April 9, 2024 - Pergamum, Thyatira & Izmir

 

April 9, 2024 Pergamum, Thyatira & Izmir

From tour notes: Our first visit of the day is Pergamum. The church of Pergamum was praised for its forbearance (Rev. 2:12-17). It was here that the first Christians were executed by Rome. We visit the fabled Acropolis, pass through the Royal Gates, view the foundations of the Altar of Zeus and visit the ruins of the library (which once held 200,000 volumes). Next we travel east to Thyatira, viewing the ancient roadway and period columns. Thyatira was once a busy trading center and famous as a "seller of purple," the most favored of the Seven Churches. We continue south to Izmir, which is the third largest city in Turkey and a long time center for Jews and Christians. In Paul's day, Izmir was known as Smyrna and was another of the Seven Churches (Rev. 2:8-11). Our lodging this evening is in Izmir.

Once again, I asked Ronnie to write some notes about our day for me and he was kind enough to write the following:

Our Pilgrimage to visit Biblical sites related to the ministries of the Apostle Paul (Saul) and John the Apostle began in Turkey. We’ve had 5 extremely busy days—rise early (4am-6am), eat breakfast about 5:30am-7am and hit the road by 6am-8am. All the while our bodies have tried to adjust to an 8 hour time difference between Turkey and Texas. Recall that we started in Istanbul and its holy sites, palaces and museums. Next we rode a bus along the sea of Marmara, crossed the 1915 Bridge of Canakkale (built to commemorate the battle of Gallipolli at the Dardanelles Strait) and made our way to Troy and Troas. The pastor who organized the trip speaks a Bible message at each of these places related to Paul (Acts) and John (Revelation).

 

site of the church at Pergamum (see Revelation 12: 12-17) established 1st century AD

 

Roman amphitheater

ruins, ancient city of Pergamon - UNESCO World Heritage Site

Our Turkish tour guide ("Art") tells us the history of the areas we visit, and today we roamed the ruins of Pergamon (current city Bergama), Thyatira (Akhisar) and Smyrna (Izmir). You might recall that because of earthquakes, human destruction through war and rebuilding, all of the sites are at best archeological restorations of materials recovered in digs. Lands once occupied by the Assyrians, Medes, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman empires now look like modern cities, and in some cases very nice places. Turkey is not a bad place to live. It seems that having one foot in Europe and the other in Asia makes the land a place others want to take from the current owners.

Craig Bollinger, Pastor of Christ the King Lutheran, Charlotte, NC

Agora of Smyrna's beautiful stone arches

beautiful tiles being uncovered

I can’t possibly relate all the history, but what’s made the trip worth it is visiting the ruins of cities and churches that are mentioned in the Bible and seeing the actual places and geography where Paul and John ministered. They must have been in very good shape to do all the walking required to move from one town to another. Our first day in Istanbul we took 13,308 steps, 8,600 the second day and 13,538 today. We should lose weight since we normally snack or skip lunch. We've been checking into a hotel late (after 7pm) and eating dinner late.

Hopefully, by reading this you’ve got some idea of what a Pilgrim Tour is like. It's almost midnight and we are exhausted after another long day of touring, so we're off to bed now.