Shayla: Who were the Nicolaitans that God should hate them so much?

Midrash:

Revelation 2:14-15 HCSB But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to place a stumbling block in front of the sons of Israel: to eat meat sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. (15) In the same way, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

The transliteration issue

I was taught that the word “nicolaitans” was, like “baptism,” a short Greek phrase that was transliterated rather than translated. For instance, “baptizo” meant “to immerse” or “to wash”, but because King James I hated the Presbyterians and Protestants and was actively supporting Anglicanism so as to buffer his conception of absolute monarchialism, the translators decided to transliterate “baptizo” to “baptize” rather than oppose the king’s view of infant sprinkling in the King James Version. Here in Revelation 2 (I was taught), the translators transliterated the Greek into “Nicolaitans” rather than properly translate it as “those who arrogantly rule the people”.

They were a distinct sect

I still believe that there some truth to be had there, but I have come to realize that Jesus was not merely identifying rulers who “lord it over the people” as we see the church struggle with elsewhere. Jesus (with John taking notes) indicates that the Nicolaitans are a distinct sect with a different set of dogma.

Traditional view of their origin and teaching

Though we have no direct Scriptural confirmation, tradition (beginning with Irenaeus) holds that the founder of the Nicolaitans was one of the original seven deacons, one Nicolaos of Antioch.

· Acts 6:5 HCSB The proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte from Antioch.

According to Irenaeus, the Nicolaitans lived 'lives of unrestrained indulgence', teaching that 'adultery and eating things sacrificed to idols' are a matter of 'indifference'.

Clement of Alexandria described their souls as 'buried in the mire of vice'.

Tertullian said they destroyed the happiness of sanctity in their maintenance of lust and luxury, 'those falsely-called Nicolatians' are characterised as 'impudent in uncleanness'.

Ignatius identified them as 'impure lovers of pleasure', and as 'addicted to calumnious speeches.”

The Scriptural teaching

What really counts however is that our Master Jesus said that Nicolaitan doctrine strongly resembled Balaam’s (Numbers 22-24; specifically 25:1-3; 31:16). Specifically, they were teaching the people to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. Summing those elements up, they were teaching “moral freedom” while simultaneously elevating their position to absolute authority. “Moral freedom” combined with human authoritarianism – now THAT’S a recipe for disaster if I ever heard of one.

Unfortunately, this ruinous teaching still presides over the majority of Cultural Christianity. “Do what you want, sleep with whom you want, come to church when you want…just tack on Jesus and drop your offering in the plate.” We humans generally swing to extremes. As the Ephesian church’s sin was harsh intolerance, so the sin of the Pergamites was tolerance and laxity.

You have to understand that this teaching went in direct contradiction to the instructions the Apostles and the Jerusalem Council had given when they chose to follow the Noahic covenant that Israel has always held in regards to Goyish converts.

• Acts 15:29 HCSB that you abstain from food offered to idols, from blood, from eating anything that has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these things, you will do well. Farewell.

It’s at this point that I think their name which means “those who arrogantly rule” comes into play. I further think that it’s interesting to note that Balaam’s name meant “he has consumed the people.” It is no coincidence that Nicolaos means “he overcomes the people” and that the name of his followers thus means “those who arrogantly rule”. The Nicolaitans were putting themselves above the Lord’s Apostles viz. their authority. The apostle Paul struggled with these types elsewhere:

• 2 Corinthians 11:5 HCSB (5) Now I consider myself in no way inferior to the "super-apostles."
• 2 Corinthians 12:11-12 HCSB (11) I have become a fool; you forced it on me. I ought to have been recommended by you, since I am in no way inferior to the "super-apostles," even though I am nothing. (12) The signs of an apostle were performed among you in all endurance--not only signs but also wonders and miracles.

This view is confirmed if you look at the only other direct reference to the Nicolaitans:

• Revelation 2:6 HCSB Yet you do have this: you hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

Four verse earlier, the same church is commended for:

• Revelation 2:2 HCSB I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate evil. You have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you have found them to be liars.

These “antinomians” abused the doctrine, emphasized by the apostle Paul, of Gentile liberty from the Mosaic Law in direct contradiction to the apostles’ teaching (1 Corinthians 6:13-20, 8:9-10; 10:28). Isn’t it interesting the Cultural Christianity’s emphasis on the same issue (grace has broken our ties to the Law) has produced the same moral and spiritual laxity?