Works of the Nicolaitans

467AIR said:

Again your faith is in a man made system and you do not trust the very Jesus you claim to believe in, the Spirit of God is within us, do you want to experience the God of the universe or just mimic the ten thousand religions you claim you distrust. If Jesus rebuked anyone in his day it was the religious Jews, today we do not have Pharisees or Sadducees we have ten thousand Christian-sees.

You speak of the glory of God but you are pointing in the wrong direction for His glory. Oh! God unveil our minds, unveil your word, unveil your great and eternal purpose, unveil yourself, unveil your glory, unveil the mysteries of your kingdom.

Take away the veil from our eyes. Let us consider for a moment the holy hope spoken of by the apostle Paul when he penned these soul enthralling words, "Even the mystery which hath BEEN HID FROM AGES AND FROM GENERATIONS, but now is manifest to His saints ... which is CHRIST IN YOU THE HOPE OF GLORY" (Col. 1:26-27).

The glory spoken of here is not heaven as has been generally supposed, but SONSHIP. That is the highest and most glorious glory that God has ever given or ever will give. "The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them," said Jesus (Jn. 17:22).

"Whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the IMAGE OF HIS SON, that He might be the firstborn among MANY BRETHREN. Moreover, whom He did predestinate them He also called, and whom He called He also justified, and whom He justified He GLORIFIED" (Rom. 8:29-30).

The only hope of glory, is for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to dwell in you and control and order every step of your life. "As many as are led BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THEY ARE THE SONS OF GOD." Christ in you is the hope of glory. Christ in me is the hope of glory. Not Christ in the sky or Christ in Jerusalem or Christ in some long dead religious leader from the first or second century. Sonship is not what I am, but WHAT HE IS. Sonship is not what Christ is APART FROM ME, but what HE IS IN ME. Sonship is Christ FORMED IN ME, REVEALED IN ME. Notice what Jesus told the religious Pharisees:
Luke 17:20-22

20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.22 And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.

And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks, and in the midst of the
seven golden candlesticks one like unto the Son of man" (Rev. 1:12-13). The candlestick realm is the church realm! THAT’S WHERE THE MESSAGE IS! The message is not out there, not from Christ in some far-off heaven somewhere, not from an angel from heaven, not from Christ outside of us. The message is within. The voice of the Son of God is the voice in the churches, within those in the churches who are walking in the Spirit and seeing and hearing by the Spirit. Weren’t nearly all of us in the churches when first we heard the Voice? It’s among us! It’s in our midst!
The kingdom of God is within you! The Spirit of the Son is within you! God dwelleth in you! The Holy Ghost is within you! The word of Christ dwelleth richly in you!
The anointing abideth within you! The voice of the Son of God is heard from within!

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Seems like, except for the anticlericalism part, that is what the bishops teach. Not sure what the problem is.

The Bishops are anointed by men (systems/religions/seminaries, Pope’s etc.) just like Saul who was chosen by the flesh/people. That is a far cry from a David anointing. Men did not choose David, God did when he was a small child. Religion chooses their anointed but the true anointed are God given.

God uses Babylon. Jeremiah 51:7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

jamescarvin said:

Seems like, except for the anticlericalism part, that is what the bishops teach. Not sure what the problem is.

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I believe in plural eldership and in 'regular saints' speaking in church and doing the work of the ministry. But I do not agree with this flawed folk-etymology that Nicolaitans are the ones who teach the clergy-laity distinction.

For one thing from what I have read, 'laos' does not mean 'laity' in first-century Greek. That word evolved later, from what I've read.

Phineas', the priest's name, meant snake mouth. Should we try to interpret who he was based on that? God gave his descendant's leadership. If 'conquers the people' is significant, perhaps it was the false doctrine of the Nicolaitans that did so. In context, it would seem that the Eusebius quote is perhaps closest to the truth, that they were a group teaching doctrins similar to the other factions described in the passage, doctrines that encouraged people to eat meat offered to idols and commit fornication. Notice the word 'likewise' in the passage.