Pergamum And Compromise

What exactly is this weekend. On your calendars, Monday is most commonly declared as a civil holiday. The more commonly-understood definition is that the civic holiday is an annual holiday, celebrated on the first Monday of August in most Canadian provinces.

However, its legal status and name is far from uniform nationwide. Two provinces and one territory do not recognize it at all, and five other provinces do not oblige employers to offer holiday pay on this day. This leaves only three provinces and two territories where the first Monday in August is a full statutory holiday and employers are obliged to pay their employees holiday pay.

Jurisdictions which have a statutory holiday on the first Monday of August

British Columbia (British Columbia Day) New Brunswick (New Brunswick Day) Northwest Territories (Civic Holiday) Nunavut (Civic Holiday) Saskatchewan (Saskatchewan Day)

Jurisdictions which have a civic holiday on the first Monday of August

Alberta (Heritage Day) Manitoba (Civic Holiday) Nova Scotia (Natal Day) Prince Edward Island (Natal Day) Ontario (Simcoe Day)

Some Ontarian municipalities have a different name for the holiday. From a legal standpoint, a civic holiday is usually defined as any holiday which is legally recognized but where the employer is not obliged to offer holiday pay.

1982 - The City of Brantford adopted a policy that stated that the civic holiday be named "Founders’ Day". Each year, the Brantford Heritage Committee submits a report to City Council with the name or organization that is to be recognized on that day.

Jurisdictions which have no holiday on the first Monday of August

Newfoundland and Labrador (celebrates Discovery Day on June 24) Quebec (celebrates St. Jean Baptiste Day on June 24) Yukon (celebrates Discovery Day later in August).

Regardless of what this weekend is called, for many it is a time of excess, and the pressesure is on people to indulge likewise.

This entire month does have a special meaning. The Term “August” means Regal, majestic, imposing, grandiose, and is named after the Roman leadership.

In Rev. 2, the Church at Pergamum was dealing with the August Roman leadership. The problem of the Roman Empire was the problem of unification. The empire stretched from the river Euphrates to the shores of the Irish sea: from Germany to North Africa, from Spain to Egypt. Here were all kinds of peoples, and languages, and faiths, and traditions. How could they be welded into a unity? How could the consciousness of one empire be brought into the lives of such diverse peoples?

There is no unifying force like the force of a common religion; and Caesar worship lay ready at hand

On a certain day in the year every Roman citizen had to come to the Temple of Caesar and had to burn a pinch of incense there, and say: “Caesar is Lord.” When he had done that, he was given a certificate to guarantee that he had done so. After a man had burned his pinch of incense and had acknowledged Caesar as Lord, he could go away and worship any god he liked, so long as the worship did not affect public decency and order.

This of course was a great problem for the Christians, who believed that only Jesus is Lord. It lead to great pressure to compromise.

For us here today the pressure is great as well. Society tells us that we must live in harmony with other faiths and any exclusive claim to absolute truth is arrogant. People are allowed to have private beliefs and as in Pergamum we can go away and worship any god we like, so long as the worship did not affect public decency and order.

The message to the Church at Pergamum and the message to us is that Jesus knows our situation and gives us guidance in the 1) Comment about the Church 2: 12, 2) Commendation of the church. 2:13, 3) Complaint of the Church 2:14, 4) Call to repentance. 2:16, 5)The command to hear and the promise to the overcomer. 2:17.

1) Comment about the Church 2: 12

Rev 2:12 "And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ’The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.

the angels. The word lit. means “messenger.” Although it can mean angel—and does throughout the book—it cannot refer to angels here because angels are never leaders in the church. Most likely, these messengers are the 7 key elders representing each of those churches

Pergamos (means high tower or thoroughly married.) was the church of worldly alliance.

(modern Bergama), the capital city of the province of Asia

• It was located about 55 miles northeast of Ephesus.

The Kingdom of Pergamum became a Roman province b.c. 130.

• It was at Pergamos that parchment was first used as a writing material and here that the Attalid kings built a magnificent library of 200,000 volumes.