Answer # 62

To answer the question, "What is the 'synagogue of Satan', mentioned in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9", we need to realize what does the word "synagogue" mean. The word synagogue comes from a Greek word meaning "assembly" or "church.

In Matthew 16:18, we find where Jesus Christ says: "....I will build My church, and the gates of Hades (the grave) shall not prevail against it." Satan understands the prophecy about the founding of God's Church in 31 A.D. By 33 A.D., Satan used Simon Magus to start up a counterfeit "Christian" church.

The "synagogue of Satan," then, is an assembly or church made up of individuals who "say they are Jews and are not." The term Jew is used here in a spiritual sense.

Romans 2:29 tells us, "He is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God." It is not one's physical race that counts, but his spiritual condition (Galatians 3:27-29). True Christians are spiritual Jews.

Those in the "synagogue of Satan" say they are Jews - pretend to be real Christians - but are not. This false church was already developing in the days of the apostle John. It masqueraded as God's true Church and had congregations in the cities of Smyrna and Philadelphia even at that early time. It and its daughter churches are further described in Revelation 17.