Thinking of the on-going gender-identity-orientation battle, for example. What is my Christian position?
The low estimate for species on the planet – 10 million, the high estimate 100 million. Scientifically described, perhaps 2 million. All of these with genetic codes in the 100s of millions, if not billions of “letters,” or actually “base pairs.” This proves, slam dunk, for sure, this is an exactingly made world.
Yes, there are “experts” on both sides, but look carefully and you will see it is a MORAL DECISION, NOT TECHNICAL! It is those who WILL yield to God’s rule, versus those who WILL NOT! Moral, NOT scientific!
I have owned a personal computer since 1985 – more than 33 years. I am basically computer literate.
Most of us are. We live in the computer age, better yet, the information age. Think about it – information ONLY comes from an intelligent mind, NEVER, from matter or its liquid form, chemicals.
Tens of millions of billion-base pair codes, not to mention, like numbers of mind boggling immune systems in organisms planet wide – prove an elegantly, exactingly, lovingly, MADE world – slam dunk!
As the legendary Creationist Ken Ham says, “God made Adam and Eve, NOT, Adam and Steve!
Males and females, differential and complementary, throughout the biosphere, PROVE God DELIBERATELY, PURPOSEFULLY, MADE LIVING things HETEROSEXUAL! That means STRAIGHT!
It is a MORAL decision, it takes basic ability in math, science, etc., it DOES NOT TAKE A SCIENCE DEGREE!
But my article title is TRUE RELIGION! I have been SEATED on Jury Duty three times. A jury is convinced by testimonies PLUS good corroborating evidence. SO ARE kids, church goers, voters, too. We all are!
God put it in our NATURE. TRUE RELIGION equals Bible testimonies PLUS, corroborating physical evidence, and sound logic. All real persons are known in their actions PLUS their words. God is REAL!
I prayed long ago asking God, “How do I interpret the Bible?” I am certain he wonderfully answered me.
God’s answer - open my Bible and study how Jesus Christ interprets Old Testament Scriptures. God also showed me there are many places where the inspired Bible narrative interprets Old Testament verses.
Bottom line is the Bible means what it says. Allegorical passages are true, but need to be figured out.
The Lord Jesus Christ, some 250 times in the four New Testament Gospel books, calls God, “FATHER!” The other New Testament books do likewise 100 more times. This is NOT MAKE-BELIEVE. IT’S TRUE!
“FATHER” MEANS A STRAIGHT MALE – THAT IS THE MEANING IN JESUS’ MIND, CREATION, CULTURE!
God, being a straight male, desires, yes, demands, a “her.” Since none was available, he proceeded to make, to fashion - Israel, wife to himself, God the Father, the Church, Bride to Jesus Christ, Son of God.
Doing the “jury duty” thing we must match up both avenues of truth together, nature showing clearly God exactingly made males and females, in mankind, and the animals, and the Bible, showing God is a straight male and expertly, lovingly, fashions Israel for himself, and the Church, for his Son, Jesus Christ!
Such exacting correlation between these two avenues of God’s revelation prove we have genuine truth.
God Hates the Deeds and Doctrines of the Nicolaitanes
The "Old Scofield Bible" (C.I. Scofield, 1917), note in the book of Revelation 2:6 says: "From nikao, 'to conquer,' and laos, 'the people,' or 'laity.'
There is no ancient authority for a sect of the Nicolaitanes.
If the word is symbolic it refers to the earliest form of the notion of a priestly order, or 'clergy,' which later divided an equal brotherhood into 'priests' and 'laity.'"
But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. Matthew 23:8, (New Testament).
What in Ephesus was 'deeds' had become 'doctrine'."
Revelation 2:1-15:
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;
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:
And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
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.
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also hate. 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.
And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.
And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;
I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.
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 stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate.
The “Old” (1917) Scofield Reference Bible note says -- the Nicolaitanes -- From nikao, "to conquer," and laos, "the people," or "laity."
“There is no ancient authority for a sect of the Nicolaitanes.
If the word is symbolic it refers to the earliest form of the notion of a priestly order, or "clergy," which later divided an equal brotherhood (Matthew 23:8) into "priests" and "laity."
What in Ephesus was "deeds" (Revelation 2:6) had become in Pergamos a “doctrine” (Rev 2:15).”
The “New” (1967) Scofield Reference Bible – says that “according to early church fathers (Ignatius, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexander, Tertullian, Hippolytus), refers to those who, while professing themselves Christians, lived licentiously.”
While the New Scofield and others sight the several “fathers,” there is evidence for only ONE ORIGINAL source, Iranaeus, NOT the 4 or 5, such as in the New Scofield note, and in other references.– see Wikipedia’s article about Nicolaitanes.
This article shows an immense deal of uncertainty in the secular record concerning the Nicolaitanes.
I’ve successfully used God’s promise in 1John5:14-15 about a dozen times:
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
God has shown me how to use this great promise. There are several requirements for this promise to work:
First, it is only for Christians.
Second, the objective being prayed for must be in the will of God.
Third, one must be mentally and spiritually ready and willing to accept and embrace God’s answer in advance. One cannot say, “God give me your answer and then I’ll decide if I want to accept it or not.
Paid preachers are usually constrained by church doctrinal positions and thus cannot qualify for this promise. But, I am not so constrained and God has given me wonderful answers, primarily from the Bible.
I deliberately asked God’s answer on the meaning of “Nicolaitanes” in Revelation chapter 2.
The first thing I’m convinced God showed me is that this is an extremely important issue seeing Jesus hates their deeds and doctrine.
This IS the Revelation of Jesus Christ to his Church. It is unimaginable God would allow this thing to be hidden from us.
The second thing is that the Bible gives absolutely no insight into who these people were.
Third, secular history is not inspired of God and is unreliable. The Wikipedia article illustrates this unreliability very well.
Therefore, the meaning of the term “Nicolaitanes” MUST lie WITHIN the WORD itself.
Thus, “CI,” Cyrus Ingerson, Scofield’s note in his Old (1917) Scofield Bible, cited above, is correct. Jesus hates the Clergy, Laity, caste system.
If we think about it we can see good reasons God is against this thing. God will use formal education, but God does not need it, as evidenced by the 12 unlearned men Jesus picked as his apostles.
First, God wants to be free to use any man he wants and does not want to be confined to the few clergymen permitted to preach in a given church. Many men are competent speakers and knowledgeable in the Scriptures and have a variety of experiences and backgrounds and need to be available to God’s use.
God, the Holy Ghost is fully capable of using any Christian.
Second, many men do have spiritual gifts that need to be exercised, and they want a piece of the action.
Much of “churchianity” is terrible boring. Many men just stay home. They don’t want to just warm the seat, each Sunday, listening to the same guy time after time.
Third, children growing up in your typical “one man show” churches, as I did, easily come to see religion as for women and weirdos, because they never see any regular man getting excited about God.
They only see the preacher, and that’s because it’s his job and he’s paid to do it.
Fourth, paid preachers have serious conflicts of interest. They are paid to do it, and paying bills and meeting other financial aspects of life depend on that salary, and they are going to avoid, like the plague, saying anything that will upset the congregation.
God needs men who will say what he wants them to say, whose livelihoods do NOT depend on what they may preach or who they may offend.
Fifth, clergy are controlled. A candidate for the clergy must win the recommendations of existing clergymen or he won’t be accepted to seminary.
Then, when he graduates, he must obtain the recommendations of the seminary staff or he won’t get hired for a preaching job.
So to a considerable extent they must kiss a lot of behinds to get their preaching jobs. This means considerable control by the “system”.
If any of them dared to say what CI Scofield said about the true meaning of the “Nicolaitanes,” can anyone seriously imagine that man would ever get a ministry job?
Sixth, there are so many excellent “helps” on the Internet, or world wide web, that any so called layman can run circles around most preachers.
A preacher’s time is so maxed out by regular duties, he does not have the time many so-called laymen have.
Many times I simply go on the Web, “Goggle” my question, and quickly come up with excellent articles by motivated intelligent folks.
I “Goggled” “Scofield” and “Nicolaitanes” and found tons of stuff in an instant.
Seventh, few clergy have the scientific, mathematical expertise to understand the physical world. God’s answer to Job was four chapters of “creation science.”
Psalm 19 shows God’s deliberate, complimentary, revelations in Nature and in Scripture.
It’s like jury duty. Jurors must carefully compare testimony, AND, physical facts.
On Mar’s hill Paul does NOT use Scripture on the “unchurched” Athenians. He correctly uses a simple creation argument.
In the book of Romans 1: 15-25 Paul starts his preaching of the Gospel, with creation.
He says in verse 20:
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
Laymen can bring a a lot of depth and breadth of expertise to teaching ministry. Creation of this physical world is the first interface between God and the natural man.
That is why Paul, in Romans1 starts there, in preaching the gospel to the Romans.
Pastors have been bamboozled by evolution and college “experts,” and have very very wrongly assumed they don’t need expertise in math and science.
God reveals himself, in BOTH Nature and the Bible and these two must be put together, as a juror must do, to reach a verdict.
Eighth, the very nature of Christianity is an organism -- Christ’s body -- NOT an organization.
Although I had heard this around Christian circles, it didn’t hit home until I took a graduate business course in Systems Management.
There they likened optimal business management to the human body.
The light went on in my head.
Ah – Christ choose, ye rather, he invented the optimal management system for the Church, -- his body.
This business approach has been impossible until the advent of modern computers, because every facet of the system must be optimally managed and carefully coordinated.
The body well explains aspects of Church operation.
My fingers take orders, not from my hand, but from my head. The head may operate them together or separately. The head controls every facet.
Here we see forcefully, why, in perfect systems management, the head, (Jesus Christ) wants individual control of each “cell of his body.”
For me, this helped explain the obscure verse in 1 Corinthians 15:29:
Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?
We Christians a living cells in Christ’s body. When we die, we must be replaced by new cells to take our place, in Christ's body, just the same as would happen in the human body.
But, the body (the true Church) keeps on living in this world. We each want full control of our bodies. We don’t want a leg in a cast, or any other restrictions. We would hate such.
We don’t want to be hamstrung. Again, we see why Christ hates the doctrine and deeds of the Nicolaitanes.
Here again, Nature and Scripture fit together, absolutely most intentionally. The human body is deliberately analogous to Christ’s body.
Christ, the Head, wants unrestricted use of his body members.
Rev22:17-20:
And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.
And let him that heareth say, Come.
And let him that is athirst come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.
Amen.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus.