Revelation

THE BOOK OF REVELATION: M. M. NINAN
Catholic Church in 1896, and since then it has become a popular place of pilgrimage. Pope Paul VI visited
the shrine in 1967.
House of Mary
Meryemana
Jesus commends them for their active orthodoxy, their toil, patience and intolerance of evil and opposition
to false doctrines. In the process of building up a church they lost their first love - the depth and desire was
lost. In the process of building an institutional church capable of withstanding the ongoing evil they lost
their priorities - Jesus was not given the prominence. The superstructure was built up. We can see this even
today in the growth of any church. When the church begins the people are so enthusiastic and filled with
love for each other and the life of the church is centered on Jesus. As time goes on, legalism and
superstructures became necessary and eventually they miss the centrality of Jesus and remained as an
edifice of structure at the building level and the social level. It does not mean that the buildings and
structures and social activities are evil or unnecessary. It should not deter the love within the community
and the love for Christ.
Rev 2:6 But you have this in your favor: You hate the practices of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Nicolaitan heresy is an extreme form of Gnosticism which was rampant during the Apostolic Age. They
taught that, since their bodies were physical, it did not matter what the body did. So they resorted to
indiscriminate sexual relations and did whatever they liked with their bodies. Iraneas reports that the sect
was so called because their leader was Nicolaos. Sex is even today a potential danger of close loving
Christian communities.
We can foresee the growth of cults like the Children of God and others in the Nicolaitan teachings.
This name has another meaning.
Nico = ruler.
Laitan = of the Laity
So Nicolaitan would mean ruler of the laity. Hence this may indicate the growth of the supremacy of the
clergy in the church. The rise of the Priesthood in Christianity is a copy of the Priesthood in the Roman
pagan religion. These cultural traditions were mixed with Aaronic Priesthood and were readopted into the
institutional churches. There is nothing wrong in the adoption of cultural setup into Christian
Institutionalization as long as it does not produce a basic contradiction in the theological basis of Christian
faith. In this case as time went on clergy slowly became the rulers and took over spiritual authority in
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