by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
Revelation 2:15 mentions the doctrine of the Nicolaitans and says that God “hates” that doctrine. Whatever it was, the church at Pergamos had members that taught this doctrine as well as the doctrine of Balaam (Revelation 2:14). Because of these doctrines in the church, God had “a few things against you.<\/em>” Whatever these doctrines were, it mattered to God and He was not going to tolerate it.<\/p>\n Contrary to what people today think, doctrine is important to God. John said that we must “abide in the doctrine of Christ<\/em>” (II John 9-10) and that if you don’t abide (stay put; don’t venture into other doctrines that originate from men) then you “have neither the Father nor the Son<\/em>.” Doctrine is equated with having God. You cannot have God without the right doctrine, the pure doctrine of Christ. When the doctrine taught is from men, it contaminates the relationship with God and causes a separation from Him. If the church tolerates such doctrines, they risk separation from God’s fellowship.<\/p>\n Don’t let anyone tell you that “that is just doctrine and doctrine does not matter.” You cannot have God’s favor without the pure doctrine of Christ. –<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton Revelation 2:15 mentions the doctrine of the Nicolaitans and says that God “hates” that doctrine. Whatever it was, the church at Pergamos had members that taught this doctrine as well as the doctrine of Balaam (Revelation 2:14). Because of these doctrines in the church, God had “a few things against you.”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[700,77,101],"class_list":["post-63493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-balaam","tag-doctrine","tag-nicolaitans"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":23935,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/didnt-you-overlook-the-also-in-the-discussion-about-the-nicolaitans-in-revelation-215\/","url_meta":{"origin":63493,"position":0},"title":"Didn’t you overlook the “also” in the discussion about the Nicolaitans in Revelation 2:15?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was reading\u00a0your response regarding the nature of the Nicolaitans, their doctrine, and practice. Perhaps you may take the same issue with me that you do with the other commentator who did not offer an answer but rather a criticism. However, I hope you would pardon the simplicity of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13455,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/it-seems-obvious-to-me-that-nicolaitans-refers-to-the-clergy-system-in-the-roman-catholic-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":63493,"position":1},"title":"It seems obvious to me that Nicolaitans refers to the clergy system in the Roman Catholic Church","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Regarding the word \"Nicolaitan\".\u00a0 Indeed many definitions from lexicons simply say something that doesn't really lend any specific information to what it means.\u00a0 However certain things should be glaringly obvious here from the start. It's mentioned twice. Romans Catholics claimed it was just some short-lived sex cult with some\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":89800,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-doctrine\/","url_meta":{"origin":63493,"position":2},"title":"What Is Doctrine?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mike Riley The word \"doctrine\" means \"teaching\", either of an individual or a group. But from what source? For example, Jesus warned His disciples about the \"doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees\" (Matthew 16:12). Their \"doctrine\" or teaching originated from an uninspired source. The people were astonished at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":579,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/who-were-the-nicolaitans\/","url_meta":{"origin":63493,"position":3},"title":"Who were the Nicolaitans?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 12, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Who were the Nicolaitans? Answer: The work \"Nicolaitan\" is only mentioned in\u00a0Revelation 2:6\u00a0and\u00a02:15. It comes from the Greek word\u00a0nikolaites\u00a0which literally means \"a follower of Nicolaus.\" Nicholas was a name used by some. For instance, one of the early deacons mentioned in\u00a0Acts 6:5\u00a0was called Nicholas (\"nicolaus\" in the Greek). Whether\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14591,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-importance-of-doctrine\/","url_meta":{"origin":63493,"position":4},"title":"The Importance of Doctrine","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 26, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Steve Klein via\u00a0The Bulletin of the Church of Christ at New Georgia, August 26, 2007 This past week, I noticed that the sign in front of the Presbyterian Church in Rogersville said, \"Love God. Love others. The rest is doctrine.\" The message was plain. Loving God and loving others\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61353,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doctrine\/","url_meta":{"origin":63493,"position":5},"title":"Doctrine","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 11, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"A person will not reach heaven if they advocate a doctrine different from God A person who changes God's teaching is condemned - Galatians 1:6-10; I Timothy 6:3-5; Revelation 22:18-19 Men are to be instructed not to teach different doctrines - I Timothy 1:3-4 We are commanded to reject a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Notes"","block_context":{"text":"Notes","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/notes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}