In his 1902 “Prophetic History of the Church” Grant exposed a progression of the church as it moves from an Ephesus leaving of its first love, through Smyrna’s great persecutions, to Pergamos’ dwelling where Satan’s seat is. In that ‘progression’ they ended with “them that hold the doctrine of Balaam” and “them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans” (Rev.2:14,15). This was an obvious ‘leavening‘ of the whole, a growth into a tree, lodging birds, a presence of tares in the wheat (Matt.13). The church hated the “deeds of the Nicolaitans”and the blasphemy of the “synagogue of Satan”, but now, at Pergamos, they dwelt in the synagogue and held the doctrine! Also, there is a way of, an error of, and a doctrine of Balaam; the latter was the incorporation of strangers that corrupted the nation of Israel; and here, in Pergamos, there are unsaved individuals in the church. A ‘synagogue‘ was a gathering together of all people, while a church is to be a gathering together of a ‘called out and separated people’, the saints. In the New-Testament God doesn’t want mixers he wants separators: those who will “come out from among them and be ye separate” (2Cor.6:17), those “in the world but not of the world” (Jhn.17:15 – 16). Not tares in the wheat, fouls in the branches, or leaven in the lump. Also the “deeds of the Nicolaitans” now becomes doctrine. Nicolaitans are not a group, or sect, or people, it is a “thing which God hates.” From the word itself, it is a separation of a ‘clergy class’ from a ‘laity class’. In Christianity there is to be no upper class of ‘clergy’ who can interpret scriptures for the ‘lay people’. That is a ‘thing’ God hates twice (Rev.2:6,15)! This is indeed a prophetic church history.
An Essay for week #38, Sep 21, 25
See F.W. Grant in Vol 09 www.GSBaptistChurch.com/theology
