is to the fact that the charges were few in number, but not unimportant. This complaint, while it concerns cer tain groups or factions within the church, is nevertheless d i r e c t e d against the church as a whole for tolerating such teaching: “Thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam.” “So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolai- tanes." The phrase, the doctrine of Ba laam, reminds us of the familiar story of the disobedient prophet of the Old Testament (Num. 22—24). Balak, the king of Moab, frightened by the advancing host of the Israel ites, engaged Balaam to pronounce a curse upon them. However, Jeho vah would not allow Balaam to utter the curse, but he was forced to bless Israel instead. But, apparently Ba laam still desired the reward Balak had promised, and so he devised a method that is described in Numbers 25. A concerted plan to seduce the men of Israel to commit whoredom and worship idols, thus making them obnoxious and useless to God, so far succeeded that a terrible judgment came upon the nation—a judgment stayed only by the faithfulness of Phinehas, the priest. In the church, the doctrine of Ba laam is simply Satan’s scheme to so corrupt the lives of God’s children as to ruin their testimony and bring His righteous judgment upon them. In other words, it is the teaching that so long as a person is orthodox in belief, it is all right for him to live in worldliness and carnality. We are saved “by grace . . . through faith” plus nothing, yet the clear teaching of the Word is that we are saved “unto good works, which God hath, before ordained that we should walk, in them.” The two points of testing for a clean animal in the Old Testa ment dietary regulations were that the hoof and the mouth should, so to speak, agree. Thus in the true Chris tian the “ foot”—walk, or manner of life—is to agree with the “mouth”— the profession. This is the very thing of which James writes so cogently in his significant epistle. Our Lord mentions two particular manifestations of this evil doctrine: the Israelites of old were led “ to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.” These words speak of corruption in worship, and corruption in the personal sexual life. It is the unhappy fact that both of these sins are prevalent today among professing Christians. There is such a thing as spiritual adultery or forni cation, when those who are be trothed to Christ are unfaithful to Him. Perhaps the primary applica tion to the church is to be found here. The second teaching which Christ condemns is the doctrine of the Nico- AUGUST, 1947
laitanes. The only other Biblical ref erence .to the Nicolaitanes is found in this same chapter, in the letter to Ephesus (Rev. 2:6). There the ref erence is to the deeds of the Nico laitanes which were abhorred by the Ephesians.! In Pergamos however we find deeds developed into a doctrine, and that doctrine held by some in the church. It is striking to note that in both instances the Lord Jesus uses the words “which thing I hate" in reference to these deeds and this doc trine. Who were the Nicolaitanes, and what was their evil doctrine? Some hold that this was a sect started by Nicolas, one of the first deacons (Acts 6:5), but this conjecture has little basis in fact. The logical thing is to consider the word itself, which is a combination of two Greek words signifying “the conqueror (or over comer) of the people.” With this clue, the doctrine becomes clear to us. Balaam means “destroyer of the people,” and the doctrine of Balaam truly defiles and destroys the people of God. The doctrine of the Nicolai tanes however is not to destroy but rather to overcome and rule over the people of God. An excellent example is the picture of DIotrephes, the “church boss” of Third John, which epistle may well have been directed to this very church of Pergamos. Of
Diotrephes it is asserted that he “loveth to have the pre-eminence among them.” Instead of giving the Lord Jesus Christ the first place in the church, Diotrephes usurped it for himself, and undertook to rule God’s people with an iron hand, even rejecting the true apostles of the Lord, and casting from the church all who opposed his highhanded ways. From the point of church history, we find that during the very period represented by Pergamos, the church turned from its simple apostolic or ganization, and greater and greater powers began to be claimed by a few men, finally culminating in the preposterous claims of pre-eminence and infallibility of the bishop of Rome. Today Nicolaitanism holds full sway, not only in the Church of Rome, but in many Protestant de nominations as well. In both local churches and in denominations as a whole, modem brothers of Diotre phes, who love the pre-eminence, seek to “boss” the people of God, and to rule the church with an iron hand. For a time they may succeed, but the Lord sees it, and He says of this thing, “I hate it." Exhortation (Rev. 2:16a) Our Lord uses only one word of exhortation: “Repent.” To those in Pergamos (or in any church today)
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