Nicolaitans

Nicolaitans [∞]

Discussion

Conquerors of the laity [∞] During the time of Eli, the high priest, his sons lorded their position over the people, even stealing the offerings from the pot. Though the priests were allowed to eat some sacrifices, they were taking that which was not theirs. Certainly pastors are allowed to get paid, as the priests were allowed to eat. But the position is of service, not of lordship. The pastor is not any more of a priest than the rest of the church, which is a nation of kings and priests.
Control of scripture [∞] Initially, the first priests controlled access to the relatively rare copies of the scripture. When the Gutenberg press made copies available to all, they discouraged reading it by the myth that only trained experts, the priests, could properly read it. They narrowed it further by saying only a committee of priests could interpret it, and that papal declarations were infallible no matter how senseless they were. The Reformers said that all men could read the Bible for themselves and were responsible for interpreting it. So the Jesuit priest Loyola started to teach that Faith and Science were seperate realms. The Universities were set up to teach secular truth, while pushing divine truth to the side. Since people came up with their own interpretations, often contradictiong each other, small offshoots of the Reformation established their own popes who declared which doctrines were true. At the end of the 20th Century, there was so much confusion among denominations, that a group of theologians, scholars and pastors declared themselves to be the priests of Evangelicalism and produced the Chicago Statements as the standard of Biblical truth.
Control of education [∞] The teachers of children are taught by those who control the universities. The main thing they learn is that God is a fairy tale you can believe if you want, but science is the real god. The seeds of rationalism planted by Loyola have borne fruit.
Entertainment [∞] Diaries of early Jesuits contain the proud bragging of how they supported or overthrew governments by theater. The masses were easily brainwashed to do their will through the stage.