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Now continuing verse 33.  “But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in heaven.”  Well there’s one thing for sure, you don’t want Christ to deny you, but that’s what they’ve done with their practices. 

Now let’s come back and let’s read Revelation 2 with the church of Pergamos again and let’s see why Christ was so vociferous in His correction of this church.  Revelation 2: 12, “And to the angel…” And of course that means messenger because you can’t conceive of a righteous angel being wicked as this was.  “…in Pergamos write; These things saith He which hath the sharp sword with two edges [that’s His very word]; I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is:”  And of course, when you’re dealing with where the throne of Satan is and you’re living in the very city that is permeated with all of the wickedness of Satan, and you’re just bombarded with it day and night, and day and night, and day and night, what happens?  Your guard let’s down.  Now they resisted it.  “…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” (Rev. 2:12-13). 

After he was slain what happened?  Verse 14, “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam [we covered that last time], who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.”  Now the spiritual fornication, there are two kinds.  You can have the physical fornication by having temple prostitutes going clear back into rank paganism, or you can have the spiritual fornication (Rev. 17) with Mystery Babylon the Great.  And “things sacrificed to idols”, I think that’s the beginning of the Eucharist.  “So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.  Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth” (vs. 14-15). 

Now let me read some things out of Primitive Christianity…by Alan Knight.  Let’s come to page 106.  Now you can turn there if you have your book if you want.  But I have mine marked up so I may be jumping around a little bit.  So if you get lost don’t look at me, go read the book. 

This is the second paragraph from the bottom.  “…Gnostic antinomianism takes first place – disobedience, immorality, religious lawlessness, the ‘mystery’ of lawlessness.  The apostle John in 1 John 3 couldn’t say enough about it – God and disobedience is nonsense, a logical impossibility.” 

That’s why the great swelling words of vanity, being this:  “We have a new revelation concerning Sabbath.  The number eight means new beginning.  Now we all want to advance beyond, and since we are to be new creatures in Christ, we now can set aside the seventh day Sabbath and we can worship on Sunday, which is the eighth day, a new beginning.”  Now that sounds so good, and so smooth, and so righteous that it is so hard to detect that that is absolute blasphemy and sin.  But that’s what it results in. 

“Many tend to fixate on pagan customs and symbols in criticizing Nicolaitan Christianity.  This is a valid issue, and the bible demonstrates repeatedly that God is displeased by mixing his worship with pagan practices.”  But as Alan points out, it’s not just Santa Claus or the Easter bunny, it is the philosophy behind it that gives you the permission to sin. 

“The real, core issue is the underlying theological, de facto licensing of disobedience in general, the wave of sin and human misery that comes from it in the form of war, divorce, the entire gamut and daily grind of strife and emotional dysfunction that afflict mankind, and, most important, the disrespect for God himself and his creation-centered institutions that cuts man off from the true God of the universe” (pg. 106-107).  Profound statement.  You can see it everywhere.

They have succeeded in making God, and belief in Him an opinion.  Meaning that every other religion in the world is as valid as what you may think, because what you think is your opinion.  “And what you think is your opinion, and what I think is my opinion.  And my opinion is right, and I stand before God because I have greater revelation than any of the rest of you.”  And there you have it.  Now when you turn on the Trinity channel, you’ll be able to pick it up just like that (snap fingers).  You’ll pick that stuff up immediately. 

“After lawlessness comes docetism…” (pg. 107), which is the dual nature of Christ.  The Christ descended from heaven and possessed the body of the man Jesus.  So Christ did not come in the flesh.  And the only thing that was crucified was the man Jesus.  Because the Christ left him and returned to heaven.  That’s docetism, meaning the dual nature of Christ.  After that, asceticism, which we’ll talk about concerning Colossians 2. 

“The presence of those statements implies some Christians have a problem with recognizing Nicolaitanism for what it is.”  Now when you get done reading this book you won’t have any problem.  “Instead they believe in tolerating it.  Pergamum [or the church at Pergamos] is a prime example of this.  There are several other scriptures in which Jesus makes a special point that Primitive Christians should not participate religiously with Gnostic Christians” (pg. 107). 

“We see that Gnostic Christians commonly infiltrate the true church.”  So that’s why periodically the Church has to be scattered.  That’s why periodically there are upheavals within the Church, because there’s greater work that God is doing to purge it of the Nicolaitanism.  “This includes antinomian preachers operating inside the primitive church” (pg. 107).

“Antinomian Christians are depicted as hounding and slandering God’s people with their false claims to be more spiritually advanced and the only true Christians accepted by God” (pg. 107).  And it’s right in this book, Sunday Facts, Sabbath Fiction, that’s what they say.  “We Sunday-keepers are only the true ones.  If you keep the law, you keep the Sabbath, why you’re a weak Christian.  Brother and sister, we’ll pray for your enlightenment.”  And that’s how they look down.  That’s what happened.  It’s amazing.  It’s amazing what happens here.

“Hellenistic Christianity did not die with its radical cousin, Gnosticism.  It is prophesied to be a continuing problem of the church” (pg. 108).  And then Alan writes here how it comes down into… described there in 2 Thessalonians 2 as the mystery of lawlessness, which only Christ can destroy. 

“Nearly all serious scholars – Protestant, Catholic and Jewish – freely admit the historical veracity of the Hellenistic conversion of Primitive Christianity” (pg. 108).  And that’s why these scriptures were written.  And that’s why the book of Hebrews was written.  Very profound.

“The earliest intellectuals of Roman Christianity did not dispute this, In fact, there were quite proud of their Hellenistic roots!  Clement, Origen and others believed that Hellenistic philosophy, and specifically its religious component, was given to the pagan world by the will of God as an intermediate revelation of truth, to prepare pagans for the full revelation of God’s (Hellenistic) truth in Romans Christianity” (pg. 108). 

Now there is a grain of truth to that.  A grain of truth.  Let’s go to Romans 1.  God did reveal to them but not to change their pagan religions into the kind that they changed it to.  But God revealed Himself to them that they would come to God.  But notice what they did.  And this in fact is talking about that religious reformation which took place. 

Notice… let’s pick it up here in verse 17 first of all.  Romans 1:17.  “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith…”  And the Greek means “into”.  From God’s faith into you, and your faith back to God.  “…As it is written, the just shall live by faith.  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom. 1:17-18).  And that’s precisely what they did.  Said, “We don’t need the scriptures of the Old Testament.  God of the Old Testament was evil and wicked.  And those angels which helped Him create the world are evil and wicked.  And we need to get away from this.”  Rather when God revealed Himself, He revealed that He was Creator, He revealed that He was God.

Now verse 19, “Because that which may be known of God [was] is manifest [to] in them [or among them]; for God hath shewed it unto them.”  They didn’t have a revelation of their religion.  What they had was a revelation of the true God.  So when they contrived their philosophical religion they now had not excuse.  So the grain of truth is entirely different than what they present. 

Verse 20, “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…”  And that’s what Nicolaitanism and when we get to the depths of Satan, the depths of Satan is claimed to be coming right from the Godhead.  But it’s coming right from the fountain of Satan himself.  “…so that they are without excuse.  Because that, when they knew God [now the change comes], they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (vs. 20-22).  And that is the foundation of Philo-Sophia, philosophy.  And philosophy, Hellenistic philosophy is a religion.  So God turned them over to them. 

Now notice what happens to the society after that.  Just exactly as is happening in the world today, and in America especially.  “And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things” (vs. 23).  Now then, I want you to notice this…what God does every time that happens. 

“Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness…”  So there comes a certain point where that God enforces a penalty.  The ones who receive this penalty in their own delusions look upon it as new revelation.  Notice what they did.  “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves” (vs. 24).  And do we not have the new religious revelation today, that homosexual marriage is really the “in” thing?  And this is a great revelation.  We have greater insight.  And any confirmed homosexual, male or female, will tell you that God’s condemnation of it in the Old Testament proves that He’s an evil, wicked God who has no love. 

Now then you go on.  “Who changed the truth of God into a lie [with all their stories and fables], and worshipped and served the  [created] creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”  Now notice verse 26.  The second stage becomes even more severe.  “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affection: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was [fitting] meet” (vs. 25-27).  Today that is spelled A.I.D.S., and any of the other 60 venereal diseases.

Verse 28.  Here’s the final step. “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind…”  That means “one incapable of coming to the truth”, because you can only come to the truth when you repent.  It’s amazing, there it’s all in the Bible, see.  It is something.  That’s why you need to understand God’s word is a living word. 

Now then, given over to a reprobate mind.  And I can’t help but thinking of seeing that…I know someone somewhere has seen this fellow on television.  But anyway, when I heard him make the statement (I use my channel surfer and went away from there), but when I heard him say that, “Yes Larry, it’s a wonderful thing.  You just sit there and you meditate and you come to the point of complete silence in your mind.  Then you listen to the silence.”  How you can hear silence?  Well, MCI has the answer.  You drop a pin. (Laugher). 

Ok, notice what happens.  A fitting description of our society.  “Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity: whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God [because He revealed it to them], that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (vs. 29-32).  And I just read to you the t.v. guide, and the police blotter, and the FBI’s most wanted, and the history of wars.  Ok, let’s continue on here now.

“The only Gnostic sect named in that connection is the Nicolaitans.  Even more important, the historical sources indicate the essence of Nicolaitans Gnosticism is the same spiritualized antinomianism [which I like the Greek pronunciation: anomia - lawlessness], the idea that salvation is completely unaffected by even willful disobedience, and the licentiousness that naturally results.”  And as I mentioned last time, isn’t it amazing that now they estimate that 40% of all Catholic priests are infected with HIV.  The mystery of lawlessness. 

“This does not mean the Nicolaitans were the only Gnostics bothering the primitive church.  However, since they are mentioned by name, and since they appear to have been a more biblical and spiritual form of Gnosticism much in keeping with the form of Hellenistic Christianity that survives as modern Christianity, it seems an appropriate choice for designating those who carry forward the Gnostic tradition of religious lawlessness today” (pg. 110, Primitive Christianity In Crisis).

And he has a very good chapter, chapter 6, Forms of Spirituality.  And the first time I heard of the word “spirit” was when I was in high school, and I was a freshman in high school.  And that was the first time we had a sports rally.  So we had an assembly.  We all went down to the gymnasium, and it was for the football team.  The cheerleaders were there.  And they started out this thing: Do you have spirit?  You know, and everybody’s yelling.  I couldn’t figure out what that was.  What do you mean spirit?  But I think Alan does a very good job here in showing that there is, with the spirit of man, a spirituality of human goodness that people like to cultivate, which then filters through all the religions of the world through their do-goodism.  And he points out then how this connects up with the demons.  Now please understand…all demons are not necessarily coming to you as evil and wicked.  There are some self-righteous demons.  You know Christ found them in the synagogue, didn’t He?  Yes.  And their goal and purpose is to associate, to possess people, come and associate with those who are the true believers in hopes that they may return to God forgiven.  So it gets to be quite a complex thing. 

Now then here on page 126.  “Of course, in the flexible antinomian environment of Gnosticism…”  Gnosticism means, “to know”, by the way.  And the big G over the Masonic doors means Gnosis.  And you come to the Masons and you admit you know nothing.  And only the Masons have the key to the understanding.  And so all of the degrees is to finally work you to the depths of Satan to worship him.  In this lawless environment “…you could craft your distinctions according to your taste.  As we saw above, some Gnostics emphasized that specific rules of morality are only a matter of personal opinion, so one cannot lay down a rigid standard of right and wrong.”  That’s what we have today. 

“If your new-found spiritual excuses do not wash with your fellow Gnostic churchgoers, you might have to find a new congregation.”  Because there are various degrees of Gnosticism and Nicolaitanism.  You know, if you want to have the hollering, shouting, jumping up and down, and leaping screaming kind, go to a Pentecostal church.  If you want to have a stayed, very religious cold one, well go to a Catholic Mass.  See, and if you want to have something very religious where you deny the flesh, well then you go to that church.  If you want to have one where anything goes, well then go to one where the enjoy life, wine, women, song, you know. 

“No problem.  Within the Gnostic Christian world you could pick and choose, from the radical [lawless] antinomian liberation of the far left were seemingly anything goes, to the far right Gnostic sects that took their asceticism seriously.”  I’ll talk about that when I get to Colossians 2.  “Early Christianity was highly diverse, not unlike today.  Some Gnostic churches allowed marriage and accumulation of wealth, while the conservative groups that didn’t, damned to hell their more liberal brethren” (pg. 127).  So it’s no wonder you even have fights amongst Protestantism today. 

Now, this is straight out of Mormonism here.  And the Mormons do this today.  This is on page 128. “Water was substituted for wine in celebrating the Lord’s supper.”  Because wine after all is evil.  And the Mormons take water and bread with their communion. 

Others however, “Valentinian Gnostics believed their sacraments provided them with a spiritual body of light that made them invisible to the demons.  They believed that participation in the eucharist clothed them with the spiritual body of Christ, and this was the guarantee that they were spiritual and would be saved” (pg. 129).  And that is regardless of their behavior.

“The term lawlessness invokes certain images.  A group of people sitting peacefully in church singing hymns seems anything but lawless.  For some the term ‘mystery of iniquity’, as it sometimes is translated, conjures up ideas of a Satanic cult performing obscene rituals and maybe sacrificing babies as the ancient Canaanites did.  Religious lawlessness, however, is not necessarily violent nor outwardly vulgar” (pg. 140).

“Lawless Christians today say “Let’s worship God, but we’re under the liberty of the New Covenant and we’ll make up our own rules about how we worship and we’ll decide for ourselves what moral standards if any we attach to it.” 

“The primary idea underlying the lawlessness of Nicolaitan Christianity is both the freedom and necessity of rejecting codified law in favor of a spontaneous demonstration of devotion to Jesus.  The philosophic argument says if you try to express spirituality through obedience to biblical law, first it is so basically incompatible with spirituality it cannot succeed, and second, it actually is displeasing to God.  Real spirituality, obedience from the heart, is possible only by rejecting biblical law, especially anything to do with the Old Testament and most of all the Sabbath, and replacing it with expressing devotion to God in a more spontaneous fashion from one’s own heart (which, by necessity, ends up being an expression of natural human spirituality)” (pg. 141).

But let’s go to Ephesians 2 and let’s understand this:  you cannot save yourself.  It does not come from within you from yourself.  Otherwise you could save yourself.  Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves…”  And the Greek here is very explicit.  The English word “of” comes from the Greek word ek.  Ek means “from something within – out”.  Meaning that it does not come out of you.  Not from within you, you see.  “…Not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: Not of works…”  And remember, remember Sunday is a work.  Christmas is a work.  Think on that.  It’s a human work to substitute the righteousness of God.  “…Lest any man should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:8-10).  Which is the good works of the commandments of God, the statutes of God, the Sabbath, the holy days, and all of these things are the good works of God.  To love God, to love each other, to love your neighbor as yourself, those are the things that God gave you to walk in.  And those do not come naturally.  You cannot conjure it up from within yourself.  It must come from God.  True love from God, and the ultimate is to love your enemy.  And you cannot do that without the Spirit of God.  Love in its truest form is very difficult because the demands of it are so great that only the love of God can fill it.  Not human spirituality and the fuzzy-wuzzy let’s all be warm and good to each other.  The huggy-wuggy love if we could put it this way.  That’s not to put down natural affection that people have, and so forth.  But that is to say do not replace the true love of God with human love.

Now Alan gives a very good summary of it here.  What do the Nicolaitan systems have today?  Page 141, you can follow along here because these points here are all listed out.

·       “We are free to utilize any custom or practice we wish in worshipping God, as long as we Christianize it.”

In a book I have called My Catholic Faith, which is one of their catechism books, it says that the Catholic church made a practice of taking the pagan worship things and changing the name, because they had the right to Christianize them.  Profound.

“Worship God in any way you feel appropriate.  Listen to your heart.  Spirituality is from the inner man.”

No. Spirituality comes from without – from God.  Next…

·       “All Old Testament practices and customs must be rejected in worshipping God.  Spirituality must spring spontaneously from within, not imposed from the outside.”

·       “True spirituality cannot be found in obedience to biblical law.” 

No, if you go by biblical law and you keep the Sabbath you’ll never find spirituality, they claim.  “But you come to our church on Sunday and you’ll find it.”  And you walk in there and they’re singing songs and they’re happy, and they’re oh so good.  And they have got so many people there.  And it just…how can all these people be wrong, and that choir sings praises to God and sends shivers up and down your spine, and you know this is got to be from God.  You have to watch what they teach, not what you feel.  You have to look at the commands of God and not just trust the sight of your eyes.  You have to understand that it can’t be from within because from within, Paul said, “In my flesh I find no good thing.” 

·       “True spirituality cannot be found in obedience to biblical law.  On the other hand, the institutions and rules we substitute for it, being ‘spontaneous’ and spiritual, can be enforced and held as binding on Christians, even to the point of executing offenders.”

Isn’t that something?  “Do you believe in the Passover?  Yes.  Do you believe in Sabbath?  Yes.  Do you believe in the holy days of God?  Yes.  You recant, you renounce it, or you lose your head, and I do this in the name of God.”  The Inquisition killed millions.   Next…

·       “Disobedience to moral standard is acceptable, within limits…”

A little gambling doesn’t hurt.  A little cheating doesn’t hurt.  A little lying doesn’t hurt.  You know, like this one woman who went into Wal-Mart.  Now we have a lady down south who works in Wal-Mart part-time.  And she has to guard the back door, because people can go out the back door.  So here comes this woman with a cart filled with a lot of expensive things.  You can buy expensive things in Wal-Mart but you know, anyway. 

So she said, “May I see your receipt?” 

“Oh, I don’t have it.  I don’t have time for it.  I got a doctor’s appointment for my little son here, and I have to get there right away.” 

“Well ma’am, I need a receipt.” 

“Well, huh…”  So she gave her some old receipts. 

She said, “Well this is not for today.  I need a receipt for what you have in there.” And she says, “Well, huh, I got to run off to the appointment right away.” 

So she zoomed out.  And they found over $700 worth of things.  Can you imagine $700 worth of things in a Wal-Mart cart?  I mean she was shopping at the Ritz there.  So anyway, no morals about it.  Well that’s ok to do it.  If Wal-Mart is dumb enough to let me take it, thank you.

“…Within limits, if one finds obedience very difficult.  Just do what comes naturally to you.  Listen to your heart.  Spirituality is from the inner, not the outer man.”

And that is all of your lust being there.  And you watch some of these movies that are driven by lust.  Anyway, I saw an ad in this movie with the younger Douglas, I forget what his…Kirk Douglas’s son.  And it was all on this driving lust of this woman who was stalking him sexually.  And he finally gave into it because, after all the inner feeling said, well this has got to be so good, how could this be wrong.    Next one…

·       “There is no hard and fast definition of morality.  Every man should judge for himself.  Listen to your heart.  Spirituality is from the inner man.”

·       “God is pure love [therefore He will never condemn you].  All you have to do is be kind and positive towards others.”

Go watch Oprah Winfrey, and Roseanne.  If you want to know about being kind and positive and doing good things, and she will have stories on there that are so heartbreaking that the whole audience is just crying, and they go away feeling so good.  But it’s all lawlessness.  And this whole society is that way.  And I call your attention to what we did at the Feast of Tabernacles last year – “Stinking Thinking”.  And I call to your attention the videos by Dean Gotcher about ‘feel good’ group thinking and so forth.  This whole society is totally caught up in it.

“Other than that, specific conduct is not significant.  Listen to your heart.  Spirituality is from the inner man.”

·       “We should lead a moral life as regards our fellow man.  On the other hand, why would God, who lives in heaven and is so far above us, impose any specific standards on how we worship him?” (pg. 141-142).

That is Nicolaitanism.  Here’s some other part of it:

·       “The total self-sufficiency and total exclusivity of grace [meaning you can’t fall from grace].  Grace excludes the possibility of law and sin having any effect on salvation.”

·       “Eternal security.  Once-saved, always-saved, even if one turns back willfully into sin.”

·       “Jesus not only forgives the penalty of sin, but abolished the law itself.”

Meaning without law there is no sin so therefore why worry?  Just be good. 

·       “Church officials have the authority, not only to explain and apply biblical principles, but also to overturn and change the teachings of the Bible, including teachings of the New Testament.”

Which come via this way:  “Well, Christ really didn’t mean that.” 

·       “The work of the Holy Spirit includes not only inspiring and guiding Christians to understand and apply biblical principles correctly, but also how and when to overturn and change biblical scripture, including the teachings of the New Testament.” (pg. 143)

Now let’s come back to Revelation 2 and we’ll begin the next section with Thyatira.  And I only have room on the tape just to read it.  But I think with the background that I have brought to you from #3 and #4, when we get to the depths of Satan then you’ll understand even more.

Now let’s pick it up here in verse 18.  “And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; these things saith the Son of God, Who hath His eyes like unto a flame of fire, and His feet are like fine brass; I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works…” (Rev. 2:18-19).  So they have mentioned for their works twice. 

Now if you haven’t seen the video “Israel of the Alps” we’ll be sure to send you a copy of it.  That explains more about this time in history than in any other time. 

“…And the last to be more than the first.  Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou [allow] sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce My servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols” (vs. 19-20).  Now notice that’s a reverse order in Pergamos.  Pergamos is to eat things sacrificed to idols and commit fornication.  Now here fornication is put first because the spiritual fornication really comes to the fore. 

Verse 21, “And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.  Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.  And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts…”  So Christ is establishing His power of judgment over all the churches.  “…and I will give unto every one of you…”  So this comes down to an individual level, “…according to your works [shall be].”  But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known  the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden” (vs. 21-24).

So next time we will cover: what is the depths of Satan, and where did that come from?  And I think you are going to be absolutely amazed.