Jesus Hates the Deeds, and the Doctrine, Of the Nicolaitanes!

BY KenClark@att.net -- 2/8/2009

Revelation 2:1-15 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death. And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges; I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate.

The “Old” (1917) Scofield Reference Bible note says -- the Nicolaitanes -- From nikao, "to conquer," and laos, "the people," or "laity." “There is no ancient authority for a sect of the Nicolaitanes. If the word is symbolic it refers to the earliest form of the notion of a priestly order, or "clergy," which later divided an equal brotherhood (Matthew 23:8) into "priests" and "laity." What in Ephesus was "deeds" (Revelation 2:6) had become in Pergamos a “doctrine” (Rev 2:15).”

The “New” (1967) Scofield Reference Bible – says that “according to early church fathers (Ignatius, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexander, Tertullian, Hippolytus), refers to those who, while professing themselves Christians, lived licentiously.”

While the New Scofield and others site the several “fathers,” there is evidence for only ONE original source, Iranaeus – see Wikipedia’s article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaitanes. This article shows a great deal of uncertainty in the secular record concerning the Nicolaitanes.

I’ve successfully used God’s promise in 1John5: 14-15 about a dozen times: And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. Again, I have discovered how to use this great promise.

There are several requirements for this promise to work: First, it is only for Christians. Second, the objective being prayed for must be in the will of God. Third, one must be mentally and spiritually ready and willing to accept and embrace God’s answer in advance. One cannot say, “God give me your answer and then I’ll decide if I want to accept it on not. Paid preachers are usually constrained by church doctrinal positions and thus cannot qualify for this promise. But, I am not so constrained and God has given me wonderful answers, primarily from the Bible.

I deliberately asked God’s answer to the meaning of “Nicolaitanes” in Revelation chapter 2. The first thing I’m convinced God showed me is that this is an extremely important issue seeing Jesus hates their deeds and doctrine. This IS the Revelation of Jesus Christ to his Church. It is unimaginable God would allow this thing be hidden from us. The second thing is that the Bible gives no insight into who these people were. Third, secular history is not inspired of God and is unreliable. The Wikipedia article illustrates this unreliability perfectly well. Therefore, the meaning of the term “Nicolaitanes” must lie within the word itself. Thus, “CI,” Cyrus Ingerson, Scofield’s note in his Old (1917) Scofield Bible, cited above, is correct. Jesus hates the establishment of the Clergy, Laity, caste system.

If we think about it we can see good reasons God is against this thing. God will use formal education, but God does not need it, as evidenced by the 12 unlearned men Jesus picked as his apostles. First, God wants to be free to use any man he wants and does not want to be confined to the few clergymen permitted to preach in a given church. Many men are competent speakers and knowledgeable in the Scriptures and have a variety of experiences and backgrounds and need to be available to God’s use. God’s the Holy Ghost is fully capable of using any Christian. Second, many men have gifts that need to be exercised, and they want a piece of the action. Much of “churchianity” is terrible boring. Many men just stay home. They don’t want to just warm the seat each Sunday, listening to the same guy each time. Third, children growing up in your typical “one man show” churches, as I did, easily come to see religion as for women and weirdoes, because they never see any regular man getting excited about God. They only see the preacher, and that’s because it’s his job and he’s paid to do it. Fourth, paid preachers have serious conflicts of interest. They are paid to do it, and their mortgage, car, and other financial aspects of life depend on that salary, and they are going to avoid, like the plague, saying anything that will upset the congregation. God needs men whose livelihoods do NOT depend on what they may preach or who they may offend, by saying unpopular things, that God does want them to say. Fifth, clergy are controlled. A candidate for the clergy must win the recommendations of existing clergymen or he won’t be accepted to seminary. Then, when he graduates, he must obtain the recommendations of the seminary staff or he won’t get hired for a preaching job. So to a considerable extent they must kiss a lot of behinds to get their preaching jobs. This means considerable control by the “system”. If any of them dared to say what CI Scofield said about the true meaning of the “Nicolaitanes,” can anyone seriously imagine that person would ever get a ministry job? I would add a sixth thing applicable to our modern Web surfing and internet dependent life. There are so many excellent “helps” on the web, any so called layman can and should run circles around most preachers. A preacher’s time is so maxed out by all his regular pastoral duties, he does not have the available time, many so called laymen have. May times I simply go on the Web, “Google” my question, and usually come up with a bunch of sites or blogs where some individual has put a very great deal of time and thought into his treatise. I “Googled” “Scofield” “Nicolaitanes” and found tons of stuff in an instant. I can often surf the web during free time at work. Few pastors I’ve met have the free time that the so called laymen have, to do this. Seventh, few clergy have the scientific, mathematical expertise to understand the physical world. God’s answer to Job was four chapters of “creation science.” Psalm 19 shows God’s deliberate parallel revelations in Nature and in Scripture. It’s like jury duty. The juror must carefully compare testimony, AND, physical facts. On Mar’s hill Paul does not use Scripture on the “unchurched” Athenians. He correctly uses a simple creation argument. In the book of Romans 1: 15-25 Paul starts his preaching of the Gospel with creation. He says (v20) For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: -- Laymen can bring a variety of expertise to teaching ministry.

Creation of this physical world is the first interface between God and the natural man. That is why Paul, in Romans1 starts there in preaching the gospel to the Romans. Pastors have been bamboozled by evolution and college “experts” and have very very wrongly assumed they don’t need expertise in math and science. God reveals himself, in BOTH Nature and the Bible and these two must be put together, as a juror must do, to solve the case.

Eighth, the very nature of Christianity is an organism -- Christ’s body -- NOT an organization. Although I had heard this around Christian circles, it didn’t hit home until I took a graduate business course in Systems Management. There they likened optimal business management to the human body. The light went on in my head. Ah – Christ choose, ye rather, he invented the optimal management system for the Church, -- his body. This business approach has been impossible until the advent of modern computers, because every facet of the system must be optimally managed and carefully coordinated. The body well explains aspects of Church operation. My fingers take orders, not from my hand, but from my head. The head may operate them together or separately. The head controls every facet. Here we see starkly, why in perfect systems management, the head, (Jesus Christ) wants individual control of each “cell of body.” For me this helped explain the obscure 1 Corinthians 15:29: Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead? We Christians a living cells in Christ’s body. When we die we must be replaced by new cells to take our place, just the same as in the human body. But, the body (the true Church) keeps on living in this world. We each want full control of our bodies. We don’t want a leg in a cast, or any other restrictions. We would hate such. We don’t want to be hamstrung. We see why Christ hates the doctrine and deeds of the Nicolaitanes. Here again Nature and Scripture fit together, absolutely most intentionally. The human body is deliberately analogous to Christ’s body. Many laymen have expertise Christ wants to use in good preaching ministry.

Rev22:17: And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. He which testifieth these things saith, v20 Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.