FB Doctrine of Balaam
The Nicolaitans are a tricky bunch. Since they wish to retain control, they don't want to be identified as Nicolaitans, as that would be a bad thing. They will tell you that the Nicolaitans were a small insignificant heretical group led by a guy named Nicholas. John and Jesus did not think it was insignificant. They warned the church throughout the ages against them. They are the 'conquerors of the laity'.
There is nothing wrong with having competent church leadership, but the leadership model they follow is that of Christ; the servant of all.
So what have the Nicolaitans been up to for 2000 years? They have been teaching the doctrine of Balaam. Balaam was hired by an enemy of Israel to curse Israel so he could conquer them. Balaam tried to curse them a couple times but God forced him to bless them. This is an illustration of the symbol of the bridled donkey. Balaam's donkey was 'forced by God' to speak to Balaam. It should have been a lesson to Balaam that his own mouth, the mouth of a prophet, is controlled by God.
Finally, to earn the money he was paid, he told the king he could not curse them because they had found favor with God. To get God to curse them, he had to get the Israelites to do things that would make them lose favor with God. The king sent in party girls to Israel to cause Israel to offend God.
This is the doctrine of Balaam. You teach your enemy falsehoods about God to cause them to lose favor in God's sight. The doctrine of Balaam was practiced before the time of Christ. The Jews, misinterpreting the blessing on Abraham, thought that God loved them and them alone. They were going to keep it that way. It was the doctrine of Balaam that made Jonah not want to preach in Ninevah. He did not want them to repent; but for God to destroy them.
This was the motivation behind translating the Hebrew text into Greek. The Jews did not want Greeks to find favor with God. They wanted to plant seeds of disbelief in the minds of the Greeks. The rabbis confess to changing scripture to control what the Greeks believed.
There is a discussion about the first three words of Genesis. This is a ruse. People would notice that it was changed, so they gave a plausible answer to put them off from looking at other changes.
When a translation choice is made between options and one is chosen to leave doubt about the word of God, it was intentional practice of the doctrine of Balaam. If you think this is farfetched, look to the Nicolaitan Augustine, who claimed that the Greek translation was more reliable than the original Hebrew. On it's face, this is nonsense. But since they controlled the church, there was little anyone could do. The average person could not access the scriptures. This was the early form of internet censorship. Simply silence the opposition.
The first problem with the Septuagint is that it is a translation. I have previously posted a taste of Gen 1:1 and you can see what is missing in the translation.
I will begin documenting 'Balaamisms'; that is, things that leave you questioning the word of God a a result of translation or dogma.
Christians have been taught to say that the Bible has not been mis-translated or changed. The Nicolaitans taught them that to preserve the Balaamisms. In spite of their efforts, God has protected his word so that salvation is still found in Christ through it. But their perversions created a cacophony of competing denominations. The purpose is to cause confusion and drive the laity that broke away, back to the Pope. We see this happening now. The devil plays a long game.
