He Said What?

Revelation 2: 1 “These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.”

The Revelation of John, chapters 2 and 3 are letters to the Seven Churches of Asia which are wholly in red in my Red-letter Bible and attributed directly to Jesus. This is disconcerting since there are a lot of “repent or” references such as being spewed out of His mouth, having Jesus make war with the Sword of His mouth, killing the children of fornication with Jezebel, a follower of the Nicolaitans, he will come like a thief – and you know what that means –, and a couple of references to having our lampstand removed. These are judgments that we don’t often consider as we are more focused on the grace of the Gospel. I vote for keeping my lampstand in His presence.

During any study I have to be careful of getting carried away with lingology, the study of special language used for a particular activity or by a particular group of people. This is a sound word based on my friend Webster’s definition of lingo and my making a study of it. I’ve so far relied on Webster, my The Oxford Campion to the Bible (a gift to me many years ago from my mother-in-law Janet, God bless her!), and internet searches, an admittedly sketchy source to be used with a grain of salt.

There are a couple of warning references to the Nicolaitans and following their teachings that encouraged people to eat meat sacrificed to idols and that it was okay to commit fornication so I focused on them. From my resources (internet search to WordofTruthRadio.com and A-voice.com) it appears that this is a gnostic sect whose doctrine appears to have been a form of Antinomianism. That’s a word that I dug into and it makes me shiver. Paraphrased from Webster and the two internet sources this is a belief that is based upon a recognition of the mercy of God as the ground of salvation, good so far but it makes the fatal assumption that man can freely partake in sin because the Law of God is no longer binding. Confirming John’s revelation Paul, chastised the Corinthians for such behavior as well.

We have little chance in the US of eating food sacrificed to idols although I wondered at all the deep-fried sacrifices made at fairs across the nation as we walked through the LA County Fair last weekend. While this is true on a physical layer, we serve a God who is searching for worshipers in spirit and truth and so we must be looking at the things sacrificed to idols on a spiritual plane. Of particular concern to me are the sacrifices being made to the idols of public opinion and popularism. I’m for letting the earthly government legislate to worldly standards while the churches should govern themselves via the Gospel. We should concentrate on the two commandments Jesus underlined for us; love the Lord our God with our whole hearts and love our neighbors as ourselves. Against these there is no law. It is a fine line that we need to walk between loving the sinner and hating the sin, welcoming the needy while rejecting sinful actions.

I want my lampstand in His presence and to do so I must reject the compromise and avoid the consumption of sacrifices made to the popular view while being committed to loving my God and neighbor.

In His grip, jerry