PENTECOST – 2000

"The Seven Church Harvest" #4 - Pergamos (2)

Fred R. Coulter – May 20, 2000

This is number 4 in the overview of the Churches in Revelation 2 and 3.  And last time, as you’ll remember, we covered things concerning the Nicolaitans out of this book, Primitive Christianity in Crisis, and we’re very happy to have the author here in person delivering some books to us.  And that is really very fine. 

He did an excellent job in researching and bringing out all of these things and showing that the problems with Christianity today as it’s known in the world has it’s roots going back to the 5th and 6th century B.C., at which time there was a great world-wide reformation of all religions, all the pagan religions.  And that is called an Axial-Period.  This Axial-Period developed beginning in the days of Hezekiah when they had the astronomical upheavals and the movement of the earth, where when we deal with the calendar you know how that’s how the calendar shifted from 360 days to 365 ¼ days.  And also the historical records going back beyond this Axial-Period become very hazy.  And that’s why when we come to the book of Daniel, the book of Daniel was written as the Axial-Period for the prophecy from Daniel down to the second return of Christ.  And in that, which is another whole topic but I’ll just mention here, all the things that we are learning in Revelation, the whole book, the whole book of Revelation ties in with the book of Daniel.  And you can’t understand Revelation without having a good grasp of the entire Bible, but especially concerning the book of Daniel.  And you can’t understand Daniel unless you have Revelation because Daniel only brings the story up so far. 

So likewise it is with the churches that God raised up.  And that’s why we have in Revelation 2 and 3, we have seven churches.  These seven churches depict:

1)     The seven churches at that time.

2)     The historic prophecy of the seven churches down through history to the return of Christ.

3)     The particular attitudes that Christians would have scattered amongst any of the congregations of God at any particular time.

And as a matter of fact when you read the chapter 2 and 3 of Revelation, you might find from time to time you may be in one attitude or another.  It’s awfully hard to totally stay in the Philadelphia attitude all the time. 

Now last time we covered about the Nicolaitans and saw that they had two major things.  One, that was that they had a hierarchy.  As a matter of fact the Gnostics from which Nicolaitans came from, they had even the hierarchy of people.  Those who were the super-spiritual who were going to make it into the whatever their definition of going to heaven was.  Then you had the next group of human beings, and those were the weaker Christians who had to have the law to look at in order to keep it.  Then you have…they would make it under great duress into heaven, as they put it.  Then the rest of the people were just animals, and they didn’t count anyway.  Not only did they have that with people but out of this grew the hierarchy which came to be the Roman Catholic Church. 

The next greatest sin that they had, which Alan points out very clearly in this book, was a form of righteousness which appeared so good, and appealed to human nature so well that without the Spirit of God it’s awfully hard to detect where it’s wrong.  And thus we have the same thing in Protestantism today, and in Catholicism today.

Now, let’s go to 2 Peter 2 and let’s see the warnings that Peter gave.  Then we’ll look at some of the warnings that Jude gave as to this very thing which are the doctrines of the Nicolaitans.  And the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, as we will see, not only had their own form of standard of morality, but they also had a standard of morality where they would go back and borrow the commandments of God to add to their definition of what their religious morality was. 

We have the same thing in Protestantism, don’t we?  What is the first thing that they do?  Now I’ve been going though the series on the Sabbath and then Refuting Sunday-keeping, both.  What is the first thing that they do?  They reject the Sabbath.  They reject the holy days.  They embrace Christmas and Easter, and all of the pagan holidays, and Halloween and all of them.  As a matter of fact, if you would look at the Roman calendar, nearly every day is a saints day of some kind.  And they have so many feast days in the Roman calendar it is unreal. 

Then what they do, they come back and say, “Ok, now that we’ve rejected this standard…well, we like the commandment concerning honor your father and mother.  Now that gives us decency in the society.  And you know we shouldn’t have any murder, yea, we should also embrace that.  Uh, and you know, we should not steal.  No, we don’t like things stolen from us, we need to embrace that.”  And likewise all the way down.  Then when they get to the tenth commandment it sort of gets fuzzy again because their religion is based upon how they feel.  So if they have a desire for something, and since they are the standard to themselves then coveting after something does not necessarily become wrong.  And hence it develops into a license to sin.  Yet at the same time, they were taught (and this is all part of the doctrine of the Nicolaitans) that once you were saved, you cannot sin to lose salvation.  And that’s what the Protestants call “eternal security”. 

Now let’s look at what Peter brought us here.  Let’s first of all review 2 Peter for just a minute.  And let’s understand something very important because he’s contrasting the two.  2 Peter 1, because these chapters go hand in hand.  First of all he describes true Christianity.  Now let’s read part of that here.  Let’s begin right in verse 1.

“Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:”  Now when we go through this you might put: verses your own righteousness through your own false religion.  Because that’s what he brings out in the second chapter, as we will see. 

“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord” (vs. 2)… verses what was claimed to be added knowledge written in the Gnostic gospels, such as Barnabas, and Clement, the Gospel of Truth, and the Gospel of Thomas, which then were the Gnostic gospels, which said this, “We have greater revelation now after the resurrection of Christ.  And our revelation is continuing and ongoing through the inner-workings of the spirit within us.”  Now you see how closely this substitutes what Peter is bringing here, see. 

“According as His divine power…”, which then is translated “Godhead”.  This is the divine power.  The noun form of it is translated Godhead in Colossians 2.  Now this is verses the power of the angelic pleroma.  This is verses the power of the abyss, the deep things of Satan.  See, so all of this is here.  He’s setting the stage for chapter 2, and then into chapter 3. 

“…His divine power hath given unto us all things [that’s important] that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue:  Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises…”  Now this is a superlative in the Greek, that “nothing can be better than this”, that’s what it’s saying.  “…That by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature…”  And that was the whole premise of the doctrine of the Nicolaitans and which goes all the way back to Adam and Eve, that you can partake of the divine nature by going through these philosophies by following our way of doing things, and then you can come to the power of God.  And I think that what we need to do when we’re studying, after you read this book since you now have your copy, when you study through the scriptures of God, you’re, especially when you come to the epistles of Paul, and Peter, and John, and Hebrews, all of them, and Galatians.  Every one of them have elements in combating this Hellenized Christianity, meaning that they were bringing in Greek philosophies and attaching that to the Christianity which Christ brought.  Now Peter is separating this out here as we will see when we come to chapter 2, what he says concerning them. “…That by these [the promises of God] ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (vs. 3-4).       

Now then, he tells you you must have works.  And this is part of the doctrine of the Nicolaitans:  you don’t need the works according to law.  “…Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue…”  And of course faith means that you come to God, you believe He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  You believe that His word is His sovereign word.  That what God inspired to be written is so.  Now you stop and think about it for just a minute.  God, when He created, what did He do?  He commanded and it came into existence.  And that’s what we are to believe concerning the word of God.  It is sovereign.  It is the only way to eternal life.  So when he says here, “and give all diligence to add to your faith virtue”, and virtue is the right kind of godly conduct according to what?  The standard of the commandments which God has given, which then through the power of the Holy Spirit are to be where?  Written in our hearts and our minds, correct?  Yes. 

“…And to virtue knowledge [and of course that’s the true knowledge of Christ]; And to knowledge temperance [which is self-control]; and to temperance patience [and patience begets endurance and the root word is the same for both]; and to patience godliness [having the character of God]; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness [agape, which is “the love”, the very love of God] charity” (vs. 5-7).  Now at this point right here, put in your margin 1 Corinthians 13, because if you don’t have the love of God, speaking in tongues, having all knowledge, understanding all mysteries, giving all of your goods to causes, and all of this sort of thing you are nothing.  And the love of God is defined what?  And this is the love of God that we keep His commandments.

Now then continuing on with this.  “For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.  Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do [that means practice] these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth” (vs. 8-12).  Then he says he’s going to die shortly.

Now verse 16, “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables [that is going directly against the doctrine of Nicolaitanism], when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty.  For He received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased” (vs. 16-17).  Now notice what he’s leading up to.  See I really want you to grasp what Peter is saying here, then bam we come to second chapter right there and then you will see the difference as we go along. 

“And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with Him on the holy mount.  We have also a more sure word of prophecy…”  And that prophecy can be two things.  One, the prophets of old.  Two, the prophecy of the inspired speaking of Christ when He was here.  The gospels which were written by that time.  Many of the letters of Paul which were written at that time, which you will see at the end of 2 Peter, he talks about the writings of Paul, as if they’re scripture already, which they were.  “…Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture…”  Prophecy in this case doesn’t mean just the Prophets in  scripture.  This means any inspired writings of scripture, whether it be the law, or the prophets, or the psalms.  And you can take the test of that and going through and looking at the warnings God gave in the law, what would happen if you would add to or take away from.  That’s precisely what is happened with Nicolaitanism.  I mean when you go through and read this book it’s going to open up vast doors of understanding to you.  You will know longer have a mystery as concerning the false Christianity of this world.  And I think it’s very important of us to realize this: that in order for us to reach the world we must have an answer for it, correct?  It’s one thing to come up and say:

“You’re wrong.” 

“Well, tell me why I’m wrong.” 

“Well, you’re just wrong.” 

“Well, how do you know I’m wrong?” 

“I’m telling you, you’re wrong.”

See.  But if you go up and say: “What you’re doing is not right according to the real true scriptures, and by the way you have a corrupt Bible with this NIV, and New American Standard.  And do you know why you are wrong?  Here’s why you are wrong.  You’re assuming to set yourself up above God.”

“Oh, no that can’t be.” 

Then we can say, “You are, because if you don’t believe the sovereign word of God, you’re establishing your own righteousness.”

“Well, we keep the commandments.” 

“Do you really?”  Then we have an entrance into really preaching the Sabbath and holy days, don’t we?  And that follows right along with the series that I’m doing here in refuting Sunday-keeping, because…

Now, also is in this book, Sunday Facts and Sabbath Fiction by Targo, all of the doctrines of Nicolaitanism against Sabbath and holy days is here.  Even down to the point that is almost identical as to what the Gnostics have said, that if you keep the law you are a weak Christian.  And that Christ ended the law.  Christ abolished the Sabbath.  And it comes right out of the cauldron of Nicolaitanism.  That’s why when you come back here to 2 Peter 1 and you are reading these words, there’s a reason that he wrote them, see.  That’s what we need to understand. 

He’s saying here, verse 20.  “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.”  And that’s the first step to Nicolaitanism.  And a private interpretation then allows you, which is license, to reject the commandments of God you don’t like.  That is a private interpretation.  Sunday-keeping is a private interpretation.  Eternal security, to where you can’t lose salvation regardless of willful sin, is a private interpretation.  Peter is laying the groundwork here in no uncertain terms. 

“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy [Spirit] Ghost” (vs. 21).  You go back and you read about any of the prophets of God.  Any of the apostles of God, you can add into that.  Do you think that they would go about writing their own words and doing their own thing?  Absolutely not. 

Now chapter 2 and verse 1.  “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily [and that actually means “stealthily”] shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.”  The reason he’s saying this is because one of the doctrines is, regardless of what you do you’re not going to lose salvation, and God is not going to punish you. 

Verse 2, “And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.”  And evil spoken of means “blaspheme”.  And isn’t that what they do?  Isn’t that what they do with the Old Testament and the laws of God?  Yes.  This came in and infected the Church.  The churches of God there in Revelation 2 and 3 is a warning of what we need to be careful of.  And we need to be alert to the doctrines that we are not seduced from within, which is what happened to Worldwide Church of God, is happening to the Seventh Day Adventists, and will happen to the Church of God 7^th Day, and any other church that doesn’t understand the doctrine of the Nicolaitas and the mystery of lawlessness.  There will be men who will come in and subvert it.  And that is their goal.  And you need to understand the oath that the Jesuits take for the destruction of Protestantism and Sabbath-keeping groups.  And how since they cannot bring about an inquisition today, they infiltrate and just take down by attrition, and gain importance in position.  And maybe for years and years and years never reveal their hand until they get their hands on the hierarchical control and then they can do whatever they want.  And it always begins by bringing in false doctrine.  And it always brings in… one of the first things: attack the Passover, attack the nature of God, confuse you concerning that, denigrate Jesus Christ and now then you’re all set up for Protestantism.  And since Protestantism is going back to Rome, that’s where all roads lead, that’s where it’s going to end up.  And it started right here.

Now notice, “And through covetousness shall they with feinged words make merchandise of you:…”  If you don’t believe this watch Pat Robertson some night.  (Chuckle)  Vain words.  “Do you want a better life?  Do you want more money?  Do you want happiness?  Do you want all these good things in life?”  Well of course everybody does.  They’re appealing to covetousness.  God’s way is you repent of sin.  And being converted sometimes is difficult.  You don’t believe it read apostle Paul you see.  (Laughter)  And sometimes you’re going to be persecuted for it, and yea sometimes you may be even killed for it.  But you watch Pat Robertson and he’s appealing to everybody’s covetousness and give them good things.  “And by the way, we’re going to have a campaign for $100,000 tonight.  Roll the drums, blow the horn.”

“…Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not” (vs. 3).  Peter’s making the point here, if you don’t believe that God is going to punish for this, listen up – verse 4.  “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell [that is to tartaroo, it’s a place of restraint held to the day of judgment], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;…”  Then you can say, “Ok, well God’s going to take care of the angels.  But you know, that doesn’t apply to human beings.” 

Ok, verse 5.  “And spared not the old world…”  See, he wants us to learn a lesson concerning the flood.  And everywhere you go in the world and look at any archeological strata, you have the evidence of a flood perpetually before your eyes.  I remember when we were living in Salt Lake City and I would go visit brethren up in Montana.  Well I would have to go east and north.  And when you’re going over the continental divide you really don’t feel like you’re going over the continental divide because it gradually goes up, and up, and up, and up, and up, and up, and up… And so when you’re up there pretty close to the 8000 and 9000 foot level where the roads go through on the continental divide, they’re just little hills.  And some of these little hills are kind of like sandy hills. You know kind of like limestone, and it’s the light tan colored stones. 

So one day as I was driving up I thought to myself, “Well I’m going to take off on this little road”, because it goes up to this mountain up here.  So just, anyway, it wasn’t a mountain, it was just like a little hill.  You know, like a hill the back of your place, Ed, if you drive up the road there.  So I went up there and I said, “Well I’m going to get on top of here.”  And I looked around and I kicked a few rocks, and lo and behold what did I find?  Fossils.  Fossils.  There’s the evidence of the flood everywhere. 

So Peter’s saying you need to understand because of sin.  Go back and read Genesis 6.  All flesh had corrupted His way.  The wickedness of man was constant from his youth up.  “…But saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;” (vs. 5). 

Then of course someone will say, “Well, that was back then.  That already happened, but not for us today.”  Ok, verse 6.  “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;” Of course if you preach that in San Francisco you’re run out of town with a spear in your back.  “And delivered [righteous] just Lot, vexed with the filthy [conduct] conversation of the wicked:” You see sometimes you’re stuck where you live.  I think Lot, my own self, he should have moved.  (Laughter)  But he didn’t, so he was going around moaning and groaning, you know.  And so finally the angels came and took them so that he would be able to get out of there.  “(For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)”  (vs. 6-8).  So it went on every day.

“The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government.”  Now the government here means, “despise lordship”, meaning despising the rule – the true Lordship of Christ in your life.  “Presumptuous are they, selfwilled [rather than doing the will of God], they are not afraid to speak evil of [dignitaries] dignities.  Whereas angels [the true angels, you see], which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;…” (vs. 9-12). Which is license to sin, and they do. 

Look at the society around us built upon Protestantism and Catholicism today.  Now there was a time when they adhered to the rules more closely, correct?  There was a time when they actually kept the nine commandments that they say that they kept.  They did a pretty good job with it.  But what happens when you have a grace like they have and begin to water it down?  You have license to sin.  Then they remove God out of the schools.  They removed God out of the government.  They remove God out of the courts because it’s all a religion of license.  Then they began to then put up barriers against the truth of God, even against the nine commandments, which they held, because it’s the mystery of lawlessness and license to sin, and now look at our society.  Because that’s what it ends up in. 

Now let’s continue on here, verse 13.  “And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time.”  Now that means to live excessively.  “Spots they are, blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;…” right there in the Church of God.  So this is why he’s writing this because this was taking place within the Churches of God.  And he was writing a tremendous warning to them.  God preserved that for us today. 

“Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: Which have forsaken the right way [which then tells us if there’s a right way there’s a wrong way, correct?], and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;…” (vs. 14-15). And his advice was, as we saw last time, to ecumenize the pagan religions with Israel so God would have to curse them.  And that’s one of the sins that happened with the church of Pergamos along with the Nicolaitans.  So it became so bad, as we’ll see here in a minute, that God said I’m going to fight against you.  Now, as I mentioned before, you think about it.  How bad must it have been in the Church of God for Christ to say, “If you don’t repent I’m going to fight against you.” 

(Comments from the audience…)

Yes, they’re trying to bring them into the congregation.  And what they’re doing with bringing it into the congregation, they’re actually infiltrating a newer spiritual interpretation, see.  So while they’re feasting with you, yes they would keep the feasts of God for a while, but their true goal was to get rid of the feasts of God and to bring in the pagan feasts.  That’s the ultimate goal.  A righteousness that looks so good it’s hard to believe that it’s wrong.  (More audience comments….)  Yes, I’ll read some quotes out of Alan’s book here in just a minute.

Verse 16, “But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the maddness of the prophet.  These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.  For when they speak great swelling words of vanity…” (vs.16-18).  Now what are great swelling words of vanity?  They can even be brought out humbly.  But they’re vain.  As long as it goes against God’s way, regardless of how softly, how nicely, how logical it is put, they are great swelling words of vanity.  For example you could say, “Well, you know, you’re just struggling so hard to try and keep the commandments of God.  You know that’s not the way you need to do.  You just need to walk away from that and you just need to have the inner peace within your heart.  And that you connect with Christ.”  Those are great swelling words of vanity spoken in a humble way.  So then on the other hand you can have great bombastic preaching too.  So either way it’s swelling words of vanity against God.  Anything that exalts itself against the of God. 

“For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error” (vs. 18).  Now you see what Satan wants, he wants to bring the true believers back into the world and back into his religion.  So that’s why he infiltrates the Churches of God.  I never heard of a true minister of God infiltrating a Protestant group to try and bring them down.  Satan’s already got them.  No one needs to infiltrate them.  They’re already gone.  So who is Satan after?  Who does he accuse day and night before the throne of God?  The saints of God.  So therefore that’s why they infiltrate into the Churches of God.  That’s the place that Satan wants to get. 

“While they promise them liberty…”  And boy that is their word.  We have freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, liberty, liberty, liberty.  “…They themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world…” Now see the pollution’s of the world to them in their way of thinking, you can overcome the pollution’s of the world not by keeping the commandments of God, but by rising above it.  But the problem is when you rise above it, you rise into it (laughter) and they don’t realize that see.  “…For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome…” (vs. 19). There are two steps in it:

#1   First of all you get entangled in it.  And we’ve seen how people in the different Sabbath keeping churches get entangled in this lawless philosophy, which ends up in Sunday-keeping and so forth. 

#2   They continue in it.  They are overcome by it.  And when that happens, as you have seen, maybe even some of the very people you knew in a congregation that you attended, now have gone back so far into the world that when you begin to talk to them about the truth and the way of God, and the Sabbath and holy days, it’s just like there’s a blank curtain over their eyes and they look at you and say, “Now, now.  We still love you, but we have graduated.   We now have a greater spirituality.”  And that’s how they will do it.  If someone who’s been in the true Church of God comes back to you with that attitude they have been overcome.  And unless they repent they have the lake of fire to look forward to.  No question about it. 

Now let’s go on here.  “…The latter end is worse with them than the beginning.”  Why?  Because they sear their conscience against the pricking of the Holy Spirit, because their sins have been deliberate.  “For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire” (vs. 19-22).  And is just so thrilled and happy to do so and squeals with delight. 

Now let’s come back to Revelation 2 and 3 here.  While we’re going there stop at Jude.  Now what you might do.  You might take The General Epistles book and go read the section where I’ve combined 2 Peter and Jude and you will see how that all comes together.  A far more powerful way than just each one separately.  But what I want to cover here is verses 3 and 4.  And while some commentators may think that Jude copied Peter or Peter copied Jude, that perhaps may be true, but I think that the magnitude of the sin was so great that in order to explain to the brethren how serious it was they used many of the same examples. 

Now let’s pick it up here in verse 3.  “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to wrote unto you of the common salvation, it was needful…” And needful means it was obligatory.  I was obligated, “…to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”  Because now they were getting another faith. 

Verse 4, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into [licentiousness-license to sin,] lasciviousness…” And the ultimate of that is, “…and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Now when you deny God, what did Jesus say?  Hold your place here and go to Matthew10:32.  “Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before My father which is in heaven.”