The Heresies of the Nicolaitans

By Harry A. Peyton

A Note from the Author: Since Almighty God, the Lord Jesus Christ, gives His Salvation and Word to all freely, this book is given without charge! Therefore, feel free to copy it and share it with others. The author forbids any alteration of this book, meaning changing any part of its contents. This book must be given away and not sold. This book may be placed on anyone’s web page, as long as my website address (http://www.DoctrinesOfChrist.com) is attached to it. This book and all other books written by Harry A. Peyton can be accessed through the Internet by going to the above web address.

The author believes that the Word of God is infallible in the ORIGINAL LANGUAGE it was written in, and all translations of the Bible regardless of how good they may be are NOT. Since the author has implicit faith in the infallibility of the Word of God, the author has formed his beliefs firmly on the truth of the Bible. This book uses the ancient Antiochian Literal-Historical Method of interpreting the Bible, which was used by early Christian Prophets of the Bible. I definitely believe that the ancient Alexandrian Allegorical Method of spiritualizing scripture, which was made popular by the ancient Jewish philosopher Philo Judaeus (13 BC – 50 AD) and later used by the Ante-Nicene Catholic priests, especially Origen and his student Clement of Alexandria (200 AD), is an abomination to our Lord. Therefore, all scriptures will be interpreted in a literal exegetical fashion, unless the language used and the context demands a spiritual interpretation.

All CAPITALIZATION and ITALICIZATION in QUOTES used in this book is always MINE. All Biblical quotes used in this book will be in dark red, and from the New King James version of the Bible, unless another version is stated as the reference. The vast majority of all translations of the Bible, as well as Hebrew and Greek Lexical definitions and grammar, will come from BibleWorks computer software program version 7.0. Part of this book is an excerpt from my book entitled, “A Prophetic History of God’s Apostolic Pentecostal Church,” which is an exposition of the “Seven Church Ages.”

A Word of Admonishment

Beloved, permit me to ask you, why did God’s children in Jesus’ day reject the truths He taught them? Did they not have God Himself as their preacher or teacher? Did they not believe in the one true God? Did they not believe that the Bible was God’s Word? Did they not attend church every Sabbath Day? The answer is obviously yes to all these questions, so why did many of God’s children not believe the teachings of Jesus?

The answer can be found in second Corinthians 4:4. This verse reveals that Satan blinds the minds of those who do not believe the truth, meaning any of the truths that are taught in God’s Holy Word. How did Satan blind the minds of the believers in Jesus’ day? He accomplished this by using false prophets, who may have been or may not have been honest and sincere, to fill their minds with false beliefs.

It was for this reason, Jesus warned all believers to: “beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees” (Mt 16:6). What did Jesus mean by the term leaven? In verse 12, the Bible gives us the answer: “Then they understood that He did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the [false] doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Even though some of these false prophets may have dazzled and mesmerized God’s Jewish children with their oratory and teaching skills, their doctrines were still false. Our Savior spoke of these deceived prophets when He said: “in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men…. Making the Word of God of no effect” (Mk 7:7, 13). It is quite evident that these deceived men followed the traditional teaching of some of their forefathers in their organization, and as a result they became false prophets.

Therefore beloved take heed, for even though a teacher may be able to paint beautiful spellbinding word pictures, or a preacher may be able to speak very fast and give fiery orations, this does not necessarily mean what they are preaching or teaching is the truth! Evidently, not everything these Doctors of the Law and pastors taught was a lie, for Jesus told them: “Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things” (Mt 12:34)?

Since Jesus was the new and unknown preacher in town, who resoundingly taught the Bible antithetically or contrary to the theologians, pastors, and preachers of His day, the people chose to believe the teachings of their pastors and religious organizations instead of His teachings. It must have broken our Lord’s heart! It saddens me to say that this is exactly what many sincere Pastors and Christians do today, when they hear or read some the truths that were taught by Jesus and His apostles.

When I understood how Satan blinds the minds of believers, I soon developed a healthy fear that maybe I was not studying the Bible with an open and unprejudiced mind. I subsequently reexamined all my beliefs. I then discovered that several of my beliefs were incorrect, and I needed to repent and change them. Even though I was afraid to change my beliefs, being an Apostolic Pentecostal minister with a BA in Theology, I made up my heart and mind to walk in the Light as He is in the Light. I also came to the realization that I am not married to the doctrines of any preacher, church, Bible College, or denomination, but to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Infallible Word of God and the Truth (Jn 1:1; 14:6).

Beloved, if you and I expect to hear Jesus say to us: “Well done good and faithful servant” (Mt 25:21), then we must not be afraid to change our beliefs, when we perceive that they are not in agreement with the written Word of God; for the Bible, not men or organizations, is the only source of absolute truth. Let us not forget, the people who hated the teachings of Jesus and His apostles, were not the sinners among the Gentiles or the Jewish people as a whole, but the Church Officials such as: the High Priest, Doctors of the Law, elders or pastors, and priests, who were entrusted with leadership positions. These church officials were more dedicated to the traditions of their organization than they were to almighty God and His Word.

Therefore, it becomes very evident that none of these church officials were infallible teachers of the Bible, even though their followers thought they were. Because God’s people blindly followed the teaching of these officials of the church, they rejected our Savior’s teachings and die lost. This cold but sobering fact should be a warning to all believers today, to make no man or organization their infallible teacher.

Now, since my name, your name, your pastor’s name, your church’s name, and the name of your denomination, are not written in the Word of God, none of us are infallible teachers. Therefore it is senseless for us to make any man or organization our infallible teacher, regardless if they call themselves: a pastor, a Doctor of Divinity, an apostle, a prophet, a prophetess, the pope, the holy one, or the little flock. Every believer needs to love and respect their teachers, but they should never place them on a pedestal and worship them as their infallible golden calf, whereby everything that comes out of their mouth is “thus says the Lord.” Most believers are not aware that this is idolatry and God hates it.

Beloved, when God saved me and delivered me from this kind of idolatry, I made a vow to God that I would never again place my faith in any preacher or religious organization, but only in the Lord Jesus Christ and His Holy Infallible Word. I promised my God that I would not believe anything about the Bible, until I could personally pray about it and search it out for myself! Now God has blessed me with some great pastors and teachers, whom I love and respect even to this day, but I can honestly say that I never worshipped any of them by making anyone of them my infallible teacher. Please do not take what I am saying in the wrong way; I am not condemning or belittling the biblical and holy office of a bishop, but I am placing it in a biblical and historical context.

Beloved, you may have a pastor who is a good teacher, or even a great teacher, but I promise you he is not infallible, and I am happy to tell you that neither am I. Now someone might ask me, why are you happy about not being infallible? Do you not want people to think that your teachings or books are infallible? No, I do not! You might ask why not? Because if I lead anyone to think my teachings or books are infallible, I cannot change or correct them, if I later discover that any part of my teachings are incorrect.

Therefore, I do not want to placed myself in the position, where I cannot say, “I am wrong, please forgive me. I make an honest and sincere mistake, but I will correct it and teach it correctly.” As a pastor, an assistant to a pastor, an evangelist, and a student of the Word of God for the last 38 years, I have always admonished God’s people to become students of the Bible, and I would challenge them prove what I taught them was the truth. I did this for two reasons: First, I wanted their faith to be in the Infallible Word of God and not in fallible man; also I knew that the Word of God could not get down deep into their hearts, unless each of them prove to themselves by their own research, what is truth and what is error. Every child of God needs to take their salvation seriously, for it is too precious to place it in the hands of any man.

Second, I knew from the Word of God that a pastor was not the only mouthpiece God had in the Church. I knew every humble Holy Ghost filled child of God, could receive revelation of truth from God (1Co 14:26). Therefore God placed them there not only for a pastors to “equip” them “for the work of the ministry,” or to “become able ministers or teachers of the gospel” (Eph 4:11-12), but also for a pastors to learn from them; for God gave them to pastors for their protection, so that they could correct him if he went into error.

If this is not the truth, then who and what will prevent any pastor from going into false doctrine. Because the majority of God’s churches today, do not have several pastors of equal authority over a congregation, who could also correct them and even reprimand them if they went into sin, God’s pastors today are without protection. The Bible reveals that only pastors have the authority to reprimand or even chastise or rebuke their fellow pastor in any given congregation (1Ti 5:19-20). I know many pastors think that God will use their fellow pastors in their denomination to keep them from going astray; but this is a lie of Satan, for every pastor knows that their fellow pastors, in their denomination, will never hear ninety-nine percent of what they preach or teach.

Beloved, it is a shame that many pastors have allowed, or in some cases encouraged, their people to believe that they are the epitome of knowledge, and every word that comes out of their mouth is straight from the throne God. They are doing a great injustice to the people of God. It is a shame that these men have made themselves the only mouthpiece of God in the Church. They should be fulfilling their God given responsibility to not only to teach God’s children sound doctrine, but also how to study the Word of God for themselves, so they can rightly divide the Word of Truth and find out truth for themselves!

Because pastors have made themselves the infallible Pope in God’s Church, Satan has placed a great fear upon these pastors that their people will not respect or listen to them, if they change any of their teachings. Therefore, fear and pride place a tremendous amount of pressure on pastors to close their minds to any teaching that is contrary to theirs, whereby they are afraid to investigate the teachings of others. If some overcome their fear and pride, they usually study the teaching of others with a bias mind, and their biases blind them to the truth.

As a result, many pastors, seminary professors, and denominational officials have become Nicolaitan ministers. The Nicolaitan Doctrine is one of the most misunderstood doctrines of the entire Bible! This doctrine will be fully explained in this book. Because many pastors, seminary professors, and officials in the hierarchy structure of denominations, are Nicolaitan ministers, they use Satan’s method of correcting those under their authority, who they feel are in error in their doctrinal beliefs. They usually give a strong rebuke to these ministers or saints, and then expect them to repent or change their beliefs, simply because they are the ones in authority.

These Nicolaitan ministers are either ignorant of or willfully rebel against the Biblical guidelines, which God gave in His Word to correct someone who may be in error. Because the love of God is not in the heart of these Nicolaitan ministers, or they are so filled with pride in their own infallibility, they will not take time to sit down with those whom they are correcting, and say in a loving way: “Well brother or sister, let us prayerfully and scripturally examine your belief and my belief, and see if it harmonizes with all the scriptures in the Bible that pertain to this doctrine” (2Ti 2:24-26).

When one is looking for a harmony in scriptures and not for a debate, knowing that the Bible is the infallible Word of God “in the original language that it was written in,” it is not that hard for two people with opposing perspectives to come to an agreement, if their true motive is to find truth. The Bible declares: “Only by pride cometh contention” (Pro 13:10).

In one sense, denominational organizations are like individual churches, they close their mind and heart to anyone who has a different belief than theirs. Now this can be good in some ways and evil in other ways. It is good in the sense that it prevents heresy from spreading in the churches and in organizations, but it is evil and satanic when it is truth that is prevented from spreading. Because their mind is close and they have lost the spirit of investigation, pastors and denominations will never receive any more truth than what they presently have; this is exactly the reason why Christianity has so many denominations, which claim to be the true Church of Christ. They have gone the way of the Pharisees and Sadducees and have taken refuge in their organizations.

So, what is the answer to this church and denominational dilemma? The answer can be found in God’s Word, for God said: “Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge” (1Co 14:29). Paul did not say: “Let two or three pastors speak, and let the other pastors in the congregation judge,” even though pastors are prophets also, but the context or two verses down, Paul proclaimed: “For you can ALL prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged” (vs 31). Therefore, Paul is no doubt referring to entire Priesthood of God!

A Prophet is someone who has the Spirit of God in them, which gives them the power to speak under the anointing and inspiration of Almighty God. In verse 32, Paul reminded God’s Holy Priesthood that their preaching and teaching must conform to the written Word of God. Paul said it this way: “the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets,” that is, the Prophets who spoke and wrote the Old Testament. The New Testament reveals that this admonishment also applies to New Testament writers. Everyone in the Corinthian Church must have been a Teacher for Paul said, “For though you might have ten thousand Instructors [i.e. Teachers] in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel” (1Co 4:15-16).

Therefore, God gave His Children the responsible of knowing truth and judging what is truth, so that they would not be deceived. This in no way undermines Pastors’ God ordain responsibility of correcting and reproving false teaching in God’s Church! It is a shame that Pastors and denominations of today have flouted God’s instructions, which He gave for their protection, so that He would not have to judge them as a false prophet on the Day of Judgment! Woe be to the Pastors or denomination that follow man’s guidelines over God’s commands!! Ignorant is no excuse, for there will be a multitude on the Day of Judgment who will tell the Lord Jesus Christ: “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness,” or practiced man’s precepts and have changed the teachings of God’s Word (Mt 7:22-23)!

The above biblical principle of correction can be applied to an individual church, as well as to a church organization. God told us that those priestly saints, who believe that God has given them a revelation, or insight into His Word, should have the opportunity to preach or teach it in the church, just as a pastor should be allow to teach any revelation in his denomination. Therefore, let the saints of God in the church along with their pastors, and the pastors in a denomination, judge the truthfulness or error of the teaching.

In a Nicolaitan Church or organization this will never be allowed, for the pastor or denomination claims to be the only mouthpiece of God, therefore no one will ever be able to correct them. As a result, these pastors and their organizations will never change their teachings. Satan will continue to use these pastors and their denominations to promote whatever lies or false doctrines he has deceived them into believing.

Because God does not want His Children to be deceived by Nicolaitan Pastors or Teachers, and Pastors to be deceived by Nicolaitan denominations, He commanded all of them to: “Prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom 12:2); and “Prove all things, hold fast that which is good” (1Th 5:21); and “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth” (2Ti 2:15, KJV).

According to the great apostle Paul, the Berean saints explicitly followed these God given commands, for he wrote: “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and EXAMINED the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11, NIB). In other words, these believers did not allow their love and respect for Paul, or any other teacher, to prevent them from examining their teachings with the written Word of God. The only way any child of God can “know the doctrine whether it be of God,” is by becoming a devoted student of the Bible (Jn 7:17). This is the will of God! Truth may come very slowly, but it will come as long as a Saint of God, or a Pastor, or a denomination is willing to humble himself or itself, and change their teaching when they perceive that it is error!!

Beloved, if you claim to be a son or daughter of Almighty God, then you must hunger, thirst, desire, and love truth, more than life itself. God has given all of His Children the responsibility and privilege of knowing and finding truth for themselves. If they do not take this God given responsibility seriously, than God will allow them to believe a lie and be lost. Because God’s Jewish Children, in the days of the Lord Jesus, did not take this responsibility seriously, they rejected the truths He preached and died lost. They rejected their Savior and Messiah.

Our Savior warned all believers not to follow the teachings of false prophets, who would deceive them, especially concerning the New Birth, which is how one enters into the straight and narrow path, that leads into Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection (Mt 7:22-23, cp with vss 13-15). Jesus taught that we would know false prophets and false religious denominations by their fruits. One of their fruits would be, they would place a literal meaning on the scriptures they use to prove their doctrine, and a figurative meaning on the scriptures used by others to prove their doctrine false. This is what the Bible commanded us not to do, when it stated that we should not ‘wrest’ or ‘twist’ or ‘pervert’ the scriptures to our “own destruction” (2Pe 3:16). All scriptures must be taken LITERAL, unless it is a Jewish idiom or the language and context demands a spiritual interpretation.

A favorite saying among those who have been deceived by false prophets is: “I know this teaching is not of God because it bring in confusion.” Therefore many believers will follow the example of their deceived teachers, and will also place a literal meaning on the scriptures they want to believe in, and a figurative meaning on the scriptures that seems to bring confusion to them. Because they are not willing to change their beliefs, they will not look for an interpretation that will harmonize with all the scriptures on that subject; therefore, they would rather believe a lie, and spiritualize away or totally forget about the scriptures that seem to bring confusion to them. Hey friend, it is time to repent for handling God’s Holy Infallible Word in a dishonest fashion! Do not forget, God will judge you for this on the Day of Judgment!

I have discovered through my own experiences that we are beings, who love to follow the traditions of our Elders, churches, and denominations. Since none of us likes change when it comes to our beliefs, we react very negatively when someone disturbs our feelings of security. Beloved, if we claim to be Children of the Light, we must then walk in the Light, or “darkness will overtake us” (Jn 12:35-36, 46). If we truly love our fellow man as our Lord commanded us to, then we will not be afraid to tell each other the truth in a kind and loving manner, even if we momentarily become offended. No surgery is pleasant while the doctor is cutting us open, but after the tumor, cancer or disease is removed and our health is restored, what joy good health brings.

Since our God and Savior commanded us to: “Buy the truth, and do not sell it” (Pr 23:23), Pastors and Saints, who preach this great gospel, should always remember that there is a price to pay to walk in truth! Rejection, loneliness, and heartache are often a part of this great price; nevertheless, everyone who truly loves our dear Lord will always be willing to pay any price to walk with Him in truth! Therefore, I encourage my readers to open their hearts and minds, as they open their Bibles in search for the truth.

I furthermore admonished them to believe that God said what He meant, and meant what He said. In other words, God intended that we believe and understand “every word,” He used to express His infallible thoughts or teachings (Psa 12:6-7; Pro 30:5; Mt 4:4; 2Ti 3:16). God never intended His Word to be interpreted by the imaginations of the mind of mankind; it makes no difference if they are called Pastors, Prophets, Prophetesses, the Anointed Ones, Doctors of Divinity, Archbishops, or the Pope. The Bible is a Book inspired with all of mankind in mind, and God intended that it should be read, studied, and understood by all of mankind, not just a selected few, for it is one of our Heavenly Father’s great and precious gifts to us.

Therefore, let each of us become students of the Bible, and eat “our daily bread” with an open and unbiased mind. Let us not be lazy; let us study the Word of God for ourselves; let us not be afraid to search out the teachings of other Christian Ministers. Either we will believe Satan’s lie, that we can not understand the Bible because of our lack of education in theology, or we will believe what Jesus said: “If any man will do His [God’s] will, he shall know the doctrine, whether it be of God” (Jn 7:17).

Beloved, we do not understand the teachings of the Bible by our intelligence, regardless how much or little we may possess, but it comes by inspiration from God’s Holy Spirit. God only gives revelations to us as we love, keep, hunger, thirst, dig, and pray for truth! You must be willing to do your homework, and study the Word of God with an open, unbiased, humble, and honest spirit!! You must have your mind made up, that you will settle for nothing less than truth, in your walk with your Creator and Savior!!! If we do not buy the truth because it is not popular, or it offends our parents, relatives, friends, church, organization, and so on, then we are selling our salvation for the favor and praises of men. We become men-pleasers instead of God-pleasers. We will esteem men much more highly than we esteem God.

Beloved, permit me to give you one example of how truth is discovered. When our government wanted to discover the truth concerning splitting the atom, they gathered together a group of scientists from various fields of science, and placed them in one room. These men were instructed to proposed theories of how the atom could be split to form a bomb. Each scientist had to be willing to lay aside their pride, as their fellow scientists did their best to disprove their theory. Every theory that could not be disproved was then tested, until the truth was discovered. The same principle is also applied to Pastors or Saints in a Church, or a Pastors in a denomination!

Now beloved, if we are willing to lay aside our pride, fears, and bias beliefs, and meticulously examine all the scriptures on any given subject of the Bible, and look for an interpretation that will harmonize with all of them, then God will be able to open our spiritual eyes and give us enlightenment. Another way of saying this is, we must first find all the scriptural pieces to the jigsaw puzzle, which is the hardest part of studying the Bible, but this is where the real men and women of God become separated from the false prophets. Second, we must put all the scriptural pieces together until we can see that one and only perfect picture, which is the absolute truth. Third, we must learn patience, and wait upon our Savior with faith in our hearts, expecting Him to give us enlightenment. Let us always remember that it is our God given responsibility to seek for truth, and it is our Heavenly Father’s responsibility to reveal truth (Mt 7:7).

A Brother in the Lord once told me that his dad, who was a denominational minister, told him that he spent four years in Seminary School to learn the Bible, and twenty years unlearning what he had learned. In other words, because he was so thoroughly indoctrinated with the beliefs of his denomination, it was a real struggle for him to lay aside his biases, and to study the Bible with an open mind. Beloved, do not be afraid to test or thoroughly examine your beliefs; for truth can be placed under a microscope and thoroughly dissected, and it will shine brighter than ever; as long as we are willing to follow BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICAL PRINCIPLES for interpreting the Bible. These principles can be found in my book entitled, How to Study the Bible, which is also given away on my website.

Therefore, the author of this book is asking his beloved readers, to prayerfully read this teaching to the end, so that they may comprehend the entire teaching. After doing this, then dissect and examine this book by looking for a harmony in all the scriptures that I use, and also the scriptures you know of that pertain to this subject, as both of us interpret them in a literal fashion. After you have done these things, then judge for yourself the validity of this teaching.

I challenge my beloved readers to try to prove this and the following message in this book wrong! I do not say this in the spirit of pride or in claiming infallibility, but I put forth this challenge in hopes that they will earnestly and thoroughly examine these truths. If anyone believes he or she has found an error in any portion of this or the following teachings, I admonish him or her to love me enough to correct me, and to show me how their belief is in perfect harmony with all of God’s reveal will on this subject. Please email your response to: DoctrinesOfChrist@hotmail.com.

Beloved, truth is the greatest gift of love that any preacher can give to those who listen to him speak, or read his writings. The more truth any Child of God places in their heart, the more of Jesus they have, for He is the Truth (Jn 14:6). Beloved, you cannot say you love Jesus and not love the Bible, for Jesus is the Living Word (Jn 1:1); and EVERY WORD in the Bible are His Words. My prayer for you is that the Lord Jesus Christ, who is both the Almighty God and the Son of God, will open your heart and mind to understand His message of truth. With all the above truths in mind, let us begin our SEARCH FOR TRUTH!

Your Servant In Christ: Harry A. Peyton

Introduction

In this book, the author will present a brief biblical and historical account of the heresy of the Nicolaitan Doctrine. Most Catholics, Protestants and Pentecostals are not aware that this heresy was the foundation principle on which Catholicism was founded upon around 90 AD. It began with the apostates Ignatius of Antioch, Clement of Rome, and others of that ilk, who spearheaded the formation of the Catholic Church. The apostasy first began with the Nicolaitan doctrine of Ignatius, one of the Bishops of God’s Apostolic Pentecostal Church in Antioch, Syria.

This Pastor claimed to have the same and even greater authority over God’s Church than the apostles. He and his cohorts also tried to changed the ministerial structure of the Church from several Bishops or Pastors over each assembly to just one; but the thing God hated the most about this doctrine was that this doctrine ROBBED God’s People of their Priesthood Ministry by setting up a selected paid Priesthood! This particular aspect of the Nicolaitan Doctrine became known in church history as the Monarchical Bishop Doctrine.

The Apostles Ministerial Doctrine: The ministerial structure of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, which the Apostles of the Lamb established in the Book of Acts, was not the Catholic, Protestant, and Pentecostal structure that we see in Christendom today. The early Apostolic Church had several Bishops in each congregation. This sacred and holy office was a position of honor, whereby the Pastors in each congregation worked together in love, unity and equal authority, as they willingly and freely served God’s Holy Priesthood.

Catholicism’s Ministerial Doctrine: Ignatius of Antioch invented the Catholic Monarchical Bishop Doctrine. This heretic proclaimed that only one Bishop or Pastor should rule each church, and the Bishop should stand in the place of God in the congregation. He declared that this singular Bishop had total authority over all the other Bishops, who he called Elders, and laity in the congregation. He also claimed that only he and other ministers, who were ordained to the ministry by Catholic Bishops, could preach and teach in the church. In the Word of God, this doctrine is called the Nicolaitan Doctrine, which the Bible declared that God and His true Church HATED!

Because of these heretical doctrines, Ignatius was either excommunicated from God’s Apostolic Church in Antioch, or he willingly departed from it because of these heresies. After his departure, Ignatius along with some other apostate Bishops from other cities, who believed in and taught his Monarchical Bishop Doctrine, formed the first organization or denomination in church history, which they called the Catholic Church. Because of the awesome authority and infallibility, these apostates claimed for themselves, the Catholic laity became terrified of them, and gradually gave their preaching, teaching and other ministries in the church to them.

The entire history of Catholicism is a history of its satanic struggle for the centralization of all authority and power into the hands of one man. It all started with Ignatius’ Monarchical Bishop Doctrine. It later became one Monarchical Archbishop over the churches in many cities. Then it developed into the Monarchical Patriarch Doctrine or one man over all the churches in a nation. Then after several centuries came the Monarchical Pope Doctrine or one man over all the Catholic Churches in the world.

The Historical Truth Concerning the Ministerial Structure of God’s Apostolic Pentecostal Church: Professor Philip Schaff, in his History of the Christian Church, spoke of the ministerial structure of the Apostolic Church when he declared: Dean Stanley asserts that NO EXISTING CHURCH can find any pattern or platform of its government in the first century…. It is certain that… Bishop and Presbyter were convertible terms, and that the body of men so-called were the rulers—so far as any permanent rulers existed—of the early church…. It is certain that… the word ’Bishop’ gradually changed its meaning, and by the middle of the second century became restricted to the chief Presbyter of the locality. [1]

Dr. Schaff continued his discourse by saying: The sacred office [of a Bishop] is in its divine origin and import… was separated by NO impassable chasm from the body of believers. The Jewish and later Catholic antithesis of clergy and laity has NO place in the apostolic age…. In the apostolic church, preaching and teaching were NOT confined to a particular class, but every convert could proclaim the gospel to unbelievers, and EVERY Christian who had the gift could pray and teach and exhort in the congregation. The New Testament knows NO spiritual aristocracy or nobility, but calls all Believers ‘Saints,’ though many fell far short of their vocation. Nor does it recognize a special Priesthood in distinction from the People, as mediating between God and the Laity. It knows only one High Priest, Jesus Christ, and clearly teaches the UNIVERSAL PRIESTHOOD, as well as Universal Kingship, of BELIEVERS. It does this in a far deeper and larger sense than the Old; in a sense, too, which even to this day is NOT yet fully realized. [2]

Professor Schaff speaking of the origin of the Nicolaitan Monarchical Bishop Doctrine wrote: The distinction of a regular class of Teachers from the Laity became more fixed and prominent. This appears first in Ignatius [90 AD], who, in his high Episcopalian spirit, considers the Clergy the necessary medium of access for the People to God.... He is also the first who uses the term ‘Catholic Church,’ as if episcopacy and catholicity sprung up simultaneously… From Ignatius onward [in the Catholic Churches]; the two terms [Bishop and Presbyter] are distinguished and designate two offices; the bishop being regarded first as the head of a congregation surrounded by a council of Presbyters.... Lightfoot well expresses it ‘The Episcopate was formed, NOT out of the apostolic order by localization, but out of the Presbyterial by elevation; and the title [Bishop], which originally was common to all, came at length to be appropriated to the chief among them. [3] This history will be continued in chapters 3 and 4 of this book.

Worldwide revival will only be a dream and not a reality, as long as Pastors and denominations deny God’s People the right to perform their God ordain Priesthood Ministry! I should also add that as long as we have “God on a time clock,” where by we only have services one or two day a week for an hour or two, instead of 7 days a week, God will never demonstrate His power in our services through the Gifts of the Spirit in a consistent manner. As long as we follow this Catholic Nicolaitan pattern for having services, there will never be a need to have thousands of God’s ordain Priests to Minister in God’s Church. It is time for God’s People to realize and exercise their God ordain Priesthood, in which they lay aside the things of this world and consecrate and dedicate themselves to their Savior, and become His oracle!

Pastors, I certainly would not want to stand before God and have Him ask me why I taught and practiced the Nicolaitan doctrine!! Why I hindered His People from becoming His oracles? I am not in any way diminishing the great duties, responsibilities, and privileges of God’s holy Bishops, for I have served as a Pastor and assistant Pastor in several congregations, but I must place this God ordain office in a biblical and historical context. I can honestly say and my conscience bear me witness, that after 38 years of studying the Bible and history, that I did not know this truth until 1990. Believe you me when God revealed this to me, it was quite a shock! I did not want to believe it at first, but like a bloodhound with his nose to the ground, sniffing out the trail of a fox, I could not rest until I tacked down the truth!

Chapter 1

The Nicolaitan Doctrine Defined

“Write of the Church the Messenger in Ephesus write…. I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are APOSTLES and are not, and have found them liars…. But this you have, that you HATE the DEEDS of the Nicolaitans, which I also HATE;” and “To the angel of the Church in Pergamos write…. I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the DOCTRINE [TEACHING] of BALAAM, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the Children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the DOCTRINE of the Nicolaitans, which thing I HATE” (Rev 2:1-2, 6, 12-15). In the Greek, this passage appears this way: “Tw/| avgge,lw| th/j evn VEfe,sw| evkklhsi,aj gra,yon\” (Robinson-Pierpont Majority Text & Friberg NT -UBS3/4).

The Greek noun “aggelos” or “messenger” is in the dative case, which is an indirect object; consequently, it should FOLLOW the verb and not come before it. According to Daniel B. Wallace in his book, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: The dative substantive is that to or for which the action of a verb is performed. The indirect object will only occur with a transitive verb, when the transitive verb is in the active voice. The word “church” is in the genitive case or the case that expresses possession, which should be translated “of the church.” The Greek preposition “evn” or “in” modifies the word “Ephesus,” which is also in the dative case; therefore it to should FOLLOW the verb and not come before it.

The verb “write” is in the AORIST tense, active voice, IMPERATIVE mood, second person, and singular number. Imperative mood is the mood that expresses a COMMAND with the subject being “you” or “you write.” Because the aorist tense refers to continuous action, regardless of when the action began, Jesus is not only referring to the Church that existed in Ephesus in that day, but also the Church that existed in that period of the Church Age. Therefore Revelation 2:1, 8, 18, 3:1, 7, & 14 all should read: “You [John] write OF the CHURCH, the MESSENGER in” Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, and so on.

Since the Church consists of God’s holy Priesthood of all born-again believers, every child of God in the church is God’s one and only Messenger to the world during the period of time he or she lives. The word of God states this truth this way: “As NEWBORN BABES, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby…. You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a HOLY PRIESTHOOD, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…. You are a chosen generation, a ROYAL PRIESTHOOD, a holy nation” (1Pe 2:2, 59; Mt 28:19-20; Acts 8:3-4).

God’s Priests are His Messengers: “For the lips of a PRIEST should keep knowledge, And people should seek the law from his mouth; For he is the MESSENGER [Septuagint a;ggeloj - aggelos] of the LORD of hosts” (Mal 2:7). Another example of the Greek noun aggelos being translated as Messenger is: “When the MESSENGERS [aggelos] of John had departed, He began to speak to the multitudes concerning John” (Lk 7:24). Therefore God’s Messenger in the Church is His Holy Priesthood of all born-again believers; and grammatically speaking, all the above verses should be translated as: “You [John] write OF the CHURCH, the MESSENGER in” Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos and so on.

Let my beloved readers take note to the fact that Jesus called the Church His Messenger in the Ephesus’ Church Period of the Church Age. In fact, no one would argue the fact the Christian Church from the time of its birth has always been, is now, and will continue to be God’s one and only Messenger to the world! Because the grammar in Jesus’ address to the Churches in the other 6 Church Ages is the same, verses 8, 12, 18, 3:1, 7 & 14 should be translated the same way as verse one of chapter two.

My readers should take special note to the fact that God told us two times in His Prophetic Word that He HATED the Nicolaitan Deeds and Doctrine. What was the Nicolaitan Deeds and Doctrine that God HATED in both the Ephesian and Pergamos Church Periods, and why did God and His people HATE it? Etymologically the Greek noun “Nicolaites” (nik-ol-ah-ee’-tace) according to Dr. James Strong is derived from the Greek word “nikolaos” which means: victorious over the people; and this Greek word is a compound of two Greek words “nikos” and “laos.” [4] Nikos means: a conquest or to conquer or to utterly vanquish, and laos means: people. [5] Our English word LAITY comes from this Greek word. The word Nicolaitan can also have the meaning of: “the destruction of the people.”

In other words, I believe that God is informing us that the Nicolaitans were out to conquer or destroy the Priesthood Ministry of the LAITY of God. Since God has revealed to us that the Gnostic Catholic Nicolaitan Bishops or Pastors would try to conquer or destroy the Priesthood Ministry of ALL BORN-AGAIN BELIEVERS, the questions we should ask are: who were these Nicolaitans, why would they want to do this, and in which way did they conquer the People or Laity of God?

What was the Nicolaitan doctrine? As my readers may recall, the Nicolaitans in the Ephesus Church Age (probably 90-193 AD) were claiming to be APOSTLES, in other words, these sons of Lucifer claimed to be not only Pastors but also APOSTLES, in fact, they claimed to have greater AUTHORITY than any of the APOSTLES of the Lamb ever claimed over God’s Church; for they claimed to be the one and only VOICE of God in each congregation, and that the Laity should obey them in all things as: the Son of God obeyed the Father. It was this teaching of Ignatius, an apostate Bishop of Antioch, that probably caused the apostle Peter to warn God’s holy Elders (Bishops) NOT to be: “LORDS over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (1Pe 5:1-3). In fact, Our great God and Savior called these evil ways, which satanic inspired men tried to bring into His Churches, the practices or deeds of the Nicolaitans.

When one understands that the apostles did not set up just one Bishop, who is also known in the Bible as an Elder or Pastor, over a local congregation, but several Bishops (Elders or Pastors – Phi 1:1; 1Ti 3:1-7 cp with Tit 1:5-11; 1Pe 5:1-3; 1Ti 5:17-20; Heb 13:17; Acts 20:17-28-38; 14: 14, 23; 11:29-30; 15:2, 4, 22-23; 16:4-5; 21:18; Ja 5:14; Eph 4:11), then they should be able to understand why certain Bishops, who were in some of God’s Apostolic Pentecostal Churches around 90 AD, were claiming to be apostles; for these Pastors of Satan wanted total authority over the local church. In church history these Elders became known as Monarchical Bishops or the Ruling Bishops.

The thing God HATED the most was that these Bishops of Lucifer were trying to conquer or destroy the Priesthood Ministry of the Laity in order to set up a PAID Priesthood! In other words, before they could start a SALARY Ministry, they had to destroy the Preaching and Teaching Ministry of the Laity, so they could become the ONLY MINISTERS in each congregation. By setting up a special and separate Priesthood, along with Ignatius’ Eucharist Doctrine, these heretics established a PAID MINISTRY composed of one Bishop, the Presbyters, and Deacons. Later on, these heretics, who taught these practices, were excommunicated or departed from God’s Church and started the Gnostic Catholic Church.

In the Ephesus Church, the deeds of these Nicolaitan Bishops were only a source of irritation to God’s people, but in the Pergamos Church Age, it became a real problem for them. The Bible informs us that these heretical Nicolaitan practices that were in the Catholic Churches, and maybe in a few of God’s Apostolic Pentecostal Churches, became an establish doctrine in the Roman Catholic Churches during the Pergamos Church Age, which was probably from 313 –1198 AD (Rev 2:14-15).

These Catholic Nicolaitans taught the Doctrine of Balaam, that is, “PASTORS for HIRE” or a “PAID MINISTRY,” in which these Pastors committed harlotry by joining the holy teachings of Christianity with the Babylonian Religion (Mystery Babylon); in fact, by 200 AD they had christianized all SEVEN Doctrines or MYSTERIES of the Babylonian Religion, which all major heathen religions also taught; in other words, these Nicolaitans began feeding the Laity with the IDOLATROUS Doctrines of Lucifer’s Religion! As stated above, the Bible emphatically declared that God and His Churches, in both of these Church Ages, HATED the Deeds and Doctrine of the Catholic Gnostic Nicolaitan Bishops.

Historical References to the Nicolaitans: Some Ante Nicene Catholic Priests have claimed that the Nicolaitans were a sect of Gnostics, and the biblical and godly deacon Nicolas (Acts 6:5) started this demonic sect. This is nothing but another fabrication of Catholicism to mislead people from the truth. Professor Schaff speaking of Nicolas wrote: He is supposed to have apostatized from the true faith.... But the views of the [Catholic] Fathers are conflicting.... Clement of Alexandria [200 AD] says that Nicolas was a faithful husband, and brought up his children in purity. [6]

Professor George R. Mead in his history Fragments of A Faith Forgotten stated: Tradition claims Nicolas as an ascetic, and relates an exaggerated instance of his freedom from passion.... There seems [to be] no reason why we to-day should follow these [Catholic] Church Fathers in their condemnation of everything but their own particular view of Christ’s doctrine. [7] Nicolas could not have been the founder of this heretical sect because none of the Catholic Gnostic Fathers gave a history of this Gnostic Sect before 175 AD. Nicolas would have been dead and in his grave long before this time!

Dr. C. C. Gosey, in his book Clear Vision Bible Studies, declared that the Nicolaitans were heretics in God’s Apostolic Pentecostal Church, who apostatize and formed the Catholic Church. He wrote: We have the name and order, which instigated the Apostolic Succession, fostered in the ritual of the Roman Catholic Church…. Paul’s wolves of Acts 20 were the Nicolaitans of Revelation 2:6. [8] The Bible and Church History, leaves no room for doubt, that the Nicolaitans were Pastors and Preachers, who apostatized from God’s Church in the first century, and set up a special order of Priesthood that later formed the Roman Catholic Church.

Reverend Clarence Larkin in his Dispensational Truth or God’s Plan and Purpose in the Ages says: the Nicolaitans were NOT a sect, but a party in the [true Apostolic] Church who were trying to established a ‘Priestly Order.’ Probably trying to model the Church after the Old Testament order of Priest, Levites, and common people.... The object was to established a ‘Holy Order of Men,’ and place them over the Laity, which was foreign to the New Testament plan. [9] What Larkin is saying is that these Nicolaitans were trying to establish a special paid Priesthood order of Bishops and Ministers, who were to become the mediators between God and His Church. There is a world of difference between the biblical office of Bishops and Ministers and this Catholic order!

Reverend Marvin M. Arnold, in his great work History of the Christian Church, gave us some interesting insights into the Nicolaitan doctrine. Arnold wrote: DeHaan saw Nicolaitanism-Balaamism as a racket formed in the hierarchical Clergy [Bishops].... It was the extreme, expansive division between the Clergy and the Laity, two factors in the universal-ecclesiastical orders. Nor were Nicolaitans confined only to Ephesus or Pergamos! Characteristically schismatics, they undermined true Judaic-Christian theology that stemmed from the Upper Room of Jerusalem, Acts two. A big facet of it was the dogmatic distinction between the Catholic Clergy and the Laity. [10]

Who were some of these early Nicolaitan Preachers that claim to be Apostles of Christ in the first century? Why did their want to be lords over God’s Church, or have total control over it? When were they excommunicated or willingly depart from the Apostolic Pentecostal Churches of the Lord Jesus Christ? Since this is the Post-Apostolic Church Age, they must have lived during the time the apostle John wrote the Book of Revelation, when he was banished to the Island of Patmos by Roman Emperor Domitian (81-96 AD). The first time scripture in this great book reveals that all of John’s visions are from 96 AD to the end of time (Rev 1:1; also 22:6). Therefore, nothing in the Book of Revelation is before this time.

The Word of God does not tell us who they were, but it does tell us about them. The Bible does inform us that the apostles of the Lamb indeed prophetically warned God’s children, in their Epistles, about heretical Ministers that would come into the Church. Even though the biblical record does not name these heretical Bishops and Ministers, history definitely points to Ignatius of Antioch as the leader of these apostates. The noted German professor Adolf Harnack in his history, The Mission and Expansion of Christianity, spoke of Ignatius and his Nicolaitan Catholic Church this way:

As early as the second century the [Catholic] Church had CONQUERED the people.... By the opening of the third century [200 AD], no layman ventured any longer to call ecclesiastics, ‘brethren.’ The layman is a layman because he has not been set apart from the people by ordination…. After the close of the second century [the Monarchical] Bishops were the teachers, high priest, and judges of the Church. Ignatius already had compared their position in the individual Church to that of God in the Church collective. [11]

Because God HATED the Monarchical Bishop Doctrine, God cursed these Catholic Churches of Satan, which resulted in them going deeper into apostasy. They compromised their holiness standards to get pagans to join their churches. They also Christianized pagan doctrines and adopted them into Catholicism. Harnack speaking of their apostasy declared: The most momentous result was the gradual assimilation of the entire [Catholic] Christian worship to the nature of the ANCIENT MYSTERIES. By the third century [200 AD] it could already rival the most imposing cultus in all paganism, with its solemn and exact ritual, its priests, its sacrifices, and its holy ceremonies. [12]

Harnack, in another history entitled What Is Christianity, spoke of the difference between the Catholic Priesthood and the Laity this way: The distinction between Priest and Laymen is a well-marked characteristic of this [Catholic Nicolaitan] institution…. The worshipper can only get to God by the Priests’ mediation…. Living faith was transformed into deification…. Miracles and miraculous cures disappear altogether, or else are by Priestly devices…. Fervent prayers become solemn hymns and litanies…. The Spirit becomes law and compulsion.

In its external form as a whole this [Nicolaitan] Church is nothing more than a continuation of the history of Greek Religion under the alien influence of Christianity, parallel to the many other alien influences which have affected it... It takes the form, not of a Christian product in a Greek dress, but of a Greek product in a Christian dress…. No one can look at this Church from outside, with its forms of worship, its solemn ritual, the number of its ceremonies, its relics, pictures, priests, monks and compare it on the one hand with the [Apostolic Pentecostal] Church of the first century. [13]

Chapter 2

Christ’s Apostles and Prophets Prophetically Warned

God’s Churches Concerning Nicolaitan Ministers

The Prophecy of the Apostle Peter Concerning Nicolaitan Ministers: Peter wrote his second epistle around 64 AD. He addressed it to God’s Priest all around the world. In it he warn them about future Nicolaitan pastors who would try to corrupt them with not only their lordship doctrine, but other false teachings as well. He told them: “There will be FALSE TEACHERS among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Sovereign Lord who brought them - bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their GREED these TEACHERS will EXPLOIT you [or make merchandise of you] with stories they have made up.”

“Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings…. [They] blaspheme in matters they do not understand... while they feast with you. They seduce the unstable; they are experts in GREED - an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of BALAAM son of Beor, who loved the WAGES of wickedness…. They speak [or preach using] great swelling words of vanity…. They promise you liberty…. For it…[would have] been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness [i.e. the TRUTH], than, after they have known it, to TURN FROM IT the holy commandment delivered unto them” (2Pe 2:1-22, NIV).

Let’s examine the false doctrines these Nicolaitan Ministers were going to preach in God’s Apostolic Pentecostal Churches somewhere around 90 AD: FIRST, these Bishops and Preachers will teach false doctrine or heresies of such a nature that will destroy the faith of many children of God. SECOND, one of the heresies they will teach is that Jesus is not the ONE and ONLY Sovereign or Monarch in the Church, but they share this position with Him, for supposedly Jesus gave them supreme rulership over the Church!

THIRD, these heretical Nicolaitans will preach against the true doctrines of Christ, including God’s plan of salvation. They will pervert God’s plan of salvation by mixing the Law of Moses with it by instituting continuing sacrifices for sin, which they called the Eucharist. They will claim that the Lord’s Supper is the actual body and blood of Christ, and that Jesus must die again for them in the mystery of the Mass, so that they can have the sins, they committed after baptism forgiven!

Therefore, by killing Christ again in the mystery of the Mass, these priests of Satan will claim to be the mediators between God and man. Therefore, they will PERVERT God’s Ministerial structure of the Church by changing it to the Levitical Priesthood pattern. They taught these demonic doctrines so that they could have some reasons for establishing a special PAID Priesthood, which would have total dominion over God’s holy Priesthood of all born-again Believers.

FOURTH, some of God’s Apostolic Pentecostal Pastors and Preachers will believe and follow their teachings, especially their Ministerial structure. FIFTH, these men will be lying, sinful, carnal preachers, who love worldly pleasures. They will endeavor to exploit God’s Children in order to get their money. SIXTH, these Pastors and Preachers will blaspheme the doctrines of Christ by teaching against them, even while they are feasting in the homes of God’s People. They obviously had close fellowship with God’s Children.

SEVENTH, these Balaamites will preach the doctrine of Balaam, which can be interpreted as Bishops and Preachers ministering for shameful material gain or wages. According to the Word of God, the Moabites “HIRED” Balaam to be their preacher (Deu 23:3-5). Jesus gave us a clear picture of the character of a hireling Nicolaitan-Balaamite Preacher. He said: the hireling is a “thief,” and he comes “to steal,” and to spiritually “kill” the sheep with his False Doctrines. He also flees when danger comes because he does not love the sheep (Jn 10:10-13).

Jesus told us that a hireling is someone who works for wages. You take away the wages and he is gone. He does not love the sheep! Being a shepherd to him is not a calling from God but a job. He is a paid professional, who sells his talents to anyone who pays him. His attitude is: “what is in it for me” or “how can I profit from this?” Because these Balaamites will be greed materialistic minded Pastors and Preachers, they will leave the Biblical guidelines for the Ministry and set up a hireling ministry, which will imitating and duplicating the paid ministerial order of pagan Babylonian Priests.

Another aspect of this demonic doctrine is this, Balaam preached a message that violate God’s HOLINESS standard of separation from pagan religions and doctrines. The message of these Nicolaitans will lead some of God’s Children into immorality, which later will lead them into idolatry or the worship of heathen gods. Because of this unholy union or alliance between the godly and the pagans in Balaam’s day, God destroyed all the transgressors in Israel. For God told Moses: “these [Moabite women] cause the Children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the Lord” (Num 31:15-16). What was this trespass? “While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with [pagan] Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshipping the [god] Baal of Peor” (Num 25:1-9, NIV).

Therefore, a complete definition of the Doctrine of Balaam would be: Nicolaitan Bishops and Preachers will work as hirelings, which will lead them to compromise the Word of God when it comes to sin and other Doctrines of Christ. Therefore, they will preach a loose standard of HOLINESS and separation from the world, which will result in a number of God’s Priests committing spiritual adultery by joining in an unholy union with them. This is turn will cause them to worship God in a pagan way. Because these men are hirelings, they and their deceived followers will not come out from some or many of the doctrines of “Mystery Babylon” or “Nimrod’s Babylonian Religion.”

EIGHT, these Nicolaitan-Balaamite Preachers will be orators, who use great swelling words of vanity in their preaching to impress their followers. These men will also be apostate, who knew the truth but did not love the truth. They will sell their soul to the devil for material and sensual rewards. They will hate Apostolic Doctrines, and go about to set up their own authority and doctrines. In fact, they will claim that God has given them absolute authority over the Church they Pastor, and the people should totally submit to them as they do to God Himself!

The Prophecy of the Apostle Paul Concerning Nicolaitan Ministers: Around 64 AD, Paul told the Pastors of the Church of Ephesus: “For after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock” (Acts 20:28). Around 67 AD, Paul wrote his second Epistle to Timothy, one of the Bishops in Ephesus, in which he warned him of future apostasy. He wrote: “Preach the Word, …reprove, rebuke with all long-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves TEACHERS, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2Ti 4:2-4). Paul died somewhere around 68 AD.

The Epistle of Jude Was Against the Nicolaitan Ministers of His Day: Jude wrote his epistle around 90AD. Jude spoke of the heretical Nicolaitan- Balaamite Bishops and Preachers, which were evidently in God’s Churches in his day. He proclaimed: “I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men... HAVE secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the GRACE of our God into a LICENSE for immorality, and deny Jesus Christ our ONLY Sovereign and Lord. These dreamers pollute their own bodies [and] reject [apostolic] authority [and doctrine]....”

“Woe to them! They have taken the way of Cain [meaning they started their own religion]; they rushed for PROFIT into BALAAM’S ERROR.... These men are grumblers and faultfinders. They follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.... But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit” (Jude 1:3-19, NIV).

Jude, like Peter and Paul, gave us a vivid description of these Nicolaitan Balaamite Pastors and Preachers. The only difference is that these Nicolaitans existed in his day! Let’s examine what Jude taught: FIRST, he definitely proclaimed that this was the fulfillment of the prophesies of the Apostles. SECOND, these men preached a loose standard of HOLINESS or GODLY LIVING, justifying sin in their lives and others, thereby perverting the message of God’s Grace. Contrary to the teaching of some Preachers on the radio today against God’s holy Laws, which are God’s protection for His holy Children, HOLINESS is still beautiful in the sight of God!

THIRD, they denied that Jesus Christ is the “ONLY Sovereign and LORD” in His Church; they did this, as stated above, by also making themselves SOVERIGNS and LORDS over God’s holy Priesthood. This was definitely the fulfillment of Peter and Paul’s prophecy concerning the Nicolaitans Balaamite Bishops that would come. The word “only” is the Greek word “monos” which means: “alone or no other.”

FOURTH, they rejected the authority of some of the teachings of the Apostles. FIFTH, they worshipped God their own way, or made up their own religion and dogmas, just as Cain had done. Let us remember that Cain was trying to approach God on his own terms; this is why God did not accept his sacrifice. God told Cain: “If thou does well, shall thou not be accepted” (Gen 4:3-7); or in other words, “if you repent and offer up to Me an ANIMAL BLOOD sacrifice, as I did for your father and mother in the Garden of Eden, and NOT a GRAIN sacrifice from the curse ground, shall not I accept your sacrifice.” This is one of the reasons why John called Cain the “wicked one” (1Jo 3:12), for he knew the truth and refuse to humble himself and obey it! Therefore Cain, and the multitudes like him, is a type of a religious people in Christendom and Pagan Religions, who wants to serve God on their own terms, as a result they invent their own religion and gods.

SIXTH, these Balaamite Bishops were greedy, prideful, grumbling faultfinders, who preached for material gain, for power to be Lords over God’s People, and to receive glory from them that should only be given to God Himself. SEVENTH, the goal of these Nicolaitan Pastors was to divide the body of Christ, so they could conquer them and steal their Priesthood Ministry. They did this by teaching the Monarchical Bishop, the Eucharist, and the special paid Priesthood Doctrines.

It was around this time that many of the heretical Nicolaitan-Balaamite Pastors and their deceived disciples were either excommunicated from God’s Apostolic Pentecostal Churches, or they left the Church on their own accord; if they left on their own accord, it was probably because they could not take being rebuked for their False Doctrines. It was at this time that these Nicolaitan Ministers and their followers established rival or opposing churches to fight against the true Apostolic Believers. These Catholic heretics established churches in the cities of Rome, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Smyrna, Philadelphia, Tralles, and Magnesia. They may have had churches in Philippi, and Tarsus also. Around 100 AD Clement wrote his Epistle to the Corinthians from Rome, and Ignatius around 107 AD wrote his Epistles to the above name churches.

The Apostle John’s in His Epistles Wrote Against the Nicolaitan Gnostic Bishops of His Day: The apostle John wrote his epistles around 95 AD; he wrote to all of God’s Churches throughout the world, warning the Saints about these Nicolaitan-Balaamite-Catholic Antichrists. John, like Paul, Peter, and Jude, told God’s Children that ONE of the heretical doctrines these Catholic heretics would deny is: the one and only supreme Deity, that is, “YHWH” became flesh and blood at Bethlehem; in other words, as the apostle Paul boldly proclaimed: “For in Him [Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col 2:8-9).

John said it this way: “Little children, it is the last time, and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now are they many Antichrist; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out FROM US, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us” (1Jn 2:18-19). John explicitly, expressly, emphatically told God’s people how to recognize these apostles of Satan. He says: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many False Prophets [meaning Catholic Nicolaitans] have gone out into the world [meaning from their congregations]. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus [i.e. YHWH our Savior] Christ [the Messiah] has come in the FLESH is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world” (1Jn 4:1-2).

What did the Apostle John mean by the phrase: “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.” The name Jesus means: “YHWH is our Salvation or Savior,” and Christ means: “the Anointed One or the Holy One or the Messiah.” Therefore, John declared that everyone, who does not confess that Jesus is “the one and only God” or “YHWH our Savior, the Christ or the Messiah,” who became a sinless fleshly human being, is not of God! Let us always remember that Jesus in His Human Nature had a Human mind and will, which caused Him to pray, be limited in knowledge, and so on (Lk 2:52); but in His Divine Nature, Jesus was not limited in any way, for He was: “God… manifested in the flesh” (1Ti 3:16).

The Apostle Paul also made a similar statement as John concerning the supreme Deity of Christ, when he wrote: “Wherefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say [epo] that Jesus is LORD except by the Holy Spirit” (1Co 12:3). The Greek word “epo” means “to speak or say by word or writing.” Now this scripture can only mean that no man can say or write that Jesus is “YHWH our Savior,” except the Holy Spirit of God reveals it to him.

Permit me to prove this statement: The Jews of Jesus’ day called Him Lord, but they certainly did not believe that He was God. The Mormons call Jesus Lord, but they believe that He was Adam, who came down to the earth with one of His many wives called Eve, and He is one of a multitude of gods. The Jehovah's Witnesses call Jesus Lord, but they believe that He is Michael the archangel and is not the one and only true God in any sense of the word.

The Cults, Occults, and Eastern Religions call Jesus Lord, but they believe that Jesus is just one of many prophets, who is not God. Is the Holy Spirit of God inspiring these religious people to call Jesus Lord? The answer is obviously NO, so this Scripture can only mean that no one can write or call Jesus LORD or YHWH, except it is by the direct unction of the Holy Ghost. For a comprehensive exegesis on the Supreme Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, I invite you to read my book The Mystery of the Godhead Revealed.

Conclusion: Therefore, the Bible explicitly informs us that there were heretical Nicolaitan Balaamite Bishops in some of God’s Churches around 90 AD, who preached perverted doctrines. These heretical Nicolaitan Pastors and Preachers tried to change the Ministerial structure of God’s Church, by preaching the Nicolaitan doctrine, which robbed God’s people of their Priesthood Ministry, which thing God and His Church HATED. These Balaamite Bishops also preached that Jesus was NOT the ONLY SOVEREIGN or KING in each congregation, but they also were Sovereigns over God’s Church and the only VOICE of God in it.

They also preached a perverted doctrine of God’s Grace, in which they mixed Old Testament rituals and continual offerings for sin with God’s message of salvation. They also preached a very loose HOLINESS standard concerning sin, and they also mingled Christian Doctrines with the Doctrines of Mystery Babylonian. Last but not least, they preached that Jesus was NOT “the one and only God” or “YHWH” who came in the flesh.

Chapter 3

The Historical Account of the Nicolaitan Doctrine

The true history of the rise of Catholicism is a mystery. We know very little of her history during the first century. The document called the Constitutions of the Holy Apostles has been proclaimed by historians as a complete fabrication, and other earlier writing as being altered. The major thread of history we have of Catholicism’s origin and early development is her Monarchial Bishop Doctrine and her Doctrine of Two Unequal-gods, which can be found in the writings of Ante Nicene Catholic Priest.

The only reasons why historians have spoken of Catholicism as the original church is because their history is the only history they have. This child of Satan has burned the writings of God’s Apostolic Apologists who wrote against her, and in some cases buried them in the Vatican Library. As a result, the real truth of her past in the first century remains a mystery. It is obvious from the writings of these Catholic Nicolaitan Nicene Priests that many books were written against them by God’s Apologists, the apologists of various denominations, and even pagans.

Professor Charles Guignebert in his book, The Early History of Christianity, revealed that these religious groups have: written a great deal against her, or concerning her; this literature has almost entirely disappeared and the little that remains is only enough to show us how great would be the service it might render. Because it has no alternative but to use (a) polemical or exegetical writing mainly, badly emended by accounts reputed to be historical, but written long after the events and at a time when they were scarcely understood....

It is right and necessary that we should not forget that fact…. Try to exact from the collection of [Catholic] Christian documents alone an exact idea of the early times of the Church was to give way to a tantalizing delusion. Whether the fact was realized or not, the undertaking [of it by historians] was inspired by prejudgments of the faith.... They endeavored to preserve its old standing as an originality, and this desire was fed from more than one root in the theological postulate of revelation. [14] Professor Mead confirmed Guignebert analysis of the early history of Catholicism by saying: The historical origins of [Catholic] Christianity are hidden in impenetrable obscurity. [15]

Ignatius Invented the Nicolaitan Monarchian Bishop Doctrine

How did this Nicolaitan-Balaamite ministerial system come into being, and who was the first Nicolaitan Bishop to start these practices? Church historians point to Ignatius, one of the early Apostolic Pentecostal Bishops of the Church of Antioch, Syria, that is, before he became a heretical apostate. According to a Catholic history book entitled, The Story of the Church, Ignatius: had been bishop of Antioch for nearly fifty years, and he died in “107 AD. [16] If this is true, this means he was ordained a Bishop in God’s Apostolic Pentecostal Church of Antioch in 57 AD.

Some Catholic authorities claim that Ignatius became a bishop in 69 AD, using Eusebius’ Church History II as their source of information. I personally believe it was probably 69 AD. Regardless of the year he became a Bishop in the one and only Church of Antioch, Satan used this brainless apostate to start his Babylonian Catholic Church. According to the Bible, Ignatius and other heretical Bishops in God’s Apostolic Pentecostal Church were peddling the gospel for material gain. Paul said it this way: “For we are not, as so many, PEDDLING [kapeleuo] the Word of God” (2Co 6:17). The Greek verb “kapeleuo” means: to PEDDLE for PROFIT or to make money by selling something; in other words to teach or preach the Word of God in order to get a material reward.

As a result, these hirelings later turned from the truth of the gospel and became apostates. They were either excommunicated or left the church on their own accord. Nevertheless, these heretical apostates formed opposing or rival churches in their cities. In fact, these apostates united with other apostates of that ilk, and formed the first ministerial organization in history. They called it the Roman Catholic Church. Ignatius was probably the one who invented this name, for he was the first one in history to use it.

Arnold speaking of these apostates and the Gnostic-Nicolaitan Catholic Church they started wrote: Have you wondered about the spread of early Catholicism.... Sohm wrote, ‘Primitive Christianity was not Catholic.’ Nevertheless, soon Grecian-Catholic bishops… had established their Basilicas at Corinth, Ephesus, Tralles, Rome, Philadelphia, Troas, Smyrna, Philippi, Antioch, etc., how do we know…? Ignatius wrote… [his] quasi-religious letters to these institutions…. Froom... wrote, ‘Gnosticism permeated the Catholic Church.... The Gnostics were moved by mysticism. They loved symbols and fostered gorgeous ritualistic worship and liturgy.... Gnosticism was pre-eminently a religion of sacraments and mysteries….’ He named some Catholic Gnostics as being: Ignatius, Saturninus, Tatian, Basilides, Valentinus, and Marcion. [17]

When Ignatius and all the other Nicolaitan Bishops established their apostate churches, they changed the apostolic ministerial structure of the local church. In their struggle for a paid ministry, they realized they had to destroy the Ministry of the Laity or their Priesthood, whereby they would become the sole ministers of the Church. Dr. Guignebert speaking of this wrote:

As long as the idea of the sovereignty of the Spirit which ‘breatheth where it listeth’ still holds, no way existed of establishing a lasting distinction between the Cleric [the Bishops] and the Inspired Believers, and, I repeat, that ordination had not yet acquired this meaning. By rights a simple BELIEVER may... baptize, PREACH, consecrate the Eucharist and impose penance. The [Catholic] Clergy naturally endeavor to RESTRICT and even SUPPRESS these PRIVILEGES and POWERS, which circumscribe their own importance. [18] Let my readers take note of all the privileges and responsibilities God’s Laity or Priestly Saints had in the God’s CHURCH in EACH City.

As these Nicolaitans tried to dominate or become lords over the Laity, there was a great conflict that developed. Even though the Catholic Laity believed in the Monarchial Bishop Doctrine of Ignatius, they were not willing to surrender their Priesthood privileges and responsibilities to him and his Presbyters at first. Professor Maurice Gouel, in his history, The Primitive Church, spoke of the great power struggle Ignatius and his Presbyters had as they tried to destroy the Priesthood Ministry of the Catholic Laity. He declared: the Ruling circles in the [Catholic] Church felt that the pressure of heretics [Preachers and Teachers among the Laity] was an evil, which for the time being had to be endured; while they did all that was possible to keep the members of the Church uncontaminated by the pernicious example of those in error, and reduced contact with them to a minimum.

These hirelings did this by restricted the Preaching, Teaching, and other Ministries of Laity. They even had the audacity to forbid the Laity to yield to the Gifts of the Spirit. Gouel continued by saying: This moderate course was not dictated by a spirit of tolerance and charity, but by the feelings of the most determined opponents of the heretics, that they would not receive sufficient support from the MASS of the FAITHFUL, to enable them to gain measures leading to [their] ejection.

Gouel declared that the reason why these Nicolaitan-Balaamites could not excommunicate these lay-preachers and teachers was because: the Church, when assembled together, was not entirely hostile to them…. [Therefore] their enemies have recourse to indirect tactics, by gathering round the [Monarchical] Bishop, a concentration of antiheretical elements. They [the Presbyters] make him [the Bishop] the center of the Church, and in this way put the heretics on the circumference, and so make them Christians on the fringe, at the same time waiting for them to take the initiative and separate themselves from the Church, or until the Bishop feels himself strong enough to put them beyond the pale. [19]

I wonder how many times in Apostolic Pentecostal Church services something like this has happen to God’s Children when God began to use them in the Gifts of the Spirit, or in a Teaching and Preaching Ministry? When God’s holy Priests are allow to exercise their God ordain Ministries in the Church, then and only then will God’s Spirit be free to move among His people as He sees fit. Then, and only then, will God be in control of their services and not man.

As a Pastor, I have always rejoiced went God used any of His Children in the Gifts of the Spirit, or in a Teaching or Preaching Ministry. I have never been afraid of saints getting in a wrong spirit when it comes to the Gifts of the Spirit, or someone Preaching a false doctrine; for if I know they are living holy and have a humble spirit, then I know that I or one of God’s other Priests can corrected them; for the Bible declares: “In a multitude of counselors [Pastors and Priests] there is safety [wisdom]” (Pro 11:14; 15:22; 24:6) I rather have a little wild fire in the Church than no fire at all.

Professor Guignebert revealed that the Monarchical Bishop Doctrine did not only prevailed in the Catholic Church in Antioch, but also in some of the other cities where Nicolaitan-Balaamite Bishops set up their churches to combat God’s Apostolic Pentecostal Church. Guignebert wrote: By the end of the first century, in SOME [Catholic] Churches at least, there is a SINGLE Bishop, the general ‘Overseer’ of the whole community, who consequently is in a fair way to keep the upper hand in all matters; and, at his side ‘Presbyters,’ specially charged with the exercise of spiritual offices; and ‘Deacons,’ mainly concerned with material affairs. [20]

Somewhere before the end of the first century, Ignatius and his Nicolaitan Presbyters had finally conquered the Priesthood Ministry of the Laity and had total control over them. The Ministry of the Laity as: Prophets and Teachers in the Church, says Professor Harnack in his book History of Dogma, began to pass over to the Officials of the community. [21] Guignebert told us the tragedy that happen in the Catholic Churches of the first century, which had a Monarchical Bishop. He said there was a: LESSENING of the AUTHORITY of the INSPIRED PERSONS [i.e. the Gifted Believers].... The GIFTS which the Spirit had been scattering at will upon a large or smaller number of the BRETHREN do not disappear, however; they [supposedly] pass to the [Monarchical] Bishop and strengthen him in his authority. [22]

Since the Bishop and Presbyters were conductors of public worship, they could quench the Spirit and Inspired Speaking in their services anytime they wanted. My readers should bear in mind that the Bishop and his Presbyters, at this time in Catholicism, did not receive a salary for their Ministry. As long as the LAITY in each assembly were considered to be part of God’s holy PRIESTHOOD, who could Preach and Teach, there was no need for a special paid Priesthood.

As the Word of God so clearly declared, God and His Apostolic Pentecostal Churches HATED the Balaamite-Nicolaitan Ministerial Doctrine, and by now my beloved readers should be able to understand why. These Nicolaitan Bishops had truly conquered the Priesthood Ministry of the Laity in their apostate churches, striped them of their liberty in God, and stole their Priesthood Ministry from them. The Laity became spectators instead of participators, full of unbelief instead of full of faith, silent mummies instead of Oracles of God, and spiritually dead instead of spiritually alive. All of this took place in the Ephesian or Post Apostolic Church Age.

Professor Henry Chadwick in his history, Heresy and Orthodoxy in the Early Church, spoke of the main stratagem Ignatius used to get total control over the Laity in his church. He wrote: According to Ignatius, the Monarchian Bishop was the COUNTERPART… of God. [23] The word counterpart means: a person who corresponds to or has the same function as another person; in other words, the Monarchian Bishop is God’s counterpart in the Church.

Dr. Schaff speaking of Ignatius’ glorification and deification of the Bishop, quoted Ignatius as saying: The human BISHOP is the center of unity for the single congregation, and stands in it as the VICAR of Christ and even of God. The people, therefore, should UNCONDITIONALLY OBEY HIM, and do nothing without his will. Blessed are they who are one with the Bishop, as the Church is with Christ, and Christ with the Father, so that all harmonizes in unity. Apostasy from the Bishop is apostasy from Christ, who acts in and through the Bishop as His organs. [24] Now you know where the unscriptural and modern day doctrine of the supreme authority of a Pastor over a congregation comes from!

A vicar is: one who serves as a substitute for someone else. Therefore, this heretic claimed that he and all other Bishops served as a substitute on earth for Almighty God! No wander why the Catholic Laity became scared to death of their Bishop. I hate to say it, but some Apostolic Pentecostal Pastors and Ministers of today rejoice at hearing this kind of satanic garbage.

According to Schaff, Ignatius also taught: Look to the Bishop, that God also may look upon you. I will be in harmony with those who are SUBJECT to the Bishop, and the Presbyters, and the Deacons; with them may I have a portion near God.’ ‘It is evident that we should look upon the Bishop AS we do upon the Lord Himself. I exhort you that ye study to do all things with a divine concord: the BISHOP PRESIDING in the PLACE of GOD, and PRESBYTERS in the PLACE of the college of the APOSTLES.’ ‘Let all of you follow the Bishop AS Jesus Christ - follows - the Father; and the Presbytery AS ye would the Apostles; and reverence the Deacons as the ordinance of God. [25]

How many pastors do you and I know who would gladly amend Ignatius’ preaching? Now beloved you should be able to see where the Catholic Church received their Doctrine of the Pope being the Vicar of Christ, and later on their infallible Pope Doctrine; for Catholicism in 350 AD abolish the Ignatius’ Doctrine of the Bishop being the Vicar of Christ, and made their Pope the one and only Vicar of Christ. Now beloved there is a world of difference between loving and obeying the Bishops or Pastors over you in a single congregation, and obeying them because they supposedly take the place of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Church. Biblical Pastors lead by example and not as Lords or Monarchs over God’s Church.

In the Ante Nicene Fathers, we can read the Epistles that Ignatius wrote in 107 AD. Here are some of his writings concerning the deification of a bishop: In His Epistle to the Ephesians he wrote: Wherefore it is fitting that ye should run together in accordance with the will of your bishop, which thing also ye do. For your justly renowned presbytery, worthy of God, is fitted as exactly to the bishop as the strings are to the harp…. It is manifest, therefore, that we should look upon the bishop EVEN AS we would upon the Lord Himself. [26]

In Ignatius’ Epistle to the Magnesians he wrote: Let nothing exist among you that may divide you; but be ye united with your Bishop, and those [Presbyters] that preside over you, as a type and evidence of your immortality…. I exhort you to study to do all things with a divine harmony, while your Bishop PRESIDES in the PLACE of God, and your presbyters in the PLACE of the assembly of the apostles…. As therefore the Lord does nothing without the Father… so do ye, neither Presbyter, nor Deacon, nor Layman, do anything without the Bishop. Nor let anything appear commendable to you which is destitute of his approval. [27]

In Ignatius’ Epistle to the Trallians we read: In like manner, let all REVERENCE the deacons as an appointment of Jesus Christ, and the bishop AS Jesus Christ, who is the Son of the Father, and the presbyters AS the Sanhedrim of God, and assembly of the apostles…. Reverence your Bishop AS Christ Himself…. He that is within the altar is pure, wherefore also he is obedient to the Bishop and Presbyters: but he that is without is one that does anything apart from the Bishop, the Presbyters, and the Deacons. Such a person is defiled in his conscience, and is worse than an infidel. For what is the BISHOP but one who beyond all others POSSESSES ALL POWER and AUTHORITY, so far as it is possible for a man to possess it…. And what is the Presbytery but a sacred assembly, the counselors and assessors of the Bishop? [28]

In Ignatius’ Epistle to the Philadelphians he wrote: Let governors be OBEDIENT to Caesar; soldiers to those that command them; Deacons to the Presbyters as to High-Priests; the Presbyters, and Deacons, and the rest of the Clergy, together with all the people, and the soldiers, and the governors, and Caesar [himself be obedient] TO the Bishop. [29] It was this teaching that Bishops of Rome, who late became know as Popes, enforced upon the kings of Europe and later the world.

Ignatius continued his deification of the Office of a Bishop by saying: See that ye all FOLLOW the Bishop EVEN AS Jesus Christ does the Father, and the Presbytery AS ye would the Apostles…. Let no man do anything connected with the Church without the Bishop. Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [administered] either by the Bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the Bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the Laity] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. It is not lawful without the Bishop either to baptize or to celebrate a love-feast. [30] It was Ignatius’ teaching on the Eucharist that paved the way for a special paid Priesthood.

Ignatius concluded his Epistle to the Philadelphians by writing: He who does anything without the knowledge of the Bishop, does serve the devil…. Honor… the Bishop as the High-Priest, who bears the image of God…. Nor is there any one in the Church greater than the Bishop, who ministers AS a [High] Priest to God FOR the SALVATION of the whole world…. Let the Laity be subject to the Deacons; the Deacons to the Presbyters; the Presbyters to the Bishop. [31]

After reading this satanic garbage, it is easy to understand why Ignatius’ fellow Catholic Bishops, in Satan’s rival and polluted Catholic Church in Antioch, gave their power to him and made him the head Bishop. Through his preaching and teaching, he gave them more power and authority over the Laity than they had ever known. Did he not preach that the Bishop should be looked on as God Himself, who is infallible, and the Presbyters as the Apostles who were over all of God’s Churches! Now you can understand why the poor and misguided Laity in Lucifer’s Catholic Churches became terrified of them.

It was probably this kind of demonic rhetoric, which can no where be found in the New and Old Testament, that led Professor Schaff and other historians to believe that Catholicism began with Ignatius. Dr. Schaff wrote: The distinction of a regular class of Teachers FROM the Laity became more fixed and prominent. This appears first in Ignatius [107 AD], who in his high Episcopalian spirit, considers the Clergy the necessary medium of access for the people to God.... He is also the first who uses the term ‘Catholic Church,’ as if episcopacy and Catholicity sprung up simultaneously. [32]

In Ignatius deification of himself, he did not only consider himself to be the Bishop of the city of Antioch, but the Bishop of the entire nation of Syria, for he wrote: God has deemed me, the Bishop of Syria, worthy to be sent for from the east unto the west. [33] It was this doctrine that later paved the way for the offices of: Archbishop or one man over several churches in different cities, Patriarch or one man over all the churches in a nation, and later in 350 AD the Pope or one man over all the Catholic Churches in the world.

It was because of this kind of Satanic teaching that I stated at the beginning of this book, the entire history of the Catholic Church can be sum up in these words: their demonic struggle to place all authority and power into the hands of one man. Why did Satan want all the power and authority placed in the hands of one man? It is obvious to me, for all he had to do to get control over each Catholic Assembly was to control the Bishop; then a little later to gain control of several churches, all he had to do is to control the Archbishop; then after awhile to control the churches in a nation, he just need to control the Patriarch; and then after several centuries, for him to control the Catholic Churches in the whole world, all he had to do is to control the Pope. When Lucifer gained control over the Popes of Rome, who ruled over kings, many historians called this period of time the Dark Ages.

The Popes during this period were very immoral, and they murdered God’s People as heretics. In fact, one of them was so immoral that those in the Vatican called him the devil in flesh, for no virgin woman or man within fifty miles of the Vatican was safe. If anyone thinks I am bias or fabricating this statement, I challenge him or her to read Catholic professor Malachi Martin’s book on the “The History of the Popes.”

Why would Ignatius and the other Catholic Ministers want to dominate the Laity in their churches this way? Was it pride or vanity, where they wanted to be worship by the Laity? Was it because of greed, and they wanted to use the Laity to financially support them? Was it because they desired and enjoyed having power or control over others, which is the spirit of witchcraft? It was probably a combination of all these things. Let us keep in mind, witchcraft is when one tries to control someone else by whatever means they can, usually through the help of demonic spirits. Demon possession is when demons in a man or woman tries to control that persons will and body for the purpose of their own gratification.

Ignatius Invented the Eucharist Doctrine to Establish

A Paid Ministry for A Special Priesthood of Hirelings

As long as the Laity in Catholic Churches was considered Priestly Ministers, who could Preach, Teach, and Minister to other Saints, there was no need for a special Priesthood of paid Ministers. I am not diminishing the Office of a Bishop in any way, but I am placing it in its biblical and historical context. There is no place in the New Testament that reveals that any of God’s Ministers, whether they are called Apostles, Bishops, or Deacons, ever received a SALARY for fulfilling the God ordain Office. The Bible does reveal that Ministers did receive FREEWILL OFFERINGS from the body of Christ, just as Poor Saints also received from God’s loving Children.

We will examine the scriptures on this subject when we come to the section entitled, “The Privileges of Pastors.” The inordinate desire for money and power is the root of all evil. I do believe these are the reasons why Catholic Pastors in Ignatius’ day, and I might add some Protestant and Pentecostal Pastors today, have squashed Preachers in their Congregations whom God wanted to use. These Pastors became afraid of losing their position, if one of God’s Priestly Saints became a better Preacher or Teacher than they were!

Ignatius came up with a demonic plan to establish a special paid or hireling Priesthood. He started by teaching the Lord’s Supper was actually the real body and blood of Jesus. The New Catholic Encyclopedia speaking of Eucharist stated: The early writers were absolutely convinced of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Ignatius of Antioch criticized the Docetists, who ‘hold aloof from the Eucharist and prayer because they do not believe that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior, Jesus Christ’ (Letter to the Smyrneans, chp 7). [34] Ignatius told the Philadelphians: Let that be deemed a proper Eucharist, which is [consecrated] either by the bishop, or by one to whom he has entrusted it. Wherever the Bishop shall appear, there let the multitude [of the Laity] also be; even as, wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. [35] In the Nimrod’s Babylonian Religion, this doctrine of partaking of the bread and wine that the Priests of Baal consecrated was called: eating the gods.

The only Ministers beside the Bishop, who could consecrate the Eucharist, were the Presbyters and Deacons. In other words, only a so-called special paid Priesthood, who would have to give up their secular jobs, so they would not be contaminated with the sinful world around them, could change the bread and grape juice into the actually body of Christ! This created a need for a special paid Priesthood. But before Ignatius’ apostasy, any one of God’s Children could consecrate the Lord’s Supper, which was not the actually body of Christ, but a memorial looking back at what Jesus had done at Calvary.

Once the Catholic Laity believed Ignatius’ satanic lie, that the Lord’s Supper was actually the real body and blood of Jesus, he then convinced them that only a special and separate Priesthood could consecrate the Eucharist. After all, who among the Catholics of that day would doubt the teaching of this so-called infallible god! After this so-called miracle took place, Ignatius claimed that only this special Priesthood had the power to actual crucify afresh the Savior, through the mysteries of the Babylonian Catholic Mass.

Ignatius then taught that partaking of the Eucharist was the only way God would forgive the sins one committed after water baptism. Therefore, according to Ignatius, repentance and confession to God was not enough for a Child of God to have their sins forgiven; they had to also receive the Eucharist. Later on Catholicism taught that no one could confess their sins to God, for there were to sinful to commune with God, so they had to go through one of the hireling Priest, who would act as a mediator between them and God! This ancient Babylonian Doctrine was called in Catholicism Confession.

According to The Encyclopedia of Religion, Ignatius called the Eucharist: the antidote of life. [36] Ignatius called the gifts of bread and grape juice the “sacrifices,” which the poor mislead Catholic people offered to him, the Presbyters, and Deacons to consecrate. The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia speaking of this declared: The gifts themselves were called prosphorai, ‘oblations,’ or thusiai, ‘sacrifices.’ The sacrificial conception of the [Lord’s] Supper was thus gradually created (Ignatius, Phil., iv; Smyrna, vii, viii). [37]

In 150 AD, Justin Martyr revealed that Ignatius’ Eucharist Doctrine was an established teaching in the Catholic Churches. Justin wrote: And this food is called among us Eujcariatia [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Savior, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation [transformation] are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh. [38]

By comparing the Old Testament sacrifices with that of the Eucharist, Ignatius came up with an idea for a new sacrifice. Harnack speaking of it says: the idea of the chosen Bishops and Deacons as the antitypes of the Priest and Levites, had been formed at an early period in connection with the idea of the new sacrifice. [39] The new sacrifice of these Nicolaitans was the offering of the Eucharist for the purpose of removing of sins committed after water baptism. This meant that Jesus would have to die over and over again at ever consecration of the Eucharist. This was truly a satanic perversion of God’s grace.

As the preceding paragraphs have shown, Ignatius, this demon-possessed Bishop, came up with the idea of creating a new Ministry in the Church, which would require a special paid Priesthood to fulfill. He compared the Ministry of the Old Testament Priesthood, that is, a Levitical Priest’s offering up daily sacrifices for the sins of the people, with their new special Priesthood that offered up the Eucharist for the sins of the people. Later, these Nicolaitan-Balaamites, or followers “Nimrod’s Babylonian Religion,” invented a special Babylonian ceremony called the Mass for the purpose of consecrating the Eucharist. Thus, through these Doctrines of Devils, as the apostle Paul called them, Ignatius create a need for a paid or salary Ministry. All this took palace at the end of the first century.

Professor Harnack speaking of the financial structure for Ministers in a local Congregation wrote: Church-Officials were not, in the first instance [meaning in the beginning], obliged to abandon their civil calling, and so far as that provided them with a livelihood, they had NO claim upon the church’s funds. Harnack then spoke of the change that took place in Catholicism after Ignatius brought in his Nicolaitan-Balaamite Priesthood. He declared: From the very first, the President [the Monarchical Bishop] appears to have had practically an ABSOLUTE CONTROL over the DONATIONS; but the Deacons had also to handle them as executive agents. The responsibility was heavy, as was the temptation to avarice [i.e. extreme greed for wealth or material gain] and dishonesty; hence the repeated counsel, that Bishops and Deacons were to be ‘NO lovers of money’. [40]

This no doubt is why in 100 AD, the Catholic Nicolaitan Bishop Clement of Rome taught: Alms-giving is therefore excellent as a repentance for sins, fasting is better than prayer; but alms-giving is better than either. [41] The inordinate desire for money and power has always been the roots of all evil. Jerome speaking of this informs us that even though the Office of Presbyter in Catholicism is a greater and higher Office than a Deacon, for some mysterious reason Deacons were paid more.

Jerome said it this way: If… it is the Deacon that is ordained Presbyter, this latter should recognize that, although he may be less highly paid than a Deacon, he is superior to him in virtue of his Priesthood. [42] Therefore beloved, it is not hard to understand why a Deacon was paid more than a higher-ranking Presbyter in Catholicism, for evidently the infallible Bishop, who ruled as god, willed it so. After all the Deacons were the people who collected and distributed all monies of the Church. In other words, the Deacons not only gave the Monarchical Bishop his salary, but also keep quite when he wanted more than his regular wages.

Even though Ignatius’ Eucharist Doctrine was invented long after the apostle Paul’s death, God had Paul to write against some of the Christian Pharisaical Jews in his day, who wanted to continue some of the ordinances of Judaism, such as offering up animal sacrifices for sins committed after baptism (Acts 15:1-2, 5; Ga 6:12). This was a perversion of God’s Grace as the apostle told them in his Epistle to the Hebrews. Praise God that this great book not only corrected the Jewish problem in Paul’s day, but the Holy Spirit has used it to keep God’s Apostle Pentecostal Church in the truth and away form Ignatius’ Eucharist Doctrine!!

Lets examine Paul’s teachings on Christ dying for the sins of all mankind once and for all time. The great apostle wrote: “When Christ came as High Priest... He entered the Most Holy Place ONCE [not daily] for all by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.... NOR did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, the way the High Priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not His own. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world” ((Heb 9:11-12, 25-28).

Paul went on to reveal that it was not God’s will for Christ to die daily, or offer Himself up on the cross over and over again! Paul says it was for this reason why Jesus: “appeared ONCE for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.... Christ was sacrificed ONCE to take away the sins of many people…. [Jesus our great High] Priest had offered for all time ONE sacrifice for sins... because by ONE sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy” (Heb 10:12-14, NIV)!!

Paul then warned those Christian Pharisaical Jews, who believed that the Lord Jesus Christ was being crucified afresh for their sins through their animal blood sacrifices: “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, NO sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.... How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the BLOOD of the Covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of Grace” (Heb 10:26-29). This warning without doubt also applies to the Priests of Catholicism!

If Catholic Priests, like these Christian Pharisaical Jews in Paul’s day who around 70-90 AD became known as Ebionites, keep on sinning by continually to mock the crucifixion of Christ on Calvary’s cross, day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, then they, like these Christian Jews, will be trampling on the blood of Jesus, and doing away the atonement Jesus made for their sins, and the sins of the Catholic people! If they do not repent of this satanic Babylonian tradition, then they will earn for themselves and those who follow them a place in the Lake of Fire.

I say this in love, for if I truly love you I will tell you the truth. Catholics need to repent of this abomination and all other sins against Christ. They need to confess their sins to Jesus and not some Priest, for Jesus in His Human Nature is our High Priest, and the one and only mediator between God and man (1Ti 2:5). Friend, the precious sinless blood that the Humanity of Jesus shed is the only mediation God will honor for sin (1Jn 2:1-2). Therefore, there is no other sacrifice for sins except the one and only sacrifice Jesus made at Calvary (see my book the Heresies of the Ebionites).

Once a believer repents of their sins, is immerge in water in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and receives the Holy Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues, they are in Christ. From that time on, they are covered with the precious blood of Jesus, and all they have to do to receive forgiveness of any sins committed after their New Birth, is to ask Jesus to forgive them and repent, which means to turn your back on sin and purpose in you heart not to sin again. This is the one and only way God can remit sins after the New Birth!

Chapter 4

The Historical and Biblical Account of the Ministerial Structure of the Church

As I have already stated in this book, history reveals that God’s Apostolic Pentecostal Church was originally set up with many Bishops (i.e. Pastors, Presbyters, or Elders) to lead, guide, and rule over the ONE Church in their city.

The Bible Teaches Each City of the Roman Empire Had Only One Church

Before we examine the Biblical Doctrine of many Bishops over a SINGLE Church, let us examine what the Bible teaches about how many Churches existed in each city, in other words, was there just ONE CHURCH, or two, or several Churches in every city? I definitely believe that the Bible teaches just ONE Church in every city, and in NO place does it teach there were several!

The Single Church in Jerusalem: “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about THREE THOUSAND souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers…. So continuing daily with one accord IN the TEMPLE, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to THE CHURCH [not Churches] daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2:41-47; also 5:11-12).

Let my beloved readers take note, the infallible Word of God declared that the Apostles and THOUSANDS of Saints in Church of Jerusalem had their Church Services in the TEMPLE ever day, and EAT their food and had fellowship in each others house. Pastor how often do you have Church Services! Do you have the Saints in your Church meet every day for a Church Service?

The Greek noun ekklesia (ek-klay-see'-ah) is in the dative case or an indirect object and singular and not plural in number, therefore it cannot be translated as the Churches but THE CHURCH. Dr. Joseph Henry Thayer of Harvard University in his lexicon entitled A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament defined Ekklesia as: “a gathering of citizens called out from their homes INTO some PUBLIC PLACE…. Among the Greeks from Thucydides (cf. Herodotus 3, 142) down, an assembly of the people convened at the PUBLIC PLACE of council for the purpose of deliberating…. In the Christian sense an assembly of Christians gathered for worship” (#1664).

“Now Saul was consenting to his [Stephen’s] death. At that time a great persecution arose against THE CHURCH [not Churches], which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles…. As for Saul, he made havoc of THE CHURCH [not Churches], entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere Preaching the Word” (Acts 8:1-4; also 12:1-5).

Church or Ekklesia is in the accusative case or direct object and singular number, therefore it must be translated as THE CHURCH and not the Churches! Let my readers take note that the Apostles and Bishops in the SINGLE Church in Jerusalem were all good Pastors, for evidently they taught God’s holy Priesthood of all Believers how to Preach the Word of God! My brother Pastor do you teach the Saints of God in your Church how to Study and Preach the Word of God?

“So, being sent on their way by THE CHURCH [not Churches in Antioch], they [the apostles Paul and Barnabas] passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles; and they caused great joy to all the brethren. And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by THE CHURCH [not Churches] and the Apostles and the Elders [i.e. Bishops]; and they reported all things that God had done with them…. Then it pleased the Apostles and Elders, with THE WHOLE CHURCH [not Churches], to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas who was also named Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren” (Acts 15:3-4, 22).

The word whole is the Greek adjective holos (hol’-os), which is in the dative case or indirect object and singular number. It modifies the Greek noun Ekklesia which is also in the dative case and singular in number. Dr. Walter Bauer in his Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature defined holos as: “1. Pertaining to being complete in extent, whole, entire, complete…. 2. Pertaining to a degree of completeness, wholly, completely…. 3. Everything that exists, everything” (#5270; edited by Dr. Frederick William Danker). Therefore the singular Church in Jerusalem had thousands of Priestly Saints, along with the Apostles and large number of Bishops, and they had their Church Services in ONE Place, that is, in the Temple!

The Single Church in Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch: “Then Barnabas departed for Tarsus to seek Saul. And when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. So it was that for a whole year they [the apostles Paul and Barnabas] ASSEMBLED with THE CHURCH [not Churches] and taught a great many people…. And the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. And in these days Prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch” (Acts 11:25-27; also 13:1-2). According to the Word of God the apostles Paul and Barnabas did not attend services in several Churches in the City of Antioch, but taught in a single Church.

“And when they [the apostles Paul and Barnabas] had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.’ So when they had APPOINTED ELDERS [Presbyters or Bishops] in EVERY Church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed…. Now when they [the apostles Paul and Barnabas] had come and gathered THE CHURCH [not Churches in Antioch] TOGETHER, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles” (Acts 14:21-23, 27; also 18:22).

The New International Version translated Acts 14:23 this way: “Paul and Barnabas appointed Elders for them in EACH Church.” Let my beloved readers take note, the apostles Paul and Barnabas ordained Bishops to Pastor a single Church in the cities of Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, and they did not gather together the Saints from the Churches of Antioch but the Saints in the single Church of Antioch!

The Single Church in Ephesus: “From Miletus he [the apostle Paul] sent to Ephesus and called for the ELDERS [presbuteros i.e. Bishops or Pastors] of THE CHURCH [not Churches]. And when THEY were come to him, he said unto THEM…. ‘Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock [i.e. the Saints of God], among which the Holy Spirit has made you OVERSEERS [episkopos i.e. Bishops or Pastors], to SHEPHERD the CHURCH [not Churches] of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:17, 28).

The American Standard Version translators of the Bible translated verse 28 this way: “Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you BISHOPS, to FEED THE CHURCH [not Churches] of the Lord which He purchased with His own blood.” The infallible Word of God is very clear in these verses that all these Bishops were from the one Church located in the City of Ephesus.

The Single Church in Cenchrea: “I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of THE CHURCH [not Churches] in Cenchrea” (Rom 16:1). The apostle Paul did not say that Phoebe was a servant in one of the Churches in Cenchrea!

The Single Church in Corinth: “To THE CHURCH [not Churches] of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be Saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord;” and “If then YOU [i.e. in the single Church of Corinth] have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by THE CHURCH [not Churches] to judge;” also “For first of all, when you come together AS a CHURCH [not Churches], I hear that there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it…. Therefore when you come TOGETHER in ONE PLACE [not several places in Corinth], it is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For in eating, each one takes his own supper ahead of others; and one is hungry and another is drunk. What! Do you not have HOUSES to eat and drink in? Or do you despise THE CHURCH [not Churches] of God and shame those who have nothing” (1Co 1:2; 6:4; 11:18, 20-22; also 14:4-35; 2Co 1:1).

No one can intelligently refute this passage of Scripture, which definitely, emphatically, and without dispute declares that the ENTIRE Body of Christ in the City of Corinth had their Church Services in ONE and only ONE Place or Building!!!

The Single Church in Laodicea: “Greet the brethren who are in Laodicea, and Nymphas and THE CHURCH [not Churches] that is in his [Nymphas’] house [not houses]. Now when this epistle is read among you, see that it is read also in THE CHURCH [not Churches] of the Laodiceans, and that you likewise read the epistle from Laodicea” (Col 4:15-16). If there were more than one house where the Saints gathered together for a Church Service in the City of Laodicea, would not the Apostle mention them and greet the Brethren in these other houses.

The Single Church in Colosse: “Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon our beloved friend and fellow LABORER, to the beloved Apphia, Archippus our fellow soldier, and to THE CHURCH [not Churches] in YOUR HOUSE [not their houses]” (Philemon 1:1-2). Philemon lived in the City of Colosse, which was located in the region of Phrygia in west central Asia Minor. Philemon was probably one of the Bishops in Colosse. Let my readers take note again, Paul did not mention any Saints who had Church Services in other houses, but only in ONE HOUSE. If there was more than ONE Church in Colosse Paul should have greeted them as well!

The Churches Located in the Cities of the Gentile: “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their own necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks, but also ALL THE CHURCHES of the Gentiles. Likewise greet THE CHURCH [not Churches] that is in their [Priscilla and Aquila’s] house [not houses]…. Gaius, my host and the host of the WHOLE CHURCH [not Churches in Corinth vs 27] greets you” (Rom 16:4-5, 23; also 1Co 16:19; 1Th 1:1; also 2Th 1:1).

The Greek noun Ekklesia is in the nominative case or is the subject and plural in number. Evidently the great apostle Paul knew the difference between ONE CHURCH located in ONE CITY and many Churches located in different cities of the Roman Empire. Let my readers take note again, when Paul mention the Church in the HOUSE of Aquila and his wife Priscilla, he did not say or even imply that there was more than one Church in their city! The very fact that in all the above passages of Scripture, except for this one, Paul always speaks of the Church in any given city in the SINGULAR NUMBER as ONE and not many Churches!

The Churches Located in the Cities of Judea and Galilee, and also the Church in the City of Samaria: When Paul became a Christian: “Then the Churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied” (Acts 9:31; also 15:41; 16:4-5; Rom 16:16; 1Co 7:17; 11:16; 14:33-34; Ga 1:22; 1Th 2:14; 2Th 1:4). In the above verse, Paul lumps all the churches located in PALESTINE together. In every place where the apostle speaks of the Church in the plural number, it NEVER refers to Churches located in one city, but Churches located in cities throughout the entire Roman Empire, as the above and following passages of Scripture has and will reveal!!!

The Churches Located in the Cities of the Province of Galatia: “Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead), and all the Brethren who are with me, to the Churches of Galatia;” and “Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the Churches of Galatia, so you must do also” (Ga 1:1-2; 1Co 16:1; also 4:17). Galatia was a Roman province located in the central region of the peninsula of Asia Minor.

The Churches Located in the Cities of Asia: “For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach EVERYWHERE in EVERY CHURCH;” and “THE CHURCHES of Asia greet you” (1Co 4:17; 16:19).

The Churches Located in the Cities of the Country of Macedonia: “Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the Churches of Macedonia” (2Co 8:1; 8:18-24; 11:28; 12:13; ). Macedonia was an ancient country in SE Europe, at the northern end of the Greek peninsula.

The Church Located Throughout the Entire Roman Empire: “For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the Church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it” (Ga 1:13; 1Co 15:9; Eph 1:22; 3:10, 21; 5:23-32; Phi 3:6; 4:15; Col 1:18, 24; 1Ti 3:5).

Conclusion: As one examines all the above passages of Scriptures, can any honest hearted Pastor or Christian deny that the Bible explicitly, unambiguously, and unequivocally teaches that in every city where the apostles or any Christian Preacher started a Church, there was only ONE congregation of Saints in that city, which assembled together in ONE and only ONE PLACE to hold a Church Service.

The Historical Account of the Ministerial Structure of the Church

Clement, one of the Bishops of the Catholic Church in Rome, in his Epistle to the Corinthians (100 AD) mentions ONLY Bishops and Deacons in the hierarchy Ministerial Structure of this Church, but in NO place does he teach Ignatius’ doctrine of a single Bishop ruling the Church. Clement told the Church in Corinth to be: Obedient to those who had the rule over you… giving all fitting honor to the presbyters [i.e. bishops] among you. [43] He told them that the apostles: preaching through countries and cities, they appointed the firstfruits [of their labors], having first proved them by the Spirit, to be Bishops and Deacons of those who should afterwards believe. [44]

He then proceeded to warn them not to rebel against their Bishops: For our sin will not be small, if we eject from the Episcopate [i.e. the office of Bishop] THOSE [not him] who have blamelessly and holily fulfilled its duties. Blessed are those Presbyters [i.e. Bishops] who, having finished their course before now, have obtained a fruitful and perfect departure [from this world]. [45] Clement continued by saying: It is disgraceful beloved, yea, highly disgraceful, and unworthy of your Christian profession, that… [the] Church of the Corinthians should, on account of one or two persons, engage in sedition against its Presbyters [i.e. Bishops]. [46] He then concludes by saying: let the flock of Christ live on terms of peace with the Presbyters [i.e. Bishops] set OVER it. [47] It is very evident that Bishop Clement used the terms Bishops and Presbyters as synonymous terms for the same Church Office!

Polycarp, one the Bishops of the Catholic Church in Smyrna, wrote an Epistle to the Philippians (100 AD), and he also mentions Bishops and Deacons in the Ministerial Structure of the church, but in no place does he teach Ignatius’ doctrine of a single bishop ruling the church. Polycarp mentions other bishops who were with him in Smyrna by saying: Polycarp, and the Presbyters [i.e. Bishops] with him, to the Church of God sojourning at Philippi. [48]

Polycarp then proceeded to instruct the Pastors, who were in the Catholic Church in Philippi, what duties they should perform as Bishops. He proclaimed: And let the Presbyters [i.e. Bishops] be compassionate and merciful to all, bringing back those that wander, visiting all the sick, and not neglecting the widow, the orphan, or the poor, but always providing for that which is becoming in the sight of God and man; abstaining from all wrath, respect of persons, and unjust judgment; keeping far off from. All covetousness, not quickly crediting [an evil report] against any one, not severe in judgment, as knowing that we are all under a debt of sin. [49]

Jerome, who was a Catholic Archbishop that ruled over several churches, taught that the Episcopate or the Office of a chief Bishop that Ignatius invented supposedly rose from the Presbyters as a safeguard against schism. Let us examine Jerome’s writings, and see if he can shed some light on the Ministerial structure that God’s Apostles set up. Around 390 AD, Jerome wrote a letter to Evangelus and in it he defended the Catholic Nicolaitan-Balaamite Ministerial Doctrine, which was in full bloom in his day. Jerome refuted the beliefs, of some of his fellow Catholics, who made Deacons equal to Presbyters in authority.

Jerome clearly revealed that the words Presbyter and Bishop are synonymous, in that they both referred to the same Office. In doing so, he unwillingly revealed that the One God Apostolic Churches in the Book of Acts had several Presbyter-Bishops in the Church in their city, which shared equal authority, instead of one Monarchical Presbyter-Bishop with all the authority.

Jerome’s confession, found in The Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, was this: We read in Isaiah the words, ‘the fool will speak folly,’ and I am told that some one has been mad enough to put deacons before presbyters, that is, before bishops.... The apostle [Paul] clearly teaches that PRESBYTERS (i.e. Elders) are the SAME as BISHOPS.... In the Acts of the Apostles, Paul thus speaks to the PRIESTS [i.e. Elders] of a SINGLE CHURCH: ‘Take heed unto yourselves and to all the flock, in the which the Holy Ghost hath made you BISHOPS [Greek - episkopos], to feed [shepherd] the Church of God, which He purchased with His own blood (Acts 20:28). Let my readers take note, Jerome declared that the Apostle Paul established ONE and only ONE Church, not many churches in Ephesus, and according to the Bible these Priests were Elders (Greek - Presbuteros or Presbyters - Acts 20:17-18).

Jerome went on to say: There is the following passage, which clearly proves a bishop and a presbyter to be the same. Writing to Titus the apostle says: ‘For this cause left I thee in Crete, that that you shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ORDAIN PRESBYTERS in EVERY CITY, as I had appointed thee; if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. For a BISHOP must be blameless’ [Titus 1:5-7]…. In the Greek, the meaning is still plainer, for the word used is ‘Episkopos,’ that is to say, Overseer or Bishop.

Jerome definitely declared that the word Elder, which is the Greek word Presbuteros, is synonymous with the word Bishop in the Bible. They both refer to the very same Ministerial Office. The word Elder or Presbyter, when referring to the Ministry, is used only for the Office of a Bishop or Pastor, it is never used for the Office of a Deacon or any other Church Office in the Bible or history.

Jerome continued: For what function [in the Catholic priesthood], except ordination, belongs to a Bishop that does not also belong to a Presbyter.... All alike are successors of the apostles.... Of the names Presbyter and Bishop the first denotes age, the second rank. In writing both Titus and to Timothy the apostle speaks of the ordination of Bishops and of Deacons, but says not a word of the ordination of Presbyters [or Elders]; for the fact is, the word Bishops includes Presbyters also. Again, when a man is promoted, it is from a lower place to a higher. (Therefore)... if… it is the Deacon that is ordained Presbyter, this latter should recognize that, although he may be LESS HIGHLY PAID than a Deacon, he is superior to him in virtue of his Priesthood. [50]

From Jerome’s unintentional confession, we have learned that the Apostles did not place one but several Bishops over each local congregation, and that Bishops and Elders were the very same Office in the Church. It was the Catholic Nicolaitan Priesthood that changed the Biblical order, for Jerome confessed that the Catholic Priesthood of his day had three orders of Ministry, the Monarchian or Ruling Bishop, Presbyters, and Deacons. He also confessed that these Nicolaitan Bishops claimed to have the authority of an Apostle over their congregation. This confirms everything I have said about these Nicolaitans thus far.

Church historians have repeatedly confirmed the Apostles’ Doctrine of many Bishops over a local congregation in their histories of the early Christian Church, which shared equal authority over the congregation of God. Professor Arthur C. McGiffert in his book, A History of the Christian Church in the Apostolic Age, declared, during the age of the apostles: the churches, so far as we are acquainted with them, were ruled each by a NUMBER of BISHOPS.... They served the local congregation primarily, NOT the universal church, and their official position gave them NO rights in other congregations. [51]

Dr. Harnack spoke of Ignatius and the Nicolaitan Catholic Church, he stated: As early as the second century the [Catholic] Church had CONQUERED the PEOPLE [i.e. the Priesthood of the Laity].... By the opening of the third century [200 AD], no Layman ventured any longer to call ecclesiastics, ‘brethren.’ The Layman is a Layman because he has NOT been set apart from the people by ordination…. After the close of the second century [the Monarchical] bishops were the teachers, high priest, and judges of the Church. Ignatius already had compared their position in the individual church to that of God in the church collective. [52]

Edward Gibbon in his history “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” declared that Catholic and Protestant institutions: have alike struggled to reduce the Primitive and Apostolic Model [of each individual Church], to the respective standards of their own policy.... The public functions of religion were solely entrusted to the established ministers of the church, the Bishops and the Presbyters; the two appellations [titles] which, in their first origin, appear to have distinguished the SAME OFFICE and the SAME ORDER of persons.... In proportion to respective number of the faithful, a LARGE or smaller NUMBER of these EPISCOPAL PRESBYTERS guided EACH infant congregation with EQUAL AUTHORITY and with united counsels. [53]

Professor Guignebert in his book entitled The Early History of Christianity wrote: In the beginning the BISHOPS - for EACH congregation had SEVERAL of them - did not trouble either to teach or to edify in any other way than by their good example. They occupied themselves in maintaining and confirming the Church in the practice of morality, and of the precepts of the true faith, and exercised the upper hand in all matters relating to the temporal concerns of the congregation. [54]

Dr. Harnack spoke of the Monarchical Bishop Doctrine this way: It appeared more and more fitting [in the Catholic Churches] to entrust ONE official, as chief leader [i.e. bishop] - superintendent of public worship, - with the reception of gifts [of the Spirit] and their administration, that is, to appoint ONE Bishop INSTEAD of a NUMBER of Bishops. [55] In God’s primitive Apostolic Pentecostal Church every born-again believer, including Pastors, were holy Ministers or Priests of God, who could minister to the body of Christ. They all could preach, teach, and be used in the Gifts of the Spirit, providing they had a loving and humble spirit that could receive correction.

Conclusion: The scriptural and historical evidence, my beloved brethren, leave no room for doubt that God did not originate, ordained, or approved of the Nicolaitan Monarchical Bishop doctrine that Catholicism has brought to the entire church world of today and in the past. In fact, God has told us through His Word that He HATES it! I realize that God ordain Pastors and Saints have followed this demonic system ignorantly, but the Word of God declares: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (Jn 8:32). Brother Pastor, do you LOVE the Nicolaitan Monarchical Bishop or Pastoral Ministry that your Lord and Savior HATES?

Beloved of the Lord let us not forget that our Lord and Savior commanded His children to: “Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you” (Jn 12:35). Ignorance of truth is one thing, but continual willful disobedience to the clear teaching of God’s Holy Word can only lead to our destruction! Dear brother Pastor, God has placed an awesome responsibility upon your shoulders, to perfect holiness in the lives of His Priesthood, and to develop their preaching and teaching skills, so that they can become the men and women of God! The choice is your, what will you do? Will you continue in the ministerial set up that you now know is an abomination to God, which He definitely declared He HATES?

The Biblical Account of the Ministerial Structure of the Church

The Word of God in NO place in the New Testament teaches the LORDSHIP of Bishops over a SINGLE congregation, or that God appointed just one Bishop over an assembly. I realize that most of God’s holy Pastors and Saints are NOT aware of this great truth. This is why professor Schaff boldly proclaimed that NO Church denomination or organization today can find any biblical or historical evidence in the first century to support their ministerial structure, which also included his own denomination!

Those who teach Ignatius’ Nicolaitan Monarchial Bishop doctrine is teaching a doctrine of devils, which God HATES! The Bible and Church History without dispute teach that the ONE Church in each city had several Pastors that held the God ordain office of Bishop, who shared equal authority and hopefully worked in unity with each other!! Since it is MUCH easier for Satan to corrupt or mislead one Bishop with pride, materialism, or other sins, I presume this is one of the reasons why God placed several Bishops over each Church instead of one man.

God also made each Church autonomist with its own self-government; He did this no doubt to make it harder for Satan to control each Church by an organization or denomination, which men later formed. The first organization or denomination was the demonic Catholic Church, which satanic men formed around 90 AD. God knows what He is doing, and His way always works and brings His blessings and power! God never established Church organizations or denominations, men did!!

The Single Philippian Church Had Several Bishops: Paul greeted the church in the city of Philippi with these words: “Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Jesus Christ, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, with the BISHOPS [episkopos] and Deacons [diakonos]” (Phi 1:1). Let my beloved readers take note that this one church in the city of Philippi irrefutably had several pastors and not just one, who held the office of Bishop in it. I may also mention that this is the only epistle in which Paul even mentions Bishops in his salutation to a church; for he usually addresses his epistles to the saints!

The Greek noun episkopos (evpisko,poij) is in the dative case or an indirect object, masculine gender, and PLURAL number. Dr. A.T. Robertson speaking about the word “Bishops” in this passage of scripture wrote: It is an old word from episkeptomai, to look upon or after, to inspect, so the Overseer or Superintendent. In the second century episxopoj [or episkopos] (Ignatius) came to mean one superior to elders, but NOT SO the N.T. The two New Testament church officers are here mentioned (Bishops or Elders and Deacons). The plural is here employed because there was… one church in a city with several Pastors (Bishops, Elders).

The Single Ephesian Church Had Several Bishops: When Paul was in “Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the ELDERS [presbuteros] of the church.” Paul told these bishops: “Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you OVERSEERS [episkopos], to SHEPHERD the Church [not Churches] of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:17, 28). Timothy may have been one of the Bishops who came down from the single Church in Ephesus. He was probably the first Bishop, of all the other Bishops, to be chosen as a Pastor of the Ephesian Church (2Ti 4:22).

The apostle did not say “elder” or “overseer” as in one, but “elders” or “overseers” as in many. In the fourth century, the Catholic Bishop Jerome declared that there was only one Church in the city of Ephesus in Paul’s day, and that one Church had several bishops in it. Jerome wrote: In the Acts of the Apostles, Paul thus speaks to the priests [or bishops] of a single church: ‘Take heed unto yourselves and to all the flock, in the which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops [episkopos], to feed [Shepherd] the Church [not Churches] of God, which He purchased with his own blood” (Acts 20:28). [56]

Dr. Joseph Henry Thayer of Harvard University in his lexicon entitled A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament defined Presbuteros as: “1) Of age… advanced in life, an elder, a senior…. 2) A term of rank or OFFICE; as such borne by: A) Among the Jews, a. members of the great council or Sanhedrin (because in early times the rulers of the people, judges, etc…. THOSE who in the separate cities managed public affairs and administered justice…. B) AMONG CHRISTIANS, THOSE who PRESIDED over the assemblies (or churches): Acts 11:30; 14:23; 15:2, 4, 6, 22f; 16:4; 21:18; 1 Tim. 5:17, 19; Titus 1:5; 2 John 1:1; 3 John 1:1; 1 Pet. 5:1, 5… Acts 20:17; James 5:14.

That THEY did NOT DIFFER at all from the (evpi,skopoi) BISHOPS or OVERSEERS (as is acknowledged also by Jerome on Titus 1:5 (cf. Lightfoot’s Commentary on Philippians, pp. 98f, 229f)) is evident from the fact that the TWO WORD are used indiscriminately, Acts 20:17, 28; Titus 1:5, 7, and that the DUTY of PRESBYTERS is described by the terms evpiskopei/n [BISHOPS], 1 Pet. 5:1f, and evpiskoph,, Clement of Rome 1 Cor. 44, 1; accordingly only two ecclesiastical officers, oi` evpi,skopoi [Bishop] and oi` dia,konoi [Deacon], are distinguished in Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:1,8. The title evpi,skopoj [BISHOPS] denotes the function, presbu,teroj [PRESBYTERS] the dignity” (#4388).

Dr. Thayer defined Episkopos as: “an OVERSEER, a man charged with the duty of seeing that things to be done by others are done rightly, any curator, guardian, or superintendent; the Septuagint for dyqiP', Judg. 9:28; Neh. 11:9,14,22; 2 Kings 11:15, etc.; 1 Macc. 1:51. The word has the same comprehensive sense in Greek writings from Homer Odys. 8, 163; Iliad 22, 255 down; hence, in the N. T. evpi,skopon tw/n yucw/n guardian of souls, one who watches over their welfare: 1 Pet. 2:25… Heb. 13:17 specifically, the superintendent, head or OVERSEER of any Christian church; Vulgate episcopus: Acts 20:28; Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:7” (#2112).

Dr. A. T. Robertson in his Word Pictures in the Greek New Testament made the following comment on Act 20:17: “The ELDERS of the Church (tous presbuterous tês ekklêsias), the very men whom Paul terms ‘BISHOPS’ (episkopous) in verse 28 just as in Tit 1:5, 7 where BOTH TERMS (presbuterous, ton episkopon) DESCRIBE the SAME OFFICE. The term ‘Elder’ applied to Christian Ministers first appears in Ac 11:30 in Jerusalem and reappears in 15:4, 6, 22 in connection with the apostles and the Church. The ‘ELDERS’… are ‘BISHOPS’ (cf. Php 1:1) and with ‘Deacons’ constitute the two classes of officers in the early churches…. EACH CHURCH, as in Jerusalem, Philippi, Ephesus, had a NUMBER of ‘ELDERS’ (‘BISHOPS’) in the ONE great city CHURCH…. Here Paul unbosoms himself to the Ministers of the Church in Ephesus where he had spent three years (longer than with any other Church).”

The Greek word “episkopos” is used 7 times in the New Testament and the AV translated it 6 times as “Bishop” and 1 times as “Overseer.” “Presbuteros” is used 67 times and the AV translated it 64 times as “elder.” It is very evident that the apostle Paul used the Greek words “presbuteros” and “episkopos” as synonyms, when they were referring to an OFFICE in the Church, that is, the office of a BISHOP or Pastor.

Since every Jewish synagogue was supervised by elders or bishops, it was very natural that every Jewish and Gentile Christian congregation should at once adopt this form of government (Mt 16:21). This no doubt is the reason why Dr. Luke found it unnecessary to give an account of the origin of the office of elders or bishops, while he did give an account of the origin of the office of deacons, which had no equivalence in the ministerial structure of the Jewish synagogue.

The Single Church in Antioch of Pisida, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe in Asia Minor Had Several Bishops (Acts 13:14, 43; 14:1, 6, 20-21): Dr. Luke stated that Paul and Barnabas: “appointed ELDERS [presbuteros – not an elder] in EVERY [i.e. each individual] Church, and prayed with fasting, [as] they commended THEM [not him] to the Lord in whom THEY [not he] had believed” (Acts 14:23). Let my beloved readers take note, Paul ordained several Bishops in every single congregation and not just one bishop. If Elders and Bishops are not synonymous or identical terms, than why is there no place in the apostle Paul’s epistles, or any other New Testament writings, any qualifications given for this office? If Paul and Barnabas did not lay their hands on these Elders or Bishops and ordained them to the office of a Pastor, then what office did they ordain them to, and what are the duties of this office?

Dr. Robertson made this comment on the above verse of scripture: They selected the ELDERS in each instance and Paul and Barnabas ‘ordained’ THEM…. Later Paul will give the requirements [or qualifications] expected in these ‘ELDERS’ or ‘BISHOPS’ (Php 1:1) as in 1Ti 3:1-7; Tit 1:5-9. It is fairly certain that these ELDERS were chosen to correspond in a general way with the Elders in the Jewish synagogue after which the LOCAL Church was largely copied as to organization and worship…. The use of the PLURAL here implies what was true at Philippi (Php 1:1) and Ephesus (Ac 20:17, 28) that EACH Church (ONE in EACH CITY) ‘had its COLLEGE of ELDERS’ (Hackett) as in Jerusalem (21:18). Elder (presbuteros) was the Jewish name, and Bishop (episkopos) the Greek name for the SAME OFFICE. ‘Those who are called Elders in speaking of Jewish communities are called Bishops in speaking of Gentile communities’ (Hackett).

The Churches on the Island of Crete Had Several Bishops: Paul gave both Titus and Timothy the power to ordain pastors in each city he sent them. Paul told Titus: “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint ELDERS [presbuteros not an elder] in EVERY city as I commanded you.” Paul than goes on in the next two verses to give the qualification of an elder or pastor, for Paul wrote: “A Bishop [episkopos] must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money” (Tit 1:5, 7).

Let my beloved readers take note, Paul did not instruct Timothy or Titus to ordain an “elder,” as in one, in each city of Crete, but “elders,” as in many, in each city. Also notice after the apostle gave instruction for the ordination of pastors, he gave Titus the qualification that a man of God must possess to be a bishop over the Church of God. Paul used the words “elder” and “bishop” as synonyms terms, because they both referred to the same office of a “pastor.”

Crete is a Greek island in the eastern Mediterranean; it population is about 601,159 (2001) today; and its capital is Heraklion. It is noted for the remains of the Minoan civilization, which flourished there in the 2^nd millennium BC. It fell to Rome in 67 BC and was subsequently ruled by Byzantines, Venetians, and Turks.

The Single Thessalonian Church Had Several Bishops: Paul admonished this one church: “We urge you brethren [i.e. saints] to recognize THOSE [not him] who labor among you, and are OVER you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem THEM [not him] very highly in love for THEIR [not his] work’s sake” (1Th 5:12-13). The apostle told God’s Priestly Saints in the single Church in Thessalonica, which also applies to all Churches in every other city, to know the character and temperament of the Bishops who rule, lead, admonish, and correct them. He then proceeded to tell them to love these Bishops for they are given the tremendous responsibility of caring for their souls.

The Single Church in Jerusalem Had Many Bishops, along with Twelve Apostles: In the following passage of scriptures, we learn that the Church in Jerusalem had many bishops besides the apostles. The Church of Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas “to Jerusalem, to the Apostles and ELDERS [presbuteros - Bishops] about this question” of keeping certain ordinances of the Law of Moses. “When they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the Church and the Apostles and the ELDERS [not just one Elder]…. Now the Apostles and ELDERS [not just one Bishop] came together to consider this matter….”

“It pleased the Apostles and ELDERS [not just one Pastor], with the whole Church [not with all the churches in Jerusalem], to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas” to confirm their decision against the gentile churches keeping the Law of Moses. “They wrote this letter by them: The Apostles, the ELDERS, and the Brethren, To the Brethren who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia” (Acts 15:2, 4, 6, 22-23). It is very evident that the elders mention here were bishops, who ruled the Church in Jerusalem along with the apostles, and that there were many pastors and not just one in the single church in Jerusalem!

According to Dr. Luke, years later Paul returned: “to Jerusalem, [and] the brethren received us gladly. On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and ALL the ELDERS [presbuteros - i.e. Bishops] were present” (Acts 21:17-18). Years later, the single Church in Jerusalem still had not only Apostles but also many Bishops to Pastor this great Church. Years before this time: “the disciples [i.e. Gentile Christians in various cities], each according to his ability, determined to send relief to the brethren dwelling in Judea. This they also did, and sent it to the ELDERS [presbuteros - i.e. Bishops] by the hands of Barnabas and Saul” (Acts 11:29-30).

The apostle Paul told Jewish saints in each of the cities of Judea: “Remember THOSE [not him] who rule over you, who have spoken the Word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of THEIR [not his] conduct…. Obey THOSE [meaning Bishops] who rule over you, and be submissive, for THEY [not he] watch out for your souls, as THOSE [not him] who must give account. Let THEM [not him] do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you…. Greet ALL THOSE [not him] who rule over you, and all the saints” (Heb 13:7, 17, 24). The apostle did not tell these Jewish Christians to obey “him” as in one, but “them” as in many, who ruled in the office of a pastor over each single Jewish Congregation in Judea.

James Writing to Jewish Christians Who Were Scattered in All Churches throughout the World Wrote: “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the ELDERS [presbuteros] of the Church [not Churches], and let THEM pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord” (Ja 5:14). James, like the apostles Peter and Paul, taught that each Church had many pastors over it. James did not tell these saints to call for the “elder or bishop” in their church, as in one, but the “Elders or Bishops” as in many. Presbuteros is in the accusative case or a direct object, masculine gender, and plural number.

It would be unthinkable that James would tell sick Christians to go on a pilgrimage to the churches throughout the world, and have different pastors pray for their healing, or for them to go to Jerusalem and have the bishops there to anoint them with oil, or even to get all the bishops in their city together, if there was more than one church in a city as some claim, and to lay hands on them and anoint them. The Bible teaches me that everything a saint needs from God can be found in the local Church (1Co 12).

Without doubt there was one and only one Christian Church in every city. God does not work in division but in unity; and God did not leave His people in the hands of one man but several who would love them and minister to them; for where one pastor would be lacking in wisdom, understanding, knowledge, judgment, discernment, counseling skills, leadership ability, faith, or preaching and teaching skills, the other pastors could supply!

I believe that it would be much better for several pastors to discipline a saint of God than just one pastor, who may correct one saint for a certain sin and show bias toward another saint that may be a relative or close friend of his, who had the very same problem. When it comes to disciplining saints of God, pastors are in great danger of losing their own souls, if they do it in the wrong spirit and not in the spirit of love.

Jesus said: “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of offences! For it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh” (Mt 18:6-7, KJV)! Therefore, if any pastor causes a saint of God to give up their faith, because of unjust or unfair punishment, or being discipline in the wrong spirit, woe be to that Pastor, for their soul is in danger of being lost.

Each Church in Asia Minor or Turkey that Timothy Ordained Elders in Had Several Bishops: In Paul instruction to Timothy, he declared that Bishops are rulers over each local assembly. Paul proclaimed: “This is a faithful saying: If a MAN [not a woman] desires the position of a Bishop [episkopos], he desires a good work…. One who rules HIS [not her] own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a MAN [not a woman] does not know how to rule HIS [not her] own house, how will HE [not she] take care of the Church of God…?) Let the ELDERS [not elder] who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially THOSE [not he] who labor in the word and doctrine” (1Ti 3:1, 4-5; 5:17).

Paul did not say the Bishop as singular who rules well in each congregation, but Elders or Bishops PLURAL who rule well! Here again we see the apostle used the words “Bishops” and “Elders” as synonymous terms. If “Bishops” and “Elders” are not identical terms and do not refer to the same church office, then each local assembly has two different sets of rulers. If this is true, then where are the scriptures that reveal this unreasonable doctrine, and why is there nothing said about the authority each group has over the church?

The Churches in Regions of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia in Asia Minor Had Several Bishops: The apostle Peter speaking to these churches wrote: “The ELDERS [presbuteros not elder] who are among you I exhort, who am also an Elder [presbuteros]…. SHEPHERD the flock of God which is among you, serving as OVERSEERS [episkopeo not overseer as one], not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; NOR as being LORDS [not lord as one] OVER those entrusted to you, but being EXAMPLES [not an example as one] to the flock” (1Pe 5:1-3).

Let my readers take note again, Peter told elders or bishops, as in many, in each congregation NOT to be lords, as many, over God’s Priestly Saints whom God placed under them. Here again we see that the words “elders” and “overseers” or “bishops” are identical terms, which refer to the office of pastor! Let my readers take note, Peter, like Paul, connected the word “elders,” as in many, with being pastors who shepherd the flock of God (cp with Acts 20:17, 28).

Old Testament Synagogues Had More Than One Elder or Bishop Over Each Synagogue

Mark wrote: “And behold, one of the RULERS [archisunagogos] of the Synagogue [not synagogues plural] came, Jairus by name. And when he saw Him [Jesus], he fell at His feet” (Mk 5:22). The Greek word “archisunagogos” is used 9 times in the New Testament. The AV translated it 7 times as “ruler” and 2 times as “chief ruler.” Let my beloved reader again take note that Mark did not say “the ruler” of the synagogue, as in one, but “rulers” as in many.

Dr. Thayer speaking of the Greek word “archisunagogos” made this comment: he declared that it was their “duty to select the readers or teachers in the synagogue, to examine the discourses of the public speakers, and to see that all things were done with decency and in accordance with ancestral usage. Drs. Louw and Nida defined this Greek word this way: one who is the head of and who directs the affairs of a synagogue – ‘president of a synagogue, leader of a synagogue.

When Paul and Barnabas “departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the RULERS [archisunagogos not the ruler] of the Synagogue [not synagogues plural] sent to them…. And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews” (Acts 13:15, 5). Dr. Luke did not say that “the ruler,” as in one sent for Paul and Barnabas, but “the rulers” as in many sent for them.

Conclusion: Since there is not one verse in the New Testament that reveals that that there was more than one church in every city, or just one pastor over each church, why do good men of God cling to the Catholic Nicolaitan doctrine that Ignatius started is beyond me. I know that some do it because of ignorant and love for the false traditions that was handed down to them, but others do it because they love the money, power, and worship that goes with that position. If pastors only knew, how they are hindering the work of God and revival by clinging to this Catholic doctrine of devils.

Even though God does not called every saint to the office of a pastor, He has ordained all of His people to the priesthood, whereby they would become His ministers (preachers and teachers) both IN the church and out of the church. God ordained that there would be enough ministers in every church, to have church services every day and all day long, in other words, citywide, statewide, nationwide, and worldwide revival! The Catholic Nicolaitan doctrine of the ministry will never produce this kind of revival, nor make all of God’s children mighty ministers of the gospel of Christ.

Preacher just because you are anointed by God to preach the great gospel of Christ, cast out demons, heal the sick, and maybe even do miracles, this does not mean God approves of the ministerial structure of the Church you Pastor. According to the Bible: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who DOES the WILL of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from Me, you EVILDOERS!’ ” (Mt 7:21-23, NIV).

Preacher, just because God might greatly use you in the work of the ministry, this does NOT mean He will excuse your flagrant rebellion against His Word concerning the Nicolaitan Doctrine and the Monarchial Bishop Doctrine, for these things are pure EVIL in the sight of God. How can you stand before God on the Day of Judgment and tell Him you obeyed His Word and done His Will? Will you tell God in that Day, you were afraid that the Saints in the Church you Pastored, or the Pastors in your denomination, would reject it? Will you tell God that you were afraid of losing your POWER and CONTROL over the Church, or losing material rewards, or losing your prestige and status in the Church? Fear is no excuse for NOT doing the Will of God.

Pastor remember this, God HATES the Nicolaitan Doctrine!!! The Nicolaitan Ministerial structure of the Church you Pastor is stopping God from having revival in your city, and also throughout the world; you say how can this be true? The Word of God reveals by you DENYING God’s holy Priesthood of all Born-Again Believers the privilege and right to fulfill their God ordain Preaching and Teaching Ministries IN and out of the Church!

I believe The Jewish Encyclopedia spoke the truth when it declared: “The prophet hears and sees by the Spirit…. In the Messianic time however, the Holy Spirit will, according to Joel 2:28‑29, be poured out upon ALL Israel; i.e. ALL the people will be PROPHETS.” [57] Pastor how many of the Saints in the Church you Pastor has been born of the Holy Spirits? Why are you stopping them from being a Prophet and exercising their Preaching Ministry IN the Church? Why are you not teaching and encouraging them to become a Prophet of God?

Chapter 5

The Priesthood Ministry of All Born-Again Believers

In this chapter, I am in no way going to diminish the preaching and teaching responsibilities of God’s holy and anointed Pastors, but I am going to place it in a correct biblical and historical setting. I will give an exegesis on the office of a Bishop in the chapter 6 entitled, “The Qualifications, Duties, and Privileges of A Pastor.”

When God made the Old Covenant with the nation of Israel, He truly desired to make all of His children His Priest. God told Moses, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Children of Israel: ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself. ‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of PRIESTS and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel” (Exo 19:3-6). Because God’s Old Testament Children did not keep His commandments, God could not fulfill His promise to them; therefore, He chose the tribe of Levi to be His Priest, and the family of Aaron to be His High Priest.

When God established the New Covenant, He fulfilled the above promise by choosing and ordaining all born-again believers to the PRIESTHOOD. The apostle Peter spoke of this when he told the Church, “As NEWBORN BABES, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby…. You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy PRIESTHOOD [hierateuma], to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…. But you are a chosen generation, a royal PRIESTHOOD [hierateuma], a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy” (1Pe 2:2, 5, 9-10). Let my readers take note, Peter compared God’s children to newborn babes, and told them that they were the temple of God, and also the Clergy of God or a Priestly brotherhood.

According to Dr. Strong, the Greek word “hierateuma” means: the PRIESTLY FRATERNITY i.e. a SACERDOTAL ORDER. It comes from the Greek root word “hierateou,” which means: to be a Priest i.e. perform his functions or to execute the Priest’s office. [58] Dr. AT Robertson in his Word Pictures in the Greek New Testament defined it as: to serve as Priest, Lu 1:8 alone in N.T.), in LXX (Ex 19:6), in N.T. only here and verse 9, either the office of Priest (Hort) or an order or body of priests. At any rate, Peter has the same idea of Rev 1:6 (i`ereij, Priests) that ALL BELIEVERS are Priests (Heb 4:16) and can approach God directly.

God has confirmed the priesthood of all born-again believers in several places! In one place, it called them the FOUR BEAST and the twenty-four Elders were Bishops. John wrote: “Now when He had taken the scroll, the Four Living Creatures and the Twenty-Four Elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And THEY [the entire Priesthood of God – the Four Living Creatures and the Twenty-Four Elders] sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed US to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made US Kings and PRIESTS to our God; And WE shall reign on the earth” (Rev 5:8-10 cp with Rev 1:6; 20:6).

God’s Holy Priesthood of All Born-Again Believers Are

Called and Ordained by God to Be Preachers and Teachers

God never intended for His Church to function by the Nicolaitan doctrine of one pastor, who is the supreme ruler over the Church, and the one and only preacher and teacher in the Church, that is, the only Mouthpiece or Voice of God in the Congregation. I know this is a shock to most of God’s holy Pastors and Saints, but it is the truth. God hated this ministerial doctrine because it robbed His Children of their Priesthood Ministry. God never intended His Church to have just one oracle of God as a preacher and teacher, or even one person used in the gifts of the Spirit.

According to the Bible, God ordained all of His children to minister in their individual churches as preachers and teachers. As long as Pastors and Saints are under bondage of the Nicolaitan Doctrine, where church services are held once or twice a week for an hour or two, God’s holy Priesthood of all born-again believers will never fulfill God’s call on their lives. Therefore, God’s Church will never be able to conquer their own city, much less the world!

God called all of His Priests to be teachers, for this is one of the duties God required His Priest to perform. The Bible speaking of the Old Covenant Priesthood declared: “For the lips of a Priest should keep knowledge, and people should seek the law from his mouth; For he is the MESSENGER of the LORD of hosts” (Mal 2:7). Since all born-again believers are God’s Priests in the New Covenant, this passage of Scripture can also be applied to them.

Pastors Are Commanded by God to Make God’s Holy Priesthood of All Believers Proficient Ministers: Paul admonished God’s holy New Testament Priesthood to always remember and treasure the call that Almighty God placed upon their lives. The apostle wrote: “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you [Priestly Sanits] to walk worthy of the CALLING with which you were CALLED, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:1-3).

After Paul gave the Body of Christ these instructions, he named the different offices God has placed in the Church to help them to develop their Priesthood Ministries and come to maturity! The apostle Paul speaking of the supreme duty of the five fold ministry wrote: “And He Himself gave some to be Apostles, some Prophets, some Evangelists, and some Pastors, and Teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the WORK of MINISTRY [diakonia], for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:11-13).

The apostles of the Lamb declared: “We will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the MINISTRY [diakonia] of the Word” (Acts 6:4). Pastors not only need to give themselves to the Ministry of the Word of God, but also need to train and develop the Preaching and Teaching Ministry of God’s Priestly Saints, so they can Minister the Word of God effectively!

In the following passage of Scripture, Paul gave some of the different MINISTERIES that God has called Priestly Saints to in each church. He declared: “There are differences of MINISTRIES [diakonia], but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills” (1Co 12:5-11).

The Word of God indisputable declares that God appointed several ministries in each assembly to perfect the working of His Spirit in the church. The apostle Paul told God’s children that God gave them His grace: “So that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1Co 1:7, RSV). Paul also told God’s saints what these spiritual gifts will do for them when he said: “For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, so that you may be established” (Rom 1:11). Therefore, no one ministry can perfect and establish the saints in God’s church

The Antioch Church Had Many Preachers and Teachers Who Ministered in the Church: The Physician Luke revealed this great truth when he wrote: “Then it pleased the apostles and elders [bishops], with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely, Judas who was also named Barsabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren…. So when they were sent off, they came to Antioch; and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter. When they had read it, they rejoiced over its encouragement…. Now Judas and Silas, themselves being prophets also, exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words. And after they had stayed there for a time, they were sent back with greetings from the brethren to the apostles. However, it seemed good to Silas to remain there. Paul and Barnabas also remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the Word of the Lord, with many [polus] others also” (Acts 15:22, 30-35, cp with 13:1-2).

The Greek word “polus” means: many, much, or plenteous. This Greek word is use in Rom 5:15-16 and 19 to describe a multitude of people. According to Dr. Luke, the Church in Antioch had many preachers and teachers or prophets in it, who ministered to the body of Christ; or in other words, the apostles Paul and Barnabas were not the only ministers in the Church of Antioch! It is very evident that many of God’s holy children were doing their best to fulfill the duties of their Melchizedek Priesthood. Therefore, they, like God’s Old Testament Priesthood, are commanded by God to minister to other children of God (2Ch 35:3)!

The Corinthian Church Had Many Preachers and Teachers Who Ministered in the Church: The apostle Paul revealed that the Church of Corinth had many priestly teachers when he declared: “For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore I urge you, imitate me” (1Co 4:15-16). Paul was not indignant or angry with the saints in the Church of Corinth, because they had many who were striving to fulfill their God ordained ministry as preachers and teachers of the Word of God.

According to the Bible, the great apostle rejoiced that all of his teaching and prayers for God’s Children in Corinth bore fruit, knowing he had helped them to develop their Priesthood Ministry of Preaching and Teaching. This is why he wrote: “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge;” and “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1Co 1:4-5; 15:58).

Tell me brother Pastor how many of God’s Priestly Saints, in the congregation you Pastor, have you help develop: “for the WORK of MINISTRY” (Eph 4:11) as you strive to fulfill this COMMAND of God. The work of a Pastor is not only to prefect holiness in the life of God’s people, but help EACH ONE of them to develop their God given talents; and most of all, to teach them how to STUDY the Word of God, so they can become a: “worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth” (2Ti 2:15). The apostle Paul, who loved God’s Holy Priesthood, would have certainly said “amend” or “so be it” to the words of Moses when he said: “Oh, that ALL the LORD’s people were PROPHETS and that the LORD would put HIS SPIRIT upon them” (Num 11:29)!

The spirit of jealously, domination, and greed has no place in any ministry in God’s Church!! O’ Lord give all of us the ability to rejoice when someone in the assembly can teach or preach better than us, instead of fearing we will lose our position in the Church; my God if you really believe that God has called and ordained you to be a Pastor, then have enough faith in God to believe that He will do His part, if you do your part. Help us Lord not to envy or hate anyone in the Church, but be thankful that You have helped them to develop this ability. It takes time and practice for a Priest of God to develop his or her God given talents! Be thankful that the Bible is not chained to the pulpit, or written in Latin, or that only a certain few clergy can interpret it, as it was in the Dark Ages!!!

In the Corinthian Church, Every Child of God Was Given the Freedom to Allow God’s Spirit to Use Them: The apostle Paul gave Pastors and Saints insight and direction of how a church service should be conducted! In fact, this is the only passage in the New Testament that actually describes a church service, and the PRIESHOOD MINISTRY of each believer. The apostle speaking to all of God’s holy Priesthood proclaimed:

“When you assemble, EACH ONE has a Psalm, has a TEACHING, has a Revelation, has a Tongue, has an Interpretation. Let all things be done for edification…. And let two or three Prophets [propheteuo i.e. preachers] speak, and let the others pass judgment. But if a Revelation is made to another who is seated, let the first keep silent. For you can ALL PROPHESY [propheteuo i.e. preach] one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted; and the spirits of Prophets [propheteuo i.e. preachers] are subject to Prophets [propheteuo i.e. preachers].... Therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to Prophesy [propheteuo i.e. preach, and do not forbid to Speak in Tongues. But let all things be done properly and in an orderly manner” (1Co 14:26, 29-32, 39-40, NAS).

Louw-Nida Greek-English Lexicon defined the Greek word “propheteuo” as: to speak under the influence of divine inspiration, with or without reference to future events - 'to prophesy, to make inspired utterances” (#33.459). Drs. Friberg in his Analytical Lexicon to the New Testament defined it as: “speaking with the help of divine inspiration proclaim what God wants to make known, PREACH, expound (AC 2.17; 1C 11.4)” (#23648).

According to The Jewish Encyclopedia, everyone who receives the Holy Spirit will become the mouthpiece or oracle or a prophet of God. This encyclopedia stated: In the Messianic time however, the Holy Spirit will, according to Joel 2:28‑29, be poured out upon all Israel; i.e. all the people will be prophets. [59] According to the apostle Peter, Joel’s prophecy began to be fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, when God began to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh (Acts 2:15-18).

Let my readers take note, the great apostle did not forbid any of God’s holy Priesthood from using their God ordain MINISTRY in their church, but for them to do it in an orderly and decent fashion, and not all at the same time! According to the Word of God and history, the Pastors of each Church were given the responsibility of maintaining order, and correcting God’s Priesthood when they are out of order, and when they were Preaching or Teaching false doctrine (1Co 15:12; 1Th 5:12-13)!! According to Paul, Pastors in each local assembly should not allow more than three Priestly Prophets or Inspired Speakers, who want to exercise the MINISTRY of Preaching or Teaching, to speak in any one Church service.

When you have all the saints Ministering the Word of God, and exercising their God ordained Ministries in the each assembly, it becomes very evident that these Christians probably met daily in the House of the Lord, and not just once or twice a week for an hour or two. O’ God please deliver us from the Nicolaitan and Laodicean spirit of this Church Age! Help Your Pastors and Saints to have the courage to overthrow the yoke of the Nicolaitan doctrine that You hate, which has robed your holy Priesthood of their Ministry and the privileged of being used by your Spirit!! Lord Jesus set us free wherewith we truly desire and are excited about being in Your House every day!!!

Dr. Luke definitely declared that God’s Church in the Book of Acts had Church Services daily. He wrote: “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers…. So continuing DAILY with one accord in the TEMPLE [or the Church], and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church DAILY those who were being saved” (Acts 2:41-42, 46-47; cp with 5:42; 6:4; 16:4-5).

Having Church Services EVERY DAY is not unrealistic or unreasonable; for which of us have been in a Church Service, where the power of Spirit of Almighty God was being manifested in and through God’s people, and we wanted to leave? I remember one service where God’s people were in one mind and one accord in worship, and the Spirit of God moved upon us as mighty waves of an ocean; as soon as one wave came upon you, another immediately followed. It must have lasted for a half of an hour. It was glorious! Even after it was over, no one wanted to leave Church, but they just lingered there bathing in the glory and excitement of that beautiful experience.

It was experiences like this that probably caused King David to say: “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the LORD” and “LORD, I have loved the habitation of Your house, And the place where Your glory dwells” (Psa 122:1; 26:8). I believe with all of my heart that God’s people will be anxious and excited to go to the House of the Lord, when Pastors give them the right to exercise their God ordained Ministries in the Church. It will be then and only then when God will add souls daily to each assembly that should be saved.

The Thessalonian and Jewish Churches Had Many Preachers and Teachers Who Ministered in the Church: Paul told the Thessalonian saints to: “Comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing” (1Th 5:11). Paul gave the same instruction to the Jewish saints when he wrote: “Exhort one another DAILY,” and “Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb 3:13; 10:24-25).

Comfort, Edification, and Exhorting Are Given in Different Ways, but Mostly through Preaching and Teaching: “After the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them [Paul and Salas], saying, ‘Men and brethren, if you have any Word of Exhortation for the people, say on” (Acts 13:15). It is very evident from verses 16-42 of Acts that Paul taught or preached to them. It is also evident that Paul and Salas being visiting Jews, like all other Jews of that Synagogue, was giving the opportunity to Minister to the people. Paul told the Corinthians that speaking under the inspiration of the Spirit in preaching or teaching brings “Edification and Exhortation and Comfort to men” (1Co 14:3).

The Roman and Colossian Churches Had Many Preachers and Teachers Who Ministered in the Church: This same apostle told the Saints in Rome that they were well able to teach one another the Word of God. Paul declared: “Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to ADMONISH ONE [each] ANOTHER” (Rom 15:14). Paul told the Colossian Saints the same thing when he said: “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly; TEACH and ADMONISH ONE [each] ANOTHER in all Wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts Sing Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs to God” (Col 3:16, NRS). It is very evident that the apostle believed God’s holy Priesthood was well able to minister the Word of God to each other through Preaching and Teaching, or he would have never instructed them to do it!

God’s Call to Preach and Teach His Word Is on Every Born-Again Believer: The great apostle Paul said it this way: “How shall they [the unsaved] hear without a Preacher? And how shall they Preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who Preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things” (Rom 10:14-15)! In the epistle to the Ephesians, the great apostle reveals to us who these God called and ordain Preachers were that preach this great gospel of peace, and have such beautiful feet. Paul instructed God’s holy Priesthood to: “Put on the whole armor of God… having shod your FEET with the preparation of the gospel of peace” (Eph 6:10, 14-15).

Dr. Luke gave us a beautiful picture of the Preaching and Teaching Ministry of God’s holy Priesthood as they Ministered to the lost! Luke declared: “Now Saul was consenting to his [Stephen’s] death. At that time a great persecution arose against the Church, which was at Jerusalem; and THEY [God’s Priestly Saints] were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles…. Now THOSE who were scattered after the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, Preaching the Word to no one but the Jews only. But some of THEM were MEN from Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when THEY had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, Preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with THEM, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord” (Acts 8:1; 11:19-21). Let my readers take note that God sent a great revival when His holy Priesthood exercised their God ordained Preaching and Teaching Ministry both in and out of the Church!

According to the Bible God’s one and only messenger in every Church Age is the Saints in the Church. This is why our Savior had John to begin His prophetic message to each Church Age the same way. To the Church in the Ephesian Church Age write these words: “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” (Rev 2:1, KJV; the NKJ, ASV, NAS, NIV all neglect the rules of Grammar in this verse).

The Holy Bible, New Living Translation translated this verse this way: “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands” (2^nd edition). This translation does a better job grammatically then the other translations, but it fails to understand God message. In the Greek, this passage appears this way: “Tw/| avgge,lw| th/j evn VEfe,sw| evkklhsi,aj gra,yon\” (Robinson-Pierpont Majority Text & Friberg NT -UBS3/4).

The Greek noun “aggelos” or “messenger” is in the dative case, which is an indirect object; consequently, it should FOLLOW the verb and not come before it. According to Daniel B. Wallace in his book, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: The dative substantive is that to or for which the action of a verb is performed. The indirect object will only occur with a transitive verb, when the transitive verb is in the active voice. The word “church” is in the genitive case or the case that expresses possession, which should be translated “of the church.” The Greek preposition “evn” or “in” modifies the word “Ephesus,” which is also in the dative case; therefore it to should FOLLOW the verb and not come before it.

The verb “write” is in the AORIST tense, active voice, IMPERATIVE mood, second person, and singular number. Imperative mood is the mood that expresses a COMMAND with the subject being “you” or “you write.” Because the aorist tense refers to continuous action, regardless of when the action began, Jesus is not only referring to the Church that existed in Ephesus in that day, but also the Church that existed in that age. Therefore Revelation 2:1, 8, 18, 3:1, 7, & 14 all should read: “You [John] write OF the CHURCH, the MESSENGER in” Ephesus, Smyrna, and so on.

Conclusion: Since all born-again believers are holy Priests of God, they should be given the privilege of exercising their preaching and teaching ministry to both sinners and saints in a Church Service. As long as each of God’s Priest are willing to follow BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICAL PRINCIPLES in interpreting the Word of God, they should be given this privilege! As long as Pastors and Priestly Saints follow good BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICAL PRINCIPLES in interpreting the Bible, there should be very little correction that is given by Pastors in a SINGLE Congregation to Saintly Priest, and Pastors to any individual Pastor who has made an error in his teaching!!

All corrections given by Pastors to either a Saintly Priest, or to their fellow Pastor, should be made in PRIVATE. Then the Saintly Priest or Pastor SHOULD and MUST go before the entire body of God’s Priesthood and acknowledge their error!!! This way the Body of Christ can be edified and built up on TRUTH. Since God place His Holy Spirit of Truth in all of His Children, God can reveal TRUTH to any of them from the least to the greatest, if they are humble, loving, hungry, study, follow Biblical Hermeneutical Principles, and definitely SEEK for TRUTH in PRAY.

A Modern Day Example of the Priesthood Ministry of All Born-Again Believers

1906-1913 AD, the Jesus Name, Tongue-Talking Azusa Street Revival: The anointed black preacher William Seymour, who received the Holy Ghost at Parham’s Bible School, went to Los Angels to start a Church for the Lord. Seymour taught Jesus’ Name Baptism and speaking in tongues as the evidence of receiving the Holy Ghost. Because this man restored to God’s Saints their Priesthood Ministry, God gave this Church a great worldwide revival. EVERY DAY for three years, God poured out His Spirit on hungry hearts that came from the four corners of the earth.

Walter J. Hollenger, in his book The Pentecostals, speaking of the great Azusa Street revival wrote: One of Parham’s pupils, the Negro preacher W. J. Seymour, was invited to Los Angeles.... Seymour hired an old Methodist church at 312 Azusa Street.... [He] preached on Acts 2:4: ‘Anyone who does NOT speak in tongues is NOT baptized with the Holy Spirit....’ For three years without interruption prayer meetings took place here with speaking in tongues, singing in tongues and prophecy. [60]

Vinson Synan in his book entitled, The Holiness‑Pentecostal Movement in the United States, described the Azusa Street Revival this way: As the Azusa revival continued, hundreds and later thousands of both the curious and the serious began to flock to the mission. Every day trains unloaded numbers of visitors who came from all over the continent. News accounts of the meeting spread over the nation in both the secular and the religious press.... A visitor to Azusa Street during the three years that the revival continued would have met scenes that beggared description. Men and women would shout, weep, dance, fall into trances, speak and sing in tongues, and interpret the messages into English. In true Quaker fashion, ANYONE [of God’s Priestly Saints] who felt moved by the Spirit would PREACH or Sing. [61]

There is no doubt in this Preacher’s mind as to why God blessed this revival so mightily. It was not because of the prayers and fasting of the people of God, or their strong Preaching of speaking in tongues as being the initial evidence of being born of the Spirit, which were good and needful, but it was because this humble black Preacher broke with the Catholic, Protestant, and modern day Pentecostal Nicolaitan Doctrine and concept of the Ministry; for he gave God’s Saintly Priesthood liberty to exercise their God given Ministries.

This holy Bishop of God allowed any of God’s Holy Priests to Preach, Teach and be used in any of the Gifts of the Spirit, or in other words, Seymour did not dominate the MINISTRY of God’s People, but gave the Holy Ghost full control over the service. I believe these people were fulfilling God’s perfect will. They had Services EVERY DAY, all day long, for which they needed MANY PREACHERS to MINISTER to saints and sinners alike, or in other words, it was NOT a one-man show and the saints were nothing but mere spectators being entertained!

Another example of Biblical Ministry of all believers is the Jehovah’s Witnesses; even though this organization of Satan has many false doctrines, it has the truth concerning its doctrine of the Priesthood of all believers. In every service, they have both men and women who take turns presenting 15-30 minute talks to the congregation, so that each one of them could exercise and perfect their Preaching and Teaching skills. They also have the truth concerning the Ministerial Structure of the local Church, in which a group of Elders or Bishops are over each assembly, instead of a Nicolaitan Monarchian Bishop. This organization has done away with Lucifer’s Nicolaitan Doctrine as far as the local assembly is concerned, but it has not done away with it as far as the national organization’s power over each assembly, and Lucifer’s doctrine of meeting only two times a week!

Now brother Pastor, even though you and I know that many of their doctrines are from hell, we cannot deny the effectiveness of this people in reaching their world with Satan’s message. These deceived people, who like the true people of God, are from all stations of life, and they have different intellectual, social, and financial levels. Therefore, I believe their success in reaching their world is not in any of these factors, but in the fact that they truly believe in the Priesthood of all Believers, and they exercise their Ministry in their local assemblies.

If God’s Church, who has the true Doctrines of Christ, would restore the Apostle’s Doctrine of the Priesthood of all born-again Believers and Several Pastors or Elders over each assembly, then God will give His Church a revival that all hell will not be able to stop! Say Child of God is it not time we bring back the old landmarks that the Apostles of the Lamb set up (Pro 22:28)! I believe that God has enough Children in this Church Age, which are willing to pay any price to have this kind of revival. Let us remember, God gave His Church Pastors to edify and build up His Priesthood, so they can become great Preachers of the gospel and not benchwarmers (Eph 4:12).

I have struggled all my Christian Life to obtain purity in my spirit, soul, and body in my walk with my Savior and God, the Lord Jesus Christ. I have also struggled to find, believe, and promote the purity of the Doctrines of Christ. I greatly desire to develop a pure Church, that is, a Church after the pattern of God’s FIRST Apostolic Pentecostal Church. My earnest prayer today is:

“Lord Jesus before I close my eyes in death, or before You take me in the Rapture of the Church, please let me see Your Church in her full glory, solidly built on the Church structure You ordained in You holy infallible Word! Father I do not believe Your Church is going to leave this old world as a weak, anemic, powerless Church, but a GLORIOUS CHURCH with all the power of the original Church; for You said in You Word that You, as Almighty God: “might sanctify and cleanse her [the Church] with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself a GLORIOUS CHURCH, not having SPOT or WRINKLE or any such thing, but that she should be HOLY and WITHOUT BLEMISH” (Eph 5:26-27).

Lord Jesus I do not even need to hold a Church Office in this Church, but I would count myself totally blessed just to be a Saintly Priest in this great magnificent Church. Dear Lord Jesus please give this old sinful world one more witness of Your Church in her full GLORY, before You take her home to be with You!! Dear God with all the cities throughout the world, surely You can choose one of them to raise up a Church like the one You started on the Day of Pentecost!!! Therefore Lord Jesus please RESTORE your to its former purity, glory, and power, and I say Amen, or so be it.”

Brother Pastor, how can you sincerely pray for God to send a great revival to the Church you Pastor, when you are rebelling against His God ordain Ministerial Structure that He established through His Apostles? I know that most of the Pastors who are reading this book have done these things in ignorance, but you are certainly not ignorant of God’s Ministerial Structure now! What are you going to do with this TRUTH in God’s holy Infallible Word? Now, you can keep your old demonic Nicolaitan Doctrine of the Ministry if you want, but remember this, there is a day that God has appointed whereby all of us will give an account to Him! Woe to the man who willfully and continually violates the Word of God after receiving the truth!!

Brother Pastor, God wants to pour our a mighty Holy Ghost revival on the Church you Pastor, but will you have the boldness and courage to let Him? It takes courage to face your ministerial peers and say: “This is what the Word of God teaches concerning the Ministry, and this is what I will do!!” It takes boldness to call your people to dedication and consecration and say: “This is what the Word of God teaches about Daily Services and your Priesthood Ministry and this is what we will do!!!” Pastor, you are greatly beloved of God, and you know in your heart it is time to stand for TRUTH regardless of who will stand with you!!!! God will confirm His truth, if we stand for it!!!!!

Old Testament Examples of the Preaching and Teaching Ministry of Jewish Believers

Paul and Barnabas being Jews or children of Abraham had the privilege of preaching and teaching in the synagogues of the Jews. Dr. Luke recorded these events this way: “But when they departed from Perga, they came to Antioch in Pisidia, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down. And after the reading of the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, ‘Men and brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say on” (Acts 13:14-15).

“Now when they [Paul and Silas] had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, ‘This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ” (Acts 17:1-3; cp with vss 10-11, 17; 18:1, 4, 8). Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, also being a Jew had the freedom of preaching and teaching in Jewish synagogues. Matthew wrote: “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people” (Mt 4:23).

Chapter 6

The Qualifications, Duties, and Privileges of A Pastor

The first office that was ordained by God in the New Testament was that of an “Apostle.” Christ called them to the work of founding the church (Acts 2:41-43). Their teachings and that of the Old Testament Prophets is the foundation that Christ chose to build His church upon, of which He is the chief cornerstone (Eph 2:20)! The second office that was ordained by God was that of a “bishop,” and the apostles were the first to hold that office; for Peter speaking of this office to the disciples said: “Judas’ “Bishoprick [episkope] let another take” (Acts 1:20). Therefore, according to this verse all the apostles held the office of a bishop.

The Qualifications of A Pastor

Paul’s pastoral letter to Timothy stated: “This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate [nephaleos], sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach; not given to wine [paroinos], not violent, not greedy for money [aischrokerdes], but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous [aphilarguros]. One who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?); not a novice [meaning someone who is not a mature and well establish saint], lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil. Moreover he must have a good testimony among those who are outside, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil” (1Ti 3:1-7).

The apostle started his list of qualifications by saying: 1) Pastors personal life must be above reproach morally, and their moral judgment must be sound. 2) Pastors must not be a polygamist or have more than one wife, which will set the standard for the rest of the congregation to follow. We should remember that polygamy was common not only amount gentiles but also among Jews in Paul’s day.

3) Drs. Friberg defined “nephaleos” as: holding no wine, without wine; and “paroinos” as: a drunkard. Therefore, pastors should not drink any alcohol or be a drunkard. The priests, who shall serve God’s in the millennial kingdom, were commanded by God not to drink wine when they went into the temple of God (Eze 44:21). Paul taught that all of God’s priests today are the temple of God (1Co 3:16-17). 4) A pastor should have a sound-mind and be able to control his impulses and desires.

5) Pastors should be respectable, dignified, and modest in all things, especially their dress. 6) Pastors should be kind and loving and be ready to help visiting brothers and sisters with their needs. 7) Pastors above all should be able to teach and rightly divide the word of truth, whereby they will be sound in their doctrines, and be able to correct God’s priests when they teach incorrectly. 8) Pastors should not be a pugnacious person, or a bully, or a quarrelsome person.

9) Pastors should not be desirous to be wealthy, or exploit anyone in or out of the church to obtain money. Dr. Thayer defines the Greek word “aischrokerdes” as: eager for base gain, greedy for money. Paul gave us an example of some pastors who backslid because of their desire for money when he wrote: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness” (1Ti 6:10-11).

Paul also told Timothy: “For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision [Jewish Christian preachers], whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain…. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth” (Tit 1:10-14).

10) Pastors should be gentile, patient, gracious, and forbearing, especially with saints. 11) Pastors should love peace, and have a peaceful spirit, and hate fighting, contentions, and quarrels. 12) Pastors should not have a covetous spirit, whereby they have an intense desire for material things, talents, or anything else someone else may have. Envy is the root cause of all covetousness.

Drs. Louw and Nida define: “aphilarguros” as: not being desirous or greedy for money – ‘not loving wealth, one who does not love money. Covetousness destroys all present happiness, for a pastor or a saint cannot be truly thankful to God for what he or she presently has. A covetous spirit eats away happiness and contentment in life like a cancer, it can never be satisfied.

13) Above all pastors should know how to be a good father, who has set a good example for their children to follow, and has inspired them to be moral and of good behavior. They should know how to love and lead their wife and children. They also need to know how to discipline them the proper way when they need it; for if they do not know how to effectively to do these things, they will not know how to rule and be a leader in God’s Church.

14) Pastors should be mature men, whom I believe, should at least been saved for ten years. 15) Pastors should be a person who has the respect of those in the church and those who are in the community.

Paul’s pastoral letter to Titus gave some additional qualifications. Paul wrote: “If a man is blameless the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of dissipation or insubordination. For a bishop must be blameless as a steward [oikonomos] of God, not self-willed [authades], not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort [parakaleo] and convict [elegcho] those who contradict” (Tit 1:7-9).

16) Pastors should have good business sense and know how to manage people and well as the temporal affairs of the church. Drs. Friberg defined “oikonomos” as: the manager of a household or of household affairs, one to whom the head of the house or proprietor has entrusted the management of his affairs, the care of receipts and expenditures, and the duty of dealing out the proper portion to every servant and even to the children.

17) Pastors should not be full of pride or live the self-life, but strive to die out to self every day. Dr. Thayer defines “authades” as: self-pleasing, self-willed, or arrogant. 18) Pastors should know how to lovingly and patiently correct those who are in error, and have a excellent knowledge of the Word of God, whereby they will be able to show those in error the truth. Drs. Friberg defined “parakaleo” as: to address, speak to, to instruct, and teach; and “elegcho” as: to convict, refute, and confute.

Duties of A Pastor

The Biblical duties of godly pastors consist of overseeing all the affairs of the Church such as: financial obligations (such as church bills and support of the poor in the church), ministering to the sick and those in prison, leading God’s priesthood in worship, judging the preaching and teaching of the laity and their fellow bishops for doctrinal correctness, reproving and rebuking all errors and wrong behavior of the laity and their fellows pastors, ruling the church with all fairness and without partiality, work together in harmony, unity, and humility with their fellow pastors in the local assembly, as they share equal authority over the church, and last but not least, perfecting and exercising their own preaching and teaching ministries.

Pastors Along With Other Ministries in Each Church Have the Responsibility of Perfecting God’s Priesthood Preaching and Teaching Ministries, and Their Spiritual Life: Paul wrote: “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors, and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:11-13). As I stated before, these offices are given by God to help God’s holy priesthood to become better preachers and teachers of the Word of God, as well as to develop holiness in their lives!

Pastors Have The Responsibility of Supervising and Feeding God’s Priesthood: Paul told the pastors of the one church in Ephesus: “Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers [episkopos], to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). Dr. Thayer speaking of the Greek word “presbuteros” as it applies to the pastoral office in the Jewish Synagogue and in the Christian Church stated: Those who in separate cities managed public affairs and administered justice…. Among the Christians, those who presided over the assemblies (or churches).

Therefore, Pastors have the responsibility of managing all spiritual and secular affairs of the church, being a judge and administering justice without partiality to all in the church. In the following passage of scripture, the apostle gave us some insights into pastors’ administration duties. Paul stated: “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators [kubernesis], [and] speakers in various kinds of tongues” (1Co 12:27-28, RSV). Drs. Friberg defined the Greek word “kubernesis” as: literally the skill with which a pilot guides a ship; figurative as leadership skill administrative ability, gift of leadership. No doubt, this refers to shepherds or pastors who leads and guides the church of God in both spiritual and temporal affairs in this life. Pastors should know how to be leaders and counselors.

Both Peter and Paul told pastors to feed God’s people good and nourishing food. To do this, pastors need to take a day or more preparing each message, so they can avoid being corrected by their fellow pastors, because they did not take the time to prepare their message properly, or for whatever reason they spoke an untruth. All correction should be done in private, whether it be for a pastor or a saint, and they should be given the opportunity, as soon as possible, to speak to the church and correct their teaching, so that God’s people will not believe an untruth. Being corrected and correcting one’s mistake takes a lot of grace and humility on the part of the man of God, but in the end this will turn out to be a great blessing, for we all must give an account to God for the things we have preached and taught!

This is why Paul commanded pastors and saints to: “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth…. And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will” (2Ti 2:15). The apostle gave these instructions to pastors for he knew that there will be times when a saint or pastor will preach or teach a false doctrine, and that person will need to be corrected. Paul gave pastors an example of how to correct someone in love, when he corrected those in the Church of Corinth, who taught the false doctrine of no resurrection of dead (1Co 15:12-30).

Bishops and saints should not: “Teach no other doctrine [but apostolic doctrine], nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification… which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm” (1Ti 1:2-7). Paul then told Bishops to: “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2Ti 4:2-5).

I believe that the greatest duty of a Pastor is to teach God’s holy Priesthood HOW to STUDY the Bible. As long as God’s Saintly Priest are willing to follow BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICAL PRINCIPLES for interpreting the Bible, they should be allowed to exercised their God ordain preaching and teaching ministry!!! The problem is that some good Apostolic Pentecostal Oneness Pastors do not know how to study the Bible, and as a result have allegorized or spiritualized away the truths of the Word of God, because they have ignorantly followed Philo and the early Gnostic Catholic Priest’s method of interpreting the Bible! I have given some good BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICAL PRINCIPLES in my book entitled, How to Study the Bible, which is also given away on my website.

Pastors Have the Responsibility of Being Servants to God’s Priesthood and Not Potentates: According to the Word of God, Christ established His Church with the apostles; and only the apostles rulers over all of God’s Pentecostal Churches throughout the world. These men were not lords but servants to God’s Holy Priesthood. These ministers of the gospel in an eminent or well-known sense were servants of God and as such, servants of the churches in the noble spirit of self-denying love following the example of their Master.

Jesus, as their Master, humbled Himself to them and washed their feet (Jn 13:1-5, 14-15). Jesus taught them through this great example that a servant lovingly and humbly serves those whom he serves. This is why Jesus told his apostles, and no doubt this also applies to pastors: “And whoever desires to be first [the ruler] among you, let him be your slave -- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” (Mt 20:27-28).

After Peter informed God’s children that all “born again” believers were now the Clergy of God and have a ministry in the Church (1Pe 2:5), he then instructed the bishops to: “feed the flock of God [or God’s Holy Priests] which is among you, taking the oversight [episkopeo] thereof, not by constraint [or force], but willingly; not for filthy lucre [aischrokerdos] but of a ready mind. Neither as being lords [katanuxis] over God’s heritage, but being ensamples [tupos] to the flock” (1Pe 5:2-3). Peter wrote these verses as I said before by the inspiration of God to protect God’s Priests from future Nicolaitan Bishops who wanted to become lords over them.

The Greek verb “episkopeo” means to: oversee or look diligently upon. As a noun, “episkopos” means: a bishop or an overseer. “Aischrokerdos” is a compound word coming from “aischros,” which means: shameful, and “kerdos” means: gain. “Katanuxis” means: to lord against i.e. to control, subjugate, or exercise dominion over, and “tupos” means: a sampler i.e. a model for imitation. [62]

Therefore, bishops are not: to control, dominate, or subjugate God’s priests, but be leaders to them; or in other words, they are not to rule God’s church as the Catholic Nicolaitan-Balaamite bishops ruled their deceived congregations. The spirit of domination is the spirit of witchcraft. The desire for self-exaltation is the spirit of pride, which was Lucifer downfall, and the spirit that has earned for him a position in the Lake of Fire!

Many of God’s pastors do not realize that they can lose their soul and be lost, if they do not rule over God’s children as a loving servant instead of a lord, master, or dictator. Instead of disciplining God’s holy Priests as a wise and loving father would discipline his own children in a loving, kind, and firm spirit, they bark out their commands as a king over their subjects. They can offend their brother or sister and cause them to fall. When this happens, their blood God will require on this pastor’s hands! Sometimes it is not what a pastor says that hurts, but the spirit in which he says it. A pastor should be kind and have control over his spirit.

God’s Warning to All Pastors and Saints: “At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, ‘who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven…?’ [Jesus answered] ‘Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven…. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes” (Mt 18:1, 4-7)! Pastor a word of advice, if you cause any of God’s children to stumble or backslide, either by what you said or your actions, if I were you, I would seek him or her out and ask their forgiveness!!

The apostle Paul declared: “For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ…. So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way” (Rom 14:10-13); and “For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. And again, ‘The LORD will judge His people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (Heb 10:30-31). Pastor, our God is a good Father, and He does not make idle threats to His children!

Peter defined some of the duties of bishops in this passage of scripture so clear, that only Nicolaitan heretical pastors would mistake his meaning. The apostle admonished God’s pastors not to shepherd God’s people for the motive of material gain or earthly rewards, but because they loves them as their own sons and daughters, or brothers and sisters, or family. Peter also told pastors to become an examples or models for the saints to follow, so they could imitate their love, humility, meekness, and holiness, and so on; just as a father in a home should be a model for his sons to follow.

The apostle commanded pastors to watch over and take care of God’s priests as fathers, who watch over and take care of their children; as fathers who would love them enough to correct them with a loving and patient spirit, when they go astray or teach error. The only real example we have in the Word of God of anyone being corrected in the Church is found in 1 Corinthians 5:1-7; according to this passage, Paul told the Church to put this brother out of the Church for his continual immorality. Evidently, the apostle was fearful that this immoral spirit might sweep through the Church and corrupt it. After a while, when this brother truly repented of this, Paul told the Church to forgive him and accept him back into the Church (2Co 7:8-12).

I personal believe when a brother of sister has a real problem with immorality, that is, adultery or fornication, whereby it was not a one time act that can be kept secret, this person should be designated a chair or chairs, probably in the very back as their place to sit in the Church. The right side back chair for men and the left side back chair for women. The reason for this is that this person really needs to be humbled in hopes they may repent.

I believe that this person should not be thrown out of the church, because they need to be in a spiritual environment, where God can convict them of their sins. By placing the brother or sister in a “chair of discipline,” all of God’s children can be warned that this person has a real problem with immorality; it will also let those who are spiritual and have the love of God in their heart know that this brother or sister really needs intercessory prayer to be offered up on their behalf! This will also serve as a warning to all saints that this type of sin will not be tolerated in the Church!!

Pastors Should Be Holy and Humble Examples to God’s Priesthood: “But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, ‘You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” (Mk 10:42-45).

The apostle Paul said it this way: “Be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity… [and] give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine…. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you…. Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger as sisters, with all purity” (1Ti 4:12-16).

This means that pastors should look on and love older saints as their own father or mother, and younger saints as their own brothers and sisters, or in other words, as their own love ones or family! A pastor life and conduct should be holy, whereby it would be an example for all the congregation to imitate. A pastor should also love and master sound biblical doctrine, whereby the Word of God can be in his heart and he can have the mind of Christ on the issues of life.

“Let the elders who rule [proistemi] well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine” (1Ti 5:17). In this verse, Paul gave some of the attributes of rulership. Paul associated it with being a protector and guardian of God’s children. The Greek verb “proistemi” means: to be over, to superintend, preside over, to be a protector or guardian. Paul instructed God’s priests in each church to: “Obey them [not him] that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls, as they [not he] that must give account” (Heb 13:17). Pastoring is an awesome responsibility, for pastors can loose their own souls if they rule God’s priests with a dominating and harsh spirit, or if they allow sin to spread throughout the church; for they must give an account to God for how they have served and feed God’s people.

Pastors Have the Responsibility of Loving God’s Children, Being Fair, Just, and Impartial in All There Decisions and Judgments: Let every pastor who claims that God called him to be a bishop, compare his love and care for God’s children, his ministry, and teachings, with that of the Lord and His apostles. If he is really a God called man than he should be following and imitating Jesus and His apostles’ example, for the holy office of a bishop is no place for a novice:

Jesus’ Pastoral Example: “So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:12-17); and “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you…. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you” (John 15:12, 14). Pastor are you a humble and loving man of God, as your master commanded you to be. If not, what are you doing in this holy office, for God obviously did not put you there.

Paul’s Pastoral Example: “Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you;” and “If anyone thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things which I write to you are the commandments of the Lord” (1Co 11:1-2; 14:37). Pastors are you imitating Jesus and His apostles, or some preaching in your organization.

Nowhere in Paul’s epistles can any pastor find the great apostle rebuking God’s children in a mean, harsh, dominating, or potentate spirit: “Now I plead with [not command] you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1Co 1:10); and “you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Eph 6:4). It could also be said: “pastors do not provoke God’s children to wrath by disciplining them in a harsh and unloving spirit.” Discipline is absolutely necessary for God’s children to grow and mature in Christ, but when it is done unfairly, unjustly, or in a wrong spirit, it becomes a tool of Satan to destroy God’s people.

Even when Paul rebuked the brother who was in immorality, he did it with a heart full of love and compassion: “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles -- that a man has his father’s wife! And you are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you” (1Co 5:1-2). In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, we can see the heart of this great pastor, as Paul instructs the Church to forgive this brother and accept him back into the Church, because the brother truly repented.

Paul wrote: “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you…. This punishment which was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man, so that, on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love to him” (2Co 2:4-8). Pastor does it pain you to rebuke a sinning brother or sister, or do you gloat over it, and brag to your fellow pastors total control and authority over saints in the Church. Brother, if you do the latter, you have no business being a pastor!

Pastor can you have compassion on carnal Christians in the church, as Paul did: “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men” (1Co 3:1-3).

“For I fear lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish, and that I shall be found by you such as you do not wish; lest there be contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, backbitings, whisperings, conceits, tumults; lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and lewdness which they have practiced” (2Co 12:20-21). Pastor can you love God’s children this way and yet be firm in your discipline.

What about having compassion on immature brothers, who do not have a firm grasp on the Word of God: “And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble” (1Co 8:11-13). Pastors do you have this kind of compassion for God’s children?

Pastor are you spiritual, do you have a gentile spirit, do you know how to help saints who have fallen into sin, and do you know how to carry God’s people burdens? “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ…. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Ga 6:1-2, 10); and “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you” (Ga 4:19). Pastor has you gone through the anguish of labor to bring God’s children to maturity.

Pastor are you a servant to God’s children, as Jesus and Paul were to those they served: “Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God…. Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other…. You have reigned as kings without us -- and indeed I could wish you did reign, that we also might reign with you…! We labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure…. I do not write these things to shame you, but as my beloved children I warn you…. Therefore, I urge you, imitate me. For this reason I have sent Timothy to you, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church” (1Co 4:1, 6, 8, 12, 1417). Pastor, if you are not a servant to your people, what is stopping you from becoming one.

Pastor how do you judge and handle problems between two saints in the Church. Out Lord and Master gave us this instruction: “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector” (Mt 18:15-17). Jesus quoted the Law of Moses that stated: “One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established” (Deu 19:15).

The apostle Paul told us what to do after the problem is brought to the Church: “Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge” (1Co 6:1-4)? Pastors can you follow Jesus and Paul’s instruction here, if not, why not?

Pastor Paul, like his Master, strongly recommended saints forgiving one of all wrongs as the true solution to problems between saints: “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you…. Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us” (Eph 4:30-32; 5:1-2). Pastor if your heart is not easily touched by the burdens and problems of God’s children, then you are really in the wrong position, God has not called you to be a pastor.

Pastor are you a real student of the Word of God, or you a Catholic Nicolaitan allegorist who spiritualizes the Word of God: “But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God” (2Co 4:2). Pastors do you take scriptures out of their context and spiritualize away its true meaning to form a sermon? Do you take certain passages of scripture on a subject literal, and spiritualize the other passages on the same subject, because they do not agree with your doctrinal beliefs? If you do, what are you doing in the ministry, for you are a false prophet.

Let every pastor take note to the analogy Paul makes to his pastoral care for God’s children. “We were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. For you remember, brethren, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God. You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory” (1Th 2:4, 6-12).

Pastor Paul compared himself to a nursing mother feeding her child, in which the mother gives the child exactly the kind of nourishment the child needs to grow and mature. Pastor, what kind of doctrinal nourishment are you giving God’s children? Are you giving them real meat, or are you giving them milk? Are your messages 40% preaching and 60% teaching, or is it 90 % preaching and 10% teaching, or 90% teaching and 10% preaching.

I am thoroughly ashamed to say, I know too many pastors who give God’s people mostly junk food; they spend only 2 or 3 or 4 hours before a service to prepare a meal; they usually pull out a concordance and look up a few scriptures and that is it. Most of them are master allegorist, whereby they take scriptures out of they proper context, and put meanings to them that God never intended. Now most of them can give fiery orations, that could cause many to shout, but when saints go home, they have forgotten what the pastor preached, because the message had no real biblical doctrinal substances. They never built a foundation and then built on that foundation, whereby a clear understanding of that doctrine could be obtained.

I would hate to be in their shoes at the Judgment, when God asks them, why didn’t they feed His people, whereby they could grow and mature, and He could use each of them “for the work of the ministry” (Eph 4:12). I seriously doubt that most of them even realize, that God called pastors, have a duty before God to make every saint preachers and teachers of the gospel! They have no cue to why the apostle Peter called ever born-again child of God a “priest” or the “clergy” of God (1Pe 2:5, 9). What a sad indictment against pastors.

Pastors do you do wrong to God’s children, or corrupt them so you can use and exploit them to fulfill your own lust or desires: “Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one. I do not say this to condemn; for I have said before that you are in our hearts” (2Co 7:1-3); and “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved…. Did I take advantage of you by any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus, and sent our brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit? Did we not walk in the same steps…? We do all things, beloved, for your edification” (2Co 12:15-19).

Pastor Paul also declared: “We give no offense in anything, that our ministry may not be blamed. But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left” (2Co 6:3-7). Pastor are you honest, patient, longsuffering, kind, and loving? If not, what are you doing as a pastor.

Paul mentions several great attributes that were in Christ and the apostles’ ministries; these attributes should also be in every pastor’s ministry: “Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus…. Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation….”

“Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame -- who set their mind on earthly things…. Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand” (Phi 2:1-5, 14-15; 3:17-19; 4:5). The apostle mentions several times in his epistles that he had the mind of Christ. Every pastor needs to have the mind of Christ.

James’ Pastoral Example: Pastor is the law of kindness and wisdom in your tongue: “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God…. But be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves…. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world” (Ja 1:19-22, 26-27); Paul said the same thing when he told Timothy: “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one” (Col 4:6).

Jesus said: “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Mt 12:34). Pastor what comes out of your mouth as your heart speaks. Is your heart filled with good things or evil things? Why is it that very few pastors ever preach on the sins of gossip and slander? Is it because they are afraid they may offend someone in the church, or is it because they are guilty of these sins. In some cases, or maybe, in many cases, the pastor is the gossiper or slanderer. This is an abomination in God’s sight.

How many pastors can honestly say that they perform their ministry without prejudice and partiality: “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ and say to the poor man, ‘You stand there,’ or, ‘Sit here at my footstool,’ have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts…? If you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (Ja 2:1-4). The apostle James definitely reveals that some of the pastors he knew, definitely showed partiality to those who were rich in their congregation. Pastor do you commit this sin also?

Paul told pastor Timothy the very same thing: “I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels that you observe these things without prejudice, doing nothing with partiality. Do not lay hands on anyone hastily, nor share in other people’s sins; keep yourself pure” (1Ti 5:1-2, 19-22). Did pastors Paul and James write these commands for naught?

Pastor are you burden for the faithful poor saints in the Church: “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (Ja 2:13-17). Pastor James, like his Lord (Mt 25:40) and pastor Paul (Rom 15:26-28; Ga 2:10), had a real burden for the poor that was among God’s children. Pastor how do you minister to the faithful poor in your congregation, is it by word or actions, or both?

James mentions some good attributes that every pastor should develop in their ministry: “My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment…. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy” (Ja 3:1, 13-17).

Peter’s Pastoral Example: The apostle Peter mentions some good attributes that every pastor should develop in their ministry: “Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous; not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing;” and “Above all things have fervent love for one another, for ‘love will cover a multitude of sins.’ Be hospitable to one another without grumbling” (1Pe 3:8-9; 4:8-9). Pastor do you want your Lord to forgive your sins? If you do then you should be full of compassion, and love, whereby your heart is tender and broken before your Lord.

John’s Pastoral Example: John, like his Lord and His apostles, associated true love for God with love for one’s brother in the Christ: “Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another…. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death…. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1Jn 3:10-11, 14, 17-18). Pastor how much do you love the faithful poor in your congregation? Do you invest the money of the Church in helping meeting the basic needs of life, which God’s children in the church you pastor have?

The Privileges of A Pastor

Loving and Honoring Pastors: Paul speaking about the pastors in each congregation that Timothy had charge of said: “Let the elders [presbuteros] that rule well, be counted worthy of double honor, especially [malista] those who labor in the Word and doctrine” (1Ti 5:17). The Greek superlative adverb “malista” basically means: especially, chiefly, most of all, or above all. In this verse of scripture the apostle commands God’s priesthood to give double honor to the pastors in their congregation, who are efficient administrators, great councilors, fair, and impartial judges, and inspiring leaders.

After this, Paul the great preacher and teacher, commanded God’s priests to especially or above all love, honor, and obey those pastors who are great students of the Word of God, who do intensive research and comprehensive systematic studies of the doctrines of the Bible, so they can edify and build up God priests in truth. Paul admonished saints not only to give their pastors great honor, but also to love them, as a child would love their own parents. The apostle wrote: “And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake” (1Th 5:12-13).

A Word of Warning for Pastors: The greatest privilege pastors can ask for or receive is to be loved and appreciated by the people of God. To be loved and appreciated by someone is the greatest need humanity has, and it is the least understood and recognized. In fact, God made angels and human beings to fulfill this need in His heart. There is a world of difference between man’s need to be loved and appreciated, and the sinful desire to be worship, for worship belongs to God and God alone! The only reason I mention this is because I have seen this attitude in some pastors, who allow their people to do so!

Only sinful beings, like Lucifer, desire to be worship, but godly men will hate it and reject it every time; for example, Satan told our Lord, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, you shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve” (Mt 4:9-10). When the people in Lystra were going to worship Paul and Barnabas the Bible says: “they tore their clothes and ran in among the multitude, crying out and saying, ‘Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men with the same nature as you” (Acts 14:14-15).

Pastors Are Entitled to Receive Freewill Offerings from Those Who Love Them: “For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle [close the mouth] an ox while it treads out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer is worthy of his wages [misthos]” (1Ti 5:18). The Greek word “misthos” means: dues paid for work. In this verse of scripture, Paul gave us another benefit of being a pastor, which is the privilege of receiving love gifts or freewill offerings from those they minister to.

Paul greatly encouraged God’s children to minister to the physical needs of pastors and their families, just as these pastors ministered to their spiritual needs. This is why the apostle uses the illustration of an ox with his mouth close, for if the ox cannot eat, he will lose his strength and not be able to work; and if the ox is fed poorly, he will not be able to work effectively. God base this arrangement on saints loving their pastors enough to take care of them, and pastors living by faith expecting God to meet their needs.

The apostle Paul told God’s priests in Galatia the very same thing. He said: “Let him who is taught the Word share [koinoneo] in all good things with him who teaches” (Ga 6:6). The Greek word “koinoneo,” according to Drs. Louw and Nida means: to share one’s possessions, with the implication of some kind of joint participation and mutual interest – ‘to share….’ ‘The man who is being taught the Christian message should share all the good things he has with his teacher’ Ga 6.6. In this passage, the Word of God does not tell us who the teachers are, whether they are pastors or ministering saints. It probably applies to both, with a special application to pastors.

In the following passage of scripture, Paul speaking of apostles, pastors, and all other ministers, who should live by faith, as they minister the gospel. Paul wrote, “Do we [meaning Barnabas and himself] have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas? Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working?” The answer is obviously yes they do have that right! Paul continues his discourse by saying: “Who ever goes to war at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard and does not eat of its fruit? Or who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock?” The answer to these questions is obviously no one!

Paul then gave the same illustration that he gave in Timothy for ministerial support. The apostle declared: “Do I say these things as a mere man? Or does not the law say the same also? For it is written in the Law of Moses, ‘You shall not muzzle [close the mouth] an ox while it treads out the grain.’ Is it oxen God is concerned about? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be partaker of his hope.”

If this does not mean in hope that the saints of God will meet their physical needs as they live by faith, then what hope is he referring to? It evidently does not refer to pastors receiving a salary, for if it did, then why would they hope for something that they knew they would receive.

Paul continued his discourse for the support of minister by saying: “If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless we have not used this right, but endure all things lest we hinder the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. But I have used none of these things, nor have I written these things that it should be done so to me; for it would be better for me to die than that anyone should make my boasting void” (1Co 9:5-15).

In what sense could Paul or any pastor and minister hinder the gospel by accepting freewill offerings from God’s priesthood? It is obvious, someone could accuse them of ministering to the saints for the motive of material rewards, or in other words, claim that material rewards is what motivated the apostles, pastors, and ministers to preach the gospel of Christ. I suppose this is the reason by the apostles commanded pastors and ministers not to be “greedy for money,” or “for dishonest gain,” or “make merchandise of” the people of God, or “run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit” (1Ti 3:3; Tit 1:7; 1Pe 5:2; 2Pe 2:3; Jude 1:11).

Which one of us can really know what motives anyone has for doing anything? If a pastor or minister really does have a hireling spirit, in time the fruit that comes out of their mouth and life will reveal it (Jn 10:12-13; Mt 7:14-20). The laws of the New Testament do not teach against pastors receiving freewill offerings, as they live by faith, as the above passages of scriptures so clearly proves; but there is not one scripture in the New Testament that reveals that anyone, whether it be an apostle, or pastor, or ministering saint, ever received a salary for preaching the gospel.

Our Lord sent out His apostles and commanded them to take no money, but to live by faith and to receive freewill offering from the people they ministered to. Jesus said it this way: “Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food” (Mt 10:9-10).

Why did Jesus tell His ministers to take no money, if it was not because He wanted them to live by faith and trust Him for all their needs? I suppose this is the reason why He did not give us one example in the New Testament of any of His apostles or pastors ever receiving a salary. He evidently did not want any of His people becoming a hireling or ministering the gospel for the sake of material rewards.

The life of faith is definitely not an easy one for any minister of the gospel to live by, especially if they have a family. I suppose this is the reason why according to history that the early pastors and ministers of the gospel held a secular job as Professor Harnack and other historians have pointed out. Dr. Harnack speaking of Church funds wrote: Church-officials were not, in the first instance, [meaning in the age of the apostles,] obliged to abandon their civil calling, and so far as that provided them with a livelihood, they had no claim upon the church’s funds. [63]

Summary: The office of the presbyter-bishop was to teach and to supervise the particular congregation committed to their charge. Their primary duty was to perfect the saints for the “work of the ministry” (Eph 4:11). These pastors did this through setting an example for them to follow, teaching the Word of God, instructing them how to teach and rightly interpret it, etc. To them belonged the direction of public worship, the administration of discipline, the care of souls, and the management of church property.

The pastors of each congregation were usually chosen from the first converts, and appointed by the apostles or their delegates, with the approval of the congregation. They no doubt maintained a relation of fraternal equality in each congregation. The New Testament gives us no information about the division of labor among the pastors in each congregation. It is quite probable that they distributed the various duties of their office among themselves according to their respective talents, tastes, experience, and convenience.

Their government of the church was a labor of meekness and love, of self-denial and unreserved devotion to the eternal welfare of the people. Peter, one of the princes among the apostles, humbly calls himself a “fellow-presbyter,” and raises his prophetic warning against the hierarchical spirit, which later took hold of Ignatius of Antioch and Clement of Rome!

There Are No More Apostles and Prophets, Who Can Add New Scriptures to the Written Word of God: The Prophets of the Old Testament and the Apostles of the New Testament, who spoke, interpreted, and wrote scripture, were in the FOUNDATION of the Church! Therefore, there are no more writing Prophets or Apostles in God’s Church today. The Word of God emphatically, unequivocally, indisputably declared: “For through Him [i.e. Jesus] we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you [i.e. NT Saints] are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the Saints [i.e. OT Saints], and are of God's household, HAVING BEEN BUILT upon the FOUNDATION [themelios] of the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the CORNER STONE, in whom the whole building [i.e. the Body of Christ], being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord”(Eph 2:18-21, NAS).

Drs. Timothy and Barbara Friberg in their Analytical Lexicon to the Greek New Testament defined

Table of Contents:

Introduction (11)

Chapter 1 The Nicolaitan Doctrine Defined (13)