In continuing the messages pertaining to the seven churches in the book of Revelation, the focus today is Pergamos and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.
So, you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Revelation 2:15-17).
Unlike the Ephesians, they actually embraced the teachings of the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2:15). Jesus warns them that unless they repent, they are in danger of the judgment that is sure to fall on those who teach false doctrine.
Internet- There is a connection between Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus) and the Nicolaitans1. The Nicolaitans were followers of Saint Nicholas and continued to honor Nimrod in the days of the apostle John. They were mentioned in connection with holding to the teaching of Balaam, who was associated with leading Israel into idolatry and immorality.
The Nicolaitans were considered heretical by the mainstream early Christian Church. In the Bible, Jesus Christ mentions hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans. They owed their origin to Nicolas, one of the Seven in the early Christian Church.
A story is recorded of the seduction of the Israelites into immoral and idolatrous unions with the women of Moab (Num 25:1-5). Had this situation not been checked, Israel would have been destroyed as a nation. Numbers 31:16 attributed the success of this seduction of God’s people to the evil influence of a prophet named Balaam who advised Balak, king of Moab, to follow such a course of action. Balaam became, therefore, in Heb. history a symbol of an evil man who led God’s people into immorality and sin.
The letter to the church at Pergamum specifically charged them with having seduced people into eating meat offered to idols and into acts of fornication. The decree of the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:28, 29) had laid down also two specific conditions upon which Gentiles were to be admitted into Christian fellowship: they were to abstain from things offered to idols and from fornication. These were the very regulations which the Nicolaitans violated.
They were a people who used Christian liberty as an occasion for the flesh, against such Paul warned (Gal 5:13). The enticement to such a course of action was the pagan society in which Christians lived where eating meat offered to idols was common. Sex relations outside marriage were completely acceptable in such a society.
The Nicolaitans attempted to establish a compromise with the pagan society of the Graeco-Roman world that surrounded them. The people most susceptible to such teaching were, no doubt, the upper classes who stood to lose the most by a separation from the culture to which they had belonged before conversion.
A term appearing in the Revelation (2:6,15) describing members of Christian congregations who held a doctrine that the Lord hated. Irenaeus said that they were followers of Nicolaus of Antioch, a proselyte who was among the seven men chosen to serve the Jerusalem congregation (Acts 6:5), who had forsaken true Christian doctrine; he said they lived in unrestrained indulgence.
Saints, when I started writing, it was actually messages to caution the church about compromising; going along with what is contrary to the Word of God. I don’t know of a better time to post the messages, since it pertains to what and Who we are supposed to be celebrating. Many Christians don’t know the truth about Santa Claus and who he represents. Many born again believers think that it nothing wrong to take their children to see Santa Claus and tell him what they want for Christmas.
I am going to prove to you how wrong it is, and how God is displeased with this double standard. Some people praise God with their lips and believe there is nothing wrong with Santa Claus.
Lord willing. I will post how Santa Claus is actually symbolic of the devil, and he is used to imitate God.
His handmaiden, Betty A. Burnett ~ burnettministries.org
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