First Love – Freeread

This entry is part 10 of 54 in the series McCall Gathering 2007

The Unveiling, Part 5

The Nicolatians

JJ: Okay we will continue on the Book of Revelation with the new book called “The Unveiling” and the last thing we covered was, “Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, thou hast left thy first love”, and as we said the guy got permission from his inner self to rebel from his group, his teachers that were teaching him false things that he found out were not really true and did not really work in his life. He probably held on for a little while but then it just got too much for him to handle so he broke off and set himself free, but then he goes overboard and he gives himself permission to anything he wants to do and when he wants to do it.

He does this for period of time until in a quiet moment his soul speaks to him and says, “You have left your first love.” Everything that you were taught was not bad. Sure you have had false teachers but everything that they taught was not bad. They said do not steal; do not kill; do not hurt people and so on. They taught you some things that were okay; they taught you some things that required discipline and all this worked together for your good so do not throw everything away. Do not throw out the baby with the bath water.

In other words, keep the things that are good. Return to your first love where you approached learning with a discipline, where you honored your teachers that were good. There are certain things that you have learned in your struggles with your many lifetimes, so you want to return to your first love. Recognize what is false in the things you have been taught and drop those things but keep the good and the true and return and honor in those that brought to you a good discipline over the years.

My first love was the discipline I had in the Mormon Church and it was a strong discipline. We had to pay 10% tithing and with other donations it amounted to almost 15% of our income all-together. It took tremendous discipline to do that. We could not smoke or drink coffee, a lot of sexual restrictions also and so this discipline stimulated in me a desire to learn and go beyond when I might not have otherwise.

So that was probably my first love. When you break free from something like that with all that restrictions the inclination is to just go to the extreme in the other direction and this is what the disciple does. He leaves his first love where he exercised discipline and lives like the prodigal son with little or no discipline.

As we study the Labors of Hercules on Tuesday you will see that Hercules made quite a few mistakes also. He disregarded a lot of things that he knew better and so we also have to create that balance in the middle.

Next the scripture gives him some more advice, “But this thou hast, thou hates the Nicolatians, which I also hate.” That is interesting that the voice of God says that He hates something. Everybody says God doesn’t hate anything and just loves everything. Chuckle.

Audience: Chuckling

JJ: But He says He hates these Nicolaitans. The Nicolaitans were a group patterned after the disciple Nicolas and he was really a decent guy and quite pure and very disciplined and he had only one wife. But somehow because of certain things that he taught followers got the impression that anything goes with saint Nicolas so to speak. So after Nicolas was no longer on the scene his followers began to distort his teachings and they became very promiscuous.

What I think that God hated about the Nicolaitans was that they took the teachings of a good man and distorted them to be exactly the opposite of what he really stood for and what he really taught. He was for sexual purity and they turned into sexual promiscuity. Larry and I were talking about Joseph Smith and the same thing may have happened to him, there a lot of speculation that there is a possibility that he may not have all the physical relations with his wives that he was accused of and yet everyone who followed him said that we are going to practice polygamy and have all these wives because that is what Joseph Smith wanted to do.

This is what happened the Nicolations, they took a man who believed in sexual purity and only had one wife and distorted his teachings to have many wives and concubines with lots of sexual relations and everything goes. It doesn’t say what God hated about them but I think what God hated about them was that they took a good man’s teachings and they turned them upside down.

Has that happened before in history that we know about? Has it happened with Jesus teachings on love for example? How about the Christian church that burned everybody with fire that asked the wrong questions. They did this in the name of Christ and said that this was an act of love and it purified the church. Was that turning the teachings of Jesus upside down? That is like the Nicolations and followers will often do things like this.

Just because they are on the path does not mean they are perfect, but there is one thing that a person learns on the path. He saw two things that were really wrong and that he had been lied to and the second thing is he saw that the authorities of the day turn a lot of the teachings from the past upside down. God says I do not like this and you do not like this as well and we are on the same page here.

So this is one thing that the early disciple learns is to recognize is false teachers. He also learns about those teachers that take those teachings from the good men of the past and turn them completely upside down.

The scripture ends with this,

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Now he uses an interesting wording that in some circles is controversial, “to him that overcometh.” This is one area where a lot of new agers are in illusion. They think that we do not have to overcome anything and everything should be effortless. Those who think this need to read the title of the extract from a statement by the Tibetan, He points out that He has struggled and fought His way to the place on the path where He is and we must do the same. In other words, where He is, He had to get there through great struggle and effort. Nothing that is worthwhile comes without struggle and effort. Everybody in every belief system creates a short cut so the path is easy. How do the born again Christians do this, what shortcut do they take.

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This entry is part 9 of 54 in the series McCall Gathering 2007

The Unveiling, Part 4

The First Love

So the disciple has given himself permission to enter upon the path. The inner voice, the voice of God says to him, “I know your works and your labor and your patience, how you cannot bear them, which are evil and you have tried them that say they are apostles and you have found them liars.” Who are the apostles? The apostle means “one who is sent” or, in other words, someone that claims to be sent from God to teach you is an apostle in this context.

So who are the apostles that he is supposed to test? These would be any ministers, prophets or teachers. The inner voice is telling the seeker that he has done two things right. He has fulfilled the meaning of Ephesus, giving himself permission and he has done something else that the Spirit really likes. He has tested those that claim to be apostles representing the voice of God and have found them to be liars. They have lied and the disciple realizes this.

This is the first step he has taken on the road to becoming like the Master and he has done this part right and have tested them and found out that they are not telling the truth. Congratulations are in order and he gets a little pat on the back there from the voice of God within. “And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.”

After he found out these things, he has given him self permission. He is exploring, He has found out certain truths that have conflicted with everything he has been told and he has found out that everything everybody has been telling him has not been true and he is finding out new truths and he is congratulated or praised for not fainting and continuing even though he has probably gotten a lot of flack. He has had patience and he has prodded forward.

Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou have left thy first love.” This is interesting, you “remember therefore, from whence thou art fallen” so the praise ends there and he says the disciple has done a couple things that are really good but is really screwing up in this one area, and this is what happens: The disciple begins along the path and he does some things right and some things he really messes up. That is going to continue to happen to all of us as we go into new territory. He says this is where you really screwed up. You left your first love. Remember from whence you have fallen or else I will come in quickly and remove thy candlestick from out of its place.

His candlestick and its place signifies he is at the first step. He has taken the first and given himself permission. The Spirit says if he doesn’t take this advice then this first step that he is on is going to be like he never took it and he is going to go back and be under some one else’s permission again. So if the seeker is going to continue on the path then he needs to listen to what the Voice is saying. The disciple must remember his first love.

The regular interpretation of first love is that it must mean the church of Ephesus itself. Their first love was the gospel and they kind of deviated from the gospel and so they needed to go back to the first love and start living the teachings of Christ again. That is the normal interpretation that almost everyone gives of this. But his first love, what was his first love as far as attempting to tread the path before he actually found the path.

In his first love, he was under the authority of the system that had teachers in it and they told him what to do. He listened to them and diligently obeyed and did everything he could to live the righteous life. He did not deviate but he focused and he lived to he highest he knew.

Some of us were in the churches before we entered the path. We were good members. Some of you were good and did what you were told and you obeyed the Sabbath and you did not steal, murder, beat your spouse etc. You did the basic stuff. This was his first love, and you entered the Path.

His first love was when he was in an organization that falsely led him to believe he was on the path and he did everything very diligently that he was supposed to do. But he left his first love.

What happens to the disciple when he gives himself permission? He enters the path and goes from one extremely constricted situation where he can’t do anything and then he enters the path and he says I can give myself permission to other stuff as well and I am going to eat drink and be merry and really have a good time. And so he goes overboard and gives him self permission to party it up and go to sex orgies and all kinds of weird stuff.

They give themselves permission to do whatever they feel like and they go to the other extreme and give up all that discipline they have learned. So here the voice of the Spirit comes to the seeker. He is like the prodigal son and goes and parties and squanders all that good press that had with the inner voice and sooner or later with a moment of silence he listens again and the voice says, “return to your first love,” go back to the discipline. Sure you have permission to do this and that but it has to be balanced and the discipline you learned before you entered the path must be brought back into balance. Not everything you learned before you entered the path is bad. The discipline that you had, you will need to take this with you and apply it with common sense in your life. Return to your first love. He says you mean I just can’t do everything I want to and I still have to control myself? Yes you still have to control yourself. The disciple needs to stay disciplined and balanced even more so than before he entered the path.

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