The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

toward lordship in the Church--separating the Lord's people into two classes, the clergy
and the laity. We see that what in the Ephesus period was manifested only in "deeds,"
gradually, in the Smyrna period, was developing (although under another name--
"synagogue of Satan"), and in the Pergamos period had merged into a full-fledged doctrine
(clericalism), becoming an important principle in its creed, and has been held as such ever
since by the great professing church systems. We have already dwelt upon this quite
extensively, in considering the messages to Ephesus and Smyrna, and therefore rest the
matter, to take up another very remarkable feature of this Church--one which describes
another noted evil that became manifest in this period of Church history.
"But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine
of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat
things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication."--Verse 14.
It is generally understood that the meaning of the word Balaam is "destroyer of the
people." Brown's Bible Dictionary gives it as a "swallower of the people," which means
practically the same. Balaam seems to have been a prophet at one time, in at least outward
nearness to the Lord. We may form a correct idea of his character as we read Jude's brief
description of some teachers of his time, of whom he says, they "ran greedily after the
error of Balaam for reward." He seems to have been a prophet who apostatized. "It will be
remembered that Balaam, who had been a prophet of God, instructed King Balak how to
tempt Israel to sin, and thus brought about what he could not accomplish by his own
powers." (Num. 23; 24; 31:16.) Balaam's sin was that for wages he counseled with the
enemies of Israel, the Moabites, and advised Balak, their king, to draw the Israelites into
forbidden friendships, and adulterous and idolatrous alliances, the result of which was
that "twenty-four thousand were destroyed." (Num. 25:9.) The sin of Balaam evidently
refers to the acts of those professed Christian teachers, the clericals, who counseled a union
with the state, and a mingling on the part of God's professed people, in worldly
gatherings, feasts, and pleasures.
"When the Church and the world become on good terms with one another, and the Church
has the things of the world to attract the natural heart, the hireling prophet is a matter of
course, who for his own ends will seek to destroy whatever remains of godly
separateness."
Regardless of how it may be with individuals who allow the natural heart to draw them
away from heavenly, spiritual things, and regardless of how often individuals may be
delivered and brought back, it is a fact proved by history that a church which has thus
departed is never recovered. There may be many reformations or attempts to this end, but
these are always more or less partial. The Church as a whole, in the age of Constantine, fell
away to the world, and there has never since been a full recovery. This is one of the most
vital matters connected with both individual Christians and assemblies of such. It is then a
most important question: "How far are we as individuals and churches to maintain a
separateness from the world?" It is certainly true that "our associations are judged of God
as surely as any other part of our conduct." "Be ye not unequally yoked together with