Nicolaitan = "Subjugating the Laity"

This idea, that Revelation 2:6 and 2:15 refer to people who distinguished clergy from laity, when did it come about? The earliest mention I have found of it was by C. I. Scofield... did someone else say it before him, or was he the first?

I don't know where it started, but I am convinced it is not correct. There was a famous heretic named Nicholas (this is not the "Sr. Nicholas" that is the supposed first Santa Clause, but someone much earlier.)

Irenaeus told about him in his famous work "Against Heresies," and if I remember he called that man's followers by the name used in Revelation. But as this was not the subject I was studying, I made no notes about it and do not remember where Irenaeus said this. I only remember noticing it.

But we do not need this interpretation of scripture to expose the sin of the clergy.

I Corinthians 14:26-35 gives us the only instruction in the entire Bible about how to conduct a meeting of the church. And this passage does not describe a lecture. It describes a discussion. Nor is it a "panel' discussion. All men participate.

Every place where we find the word "ruler" in regard to the church in our English Bible, the Greek word used actually means "leader," not "ruler." And where we find the word "rule," the Greek word is "take the lead." And 1 Peter 5:3 expressly forbids elders to consider themselves rulers over the church.

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Biblewriter is the handle of James C. Morris. I call myself Biblewriter because I write about the Bible.

This being the dispensationalist forum, I thought my post would get more friendly replies if I asked if Scofield "was the first to say it," rather than my initial impression, which was if he "made it up himself."

Also, the passage from St. Irenaeus you mentioned was one I saw too; it was from Against Heresies iii.11.1.

Re: 1 Corinthians 14, the only instruction seems to be "whatever you do, it must be good for the whole church." It never says that any sort of "discussion" is to be normative for Christian worship. Further, I don't see how any of it excludes an ordained ministerial office. To say that the passage cited forbids or requires clergy or the worship which prevails in Christianity today sounds an awful lot like eisegesis.

This is clearly not the only instruction in this chapter.

We read in verses 29-31, "Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted."

This is what I was referring to, and it is clearly an instruction. It says two things:

There are to be two or three speakers. Two or three is not one.

Anyone who is speaking is to yield to anyone else to whom something is revealed while he is speaking. To even interrupt would be considered gross disorder in most church settings. But this scripture explicitly tells the speaker to not only allow, but to yield to, such interruptions.

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Biblewriter is the handle of James C. Morris. I call myself Biblewriter because I write about the Bible.