Consequences of self-deception.
As noted in previous blogs, Jesus disapproved of a compromise in the Church’s teachings. Jesus chastised the Congregations who tolerated teachings in the spirit of Balaam and Jezebel. The teachings in the spirit of Balaam and Jezebel do not reject the sound gospel outright. They only insist that other well-sounding ideas and practices are needed to make the cross of Christ effective in the life of the believers. However, they combine with the sound gospel the teachings that minimize the supremacy of Jesus Christ. They, often unnoticed, diminish what was achieved through the Cross of Christ. The Cross of Christ is what he suffered on the cross at Golgotha. Tolerance of any mind-captivating teachings promoted in addition to the sound gospel is a dangerous compromise.
In addition to the teachings in the spirit of Balaam and Jezebel, Jesus chastised the Congregation in Pergamum for tolerating Nicolaitans. Nicolaitans maintained that the human spirit, or life, is good, but the human body misbehaves. They maintain that humans did not become incurable sinners in the Garden of Eden. Instead, they maintain that sin in the Garden only made humankind sick. Nicolaitans claimed that Jesus came to heal humanity from the disease caused by disobedience in the Garden of Eden. However, the human spirit sinned in the Garden. The spirit cannot be healed, corrected, or made good again. This is a subtle denial that Jesus is the Savior of the world in the literal sense. The Nicolaitans type of members maintain that Jesus is only an example of how Christians should live. Their teaching presented sin as an act, not a decision. They denied that the unlawful physical acts demonstrated sin committed by a decision and choice in the human mind. The Nicolaitans have a successful Jesus but failed Christ.
Modern-day Nicolaitan teaching is on the increase in Christian Congregations. The modern-day Nicolaitans insist that we can achieve perfection by proper behavior in the body. The Nicolaitan teaching denies that God replaced the sinful human spirit with the perfect spirit of Jesus Christ. Because they maintain that the human spirit is good, there is no need to destroy it and replace it with a new and perfect spirit God gave us in Jesus Christ. The modern-day Nicolaitans reject what God told us through the prophet Isaiah concerning Christ. “For a short time I abandoned you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In a burst of anger I rejected you momentarily, but with lasting devotion I will have compassion on you, says your protector, the LORD.” Isaiah 54:7 – 8, NET. God put into Jesus on the cross the sinful human spirit. By abandoning Jesus, God destroyed our sinful spirit forever. This act of God was the only way to remove sin from humankind and restore us to God as his children. Those who deny this deny salvation in Jesus Christ.
The faithful remnant. Read the next Blog.
