Chapter 9 - The Nicolaitans
Nicolaitans? Who were the
Nicolaitans? They are mentioned only twice in the scriptures and both times with contempt.
The first mention of them is in Revelation 2:6. The glorified Jesus told the old apostle
John to write to the angel (messenger) of the called-out-ones in Ephesus. In this letter,
Jesus praised the Ephesians for their works, labor, patience, and for the fact that they
could not bear those who were evil. They had, furthermore, tested those who said they were
apostles but were not, and had found them to be liars. The Lord severely admonished them,
however, for having left their first love. Perhaps they had all the right doctrines and
were doing the good works of a Christian, but were showing more affection for the things
of the gospel than for the person of the gospel. Whatever the Ephesians were
doing that caused them to leave their first love, it was severe enough for the Lord to
call them to repentance. If they did not repent, He would remove their candlestick from
them. He would remove the power, presence, and the light of His Holy Spirit. Then the Lord
praised them saying, "But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans,
which I also hate."
The only other reference to the Nicolaitans is in Revelation 2:15. The
called-out-ones in Pergamos had those among them who held to the doctrine (teachings) of
the Nicolaitans. Regarding them Jesus said, "So you also have those who hold the
doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate." He hated what they were teaching.
From these two references, we know that the Lord hated their
"deeds" and their "doctrines" (teachings). It appears that we are left
to speculate about who they were, what their deeds were, and what they taught. Not so! The
evidence of what they did and what they taught is revealed in scripture. We learn who they
were by what they did and what they taught. By this, we learn who they are in the churches
today.
NICOLAITANS' NAME
The first clue as to who they were can be found in what they were
called--Nicolaitans. The word Nicolaitan comes from two Greek words: nike and laios.
Nike means "to conquer," "subdue," "overcome," and laos
refers to a body of people, the common people. Nikos is the equivalent to nike
and has been translated "victory." When combined, these two terms translate
"conqueror [or subduer] of the common people."
These "conquerors of the people" were among the assembly of
called-out-ones in Ephesus and Pergamos. They obviously had some major influence among the
saints.
(Some scholars say they were followers of Nicolas who was one of the
deacons in Acts 6:5. They speculate that Nicolas went into deception and led some of the
believers away from the faith. This is impossible to document.)
Their name represents who the Nicolaitans were and what they taught.
They were those who positioned themselves above the "common" people as having
some authority over them and taught that this was the way things were supposed to be. I
believe this was the beginning of the clergy system that came into prominence in the
historical, institutional church system.
The clergy refers to persons who are ordained for religious service
such as ministers, priests, and rabbis. The word cleric is sometimes used in relation to a
clergy person. Clericalism is the "political influence or power of the clergy, or a policy or principles favoring this: generally a derogatory term."
3
{16} The clergy system in the churches
advocates the elevation of the "professional" ministers above common believers.
ASSOCIATED WITH BALAAM
The second clue as to who the Nicolaitans were is found in the
association of their name with Balaam. In Revelation 2:15, the King James Version
translation reads, "So you also have those who hold to the doctrine of the
Nicolaitans..." The word "also" comes from the Greek word kai
which can be translated "and," "also," or "even" depending
upon the context in which it is used. The Greek text has, in addition to kai, the
word omoios which means "likewise." Some of the translations dropped omoios
and missed an important aspect of interpretation. The New American Standard kept it and
translated it, "in the same way." It reads, "Thus, you also have
some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans."
We ask, "in the same way" as who? The answer to that question
is found in the previous verses. In Revelation 2:14-15, the Lord said, "But I have a
few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who
taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things
sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication. Thus, you also have some who
in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans." I suggest, therefore,
that this reference to Balaam is the antecedent of the phrase "in the same way."
"The doctrine of Balaam" (v. 14) and "the doctrine of the Nicolaitans"
(v.15) is referring to the same thing or things.
If, therefore, "the doctrine of Balaam" is that to which the
phrase "in the same way" refers, then it is necessary to find out more about
Balaam in order to find out more about the Nicolaitans.
SAY, DO, AND BE
First, however, consider these three virtues of God's true ministers:
they will say what God says, do what God says do, and be what
God wants them to be. They cannot do otherwise. They are unlike Balaam in the Old
Testament as told about in Numbers 22-24. Balaam could not be what he was not.
Balak was the King of the Moabites at the time the Israelites pitched
their tents in the land of Moab. Balak was fearful of what the Israelites might do to his
people because he saw that they had struck the Amorites and taken their cities. So he sent
messengers to hire Balaam to come and speak a curse against these Israelites who had come
out of Egypt. Balaam was a non-Israelite prophet.
Balaam was certainly enticed by the price they offered him, but warned
Balak that he was bound to say the words that God put in His mouth. Balaam did
just that. He spoke four prophecies favoring Israel, and one opposing Balak. Why then was
Balaam looked upon with such disdain in both the Old and the New Testaments?
Remember, it takes all three virtues to be a true minister of God: say
what God says to say, do what God says to do, and be what God would have
one to be. Balaam fell miserably short when it came to this third virtue to be.
Here is how we know.
THE MATTER AT PEOR
Later on in Numbers 31, we read where God told Moses to take vengeance
on the Midianites for the sons of Israel. He had sent his captains and warriors from every
tribe and the priests with the holy vessels and the trumpets of alarm. They killed every
male and the kings of Midian. They burned the cities and took the spoil, but they captured
the women and brought them back with them.
Moses and others went out to meet his returning army and saw what they
had done. He was angry with the officers and asked them why they had spared the women. It
would seem like the noble thing to do, would it not? Moses explained his anger in verse
16: "Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to
commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor."
So, what happened at Peor and what did Balaam have to do with that?
Apparently everything! We see in Numbers 25 that Israel played the harlot with the
daughters of Moab: "They called the people to the sacrifices of their gods: and the
people ate and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself to Baal-peor: and the
anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel." Num. 25:2-3. Remember, God had made it
emphatically clear that the Israelites were not to mingle with the people of the land.
Deut. 7:1-6.
No reference is made whatsoever to Balaam in Numbers 25, but Numbers
31:16 informs us that this "sin" at Peor was due to the counsel of Balaam. In
Numbers 22-24 we read how Balak offered both money and prestige to Balaam to get him to
pronounce a curse against the Israelites. Balaam was not about to miss his opportunity for
fortune and prominence.
Balaam must have known about this ban that God had set forth as
recorded in Deuteronomy 7 and used it to defeat the Israelites. He "taught Balak to
cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols,
and to commit fornication." Rev. 2:13. In other words, Balaam counseled Balak to
entice the Israelite sons and daughters to mix with the sons and daughters of Moab. This
way, Balaam did not have to speak the curse, but he ensured that Israel would place
themselves under a curse. Israel did just that. They played the harlot and brought the
curse of a plague upon themselves that killed twenty-four thousand of their own. Num.
25:9.
Balaam collected his blood money and prepared to live lavishly among
the kings of Midian. His life, however, was short-lived after that. Numbers 31:8 tells us
that he was killed with the sword when Israel took vengeance on the Midianites. He was a
false prophet. He was bound to say what God wanted him to say. He was forced even
by his jackass (donkey) to do what God wanted, but it was not in him to be
what God would have him to be. He was greedy and sought to increase himself in power,
position, riches, and domination. He put Himself above the concerns of God and God's
people. We are much like Balaam when we ask God to bless our flesh rather than denying our
flesh to obey God.
BALAAM'S NAME AND REPUTATION
Another connection between Balaam and the Nicolaitans is embedded in
his name. Balaam's name is the combination of two words from the Hebrew: beli and
haam. Beli means "conqueror" and, haam means
"the people." Put them together and we get "conqueror of the people."
Balaam's name, therefore, translates the same as Nicolaitan. Is this not strong evidence
that the reference to Balaam is the antecedent of the phrase "in the same way"?
Balaam is also mentioned in 2 Peter 2:15 in the context of false
teachers. The false teachers were those "who have forsaken the right way, and have
gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of
unrighteousness; but was rebuked for his iniquity; the dumb ass speaking with man's voice
forbade the madness of the prophet."
He is mentioned with disdain in Jude, verse 11: "Woe to
them," Jude writes, "for they...ran greedily after the error of Balaam for
reward." These three New Testament witnesses against Balaam are harsh to say the
least. Each of them speak of greed. Nicolaitans cause God's people to commit spiritual
fornication by joining them to their idolatrous church systems.
SELF-AGGRANDIZEMENT
Having looked into who Balaam was, we come back to our original
question: Who, then, were the Nicolaitans? They were leaders within the Christian
community who were false prophets "in the same way" as was Balaam. They were
ministers among the assembly of called-out-ones who were motivated by greed and
self-aggrandizement--the need to increase themselves in power, position, riches, and
domination. They had managed to exalt themselves in leadership roles above those
"common" called-out-ones.
The New Testament mentions Diotrephes, who possessed this Nicolaitan
spirit. The end of the first century A.D. was nearing when the aged apostle John wrote his
third epistle. He wrote to the well beloved Gaius and addressed his grief over one who was
known as Diotrephes. It appears from the letter that Diotrephes had positioned himself in
an uncommon place of authority among an assembly of called-out-ones. He loved to have
preeminence among them. 3 John 1:9. He not only refused to welcome the apostle John and
others of the brethren, but removed from the assembly those who did dare to welcome them.
3 John 1:10-11.
The desire for preeminence is a characteristic of the Nicolaitan
spirit. Nicolaitans are those who seek to elevate themselves above the so-called laity. I
say they are "so-called" because no such distinctions are made in the New
Testament between professional clergy and laity. Such distinctions smack insults at the
doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. The clerical exercise of such authority over
the called-out-ones sprang up throughout all Christendom soon after the turn of the first
century. This reference to Diotrephes in 3 John is clear evidence that it had already
taken root. Nicolaitans are like goats. They like high places.
THE NICOLAITAN IN ME
I was raised in institutional Christianity. The Nicolaitan (clergy)
spirit was programmed into me from childhood by those who had it programmed into them.
It's generational. It was all I had ever seen or known. I had no way of knowing that
ministry could be anything other than what my experiences and education taught me. So, I
pursued the normal course of ministry that was expected of me.
I answered the call to ministry when I was about twelve years of age
and enrolled immediately out of high school in the denominational college that trained me
for ministry. Years later I finished with a Masters of Divinity degree from seminary.
I had taken the usual run of classes in Bible and religion that trained
me to perpetuate the system I was in. I had been trained by the clergy system to be one of
their own. I was hired by the elders of a local church to be their pastor. I was
the chief administrator and, for all practical purposes, was the professional hired to
lead the work of the church.
After twelve years behind the pulpit, I turned away from God and left
the ministry. Following my conversion years later, God pinned me down in what I call my
wilderness experience. It lasted for many years. God put me through His school of the Holy
Spirit. This was a time of learning the word of God for myself, of receiving revelations,
and of being purged of many spots and wrinkles.
One particular day on my wilderness journey, I was in prayer with the
Lord when I saw in my mind's eye a miniature image of a man standing upon a high cliff,
arms folded, chest puffed out, head cocked back, full of arrogance and pride. After doing
a double-take, I said, "Lord, that looks like me!"
I knew that I was seeing a "spirit" of preeminence. I knew
that it was the Nicolaitan spirit that had been implanted in me since early childhood.
This was that clergy spirit of self-aggrandizement. As soon as I saw this, I renounced it
and asked the Lord to separate it from me. It has taken years for that to happen.
THE RISE OF BISHOPS
This Nicolaitan spirit is deceptive and deadly. It is deeply entrenched
in most of the men and women who have been trained and nurtured to minister in the church
system. Nicolaitan personalities have ruled in the churches since the first
century A.D.
In spite of those exceptions like Diotrephes, simplicity seemed to have
characterized the life of the called-out-ones that we know about from the New Testament
until after the death of John. Little is known about the activities of the called-out-ones
for those few years between the death of John and the turn of the century.
When the pages of church history began to flip again into the
beginning of the second century, an interesting thing had occurred. Certain ones bore the
title of bishop, such as Polycarp of Smyrna, Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch,
Polybius of Tralles, and Onesimus of Ephesus. These were godly men, defenders of the
faith, some of whom were martyrs for Jesus, but were nonetheless caught up in the power
and position of the bishopric.
Justo Gonzalez points out in his Story of
Christianity that James, the brother of Jesus, was erroneously given the title of
"bishop" of Jerusalem by church leaders in later years.
3 {17} Gonzalez explains that "the emphasis on the
authority of bishops and on apostolic succession was a part of the response of the church
to the challenge of heresies in the late second and early third centuries. As the church became increasingly Gentile, the danger of heresies was
greater, and this in turn led to a greater stress on episcopal [bishop] authority."
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{18}
By the time of the monastic movement in the
late third and early fourth centuries, bishops lived in great cities and enjoyed great
power and prestige. Moreover, the bishopric had become an office to be filled rather than
a calling by God upon a man. The story is told of a man named Martin, born in 335 A.D.,
who lived the monastic life and was elected to the office of bishop of Tours by popular
demand. Gonzalez wrote, "When the bishopric of Tours became vacant, the populace
wanted to elect Martin to that position. The story goes that some of the bishops present
at the election opposed such an idea, arguing that Martin was
unusually dirty, dressed in rags, and disheveled, and that his election would damage the
prestige of the office of bishop."
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This story tells us that the bishopric of Tours had become a position or office to which
men could be elected. What was once a calling of God upon individual men has since become
an institution of men.
Many churches in the Presbyterian tradition have elected men, women,
and young people as elders to fill a certain number of positions for limited terms. Where
is any of this in the Bible?
According to New Testament records, elders were appointed in every city
and they existed in plurality. No man was given that responsibility alone. Elders were not
called bishop nor pastor. They were elders who shepherded the flock of God among whom the
Holy Spirit had made them overseers (which is the Greek word episcopous, also
translated "bishop"). Acts 20:20 NKJV. The terms elder, shepherd, and overseer
refer to the same person. Elder has to do with who they were. Shepherd has to do
with what they did. Overseer has to do with how they did what they did.
An elder is one who is called of God to perform a function in the body of Christ and was
never intended to be a position, office, title, or institution in the Kingdom of God.
This unscriptural "office" of bishop was the seedbed in which
the hierarchical system of clergymen took root and flourished in the eventual rise of the
Roman Catholic Church. The power of the office of bishop was such that simony became an
issue in the church. Simony is the buying and selling of ecclesiastical (church)
positions. Similarly, nobles, kings, and emperors were known to have appointed and
investitured bishops and abbots in order to have political control of the church.
The veneration that is bestowed upon popes, cardinals, bishops, and
priests has to be most revolting to the Holy Spirit of God; especially that the Pope, a man, should be called, Holy Father. The word cardinal when used as an
adjective means "of foremost importance; paramount."
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Jesus exhorted His followers regarding this
need for veneration: "But you are not to be called Rabbi: for one is your Master,
Christ; and all you are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is
your Father, which is in heaven. Neither are you to be called masters: for one is your
Master, Christ. But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever
shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he who humbles himself shall be exalted."
Matt. 23:8-12.
In spite of the Reformation and other spiritual awakenings, the
influence of the clergy system abounds in every denomination and independent church.
Any challenge to a person's exalted position as "Pastor" (or whatever title they
go by) are fighting words to most.
Nevertheless, I boldly declare that the Nicolaitans today are all those
who promote the clergy system, which separates the so-called "professional"
ministry from the so-called laity. They are those who seek to increase themselves in
power, position, riches, and domination and generally do so at the expense of the saints.
This "clergy system" is the work of the harlot spirit in the churches.
EAT THE SHEEP
The Nicolaitans are those shepherds of Ezekiel 34 whom God prophesied
against for feeding themselves when they should have fed the flock. They ate the fat and
clothed themselves with wool, killed those who were fed, did not strengthen the diseased,
did not heal those who were sick, did not bind up those who were broken, did not bring
back those who had been driven away, did not seek those who were lost, and ruled over the
ones they did have with force and with cruelty. Their flocks were scattered and became
meat to all the beasts of the field.
The Lord was against those shepherds. He said He would require His
flock at their hands and cause them to cease from feeding the flock. They would no longer
be able to feed themselves off of the flock because He promised to deliver His sheep from
their mouths. His sheep would no longer be meat for them. Ezek. 34:2-5, 10.
Dennis Loewen notes, "Balaam did great damage by advising Balak to
entice the Israelites through whoredoms to ultimately serve foreign gods. The modern-day
Nicolaitans exact the same final effect when they wed the people of God to a foreign
god--to another Jesus." Nicolaitans take advantage of the sheep to advance
themselves. They eat the sheep to fatten themselves.
The time is coming, however, when God Himself will take these sheep
from the false shepherds. He will search for His sheep and seek them out Himself. He will
feed, tend, lead, and heal them Himself. Ezek. 34:11-16.
Present-day Nicolaitans have the same marks of the Pharisees who lived
in Jesus' day.
Footnotes
{16}
Webster's New World Dictionary, 2nd College ed., s.v.
"Clericalism".
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{17}
Justo L. González, The Story of Christianity: Volume 1, The Early Church to the Dawn
of the Reformation (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1984) 21.
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{18}
González, 97.
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{19}
González, 149.
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{20}
American Heritage Dictionary, s.v. "cardinal".
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