Christ Centered Gamer

In the book of Revelation, there was a group called the Nicolatanes whose doctrine Christ hates. Who WERE they, and why did Christ hate their doctrines? I've gotten conflicting answers on this, and I'd like a more definitive answer, if anyone might have one. It would seem to be an important thing to know, considering.

Great question.

Looking in my Bible dictionary, it says they were "an Antinomian sect in Asia Minor that claimed license for sensual sin."

So they seemed to have believed that sensual sins were a-ok. Not necessarily 'sexual' but 'sensual.' What that means is they were all about physical pleasure, which would include sexual but also food, leisure, drugs, alcohol... prettymuch anything that can be done for physical gratification to excess.

My suggestion is to find the verse and do a search for "(verse, book) exegesis" or "(verse, book) explained." You'll find a long list of commentaries by some very, very wise theologians who spent their entire lives on subjects such as these. Compiling the answers usually gets us to a good point of understanding. If you really want to dig in, try to find the original Greek or Hebrew of any verse and unpack that as well, though obviously that is much more difficult if one doesn't know either of the languages and how they function. Sometimes you can find details on such things though.

That overall advice said, keep in mind Revelation is a Prophecy book. As such it, like Isaiah and others, won't be completely understood until after the events take place. Doesn't mean we should avoid it or not try our best to understand, only that we must keep in mind we "only know in part now" as Paul says. Later we will know in full. Our job is to do the best we can and seek God with all our hearts. If there are some things, like in Revelation, that we cannot yet know that is to be expected. We have what we need to do the good works we are saved to do in the here and now. Much of the "there and then" of the future is firmly in God's hands and we can rest easy knowing that.

Good question, though! Always good to ask and seek and explore this stuff.