Why the Conflict?(Part 2)

Why are soul-winners able to recognize tares, when other Christians can't? In thirty-nine years as a born-again Christian, I have been called upon to run "Children's Church" three times.

Shortly out of Bible college, I was in a church that ran about 175 kids in Children's Church, and they put me in charge. Several of us worked hard on bus routes, and we got the attendance up to 300. Then the pastor's wife stepped in, attacking me, slandering me to her followers, and demanding that she be put in charge. Her husband gave it to her, and three years later, they had about ten kids in Children's Church.

In another church, Children's Church was a failure. The woman in charge did nothing, and a handful of high school kids took turns running it. Most of it was play time. I took over, got it going well, and then the woman in charge found out about it. She quickly fired me, put her brother in charge, and abandoned it again. When she left for the mission field a year later, her brother gladly dumped the whole mess on me, and several of us were able to build it into a success.

When I retired to Mexico, our church asked me to start a Children's Church for the four kids in the church. We had a high day of 27, but we averaged around ten or twelve. The entire time, a woman in the church fought me at every step. She went around slandering me, cancelled the Children's Church service a couple of times, started a rival Children's Church service in the front lobby, and urged people not to let their children attend. On one occasion, she put a new Christian in charge, with strict orders not to let me in. She wanted to set up a system in which she would rule over a group of women who would run the Children's Church for her. Later, when a church started by her husband failed, they left Mexico.

In all three cases, a Nicolaitan saw a successful work, and felt that she should rule the people who were doing all the work. In none of those cases did the Nicolaitan contribute to the success of the work. But in all three cases, the Nicolaitan had been involved in Christian service!

Ga 5:19 tells us: Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are:... hatred, contentions, jealousies...selfish ambitions, dissensions...envy...of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.


How do soul-winners spot tares? We see them practicing the above sins when they attack us.

Why the Conflict?

Mt 13:27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?'
28 "He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, 'Do you want us then to go and gather them up?'
29 "But he said, 'No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.

In other parables, servants are the ones sent to gather guests for the wedding feast. In other words, servants are soul-winners in the parables. It is often taught that we can't be sure who the tares are, but the servants knew; they even offered to get rid of the tares.

But the owner explained (in the Greek) that the roots of the tares and the wheat are so intertwined that if they started pulling up the tares, they would pull up wheat with them.

Which brings up the question: How did the servants recognize the tares? Why didn't the pastors, or the bishops, or the elders, or the teachers recognize the tares? What did the soul-winners see that the others didn't see?

Soul-winning Tares

Mark 6:12 So they went out and preached that people should repent.

It's hard to believe that an unsaved person can be a soul-winner, but it is possible. A major problem today with soul-winners is "easy believism." Easy believism is the doctrine that if you say "Jesus please save me," and mean it, you are saved, whether or not you believe the Gospel.

The Greek word translated "believe" has no perfect English translation. It does NOT mean that you believe that Jesus exists. The word means "completely accept, completely rely on, completely trust." A person who asks Jesus to save him, but has no intention of allowing Jesus to be Lord of his life, has not completely accepted Jesus. Nowhere in the Bible was a person saved by repeating a prayer, but many people in the Bible got saved by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.

When a person turns to Christ, he has to turn AWAY from something at the same time. "Repentance" describes that turning away from sin. Getting large numbers of people to pray for salvation takes hard work and a lot of ability. Getting people to repent and believe the Gospel takes the power of God.

People who preach and teach easy believism do get people saved, but most of their numbers are false professions. (But to be fair, they are usually getting more genuine conversions that their critics are). Scripture plainly teaches that those who accept Christ will have changed lives, the indwelling Holy Spirit, a new birth, etc., and a person who merely prays for Jesus to save him, without repenting, does not have these things.

Fishers of Men

Mt 4:19 Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Mr 1:17 Then Jesus said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men."

If there's one group of Christians that Nicolaitans don't like, it's soul-winners. It is possible to be a soul-winner without following Christ, as Judas did, but it is impossible to be following Christ if you're not a soul-winner or growing into one.

The phrase "soul-winner" does not appear in the Bible, and I am defining a soul-winner to be a person who fishes for converts. People who witness, who invite visitors, who drive people to church, who show Christian films in public places, who preach how to be saved, who hand out tracts, etc., are fishing for men.

Nicolaitans seek power that God doesn't want them to have. Soul-winners seek power that God does want them to have: the power to win people to Christ.

Nicolaitan Tares

Like every Christian group, Nicolaitans include some people who have never been genuinely born again. These tares, when they bear fruit, will sometimes use their leadership positions to turn Christians away from the Word of God.

In the middle part of the twentieth century, unsaved men gained leadership positions in the Southern Baptist Convention. Preaching strongly that they needed to have unity, they urged genuine Christians to compromise and accept their sins.

Fortunately, genuine Christians within the Convention fought back and regained control, but some other denominations have not been so fortunate.

But Christian Nicolaitans have another unusual situation. While other Christians have their faults, God wants the church to correct their problems. But in Revelation 2, God says "15 "Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. 16 Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth."

Folks, this is a mean thing to say, but it sounds like tolerating Nicolaitans in the church is wrong, and God wants us to expel them.

The book of Revelations tells us that God hates the deeds of the Nicolaitans. And Proverbs tells us that one of the things that God hates is "...And one who sows discord among brethren."

I found a site on the internet for people who had been hurt by churches. I am only being fair when I state that in some cases, it appears to me that the church was trying to do the right thing. But in other cases, people told about joining a group that was extremely friendly. Later, if some of the family wanted to leave, the group would try to turn other family members against them. The groups taught disobedience to various Biblical commands for children to honor and obey their parents, and for husbands and wives to love and honor each other.

Some time ago, my wife and I left a good church that had been seized by a small group of people. A couple of weeks later, my wife was amazed to get a phone call from two of the leaders. They told her that God was going to judge me, and they wanted to warn her. Later, members of the church urged my wife to rebel against me and return to the church without my permission.

The problem here is that my wife is a Godly Christian. She was disgusted at their efforts, and she already knew that their seizure of the church was not part of God's will. We're currently engaged in helping to start a successful church, and both of us are active and blessed in our ministries there.

And the two leaders who called my wife? After the church had gone from 120 to 30 in one year, the other leaders kicked them out of leadership.

Murder

Proverbs 6:17 also tells us that God hates "Hands that shed innocent blood." Catholicism began growing in the early church, as people began strugling for leadership positions in a new religion that was on its way up. Without church buildings, early Christians met in a variety of houses and locations, presided over by a bishop. Soon, people began using the office of bishop as a tool to rule over all the Christians in a geographical area. Persecution began when the government united with these bishops as a tool for both state and church to control people. Eventually, Catholicism provided so many martyrs that God described it as "drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus" (Rev.17:6).

Modern Nicolaitans aren't allowed to practice bloodshed to build their power. They rely on lying and plotting, which God also hates. The only real persecution they can offer today is slander, keeping their opponents out of leadership positions, and driving people out of the church. They sometimes try to turn family members against each other in order to retaliate against Christians who oppose their sins.

And in Revelation 2:6, God praises the church at Ephesus because "... you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate."