Beware of Karen and the Nicolaitans

Greetings in the Lord~

Last week the Methodists as a denomination met at their General Conference in Charlotte, NC to discuss and vote on many matters, including the controversial topic of allowing actively practicing homosexual persons to be ordained as pastors.  The vote was pretty overwhelmingly in support of that issue. Not only that, but they decided that gay marriages can be performed by such clergy in Methodist churches that are agreeable to this taking place in their church.  Needless to say, this approval goes far beyond finding common ground and unity within the denomination, as it basically endorses a tenet that is not compatible with Scripture.  But maybe more importantly, it is a beginning of fulfillment of prophetic End Time warnings given all throughout the New Testament.  

These warnings can be found most directly in the 2nd chapter of the book of Revelation in reference to the sect of the Nicolaitans.  These Nicolaitan "Christians" taught that it was OK to consider themselves a Christian AND adhere to pagan practices, which not only included the worship of false gods and idols, but also allowed for the participation in the orgies and feasts and rituals that go with paganism.  This spiritual concept of blending together different religions and belief systems is called syncretism--and it is expressly forbidden by God.  

Our God is a jealous God and will not share His Sovereignty with lesser beings, in the spirit or in the natural.  And equally so, His Word is eternal and irrefutable, and any taking away or adding to it by flawed human "wisdom" or modern convention is also forbidden.  So, the question then bodes: how does the sin of the Nicolaitans identified in a prophetic sense relate to the ordaining of homosexual pastors within the Methodist Church?  Well, Scripture warns us very clearly that there will come a day when the Church will condone and/or tolerate the Nicolaitans and their deeds in their assemblies and that it will, in essence, be condoning and opening the door for unrepentant sin and idolatry within the Church.  

In Revelation 9:20-21, we read about people becoming so stubborn in their adherence to sin that even plagues, disasters, and the like would not bring them to repentance: "They continued to worship demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood--idols that can neither see nor hear or walk!  And they did not repent of their murders or their witchcraft or their sexual immorality or their thefts."  

They did not repent of these deeds because common thought and the Church had accepted these sins as normal thinking and practice--and they simply chose to believe lies instead of God's Word.  That is the real danger of syncretism--it normalizes idolatry with all its fruit with God's Word, and elevates self-righteousness above God's righteousness and Truth.  And in Romans 1, we get a pretty long list of the sinful fruit of idolatry, of which, homosexuality is one.  

Therefore, we can understand some things: 1) the root of much sin, including homosexuality, is idolatry, and 2) that being tempted to sin (and being attracted to someone of the same sex) is not the same as actually committing the sin or living in sin.  That is why in the book of Revelation there is much use of the word "deeds" that Jesus hates and not the overall condition of sinfulness in the world.  Jesus came to save us from our sins, so it was the blatant rejection of His salvation that was being addressed---and it was addressed to the Churches mentioned in Revelation!  So we can understand that, because the Church began to compromise the standards that God set for us in His Word to be inclusive of the worldly standards set by those outside the Church, that Jesus gave stern prophetic condemnations in the book of Revelation.  That is why His rebukes are so sharp--it was His Church that was compromising, even though they had His Word and knew His Holy Spirit! 

Additionally, I did some research about Nicholas, the guy who started the teaching of the Nicolaitans, and found that he came from Antioch, where the term Christian was first used, and that he was an elder in the early church.  Common knowledge about him is that he was raised a pagan, then converted to Judaism, then finally to Christianity.  Therefore, we can know that this was not a man who stood firm in his beliefs, but rather, had a history of fluid allegiances and identities.  But even his name has significance: Niko means "to conquer" and Laos means "people."  He conquered the people with his godless and compromising ideas, to say the least, and stands as a prophetic prototype of false teachers to come.  

However, it was my research of the city of Antioch that really exposed his thought process, in that, even though historically Antioch became known as a Christian city, much of the mosaics and ancient artifacts found there highlighted pagan mythology and practices which illustrated the syncretism he taught.  In essence, many adherents to Christianity did not separate themselves from their original pagan ideas, beliefs, and imagery that permeated throughout their culture.  They did not want to give up those influences entirely, shown by the idols that still adorned their city and the witchcraft and spells still in common use among the people, mostly for the attaining of money, love, and victory in their endeavors.  

Interestingly, too, I found that there were several strong voices in the local churches that vehemently preached against this syncretism, but ultimately, they were not successful in stamping it out of the overall cultural acceptance of paganism or within the elites of the city as their homes were full of pagan mosaics, trinkets and other idols.  Even Antioch itself, as a warm-weathered seaside town, rich from trade and popular with influential people and a magnate for politicians since it was one of the 5 special cities of Rome in the area, exercised a lot of influence over the thought and practice and style of their day, which was hard for the Christian pastors to contend with, I'm sure!  

Well, in our modern time, it was a Methodist Bishop originally a pastor from San Francisco-- aptly named "Karen"--that conquered the masses.  This "Karen," like our slang usage goes, used her privileged position and influence and resources and complaining to overwhelm the people to get her liberal ideas passed.  Her message could very well be summed up as: "have your cake and eat it too" spirituality, just like Nicholas taught.  It is the blending and blurring of worldliness with holiness to create an unholy mess.  It ignores the fact that the Lord calls us to consecrate or separate ourselves unto Him and His ways--not that we are without sin or temptation---but that we rely on Him for the power to overcome sin and trust that His Word is truth.  We are not hypocrites because we resist temptation and struggle with sin, rather, we are hypocrites when we feel we have not sinned and have no need of Jesus.  This kind of syncretism negates sin and the need for the salvation of Jesus Christ.  In fact, this syncretism is a fulfillment of yet another New Testament warning: watch out for false teachers who will tell you what you want to hear!  

So, while there is much more that can be said about this topic, I will close for now and encourage prayer for the Methodist Church and for God's will to be done within that denomination.    

~Be blessed and be a blessing.