Tentpegs

Laymond is still having fun in the comment section of the Trinity blogs, but I’ll continue to move on. Those who want to tune in there are certainly free to do so!

Rv:2:15: So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
Patrick, who were these Nicolaitans, and what was their doctrine, that Jesus so hated?
Were they mentioned elsewhere in the bible under another name?

The short answer is that no one knows who the Nicolaitans were. Theories abound, but there is no solid evidence for any of them. All of them rely on supposition and circumstantial evidence. Irenaeus says they were a Gnostic sect and, indeed, a Gnostic sect by that name surfaced about a hundred years after he wrote his book and it might have been around sooner (though most question that). When you say “Gnostic sect” you don’t really narrow down what their doctrine was because the Gnostics had wildly divergent doctrines and ideas.

Following the clues from Irenaeus and elsewhere, there is a general consensus that the Nicolaitans were antinomian. In other words, they believed that those who were saved did not have to keep any of God’s laws for they were saved, redeemed, and special. Consider their view a radical warping of the “one saved, always saved” view. They could — they believed — continue in sexual sin, gluttony, theft, etc. and God would save them because they had the “gnosis” or knowledge of God in their hearts. The body was separate from the spirit and so the body could do whatever it wanted to do and that wouldn’t affect the spirit’s standing before God (they said).

Other writers around the time of Irenaeus and some since have said that while the above is true, what was really being condemned was the idea of one group of people being superior in rank to others in the church. They get this from their name — which they say refers to ranks — and by their habit of considering themselves superior to normal believers. This group evidently created levels of spiritual knowledge that then translated into power positions within the church (all this while they continued to live as if there were no law). Certainly, Jesus warns us against any who would consider themselves superior to other believers and this group along with other gnostic sects ignored that teaching entirely. During the Protestant Reformation leaders such as Martin Luther and Zwingli said that the Nicolaitans were forerunners of those in the Roman Catholic church who ordained some as Cardinals, Archbishops, etc.

Some Adventist churches still teach this and say that Protestants are guilty of the same thing. They say that the Nicolaitans were the ones who introduced religious holidays, worship on Sunday, etc. There is no historical evidence backing this up as far as I know.

While we can’t say for sure what the doctrine of the Nicolaitans was, it does reveal something important to keep in mind about the Book of Revelation. While people still mine the book constantly, looking for parallels to current events, this book was written to people in the first few centuries after Jesus. They knew what it meant because it was written to them. It wasn’t written so that you and I could figure out who to vote for or which war to support… or when to stockpile ammo and food! Sometimes, coming across subjects such as the Nicolaitans reminds us to be humble. It isn’t always all about us.