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The Apostate Dragon (Satan, Devil, Serpent) and His CounterpartsBy: Joseph H. MurrayA. Balaam 1. Balaam – Sojourned with the Midianites, whom he advised to lure the Israelites into the cult of Baal–Peor (Num. 31:16). 2. N. T. records his participation in pagan cult and fornication (Rev. 2:14, 20–23; 2Pet. 2:15; Jude 11). This included pagan worship and mixed marriages among the Israelites with the Moabites and Midianites. B. Jezebel 1. She had a strong, domineering character, and was self–willed and forceful, a fanatical worshiper of Baal. She clamoured for her god to have at least equal rights with the God of Israel. This brought her into conflict with the prophet Elijah. 2. In John’s letter to the church at Thyatira (Rev. 2:20), ‘that Jezebel of a woman’ is the designation given to a seductive prophetess who encouraged immorality and idolatry under the cloak of religion. (Ref. to Nicolas, Bible dictionary). This (Jezebel) could refer to an individual, or to a group in the church. It indicates that the name (Jezebel) had become a by–word for apostasy (rebellion against God), originally instigated by Satan, the apostate dragon of Job 26:13. Apostate – one who has forsaken his religion for another; renegade. C. Nicolas & The Nicolaitans 1. Nicolas of Antioch (Acts 6:5) is supposed to have given his name to a group in the early church who sought to work out a compromise with paganism, to enable Christians to take part without embarrassment in some of the social and religious activities of the close–knit society in which they found themselves. It is possible that the term Nicolaitan is a Graecized form of Heb. Balaam, and therefore allegorical, the policy of the sect being likened to that of the Old Testament corruptor of Israel (Num. 22). In that case, the Nicolaitans are to be identified with groups attacked by Peter (2Pet. 2:15), by Jude (Jude 11), and by John (Rev. 2:14, 20–23) for their advocacy within the church of pagan sexual laxity. This sect is traceable down as far as A.D. 200 (and I say to A.D. 1963). Joseph H. Murray |
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