Main |
5) Jesus
warned us not to listen to liars who called themselves
apostles. Rev 2:1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks (Jesus); Rev 2:2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are Apostles, and are not, and ***hast found them liars***: Rev 2:3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Rev 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Rev 2:5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Rev 2:6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate. Rev 2:7 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Verse 2 shows that no liar is an apostle, and we are commended by Jesus for not falling prey to their deceits. Verse 4-5 show that this particular passage does not apply to those who do the first works. Acts 2:38 are the first works. They are the first commandments of Peter, to whom were given the "keys" to the kingdom of heaven. Verse 6 states that Jesus hates the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, and so are we to hate those deeds. Nicolaitaine means to be "victorious over the people." It is a reference to the notion of a dominating priesthood that was, and did, creep into the hierarchy of the church. Just as Jesus prophesied in Revelations... By the third church age, these priest-rulers were dominant- Rev 2:15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate. The doctrine of the papacy is nothing more than the doctrine of the Nicolaitaines- which Jesus hates. And that simply because He is the head of the church, not the pope! Though God has always had a people, and a remnant would always remain that did not bow to paganism: That such a religious system as the papacy would overtake the church, was the prophesy of Jesus, and that is exactly what happened. At first the church was able to resist, but later it could not; because she let down her guard, and did not "earnestly contend" for the first faith. That those who hold the deeds of the Nicolaitanes finally gained the upper hand in the visible, (but not the true) church is now a matter of historical fact... Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th edition, 1984, vol. 4, page 476: "The development of the Western notion... of the priesthood is also dominated by the legal concept... In the sphere of this kind of legal thinking the papacy and the doctrine of papal primacy developed. The idea of a jurisdictional primacy played a prominent role in the formation of the doctrine of the papacy... On the basis of this legal consciousness the Western church also developed its own canon law... Judicial thinking was similarly significant in the theology of the West... Tertullian (c.200) introduced a series of fundamental juridical concepts into theology... Through indulgences, requiems, and other acts, the church expanded its spiritual-judicial authority even to this realm of the departed souls of purgatory..." Page 491: "In the Roman Church the papacy evolved out of the monarchical episcopate... A leading role developed upon the leading bishop of the Roman community... This... organization followed the provincial organization of the Roman Empire. The theological underpinning of this special position was emphasized by Petrine theology, which saw in the words of Jesus, 'You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church' (Matt. 16:18), a spiritual-legal instituting of the papacy by Jesus Christ himself. In the Greek Church of the East (e.g. Origen) and also in Augustine in the West, however, these words were referred to Peter's confession of faith; (only) since the time of Popes Gelasius I (reigned 492-496), Symmachus (reigned 498-514), and Gregory I (reigned 590-604), these words have served as the foundation for the claim of papal primacy over the entire Christian church." Pages 508-509: "...There evolved the concept of caesaropapism... The Roman church... preserved in its episcopal dioceses the Roman provincial arrangement... The church (and its leader, the pope) largely depended upon the old imperial law... The Roman popes used this power, which was in fact allotted to them by circumstances, to develop a specific ecclesiastical state and to base this state upon a new theocratic ideology- the idea that the pope was the representative of Christ and the successor of Peter... |