the supposed heresy of some group. The Cathars committed the heresy of taking the mindset of religious self-denial to its logical conclusion; they committed the sin of explicitly saying what everyone felt.
The Waldensians, in contrast, were not heretical, but rather committed the ‘crime’ of following the Bible rather than the Pope. Wikipedia explains, “Waldensian teachings came into conflict with the Catholic Church and by 1215 the Waldensians were declared heretical, not because they preached apostolic poverty, which the Franciscans also preached, but because they were not willing to recognize the prerogatives of local bishops over the content of their preaching, nor to recognize standards about who was fit to preach.” More specifically, “The Waldensian movement was characterized from the beginning by lay preaching, voluntary poverty, and strict adherence to the Bible.” When told by the Pope to stop preaching, they “continued to preach according to their own understanding of the Scriptures. In 1184, Waldo and his followers were excommunicated and forced from Lyon. The Catholic Church declared them heretics, stating that the group’s principal error was contempt for ecclesiastical power. Rome also accused the Waldensians of teaching innumerable errors.”
Saying this is clearly as possible, both the Franciscans and the Waldensians went to the Pope at about the same time to get official approval. The Franciscans were officially accepted because they obeyed the Pope while the Waldensians were officially rejected because they obeyed the Bible. In the words of Wikipedia, “In spite of some similarities between this principle and some of the fundamental ideas of the followers of Peter Waldo, the brotherhood of Assisi succeeded in gaining the approval of Pope Innocent III. What seems to have impressed first the Bishop of Assisi, Guido, then Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo and finally Innocent himself, was their utter loyalty to the Catholic Church and the clergy.” This type of rejection by the Pope and the church qualifies as devilish, because those who honor and submit to the word of God are being officially slandered and falsely accused while those who are utterly loyal to the Catholic Church are being officially exalted.
Verse 10 continues, “So that you might be tested; and you shall have tribulation ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give to you the crown of life.” The word tested actually means ‘to tempt’. The goal of temptation is failure but it is possible to benefit from temptation by not succumbing. Tribulation was used in verse 9 and refers to ‘a narrow place that hems someone in’. In verse 9, medieval society was feeling hemmed in and monks were submitting to an environment of being hemmed in. In verse 10 a group of people is being involuntarily hemmed in by ‘the devil’. I am not sure what ‘ten days’ represents and I have tried to avoid focusing upon numbers. ‘Ten’ does seem to indicate completion and the Inquisition went through several stages before groups of individuals successfully rebelled from the Catholic Church in the Protestant Reformation.
Be means ‘to come into being’. Faithful means to ‘be persuaded’. Until means ‘until, as far as’. And death means ‘death’. Putting this together, the primary goal of the Inquisition was to overcome the convictions of individual believers so that they would submit to the domination of the Pope and the church. ‘Being persuaded’ implies using rational thought. Becoming faithful implies that developing rational thought is a process and does not happen instantly. ‘Until death’ implies that the almighty Church is not going to be convinced by rational thought. Instead, one either continues to pursue rational thought until being physically killed, or one continues to pursue rational thought until MMNs of respect for religious authority mentally die. Wikipedia describes the mental dying of MMNs of religious respect that happened within the minds of Waldensians. “They also rejected a number of concepts that were widely held in Christian Europe of the era. For example, the Waldensians held that temporal offices and dignities were not meant for preachers of the Gospel; that relics were no different from any other bones and should not be regarded as special or holy; that pilgrimage served only to spend one’s money; that meat might be eaten any day if one’s appetite served one; that holy water was no more efficacious than rain water; and that prayer was just as effectual if offered in a church or a barn. They were accused, moreover, of speaking blasphemously of the Catholic Church as the harlot of the Apocalypse. They rejected what they perceived as the idolatry of the Catholic Church and considered the papacy as the Antichrist of Rome.” In other words, the Waldensians recognized the conflict of interest that had infected the Church through the papal states and they rejected the Catholic idea that holy people, holy locations, and holy rituals should be given special emotional status in Mercy thought. And I think that one can accurately conclude that the Catholic Church was acting at that time as a harlot and the pope as an antichrist—though not the harlot and the antichrist of Revelation.
Verse 10 ends with a promise: and ‘I will give to you the crown of life’. This is a personal honor as opposed to feeding intellectually upon some corporate tree mentioned in verse 7. This describes the academic environment of the Middle Ages in which a few great scholars attracted students and followers, leading to the establishment of universities. These universities were not based upon a ‘tree of knowledge’ but rather upon esteemed scholars who were given a crown of knowledge. Wikipedia explains, “It was also characteristic of teachers and scholars to move around. Universities often competed to secure the best and most popular teachers, leading to the marketisation of teaching. Universities published their list of scholars to entice students to study at their institution.” Wikipedia mentions the scholastic focus upon studying ‘crowned’ experts, guided by living experts who have also become ‘crowned’ by history. “Scholasticism was initially a program conducted by medieval Christian thinkers attempting to harmonize the various authorities of their own tradition, and to reconcile Christian theology with classical and late antiquity philosophy, especially that of Aristotle but also of Neoplatonism. The Scholastics... included as its main figures Anselm of Canterbury (‘the father of scholasticism’), Peter Abelard, Alexander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham, Bonaventure, and Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas’s masterwork Summa Theologica (1265–1274) is considered to be the pinnacle of scholastic, medieval, and Christian philosophy.”
These medieval universities were a source of life in the sense that they had a lasting and living legacy. In the words of Wikipedia, “Copernicus, Galileo, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and Newton were all extraordinary products of the apparently Procrustean and allegedly Scholastic universities of Europe... Sociological and historical accounts of the role of the university as an institutional locus for science and as an incubator of scientific thought and arguments have been vastly understated.”
Verse 11 begins with the same sentence that is in all the letters. “The one having an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” I think that a key spiritual struggle of this era was a desire to become free of the hypocrisy of those who claimed to follow God and the Word of God in Teacher thought while fixating upon and demanding honor and obedience in Mercy thought. This can be seen specifically in the mindset of Thomas Aquinas. Wikipedia summarizes, “Thomas Aquinas held and practiced the principle that truth is to be accepted no matter where it is found. His doctrines drew from Greek, Roman, Islamic and Jewish philosophers.” Mental symmetry is guided by a similar pursuit of universal truth, while recognizing that Perceiver thought can become confused or overwhelmed through various predictable cognitive mechanisms.
The letter to Smyrna finishes, “The one overcoming shall not be injured by the second death.” Overcome means to ‘conquer, prevail’. Injured comes from the word ‘unrighteousness’ and is used once in the seven letters. Righteousness is defined as Server actions that are emotionally guided by a general theory in Teacher thought. For instance, the basic premise of science is that the Server sequences of natural processes are guided by the general laws in Teacher thought. ‘Injured’ would mean being moved away from this mindset. Second death is simply ‘second death’. And by is ‘from out of’.
The letter to Smyrna began in verse 8 by talking about becoming dead and coming to life. This referred to the fall of the Roman Empire and the rise of Western Christendom. The Middle Ages ended with a series of disasters that were civilization threatening, which historians refer to as the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The crisis of the Middle Ages was a series of events in the 14th and 15th centuries that ended centuries of European stability during the late Middle Ages... The Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death of 1347–1351 potentially reduced the European population by half or more as the Medieval Warm Period came to a close and the first century of the Little Ice Age began... Popular revolts in late medieval Europe and civil wars between nobles such as the English Wars of the Roses were common, with France fighting internally nine times. There were also international conflicts between kingdoms such as France and England in the Hundred Years’ War. The unity of the Catholic Church was shattered by the Western Schism. The Holy Roman Empire was also in decline.” Summarizing, there was a great famine, a great plague, a great war that actually lasted 116 years, and a great religious split. I think that qualifies as a ‘second death’.
Many groups were ‘injured’ in the sense of behaving in a way that rebelled from order and structure in Teacher thought. Wikipedia describes the political rebellion. “Popular revolts in late medieval Europe were uprisings and rebellions by peasants in the countryside, or the burgess in towns, against nobles, abbots and kings during the upheavals between 1300 and 1500, part of a larger ‘Crisis of the Late Middle Ages’. Although sometimes known as ‘peasant revolts’, the phenomenon of popular uprisings was of broad scope and not just restricted to peasants.” This was primarily a rebellion against the medieval order of society. Wikipedia explains, “Most of the revolts expressed the desire of those below to share in the wealth, status, and well-being of those more fortunate. In the end, they were almost always defeated by the nobles. A new attitude emerged in Europe, that ‘peasant’ was a pejorative concept, it was something separate, and seen in a negative light, from those who had wealth and status. This was an entirely new social stratification from earlier times when society had been based on the three orders, those who work, those who pray, and those who fight, when being a peasant meant being next to God, just like the other orders.” Notice how the existing medieval Teacher order of three different societal groups each playing their role in society is being replaced by a new stratification in which those with status and power in Mercy thought impose their will upon peasants who lack Mercy status.
The Black Death also led to a breakdown of religious and cultural order. Wikipedia describes, “The Black Death hit the monasteries very hard because of their proximity with the sick who sought refuge there. That left a severe shortage of clergy after the epidemic cycle. Eventually, the losses were replaced by hasty and inexperienced clergy members, many of whom knew little of the rigours of their predecessors... Flagellants practiced self-flogging (whipping of oneself) to atone for sins. The movement became popular after the Black Death... The Black Death had profound effects on art and literature. After 1350, European culture in general turned very morbid. The general mood was one of pessimism, and contemporary art turned dark with representations of death. The widespread image of the ‘dance of death’ showed death (a skeleton) choosing victims at random.” Summarizing, the Teacher order of monasteries broke down because of all the monks that died. People became driven by painful MMNs to whip themselves while culture in general turned away from focusing upon the order of God in Teacher thought to the painful experiences of humanity in Mercy thought.
However, this time of crisis was also an era of great intellectual development. In the words of Wikipedia, “Despite the crises, the 14th century was also a time of great progress in the arts and sciences. Following a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman texts that took root in the High Middle Ages, the Italian Renaissance began.” Another Wikipedia article adds that “It was during this period of instability that authors such as Dante and Petrarch lived, and the first stirrings of Renaissance art were to be seen, notably in the realism of Giotto. Paradoxically, some of these disasters would help establish the Renaissance.” That brings us to the third letter to the church in Pergamum, which corresponds historically to the Renaissance.
Pergamum 2:12-17
The letter begins with the standard phrase, “And to the messenger of the church in Pergamum write:” Pergamum comes from a word that means ‘tower’ or ‘fortified’. Another source gives the meaning of ‘height or elevation’. This applies to the Renaissance with its development of ‘fortified towers’ of learning that focused upon the ‘elevated heights’ of order and beauty.
Verse 12 continues, “These things says the One having the sharp two-edged sword.” Sword is ‘a long, broad sword that both cuts and pierces’. Two-edged literally means ‘two-mouthed’. Sharp means ‘sharp, swift’. These same three terms were used in 1:16 to describe the sword coming out of the mouth of the Son of Man. Two-edged sword is used one other time in Hebrews 4:12 which describes the Word of God as sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit. Putting this together, sharp verbal distinctions are being made that cut deeply into existing mental networks.
Wikipedia describes this kind of intellectual cutting and clarifying. “The discovery in 1492 of the New World by Christopher Columbus challenged the classical worldview. The works of Ptolemy (in geography) and Galen (in medicine) were found to not always match everyday observations. As the Reformation and Counter-Reformation clashed, the Northern Renaissance showed a decisive shift in focus from Aristotelean natural philosophy to chemistry and the biological sciences (botany, anatomy, and medicine). The willingness to question previously held truths and search for new answers resulted in a period of major scientific advancements.”
Verse 13 describes the social and religious environment. “I know where you dwell, where the throne of Satan is; and you hold fast to My name, and you have not denied My faith.” Know refers to empirical evidence. Dwell means ‘to settle down as a permanent resident’. ‘Where’ is repeated twice. Throne means ‘throne, seat’ and the only other reference in the seven letters is at the end of the final letter in 3:21 which refers to the throne of God and the throne of the Son of Man. Satan means ‘adversary’. Verse 9 referred to a synagogue of Satan. Verse 13 opens by referring to the throne of Satan and will finish by referring to where Satan dwells. Putting this together, the Renaissance is happening within an environment that is ruled by an adversarial mindset.
Wikipedia describes the Renaissance dwelling within an adversarial Catholic environment. “The great transformation began under Pope Nicholas V, who became pontiff in 1447... As the papacy fell under the control of wealthy families, such as the Medici and the Borgias, the spirit of Renaissance art and philosophy came to dominate the Vatican. Pope Sixtus IV continued Nicholas’ work, most famously ordering the construction of the Sistine Chapel. The popes also became increasingly secular rulers as the Papal States were forged into a centralized power by a series of ‘warrior popes’... The nature of the Renaissance also changed in the late 15th century. The Renaissance ideal was fully adopted by the ruling classes and the aristocracy. In the early Renaissance artists were seen as craftsmen with little prestige or recognition. By the later Renaissance, the top figures wielded great influence and could charge great fees.” Notice how Renaissance artists are becoming members of a religious elite of ‘warrior popes’ who are ruling over the papal states.
Wikipedia adds that the early Renaissance was primarily a theoretical Renaissance limited to Italy. “The Renaissance was not a period of great social or economic change, only of cultural and ideological development. It only touched a small fraction of the population... The Renaissance is a difficult concept for historians because the history of Europe quite suddenly turns into a history of Italian painting, sculpture and architecture.” This is consistent with the concept of a verbal two-aged sword as well as dwelling in the throne of Satan. Italy during this time was also characterized by political adversarialism. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The Italian Renaissance peaked in the mid-16th century as domestic disputes and foreign invasions plunged the region into the turmoil of the Italian Wars (1494–1559).”
Hold fast means ‘to place under one’s grasp’. Name refers to a personal label in Teacher thought. ‘Holding fast to my name’ would mean holding on to the general Teacher paradigm of technical thought; insisting that technical thought needs to be used to analyze topics. Faith means to ‘be persuaded’. Thus, ‘my faith’ would refer to using technical thought in a manner that emphasizes rational thinking. One might think that the technical thinking of incarnation automatically goes together with the rational persuasion of faith, but these two were not combined in scholasticism. Instead, scholasticism combined technical analysis with blind faith in established texts. The Renaissance changed this mindset. Wikipedia explains this transition, “In some ways, Renaissance humanism was not a philosophy but a method of learning. In contrast to the medieval scholastic mode, which focused on resolving contradictions between authors, Renaissance humanists would study ancient texts in their original languages and appraise them through a combination of reasoning and empirical evidence.”
Deny means ‘to deny, say no’. ‘Not denying my faith’ would mean continuing to pursue technical thought in a rational manner despite being in an environment that does not do so. The Renaissance insistence upon rational technical thinking can be seen in several areas. It led in art to the development of perspective. Wikipedia explains, “One of the distinguishing features of Renaissance art was its development of highly realistic linear perspective... The development of perspective was part of a wider trend toward realism in the arts. Painters developed other techniques, studying light, shadow, and, famously in the case of Leonardo da Vinci, human anatomy. Underlying these changes in artistic method was a renewed desire to depict the beauty of nature and to unravel the axioms of aesthetics.” There were also major technical developments in architecture. Quoting from Wikipedia, “With rediscovered knowledge from the 1st-century writer Vitruvius and the flourishing discipline of mathematics, Brunelleschi formulated the Renaissance style that emulated and improved on classical forms. His major feat of engineering was building the dome of Florence Cathedral.” A new scientific method of investigation was developed. “Another important development was in the process for discovery, the scientific method, focusing on empirical evidence and the importance of mathematics, while discarding much of Aristotelian science. Early and influential proponents of these ideas included Copernicus, Galileo, and Francis Bacon. The new scientific method led to great contributions in the fields of astronomy, physics, biology, and anatomy.” Renaissance music also made a transition from traditional constraints to more rational and technical guidelines. “Music was increasingly freed from medieval constraints, and more variety was permitted in range, rhythm, harmony, form, and notation. On the other hand, rules of counterpoint became more constrained, particularly with regard to treatment of dissonances.”
Verse 13 finishes by referring to persecution. “Even in the days of Antipas My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.” Day means ‘the period from sunrise to sunset’ which would refer a period during which society is illuminated by the ‘sun’ of some general understandings. ‘Days’ implies several cycles of society. Antipas is only mentioned once in the New Testament and combines ‘over against, opposite’ with ‘father’. References to men and women are interpreted as male and female thought. Thus, an anti-father would be an alternative source for male technical thought. This describes the Reformation. Wikipedia summarizes, “The Reformation... was a major theological movement or period or series of events in Western Christianity in 16th-century Northwestern Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the papacy and the authority of the Catholic Church.” Notice that the role of the Catholic Church as the ‘father’ of theology is being challenged.
Wikipedia describes the prevailing ‘father’ role played by the Catholic Church. “The institutional church was the reliable religious authority, through its bishops and priests, transmitting without error both apostolic tradition and the Bible, as interpreted by the decisions of ecumenical councils and by papal authority, through the mechanism of the sacraments and liturgy.” Martin Luther replaced the authority of the church with the authority of the Bible. In the words of Wikipedia, “Lutheranism advocates a doctrine of justification ‘by Grace alone through faith alone on the basis of Scripture alone’, the doctrine that scripture is the final authority on all matters of faith. This contrasts with the belief of the Roman Catholic Church, defined at the Council of Trent, which contends that final authority comes from both Scripture and tradition.”
Witness means ‘an eye- or ear-witness’ and is the source of the English word ‘martyr’. Looking specifically at Martin Luther’s doctrine of ‘justification by faith’, Wikipedia relates that “It is uncertain when Luther’s concept of justification by faith alone—a central element of his theology—crystallised. He would later attribute it to his ‘tower experience’ when he comprehended that God could freely declare even sinners righteous while he was thinking about the words of Paul the Apostle (d. 64 or 65)—‘the just shall live by faith’.” Thus, Luther based his reasoning in personal experience that resulted from treating the Bible as authoritative.
Kill combines ‘away from’ with ‘to slay’. Among means ‘in the presence of’ when followed by the dative. Dwell is the same word used at the beginning of verse 13 to describe ‘where you dwell’. This goes beyond an adversarial throne to an adversarial dwelling place. This extension can be seen in the martyrdom of Jan Hus, a Protestant reformer who lived a century before Martin Luther. Wikipedia relates, “Alexander V issued a Papal bull that excommunicated Hus; however, it was not enforced, and Hus continued to preach... When the Council of Constance assembled, Hus was asked to be there and present his views on the dissension within the Church. When he arrived, with a promise of safe-conduct, he was arrested and put in prison. He was eventually taken in front of the council and asked to recant his views. He refused. On 6 July 1415, he was burned at the stake for heresy against the teachings of the Catholic Church.” This is a Satanic throne, because religious authority is being used to attack adversaries. It is also an example of not denying rational thought in the face of an adversary that has no place for rational thought, because Hus was willing to discuss theology rationally while his adversaries ignored their promises and try to force him to abandon rational thought. It is also an example of ‘witness’ in the sense of being physically martyred. And it also led to dwelling within an adversarial system for the followers of Hus. Quoting from Wikipedia, “After Hus was executed, the followers of his religious teachings (known as Hussites) refused to elect another Catholic monarch and defeated five consecutive papal crusades between 1420 and 1431 in what became known as the Hussite Wars. Both the Bohemian and the Moravian populations remained majority Hussite until the 1620s, when a Protestant defeat in the Battle of the White Mountain resulted in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown coming under Habsburg dominion for the next 300 years and being subject to immediate and forced conversion in an intense campaign of return to Catholicism.” The Catholic church sent five military crusades against Hussite believers and when they finally defeated the Hussites they subjected the region two centuries of forced conversion. That definitely qualifies as living within satanism. More generally, the Protestant Reformation was followed by a series of wars of religion. Looking at the final war, Wikipedia elaborates, “The Thirty Years’ War, from 1618 to 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from the effects of battle, famine, or disease, while parts of Germany reported population declines of over 50%... The war can be seen as a continuation of the religious conflict initiated by the 16th-century Reformation within the Holy Roman Empire.”
The witness of Antipas can also be seen as the survival of early scientific reasoning against the anti-intellectual emphasis of the counter-reformation. Wikipedia explains, “Initiated in part to address the challenges of the Protestant Reformations, the Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort arising from the decrees of the Council of Trent... Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the Church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality. It also involved political activities and used the regional Inquisitions.” Notice that the goal is to suppress the adversary of the Protestants. Notice also the absence of rational technical thought. Instead, Mercy experiences of spiritual life, devotional life, mysticism, and personal relationship are being emphasized as well as MMNs of theological tradition. Wikipedia specifically mentions this focus upon mystical and religious Mercy experiences. “Lindberg suggests that (following Trent) the ‘spirituality of Catholic reform was the ascetic, subjective, and personal piety’, as expressed in public processions, the ‘perpetual’ adoration of the Eucharist, and the reaffirmed veneration of Mary the Virgin and the saints.”
Galileo lived during this era. Wikipedia describes, “Galileo’s career coincided with the reaction of the Catholic Church to the Protestant Reformation, in which the Catholic Church struggled for authority in Europe, following the emergence of the Protestant Churches and nations of Northern Europe. Pope Paul III created the Roman and Universal Inquisition to stop the spread of ‘heretical depravity’ throughout the Christian world. From 1571, the institution had jurisdiction over books and created the Index of Prohibited Books... As Galileo heavily engaged in philosophical and theological discussions, he was met with bitter opposition from some philosophers and clerics, and two of the latter eventually denounced him to the Roman Inquisition early in 1615, warning ‘that Galileo should not go outside mathematics and physics and should avoid provoking theologians by teaching them how to read the Bible’... Galileo was found ‘vehemently suspect of heresy’ for ‘following the position of Copernicus, which is contrary to the true sense and authority of Holy Scripture.’ Galileo was forced to recant, and was sentenced to house arrest, with the sentence being commuted in December 1633.”
The Teaching of Balaam 2:14
Verse 14 focuses upon negative attributes. “But I have a few things against you, because you have some there holding the teaching of Balaam.” Having is mentioned twice, which indicates a focus upon the peripheral realm of ‘having’. Holding means ‘to place under one’s grasp’ and was used in verse 13 to describe ‘holding fast to my name’, which was interpreted as pursuing scientific investigation in a power-hungry environment. Teaching means ‘a summarized body of respected teaching’ and will be repeated in the next verse. Thus, two systems of teaching are being contrasted. Balaam is mentioned three times in the New Testament; the other two times are in 2 Peter 2 and in Jude which both refer to the error of Balaam. Balaam means ‘not of the people’. The story of Baalam is discussed in the essay on 2 Peter. Stated briefly, Balaam is a prophet of God who technically follows the rules in Teacher thought while being driven by inadequate personal MMNs to manipulate the rules of the system. A person becomes emotionally capable of manipulating the system when he become emotionally freed from the mental networks of the system making it emotionally possible for him to manipulate these mental networks as an outsider who is ‘not of the people’.
Machiavelli is an example of Balaam and he wrote his famous volume in 1513. Wikipedia observes, “After his death Machiavelli’s name came to evoke unscrupulous acts of the sort he advised most famously in his work, The Prince. He claimed that his experience and reading of history showed him that politics has always involved deception, treachery, and crime. He advised rulers to do likewise when political necessity requires it, and argued specifically that successful reformers of states should not be blamed for killing other leaders who could block change. Machiavelli’s Prince has been surrounded by controversy since it was published. Some consider it to be a straightforward description of political reality. Others view The Prince as a manual, teaching would-be tyrants how they should seize and maintain power.” Notice how Machiavelli is manipulating the rules of the system in order to pursue immoral aims. Notice also that Machiavelli is not just performing some immoral actions but rather presenting a complete system of Machiavellian teaching. Wikipedia adds that Machiavelli started an entire school of learning. “Machiavelli’s ideas had a profound impact on political leaders throughout the modern west, helped by the new technology of the printing press... The Prince was spoken of highly by Thomas Cromwell in England and had influenced Henry VIII in his turn towards Protestantism... A copy was also possessed by the Catholic king and emperor Charles V.”
Verse 14 continues by describing the sin of Balaam. “Who would teach Balak to cast a snare before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.” Teach means ‘to cause to learn’. Thus, the goal is not just to be a Balaam but rather to teach others how to act as Balaams as well. Balak is mentioned once in the New Testament and was the king of the Moabites who hired Balaam to curse Israel. Balak means ‘devastator’. Cast means ‘to throw, cast’ and is interpreted as moving through the air of Teacher theory. A snare is ‘the trigger of a trap’ and is mentioned once in Revelation. The implication is that people are choosing some path because it looks attractive but then becoming trapped in an unpleasant situation. Putting this together, the goal is to devastate some system by tempting it with a short-term positive goal that leads in the long-term to destruction.
Before means ‘before the face of’. Israel means ‘God strives’ and is interpreted as the organization through which God interacts with people, as illustrated by the people of Israel. Whenever God uses some human organization then this organization has a natural tendency to become corrupt because it will assume that it has a special connection with God that places it above the rules. Thus at the same time that the organization is striving for God with the people, God also has to strive with the organization. Saying this more simply, being ‘chosen by God’ is both a promise and threat. Saying this another way, an ‘Israel’ represents God at the peripheral level of ‘having’ but not necessarily at the more central realm of ‘being’. This explains why ‘having’ is mentioned twice in this verse.
Israel is mentioned once in the seven letters. ‘Sons of Israel’ would indicate the technical side of representing God. The Catholic Church was a prime example of ‘Israel’ at that time, but the growing system of academia and political structure would also qualify as ‘Israel’. Verse 14 indicates that these various Israels are being tempted by Machiavellian teaching to apply Machiavellian methods. Wikipedia describes the insidious ways that various leaders applied Machiavellian methods while claiming not to do so. Many “authors criticized Machiavelli, but also followed him in many ways. They accepted the need for a prince to be concerned with reputation, and even a need for cunning and deceit, but compared to Machiavelli, and like later modernist writers, they emphasized economic progress much more than the riskier ventures of war. These authors tended to cite Tacitus as their source for realist political advice, rather than Machiavelli, and this pretence came to be known as ‘Tacitism’. ‘Black tacitism’ was in support of princely rule, but ‘red tacitism’ arguing the case for republics, more in the original spirit of Machiavelli himself, became increasingly important.” Wikipedia suggests that Machiavelli can be summarized as a snare. “Whatever his intentions, which are still debated today, he has become associated with any proposal where ‘the end justifies the means’.” The ‘end’ is the attractive goal—the bait of the snare. But following amoral means will cause a person to become trapped within a system that is incapable of reaching the desired goal. For instance, I am editing this paragraph three days after Trump was re-elected president in 2024. Exit polls found that 62% of ‘Protestants or other Christians’ voted for Trump in 2024, while in 2020, 62% voted for Trump. A Protestant Christian who votes for Trump is definitely being Machiavellian.
Eat is interpreted as consuming intellectual food. Things sacrificed to idols is a single word that combines ‘that which is seen’ with ‘to kill as a sacrifice and offer on an altar’. Thus, one is sacrificing MMNs of character, social structure, and personal identity in order to pursue some visible goal. An ‘Israel’ is by its very nature susceptible to such temptation. That is because an Israel is a visible organization that proclaims some invisible concept of God in Teacher thought. The end never justifies the means when following a concept of God in Teacher thought because the mental structure of ‘the means’ is required to internally construct a mental concept of God. However, a visible organization, such as a country or a church, can be maintained for a while without having internal content. This explains why it was so dangerous for the Catholic church to acquire papal states because it then because much easier to confuse the visible kingdom of ‘Israel’ with the invisible church. Eating things sacrificed to idols implies that one is not just sacrificing the means to reach some end but setting up a system of teaching that uses rationalization to justify sacrificing the means for the end. Wikipedia gives a list of important philosophers who were intellectually influenced by Machiavelli. “The importance of Machiavelli’s influence is notable in many important figures in this endeavour, for example Bodin, Francis Bacon, Algernon Sidney, Harrington, John Milton, Spinoza, Rousseau, Hume, Edward Gibbon, and Adam Smith. Although he was not always mentioned by name as an inspiration, due to his controversy, he is also thought to have been an influence for other major philosophers, such as Montaigne, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke and Montesquieu.”
Commit sexual immorality is also a single word which comes from the term that means ‘to sell off’. The idea here is that one is selling off true value in order to acquire peripheral value. This happens with actual sexual immorality and also whenever one ‘sells one’s soul’ to some system in order to get ahead. This adds an extra dimension to the idea of the ‘end justifies the means’. That is because a person’s mental networks of being are largely the result of ‘the means’ that one follows. Therefore, it is meaningless to pursue some goal in a manner that destroys the mental networks that are required for enjoying this goal in a lasting manner. This is addressed in Matthew 16:26. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?” The Renaissance popes were generally guilty of both literal and cognitive sexual immorality. Wikipedia observes, “The Renaissance papacy invokes images of a Hollywood spectacular, all decadence and drag. Contemporaries viewed Renaissance Rome as we now view Nixon’s Washington, a city of expense-account whores and political graft, where everything and everyone had a price, where nothing and nobody could be trusted. The popes themselves seemed to set the tone. Exemplary of the time and place, Pope Leo X is said to have famously remarked: ‘Since God has given us the Papacy, let us enjoy it.’ Several of the Renaissance popes took mistresses, fathered children, engaged in intrigue, and even murder.”
The Teaching of the Nicolaitans 2:15-16
Verse 15 mentions the Nicolaitans, whose works were described in verse 6 as being hated. “So likewise you also have some holding the teaching of the Nicolaitans.” So means ‘in this matter, in this way’ while likewise means ‘in like manner’. Thus, verse 15 is similar to verse 14. Holding means ‘to place under one’s grasp’. Teaching again refers to a system of teaching. Nicolaitan means ‘victorious over the people’. This was interpreted earlier as regarding Christianity as a set of impossibly high standards within abstract thought that are personally unreachable. This happens naturally when one views following God as conforming to the MMNs of social and religious expectation.
This mindset can be seen in the different ways that the moral standards of the Sermon on the Mount have been interpreted. Wikipedia mentions eight different interpretations of which the first three are: “The predominant medieval view, ‘reserving a higher ethic for clergy, especially in monastic orders’. A view associated with Martin Luther that it represents an impossible demand, but serves to educate Christians on the ideals of their faith. The Anabaptist a literal view which directly applies the teachings.” The medieval view makes a separation in Mercy thought between the mental networks of normal culture and the higher mental networks of the religious professional. Luther’s interpretation is a version of the teaching of the Nicolaitans, because it regards the moral standards of the Sermon on the Mount as an impossibly high standard about which one talks but which one does not personally follow. This dichotomy led to the travesty of the religious wars, fought by people who talked about God while acting like the devil. For instance, Wikipedia describes the immoral savagery shown by both sides in Dutch religious war provoked by the invasion of the Spanish Duke of Alva. “The Beggars, who were nearly all ardent Calvinists, showed against the Catholics the same ferocity that the Inquisition and the Council of Blood had shown against rebels and heretics. Their captives were often given a choice between Calvinism and death. They unhesitatingly killed those who clung to the old faith, sometimes after incredible tortures.” Going the other way, “Sometime later after brief resistance, little Naarden surrendered to the Spaniards. They greeted the victorious soldiers with tables set with feasts. The soldiers ate, drank, then killed every person in the town.”
Wikipedia says something quite different about the Anabaptists. “Anabaptists were heavily persecuted by state churches, both Magisterial Protestants and Roman Catholics, beginning in the 16th century and continuing thereafter, largely because of their interpretation of scripture which put them at odds with official state church interpretations and local government control. Anabaptism was never established by any state and therefore never enjoyed any associated privileges. Most Anabaptists adhere to a literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5–7, which teaches against hate, killing, violence, taking oaths, participating in use of force or any military actions, and against participation in civil government. Anabaptists view themselves as primarily citizens of the kingdom of God, not of earthly governments. As committed followers of Jesus, they seek to pattern their life after his.” Notice that the Sermon on the Mount is being treated as a set of standards to be followed and not as an impossibly high standard of which one merely talks in a Nicolaitan fashion. Notice also that the Anabaptists were not ‘blessed’ by becoming an ‘Israel’ backed up by some visible institution, forcing them to be guided by the internal ideal of an invisible church ruled by God in Teacher thought. And Anabaptists were persecuted by both Catholics and Protestants for refusing to conform to the social requirements of some visible institution. I come from a Mennonite background and I value this aspect of my Mennonite culture.
I should add that the Anabaptists embraced this idealism partially because of the disaster of the Münster Rebellion when a group of radical Anabaptists took over the city of Münster in 1534 and attempted to establish the ‘Israel’ of a theocracy. Wikipedia explains that “The Münster Rebellion was a turning point for the Anabaptist movement. It never again had the opportunity of assuming political importance, as both Catholic and Lutheran civil powers adopted stringent measures to counter this.” The Mennonite Encyclopedia adds that “No other topic of the Reformation and particularly the Anabaptists has received as much attention throughout the centuries as the Anabaptists of Münster. Opponents of the movement in the Catholic and Protestant churches, scholars and journalists in all groups, fiction writers and artists, have through more than four centuries found this subject a fertile field. Even today novels and dramas dealing with some phase of the Münsterite movement appear almost annually.” The Catholic army that defeated the Anabaptists of Münster punished the leaders in a manner that was at least as vile as anything committed by these leaders. Wikipedia summarizes that the three leaders of the rebellion were burned “with red-hot tongs the space of an hour... their tongues were pulled out with tongs before each was killed with a burning dagger thrust through the heart. The bodies were placed in three iron baskets and hung from the steeple of St. Lambert’s Church and the remains left to rot. About fifty years later the bones were removed, but the baskets remain.” In terms of verses 14-15, the Catholic army ‘knew’ that the end of defeating the religious rebels justified the means by which this was done, and they also ‘knew’ that when the Sermon on the Mount talks about being meek, showing mercy, or being a peacemaker, this is just an aspiration that does not really apply to normal Christians.
Verse 16 focuses upon personal change. “Therefore repent! But if not, I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.” Repent means ‘to think differently afterwards’ and is in the imperative. ‘Therefore’ indicates that verse 16 follows logically from verse 15. Looking at this historically, we have just seen that both Catholic and Protestant Christendom on the whole did not repent. Luther regarded salvation as based in abstract faith alone, while the Catholic Counter-reformation emphasized obedience to the Church combined with a mystical encounter of God. If implies that humans are being faced with a choice. This is interesting because Calvinism, one of the branches of Protestantism, explicitly asserted that humans do not have a choice but rather are predestined to heaven or hell. Wikipedia explains that Calvin “considered God inflicting sin upon his creations to be an unfathomable mystery. Though he maintained God’s predestination applies to damnation as well as salvation, he taught that the damnation of the damned is caused by their sin, but that the salvation of the saved is solely caused by God. Other Protestant Reformers, including Huldrych Zwingli, also held double predestinarian views.” Mental symmetry, in contrast, suggests that while free will may be limited by the emotional urges of mental networks, it is still genuine, especially in times of opportunity where one can choose between conflicting sets of mental networks.
Coming means ‘to come, go’ and quickly means ‘without unnecessary delay’. ‘You’ is explicitly mentioned while ‘I’ is implied. Make war means ‘to make war’ and is used once in the seven letters. This reference to ‘making war’ suggests that it is appropriate to interpret verses 14-15 in terms of religious wars. Sword is the same word that was used in verse 12. Verse 16 does not mention a ‘sharp and two-edged sword’ like verse 12 or 1:16 but it does associate the sword with the mouth, using the same word that was used in 1:16.
Turning to history, the Enlightenment began as an intellectual war against the horrors of the religious wars. According from Wikipedia, “Enlightenment era religious commentary was a response to the preceding century of religious conflict in Europe, especially the Thirty Years’ War. Theologians of the Enlightenment wanted to reform their faith to its generally non-confrontational roots and to limit the capacity for religious controversy to spill over into politics and warfare while still maintaining a true faith in God. For moderate Christians, this meant a return to simple Scripture. Locke abandoned the corpus of theological commentary in favor of an ‘unprejudiced examination’ of the Word of God alone... Enlightenment scholars sought to curtail the political power of organized religion and thereby prevent another age of intolerant religious war.”
The ‘if’ can be seen by comparing the British Enlightenment with the Enlightenment on the European continent. Wikipedia suggests that there was no actual British Enlightenment because there was no strong religious and political intolerance to rebel against. “The very existence of an English Enlightenment has been hotly debated by scholars. The majority of textbooks on British history make little or no mention of an English Enlightenment... Roy Porter argues that the reasons for this neglect were the assumptions that the movement was primarily French-inspired, that it was largely a-religious or anti-clerical, and that it stood in outspoken defiance to the established order... [in contrast] Enlightenment had come early to England and had succeeded such that the culture had accepted political liberalism, philosophical empiricism, and religious toleration, positions which intellectuals on the continent had to fight against powerful odds. Furthermore, England rejected the collectivism of the continent and emphasized the improvement of individuals as the main goal of enlightenment.” Notice how personal improvement was emphasized in Britain as opposed to conformity to some group.
A White Stone 2:17
Verse 17 begins with the same standard phrase: “The one having an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” For the age of Pergamum, I think that a deep desire was to become free of religious and political imposition that claimed to speak for God in Teacher thought while actually being driven by MMNs of personal power and prestige. Saying this another way, people really did not like living in a Machiavellian world.
Verse 17 continues with a promise. “The one overcoming, I will give to him the manna having been hidden, and I will give to him a white stone.” Overcoming means ‘to carry off the victory’. Manna literally means ‘what is it?’ and two of the four times it is used in the New Testament it specifically refers to the Israelites eating manna in the desert. Hidden means ‘to hide’ and is mentioned once in the seven letters. Stone means ‘a pebble used in ancient elections to vote’; ‘a white stone typically meant yes and a black stone no’. This term is used one other time in the New Testament in Acts 26:10 which is translated as a vote. A stone represents a solid fact in Perceiver thought. White means ‘bright, white’. This can be interpreted as the brightness of a Teacher understanding, as a white color that integrates many other colors, or as the white stone of a positive vote.
This can be explained cognitively in terms of Platonic forms based in absolute truth. A Platonic form emerges when Teacher thought derives the simplified essence of Perceiver facts, leading to an internal image in Mercy thought that is more perfect than anything in reality. For instance, when one imagines a circle, one imagines a perfect circle that is more perfect than any real circle. Using Teacher thought to think about Perceiver facts about reality leads to Platonic forms that are idealizations of reality, like the Platonic form of the ideal circle. Using Teacher thought to think about Perceiver facts from a holy book, such as the Bible, will also lead to Platonic forms, but these internal images of perfection will have nothing to do with reality. However, they will provide emotional comfort, food for thought, and ideals to aim for.
This study of revealed texts for moral and inspirational purposes can be seen in Renaissance humanism. Wikipedia explains, “The project of the Italian Renaissance humanists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was the studia humanitatis: the study of the humanities, ‘a curriculum focusing on language skills.’ This project sought to recover the culture of ancient Greece and Rome through its literature and philosophy and to use this classical revival to imbue the ruling classes with the moral attitudes of said ancients—a project James Hankins calls one of ‘virtue politics.’ But what this studia humanitatis actually constituted is a subject of much debate.” Notice that ancient texts from a different era are being studied in order to generate moral attitudes, but it is unclear exactly what this means in practice. Thus, there is the intellectual food of asking ‘What is this?’ but not necessarily the finding of clear answers.
This is different than mysticism, because mysticism is based in a Teacher overgeneralization of cosmic oneness that transcends all content. The result is a feeling of encountering God that has no moral impact, allowing the mystic to remain fully submitted to a human system of morality such as the Catholic Church. The Platonic forms of revealed truth, in contrast, lead to solid ‘stones’ of Perceiver truth. These stones may be disconnected from the facts of reality but they have sufficient content to create positive ideals that can act as the basis for moral choice. One is not just choosing to deny self but rather choosing to behave in conformity with some positive, internal ideal.
A similar mindset can be seen in the Protestant Reformation, which is illustrated by Martin Luther’s statement at the Diet of Worms. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.” Notice that Martin Luther is choosing to follow a positive, internal, moral standard based upon his study of the revealed text of the Bible.
Verse 17 finishes, “And on the stone new a name having been written, which no one has known, except the one receiving it.” A name refers to a Teacher label the describes a person. New means ‘new in quality’. Written means ‘to write’ and refers to something recorded within the abstract realm of words. Known refers to empirical evidence and receive means ‘to actively lay hold of’. Verses 3 and 13 talked about holding onto the name of incarnation. Verse 17 describes something different, which is actually having a new name as opposed to holding on to the name of someone else. Wikipedia describes this goal of acquiring a new name as an individual. “The humanists believed that it is important to transcend to the afterlife with a perfect mind and body, which could be attained with education. The purpose of humanism was to create a universal man whose person combined intellectual and physical excellence and who was capable of functioning honorably in virtually any situation. This ideology was referred to as the uomo universale, an ancient Greco-Roman ideal. Education during the Renaissance was mainly composed of ancient literature and history as it was thought that the classics provided moral instruction and an intensive understanding of human behavior.” Even though this ideology was based in an ancient Greco-Roman ideal, it was new in quality because it was now being approached from a Christian perspective. As Wikipedia explains, “During the Renaissance period most humanists were Christians, so their concern was to ‘purify and renew Christianity’, not to do away with it. Their vision was to return ad fontes (‘to the pure sources’) to the Gospels, the New Testament and the Church Fathers, bypassing the complexities of medieval Christian theology.”
Receiving a new name based in a ‘white stone’ that one chooses personally also describes the essence of the Protestant doctrine of justification by which one becomes a Christian. Wikipedia elaborates, “Traditionally, Lutherans have taught forensic (or legal) justification, a divine verdict of acquittal pronounced on the believing sinner. God declares the sinner to be ‘not guilty’ because Christ has taken his place, living a perfect life according to God’s law and suffering for his sins. For Lutherans, justification is in no way dependent upon the thoughts, words, and deeds of those justified through faith alone in Christ. The new obedience that the justified sinner renders to God through sanctification follows justification as a consequence, but is not part of justification.”
Saying this cognitively, justification means receiving a new personal label in Teacher thought that changes one’s status legally within some system of Teacher order. This happens, for instance, when becoming the citizen of some country or enrolling in some school. With Protestant justification, the system of Teacher order comes from studying the absolute truth of the Bible. Studying a system of absolute truth will lead to personal feelings of moral inadequacy. Justification by faith replaces this feeling of moral inadequacy with one of divine forgiveness by choosing to submit personal identity to the ‘white stone’ of the absolute truth of the Bible. For instance, suppose that a new school opens up teaching a form of education that is superior to surrounding knowledge. The people around will feel inferior compared to the graduates of the school. This feeling of intellectual inferiority can be eliminated by enrolling in the school. The beginning student may still be ignorant but has acquired the name of being a student of the school. Notice that this is functioning at the level of a small stone of morality because it is based in the absolute truth of some collection of revealed texts. This is different then science which is based in the universal truth of how the physical world functions.
The empirical ‘knowing’ implies that this personal choice of faith will be followed by the empirical evidence of a visible change in character. We saw earlier that Anabaptism treated the Sermon on the Mount as an actual moral standard to follow rather than merely as an aspiration to admire. This led to a different concept of justification. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Anabaptist theology categorically rejects the Lutheran and Reformed doctrine of sola fide, and instead emphasizes a ‘faith that works’; Anabaptists teach that ‘justification [began] a dynamic process by which the believer partook of the nature of Christ and was so enabled to live increasingly like Jesus.’” Saying this another way, Anabaptism treated the Sermon on the Mount as an ideal description of actual human behavior, similar to the way that a perfect circle is viewed as an idealization of real circles, which will create a motivation to make real circles more perfect. Using the school analogy, Lutheranism emphasizes the change in status that one acquires from enrolling in a school while adding as an afterthought that one should also learn something at school. Anabaptism also recognizes this change in status but emphasizes that the goal of enrolling in a school is to take the classes and pass the exams. Thus, it is significant that the promise in verse 17 is given to those who overcome.
Thyatira 2:18-29
The letter to the church of Thyatira is interpreted as the scientific era. Verse 18 begins, “And to the messenger of the church in Thyatira write:” The definition of Thyatira is uncertain. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says that “The name ‘Thyatira’ means ‘the castle of Thya’...The place was regarded as a holy city, for there stood the temple of the ancient Lydian sun-god, Tyrimnos... Thyatira was specially noted for the trade guilds which were probably more completely organized there than in any other ancient city. Every artisan belonged to a guild.” This describes three primary characteristics of the modern scientific era: First, it is guided by the ‘castle’ of academic thought. Second, it is illuminated by an ‘ancient sun-god’ of universal understanding of natural processes. And third, it is characterized by innumerable technical specializations.
Verse 18 continues with a description of incarnation. “These things says the Son of God, the One having His eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like burnished bronze.” This is the first letter that contains an actual description that is similar to the description in 1:13-16. The implication is that people are finally starting to gain an understanding of the nature of incarnation. 1:13 referred to a Son of Man, whereas verse 18 mentions a Son of God. Looking at this cognitively, a concept of incarnation emerges when abstract technical thought, represented by the title Christ, becomes integrated with concrete technical thought, represented by the name Jesus. This theoretical unity can be seen in modern science and technology. A Son of Man constructs such an integrated concept by starting from finite human principles of cause-and-effect. A Son of God constructs such an integrated concept by starting from an integrated concept of God in Teacher thought. The content of these two may be quite similar, but the emotional basis is different. A Son of Man is emotionally held together by human MMNs while a Son of God is emotionally held together by the TMN of a concept of God.
One of the fundamental breakthroughs of the scientific revolution was realizing that it is possible to predict how the natural world will behave by starting with the abstract technical thinking of mathematics guided by general theories in Teacher thought. Wikipedia describes Galileo’s expression of this realization. “Philosophy [i.e., physics] is written in this grand book—I mean the universe—which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one is wandering around in a dark labyrinth.” In other words, understanding how the physical world functions requires beginning with ‘this grand book’ that is ‘written in the language of mathematics’.
The phrase ‘eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like burnished bronze’ is almost identical to the phrase in 1:14-15. The main difference is that verse 18 uses the verb ‘having’ which implies the peripheral realm of having rather than being. This implies that the concept of incarnation being developed in the letter to Thyatira functions at the peripheral realm of having rather than being. This accurately describes modern science, which thinks in an objective manner about the objective realm of objects. Eyes are interpreted as using Perceiver thought to analyze the external world because the physical eyes are used to scan the external environment in order to construct a mental map of the environment. Flame means ‘flame’ and comes from a word that means ‘to burn’. Fire means ‘fire’. Fire generates energy by consuming matter, which is interpreted as a motivation that is frustrated from being directed into useful activity. This mentally purifies by burning away lesser issues. Putting this together, ‘eyes like a flame of fire’ suggests that learning Perceiver facts about the physical world is leading to an internal motivation that is simultaneously frustrating and purifying. This describes the Scientific Revolution before the Industrial Revolution because science developed within a social climate of absolute truth and absolute monarchy without being able to express itself through technology. Wikipedia describes this growth amidst frustration. “The central doctrines of the Enlightenment were individual liberty and religious tolerance, in opposition to an absolute monarchy and the power of religious authorities. The Enlightenment was marked by... an emphasis on the scientific method and reductionism, along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy... The Age of Enlightenment was preceded by and closely associated with the Scientific Revolution.” Notice the struggle between an Enlightenment emphasis upon individual liberty and the scientific method and the control of society by absolute monarchy and religious authorities.
The body rests its weight upon the feet and walking involves transferring the weight of the body from one foot to another. Thus, the feet are interpreted as the mental networks that support the mind. Burnished bronze is a single word used only in this verse and in 1:15 which combines ‘bronze’ with a word that means ‘frankincense’ and comes from a root that means ‘white’. Frankincense is an incense that comes from tapping a tree. A tree was interpreted earlier as the tree of knowledge. Metals are interpreted as solid facts that have been tested in the fire of pressure. Putting this together, a concept of incarnation is developing and moving as facts become tested and as the tree of knowledge becomes cut in a manner that generates a fragrance. Looking at this cognitively, the development of science involves a combination of gathering tested Perceiver facts and rethinking Teacher theories. Science does not accept all facts but rather requires facts to be backed up by empirical evidence and peer review. Questioning an existing theory is emotionally painful but acquiring a new paradigm in Teacher thought generates positive Teacher emotions.
Verse 19 makes a positive statement. “I know your works, and your love and faith and service and perseverance.” Know refers to empirical evidence and work ‘is a deed that carries out an inner desire’. Love is ‘agape’ which refers to Teacher love. Faith means to ‘be persuaded’. Service is the word ‘deacon’ which actually means ‘emissary’ or ‘the carrying out of a commissioned task’. Perseverance means ‘remaining under’. All of these terms are preceded by a ‘the’ in the Greek. This sequence of traits corresponds reasonably well to the scientific method. Wikipedia clarifies that “The scientific method is not a single recipe: it requires intelligence, imagination, and creativity. In this sense, it is not a mindless set of standards and procedures to follow but is rather an ongoing cycle... An iterative, pragmatic scheme of the four points above is sometimes offered as a guideline for proceeding: Define a question. Gather information and resources (observe). Form an explanatory hypothesis. Test the hypothesis by performing an experiment and collecting data in a reproducible manner. Analyze the data. Interpret the data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for a new hypothesis. Publish results. Retest.”
Looking at this cognitively, even though one is gathering empirical evidence, one is not just following a recipe but rather applying intelligence, imagination, and creativity. This describes the first trait of performing ‘a deed that carries out an inner desire’. This process is driven by a desire to acquire understanding in Teacher thought through the formation and testing of hypotheses. This is an expression of ‘agape love’ because it is driven by Teacher emotions. Hypotheses are checked by collecting and analyzing data, indicating that one is willing to ‘be persuaded’ by the evidence. Hypotheses are tested by performing experiments. An experiment is a ‘carrying out of a commissioned task’ because the abstract hypothesis is ‘commissioning’ the task of an experiment. Finally, publishing results and retesting are an example of perseverance, because one is sticking with the situation rather than making comments and then moving on.
Verse 19 continues, “And your latter works are greater than the first.” Work refers to internally driven action and is in the plural. Latter means ‘last, final’. First means ‘first, foremost’. Greater means ‘greater in quantity’. This is an accurate historical statement, because the initial experiments of the scientific revolution were followed by the more extensive applications of the Industrial Revolution, which has been followed by the integration of science and technology. Each stage added more internally-driven action as individuals were internally driven to turn scientific understanding into real working gadgets.
One might think that I am treating scientific thought as more spiritual than is warranted. However, verse 19 is immediately followed by verse 20 which points out the fundamental weakness of scientific thought, and the one verse that talks about positive aspects are followed by three verses that focus upon the negative aspects. I also know that terms such as agape love and faith are not normally applied to the scientific method. That is because these terms have been redefined by most Christians to exclude scientific thought. Agape love is typically viewed as self-denying love. But agape is defined as ‘love which centers in moral preference’ and ‘typically refers to divine love, what God prefers’. Self-denying love views God as the negation of human MMNs while divine love uses Teacher thought to build a positive understanding of what God prefers. Similarly, faith is typically viewed as holding on to facts despite the evidence, which typically means holding on to the absolute truth of the Bible despite contrary evidence from scientific truth. However, ‘being persuaded’ implies that one is willing to use and follow rational thought.
Tolerating Jezebel 2:20-21
Verse 20 refers to Jezebel. “But I have against you that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, the one calling herself a prophetess.” Woman means ‘woman’ and is interpreted as female thought, which focuses upon mental networks. This is the only mention of ‘woman’ in the seven letters. Mental networks use emotional pressure to impose structure upon the mind, but mental networks can be trained to be consistent with rational thought, as illustrated by the intuitive—but accurate—behavior of the trained expert. Jezebel is mentioned once in the New Testament, but is mentioned 22 times in the Old Testament as the wife of King Ahab of Israel. 1 Kings 18:4 and 18:13 both refer to Jezebel killing the prophets of the Lord. 1 Kings 21:25 summarizes that Ahab was incited by Jezebel to do evil and follow idols. Verse 20 also refers to prophecy and sacrificing to idols. 1 Kings 18 contains the well-known story of Elijah confronting the prophets of Baal who were supported by Jezebel. Baal means ‘to marry, rule over’, implying emotional submission to authority. Wikipedia suggests that the name Jezebel is “best understood as meaning ‘Where is the Lord?’ (Hebrew: אֵיזֶה בַּעַל, romanized: ʾēze baʿal), a ritual cry from worship ceremonies in honor of Baal during periods of the year when the god was considered to be in the underworld.” However, these two Hebrew words are more accurately ‘Which Baal?’ indicating a confusion over lordship. Similarly, crying this when god is in the underworld conveys the idea of a concept of God in Teacher thought becoming overshadowed by various subconscious mental networks in Mercy thought. Biblehub suggests the meaning of ‘Baal exalts? or is husband to?’. We will be interpreting Jezebel as the confusion that results when established authority figures become questioned.
Tolerate actually means ‘to send away, leave alone, permit’ and is typically translated as ‘forgive’. Putting this together, science avoids Mercy emotions by being objective and avoids Teacher emotions by specializing. As Thomas Kuhn describes, the result is technical puzzle-solving within some specialization. This may solve the immediate problem of using and preserving rational thought, but it also ‘sends away’ the mental networks of female thought, ‘permitting’ them to function independently as a prophetess.
This ‘sending away’ happened with Protestantism in the 19th century. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The dominant intellectual currents of the Enlightenment promoted rationalism, and most Protestant leaders preached a sort of deism. Intellectually, the new methods of historical and anthropological study undermine automatic acceptance of biblical stories, as did the sciences of geology and biology. Industrialization was a strongly negative factor, as workers who moved to the city seldom joined churches. The gap between the church and the unchurched grew rapidly, and secular forces, based both in socialism and liberalism undermine the prestige of religion. Despite the negative forces, Protestantism demonstrated a striking vitality by 1900. Shrugging off Enlightenment rationalism, Protestants embraced romanticism, with the stress on the personal and the invisible.” Scientific thinking is causing people to question the supernatural stories of the Bible while industrial life is causing the people to ignore the subjective emotions of church. Secular forces are ‘sending away’ Protestant Christianity and undermining the prestige of religion. This is leading to uncertainty over sources of religious truth causing people to ask ‘Which God?’ Protestant Christianity is responding by ‘embracing the romanticism’ of mental networks of female thought.
The word prophetess is only used twice in the New Testament and the other mention of a prophetess is in Luke 2:36 which is interpreted symbolically as the mystical Christianity of 19th century liberalism popularized by Schleiermacher. The word prophet combines ‘beforehand’ with ‘elevating or asserting one idea over another’. This happens whenever one predicts what will happen in the future by focusing upon some trend in the present. A ‘prophetess’ bases this message upon mental networks of female thought. In other words, personal experiences of the universal and the divine are causing certain messages to be emphasized in order to predict and guide the course of society.
The quote from Wikipedia continues by referring to various forms of ‘prophetess’, including Schleiermacher. “Protestants embraced romanticism, with the stress on the personal and the invisible. Entirely fresh ideas as expressed by Friedrich Schleiermacher, Soren Kierkegaard, Albrecht Ritschl and Adolf von Harnack restored the intellectual power of theology. There was more attention to historic creeds such as the Augsburg, the Heidelberg, and the Westminster confessions. The stirrings of pietism on the Continent, and evangelicalism in Britain expanded enormously, leading the devout away from an emphasis on formality and ritual and toward an inner sensibility toward personal relationship to Christ. Social activities, in education and in opposition to social vices such as slavery, alcoholism and poverty provided new opportunities for social service.”
Looking at some of these examples more closely, Wikipedia relates that “Schleiermacher used different terms to represent the character and relation of religious feeling. In his earlier days he called it a feeling or intuition of the universe, consciousness of the unity of reason and nature, of the infinite and the eternal within the finite and the temporal. In later life he described it as the feeling of absolute dependence, or, as meaning the same thing, the consciousness of being in relation to God.” Notice that Schleiermacher is looking to various subjective experiences of the universal as a source for religious authority, a form of asking ‘Which God?’. Kierkegaard referred explicitly to both the ‘underworld’ of human thought and the question of ‘Which God?’ when discussing religion. “Kierkegaard was aware of the hidden depths inside of each single individual. The hidden inwardness is inventive in deceiving or evading others. Much of it is afraid of being seen and entirely disclosed... He was writing about the subjective inward nature of God’s encounter with the individual in many of his books, and his goal was to get the single individual away from all the speculation that was going on about God and Christ.” Kierkegaard’s solution was the intuitive ‘leap of faith’, another form of prophetess: “In Kierkegaard’s view, the Church should not try to prove Christianity or even defend it. It should help the single individual to make a leap of faith, the faith that God is love and has a task for that very same single individual.”
A focus upon historic creeds is also a form of ‘prophetess’ because one is finding God in the MMNs of historic convention and tradition. I am not suggesting that these historic creeds are wrong. Instead, we are looking here at the mindset of absolute truth, which bases Perceiver ‘knowing’ in Mercy experiences and mental networks of religious experience. The primary goal here is not necessarily to follow these historic creeds but rather to respond to religious uncertainty by finding a sufficiently potent emotional source for religious truth.
The female thinking of ‘prophetess’ can also be seen in the Great Awakenings of Pietism and evangelicalism. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Like the First Great Awakening a half century earlier, the Second Great Awakening in North America reflected Romanticism characterized by enthusiasm, emotion, and an appeal to the supernatural. It rejected the skepticism, deism, Unitarianism, and rationalism left over from the American Enlightenment, about the same time that similar movements flourished in Europe. Pietism was sweeping Germanic countries and evangelicalism was waxing strong in England.” Notice how the rational technical thinking of male thought is leading to various kinds of religious skepticism and people are responding to this uncertainty by emotionally embracing various mental networks of female thought. These movements attempted to guide the course of society in a prophetic manner. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Efforts to apply Christian teaching to the resolution of social problems presaged the Social Gospel of the late 19th century. Converts were taught that to achieve salvation they needed not just to repent personal sin but also work for the moral perfection of society, which meant eradicating sin in all its forms. Thus, evangelical converts were leading figures in a variety of 19th century reform movements.” I am not trying to minimize the authenticity of these religious encounters or belittle the impact of the social reforms. Both were significant and meaningful. However, they still came out of an inadequate mental foundation of science focusing upon male technical thought while sending away female mental networks, and religion responding by focusing upon female mental networks in a manner that ignores male technical thought.
Science does not usually attack God and religion directly. Instead, it questions the mindset of absolute truth by demanding that one build upon empirical evidence, causing people to ask ‘Which Lord?’ or ‘Jezebel’. Mental symmetry, in contrast, starts with a meta-theory of cognition in Teacher thought. This meta-theory is tested and expanded by looking at empirical evidence but it is not directly built upon empirical evidence. At first glance, this may sound less rational than the empirical approach of objective science. However, even though objective science uses rational thought it has no basis for its use of rational thought. Mental symmetry, in contrast, both uses rational thought and provides a rational basis for using rational thought. Mental symmetry then finds that Christianity and the Bible make eminent cognitive sense when approached from the perspective of pursuing mental wholeness.
Verse 20 adds that Jezebel is “teaching and misleading My servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols.” Servant means ‘someone who belongs to another; a bond slave’ and this term is used once in the seven letters. ‘My servants’ would refer to the ‘slaves’ of science and technology. Looking at this cognitively, most scientific researchers are slaves of science and technology. On the one hand, they have worked within some specialization long enough to develop the TMN of a paradigm that emotionally traps them within this specialization. On the other hand, by ignoring the subjective, they have not transformed their childish MMNs sufficiently to become owners of themselves. Teaching means to ‘cause to learn’. Misleading means ‘to deviate from the correct path, roaming into error’.
Saying this another way, the separation between science and religion was a vicious circle. It began with science rejecting the mental networks of absolute truth and religious tradition in favor of the rational thinking of technical thought. Religion responded with the romanticism of emphasizing mental networks of religious fervor. Science then responded by concluding that religion really is irrational. This caused some religious individuals to feel persecuted by society, leading them to interpret the rise of science as an apocalyptic threat upon Christianity. It also caused other individuals to abandon religion in order to follow the emotional lordship of some other source of authority, such as some king or dictator. The end result was to ‘teach’ scientists to ‘deviate from the correct path’. On the one hand, pursuing personal transformation became associated with the emotional irrationalism of religion. On the other hand, the emotional vacuum was filled by secular sources who lacked the moral constraints of religion.
Looking at the apocalyptic focus, the Encyclopaedia Britannica summarizes that “The evangelical fervour of the Great Awakening (early 18th century) and Second Great Awakening (late 18th to early 19th century) in the United States widely promoted ideas about the millennium, about a new dispensation, and about the imminence of Christ’s return. The most famous of such thinkers was William Miller, whose prediction that the Second Coming would occur in 1843 inspired the subsequent formation of Adventist churches.”
Commit sexual immorality is a single word that comes from a word which means ‘to sell off’. As mentioned earlier, the fundamental problem is that one is selling off what is truly valuable in order to acquire peripheral wealth. Saying this another way, one is selling one’s soul in order to gain the world. This principle also applies to physical sexual immorality which ‘sells off’ the deepest emotional experiences of physical interaction in order to achieve the peripheral wealth of money. This type of ‘selling off’ will naturally result when scientific thought is limited to the objective realm in a manner that ‘sends away’ MMNs of subjective desire and TMNs of integrated understanding and concepts of God. People will be guided by rational thought to think in terms of value when dealing with objects and services, but they will lack the ability to use rational thought to think in terms of value when dealing with people and universal issues.
Eat is interpreted as consuming intellectual food. Things sacrificed to idols is a single word that combines ‘that which is seen’ with ‘to kill as a sacrifice an offer on an altar’. The idea is that one is gaining intellectual content by learning from those who sacrifice living mental networks in order to pursue some visible goal. Instead of treating this as an aberration that needs to be changed by rational understanding, this is being treated as a normal situation upon which one bases understanding. Saying this another way, immature MMNs are ruling over TMNs of understanding instead of being ruled by TMNs of understanding. These two Greek words were mentioned in verse 14 but in the reverse order. In verse 14, Balaam was snaring the sons of Israel to ‘eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. In verse 20, Jezebel is misleading ‘my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols’. In verse 14, the visible institutional church was learning from the example of those who sacrificed their lives to serve the visible institutional church. This sacrifice was being prompted by an underlying mindset of religious self-denial. This was then leading to an inverted sense of value in which serving the institutional church was being pursued at the cost of ignoring personal character. The order with objective science is the opposite. It begins by developing objective rational thought while sending away irrational mental networks, resulting in a mindset that pursues objective rational understanding at the cost of personal character. This is then followed by building knowledge upon the resulting unhealthy society in which people sacrifice their souls in order to pursue some career or market some gadget.
These two stages can be seen in objective science with Darwinism and eugenics. The Evolution News website describes the goal of Darwin. “As his private notebooks make clear, from 1838 on Darwin was bent on making a purely materialistic, reductionist account of evolution, one that completely eliminated the need for divine intervention and oversight.” In other words, Darwin’s goal was to develop objective rational thought about origins so that he could send away the irrational, magical thinking of divine intervention. The article emphasizes that this really was Darwin’s goal. “Ironically, three of these men — Lyell, Gray, and Wallace — affirmed evolution but thought that natural selection alone was radically insufficient to account for man’s moral and intellectual nature. Evolution needed God. Their ‘defection’ so peeved Darwin that he wrote another book, The Descent of Man (1871), in which he made his case that our moral, intellectual, and ‘spiritual’ aspects are all derived from natural and sexual selection. Evolution did not need God, thank you.” The article finishes by pointing out that this leads logically to ‘selling off’ the true value of morality in exchange for the peripheral value of eugenics. “The cost for reducing our moral nature to an effect of natural selection was high. It meant that ‘morality’ is merely the name we give for any particular existing society’s habits and social structures. Whatever these are — polygamy, monogamy, cannibalism, infanticide, gentlemanly behavior, courage, compassion toward all or just toward members of one’s tribe — they must have contributed to the survival of that society via natural selection. Furthermore, if natural selection is the root of all morality, and fitness is the criterion for evolutionary success, then, as Darwin rightly concluded, society should not allow the unfit to breed.” Eugenics led eventually to the genocide of Nazism which sold off all moral character in order to gain racial purity. Quoting from Wikipedia, “Politically, the movement advocated measures such as sterilization laws. In its moral dimension, eugenics rejected the doctrine that all human beings are born equal and redefined moral worth purely in terms of genetic fitness. Its racist elements included pursuit of a pure ‘Nordic race’ or ‘Aryan’ genetic pool and the eventual elimination of ‘unfit’ races. Many leading British politicians subscribed to the theories of eugenics... As a social movement, eugenics reached its greatest popularity in the early decades of the 20th century, when it was practiced around the world and promoted by governments, institutions, and influential individuals.”
Evolution is discussed in other essays. On the one hand, the theory of evolution has the positive characteristic of replacing blind faith in a creator with a rational theory of origins. On the other hand, I have yet to encounter any positive moral, intellectual, societal, factual, or rational element to the theory of evolution. Morally, it brings humans down to the level of animals and savages rather than bringing them up to the level of God. Intellectually, it downplays the realm of intelligent thought by focusing upon genetics and environmental interaction. Meaningful research is being done in the area of genetic comparisons, but the findings are more compatible with the idea of designers reusing code than with an evolutionary tree—and this concept will be explored further when looking at the letters to Philadelphia and Laodicea. Societally, it led to social Darwinism and the horrors of eugenics. Factually, when I read through a (thousand page!) textbook on biochemistry, I repeatedly noticed that the statements made regarding evolution contradicted the biological facts presented in the rest of the textbook. And rationally, the typical explanations given by evolutionists sound like childish myths. For instance, consider the following explanation given by the cognitive science of religion for why people believe in God: “Scientists believe that the belief in acting gods is an evolutionary by-product of agent detection... The psychological trait in question is ‘if you hear a twig snap in the forest, some sentient force is probably behind it’, leading to primates avoiding potential predators seeking to eat or murder them. Hypothetically, this trait could remain in modern humans in the form of hypersensitive agency detection... Thus, some evolutionary psychologists theorize that ‘even if the snapping was caused by the wind, modern humans are still inclined to attribute the sound to a sentient agent; they call this person a god’.” This is pure conjecture without any evidence backed up only by the ‘beliefs’ of scientists. It does not explain how an agency detector functions, as opposed to the concept of a mental network which does explain how an agency detector functions. And it reduces belief in God to a cognitive mistake based in savages fleeing animals to avoid getting eaten. In conclusion, I have not encountered any reason to believe in the theory of evolution—except for the fact that it claims to be a rational theory, as well as the fact that most scientists will heap ridicule upon anyone who dares to question evolution. But supporting a theory by ridiculing alternate viewpoints is, by definition, not science. Thomas Kuhn says that a scientist will not reject a scientific theory unless presented with a better theory. The theory of evolution currently acts as a meta-theory to provide an intellectual covering for scientific thought. Intelligent design points out the problems of evolution without presenting a better alternative. The theory of mental symmetry has now been developed to the point where it can provide an alternative meta-theory.
Verse 21 says that this is an ongoing problem, “And I have given her time that she might repent, and she is not willing to repent of her sexual immorality.” Time refers to clock time as opposed to opportune time. Repent means to ‘think differently afterwards’ and was previously used in verse 16 to talk about repenting from the Nicolaitan mindset of regarding biblical morality as too lofty for human behavior. In verse 16, the response came immediately in the form of the questioning of the Enlightenment. Verse 21 indicates that this problem will continue for a while. Willing means ‘to desire, wish’. The word ‘repent’ is then repeated, emphasizing that a change of thinking is required.
The change of thinking that is required becomes apparent if one compares the results of science and technology with the results of absolute truth. On the one hand, the rational thinking of science and technology leads to growing understanding, useful machines, and greater physical well-being. On the other hand, absolute truth continues to reach a dead end. This contrast is described in an earlier version of Wikipedia that was quoted elsewhere and has been preserved in other websites: “Ideologically, the Victorian era witnessed resistance to the rationalism that defined the Georgian period and an increasing turn towards romanticism and even mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and arts. Technologically, this era saw a staggering amount of innovations that proved key to Britain's power and prosperity. Doctors started moving away from tradition and mysticism towards a science-based approach; modern medicine saw the light of day thanks to the adoption of the germ theory of disease and pioneering research in epidemiology.” Notice the juxtaposition of subjective romanticism and mysticism with objective technical innovations that included physical well-being through the emergence of modern medicine.
The repentance involves using rational thought to treat God’s word with the same intellectual rigor as God’s world is being treated, and using rational thought to improve mental well-being as well as physical well-being. If rational thought is leading to such extensive benefits when used to analyze physical reality, which God supposedly created, then it makes sense that rational thought should be used to study the Bible, because the Bible was supposedly written by the same God who created the universe. This summarizes the approach that I have taken with mental symmetry, attempting to extend the rigor of scientific thought to biblical analysis, and these essays demonstrate that the results are profound. But my repeated experience is that those who follow a mindset of absolute truth do not ‘desire, wish’ to repent from their mindset of absolute truth. The verbs and pronouns in verse 21 all refer to ‘her’, indicating that this is talking about the female mental networks of Jezebel. Thus, this is not a matter of logic or factual persuasion. Instead, it is a matter of clinging emotionally to the mental networks of female thought. I need to emphasize again that female thought is not inherently inferior. The purpose of letting go of mental networks of blind faith is not to ‘send away’ these mental networks in order to follow male technical thought. Instead, the purpose is to allow the male technical thinking of scientific thought to transform the mental networks of blind faith into mental networks of intelligent faith.
Of means ‘from out of’ and sexual immorality is the noun form of the verb used in verse 20. Notice that this is the first of the two qualities. Jezebel is not being asked to repent of ‘eating things sacrificed to idols’ but rather of ‘committing sexual immorality’. The Christian fundamentalist who lives in the technological world is committing a form of spiritual ‘sexual immorality’. That is because he claims to worship and obey the God of absolute truth in church on Sunday and then ‘sells off’ this religious belief in order to devote himself to worshiping and serving the secular world of science and technology for the rest of the week. This juxtaposition has existed for a significant period of time, as pointed out in verse 21. The more that science and technology develop, the more obvious it becomes that worshiping and serving the creator God requires rational thought. And the more pervasive that science and technology become, the more it becomes necessary for the Christian worshiper to prostitute his belief in absolute truth in order to survive in the secular world.
Historically speaking, Jezebel has been willing to repent of the secondary sin of ‘eating things sacrificed to idols’ but not of the primary sin of ‘committing sexual immorality’. Saying this more carefully, the primary sin is the selling off of true value in order to pursue peripheral gains. The secondary sin is treating ‘selling one’s soul for some visible cause’ as the normal situation upon which one should build understanding.
Looking at some historical examples, the Industrial Revolution used the objective understanding of science to build machines that transformed the physical world. This led to personal misery for many factory workers who had to ‘sell off’ the personal meaning of a living in a traditional rural setting for surviving in a slum in order to get a job and make money. The social programs of Victorian society addressed much of the physical misery but did not repent from the underlying problem of treating the subjective in a romantic and mystical manner. Wikipedia quotes one historian as saying, “Between 1780 and 1850 the English ceased to be one of the most aggressive, brutal, rowdy, outspoken, riotous, cruel and bloodthirsty nations in the world and became one of the most inhibited, polite, orderly, tender-minded, prudish and hypocritical. The transformation diminished cruelty to animals, criminals, lunatics, and children (in that order); suppressed many cruel sports and games, such as bull-baiting and cock-fighting, as well as innocent amusements... cleaned up the prisons; turned Sunday into a day of prayer for some and mortification for all.” On the one hand, numerous meaningful reforms were achieved. But on the other hand, the distinction between secular pursuits and Sunday as a day of prayer and self-denial remained.
World War I provides another example of people sacrificing themselves—and being sacrificed—for objective technology. Wikipedia summarizes, “The countries involved in the war applied the full force of industrial mass-production to the manufacture of weapons and ammunition, especially artillery shells... This complete mobilization of a nation’s resources, or ‘total war’ meant that not only the armies, but also the economies of the warring nations were in competition... The war of attrition then focused on another resource: human lives. In the Battle of Verdun in particular, German Chief of Staff Erich Von Falkenhayn hoped to ‘bleed France white’ through repeated attacks on this French city.” Saying this simply, the technology of war engulfed entire countries and wiped out an entire generation. After this war to end all wars, the League of Nations was set up, “the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace.” Thus, European countries repented of the secondary sin of sacrificing human lives on the altar of technology in order to acquire physical territory. But there was no repentance from the primary sin of selling off the subjective in order to pursue peripheral, objective value. Instead, most of the world embraced eugenics, which evaluates humans based upon the peripheral, objective value of their physical bodies. Quoting from Wikipedia, “As a social movement, eugenics reached its greatest popularity in the early decades of the 20th century, when it was practiced around the world and promoted by governments, institutions, and influential individuals. Many countries enacted various eugenics policies, including: genetic screenings, birth control, promoting differential birth rates, marriage restrictions, segregation, compulsory sterilization, forced abortions or forced pregnancies, ultimately culminating in genocide.”
The horrors of World War II caused the world to repent of eugenics, but they did not repent of the more fundamental sin of pursuing objective prosperity at the price of developing subjective mental networks. History.com describes this juxtaposition. On the one hand, “After World War II ended... Middle-class people had more money to spend than ever–and, because the variety and availability of consumer goods expanded along with the economy, they also had more things to buy... Almost as soon as World War II ended, developers... began to buy land on the outskirts of cities and use mass production techniques to build modest, inexpensive tract houses there... These houses were perfect for young families–they had informal family rooms.” Thus, there was extensive physical prosperity based in male technical thought. But this was combined with a ‘sending away’ and minimizing of female mental networks. “Suburban homes, meanwhile, weren’t always so perfect for the (mostly white) women who lived in them. In fact, the booms of the 1950s had a particularly confining effect on many American women. Advice books and magazine articles urged women to leave the workforce and embrace their roles as wives and mothers. The idea that a woman’s most important job was to bear and rear children was hardly a new one, but it began to generate a great deal of dissatisfaction among women who yearned for a more fulfilling life... This dissatisfaction, in turn, contributed to the rebirth of the feminist movement in the 1960s.”
Cast into a Bed 2:22-23
Verse 22 describes the consequence. “Behold, I will cast her into a sickbed, and those committing adultery with her into great tribulation.” ‘I’ is implied while ‘her’ is mentioned. Thus the focus is upon what is happening to a person rather than who is causing this. Cast means ‘to throw, cast’ which is interpreted as moving through the ‘air’ of Teacher thought. A sickbed means ‘a couch for sleep, sickness, sitting, or eating’. Committing adultery refers to ‘adultery of a man with a married woman, but also of a married man’. Tribulation means ‘internal pressure that causes someone to feel confined’. It was used previously in verses 9-10 to refer to dissidents under the oppression of the medieval Catholic Church. Great means ‘great, in the widest sense’ which is interpreted as Teacher generality. The term ‘great tribulation’ occurs four times in the New Testament: in Matthew 24:21 in the prophecy of the end times, in Acts 7:11 in Stephen’s sermon, here, and in Revelation 7:14. All four instances appear to be referring prophetically to the same time period. This is significant because the term ‘Great Tribulation’ is used by most evangelicals to refer to the supposed time of great societal suffering that will happen after the Rapture. However, the word ‘tribulation’ does not mean suffering but rather ‘narrowness’. A Great Tribulation means that narrowness will become a universal theme of society. This describes current society which has become fragmented into many technical specializations. In order to perform most tasks today, one must first become technologically educated and accredited and this accreditation will only give one permission to perform professionally within one specific specialization. Thus, the narrowness of technical training is followed by the narrowness of working within a technical specialization.
Looking at this more carefully, the woman is being cast onto a bed while the men committing adultery with her are heading into great tribulation. Stated cognitively, mental networks of female thought are being placed theoretically within a limited setting of inactivity that focuses upon physical needs and physical desires. This describes the consumer society which appeals to the various mental networks of personal and social desire without explicitly acknowledging, using, improving, educating, or transforming these mental networks. Wikipedia describes the role played by television and advertising. “The advent of the television in the late 1940s proved to be an attractive opportunity for advertisers, who could reach potential consumers in the home using lifelike images and sound. The introduction of mass commercial television positively impacted retail sales. The television motivated consumers to purchase more products and upgrade whatever they currently had. In the United States, a new consumer culture developed centered around buying products, especially automobiles and other durable goods, to increase their social status.” Stated cognitively, images and sounds from television are being used to create and trigger mental networks of need and desire in order to sell things.
The underlying assumption is that people are emotionally driven by a collection of irrational mental networks. Wikipedia quotes Edward Bernays, the founder of modern marketing, “Bernays touted the idea that the ‘masses’ are driven by factors outside their conscious understanding, and therefore that their minds can and should be manipulated by the capable few. ‘Intelligent men must realize that propaganda is the modern instrument by which they can fight for productive ends and help to bring order out of chaos.’” Saying this as clearly as possible, instead of treating mental networks of female thought as something valuable to be trained, developed, and transformed into a personal character of beauty and intelligence, they are being treated as irrational desires to be manipulated in order to sell the gadgets of male technical thought. This emotional manipulation is possible because mental networks are in a state of ‘Jezebel’ in which they are looking for lords to which they can submit. That can accurately be described as ‘men committing adultery with the woman cast onto a bed’, because instead of using male technical thought to develop their own female mental networks, they are using male technical thought to emotionally manipulate the female mental networks of others.
Verse 22 finishes, “Unless they shall repent of her deeds.” ‘They’ is implied and refers to the men who are committing the adultery. Repent means to ‘think differently afterwards’ and is mentioned for the third time in two verses. Deed means ‘a deed that carries out an inner desire’, ‘her’ is explicitly mentioned, and of means ‘from out of’. In other words, the internal motivation is coming from the mental networks of Jezebel. Consumers are being motivated to purchase items by using marketing to trigger internal mental networks. But it is the men who need to repent because they are using male technical thought to take advantage of immature mental networks in order to sell goods and services. But they do not want to repent because they are making money and selling items.
Unless means ‘if’, which means that continuing this marketing manipulation will lead to a great tribulation in which the world is fragmented into technical specializations. That is because male technical thought is continuing to develop while female mental networks remain immature. Male technical thought naturally splits into technical specializations while female mental networks add both the human touch and the integrated understanding that give meaning to people and society. Treating female mental networks as childish urges to be manipulated by male technical thought will inevitably turn people into meaningless cogs within a social machine of technical specializations.
Verse 23 goes further. “And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches will know that I am the One searching affections and hearts.” Child means ‘anyone living in full dependence’. ‘Her children’ would refer to any mental networks that emerge out of these mental networks of confused longing for authority. Kill adds ‘away from’ to ‘kill’. With means ‘in the realm of’ and death refers to ‘physical or spiritual death’. In other words, any mental networks that emerge within this environment will come to birth within a general mindset of ‘death’ and will end up dying. That is what it feels like to grow up in a world in which people have become meaningless cogs within the machine of a global economy. This explains why culture, music, art, and entertainment has generally become darker and nastier over the last 50 years. Going further, whenever some new mental network of societal angst emerges, it becomes treated as a new set of irrational mental networks to be manipulated by marketing, causing this new mental network to die as it becomes co-opted as another facet of the inhuman machine.
Know means to ‘experientially know’. Church means ‘called out from the world and to God’ which describes a group of individuals who are following a concept of God in Teacher thought rather than MMNs of culture. ‘I am’ is explicitly mentioned and this phrase is used elsewhere by Jesus to claim to be God. Looking at this cognitively, ‘I am’ describes a personal identity based in eternal principles of being. Verses 21-23 have mentioned ‘her’ several times while ‘I’ has been implicit from the conjugation of the verbs. This is the first mention of ‘I’ in these verses, indicating a shift in focus from the mental networks of female thought to the technical thinking of incarnation. Until now, technical thought has ‘sent away’ the confused mental networks of ‘Jezebel’. But ‘I am’ suggests that technical thought is now turning its attention to mental networks in order to discover lasting principles. The ‘experiential knowing’ indicates that this shift in attention is the result of technical thought experientially knowing the impact of confused mental networks. This means that the subjective realm of mental networks will invade the objective realms of technical thought. All means ‘each part of a totality’ and ‘churches’ is in the plural. ‘Church’ refers to those who are following Teacher thought rather than cultural mental networks. The implication is that many areas of academia and society will gain this experiential knowledge but only those who are pursuing Teacher thought will recognize the presence of incarnation. This describes postmodernism. It has taken over most of the social sciences and has invaded even the hard sciences, but only a subset of individuals who are driven by Teacher understanding are using technical thought to analyze the impact of postmodernism.
For instance, one of the students I tutor showed me his psychology notes on experimental methods. The notes used precise language to describe various methods that psychology uses to make experiments more rigorous. Inserted into the middle of these notes was a section on the ‘alternate knowing’ of indigenous knowledge. This ‘alternate knowing’ was described as based in experiential knowledge and clearly failed the tests of rigor mentioned in the rest of the notes. In addition, all the homework questions focused on making research rigorous and none referred to this ‘alternate knowing’. However, this ‘alternate knowing’ was inserted because it is now government policy in my province of Canada that every subject must be taught in the light of indigenous knowledge. When technical thought is forced to face confused mental networks in this fashion, then technical thought must either study the subject or else be overcome by confused mental networks.
The next terms describe what technical thought is starting to study. Searching means to ‘search diligently’. Affection is used once in the New Testament and literally means ‘a kidney’, which is traditionally interpreted as ‘the emotions driving the conscience’. This interpretation is related to the physical kidneys, whose primary function is to filter and remove waste from the blood. Liquid represents Mercy experiences and blood is interpreted as the Mercy experiences of personal identity. Thus, the kidney would represent removing harmful Mercy experiences from the mental networks of personal identity, which is related to ‘the emotions driving the conscience’. Metaphorical kidneys are especially required to filter out the emotional waste of modern marketing that continually attempts to manipulate the mental networks that guide personal identity. This cognitive interpretation is reinforced by the term heart, which is only mentioned once in the seven letters. Biblehub points out that the term ‘heart is only used figuratively both in the Old Testament and New Testament’. ‘Heart’ is interpreted cognitively as personal identity. Putting this together, what is being studied is personal identity, the emotional source of conscience, and how one deals with the emotional waste of harmful Mercy experiences.
For instance, this focus can be seen in wokeism. Wikipedia explains that “Beginning in the 2010s, it came to be used to refer to a broader awareness of social inequalities such as racial injustice, sexism, and denial of LGBT rights. Woke has also been used as shorthand for some ideas of the American Left involving identity politics and social justice, such as white privilege and reparations for slavery in the United States.” Notice the focus upon personal identity as well as the desire to deal with the emotional ‘waste’ of experiences and memories of social and racial oppression. The Wikipedia article also notes the widespread notice of and opposition to wokeism. “By 2019, opponents of progressive social movements were using the term mockingly or sarcastically, implying that ‘wokeness’ was an insincere form of performative activism. British journalist Steven Poole comments that the term is used to mock ‘overrighteous liberalism’. In this pejorative sense, woke means ‘following an intolerant and moralising ideology’.”
This academic focus upon the ‘kidney’ and the ‘heart’ can also be seen in the numerous papers and articles being written about social media. For instance, one review paper written in 2015 summarizes that “The health impact of social media on children and young people was greatest on mental health and specifically in the areas of self-esteem and well-being, with related issues around cyberbullying and ‘Facebook Depression’, with an association between the use of social media and self-esteem and body image.” Notice the emphasis upon the ‘heart’ of self-esteem as well as the ‘kidneys’ of dealing with ‘emotional waste’ such as cyberbullying and Facebook depression. Similarly, a Mayo Clinic webpage explains that “Social media lets teens create online identities, chat with others and build social networks. These networks can provide teens with support from other people who have hobbies or experiences in common. This type of support especially may help teens who: Lack social support offline or are lonely. Are going through a stressful time. Belong to groups that often get marginalized, such as racial minorities, the LGBTQ community and those who are differently abled.” Notice again the ‘heart’ of ‘creating online identities’ as well as the ‘kidneys’ of dealing with various feelings of social oppression. Looking at another aspect of social media, Wikipedia clarifies the distinction between echo chambers and epistemic bubbles. “Epistemic bubbles are not particularly robust. Relevant information has merely been left out, not discredited. One can ‘pop’ an epistemic bubble by exposing a member to the information and sources that they have been missing. Echo chambers, however, are incredibly strong. By creating pre-emptive distrust between members and non-members, insiders will be insulated from the validity of counter-evidence and will continue to reinforce the chamber in the form of a closed loop. Outside voices are heard, but dismissed.” Notice how technical thought is being used to observe and analyze various ways in which personal identity and unpleasant information interact. Quoting further from Wikipedia, “Social networking communities are communities that are considered to be some of the most powerful reinforcements of rumors due to the trust in the evidence supplied by their own social group and peers, over the information circulating the news. In addition to this, the reduction of fear that users can enjoy through projecting their views on the internet versus face-to-face allows for further engagement in agreement with their peers.” One sees again that people with similar ‘hearts’ are gathering together in order to act as ‘kidneys’ by rejecting emotional material that they regard as waste. And this emotional impact is being discussed and analyzed academically.
Verse 23 finishes, “And I will give to each of you according to your works.” Each means ‘each unit viewed distinctly’. According to means ‘each day, according to, by way of’ when followed by the accusative. Work means ‘a deed that carries out an inner desire’. In other words, the technical research of the previous phrase is leading to conclusions of personal cause-and-effect and it is becoming clear that what really matters is the internal motivation that drives behavior. For instance, this became clear to me during the 2020 covid pandemic. Before then, I felt some affinity to evangelical Christendom, because I appreciated their desire to respect the Bible, pursue personal transformation, and follow moral guidelines. But the pandemic revealed the internal motivation that was driving the behavior of most evangelical Christians. In most cases, they were being motivated by a mindset of absolute truth that rejected rational analysis in favor of emotionally-driven echo chambers. It also became clear with the rise of other forms of right-wing activism that such a mindset of absolute truth was internally driving people towards behavior that rejected democracy and the rule of law in favor of deception, lies, and dictatorship. I am writing this five days before the American election that will choose between Donald Trump and Kamela Harris.
Going the other way, it is also becoming clear that much of the activism that claims to support various suppressed groups is merely a form of virtue signaling that is meant to convey the impression of concern in order to gain social approval. Quoting from Wikipedia, “The term virtue signalling refers to the act of expressing opinions or stances that align with popular moral values, often through social media, with the intent of demonstrating one’s good character. While the expression might sometimes be sincere, it is frequently used pejoratively to suggest that the person is more concerned with appearing virtuous than with actually supporting the cause or belief in question. An accusation of virtue signalling can be applied to both individuals and companies. Critics argue that virtue signalling is often meant to gain social approval without taking meaningful action.” This also is an example of learning to understand which behavior is internally motivated and which is not.
The Rest of Thyatira 2:24-25
The next two verses turn their attention to the average person. Verse 24 begins, “But I say to you, to the rest of those in Thyatira, as many as do not have this teaching, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say.” The rest means ‘left, left behind, the remainder’. This refers to the average person who is not emotionally or intellectually caught up in these various responses. In means ‘in the realm of’ and Thyatira was interpreted as the castle of academia, combined with the ‘sun god’ of scientific understanding, and the fragmentation of professions and specializations. This describes the average professional who is pursuing a career within some specialization. Have would refer to the peripheral realm of ‘having’ as opposed to ‘being’. Teaching means ‘a summarized body of respected teaching’. ‘Having this teaching’ suggests that people are subscribing to some system of learning and teaching this system of learning but actually being driven personally by something else.
The next phrase describes the nature of the system of learning. Know means to ‘experientially know’. Satan means ‘adversary’. Thus, this system of learning is fundamentally adversarial and based in experiential knowing. Depth is used once in Revelation and means deep’. ‘Depths of Satan’ can be interpreted as studying the motivation behind adversarialism or as asserting that adversarialism lies at the depth. ‘Depths’ is in the plural indicating that deep adversarialism is being found in many areas. Finally, as means ‘like as, even as’ and say is the normal word for speech with ‘they’ being implied. Putting this together, a group of people is verbally asserting an established body of teaching based in experiential knowledge that the depths of social interaction is characterized by one group versus another group. However, those who verbally assert this are actually driven personally by something else.
This precise combination can be found in fields such as critical race theory. Wikipedia summarizes, “Critical race theory (CRT) is an academic field focused on the relationships between social conceptions of race and ethnicity, social and political laws, and media. CRT also considers racism to be systemic in various laws and rules, not based only on individuals’ prejudices. The word critical in the name is an academic reference to critical theory rather than criticizing or blaming individuals. CRT is also used in sociology to explain social, political, and legal structures and power distribution as through a ‘lens’ focusing on the concept of race, and experiences of racism.” Racism is satanic in the sense that one race is viewing another as an adversary. CRT is a ‘body of respected teaching’ which verbally declares that the adversarial interaction of racism drives social, political, and legal structures at a deep level. Wikipedia adds that many have concluded that CRT is a verbal misrepresentation of experiential knowledge that its advocates do not really believe. “Academic critics of CRT argue it is based on storytelling instead of evidence and reason, rejects truth and merit, and undervalues liberalism.”
This experiential knowledge of ‘deep adversarialism’ can also be seen in standpoint theory. Wikipedia explains that “this theory posits that marginalized groups, situated as ‘outsiders within,’ offer valuable insights that challenge dominant perspectives and contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of societal dynamics. Standpoint theory’s central concept is that an individual’s perspectives are shaped by their social and political experiences. The amalgamation of a person’s experiences forms a standpoint—a point of view—through which that individual sees and understands the world.” In other words, standpoint theory is a verbal assertion that one should build understanding upon the experiential knowledge of being treated as an adversary at a deep level by society. These various elements can be seen in the following example. “Indigenous standpoint theory is an intricate theoretical approach in how indigenous people navigate the difficulties of their experiences within spaces which contest their epistemology. Utility of this approach stems from diverse background of marginalized groups across societies and cultures whose unique experiences have been rejected and suppressed within a majoritarian intellectual knowledge production.” This is a ‘theoretical approach’ based in the ‘unique experiences’ of those who ‘have been rejected and suppressed’.
The cognitive basis for this mindset is discussed in another essay. Looking at this briefly, the civil rights movement was ultimately based in a Teacher overgeneralization of universal equality which maintained that all personal distinctions need to be eliminated. This initially had the positive impact of eliminating various forms of oppression that needed to be eliminated but it ultimately made it impossible to discuss topics of racism and oppression in a rational manner because overgeneralization cannot handle any factual content. This meant that many problems of inequality remained unanalyzed and unresolved because they could not be discussed. However, instead of adopting rational thought to address the problems, approaches such as critical race theory and standpoint theory fixate on the cultural and personal MMNs of disadvantaged groups and individuals while still claiming to stand for universal equality. This summarizes the mindset of the liberal left against which the political right is now rebelling.
The end of verse 24 describes how the average person should not respond to such thinking. “I will not cast upon you any other burden.” Cast means ‘to throw, cast’ is interpreted as moving through the air of Teacher theory. ‘I’ is implied. This was previously used in verse 22 to talk about Jezebel being ‘cast on a bed’. Any other means ‘another of the same kind’. Burden means ‘weight, real substance’. ‘The deep things of Satan’ approaches interaction from an adversarial perspective of one person and group against another. Responding theoretical in an adversarial manner would be an example of ‘casting another of the same kind’. This is important, because responding to a ‘satanic’ theory such as critical race theory in an adversarial manner simply reinforces the premise that social interaction is adversarial and that critical race theorists are being oppressed by society. Wikipedia describes this type of adversarial response to wokeism. “By 2019, the term was being used sarcastically as a pejorative among many on the political right and some centrists in Western countries targeting various leftist and progressive movements. Subsequently, terms such as woke-washing and woke capitalism emerged to criticize organizations who advertise their commitment to social justice for financial gain, also referred to as ‘performative activism’.” The problem with this type of response is that it implicitly loses the war by becoming like the enemy.
Verse 25 describes how the average person should respond. “But hold fast to what you have until which time I might come.” Have means ‘to have, hold’. Hold fast means ‘to place under one’s grasp’. Until means ‘until, as far as’ and time is implied. Come means to ‘have come, be present’ and is in the subjunctive. The coming of incarnation corresponds to what I call the theoretical return of Jesus, a public and supernatural disclosure of an integrated understanding of incarnation. The subjunctive implies that the average person does not really understand what this means but rather is viewing this as some form of hypothetical ‘second coming’. ‘Holding fast to what you have’ means personally acquiring the content that until now has been asserted at a peripheral level of having.
Saying this more clearly, the average Christian as well as the average conservative practiced many moral and societal standards in the past because of social and religious convention. These moral standards are now all being questioned by the various forms of postmodernism. If one focuses upon defending and reinforcing the mindset of absolute truth, then one will actually turn into an adversary of society who talks about morality in a vague manner but neither knows about the content of morality nor practices it, as illustrated by the typical MAGA supporter of Donald Trump. The challenge, in contrast, is to take personal ownership of the moral and societal principles that until now have been followed at a peripheral level.
Authority over the Nations 2:26-27
Verse 26 looks forward to a future shift. “And the one overcoming and keeping My works until the end, I will give to him authority over the nations.” Overcoming is the same verb that was used in the previous three letters, but this letter adds the additional requirement of keeping, which means to ‘maintain, preserve’. Overcoming means learning to use rational thought with the subjective, while keeping means preserving the content that has previously been taught as absolute truth and social pressure. For instance, mental symmetry provides a rational model of human thought but it also has been used as a meta-theory to preserve both scientific and Christian content. Until means ‘until, as far as’ and end means ‘consummation, the end-goal’. Thus, one is not just holding on for a while and then giving up. Instead, one is preserving the content until the goal has been reached. Work means ‘a deed that carries out an inner desire’ and is in the plural. ‘My works’ would refer to all of the aspects and behavior of incarnation that are internally motivated. Saying this another way, current science and technology need to be recognized as a partial concept of incarnation, because the primary problem is the coupling of science and technology with the idolatry of pursuing visible goals such as power, prestige, corporate empires, surface features, or money. The aspects of science and technology that are internally motivated need to be preserved. Similarly, the primary problem with current Christianity is the coupling of theology and personal transformation with the idolatry of pursuing visible goals such as churches, membership, socially acceptable behavior, beautiful homes with big families, and appointing conservative judges and laws. The aspects of Christianity that are internally motivated need to be preserved.
Authority means ‘delegated power’. Being given delegated authority is totally different than demanding power or seizing control. One is functioning within a system of law rather than destroying existing law. I am writing these words four days before the 2024 American presidential election and the outcome is currently uncertain. Nations is used once in the seven letters and means ‘people joined by practicing similar customs or common culture’ which describes groups of people united by common cultural MMNs. This is traditionally interpreted as Gentiles or non-Christians but most Jewish and Christian groups are also united by common cultural MMNs. A Christian group that is trying to impose the absolute truth of the Bible upon the rest of the country is actually functioning as a ‘nation’ and is cognitively no different than the wokeist who is advocating for some oppressed cultural group. Verse 26 promises that the time will eventually come when those who use rational thought to preserve legitimate moral, societal, and scientific content will be given legitimate authority over all of the cultural groups that are currently screaming for survival, revenge, recompense, or domination. And it is not possible to back this up with quotes from Wikipedia because we are now looking at the future.
Verse 27 describes the system that will emerge. “And he will shepherd them with a rod of iron.” ‘He’ is implied by the conjugation of the verb but the verbs ‘shepherd’ and the words ‘overcoming’, ‘keeping’, and ‘to him’ from verse 26 are all in the singular. This suggests that some individuals will qualify and not necessarily any group. Shepherd is used once in the seven letters and means ‘to shepherd, ‘caring for the flock’. Shepherding implies gentleness and care but it also implies that one is ruling over sheeple, social creatures who are easily influenced. This relates to the idea of being given authority over the nations, because each nation is like a herd of sheep, driven as a group by their common cultural mental networks. Shepherding also implies that only some individuals will overcome and that most will remain sheeple. Sheeple are mentally incapable of thinking or standing as individuals. Therefore, they have to be guided as herds by manipulating the mental networks of the herd. This sounds manipulative but there is no alternative at this point.
The goal is for individuals to emerge who are capable of rationally pursuing personal and societal well-being. However, I have tried for decades to use rational thought to influence people, and apart from the occasional individual, I have utterly failed. Even many who I thought were capable of rational thought have turned out to be only locally rational when faced with major societal pressures. The only option that remains is to shepherd groups of people as sheeple—which explains why I continue repeating this term.
A rod is ‘a rod, staff, staff of authority, scepter’ and is mentioned once in the seven letters. Rod implies discipline, staff implies protection, authority implies structure, while scepter implies rule. Iron means ‘made of iron’ and is used once in the seven letters. Metal is interpreted as solid facts that have been proven in some fire of testing. Iron is hard but it is also common, which implies solid, tested principles of common sense and daily life. With is actually ‘in the realm of’. This suggests that a shepherd will not be wielding an iron rod as a dictator but rather shepherding sheeple within an environment ruled by a rod of iron. For instance, strict guidelines must be followed when working with high-voltage electricity. This strictness is not because the bosses of electrical workers are tyrants but rather because high voltage is unforgiving.
Verse 27 continues, “As the vessels of the potter are broken in pieces.” As means ‘as, like as’ and is used twice in verse 27. Each ‘as’ indicates an analogical similarity in which one situation functions like another. A vessel is ‘a vessel to contain liquid’ and is mentioned once in the seven letters. Liquid represents Mercy experiences. The term ‘nation’ used in verse 26 refers to a group of people guided by common mental networks of Mercy experiences. Potter is used once in the New Testament and means ‘of clay, made by a potter, earthen’. Thus, the focus is not upon the person of a potter but rather upon the source of the pottery. It comes from a word that means ‘mixed’. ‘Mixed’ suggests that the cultural mental networks are composed of a hodgepodge of unrelated emotional memories of experiences that have been randomly jammed together. Similarly, ‘earth’ is interpreted as the rational landscape of human existence and clay is a soft substance from the earth. Clay turns into hard but brittle pottery when it is fired with heat. Thus, the same heat of testing that produces the iron of strong, solid facts also produces the solid but brittle material of pottery. Saying this cognitively, elements of culture typically form when some group of people goes through similar traumatic experiences. The result is a strong but brittle bonding based in a mixture of emotional experiences.
Broken into pieces is a single word that means ‘to break in pieces, crush’. Mental networks will scream when they continue to experience content that is inconsistent with their structure. This explains why marginalized, traditional, conservative, and absolute truth societies are currently screaming. They feel as if the ‘pottery’ of their culture and beliefs is being ‘broken into pieces’. Verse 27 does not say that this will happen but rather that what will happen will be like this. The current postmodern, technological world system questions existing cultural and religious mental networks without providing an alternative. What we are experiencing today is a backlash from belittled mental networks that have reached the breaking point. The shepherding of verse 27 describes something that will feel similar but be driven by the positive goal of replacing inconsistent Mercy mental networks with the integrated structure of a Teacher understanding.
This distinction is brought out by the final phrase of verse 27 with its second ‘as’. “Just as I also have received from My Father.” Have means ‘to actively lay hold of... accept with initiative’ and ‘I’ is implied. Thus, the emphasis is upon the active initiative rather than the person doing the accepting. Father indicates a source based in male technical thought and this is the first use of this common word in the seven letters. The father of incarnation describes a concept of God in Teacher thought that acts as the source of the technical thinking of incarnation.
For instance, mental symmetry is a meta-theory in Teacher thought that acts as a framework for various technical specializations. ‘Actively laying hold of’ mental symmetry does not mean attacking other theories as wrong but rather recognizing that they are incomplete, placing each one within the appropriate location of abstract thought, and explaining the inadequate aspects as expressions of immature human thought. This process is driven by the positive emotion of building Teacher order that values and preserves Mercy identity. However, the indirect result has been a ‘breaking into pieces’ of existing cultural and religious mental networks. Instead of questioning these mental networks and regarding God and people as meaningless, mental symmetry uses a rational concept of God to understand what is really required for human wholeness and flourishing. However, this will feel to the average sheeple as a destroying of existing mental networks. And, unlike the current scientific questioning of mental networks which can only go so far before provoking a backlash, the spreading of a Teacher understanding of human well-being can go all the way to a total rebuilding of existing cultural and religious mental networks.
Verse 28 adds that this is the start of a new system that is capable of totally rebuilding society. “And I will give to him the morning star.” A star is a light in the sky, a luminary within the realm of Teacher thought. Morning is used twice in the New Testament and means ‘at early morning’. The other occurrence is in Revelation 22:16 which also refers to the morning star but describes that morning star as bright. Historically speaking, the morning star refers either to the planet Venus or the star Sirius which appears in the sky before sunrise. This indicates that the shepherds of society will be harbingers of a new era that is lit by the sun of a general Teacher understanding. They will lay the foundation for a new society by placing cultural and religious mental networks within the framework of a general Teacher understanding. This describes what mental symmetry is attempting to do.
Verse 29 is a repetition of what was said at the end of previous letters. “The one having an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” In other words, in each stage it is vital for those who are thinking verbally not to focus upon the lessons of the previous era, but rather to listen to what internal Mercy mental networks of the spirit are communicating to those who are attempting to follow Teacher understanding rather than cultural convention. In this case, I think that the deepest cry is that people do not want to be cogs in a machine. They love the benefits of technology but they also want to be treated as human beings. Thus, what is really needed is a meta-theory of human well-being in Teacher thought that is compatible with science and technology.
Sardis 3:1-6
We move now to the future. At this point, we will stop quoting from Wikipedia because even though Wikipedia is quite extensive, it does not cover the future. It should be added that these seven letters were written during the Roman era when all of this was in the future. We have seen that the first four letters correspond in detail to primary struggles of Western history. This means that it is cognitively and religiously legitimate to regard Western history as more significant than non-Western history. This does not mean that Europeans are superior to others but rather that God has been guiding Western civilization along a path that has brought substantial benefits to the entire world. It also does not mean that other cultures and other civilizations are worthless, but it does mean that Western civilization has been following a critical path that has to be followed to save humanity. Finally, it does not excuse Western imperialism or justify Western arrogance, but it does indicate that the ideas of indigenous knowing and decolonization are not just cognitively destructive but actively oppose the plan of God in human history. And if the first four letters to the churches have been fulfilled in such detail, it is rational to suggest that the last three letters will also be fulfilled with equal detail. While it is not possible to connect the last three letters with the facts of history, it is possible to relate these letters to the prophetic structure that has emerged from analyzing most of the rest of the New Testament as well gain a partial understanding by comparing them with similar stages in history.
My general hypothesis that there will be a ‘theoretical return of Jesus’ followed by a ‘spiritual economy’. The theoretical return corresponds to what others refer to as the rapture. But this will not be a snatching of Christian believers to heaven but rather the revealing of a universal rational Teacher theory to humanity accompanied in some way by a supernatural element. Mental symmetry is the only Teacher theory that I am aware of that qualifies. The doctrine of the rapture is analyzed in the essay on 1 Thessalonians. The end of the letter to Thyatira appears to be describing this sort of transition with those who overcome being given authority to rule over the nations.
A universal theory that bridges the mental networks of spirituality and the technical thinking of science and technology makes it possible to combine these two in a spiritual economy. This will initially appear as adding spirituality to the existing economy. In some way, the mental networks of many (all?) individuals will acquire spiritual power and be able to affect the way that these individuals use technology. 1 Timothy appears to be describing the preparation for and emergence of a spiritual economy. The major characteristic of this spiritual economy is that spirituality will be added to existing technical thought. Saying this more simply, ‘spiritual’ will be an adjective that is added to the noun of ‘economy’.
I do not know what this all entails, but I think that it will include something like the following example: The Internet uses technical thought and infrastructure to convey messages with extreme accuracy. However, it is currently possible for people to be motivated by malicious mental networks to spread lies on the Internet through social media and propaganda. A spiritual economy would mean that these mental networks of dishonesty would become empowered to locally affect the functioning of computers. Thus, those who lie on the Internet would find that their computers would generate errors. In a similar manner, Christian praise-and-worship usually uses modern electronics to convey a message of religious escapism. The mental networks that motivate such praise-and-worship would impose such escapism upon the sound systems being used to convey this praise and worship. In addition, praise-and-worship often juxtaposes Christian words with popular secular styles of music. A spiritual economy would give spiritual power to the nonverbal message making it clear what spirit is actually motivating the worship. My hypothesis is that the letter to the church in Sardis is describing such a spiritual economy.
Tying this in with current reality, the examples that I have given all involve some form of electromagnetic interference. Stories suggest that UFOs can generate electromagnetic interference and that some people have a psychic ability to disturb electronics. In a spiritual economy, this door to the supernatural that is currently open a crack would open widely. A spiritual economy would probably include additional effects, but I think that I can safely predict that there would be extensive psychic electronic interference and manipulation of electronics.
Verse 1 begins, “And to the messenger of the church in Sardis write:” This is the same introduction as with the other letters. Neither Biblehub nor Wikipedia provide a meaning for the word ‘Sardis’. One website suggests that “Three meanings have been proposed: ‘prince of joy,’ ‘that which remains,’ and ‘those escaping.’” ‘Prince of joy’ suggests being ruled by an emotional theory in Teacher thought. ‘That which remains’ would describe the various fragments of culture and religion that survive the analysis of the ‘prince of joy’. And ‘those escaping’ would refer to those who manage to overcome and hold on to the end.
Verse 1 continues by describing the nature of incarnation. “These things says the One having the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars.” The seven stars were previously mentioned in 2:1 at the beginning of the letters to the churches but not the seven spirits of God. In 2:1 and in 1:16 the seven stars were in the right hand of incarnation while in 3:1 incarnation has the seven stars. The seven spirits were described in 1:4 as being ‘before His throne’ while in 3:1 incarnation has ‘the seven spirits of the God’. The seven spirits are mentioned one other time in Revelation in 5:6 which also refers to ‘the seven spirits of the God’.
My hypothesis is that the seven spirits of God relate to the seven cognitive styles. I say this for two reasons: First, cognitive style appears to be a difference in consciousness. I have searched the neurological literature for decades for some brain differences that correspond to cognitive style and have found nothing. But decades of observing human personality has also made it abundantly clear that each cognitive style views the world in a fundamentally different manner. In addition, neurology has spent decades attempting—and failing—to address the hard problem of consciousness; neurology provides major insights into the fragments of human thought but cannot explain how the mind puts these fragments together to form conscious awareness. Putting this together, mental symmetry says that different cognitive styles have different conscious awareness, neurology cannot explain consciousness, and there is no brain evidence of cognitive styles. The conclusion is that cognitive style is an expression of seven different fundamental spirits and that each person is given a finite amount of one of these seven spirits. Second, the seven cognitive modules are not just an expression of cognitive style but also can be used as a meta-theory to analyze many subjects. Thus, the seven spirits appear to be seven spirits of God because a concept of God is based in a universal Teacher understanding and the seven cognitive modules can be used to build a universal understanding of human thought and society.
A star is a light in the sky, which represents some person who is regarded by society as the discoverer of some Teacher theory. For instance, Isaac Newton is a star of physics; Sigmund Freud is a star of psychology; Abraham Lincoln is a star of politics. In verse 1, the seven stars are mentioned along with the seven spirits of God. This suggests that these seven different cognitive styles will be regarded by society as seven primary sources of understanding.
Verse 1 says that incarnation has the seven spirits and the seven stars. On the one hand, this means that the seven cognitive modules are being approached from a technical viewpoint. They are not just seven overgeneralizations but rather seven general paradigms of technical thought, as illustrated by the detailed analyses of these essays based in the seven cognitive modules. On the other hand, having indicates functioning at the peripheral realm of having rather than being. This implies that the spiritual element of the spiritual economy will initially be regarded as something that is added to objects rather than something with inherent life and worth.
My guess is that people with potent mental networks will have the ability to ‘spiritually enhance’ specific objects. Thus, spiritually enhanced devices will be viewed as new-and-improved versions of existing devices. This will solve the current problem of economy of scale. At the moment, almost any device can be mass-produced far cheaper in a factory than constructed by hand. This puts the individual craftsman out of work, replacing the artisan with the factory worker or robot. Saying this another way, whenever the Teacher order of the economic machine meets personal identity in Mercy thought, then Teacher overwhelms Mercy. If individuals with potent mental networks acquired the ability to enhance objects, then an object mass-produced in a factory might be cheaper, but an object handcrafted and spiritually enhanced by some master craftsman would have qualities not present in the mass-produced item.
Verse 1 finishes by describing the inadequacies of such a system. “I know your deeds, that you have the characterization that you are alive, and yet you are dead.” Know means ‘seeing that becomes knowing’ which means that there are visible results. A deed is ‘a deed that carries out an inner desire’. Thus, the internal motivation of mental networks is leading to external physical results. Characterization is the word ‘name’, which refers to the label of a person in Teacher thought. Have is explicitly mentioned which indicates functioning at the peripheral realm of having. ‘Having a name’ is like being a professional in which one learns the knowledge and skill of some profession, such as lawyer or plumber, but does not necessarily become such a person. Alive refers to either spiritual or natural life. The mind uses mental networks to represent living beings. Having a name of life suggests that technical professions are acquiring a new living dimension through spiritually enhanced mental networks. This would be a major breakthrough from today’s economy in which people function as impersonal cogs in the machine. Instead of having to sell one’s soul to the system, one could express one’s soul as a professional within the system and be valued as an individual with a soul.
The final phrase indicates that this transformation has not yet affected the core realm of being. Dead means ‘what lacks life’. This is followed by are, which is the verb ‘to be’. Thus, there is no life at the core level of ‘being’. This indicates that spiritual enhancement is being added to existing objective specializations, but this has not yet touched the personal realm of being. Before continuing, it should be pointed out that this is inevitable. That is because the current society of Thyatira is seeking spirituality without content. In the same way that mental symmetry acquired much of its content and rigor from the structure and knowledge of science, so the contentless spirituality of today would have to acquire content by being attached to the existing content of objective specializations and technology. And this developing of spiritual content would only happen if people really felt that spiritual enhancement of existing technology was something new and exciting to be pursued.
Verse 2 provides a warning. “Be watching, and strengthen the things that remain, which are about to die.” Be means ‘to come into being’ which means that something needs to be developed that will take time to emerge. Watching means ‘stay awake’ and is repeated in the next verse. Strengthen refers to ‘a support that fixes, plants down’. Remain means ‘left behind, the remainder’. This term is used one other time in the seven letters in 2:24 which referred to ‘the rest of those in Thyatira’. About means ‘at the very point of acting’. Die means to ‘die off’ and is used once in the seven letters. Putting this together, the average person in Thyatira was following some profession while trying to avoid the various emotional confusions. If a person avoided dealing with emotional pressure, then the emotional intensity of a spiritual economy would naturally cause that person to go passive and mentally fall asleep. Verse 2 warns that the professional content that was previously applied in a semi-passive manner needs to be nailed down with solid Perceiver facts. If people today already spend hours of each day immersed within the alternate reality of their smart phones, then it makes sense that the average person would become totally immersed within spiritually enhanced technology. And if skills, knowledge, and common sense are already being lost today by users of modern technology, then it makes sense that the very existence of common sense would be threatened by spiritual technology.
Verse 2 continues, “For I have not found your works having been completed in the sight of My God.” Found means ‘to discover, especially after searching’. Works is the same word that was used in verse 1 to describe internally motivated behavior. Completed means to ‘fill to individual capacity’. In other words, if one looks beyond the surface, one notices that internally motivated spiritual enhancement is not being carried through to completion. People want a little spiritual enhancement but not too much. They want their objects to be more exciting but they do not not want to face the personal implications or become transformed at the deeper level of being. Therefore, they are adding some spirituality and then shutting down the spirituality when it becomes uncomfortable. In the sight of means ‘before the face of’. The final phrase is ‘the God of me’ which would refer to an integrated Teacher concept of God lying behind the technical specializations. In other words, people want spiritual enhancements in a fragmented manner that does not challenge existing MMNs of culture and society. They do not want this spirituality to come together in an integrated manner that leads to a concept of God in Teacher thought. This is similar to the way that people today complain about the fragmented nature of specialized society but they do not want a Teacher meta-theory that will tie these fragments together.
Verse 3 gives instructions. “Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard—and keep it and repent.” Remember means ‘to call to mind’ which implies that the past is being ignored and suppressed. Received means ‘to actively lay hold of’ and was previously used in verse 22 to describe incarnation actively laying hold of the Father. Heard means to ‘comprehend by hearing’ which refers to verbal understanding in Teacher thought. Thus, in the same way that using technology in a personal way causes people to forget about the science that lies behind this technology, and in the same way that a charismatic revival causes Christians to forget about theology, so spiritual technology would cause people to forget about the Teacher understanding that was revealed during the theoretical return of Jesus which laid the foundation for this spiritual technology. Keep means to ‘keep intact’ and was previously used in 2:26 to talk about ‘keeping my deeds until the end’. Repent means to ‘think differently afterwards’. People would be viewing spiritual enhancement as something in Mercy thought that gets added to specific Mercy objects by people with potent Mercy mental networks. Instead, they would need to view spiritual technology as an expression of an integrated concept of God in Teacher thought. This is similar to the way that social media views the Internet as a community in Mercy thought for sharing personal opinions with others who have similar MMNs, completely ignoring the fact that the Internet itself is a massive Teacher structure that is the result of extensive international technical cooperation involving governments and large corporations.
Verse 3 concludes by saying what will happen if this is not done. “If therefore you shall not watch, I will come like a thief, and you shall not know at what hour I will come upon you.” Watch means to ‘stay awake’ and was used in verse 2. If and therefore indicate that this is a logical result of ignoring the previous instructions. Come means ‘to reach the end destination’ and was previously used in 2:25 to talk about incarnation coming, which was interpreted as the theoretical return of Jesus. It is used twice in verse 3. Like indicates that one thing is like another. A thief is ‘a thief who steals by stealth’ and is only used one other time in Revelation in 16:15. In addition, 1 Thessalonians 5:2, Matthew 24:43, and Luke 12:39 all refer to a thief coming in the night. Know refers to experiential knowledge. What means ‘of what sort?’ and hour means ‘a time or period, an hour’. Thus, this is is not a matter of lacking intellectual knowledge or making the wrong technical calculations but rather having the wrong Mercy mental networks to experientially recognize what is about to happen. Upon means ‘on, upon’.
Acts 7 suggests that spiritual technology will eventually lead to interaction with aliens and/or angels. People will initially think that spiritual technology is merely a modification of existing technical thought. They will not realize that there are actual living beings who live within the messages of spiritualized science and technology. Thus, I think that ‘coming upon you’ indicates some form of alien or angelic disclosure. A thief secretly steals property. This suggests that those who work with spiritual technology will assume that they own their spiritual enhancements. But they will not realize that these enhancements are actually under the ownership of angelic and alien powers.
One can understand what this means by looking at the current Internet. When people treat Internet devices and connections from a Mercy perspective as enhanced gadgets, then this makes it possible for corporations who function at the level of Teacher generality to secretly take control of these gadgets. The user suddenly wakes up and discovers that he does not actually own the gadget that he thought he owns. For instance, users may ‘buy’ movies, music, or games on the Internet, or buy gadgets that require Internet access to function, and then lose ownership of these item when the company that sells the items decides to stop providing the Internet support that is required to use them.
Something similar is being described here at a deeper level because the spiritual enhancements that are being purchased are actually the mental networks and spiritual essence of life itself. Saying this more simply, those who used spiritual enhancements in an unintelligent and amoral fashion would suddenly realize that they had sold their souls to supernatural beings who had now arrived to collect the debt. That is why it would be imperative to use spiritual technology in a moral fashion for the purpose of personal wholeness, guided by an integrated concept of God and incarnation in Teacher thought.
Clothed in White 3:4-6
Verse 4 turns to those who are following spiritual technology in a moral and integrated manner. “But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments.” Have refers to the objective realm of having, and ‘you’ is implied. People is the same word ‘name’ that was used earlier in verse 1. Thus, verse 4 is still dealing with spiritually enhanced professions as opposed to personal transformation. ‘In the realm of Sardis’ would refer to those who have hung on to the end of Thyatira and have encountered Teacher joy. Soiled is used three times in the New Testament and means to ‘besmear with mud’. Garment refers to ‘the outer garment’ as opposed to the inner garment. Clothing is interpreted as the fabric of social interaction. An outer garment indicates public interaction, such as professional behavior. Mud is a combination of solid and liquid. Solid represents Perceiver facts while liquid represents Mercy experiences.
Looking at this cognitively, the current scientific and professional mindset preserves rational thought by remaining objective. This means that most professionals have not gained the Perceiver confidence that is required to use solid facts in the presence of Mercy emotions. For instance, I just wrote a paper on mental networks and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex which shows that research can handle Mercy emotions to some extent but literally implodes when faced with the Teacher emotion of paradigms. In fact, Thomas Kuhn, who came up with the idea of paradigm shifts and has been cited over 140,000 times, abandoned his research shortly after writing the second edition of his book. This suggests that academia and professionals will be able to handle spiritual technology to some extent in the early stages when it appeared to be merely an enhancement to existing technology in Mercy thought. However, most technical and professional behavior would turn into metaphorical mud when faced with aliens and/or angels who live within the Teacher realm of paradigms. The resulting ‘social mud’ would probably resemble alchemy, an admixture of chemistry and magic that preceded the development of modern chemistry. Few means ‘few, little, small’ which suggests that a minority of individuals will manage to retain rational behavior. For instance, one individual who has known about mental symmetry for a while and recently started interacting with me personally made the comment that he was surprised that I was so normal and that I had not been driven crazy by my unusual research. That is one aspect of what it means to ‘not soiled their garments’.
Verse 4 continues, “And they will walk with Me in white, because they are worthy.” Walk means ‘walk, conduct my life’ and was previously used in 2:1 to describe incarnation as walking among the seven golden lampstands. That was interpreted as living in the Roman era during which the sources of absolute truth lived. In verse 4, individuals are walking with incarnation. In other words, a living concept of incarnation is developing as people apply spirituality in an increasingly intelligent manner. While most individuals are viewing spirituality in a fragmented manner, some are behaving in a manner that reflects the development of an integrated concept of incarnation. Notice that this is not just a matter of theoretical integration but rather a way of life. That is because the spiritual realm is the source of life and the mind uses mental networks to represent life. Thus, acquiring life from the spiritual realm requires behaving in a manner that follows the integrated technical understanding of incarnation and not just practicing technical thought as a professional. In means ‘in the realm of’ and white means ‘white, bright, brilliant’. It was used earlier in 2:17 when mentioning a ‘white stone’. That was interpreted as the Platonic forms that result from believing the words of the Bible as absolute truth. In this case, one is living in a realm of white brightness. This can be interpreted as being guided by Teacher understanding. But white light is also a combination of all seven colors, which leads to the interpretation of being guided by the combined light of all seven cognitive styles.
Worthy means ‘of weight, of worth, worthy’ and this is the first use of this word in Revelation. This is followed by the verb ‘to be’. Thus, the goal is to go beyond applying spirituality in an objective, professional manner to becoming a person of value. The postmodernism of today questions traditional mental networks of religion and society and replaces them with the imposition of power. Following incarnation as a way of life replaces these traditional mental networks with value. Instead of behaving in a certain manner because it is approved or expected, one becomes a certain person because this has value. Making a transition to value would be vital if spiritual power grew to the point of questioning existing religious and societal norms. The instinctive feeling would be that humans are now free of all moral constraints and able to do anything. However, when all artificial constraints are eliminated, the fundamental constraints of the structure of the mind still remain. Even if spiritual power made it possible to evade many natural laws of cause-and-effect, mental principles of cause-and-effect would still remain, and these mental laws function at the deepest level of being. Saying this another way, spirituality is currently regarded as free of content. But the spiritual realm is governed by its own set of universal laws, laws that can be discovered by understanding how mental networks function. These spiritual laws operate at the level of being because mental networks define one’s being.
Looking at this from a personal perspective, my goal for decades has been to develop all of my cognitive modules. I have found that following this path leads naturally to the development of both Teacher understanding and a more integrated concept of incarnation. That is because one gradually stops behaving in a manner that is guided by mental networks of society and religion and starts behaving in a manner that actually meets the requirements for personal and social well-being as a human. Instead of doing what one should do, one does what is necessary for wholeness, guided by an understanding of mental wholeness. This does not mean deliberately violating the norms of society, but when forced to make a choice, one chooses to pursue wholeness and well-being rather than approval.
Verse 5 says that seeking to become valuable will lead to a society of light. “The one overcoming thus will be clothed in white garments.” ‘Overcoming’ is the same word used in previous letters which indicates that this will be a struggle in which one has to choose not to follow the dominant path. Thus means ‘in this way’ which means that seeking to become valuable is the process that will lead to the rewards of verse 5. Clothed combines ‘all around’ with ‘to throw’ and is used one other time in the seven letters in 3:18. Throwing is interpreted as moving through the ‘air’ of Teacher thought. Garment refers to the outer garment which represents the public side of social interaction. White means ‘white, bright, brilliant’ and was used in the previous verse.
Verse 4 talked about walking with incarnation in the realm of white, while verse 5 talks about being clothed in the realm of white garments. Thus, what starts as a way of life that rationally follows incarnation guided by Teacher understanding will turn into social interaction that is based in the light and integration of Teacher understanding. Saying this another way, overcoming will initially follow a rational understanding of what is required for human well-being rather than Mercy mental networks of conventional human behavior, guided by the goal to become people of value. This will turn into a new form of social interaction that is based in a Teacher understanding of human well-being. This is an important transition because when one is following personal value rather than societal norms, then one will naturally fear that this will lead to societal chaos. Verse 5 indicates that the result will be social order and not chaos.
Verse 5 continues, “And I will never blot out his name from the book of life.” Blot out combines ‘wholly out from’ and ‘smear’ and is used once in the seven letters. Name was previously used in verse 4 to talk about a few names in Sardis who have not soiled their garments. Book means ‘a written book, roll’ and is mentioned one other time in Revelation in 20:15 which also refers to ‘the book of life’. Life refers to either physical or spiritual life. A book is a physical illustration of a solid rational Teacher theory because it organizes the words of Teacher thought into words, sentences, and paragraphs and then gives this permanence. Life is mentally represented by mental networks and is empowered by the spiritual realm. A ‘book of life’ implies that what began as fragmented spiritual enhancements has now coalesced to form a lasting integrated theory in Teacher thought. This is significant, because the next age will rebuild society starting from this reborn Teacher mental network of life. ‘Name’ indicates that humans are interacting with this book of life at the Teacher level of names. This is significant because angels are ‘messengers’ who presumably function as Teacher names within the verbal landscape of some integrated Teacher understanding. In other words, humans who overcome will start to interact the same way that angels interact. Writing these essays on the New Testament has given me a feeling of what this means, because most New Testament books can be interpreted as prophetic sequences. Thus, what has emerged out of studying all these books is an angelic landscape of interconnected sequences that relate to human history within which one could actually live.
‘Blotting out’ indicates that many people will initially receive names of spiritual power within Teacher thought but this Teacher name will become ‘smeared’ and become incoherent as it becomes added in a fragmented manner to existing chaotic and inconsistent Mercy mental networks. This is an important transition because when one is following personal value rather than religious norms, then one will naturally fear that one will end up in eternal hell for not showing sufficient emotional respect to the God of religion. However, it will become clear that those who follow Mercy mental networks of traditional religion lose their spiritual power while those who follow a Teacher mental network of human well-being maintain their spiritual power. For instance, mental symmetry has caused me to approach the Bible from the perspective of mental wholeness, causing me to ask myself if I am going to go to hell for questioning traditional doctrines of absolute truth. However, recent crises of society have added substance to my religious faith while the theology and morality of most evangelical Christians has become smeared and incoherent. I write this one day before the 2024 presidential election.
Verse 5 finishes, “And I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” Confess means to ‘speak the same thing’. Name is mentioned again, which indicates a focus upon the messages of Teacher thought. Before means ‘before the face of’ and is used twice. ‘My Father’ refers to the Teacher concept of God that lies behind the specializations of incarnation. Angel means ‘messenger’ and this is the only reference to angels in the seven letters apart from the introductory sentences. ‘Before his angels’ indicates that it is appropriate for us to suggest that humans will be interacting personally with angels and/or aliens at this point. What is being described is a potential collision between two sources of integrated Teacher understanding. On the one side is the ‘the book of life’ that has formed as a result of many humans applying spiritual power in an integrated manner guided by what is necessary for human wholeness and well-being. On the other side is the traditional angelic ‘landscape’ within which actual angels function as messengers to serve God. ‘Confess’ means to say the same thing which indicates that these two sides are translations of the same integrated message. Verse 5 is saying that incarnation will place the Teacher names of humans who pursue personal value into the existing angelic landscape. This is an important transition because if angels and/or aliens appear, then the tendency will be for humans to submit to the supernatural power of these beings. In fact, if UFO stories are true, then aliens are currently interacting with humans in a manner that uses supernatural power to impose an alien plan upon humanity. Verse 5 says that those who pursue human well-being at the level of being will be able to live within the angelic landscape without being supernaturally squelched.
In other words, if one wants to survive alien disclosure, then one should not deny human existence through some form of mysticism—which is the standard method used by people today to try to interact with aliens, and one should also not try to preserve existing materialistic, mortal culture. Instead, one needs to be guided by a Teacher understanding of mental wholeness to pursue what is necessary for human well-being. My general hypothesis is that angels, aliens, and humans all have similar minds but interact with the environment in totally different ways. Interacting with the environment at the angelic level of Teacher names is more simplistic than interacting at the human level of Mercy experiences. This is backed up by UFO stories which describe aliens functioning like living machines within a limited environment that lacks individuality, has no culture, never has fun, cannot laugh, never takes a break, and is parasitic upon humanity for any shred of Mercy feelings. This describes an environment of Teacher order and Teacher names that lacks Mercy emotion and Mercy substance. Aliens and angels need to be shown what it means to be a whole person by humans who live within Mercy emotions and Mercy experiences, but this will only happen if humans can express what is required to be a complete human in a manner that is compatible with the Teacher order and integration of the angelic realm. The reference to ‘my Father and his angels’ is significant because it means that one will interact successfully with angels who are following God in heaven rather than aliens who are following some alien agenda. The current alien agenda is also based in a form of Teacher wholeness but the primary goal is to pursue physical integration through the manipulation of DNA as opposed to spiritual integration and the pursuit of mental wholeness.
Verse 6 repeats the same phrase that ends every letter. “The one having an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” In this case it is quite obvious what the Spirit in Mercy thought is saying to the churches in Teacher thought. The challenge is to express the spiritual enhancements to technology in an integrated manner that pursues Teacher wholeness based upon what is required for humans to be happy and successful in the long-term. At the beginning this will be a choice because it will be possible to pursue spiritual enhancements in a fragmented, amoral, and godless manner. But when interaction with angels and/or aliens begins, then pursuing spiritual enhancements in an integrated, moral and godly manner will be imperative for human survival.
Philadelphia 3:7-13
This letter also opens with the same sentence, changing only the name of the church. “And to the messenger of the church in Philadelphia write.” Philadelphia combines ‘philos’ and ‘adelphos’. Philos describes ‘a trusted confident, held dear in a close bond of personal affection’. This is interpreted as the liking that results from having compatible mental networks. Adelphos means ‘from the same womb’. Thus, one does not have compatible mental networks because of belonging to the same culture or the same religion but rather from having experienced a similar form of cognitive birth. Something like this happens when Christians are attracted to each other because they have traveled a similar path of spiritual and personal rebirth.
Sardis was interpreted as existing objective science and technology being modified by spiritual enhancements. This is the only possible starting point when science and technology are highly developed and people are pursuing spirituality without content. The end result of Sardis was an integrated system of spirituality—a book of life—that was capable of standing on its own. Philadelphia describes a new society and economy emerging out of these transformed integrated mental networks of spirituality. Saying this more simply, in Sardis, economy was the noun while spiritual was the adjective. In Philadelphia, spiritual will be the noun while economy will be the adjective. This type of reborn economy is described in more detail in Titus. I suspect that the transition from Sardis to Philadelphia will involve the kingdom of the beast described in Revelation 13.
This also relates to the distinction between matter-over-mind and mind-over-matter made in earlier essays. We currently live in a physical realm of matter-over-mind in which we cannot use thoughts to change reality. Spiritual enhancements would make it possible for mind to start having some impact upon matter. Rebuilding society from an integrated spiritual foundation would tip the balance towards mind-over-matter. This would not mean that natural laws would cease to function but rather that human minds would acquire the ability to use spiritual power to locally impact the laws of nature. Something like this is described in some UFO stories which talk about a cone of influence in which those inside this cone have a UFO encounter while those who are outside of this cone are unaware of any UFO interaction.
Verse 7 describes the context. “These things says the Holy One, the True One, having the key of David, the One opening and no one will shut, and shutting and no one opens.” Holy means ‘different from the world because like the Lord’. True means ‘true to fact’ and this is the first use of this word in the seven letters. In both cases, ‘the’ is explicitly mentioned and ‘One’ is implied. ‘True to fact’ relates to building upon what is actually required as opposed to following conventional religious or social mental networks. My experience is that most of these mental networks are not wrong. However, social mental networks have become twisted by the assumption that it is normal and proper for humans to interact in an adversarial way guided by Mercy mental networks. And religious mental networks have become twisted by the underlying mindset of religious self-denial that inevitably accompanies absolute truth. ‘The holy and the true’ indicates that a new concept of following God in Teacher thought has emerged that expresses fundamental concepts of human wholeness and well-being. Thus, the final result of the church of Sardis has become the starting point for the church of Philadelphia. Similarly, the universal rational Teacher understanding acquired at the end of the church of Thyatira was the starting point for the church of Sardis.
Having indicates functioning at the peripheral level of ‘having’. Key means ‘a key’ and is mentioned once in the seven letters. David means ‘beloved one’ and the root of David is mentioned in 5:5 while the offspring of David is mentioned in 22:16. 5:5 describes incarnation being worthy to open the scroll in an environment of worship. David is described in Acts 13:22 as ‘a man according to My heart, who will do all My will’ and in 1 Samuel 13:14 as ‘a man after His own heart’. Thus, David represents the individual who emotionally enters completely into worshiping and following God. This type of devotion is possible within absolute truth but it cannot lead further to total transformation because actually living within absolute truth inevitably belittles the emotional reverence required to maintain a mindset of absolute truth. For instance, Victorian society applied absolute truth in a moral fashion, achieved technical and imperial success, and then became morally corrupt, as illustrated by the genocidal behavior of the British in the Second Boer War. The end result was the horror of the First World War. Thus, ‘a key of David’ implies unlocking the barrier that is preventing further progress. This requires living fully within transformed mental networks that are based in universal truth rather than absolute truth. Hence, the reference to ‘the holy and the true’. This sort of transition describes one of the goals of mental symmetry.
The final phrase of verse 7 describes an opening and shutting. The verb open combines ‘up’ and ‘to open’ and is used three times in this verse and the next. Shut means ‘to shut’ and is also used three times in this verse and the next. No one is repeated twice and means ‘no one, none, nothing’. This indicates a major transition in which an existing open door is being shut and a door that was shut is being opened. I suggest that this is the result of the ‘confessing before My father and his angels’ that happened at the end of verse 5. Looking at this more carefully, we are seeing in these essays that angelic powers have been guiding the course of human history. And humans started interacting directly with angelic beings during the previous era of Sardis. This system of angelic authority has just become convinced by the ‘confessing of incarnation’ to move away from absolute truth to universal principles of personal well-being that summarize what humans (and angels) require for personal, social, and spiritual well-being.
This transition is described at the beginning of Revelation 14 right after the defeat of the kingdom of the beast in Revelation 13. A new group emerges with the name of God and incarnation written on their foreheads, consistent with the emphasis upon names in the previous verses. In verse 3 this group sings a new song before the throne of God that no one else is able to learn. That describes the opening of a new door. This is followed in verses 6-11 by three angels warning that the existing doors of culture, Babylon, and the beast have now been shut. The fact that angels are making these announcements indicates a shift in angelic authority.
An Open Door 3:8-9
Verse 8 expands upon the open door. “I know your deeds. Behold, I have set before you a door having been opened, which no one is able to shut it.” Know is ‘seeing that becomes knowing’ which refers to empirical evidence. Deed is the familiar word that refers to internally motivated action. The cognitive principle here is that Server actions give stability to words in Teacher thought. On the one hand, incarnation has confessed the Teacher names of followers before the angelic Teacher system. On the other hand, these human followers have performed Server actions that were internally motivated by such an angelic Teacher system. Behold means ‘look, behold’ and indicates that something new has suddenly emerged. ‘Behold’ is used three times in verses 8-9, consistent with the idea that a major transition is happening. Set actually means ‘to give’ and has been used several times previously. The implication is that people are being given positions and abilities and not just being used as tools. Door means ‘a door’ and this is the first use of this word in Revelation. Open is the same verb that was used twice in verse 7 but ‘having been opened’ indicates that a transition has just occurred in which a barrier has been eliminated, resulting in a ‘behold’.
Before means ‘before the face of’. The confessing in verse 5 happened ‘before my Father and before the angels’ indicating a shift in the angelic realm of Teacher thought. The opened door is now happening before the human followers of incarnation. Is able means ‘to have power’ and indicates active Perceiver thought. Humans have strength while angels have power. Shut is the same word that was used in verse 7. The open door in verse 8 implies two things. First, a solution is not being directly provided. Instead, finding the solution requires actively going through a door that has not previously existed. Second, various angelic powers are directly trying to close this new door but being unsuccessful.
Verse 8 finishes by providing three reasons. “Because you have little power, and yet you have kept My word and have not denied My name.” Because is a generic preposition that means ‘that, because’. Have refers to the realm of having. Power is the noun form of the verb ‘able’ used earlier. Little means ‘small, little’ and this is the only use of this word in the seven letters. ‘Having a little power’ suggests being unable to impose one’s will objectively upon others. Human authorities have substantial power as do angels and aliens. However, one acquires spiritual wealth in a spiritual economy when one deserves a reward and does not receive it. Someone who has much power will be able to achieve his goals. In contrast, someone who only has a little power will be blocked from receiving a reward by both humans and angels who have more power, resulting in spiritual wealth. This spiritual wealth has now led to the reward of an open door which powerful beings are attempting unsuccessfully to close.
And yet is simply the word ‘and’. Keep means to ‘maintain, preserve’ and was previously used in verse 3 to talk about keeping what had been received. Word is ‘logos’ which is interpreted as the paradigm behind some technical specialization. The Greek says ‘my the word’ referring to the Teacher paradigm of incarnation, which brings to mind John 1 where incarnation is referred to as the ‘logos’ of God who is God and who is with God. This reference makes sense because a massive shift has just happened within the heavenly realm of ‘my Father and his angels’ with traditional authority being questioned.
A similar but smaller shift is happening today with postmodernism. In the same way that the challenge today is to keep the content of revealed truth when making a transition from absolute truth to universal truth (as indicated by the ‘keep’ in 2:26), so the challenge in a future heavenly shift away from traditional authority would be keeping the content of the word of incarnation intact while making this transition.
Deny means ‘to deny, say no’ and is used to describe Peter’s denials of Jesus. It is used one other time in Revelation in 2:13 to talk about Antipas not denying ‘my faith’, which was interpreted as the Protestant Reformation. The Protestants did not deny the content of the absolute truth of the Bible when respect for political and religious authority faded during the Renaissance. In verse 8 what is not being denied is ‘the name of me’ which refers to the Teacher understanding that lies behind incarnation. This relates to the two forms of heavenly Teacher structure described earlier. The first is the existing hierarchical structure of heavenly powers. The second is the belief that heavenly beings are carrying out an integrated technical plan that can be placed within a universal Teacher theory of integrated wholeness. Not denying ‘the name of me’ means holding on to this second Teacher structure when being challenged by the first. Saying this more simply, even if it feels as if God and the angels are against me, I will still hold on to the belief that the real God is a God of wholeness who answers the prayers of those who are seeking spiritual and physical wholeness.
In verse 9, the religious structure shifts. “Behold, I give those from the synagogue of Satan—those declaring themselves to be Jews, and are not, but they lie.” Behold indicates another visible shift. Satan means ‘adversary’ and 2:24 referred to ‘the deep things of Satan’ which was interpreted as the postmodern mindset that interprets all social interaction as power struggles. Synagogue means ‘a bringing together’ and is found one other time in Revelation in 2:9 which also referred to a synagogue of Satan. That was interpreted as the Renaissance Catholic Church claiming to follow God but actually driven by human conflict. In both 2:9 and 3:9 this group is declaring themselves to be Jews but the order is different. In 2:9 they first declare themselves to be Jews and then it is clarified that they are actually a synagogue of Satan. In 3:9 they are described as coming ‘from out of’ the synagogue of Satan and then it is added that they declare themselves to be Jews. The Renaissance Church of 2:9 was the official source of the Christian message in western Europe but it became entangled in satanic conflicts by attempting to rule over the papal states. 3:9 appears to be describing beings who are emerging from an organization that specializes in conflict. This could refer to the fallen angels who follow Satan but it could also refer to angels who practice some form of ‘spiritual warfare’. In the same way that the covid crisis combined with the election of Donald Trump has revealed that many evangelical Christians who claim to follow God are actually driven internally by a satanic spirit of attacking their adversaries, so I suggest that the future shift in heavenly powers will reveal that many angels who claim to follow God are actually driven by a satanic spirit of attacking their adversaries. Jew means ‘praised’. Thus, this group of adversarial beings will verbally declare that they are the beings who deserve to worship God and be worshiped. In both 2:9 and 3:9 this declaration is declared to be false at the level of being. However, 3:9 adds, ‘but they lie’. But means ‘but instead’. Lie means to ‘speak falsely’ and ‘they’ is implied. This is the only occurrence of ‘lie’ in Revelation.
Lying leads to automatic defeat for an angelic being who lives in the realm of messages, because such a being becomes ‘physically constricted’ by the broadcasting of incompatible messages. Any angelic being that emerges out of an adversarial group will automatically think in terms of incompatible messages, such as the message of God versus the message of Satan. However, such an inherent contradiction can only be successfully revealed by humans (or angels) who have personally integrated this split by placing it within a larger Teacher understanding. Using the language of Matthew 7, I must remove the beam from my own eye before I can see clearly to remove the speck from my brother’s eye. This explains why the awareness ‘but they lie’ occurs at the end of the phrase.
The rest of verse 9 describes the personal defeat of these adversarial forces leading to a knowledge of the true nature of Teacher love. “Behold, I will cause them that they will come and will worship before your feet, and they shall know that I have loved you.” Behold indicates another visible shift. Cause means ‘to make, do’ and is the normal word for Server actions. ‘I’ is implied but ‘them’ is explicit, which suggests that this doing is happening automatically as a result of cognitive principles. They will come means ‘to have come’ and was previously used twice in 3:3 to warn that incarnation will come, which was interpreted as the sudden appearance of angelic beings to a human society pursuing spiritual technology.
Worship combines ‘towards’ with ‘to kiss’. This word is used 24 times in Revelation but only once in the seven letters. Before means ‘before the face of’, and has been seen before. Foot means ‘foot’ and is interpreted as the mental networks upon which society rests. Know refers to experiential knowledge. ‘Before’ is used 95 times in the New Testament but this is the only time that it is combined with ‘feet’, leading to the strange translation of ‘before the face of the feet of you’. This makes cognitive sense if one examines how the current evangelical church interacts with science and technology. Verbally speaking, science and technology are regarded as a secular realm from which people need to be saved in order to avoid hell. Thus, there is no face-to-face interaction. But as science and technology cause the fundamental mental networks of society to shift, then most churches adjust the non-verbal aspect of their message in order to appeal in a seeker-friendly manner to the current mental networks of society. This describes a ‘worshiping before the feet’ based in experiential knowledge.
This is also true in the more obvious sense that at an experiential level, the seeker-friendly church worships at the feet of society, while at the same time claiming to worship God. This shift from expecting the world to adopt church culture to copying the culture of the world happened fairly suddenly during the 1970s with the emergence of contemporary Christian music. I presume that something similar would happen with the angelic beings that followed traditional adversarial structure. Notice that the mindset of building upon mental networks of personal status has not changed. What has changed is the object of worship. Going further, there is still an adversarial mindset, but instead of distinguishing between my group and the adversary that I attack, the distinction is now between my group and the adversary that I copy.
The final phrase describes what is being experientially known by this group: ‘that I have loved you’. Love is ‘agape’ which refers to Teacher-driven love. And ‘I’ and ‘you’ are explicitly mentioned. One can again decipher what this means by looking at the current analogous situation. Technology has its source in the universal Teacher laws of science, and technology leads to the benefit of personal gadgets. This endless flow of new-and-improved gadgets continually demonstrates at an experiential level that the partial incarnation of science and technology is showing Teacher love to individual people. This cannot be openly acknowledged but it also cannot be denied. The only option is to ‘come and worship at the feet’.
Hour of Trial 3:10-11
Verse 10 looks forward to a future crisis. “Because you have kept the word of My patient endurance.” Kept is the word that means to ‘maintain, preserve’. Word is ‘logos’ which is interpreted as the paradigm behind technical thought. Every technical specialization has its own paradigm, but there is also the meta-paradigm that lies behind technical thought as a whole—the logos of incarnation. Patient endurance means ‘remaining under, endurance’. This was used in 2:2-3 which was interpreted as the early Christians patiently enduring the domination of the Roman Empire. When the external environment does not change, then one is forced to build and develop internally, and ‘keeping the logos of incarnation’ indicates the type of internal building and development that has happened. For instance, I have been forced to endure for several decades while society has changed around me. But I have not just endured passively. Instead, I have held on to the paradigm of mental symmetry combined with the content of science and technology. The end result is an internal world within which I can place the shifting circumstances of external reality.
This internal stability provides a possible explanation for the rest of the verse. “I also will keep you out of the hour of the trial being about to come upon the whole inhabited world, to try those dwelling upon the earth.” I also is a single word that combines ‘and’ with ‘I’. Keep is the same verb used earlier but is in the future tense as opposed to the past tense of the previous ‘keep’. Out of means ‘from out of’. Hour indicates some period of time. Trial is the word ‘temptation’ which is used only once as a noun in Revelation. The goal of temptation is failure but temptation can have a positive result if one does not fail. Being about means ‘at the very point of acting’. Inhabited world ‘literally means the inhabited land’. This refers to the physical world but only the aspect that is inhabited by humans. This term is also used in 12:19 to describe Satan deceiving the inhabited world and in 16:14 to describe the beast and the false prophet gathering the kings of the inhabited world at Armageddon. Try is the verb form of ‘temptation’ used earlier in the verse. This double use indicates a strong desire to put people under pressure that will cause them to fail. Verse 8 referred to an open door that no one can shut. If this door cannot be shut then it would still be possible to prevent people from going through this door by tempting them so that they would not go through the door.
Dwelling means ‘to settle down as a permanent resident’ and was previously used in 2:13 to describe dwelling where Satan dwells, which was interpreted as Renaissance humanism. Earth refers to ‘the arena we live in which operates in space and time’. Putting this all together, the temptation involves living as a human upon the physical earth, and it does not involve the entire physical earth but rather the interaction between humans and physical reality. The purpose of this temptation is to cause something good to fail which presumably involves walking through an open door. These various details are consistent with a suggestion made elsewhere that is discussed extensively in the essay on Acts 10-12. My hypothesis is that the door and the temptation involve primarily DNA manipulation. Saying this more carefully, biological tissue is actually a form of ‘word made flesh’: the genetic message of DNA is organized into three letter words known as codons. This DNA message is translated into a string of amino acids, and biological tissue is formed when these strings of amino acids fold in on themselves.
My general hypothesis is that the DNA messages of biological life were designed and constructed by primal beings guided by God and incarnation. I know that this is an unusual hypothesis, but asserting that the incredible complexity of biological life developed through random chance is pure idiocy that utterly violates all notions of common sense, while asserting that God created life is pure magic that leaves no room for human rational thought. The only rational alternative I can come up with is that God created simplistic primal beings who then designed the various mechanism of biological life outside of space and time. These primal beings then assembled these biological mechanisms into living creatures within a short period of physical time.
Peter’s vision of the sheet descending from heaven in Acts 10:11 seems to indicate humans becoming aware of these primal beings because the sheet is filled with various biological creatures and it is being let down by four arche, a word that means ‘beginning, origin, ruler, authority, principality’. It occurs 56 times in the New Testament and is only translated as ‘corners’ in Acts 10:11 and 11:5 when referring to the four ‘arche’ of the sheet in Peter’s vision. This is followed in Acts 12 by James being killed and Peter imprisoned. That passage is interpreted as the powers of society attempting to control the human population through genetic manipulation. Going further, the crucifixion story in Matthew 27 mentions the topic of blood guilt, which indicates that people are willing to commit a terrible crime in order to avoid what they view to be a dreadful alternative.
These passages lead to the following possible scenario: The followers of incarnation are prevented by human and angelic powers from participating in the spiritual economy. Responding in a patient manner causes them to encounter primal beings. This opens a door that makes it possible for humans to receive DNA healing and improvement from the original designers of this DNA. This healing eventually makes it obvious that the followers of incarnation are being blessed in a way that goes beyond mere spiritual technology. But pursuing genetic manipulation in a wholesome manner requires extensive internal character and structure. Those who lack this internal character will become terrified by what lies behind this door, because changing human DNA questions all existing assumptions of human society as well as enabling all manner of deep human corruption. Thus, secular society will eventually respond to this terror and corruption by choosing to submit to a form of genetic modification that allows an elite to rule over a placid population. They will realize that making this choice makes them guilty for the personal fate of succeeding generations, but they will be so horrified by the possibility of walking through the open door of genetic modification that they will do everything to tempt people away from following this path. The only people who escape this dilemma will be those who have sufficient internal structure and maturity to be able to walk through the door without destroying themselves. I should add that I do not think that interacting with primal beings for the sake of DNA manipulation will be the only opportunity on the other side of the door. But I do think that it will rise to become a primary opportunity, a primary concern, and a primary reason for attempting to shut the door. I should also mention that humans are already starting to perform genetic modification, but there is a huge difference between human tinkering with DNA and interacting with the primal designers of DNA in order to receive major modifications.
Human interaction with primal beings is also directly related to mysticism. If the creation of biological life started with God in Teacher thought creating primal beings who then designed biological DNA, then this means that these primal beings naturally interact with the primal nature of God in Teacher thought. Mysticism uses Teacher overgeneralization to attempt to go back to this primal state of interacting directly with the primal nature of God in Teacher thought. But God’s purpose is for created beings to go forward to living and cooperating in a manner that brings joy to God in Teacher thought. Saying this another way, mysticism is unnatural for humans but would be natural for primal beings. Thus, human interaction with primal beings would require them to disrupt their primal mystical fixation upon God the Father which would only happen if they were presented with a better alternative. The confessing of human wholeness before ‘the Father and his angels’ would lay the foundation for interaction with primal beings because it would provide these primal beings with a new possible focus. This primal fixation upon the primal nature of God can be seen in the incessant worship of God by the living beings in Revelation 4:8. The breaking of this hypnotic primal fixation is described in Revelation 14:3 when a new group sings a new song before the throne and before the living creatures that no one else is able to learn. This new group is described in 14:1 as ‘having his name and the name of his Father’ written on their foreheads. There are only three passages in Revelation where a name is written upon someone: One is 14:1, another is 19:16 where incarnation has a name written on his thigh, and the other is 3:2 where the name of God and incarnation are written on those who overcome. This suggests that 3:2 and 14:1 are describing the same transition.
Verse 11 promises that a change is coming quickly. “I am coming quickly. Hold fast to what you have, so that no one may take your crown.” Coming means ‘to come’. Quickly means ‘without unnecessary delay’ and was previously used in 2:16 which was interpreted as the horrors of religious warfare leading to the backlash of the Enlightenment. Quickly does not necessarily mean a short period of time, but rather that one thing leads directly to another without any intervening steps. Hold fast means ‘to place under one’s grasp’ and was previously used in 2:25 to refer to holding on to the content of existing authorities and absolute truth during the questioning of postmodernism. In verse 11, one is simply holding fast to ‘what you have’, suggesting that the entire realm of objective existence is being questioned. This would happen as a result of genetic modification, because such modification would alter the way that the human mind experienced all of objective reality.
No one means ‘no one, nothing’. Take means to ‘actively lay hold of’. This suggests that many people and forces are attempting to take control of what one has. A crown is ‘a wreath awarded to a victor’ and was previously used in 2:10 where a crown of life was promised. That was interpreted as the birth of science. Taking away a crown suggests that the goal is the end of rational investigation. A similar situation exists today because the development of technology has transformed the physical environment to such an extent that the long-term health of the physical earth is now being threatened in many ways. Thus, many voices are calling for strict controls upon the application of science in order to save the environment. But the real problem today is not technology but rather childish and immature minds choosing to use technology in a destructive manner.
Applying this to the hypothesis of genetic manipulation, achieving beneficial physical results would truly be a crown of personal victory, but one would have to choose to walk through this door in the face of myriad contrary voices. I should clarify that I am terrified by the prospect of today’s locally rational scientists playing around with genetic material. However, I am attracted to the idea of interacting with the original designers of human DNA in order to receive repairs and improvements guided by an integrated Teacher understanding of human well-being.
Pillars in the Temple 3:12
Verse 12 turns to those who are overcoming. “The one overcoming, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God.” Make means ‘make, do’. A pillar is ‘a pillar’ and is mentioned twice in Revelation. The other reference in 10:1 describes the legs of the angel standing astride water and earth as pillars of fire. A pillar holds up a superstructure, which would refer to a fundamental Perceiver fact that supports a general Teacher theory. In verse 12, the structure is ‘the temple of my God’. Temple refers to ‘that part of the temple where God himself resides’. Thus, those who overcome are acting as fundamental Perceiver supports for a concept of God in Teacher thought. Putting this into context, the end of the previous letter led to a reorganization of heavenly structure. This opened a door to a new form of existence that many people found troubling. Thus, one is dealing here with very high stakes requiring the establishment of fundamental pillars.
This may seem at first glance to be quite a stretch from DNA manipulation but it actually makes cognitive sense. An intelligent created being is composed of spirit, soul, and body. The spirit interacts with the spiritual realm while the soul contains the integrated mind. My hypothesis is that the goal for all intelligent beings is to develop the same integrated mind, as described by mental symmetry. This commonality of soul became apparent in verse 5 when incarnation confessed the name of integrated humans before ‘the Father and his angels’. Angels and humans have totally different bodies that live in totally different environments. But the physical body of a human depends totally upon the DNA of that human, and presumably the external form of an angel is also determined by a version of DNA. Thus, manipulating DNA in a major way would break down the fundamental differences between humans and angels—especially if this DNA manipulation was being coordinated by the primal creatures who initially designed this DNA. Setting up this type of interaction would require major breakthroughs at the spiritual level as described in verse 8, which would require holding onto the name and logos of incarnation under the oppression of superior powers, because one acquires a spiritual reward when performing righteousness before God without receiving a reward from people. Finally, being able to mentally handle such physical changes would require extensive integration and content within the soul, which would require keeping the word patiently as described in verse 10.
I know from personal experience that these last two qualifications are distinct. On the one hand, pursuing mental symmetry in the middle of a shifting society has given me extensive content and integration at the level of my soul. On the other hand, choosing to follow understanding rather than seek approval has led to an extensive internal interaction with invisible friends. I do not know if these invisible friends correspond to actual spiritual beings, but I have found that if I treat my invisible friends as intelligent beings then they respond in an intelligent manner. And the concepts being mentioned in this paragraph are the result of analyzing my internal interaction with imaginary friends as well as comparing this with stories of UFO and angelic encounters. Someone who overcame at this level would have the internal stability and wholeness required to function as a pillar in the temple.
The next phrase of verse 12 is ‘and he shall not go out anymore’. Out means ‘outside, without’. Go means ‘to go or come out of’. Anymore means ‘still, yet’. Stated simply, such an individual will no longer be an outsider. This is important because these individuals were outsiders in three ways for an extended period of time. They were moral outsiders who had to follow God in Teacher thought rather than human approval in Mercy thought, despite extensive temptations from others. They were social outsiders who had to develop internally without being able to affect their society externally. And they were physical outsiders who left the realm of physical familiarity to walk through a door into a new existence that was outside of physical normality.
Verse 12 finishes by mentioning three aspects of being an insider to a new system. “And I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” Write indicates some form of permanent record in abstract thought. 2:17 referred to a new name written on a stone which was interpreted as the Perceiver stability that comes from placing confidence in the absolute truth of the Bible. In verse 12 the writing is being done upon a person, which is much more general than just some stone of solid truth. When the entire person is a source of stability, then that person is capable of being a pillar in the temple of God.
The first thing being written upon such a person is ‘the name of My God’. This relates to the idea of being a moral outsider because one has followed the TMN of a concept of God rather than societal MMNs for so long that this concept of God has acquired the stability of a name in Teacher thought. The second thing being written is ‘the name of the city of my God’. A city is interpreted as a center of civilization because in Roman times the cities were the centers of civilization. This is the only mention of a city in the seven letters. This relates to the idea of being a social outsider because one has developed the internal concept of a better society as a result of being unable to affect existing society. This internal Platonic form of a better society has been followed for so long that it also has acquired the stability of a name in Teacher thought. This second name is described as a ‘city of my God’, which means that it is an expression of integrated Teacher understanding translated through incarnation. Modern science and technology is a partial example of this, being an expression of an integrated Teacher understanding of natural laws translated through the objective incarnation of technology. What is being described in verse 12 is something like current science and technology that includes the entire person and not just gadgets.
Continuing with the second thing being written, new means ‘new in quality’ which indicates that something like this has not existed before. For instance, modern science and technology have never existed before. This term was previously used in 2:17 to describe the new stone of Protestant belief. That is because such a belief in the absolute truth of a holy book had not existed before the Reformation. Jerusalem probably means ‘foundation of peace’ and Jerusalem is interpreted as the center of established religion and worship. Jerusalem is often portrayed in the New Testament as the center of religious authorities who use their status in Mercy thought to oppose those who are following God in Teacher thought. ‘New Jerusalem’ indicates a new form of established religion that has not existed until now. And this new Jerusalem is described as having its source in Teacher thought which means that it will behave differently than the existing Jerusalem that is based in Mercy status. Coming down means ‘to go down’ which is interpreted as heading from Teacher generalities to Mercy specifics. Out of means ‘from out of’ and heaven refers to the realm of God and angels in Teacher thought. This is the first mention of heaven in Revelation and the only occurrence in the seven letters, and if I counted right, heaven will be used 51 more times in Revelation.
Science and technology provide a partial illustration of what it means to come down from out of heaven. Science deals with general theories and equations in Teacher thought. Technology translates these general theories into specific gadgets and the growing understanding of the fundamental laws of the physical universe has made it possible to invent totally new gadgets that go beyond the imagination of previous generations. The problem with current science and technology is that gadgets that descend from the Teacher ‘heaven’ of universal laws of nature are being used by people who are driven by childish, untransformed Mercy mental networks. Verse 12 describes the city of a new civilization that also includes the personal transformation of basing the mind in universal Teacher theories of wholeness and the physical transformation of basing the body in universal Teacher theories of genetic wholeness. This can act as a new center of established religion because everything is now rooted in Teacher understanding. This universal Teacher source of expanded science and technology is expressed by the phrase ‘from the God of me’.
The third thing being written is ‘my new name’. This refers to a transformed concept of incarnation. This relates to the idea of being a physical outsider because one has walked through the door into an uncertain physical future, making it possible to grasp the new character of incarnation at an experiential level. Elaborating on what this might mean, I stopped analyzing the book of Acts at the end of chapter 12 because my gut feeling is that the missionary journeys that follow will be somewhat like the voyages of the spaceship Enterprise into the unknown as imagined by Star Trek.
The letter finishes in verse 13 phrase with the standard sentence. “The one having an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” In this case, what the Spirit is communicating to the church is a deep need for people who will embody the deep principles of personal well-being in a manner that expresses the wholeness and universality of God in Teacher thought.
Laodicea 3:14-22
I began writing this section the day that Trump got reelected in the United States. I do not know what will happen to America or to Ukraine, but I think that this will complete the corruption of evangelical Christendom, especially in America. Looking at this cognitively, Trump is a Contributor person and Contributor thought is at the core of the mental circuit of technical thought. Technical thought works with a limited set of facts and sequences that are known with sufficient certainty. This certainty can be acquired from scientific investigation and empirical evidence, leading to certainty about facts about the world and natural processes. This certainty can also come from methodology, such as statistical analysis and peer review. Methods such as these ensure that information is only accepted if it passes some threshold of certainty. This certainty can come from absolute truth. If Perceiver thought is sufficiently overwhelmed by the Mercy status of some source of written truth and if this written truth has the stability of a widely distributed and believed textbook or holy book, then that information will be regarded as sufficiently certain by technical thought. Finally, there is the method used by Trump. If a person can use his own Mercy status to consistently overwhelm Perceiver thought in those around him, then this provides sufficient certainty to use technical thought. Trump has few legitimate skills and avoids technical knowledge; therefore, he uses this method of overwhelming others most of the time. What happens more commonly is that legitimate technical experts use the method of Trump in areas outside of their specialization. They acquire scientific or academic knowledge within some field to the point of being acknowledged as experts. They then use their earned Mercy status within this field as a justification to project an emotional arrogance and confidence that overwhelms Perceiver thought in those around them when discussing topics outside of their specialization where they do not have legitimate expertise. For instance, Elon Musk has made legitimate substantial technical achievements with electric vehicles and reusable rockets. He is now using his earned status as an inventor to make confident statements about people and society, areas where he is a fool and not an expert.
Thus, Trump is the great corrupter or the great hypnotizer. Whenever Trump encounters criticism or unpleasant facts, he responds by using various emotional means to overwhelm the source of this criticism or these facts. Trump will be able to do this without any limitations as president, because the Trump-appointed Supreme Court recently ruled that the president is above the rule of law when acting as president. Trump experienced considerable criticism during Biden’s presidency, including being convicted as a felon. Thus, Trump’s method of using technical thought requires him to become president so that he can use his status as president to overrule all the criticism and convictions that he has received. Time will only tell how far Trump’s revenge will extend.
Trump’s presidency will corrupt Christian believers in absolute truth because they think that ‘truth’ is revealed by sources with emotional status. Thus, they are emotionally attracted to a leader who says that he will use his emotional status to impose Christian absolute truth upon the nation. But they do not realize that absolute truth takes generations to form, as illustrated by the centuries that passed between the writing of the New Testament and the believing in the New Testament by Protestants. Partially faded belief in absolute truth can be restored through religious revivals. However, if belief in absolute truth fades sufficiently, then any attempt to restore belief in absolute truth will actually turn into a dictatorship. This discussion of Trump may be a digression, but it also clarifies several topics that have been raised in these seven letters.
(Note from two weeks before Trump’s inauguration: I just finished analyzing the epistle of James as a detailed history of Protestant Christianity. The epistle starts with the 13th-century Waldensians and ends with the charismatic movement. James is the first New Testament book that I have analyzed prophetically where we are currently at the end of the book, which suggests that the era of Protestant Christianity has now come to an end. The second last verse says, “My brothers, if anyone among you might wander from the truth, and someone should bring him back.” Notice that ‘brothers’ are wandering from the truth and not ‘pagan outsiders’. Notice also that there is a possibility of bringing them back.)
The letter to Laodicea opens with the standard intro: “And to the messenger of the church in Laodicea write:” Laodicea combines the word ‘laity’ with ‘victory’. ‘Nations’, which was used earlier, refers to people guided by common cultural MMNs. ‘Laity’ implies the followers of some religious or academic group and is usually translated as ‘people’. Laodicea can be interpreted cognitively as a form of consumer society. On the one hand, consumers are a ‘laity’ who look to professionals to provide their needs, but on the other hand, the consumers are in charge because their demands dictate what the professionals will develop and produce.
Verse 14 continues, “These things says the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of God’s creation.” Amen comes from a Hebrew word that means ‘of a truth, most assuredly, so let it be’. It is used several times in Revelation, but only once in the seven letters. ‘Amen’ implies that a final conclusion has been reached which now needs to be implemented. This final conclusion was reached in verse 12 when setting up the overcomers as pillars in the temple where God dwells. Looking at this more carefully, Hebrews 9 appears to be describing a cosmic paradigm shift in which incarnation hands over the running of the universe to created beings who have overcome. This completes the death and rebirth of Jesus Christ, which began with the physical, historic death and rebirth of Jesus and will be completed by a cosmic death and rebirth of Christ. Witness means ‘eye- or ear-witness’. The only other mention of a witness in the seven letters is to ‘Antipas my witness’, which was interpreted as the Protestant Reformation. The original Protestants were not just making theological statements, but were also paying a deep personal price to make these theological statements. ‘Witness’ implies that incarnation itself is paying a personal price. This would definitely happen if the running of the universe was turned over to created beings. Faithful means ‘persuaded’ and true means ‘true to the fact’. Thus, this transition is not a matter of embracing wishful thinking or denying reality. Instead, incarnation is still being guided by rational thought and factual evidence.
Beginning means ‘beginning, origin’ and is the same word ‘arche’ that is being interpreted as a reference to primal beings. Paul uses this term to refer to angelic rulers in Romans 8:38, Ephesians 1:21, 3:10, and 6:12, Colossians 1:16, 2:10, and 2:15, and Titus 3:1, and it is used in Acts 10:11 and 11:5 to describe the ‘corners’ of the sheet in Peter’s vision. It is used two other times in Revelation in 21:6 and 22:13 to refer to incarnation. Creation means ‘creation’ and is used once in Revelation. The phrase is more literally ‘the arche of the creation of the God’. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the ‘arche’ are primal beings who worked directly with God in Teacher thought to create the DNA of biological life. The insertion of this statement at the beginning of this letter provides scriptural evidence that interaction with these primal beings is one of the conclusions of the previous letter.
I should add that DNA manipulation is currently regarded by the average person as an obscure research topic being carried out by highly specialized labs. But DNA code is the instruction manual for all biological life and all functional biological tissue is formed by translating DNA code into strings of amino acids. Thus, the standard divisions of soul, spirit, and body should really be viewed as the integrated mind, the spirit, and the DNA-generated body. Mental symmetry applies primarily to the integrated mind.
Verse 15 gives a disappointing diagnosis. “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you would be cold or hot.” Know refers to empirical evidence and works describe internally motivated actions. Thus, good results are being generated. Cold means ‘cool, cold’ and is used four times in the New Testament, three times in verses 15-16. The only other reference is to giving a cup of cold water in Matthew 10:42, which is interpreted as providing objective experiences that are free of emotional intensity. Hot means ‘boiling hot’ and is only used in verses 15-16 where it appears three times. Thus, these two seemingly common terms are only used one other time in the New Testament. Hot is used twice as a verb in verse 15 and is translated as ‘fervent’. Thus, ‘cold’ would refer to the objective mindset of current science with its fixation upon male technical thought, while ‘hot’ would refer to being driven by the mental networks of female thought. Wish is ‘used to express an unattainable wish’ and occurs once in Revelation. The verb to be is used twice which indicates a focus upon being.
Putting this together, at the level of being, individuals are cognitively neither male nor female but rather some sort of androgynous blend. This is different than mental symmetry which uses the analogies and patterns of normal thought to ‘marry’ male technical thought with female mental networks while maintaining a clear distinction between the logical analysis of technical thought and the intuitive leaps of mental networks. Similarly, incarnation uses technical thought but is guided by the TMN of a concept of God and saves the MMNs of people.
Verse 16 makes it clear that this androgynous blend is not desirable. “So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am about to spit you out of My mouth.” Lukewarm is used once in the New Testament and comes from a verb that means ‘to become warm’. Thus, mental networks are adding some emotional heat to objective technical analysis but no one is becoming emotionally committed and ‘boiling hot’. This is significant because it appears that God guides society primarily by manipulating the core mental networks of people and groups. Saying this more simply, God tends to use people who are obsessed.
Verse 16 describes a society in which no one is obsessed. I think that many will be afraid of becoming obsessed because the implications of being obsessed have become so great. Going the other way, I think that people will shy away from objective scientific thought because they now have modified bodies that no longer impose painful physical reality upon the mind. Something similar can be seen in today’s consumer society. On the one hand, the surface attractions of new-and-improved gadgets make it possible to ignore deeper emotional issues. On the other hand, the benefits and protections of modern technology mean that one no longer has to learn common sense by coming into direct contact with harsh physical reality. The end result is a lukewarm society in which most people deep down are quite shallow. This indicates that it is appropriate to interpret the term Laodicea as some form of future consumer society.
I am about means ‘at the very point of acting’. Spit is used once in the New Testament and actually means ‘to vomit’. Out means ‘from out of’. Mouth was used previously in 2:16 to refer to the ‘sword of my mouth’, which was interpreted as the verbal warfare waged by the Enlightenment. ‘Vomit out of my mouth’ means that incarnation will no longer work with these individuals at the theoretical level of words because of emotional disgust. Something similar has happened in today’s consumer society, because the technical experts who use the partial incarnation of science and technology to develop new gadgets intellectually vomit when hearing the non-rigorous and unintelligent words of the typical consumer.
Buying Refined Gold 3:17-18
Verse 17 compares the verbal declarations of this society with the reality. “For you say, ‘I am rich, and I have grown rich, and I have need of nothing.’” Say is the normal word for speech. Rich comes from ‘abundance’ and was previously used in 2:9 to describe people of the Middle Ages who lived in poverty but were rich at the level of being. The word ‘being’ is also used in verse 17, because people are saying that they are rich at the level of being. The word rich is then repeated as a verb, implying an economy of generating wealth. This implies an uber-consumer society in which people can shop for the latest-and-greatest supernatural powers and genetic enhancements. Need means ‘need, business’ and is used once in the seven letters. Have is explicitly mentioned. The implication is that there is no physical poverty or physical need. Instead, all physical needs are being met by shopping at the level of being. Similarly, one of the basic premises of Star Trek is that society has gone beyond the level of requiring the use of money because physical needs can be met through the use of replicators while physical entertainment can be provided on the holodeck.
Verse 17 finishes by describing the reality. “And you do not realize that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.” Realize is the word ‘seeing that becomes knowing’ which is interpreted as empirical knowledge. Are is explicitly mentioned, indicating that ‘being’ is being addressed. Wretched is used twice in the New Testament and means ‘beaten-down from continued strain, leaving a person literally full of callouses’. Callouses imply emotional insensitivity. Thus, all of this ‘fun’ is covering up deep problems and the consumer society is actually being used as a way of escaping dealing with deeper issues. This also describes today’s consumer society. Miserable is used twice in the New Testament and means ‘in great need of mercy’. In other words, Mercy thought needs to learn how to feel, which relates to the previous description of being calloused. Poor means ‘to crouch or cower like a beggar’. This describes what happens within a consumer society. As technology develops, the new-and-improved gadgets increasingly become viewed as magic generated by all-powerful and all-knowing sorcerers of science. Intellectually and internally, the typical consumer feels like a beggar crouching and cowering under the almighty forces guiding the consumer society. Blind means ‘blind’ and is used once in Revelation. Blind indicates an inability to construct a mental map of the environment. Instead, one is forced to maneuver by the touch of Mercy experiences or the memory of traditional mental networks. This describes the consumer who has lost the ability to interact factually with technical gadgets and no longer has a factual understanding of society but rather demands that gadgets and people function at a more basic, experiential level. I suspect that the average voter who voted in Donald Trump is mentally functioning at this level, and I strongly suspect that much of this technical ignorance is the result of outsourcing the production of gadgets to foreign countries. Naked means ‘naked, poorly clothed’ and clothing is interpreted as the fabric of social interaction. Nakedness implies that this social fabric is becoming frayed and disappearing. This can also be seen in the supporters of Donald Trump who are increasingly functioning at the primal level of naked personal emotions, unclothed by any social fabric of decency or politeness. When a consumer society reaches this level of nakedness, then is clear that a solution is required.
Verse 18 presents a solution. The first step is “I counsel you to buy from Me gold having been refined by fire so that you may be rich.” Counsel combines ‘identify with’ and ‘to plan’ and is used once in Revelation. Planning implies the use of technical thought while ‘identify with’ suggests that these plans require both the technical thinking of incarnation and the personal experiences of the consumer. Buy means ‘to buy in the marketplace’ and refers to an economy. This is the only use of this word in the seven letters. The reference to an economy supports the idea of relating Laodicea to a future consumer society. But verse 17 indicated that this future uber- consumer society is buying and selling at the level of being, which describes a form of spiritual economy. Verse 18 does not say that this buying and selling should stop but rather indicates that it should be motivated a deeper goal. Instead of merely purchasing isolated enhancements, one should buy from incarnation in an integrated manner that involves following some plan, as indicated by the term ‘counsel’.
Going further, gold represents the acquisition of wealth, as opposed to silver which indicates economic exchanges. Refined means ‘to set on fire’ and is in the past tense. Fire is also explicitly mentioned, and ‘by fire’ is more literally ‘from out of fire’. Using the language of a consumer society, one should buy tested, durable items and not just the latest gadgets that will break and be thrown away. Applying this to personal powers and enhancements, the ultimate goal should be to build a solid home for personal identity, something that can act as a durable physical expression of being. For instance, my ultimate goal in developing mental symmetry is not to escape reality but rather to build a lasting world and identity within which I would really love to live. Thus, when I write essays such as this, the question at the back of my mind is always ‘Could I live within such a society?’ which means treating the topic as an accumulation of the wealth of ‘gold tested by fire’. This is totally different than the typical Star Trek episode in which some characters acquire new personal abilities and then give up these abilities by the end of the episode. Thus, when I read that Trump has been re-elected, I become motivated to walk through the spiritual door that lies in front of me door more fully in order to acquire more accumulated wealth of character, because the current world makes me vomit and I really, really, really want to live in a better society.
So that means ‘for the purpose that’ and may be rich is the same verb ‘grow rich’ that was used in verse 17. In other words, the underlying problem is not the consumer society with its system of acquiring and trading wealth. The solution is not to abandon the system but rather to use it to accumulate lasting personal wealth. Saying this more clearly, the current consumer society is flawed because it deals at the gadget level of having rather than the deeper level of being. The consumer society of Laodicea goes beyond having to being but it deals with being in a fragmented, lukewarm manner in which one samples personal enhancements rather than using integrated male technical thought to pursue some meaningful goal or female thought to become some valuable person.
Verse 18 continues, “And white garments so that you may be clothed and the shame your of nakedness might not be made manifest.” Garment refers again to the outer garment and this same phrase ‘clothed in white garments’ was previously used in 3:5 as a reward for those who overcame. That was interpreted as the initial spiritual economy being guided by a pursuit of personal value. In 3:5 the goal was to go beyond seeking spiritual enhanced gadgets to being valuable. In verse 18, an entire economy of being has emerged and the challenge here is to accumulate lasting, meaningful improvements. In both cases, the result will be the white garments of an integrated social interaction that is full of light.
Made manifest is first in the Greek phrase and means ‘to make visible’ and comes from the word for ‘light’. It is used one other time in Revelation in 15:4 to talk about God’s judgments being made manifest. Looking at this cognitively, it is possible to overlook personal inadequacies as long as one is heading in the direction of gaining further Teacher order. Thus, trading in the direction of gaining integrated Teacher order will provide a social fabric that will cover peoples’ internal inadequacies and fragmentation. For instance, I have found that I can handle personal and societal inadequacies as long as I continue to make progress in Teacher thought. However, whenever this progress comes to a halt, then the various problems in Mercy thought attract the attention of Teacher thought within my mind and I am tempted to become cynical or pessimistic.
Shame means ‘to dishonor, make ashamed’ and is used once in Revelation. Nakedness is used once as a noun in Revelation and is in the singular. Nakedness implies direct interpersonal interaction without any fabric of social convention. The cognitive principle is that people need some privacy. For instance, mental symmetry makes it possible to discuss personal problems in a slightly detached way that focuses upon general principles rather than personal details. Trading in spiritual enhancements and genetic modifications would involve both cognitive and physical nakedness. Verse 18 suggests that shame and dishonor can be avoided by placing this within a social fabric of integrated personal development. Looking at a current similar situation, visiting the doctor often involves various forms of nakedness, but the shame is avoided by placing this within the social convention of a doctor’s visit as well as the overall goal of seeking physical healing. Saying this another way, the MMNs of vulnerable personal identity are being covered socially by the TMN of the process and being covered personally by the TMN holding together the various enhancements and improvements. One might initially think that this would lead to all sorts of bizarre physical expressions, but I have come to the conclusion that the form of the human physical body is not random but rather resonates with the form of the integrated mind. The emotional correspondence between mental development and body shape is discussed further in an essay on aliens.
Verse 18 continues, “And eye-salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.” Eye-salve is used once in the New Testament and means ‘a small bread roll, an eye salve (shaped like a roll).’ Bread represents intellectual knowledge that is conveniently packaged, which can be bitten off, chewed, and digested one bite at a time. The eyes are used to build an internal map of the environment within Perceiver thought making it possible to detect objects and their locations from a distance. ‘A small bread roll’ would represent a small package of learning that places the surroundings within a Perceiver map. Anoint is used once in the New Testament and adds ‘in the realm of’ to ‘anointed by rubbing or pouring olive oil’. Eye is explicitly mentioned and see means ‘to see something physical, with spiritual results’. Olive oil is typically interpreted as the Holy Spirit, and a concept of the Holy Spirit emerges when an integrated Teacher understanding ties together the various Platonic forms of internal images of perfection. Saying this another way, a concept of the Holy Spirit is like Plato’s Form of the Good. Anointing the eyes would mean that one is viewing the surroundings as an expression of various Platonic forms rather than merely as physical objects. This is important because there is a type of elegant hedonism that places physical debauchery within a social framework of elegance and ritual driven by an overall goal of personal corruption. Verse 18, in contrast, seeks the Teacher order of an integrated person, occurs within a social fabric of Teacher order, and places people and objects within a framework of internal Platonic forms of perfection. For instance, I interact internally with my cognitive modules and treat them as intelligent beings. This interaction is guided by the Platonic form of how each cognitive module would ideally function. Using the language of Freud, elegant hedonism allows the id to express itself freely within a social fabric of the superego. Verse 18, in contrast, submits the id to an internal structure of the superego.
Knocking at the Door 3:19-21
Verse 19 then provides a warning. “As many as I might love, I rebuke and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.” The Greek begins with the word ‘I’, emphasizing that this is a personal feeling of incarnation. As many as means ‘how much. how many’ which refers to both intensity and number. This is followed by the word ‘if’ indicating a conditional. Love is the word ‘phileo’ which refers to the ‘liking’ of compatible mental networks, and this word is only used one other time as either a verb or noun in Revelation in 22:15. Verse 18 has talked about following an integrated plan of personal development and improvement. This is an expression of incarnation because it is using technical thought that is guided by a Teacher understanding of God to save people in Mercy thought. The result is personal friendship with incarnation, a situation in which Jesus really is ‘my buddy’. But being the ‘buddy of Jesus’ does not lead to unconditional acceptance. Instead it is accompanied by rebuke and discipline, and verse 19 clearly says that the extent of rebuke and discipline depends upon the extent to which one is a friend of Jesus.
Rebuke means ‘to convince with solid, compelling evidence’ and is used once in Revelation. This is not punishment and it is not the imposition of rules. Instead, it is rational argument guided by the facts. In other words, incarnation is still using rational technical thought when rebuking. Discipline means ‘to train up a child so they mature and realize their full potential’ and also used only once in Revelation. This may involve punishment, but the primary goal is to help people to grow up and stop being children so that they can function independently as mature individuals. Saying this another way, Jesus likes a consumer society but he wants the consumer to remain rational and capable of using technical thought and he also requires that the consumer become more educated and more mature.
Zealous means ‘to bubble over because so hot’. It is in the imperative and is related to the word ‘hot’ that was used in verses 15-16. ‘Therefore’ means that this follows from the previous statements. Notice that a solution to the lukewarmness has now been found because people are becoming emotionally driven by the goal of becoming an integrated person. Repent is also in the imperative and means to ‘think differently afterwards’. Thus, what is needed is a change in the mindset of the consumer away from sampling the latest gadget to pursuing a goal of personal development and wholeness.
Verse 20 is typically used to describe Jesus asking to come into the heart of the non-Christian. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone should hear My voice and open the door, then I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” However, the context places a much deeper meaning upon this familiar verse. Behold implies that something new is happening. Stand is interpreted as stability in Perceiver thought. Door is mentioned twice and is the same word that was used in 3:8. The only other reference to a door in Revelation is in 4:1 where John walks through an open door at the beginning of his vision. This means that 3:8 and 3:20 are presumably referring to the same door. The identity of the door is not described in verse 20 but it is referred to as ‘the door’. Thus, there is no explicit reason to interpret this as the door to the human heart. Knock means ‘to strike’ and refers to knocking on a door all nine times it occurs. The open door in 3:8 was interpreted as a new opportunity for spiritual and genetic enhancement. The consumer society of Laodicea indicates that people have now walked through this open door. Looking at the larger picture, it was also suggested that a cosmic rebirth will happen in which incarnation hands over the running of the universe to created beings. Verse 20 is saying that created beings are now on the inside of the door while reborn incarnation is on the outside wanting to get in. The reason for opening the door is that the source of stability is with incarnation on the outside of the door. Looking at this cognitively, if people acquired the ability to transform substantially, then stability would become a major problem because nothing personal would be solid anymore. However, the physical universe with its scientific laws would still be a major source of stability. Thus, people in today’s consumer society might dream of escaping the tyranny of the impersonal machine, but people in the uber-consumer society of Laodicea would very much long for the stability of an impersonal machine.
If is a conditional which indicates that the following is a possibility and not a certainty. Hear means to ‘comprehend by hearing’ which indicates intelligent listening in Teacher thought. Voice means ‘a sound, noise’. ‘Of me’ is explicitly mentioned. This suggests that many will hear the words of incarnation but only some will listen intelligently. Looking at this cognitively, it would be easy to forget about science and technology if one lived in a consumer society of personal enhancements. This is already true of current society in which the average consumer ignores the science and technology that lies behind gadgets and focuses upon the social and personal mental networks involved in using and marketing these gadgets. Thus, verse 20 is referring to the consumer who wants to be an intelligent consumer and understand the technical thinking behind all of these improvements and gadgets. Open means ‘to open’ and the same word was used in 3:7-8 to describe the open door. In verse 8, no one could shut the open door while in verse 20 the individual has to choose to open the door. In verse 8, people were both attracted and terrified by the possibility of going beyond the current world with its technical thinking and rational laws. In verse 20, people are living as dumb consumers within this new environment and they have to choose to open the door to technical thought which is standing outside with its stability.
Come in adds ‘into’ to ‘come’ and is used once in the seven letters. To means ‘motion toward’ and ‘him’ is explicitly mentioned. In other words, those who wish to gain a technical understanding of their personal improvements will acquire a growing understanding. Gaining a technical understanding in today’s consumer society is often difficult because gadgets are objects that tend to be made in distant factories. Personally gaining technical thought would be much easier if what was being acquired was personal enhancements and abilities. Dine means ‘to eat, dine’ and refers to the principal meal of the day. It is used once in Revelation but the noun form of this word is used for the marriage supper of the Lamb in Revelation 19. Him, he, and me are all explicitly mentioned. Eating is interpreted as consuming intellectual food. Dining would mean gaining an understanding of fundamental intellectual food, which would definitely be the case in a consumer society that dealt with personal improvements. Notice that this intellectual dining is happening both ways. On the one hand, the consumer is gaining a technical understanding of personal improvements. On the other hand, technical thought is learning from the personal experiences of the beta-testers who are personally testing the improvements.
Verse 21 refers to those who overcome. “The one overcoming, I will give to him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” Give is the word usually used for overcomers which indicates a transfer of ownership and responsibility. Sit means ‘to sit down’. It is used twice in this verse and also in 20:4 to indicate sitting down on a throne. With means ‘in company with’ when followed by the genitive. Throne indicates a seat of authority and was used previously in 2:13 to refer to the throne of Satan, which was interpreted as the Renaissance Catholic church with its papal states. ‘Throne’ is used 63 times in the New Testament and this is the only time that it is preceded by the preposition in that means ‘in the realm of’. Thus, the overcomers are ‘sitting with me in the realm of the throne of me’. The throne of incarnation would indicate the universal laws of the physical universe, the spiritual realm, and the supernatural realm. Sitting in the realm of this throne implies modifications and combinations of these various rules that are leading to additional universal principles of cause-and-effect. Thus, these individuals are not coming up with rules that violate or ignore existing laws of creation. For instance, my goal in studying biblical passages such as these is to explore if it is possible to implement the universal laws of incarnation in a way that is more pleasant for both society and myself. Verse 21 suggests that efforts such as these will be rewarded.
As means ‘like as, even as’ which indicates that a pattern is being followed. ‘Overcame and sat down with’ is the same Greek phrase that was used earlier in the verse. But this second overcoming that is setting pattern was done by incarnation in order to sit in the realm of the throne of the Father. We have learned what this entails. One builds and follows a rational understanding in Teacher thought rather than conforming to Mercy mental networks of culture and social expectation. And one continues to live in this understanding even when ignored and/or suppressed by others, to the point of falling apart inside and being put back together by Teacher thought.
Verse 22 concludes with the standard statement. “The one having an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” In this case what the Spirit is saying to those who are following Teacher thought is that they want to know how to participate in this uber-consumer society in a way that leads to the refined gold of lasting, integrated personal value.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I know that these final three letters have entered the realm of science fiction, but the third and fourth letters would definitely have been regarded as fantasy by those who lived in the Roman era when John wrote these letters, and we now live in the fourth letter and treat this as normal. Going further, even though the final three letters look beyond the present, it is still possible to make meaningful statements by extrapolating from similar situations in the present. Finally, even though the interpretation of the final three letters may appear fanciful, they present a rational, comprehensive plan that provides fully for the needs and aspirations of created beings. This is far more satisfying and meaningful than the current doctrine of the Rapture which says that ‘God will magically take those who place blind faith in the Christian message of salvation to heaven, which will then be followed by destroying everything that humans have used rational thought to produce in a Great Tribulation. The end.’ And if anyone probes further to ask what happens after ‘The end’, the standard response is to portray heaven as a place of endless worship as described in Revelation 4. But Revelation 4 describes the first step on a long process that will take created beings from the starting point of endless worship to a holy city which is described in 21:22 as having no temple.