Heal Our Land
In the Old Testament God promises to heal the land of Israel if they will turn from their wicked ways.1
What were those wicked2 ways? Were they the wicked ways of those who followed after Nimrod?3 Were they the wicked ways when the voice of the people4 went against the advice of Samuel and rejected God5 by electing Saul? Were they the wicked ways of Herod and the Pharisees in Judea when they were told to repent by Jesus Christ? Do men continuously turn to ways that are contrary to the way of God and salvation? Have we strayed from that narrow way today?
“But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.” Revelation 2:6
The Nicolaitan and Baalam Connection
What were the deeds of the “Nicolaitans”? Are they the wicked ways we are to turn from?
John the Baptist called the people to repentance which meant turn around and go another way. Was that because they were going a different way, a wicked way? The secret of the Nicolaitans is key to healing the land and returning to liberty under God in the world today, but the truth has not been without disputation.
Beda Venerabilis, a monk at the Northumbrian monastery in the 7th century said Nicolas allowed multiple spouses. This idea probably led to Thomas Aquinas of the 13th century suggesting the error concerned polygamy or having common wives. Eusebius (c.263 - 339) suggests that the sect of the Nicolaitans was short-lived which would have to be true if there ever was a particular group or sect going by that name. Some say the sect was named after “Nicolas the deacon”6 or named after the bishop “Nicolas of Samaria” who was in the company of Simon Magus. It is true that Irenaeus, Epiphanius, and Theodoret mention the Nicolaitans but there is no clear evidence that it was a particular group headed by an heretic named Nicolas.
But earlier comments of Hippolytus of Rome (c 170 – c 236) and later Victorinus of Poetovio (writing in 270AD) suggest that the heresy involved the idea of “fornicators and eaters of things offered unto idols”. This is probably near the truth and may be one in the same thing.
Since it was the “deeds” and the “doctrines” of the Nicolaitans that we should be concerned with, we do not need to know who they were but what they were doing.
“Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam [the son] of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;” 2 Peter 2:14-15
What are the covetous practices and wages of unrighteousness of Balaam?
Peter states that through covetousness and feigned words the people will become merchandise.7 He also warns that men will promise you liberty but that you will be again entangled worse than before because you would turn from the righteous ways again.8
What was the connection between the doctrine and deeds of the Nicolaitans and Balaam? If anyone desires to "divorce Baal" they need to understand who or what he is. Balaam is from the Hebrew word Bal or Baal (leb and lb), meaning “lord” or “master”9 and am references Hebrew word for “people”10. It is an expression of superior rank over the people, which is contrary to the directive of Christ, the King, who came to set men free, and God's desire to rule us in our hearts and minds.
Baal is thought to be the ruler of the demons11 and is considered to be another name for Beelzebub. Baal-hamon was the Ruler of Multitudes who sought dominion over all the things of the earth by becoming the ruler over men. Another name was Baal-berith who bound men with covenants, i.e., contracts. To be the ruler of contracts is to be the supreme judge of all contracts. This is a governmental position and those who had the authority to be the “Ruling Judge” of contracts, agreements and disagreements were called “gods”. “'Ba‛al' can refer to any god and even to human officials”12 The gods of the Old Testament and the “gods many” of the New Testament spoken of by Paul were just that, human officials, magistrates and judges.13
These men, which by nature are no gods, obtained power over the people because the people made contracts14 with them, often to obtain some sort of benefit.15 From Cain to Lemech, from Nimrod to Pharaoh, from Caesar and the Pharisees, even to this modern time, men have sought to rule over their brothers by force. For that force to be legal there must be consent in the form of a contract whether implied, constructed or executed. These agreements16 that were often with what the Bible calls unbelievers were like a marriage or covenant with these other gods many of men. Those who entered into those agreements, often through application for benefits17 were considered fornicators or adulterers.
Balaam told the Moabites and Midianites, who surrounded Israel, that they could bring Israel down by getting them to sacrifice to idols18 and to commit fornication.
The phrase “things offered unto idols” is derived from the Greek word eidolothuton (εἰδωλόθυτον)19. There does not seem to be any reference to eidolothuton being used anywhere else in Greek literature.20
It appears the word was coined by Paul as a polemical term derived from the Greek words for sacrifice and gods. It appears to be “the negative counterpart to Corban.”21 In Mark, according to Jesus, the Corban of the Pharisees22 made the word of God to none effect. But originally Corban was the contribution or sacrifice of the people in society to take care of the needy in their community.
It becomes evident that Nicolaitan and Balaam are two different word forms of the same idea when we come to the knowledge that Nike is the Greek word for “conqueror” with nikos meaning “victor” or “conquer”, and laos is a word that also means “people”. Both, Nicolaitan and Balaam, include the idea of rank, lordship, and submission to an exercising authority by the people.
These words express the simple idea that authorities like Nimrod23 of Babylon may obtain power over the people because the people apply to these men who call themselves benefactors but who also exercise authority one over the other. This power is not granted by God, but men are allowed by God to reject Him and give power over themselves to other men, relinquishing rights by the consent and through the voice of the people.
This power to exercise authority often includes the “power” to judge or rule over men, but goes beyond the natural right to judge crimes of brutality and robbery. We are talking about systems where men force other men to bow and serve with their labor. Systems where men act as gods24, judging and making laws that men must pay homage, homage, giving fealty or allegiance, tribute.
"The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute." Proverbs 12:24
Nicolaitans were not followers of a man but of a doctrine. They were the people “who were charged with holding the error of Balaam, casting a stumbling block before the church of God by upholding the liberty of eating things sacrificed to idols as well as committing fornication.”
What was the nature of this fornication?
Were the people snared by their own appetite for benefits provided not at the expense of their leaders but at the expense of their neighbor?
Were the people devoured in the civic pot of their own flesh?25
The Unrighteous Corban
The things sacrificed to idols were the welfare programs provided by and administered through the civic or "public" altars of those various governments. One could become eligible for those benefits by an application for membership. This application often included an agreement to serve and contribute regularly to those incorporated altars of the state. There usually was an oath required, under the penalty of the courts who administered those systems.
Both God’s Kingdom and the kingdoms of the world had their temples and their ministers (clerks, bureaucrats, clergy, or administrators) who managed the institutions or altars of contributions. Judea had its Corban and Rome had its Qorban. Both began as free will offerings and degenerated into compelled obligations of social contracts.
Distinguishing the Nicolaitan or Balaam system of lords and laity, master and subject, from the liturgical ministers and laity established by Moses, John the Baptist, Christ and His Church is fundamental once the mechanism is clearly revealed. Some systems of faith and allegiance have a top-down administration that exercise authority one over the other, but the ministers of God turn the world right side up through a system that operates according to the perfect law of liberty by faith, hope and charity.
The error or stumbling block is to imagine that there is a God-given right to take from our neighbor through legal systems of social welfare. God hates these systems26 which operate by force under the guise of charity, especially when they encourage the people to covet their neighbor's goods in a system that compels contributions under the pretense of social welfare. This socialistic sin of the Nico-Laity or the error of Bal-am stems back to the original error of mankind.
“Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.” Jude 1:11
This verse is explained with the following verse:
“These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds [they are] without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;” Jude 1:12
If we are to distinguish between the ways of Balaam and the Nicolaitan and the ways of Christ, and turn from our wicked ways and heal this land, “We must learn to distinguish between charity and socialism. Charity is good, socialism is evil. (Pr. 14:30, 31, 19:17) Charity is for the helpless poor while welfare makes the poor helpless. (Ga. 2:10)”27
“Liberty is not collective, it is personal. All liberty is individual liberty.”28 You cannot secure liberty or happiness without virtue in the people and it is not virtue to covet your neighbor's goods. It is not love to demand payment of entitlements that drag all of society further into debt when such systems are bankrupt and insolvent.
Through social compact people entangle themselves as little more than human resources of the state.29 Praying for the benefits of their civil feast their covetous practices produce the wages of unrighteousness and all are captured in the net of their own making, which is a foolish rejection of God.30 “It is impossible to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this: the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder.”31 “All socialism involves slavery”32 “Redistribution is immoral... it allows one person to treat another as no more than a means...”33 a human resource.
It is not loving your neighbor and God hates that. Like Cain, the people bludgeon their neighbor to satisfy their own lusts, wants and desires. The welfare state is the enemy of religion.34 When pure religion35 diminishes, socialism flourishes. “Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion”.36
The Indictment of the Church
The above article first appeared on NewWithViews. It is another indictment of the modern Church that has forgotten the ways of Christ and delivered the whole world back into bondage.
It is clear by the Biblical text that Jesus appointed men, the ekklesia or Church, to serve the people so they did not have to turn to men who call themselves benefactors but exercise authority. Those individuals also made appointments of men chosen by the people.37 The clergy of the church were to be the servants or clerks of the kingdom, the bondservants of the King, in service to the laity, or people. Many people think there is no need for a church or its ministers but that is only because they pray to the clergy of their state church established by men. That state church exercises authority over the people who have chosen to not live by the perfect law of liberty but have coveted their neighbor's goods through the government they have created for themselves..
The contributions given to those governments of men, often established by Contracts, Covenants and Constitutions are the sacrifices of those people to the gods they have created for themselves. Their social security is dependent on the Corban38 of the Pharisees and the Qorban of Rome that “made the word of God to none effect”. It is the tribute that the wicked must pay after they have rejected God and have followed civil religion.
In Gibbon’s “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, he praised “the union and discipline of the Christian republic.” This personal discipline included the rights and responsibilities of freedom. It was a kingdom that depended on faith, hope, and charity. He also pointed out that “it gradually formed an independent and increasing state in the heart of the Roman Empire.”
The reason early Christians gathered together was to take care of the business of the Kingdom of God. There was religious freedom guaranteed by the Roman constitution. They were seeking a pure religion39 that cared for the needy of their society. There was no persecution because men loved one another. The problem was the difference between these two systems of government. Christ was turning the world right-side up. To those who did not want to change, they accused His followers of turning the world upside down.
“But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.” Revelation 2:14
The bureaucrats of Nicolaitan or Balaam system of governance entice the people to give their allegiance, with promises of benefits, but then exercise authority, compel taxes, and make laws and regulations. The Clerks of Christ’s Kingdom of God at hand offer their service in a system that only works if we love one another in faith, hope, and charity. Christians would not apply to the Romans nor the Jews who would not follow Christ. They would not touch benefits paid for by the compelled sacrifices of the people. If they did that, they would be Nicolaitans.
“When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee: And put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.” Proverbs 23:1-3.
When the Apostles, who were the Ambassadors of Christ preached the kingdom was at hand, what did it look like?
The kingdom was a vast network of people united by faith, hope and charity, overflowing with forgiveness and patience. It was men and women of virtue who were not coveting, but freely giving and receiving.
Living near one another in groups of ten families, self sufficient with wife and husband on board with the command of Christ to love not covet their neighbors goods, or pray to men who called themselves benefactors but exercised authority one over the other."
Sons and unmarried Children dedicated to Christ and not willing or desirous of giving up their liberty to please anyone but God, cared for their parents worked to enrich their families and their neighbors in congregations of Christ united by His Holy Church.
They did not desire any benefit that was not freely given or supplied out of love. This was accomplished by the election of their own chosen ministers, who were linked together in a brotherhood of ministers who had dedicated their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to the service of Christ and his appointed kingdom by serving the people who love the ways of God.
These ministers of the Church appointed by Christ were the titular leaders who served the public who were freely gathered bound by love not by social contract. Some were free and some were bond but all sought the ways of Christ in service one to another, not like the selfish people who value their own freedom above the freedom of their neighbor.
There is no other trick to entering into the liberty of Christ than serving one another as living altars of clay and living altars of stone through a network of daily love and caring.
Such a society bound by love requires the most virtuous of people.
You may free each other in a community of men and women who baptize one another in love.
Submerse your pride in humility, your selfishness in charity, your un-forgiveness in forgiveness, your fear in faith.
You cannot do that except by Christ in you and Christ is not in you just because you say Lord, Lord.
“Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD'S anger.” Zephaniah 2:3
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Additional articles and booklets:
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It made the word of God to none effect.
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Because they covet their neighbor's goods
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To Enslave a Nation
How do you enslave a whole nation, even the whole world?
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Employ vs Enslave, SS Video Series 7-10 7:28
1“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
2 07451 er ra` \@rah\@ or fem. her ra`ah from 07489; AV-evil 442, wickedness 59, wicked 25, mischief 21, hurt 20, bad 13, trouble 10, sore 9, affliction 6, ill 5, adversity 4, favoured 3, harm 3, naught 3, noisome 2, grievous 2, sad 2, misc 34; 663 adj. 1) bad, evil. n m 2) evil, distress, misery, injury, calamity 2a) evil, distress, adversity. n f 3) evil, misery, distress, injury
4“Voice of the People” http://www.hisholychurch.org/news/articles/voice.php
51 Samuel 8:7 And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
6 Hippolytus of Rome c. 170 – c. 236, The Refutation of All Heresies or Philosophumena., VII, chapt. xxiv.
72 Peter 2:3 “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”
82 Peter 2:19-20 “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
Galatians 5:1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
9leb These three letters Beit, Ayin and Lamed can be translated man, man given, husband or captain but always in the sense of owner, lord, master, even dominion. If you add letters it becomes Lord of the covenants or fortune or if you add a Heh it becomes mistress, female owner as a sorceress.
10 05971 Me `am, people 1836, nation 17... 1) nation, people
11Matthew 12:24, Mark 3:22, Luke 11:15
13There are gods many http://www.hisholychurch.org/sermon/godsmany.php
14Exodus 23:32 “Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor with their gods.”
15The Covenants of the gods http://www.hisholychurch.org/study/gods/bookgods.php
162 Corinthians 6:16 “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in [them]; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
17Job 18:5...10 “... The snare is laid for him in the ground, and a trap for him in the way.”
Psalms 69:22 “Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.”
Proverbs 1:10...19 “My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not....”
Proverbs 23:1...6 “When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what [is] before thee:...”
Romans 11:9 “And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:”
18Acts 15:29 “That ye abstain from meats offered to idols <1494>, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.”
Acts 21:25 “As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols <1494>, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.”
1 Corinthians 8:1 “Now as touching things offered unto idols <1494>, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.”
1 Corinthians 8:4 “As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols <1494>, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.”
1 Corinthians 8:7 “Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol <1494>; and their conscience being weak is defiled.”
1 Corinthians 8:10 “For if any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are offered to idols <1494>;”
1 Corinthians 10:19 “What say I then? that the idol is any thing, or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is any thing?”
1 Corinthians 10:28 “But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols <1494>, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof:”
Revelation 2:14 “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols <1494>, and to commit fornication.”
Revelation 2:20 “Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”
19 1494 eidwloyuton eidolothuton AV-things offered unto idols 4, things offered in sacrifice to idols 3, things sacrificed unto idols 2, meats offered to idols 1; 10 1) sacrificed to idols... 1a) it was either eaten at the feasts or sold in the market
20 There is some question about its use in 4 Maccabees 5:2 and its appearance in Sibylline Oracles 2:96 seems to be the result of its use in Acts.
21Tyndale Bulletin 44.2 (1993) 237- 254. Not so Idle thoughts about Eidolouthuton. By Ben Witherington III
22The Corban of the Pharisees http://www.hisholychurch.org/sermon/corban.php
23“Nimrod, The Hunter” http://www.hisholychurch.org/news/articles/hunter.php
24“There are gods many” http://www.hisholychurch.org/sermon/godsmany.php
25“...This city shall not be your caldron, neither shall ye be the flesh in the midst thereof; but I will judge you in the border of Israel...” Eze. 11:3, 11. Exodus 16:3; Proverbs 1:10, 33; Micah 3:1, 4; Zechariah 14:21
26The Nicolaitan who God hates covet their neighbor's goods http://www.hisholychurch.org/sermon/nicolaity.php
27Evangelical Bible College of Western Australia Commentary. Revelation by Dr Peter Mose [Book 97-2] July 2004
28John Calvin Coolidge, Jr., 1872 – 1933, 30th President of the United States.
292 Peter 2:3 “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”
30Ex. 20:17, 1 Sa. 8; 13:13, Ro. 7:7, 13:9, Col. 3:5, Heb. 13:5, 2 Pe. 2:3-14
31Frederic Bastiat, 1801 – 1850, French theorist, political economist.
32Herbert Spencer, 1820 – 1903, an English philosopher.
33The Kantian ethic of capitalism. Harold B. Jones, Jr.
34State Welfare Spending and Religiosity, A Cross National Analysis by Anthony Gill and Erik Lundsgaarde
35Pure Religion http://www.hisholychurch.org/news/articles/religion.php
36Richard John Neuhaus, 1936 – 2009, prominent American clergyman.
37Acts 6:3 “Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men … whom we may appoint over this business.”
38“The Corban of the Pharisees” http://www.hisholychurch.org/sermon/corban.php
39“Pure Religion” http://www.hisholychurch.org/news/articles/religion.php