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PENTECOST – 2000
"The Seven Church Harvest" #4
Pergamos (2)
Fred R. Coulter – May 20, 2000
This is number 4 in the overview of the Churches in Revelation 2 and 3.
And last time, as you’ll remember, we covered things concerning the
Nicolaitans out of this book, Primitive Christianity in Crisis, and
we’re very happy to have the author here in person delivering some books to
us. And that is really very fine.
He did an excellent job in researching and bringing out all of these things
and showing that the problems with Christianity today as it’s known in the
world has it’s roots going back to the 5th and 6th century B.C., at which
time there was a great world-wide reformation of all religions, all the
pagan religions. And that is called an Axial-Period. This
Axial-Period developed beginning in the days of Hezekiah when they had the
astronomical upheavals and the movement of the earth, where when we deal
with the calendar you know how that’s how the calendar shifted from 360 days
to 365 ¼ days. And also the historical records going back beyond this
Axial-Period become very hazy. And that’s why when we come to the book
of Daniel, the book of Daniel was written as the Axial-Period for the
prophecy from Daniel down to the second return of Christ. And in that,
which is another whole topic but I’ll just mention here, all the things that
we are learning in Revelation, the whole book, the whole book of Revelation
ties in with the book of Daniel. And you can’t understand Revelation
without having a good grasp of the entire Bible, but especially concerning
the book of Daniel. And you can’t understand Daniel unless you have
Revelation because Daniel only brings the story up so far.
So likewise it is with the churches that God raised up. And that’s
why we have in Revelation 2 and 3, we have seven churches. These seven
churches depict:
1) The seven churches at that time.
2) The historic prophecy of the seven churches down
through history to the return of Christ.
3) The particular attitudes that Christians would
have scattered amongst any of the congregations of God at any particular
time.
And as a matter of fact when you read the chapter 2 and 3 of Revelation,
you might find from time to time you may be in one attitude or another.
It’s awfully hard to totally stay in the Philadelphia attitude all the
time.
Now last time we covered about the Nicolaitans and saw that they had two
major things. One, that was that they had a hierarchy. As a
matter of fact the Gnostics from which Nicolaitans came from, they had even
the hierarchy of people. Those who were the super-spiritual who were
going to make it into the whatever their definition of going to heaven was.
Then you had the next group of human beings, and those were the weaker
Christians who had to have the law to look at in order to keep it.
Then you have…they would make it under great duress into heaven, as they put
it. Then the rest of the people were just animals, and they didn’t
count anyway. Not only did they have that with people but out of this
grew the hierarchy which came to be the Roman Catholic Church.
The next greatest sin that they had, which Alan points out very clearly in
this book, was a form of righteousness which appeared so good, and appealed
to human nature so well that without the Spirit of God it’s awfully hard to
detect where it’s wrong. And thus we have the same thing in
Protestantism today, and in Catholicism today.
Now, let’s go to 2 Peter 2 and let’s see the warnings that Peter gave.
Then we’ll look at some of the warnings that Jude gave as to this very thing
which are the doctrines of the Nicolaitans. And the doctrine of the
Nicolaitans, as we will see, not only had their own form of standard of
morality, but they also had a standard of morality where they would go back
and borrow the commandments of God to add to their definition of what their
religious morality was.
We have the same thing in Protestantism, don’t we? What is the first
thing that they do? Now I’ve been going though the series on the
Sabbath and then Refuting Sunday-keeping, both. What is the first
thing that they do? They reject the Sabbath. They reject the
holy days. They embrace Christmas and Easter, and all of the pagan
holidays, and Halloween and all of them. As a matter of fact, if you
would look at the Roman calendar, nearly every day is a saints day of some
kind. And they have so many feast days in the Roman calendar it is
unreal.
Then what they do, they come back and say, “Ok, now that we’ve rejected
this standard…well, we like the commandment concerning honor your father and
mother. Now that gives us decency in the society. And you know
we shouldn’t have any murder, yea, we should also embrace that. Uh,
and you know, we should not steal. No, we don’t like things stolen
from us, we need to embrace that.” And likewise all the way down.
Then when they get to the tenth commandment it sort of gets fuzzy again
because their religion is based upon how they feel. So if they have a
desire for something, and since they are the standard to themselves then
coveting after something does not necessarily become wrong. And hence
it develops into a license to sin. Yet at the same time, they were
taught (and this is all part of the doctrine of the Nicolaitans) that once
you were saved, you cannot sin to lose salvation. And that’s what the
Protestants call “eternal security”.
Now let’s look at what Peter brought us here. Let’s first of all
review 2 Peter for just a minute. And let’s understand something very
important because he’s contrasting the two. 2 Peter 1, because these
chapters go hand in hand. First of all he describes true Christianity.
Now let’s read part of that here. Let’s begin right in verse 1.
“Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have
obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and
our Saviour Jesus Christ:” Now when we go through this you might put:
verses your own righteousness through your own false religion. Because
that’s what he brings out in the second chapter, as we will see.
“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and
of Jesus our Lord” (vs. 2)… verses what was claimed to be added knowledge
written in the Gnostic gospels, such as Barnabas, and Clement, the Gospel of
Truth, and the Gospel of Thomas, which then were the Gnostic gospels, which
said this, “We have greater revelation now after the resurrection of Christ.
And our revelation is continuing and ongoing through the inner-workings of
the spirit within us.” Now you see how closely this substitutes what
Peter is bringing here, see.
“According as His divine power…”, which then is translated “Godhead”.
This is the divine power. The noun form of it is translated Godhead in
Colossians 2. Now this is verses the power of the angelic pleroma.
This is verses the power of the abyss, the deep things of Satan. See,
so all of this is here. He’s setting the stage for chapter 2, and then
into chapter 3.
“…His divine power hath given unto us all things [that’s important] that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath
called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises…” Now this is a superlative in the Greek,
that “nothing can be better than this”, that’s what it’s saying.
“…That by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature…” And that
was the whole premise of the doctrine of the Nicolaitans and which goes all
the way back to Adam and Eve, that you can partake of the divine nature by
going through these philosophies by following our way of doing things, and
then you can come to the power of God. And I think that what we need
to do when we’re studying, after you read this book since you now have your
copy, when you study through the scriptures of God, you’re, especially when
you come to the epistles of Paul, and Peter, and John, and Hebrews, all of
them, and Galatians. Every one of them have elements in combating this
Hellenized Christianity, meaning that they were bringing in Greek
philosophies and attaching that to the Christianity which Christ brought.
Now Peter is separating this out here as we will see when we come to chapter
2, what he says concerning them. “…That by these [the promises of God] ye
might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that
is in the world through lust” (vs. 3-4).
Now then, he tells you you must have works. And this is part of the
doctrine of the Nicolaitans: you don’t need the works according to
law. “…Giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue…” And of
course faith means that you come to God, you believe He is a rewarder of
those who diligently seek Him. You believe that His word is His
sovereign word. That what God inspired to be written is so. Now
you stop and think about it for just a minute. God, when He created,
what did He do? He commanded and it came into existence. And
that’s what we are to believe concerning the word of God. It is
sovereign. It is the only way to eternal life. So when he says
here, “and give all diligence to add to your faith virtue”, and virtue is
the right kind of godly conduct according to what? The standard of the
commandments which God has given, which then through the power of the Holy
Spirit are to be where? Written in our hearts and our minds, correct?
Yes.
“…And to virtue knowledge [and of course that’s the true knowledge of
Christ]; And to knowledge temperance [which is self-control]; and to
temperance patience [and patience begets endurance and the root word is the
same for both]; and to patience godliness [having the character of God]; and
to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness [agape, which is
“the love”, the very love of God] charity” (vs. 5-7). Now at this
point right here, put in your margin 1 Corinthians 13, because if you don’t
have the love of God, speaking in tongues, having all knowledge,
understanding all mysteries, giving all of your goods to causes, and all of
this sort of thing you are nothing. And the love of God is defined
what? And this is the love of God that we keep His commandments.
Now then continuing on with this. “For if these things be in you, and
abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in
the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these
things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was
purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give
diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do [that means
practice] these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be
ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you
always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be
established in the present truth” (vs. 8-12). Then he says he’s going
to die shortly.
Now verse 16, “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables [that is
going directly against the doctrine of Nicolaitanism], when we made known
unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were
eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father
honour and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent
glory, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased” (vs. 16-17).
Now notice what he’s leading up to. See I really want you to grasp
what Peter is saying here, then bam we come to second chapter right there
and then you will see the difference as we go along.
“And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with Him on
the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy…” And
that prophecy can be two things. One, the prophets of old. Two,
the prophecy of the inspired speaking of Christ when He was here. The
gospels which were written by that time. Many of the letters of Paul
which were written at that time, which you will see at the end of 2 Peter,
he talks about the writings of Paul, as if they’re scripture already, which
they were. “…Whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light
that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in
your hearts: Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture…”
Prophecy in this case doesn’t mean just the Prophets in scripture.
This means any inspired writings of scripture, whether it be the law, or the
prophets, or the psalms. And you can take the test of that and going
through and looking at the warnings God gave in the law, what would happen
if you would add to or take away from. That’s precisely what is
happened with Nicolaitanism. I mean when you go through and read this
book it’s going to open up vast doors of understanding to you. You
will know longer have a mystery as concerning the false Christianity of this
world. And I think it’s very important of us to realize this: that in
order for us to reach the world we must have an answer for it, correct?
It’s one thing to come up and say:
“You’re wrong.”
“Well, tell me why I’m wrong.”
“Well, you’re just wrong.”
“Well, how do you know I’m wrong?”
“I’m telling you, you’re wrong.”
See. But if you go up and say: “What you’re doing is not right
according to the real true scriptures, and by the way you have a corrupt
Bible with this NIV, and New American Standard. And do you know why
you are wrong? Here’s why you are wrong. You’re assuming to set
yourself up above God.”
“Oh, no that can’t be.”
Then we can say, “You are, because if you don’t believe the sovereign word
of God, you’re establishing your own righteousness.”
“Well, we keep the commandments.”
“Do you really?” Then we have an entrance into really preaching the
Sabbath and holy days, don’t we? And that follows right along with the
series that I’m doing here in refuting Sunday-keeping, because…
Now, also is in this book, Sunday Facts and Sabbath Fiction by
Targo, all of the doctrines of Nicolaitanism against Sabbath and holy days
is here. Even down to the point that is almost identical as to what
the Gnostics have said, that if you keep the law you are a weak Christian.
And that Christ ended the law. Christ abolished the Sabbath. And
it comes right out of the cauldron of Nicolaitanism. That’s why when
you come back here to 2 Peter 1 and you are reading these words, there’s a
reason that he wrote them, see. That’s what we need to understand.
He’s saying here, verse 20. “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of
the scripture is of any private interpretation.” And that’s the first
step to Nicolaitanism. And a private interpretation then allows you,
which is license, to reject the commandments of God you don’t like.
That is a private interpretation. Sunday-keeping is a private
interpretation. Eternal security, to where you can’t lose salvation
regardless of willful sin, is a private interpretation. Peter is
laying the groundwork here in no uncertain terms.
“For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of
God spake as they were moved by the Holy [Spirit] Ghost” (vs. 21). You go back and you read
about any of the prophets of God. Any of the apostles of God, you can
add into that. Do you think that they would go about writing their own
words and doing their own thing? Absolutely not.
Now chapter 2 and verse 1. “But there were false prophets also among
the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily
[and that actually means “stealthily”] shall bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift
destruction.” The reason he’s saying this is because one of the
doctrines is, regardless of what you do you’re not going to lose salvation,
and God is not going to punish you.
Verse 2, “And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom
the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.” And evil spoken of means
“blaspheme”. And isn’t that what they do? Isn’t that what they
do with the Old Testament and the laws of God? Yes. This came in
and infected the Church. The churches of God there in Revelation 2 and
3 is a warning of what we need to be careful of. And we need to be
alert to the doctrines that we are not seduced from within, which is what
happened to Worldwide Church of God, is happening to the Seventh Day
Adventists, and will happen to the Church of God 7th Day, and any
other church that doesn’t understand the doctrine of the Nicolaitas and the
mystery of lawlessness. There will be men who will come in and subvert
it. And that is their goal. And you need to understand the oath
that the Jesuits take for the destruction of Protestantism and
Sabbath-keeping groups. And how since they cannot bring about an
inquisition today, they infiltrate and just take down by attrition, and gain
importance in position. And maybe for years and years and years never
reveal their hand until they get their hands on the hierarchical control and
then they can do whatever they want. And it always begins by bringing
in false doctrine. And it always brings in… one of the first things:
attack the Passover, attack the nature of God, confuse you concerning that,
denigrate Jesus Christ and now then you’re all set up for Protestantism.
And since Protestantism is going back to Rome, that’s where all roads lead,
that’s where it’s going to end up. And it started right here.
Now notice, “And through covetousness shall they with feinged words make
merchandise of you:…” If you don’t believe this watch Pat Robertson
some night. (Chuckle) Vain words. “Do you want a better
life? Do you want more money? Do you want happiness? Do
you want all these good things in life?” Well of course everybody
does. They’re appealing to covetousness. God’s way is you repent
of sin. And being converted sometimes is difficult. You don’t
believe it read apostle Paul you see. (Laughter) And sometimes
you’re going to be persecuted for it, and yea sometimes you may be even
killed for it. But you watch Pat Robertson and he’s appealing to
everybody’s covetousness and give them good things. “And by the way,
we’re going to have a campaign for $100,000 tonight. Roll the drums,
blow the horn.”
“…Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation
slumbereth not” (vs. 3). Peter’s making the point here, if you don’t
believe that God is going to punish for this, listen up – verse 4.
“For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to
hell [that is to tartaroo, it’s a place of restraint held to the day of
judgment], and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;…” Then you can
say, “Ok, well God’s going to take care of the angels. But you know,
that doesn’t apply to human beings.”
Ok, verse 5. “And spared not the old world…” See, he wants us
to learn a lesson concerning the flood. And everywhere you go in the
world and look at any archeological strata, you have the evidence of a flood
perpetually before your eyes. I remember when we were living in Salt
Lake City and I would go visit brethren up in Montana. Well I would
have to go east and north. And when you’re going over the continental
divide you really don’t feel like you’re going over the continental divide
because it gradually goes up, and up, and up, and up, and up, and up, and
up… And so when you’re up there pretty close to the 8000 and 9000 foot level
where the roads go through on the continental divide, they’re just little
hills. And some of these little hills are kind of like sandy hills.
You know kind of like limestone, and it’s the light tan colored stones.
So one day as I was driving up I thought to myself, “Well I’m going to take
off on this little road”, because it goes up to this mountain up here.
So just, anyway, it wasn’t a mountain, it was just like a little hill.
You know, like a hill the back of your place, Ed, if you drive up the road
there. So I went up there and I said, “Well I’m going to get on top of
here.” And I looked around and I kicked a few rocks, and lo and behold
what did I find? Fossils. Fossils. There’s the evidence of
the flood everywhere.
So Peter’s saying you need to understand because of sin. Go back and
read Genesis 6. All flesh had corrupted His way. The wickedness
of man was constant from his youth up. “…But saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the
world of the ungodly;” (vs. 5).
Then of course someone will say, “Well, that was back then. That
already happened, but not for us today.” Ok, verse 6. “And
turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;” Of course if you
preach that in San Francisco you’re run out of town with a spear in your
back. “And delivered [righteous] just Lot, vexed with the filthy
[conduct] conversation of the wicked:” You see sometimes you’re stuck where
you live. I think Lot, my own self, he should have moved.
(Laughter) But he didn’t, so he was going around moaning and groaning,
you know. And so finally the angels came and took them so that he
would be able to get out of there. “(For that righteous man dwelling
among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day
to day with their unlawful deeds;)” (vs. 6-8). So it went
on every day.
“The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to
reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them
that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise
government.” Now the government here means, “despise lordship”,
meaning despising the rule – the true Lordship of Christ in your life.
“Presumptuous are they, selfwilled [rather than doing the will of
God], they are not afraid to speak evil of [dignitaries] dignities.
Whereas angels [the true angels, you see], which are greater in power and
might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. But
these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil
of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their
own corruption;…” (vs. 9-12). Which is license to sin, and they do.
Look at the society around us built upon Protestantism and Catholicism
today. Now there was a time when they adhered to the rules more
closely, correct? There was a time when they actually kept the nine
commandments that they say that they kept. They did a pretty good job
with it. But what happens when you have a grace like they have and
begin to water it down? You have license to sin. Then they
remove God out of the schools. They removed God out of the government.
They remove God out of the courts because it’s all a religion of license.
Then they began to then put up barriers against the truth of God, even
against the nine commandments, which they held, because it’s the mystery of
lawlessness and license to sin, and now look at our society. Because
that’s what it ends up in.
Now let’s continue on here, verse 13. “And shall receive the reward
of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time.” Now that means to
live excessively. “Spots they are, blemishes, sporting
themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;…” right
there in the Church of God. So this is why he’s writing this because
this was taking place within the Churches of God. And he was writing a
tremendous warning to them. God preserved that for us today.
“Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling
unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed
children: Which have forsaken the right way [which then tells us if there’s
a right way there’s a wrong way, correct?], and are gone astray, following
the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of
unrighteousness;…” (vs. 14-15). And his advice was, as we saw last time, to
ecumenize the pagan religions with Israel so God would have to curse them.
And that’s one of the sins that happened with the church of Pergamos along
with the Nicolaitans. So it became so bad, as we’ll see here in a
minute, that God said I’m going to fight against you. Now, as I
mentioned before, you think about it. How bad must it have been in the
Church of God for Christ to say, “If you don’t repent I’m going to fight
against you.”
(Comments from the audience…)
Yes, they’re trying to bring them into the congregation. And what
they’re doing with bringing it into the congregation, they’re actually
infiltrating a newer spiritual interpretation, see. So while they’re
feasting with you, yes they would keep the feasts of God for a while, but
their true goal was to get rid of the feasts of God and to bring in the
pagan feasts. That’s the ultimate goal. A righteousness that
looks so good it’s hard to believe that it’s wrong. (More audience
comments….) Yes, I’ll read some quotes out of Alan’s book here in just
a minute.
Verse 16, “But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with
man’s voice forbad the maddness of the prophet. These are wells
without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of
darkness is reserved for ever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity…” (vs.16-18). Now what are great swelling words of
vanity? They can even be brought out humbly. But they’re vain.
As long as it goes against God’s way, regardless of how softly, how nicely,
how logical it is put, they are great swelling words of vanity. For
example you could say, “Well, you know, you’re just struggling so hard to
try and keep the commandments of God. You know that’s not the way you
need to do. You just need to walk away from that and you just need to
have the inner peace within your heart. And that you connect with
Christ.” Those are great swelling words of vanity spoken in a humble
way. So then on the other hand you can have great bombastic preaching
too. So either way it’s swelling words of vanity against God.
Anything that exalts itself against the of God.
“For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure
through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that
were clean escaped from them who live in error” (vs. 18). Now you see
what Satan wants, he wants to bring the true believers back into the world
and back into his religion. So that’s why he infiltrates the Churches
of God. I never heard of a true minister of God infiltrating a
Protestant group to try and bring them down. Satan’s already got them.
No one needs to infiltrate them. They’re already gone. So who is
Satan after? Who does he accuse day and night before the throne of
God? The saints of God. So therefore that’s why they infiltrate
into the Churches of God. That’s the place that Satan wants to get.
“While they promise them liberty…” And boy that is their word.
We have freedom, freedom, freedom, freedom, liberty, liberty, liberty.
“…They themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is
overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have
escaped the pollutions of the world…” Now see the pollution’s of the world
to them in their way of thinking, you can overcome the pollution’s of the
world not by keeping the commandments of God, but by rising above it.
But the problem is when you rise above it, you rise into it (laughter) and
they don’t realize that see. “…For of whom a man is overcome, of the
same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the
pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome…” (vs. 19). There are
two steps in it:
#1 First of all you get entangled in it. And we’ve seen
how people in the different Sabbath keeping churches get entangled in this
lawless philosophy, which ends up in Sunday-keeping and so forth.
#2 They continue in it. They are overcome by it.
And when that happens, as you have seen, maybe even some of the very people
you knew in a congregation that you attended, now have gone back so far into
the world that when you begin to talk to them about the truth and the way of
God, and the Sabbath and holy days, it’s just like there’s a blank curtain
over their eyes and they look at you and say, “Now, now. We still love
you, but we have graduated. We now have a greater spirituality.”
And that’s how they will do it. If someone who’s been in the true
Church of God comes back to you with that attitude they have been overcome.
And unless they repent they have the lake of fire to look forward to.
No question about it.
Now let’s go on here. “…The latter end is worse with them than the
beginning.” Why? Because they sear their conscience against the
pricking of the Holy Spirit, because their sins have been deliberate.
“For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness,
than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment
delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the
true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow
that was washed to her wallowing in the mire” (vs. 19-22). And is just
so thrilled and happy to do so and squeals with delight.
Now let’s come back to Revelation 2 and 3 here. While we’re going
there stop at Jude. Now what you might do. You might take The
General Epistles book and go read the section where I’ve combined 2
Peter and Jude and you will see how that all comes together. A far
more powerful way than just each one separately. But what I want to
cover here is verses 3 and 4. And while some commentators may think
that Jude copied Peter or Peter copied Jude, that perhaps may be true, but I
think that the magnitude of the sin was so great that in order to explain to
the brethren how serious it was they used many of the same examples.
Now let’s pick it up here in verse 3. “Beloved, when I gave all
diligence to wrote unto you of the common salvation, it was needful…” And
needful means it was obligatory. I was obligated, “…to write unto you,
and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which
was once delivered unto the saints.” Because now they were getting
another faith.
Verse 4, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of
old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God
into [licentiousness-license to sin,] lasciviousness…” And the ultimate of
that is, “…and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Now when you deny God, what did Jesus say? Hold your place here and go
to Matthew10:32. “Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him will I
confess also before My father which is in heaven.”
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.
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