Dear brother John,
Regarding the Nicolaitans – “REVELATION Jesus’ Messages to Seven Pastors and John’s Vision concerning the Last Days” you write: Note 2, Chapter 6: Theories abound, but no one knows who the Nicolaitans were, or what their deeds were that Jesus hated.
One honestly cannot claim to know that “no one knows” because quite obviously one cannot know what everyone knows.
That said, I am not suggesting here that I do know “who the Nicolaitans were, or what their deeds were that Jesus hated”. Rather, I merely am submitting to you the attached file* on what they may be and what it is that is obnoxious about them. I may very well be wrong, but claiming “no one knows” is wrong too.
Thank you for your kind attention,
Warm regards,
Edouard D.
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Hi, Edouard.
Thank you for writing.
I have read both your email and Mr. Mackay’s essay on the subject, which you attached. You may be right, that it is incorrect to say that no one knows what the Nicolaitans taught and did, but I think I will hold off from making an abject apology until I hear someone speak on the subject who has heard from Jesus. 🙂
You were right when you condemned the “once-saved-always-saved” nonsense. And Mr. Mackay is right to condemn the ritualism of the early Christian church. However, he did not take that far enough. He should have included Christian baptism and the Christian ritual of communion with all the rest. Christ has made all ceremonies useless works. In that regard, I invite your attention to these two short articles:
https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_tracts.html?tname=tract-066-baptism
https://goingtojesus.com/gtj_tracts.html?tname=tract-064-communion
Thank you again for writing. Just as a suggestion, I would encourage you to concentrate more on the things that can be known because those are the things that truly belong to us. All the rest belongs to God (Deut. 29:29)
Take care and God bless.
Pastor John
* The file mentioned is not attached to this blog due to the limitations of using this platform. However, the link below will provide Mr. Mackay’s position on the subject.https://biblicalstudies.org.uk/pdf/eq/1973-2_111.pdf