What is the doctrine of Balaam?

After having praised all that He could praise, the Lord proceeds to point out the things that deserved His censure. "But," He says, "I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate." (vv. 14, 15.) The rapid progress of the church's decline, as has often been noticed, is seen in the fact that whereas in Smyrna Satan is outside as a roaring lion, a persecuting Satan, here in Pergamos he is inside as a seducing Satan, perverting the saints by false seductive teaching. The words used are very significant. It is not that the church has adopted the teaching, but there are those inside that "hold" the doctrine, and they were allowed, it would seem, to hold it unmolested and unrebuked. What then was the doctrine that drew forth the Lord's reprobation? It was the doctrine of Balaam — a very gross doctrine, as he taught it in order to seduce the children of Israel. But it is the thing signified which has to be ascertained. Speaking through Balaam, Jehovah had said that Israel should dwell alone, and should not be reckoned among the nations. The fact of the Lord's presence with them separated them, as Moses had said, from all the nations of the earth. Now it was just this separation from "the world" that Baalam was seeking to break down when he enticed Israel to unite with the Midianites in their worship and sins. Association with the world in its pleasures, sins, and pursuits is therefore the doctrine of Balaam; and the consequence of its acceptance is the loss of Nazariteship, the loss of separation from evil, and of devotedness to the Lord.

But while they had faithful witnesses among them, they also had, without definite repudiation, those who held the doctrine of Balaam, and of the Nicolaitans. We are given here a summary of Balaam's teaching, for the full details of which we have to turn to Numbers 25:1-9; coupled with 31:16. Balaam remained in the background but prompted Balac to cast the stumbling block, enticing to idolatry and fornication, two things that are always joined together in the heathen world. The former is the most fundamental of all sins against God; the latter is against mankind as well as God. Both sins are seen amongst the heathen in their grossest forms, but in a more spiritualized way flourish in Christendom.

In 2 Peter we read of "the way of Balaam … who loved the wages of unrighteousness." In Jude, of "the error of Balaam," and in this, as well as in his way, he set an example that has been followed by many to their destruction. But here we have his doctrine; that is, a system of teaching which maintains that alliance with the world is quite the proper thing for the people of God. There seems to be no certain knowledge as to the Nicolaitans, either as regards their deeds, denounced to Ephesus, or their doctrine, denounced here. Their name, however, is a compound of two Greek words, which translated mean, "Conquerors of the people"; so this may be intended to indicate that type of teaching which exalts a priestly caste, leading to that spiritual enslavement of the people which has risen to its heights in the Romish system. How bad priestly rule can become is borne witness to in Jeremiah 5:31, and this when there were earthly priests, instituted of God. How much worse and hateful to God is it today!

In Pergamos neither of these evils were full blown in such fashion that the whole church was characterized by them. It was that they had in their midst those who held these things; it does not go so far as to say that they taught them. The Lord's words evidently imply that the church should not tolerate in its midst those who hold things so fundamentally evil as these. A solemn thought for us today. Again the word is "Repent," and if that word is not heeded the Lord will take action and use the sharp sword with two edges against the teachers of evil. He will deal with them if the church fails to deal with them. May we be among those who-have ears to hear the Spirit's voice in this.

An important principle is shown in this epistle that of assembly-responsibility. This, in some quarters, is not known; in some, not admitted; but Christ says, "Thou hast there those who hold the doctrine of …" And again, "So thou also hast those who hold the doctrine of …" If challenged as to evil doctrine held amongst them, those who would evade assembly-responsibility, generally answer, 'We do not trouble as to what Mr. X holds.' But we cannot deceive Christ; His eyes are as a flame of fire. He knows everything that goes on, and He says: "Thou hast there those who hold the doctrine of …"

The Lord finds against Pergamum that they had there those who held the doctrine of Balaam. Balaam's case illustrates more than one kind of evil. One is, prostituting his prophetic office to the world for gain. In this he was a type of many in these last days — as Jude says of them they have "run greedily after the error of Balaam for reward" (Jude 11). In this aspect, the "doctrine of Balaam" typifies the evil of clericalism — the ministry of Christ turned into a polite and desirable profession, carrying worldly rank and honour. Ephesus had been commended for resisting this in its incipiency; but in Pergamum it had developed into it system; there was the doctrine of Balaam." To what dimensions it has since grown is common knowledge. There are Princes of the Church in Rome, and 'Lords, Spiritual and Temporal' in England, with how many minor degrees of honour and wealth, who shall say? — though, indeed, to many of the clergy but little of the latter reaches. Worse, however, than worldly benefits, is that an official clergy too often cringes to the opinion of the day — superstition, when that is superstition; and rationalism in a day of rationalism. This is at its maturity in our time, when we see the professed ministry of Christ giving itself over to discredit Holy Scripture, and undermine Christianity in its essential doctrines. God in His love for His people frustrated the designs of Balak against Israel, so far as that Balaam was not allowed to curse the people; and hence, after the failure of various attempts, "Balaam rose up and returned to his place, and Balak also went his way" (Num. 24:14). But what followed? "The people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods; and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods" (Num. 25:1-2). The narrative does not give details of this latter effort of Balak and Balaam, further than to say that it was "through the counsel of Balaam" (Num. 31:16); and in one chapter the Lord Himself states that "Balaam taught Balak to set a snare before the sons of Israel, to eat of idol-sacrifices, and to commit fornciation" (Rev. 2:14). Now this is the other evil of the teaching of Balaam referred to in the Epistle to Pergamum. What, then, is this teaching? IT IS UNION WITH THE WORLD; giving up the Christian position of separation, from the world (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 6:14-18, etc.), abandoning that separation, as no longer to be maintained; joining in closest union with the world, and bowing down to the idols that the world bows down to. This is the antitype of eating things sacrificed to idols, and committing fornication, with the daughters of Moab. And this received the sanction and encouragement of teaching in Pergamum,

But there is more than this, more than the inability of the Church to be a faithful witness. There is a reason for it. The Lord continues, "I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam." This is positive wickedness. It was an endeavour to seduce the people of God, and at any price, into association with the world. For in speaking of Balaam, the Lord throws back the veil, and shows that which destroyed all possibility of devotion to Him. That hidden spring, working under the assumed guise of "increased liberality," is friendship with the world. Toleration accepted, there is then only a short step to amalgamation, and this is "the doctrine of Balaam." God's thought, the one great thought which can be traced like a golden thread running from Genesis 1:2-3, down to Revelation 22:14-15, is not toleration, not amalgamation, but everywhere "SEPARATION" from what is evil. "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." You can introduce no toleration of evil, and His thought for His people is consistent with Himself. It is ever so; and even Balaam, the deluded tool of the enemy, has to declare that separation is God's thought. "The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." (Nam. 23.) But, unable to curse God's people, and compelled to speak only what the Lord would have spoken concerning them, what did Balaam teach? He "taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication."

There are always steps to be traced in decline in the history of our souls, and we can trace them here. Forgetting her true relationship to Christ, who is not on earth, how easy for the Church to forget that His place is hers. As He was not of this world, so the Church is not of it. As He is heavenly, so she is also, for she is His body. The first thing that we read about Israel after Balaam had failed to curse God's, people is this, "And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab." So the Church is said by the Lord to be "dwelling" where Satan's seat is, dwelling in the midst of the place where the Lord had no place. He had on earth "not where to lay His head." And what was the next step with Israel, and the next step in the Church's decline? Why, as dwelling there, Balaam's counsel is, "Let us be all together; let us be social;" and, oh, what a subtle delusion is this of the enemy - this plea of friendship! "And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel." (Num. 25:1-3.) And we see in this address to the Church on earth that she has repeated Israel's history, and that this is why the Lord refers her to it. The false prophet is within the Church, and the result of his doctrine is manifest in her present condition. He is teaching that she may eat things sacrificed unto idols; that she may enjoy Moab's food. He is teaching that she may, without fear, form alliances with this world, and so stop to rest (on her way to GOD'S rest) among those who have never any intention of going there.

In the first place provision is made to guard the Sanctuary from such profanation as had entered its precincts in the time of the kingdom. The evils that Jehovah rebukes had come in through unholy alliances with idolatrous neighbors, and by having hired foreigners to keep the charge of the gates. Such a state of things was aided by the close proximity to the temple of the king's palace, so that the corruption of the royal house first seeped into the sacred enclosure of the first temple and then flooded it with wickedness, as in the days of Ahab and Manasseh. Balaam was made to give God's thought concerning His people: "Lo, it is a people that shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations;" and he it was who later did his best to accomplish their mixture with the wicked nation of Moab. He could not curse, but becoming acquainted with God's purpose, and being an enemy, he sought their overthrow by subtlety (Num. 31:16). He snares them into evil associations, and God must deal in judgment. From this we learn what is meant by the doctrine of Balaam, and it shows one of the great wiles of the devil against which we must be on our guard. His constant effort is to effect mixture where God's express mind is separation and purity. The admixture of Israel with the nations in her later history wrought her ruin, and brought the judgment of the Captivities and desolation. The admixture of the world and the Church, a greater evil, has wrought a correspondingly worse ruin. Scripture has especially warned us of this evil (2 Cor. 6:11-18), so disastrous, whether in the individual or corporate sphere.

In this connection we may well consider Rev. 2:14. It is one of those many instances in Scripture in which the things written afore-time for our admonition are taken up and made of present application. The doctrine of Balaam consisted, as we have seen, in the counsel he gave, directing the women of Moab and Midian to seduce the people of Israel into association with them in their idolatrous festivities, with which there was a practice of gross moral evil. Israel was caught in the snare of those friendly advances, which had behind them the enemy's purpose to destroy the character of God's people as called to "dwell alone," in separation to God, whose holy ways and worship had been revealed to them. Doubtless, the seduction was intended to deprive Israel of her distinctive position and favor with God, which Balaam had been forced to proclaim. God's thought was that His people should be separate from all the abounding evil of the nations. Balaam's doctrine was that a mixture should be effected between them. Fleshly lusts and false religious activities were the instruments used.

There is a very significant connection between these two scriptures. From the first we learn that in the assembly at Pergamos there were those that held the doctrine of Balaam; and from the second we gather that this evil leaven had so spread that it characterized the state of Thyatira. It is true that there were a few who maintained a holy separation from it, but Jezebel, who had adopted and publicly taught it, was allowed even by the angel of the assembly; and it was this fact which drew forth the solemn exposure of the evil, and the condemnation of those who tolerated it, from the Son of God, "who hath His eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass." (v. 11.) What, then, is the nature of these evils? Through the counsel of Balaam, finding that he could not curse Israel, God's people were seduced to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab, and in addition, being invited unto the sacrifices of their gods, "the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods." (Numbers 15:1-2; 31:16.) Such were the actual sins of the children of Israel; and what spiritually answers to these will be the teaching of Balaam for Christians. It is clear from many scriptures that spiritual fornication is alliance with the world. The assembly is espoused as a chaste virgin to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2); if therefore she is unfaithful to Christ, and courts the world's favour, she falls into this sin. "To eat things sacrificed to idols" is equally plain. By eating we understand appropriation, and consequently identification with the thing eaten (see 1 Cor. 10:16-21); and we thus gather that when the assembly identifies herself with the world in homage, for example, to its objects of admiration or veneration, she is really partaking of the things sacrificed to idols. If so, Christendom is full of this sin, for even so-called Christian edifices are turned, on every hand, into temples for the world's idols. Great warriors, poets, statesmen, and others have - apart even from the question whether they were Christians - their statues placed in buildings which claim to be the house of God. But the evil may go deeper. If in our hearts we unite with the world in the incense offered to its great men, or to its objects of praise, we have to this extent the doctrine of Balaam. The means of deliverance are to be found in the words of the apostle (and in no other way), "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."

He blames His own people for allowing the others among them at all. "I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold (or hold fast) the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication." "Repent; or else I am coming unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth" (Rev. 2:14-16). He says, "I am coming unto thee, and will fight (not against thee, but) against them."

As to the doctrine itself, it is "the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balac." It is not the case of a man overtaken in a fault: nor is it the case of those who having committed sin are ready to confess and mourn over it as sin in the presence of the Lord; but it is the case of those who hold fast sin in the shape of a doctrine. This is a very important distinction. It is the doctrine of Balaam, though I do not believe that those who held it made an open acknowledgment of Balaam in it any more than the Jews did of their father the devil, when they were doing his works and boasting in the names of the children of Abraham and the children of God. But names cannot alter things.

The doctrine is the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. What is it to eat things sacrificed unto idols? Eating is an emblem of participation and communion. As to the idols, we know that covetousness is idolatry: and those things which do not minister to the glory of God, but which yet are delighted in because they minister to what an evil heart of unbelief puts its dependence on instead of putting it on God, are things sacrificed to idols. Therefore, while the scriptures teach that the love of money is the root of all evil, the doctrine of Balaam teaches the very opposite, that it not only is no harm at all, but that it is prudent and praiseworthy. The scripture also teaches that women should adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; but (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works (see 1 Tim. 2:9-10). Such is the doctrine of the sacred scriptures; but whose doctrine is it that teaches that if women acted thus, they would be neglecting their future prospects in life, and that as for this shamefacedness and sobriety, that at least it is not to be valued, but that broidered hair, gold, pearls, and costly array are, more or less, proper adornments? Whose doctrine is this? Is it the doctrine of Christ? But then a person may say, We can hold the doctrine of Christ too. But what does Christ say to His servants? "I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam." The holders of this doctrine might like to be among those who held Christ's name: but Christ does not allow it. He tells His servants that He is coming to fight against the holders of this doctrine, and that they cannot have such among them.

In the teaching of this doctrine there is also taught to commit fornication. What! Is this a doctrine taught? Yes! It is the doctrine of Balaam, though it may be in a more refined form to deceive the world. I would here quote the words of Christ in Matt. 5:27-28, marking that it is the doctrine of Balaam that sets those words aside, "Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you; that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart." The doctrine of Balaam may say that this is no harm, that it is quite innocent. But it need not be said to the faithful in Christ Jesus, "Do not hold such doctrine," yet it may be needful to say, "Have no fellowship with those who hold it." Christ is coming to fight against them with the sword of His mouth. If you have an ear to hear, hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

To "run greedily after the error of Balaam for reward" is the next step. This is sheer self-seeking in the things of God. Religion of a sort is indulged in, and it becomes a profitable business. Balaam was a spiritist medium, who adopted so much as was profitable to him of the true knowledge of God. That was the error that Balaam practised. The error that he taught, and by which he ensnared many of Israel and brought them under the judgment of God, was that of sinful alliance with the idolatrous world. And in all that he practised and taught the one thing before him was money-making — the love of reward.

Our Epistle speaks of "the way of Cain" and "the error of Balaam;" it is in 2 Peter that we read of "the way of Balaam." But in both Epistles the thought connected with him is the same, for in Peter we find him described as loving "the wages of unrighteousness." His course there is described as "madness." Alas! his madness has had many followers from the day in which Jude wrote to our own. The evil men that Jude was exposing "ran greedily" after his error, and we believe those two words are still applicable to very many. It is a striking fact that Balaam and his evil teaching appear in the Lord's address to the church at Pergamos (Revelation 2), inasmuch as that church sets forth prophetically the epoch when the church accepted the patronage of the world, and the corruptions of the Roman system began.

The Lord goes on to say, "But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them which hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a trap before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication."

Balaam, the destroyer of the people, is a new graft upon Nicolaitanism. A prophet, in outward nearness to the Lord, while his heart went after its own covetousness, — a man having no personal grudge against the people, but whose god was his belly, and so would curse them if his god bade: — one whose doctrine was to seduce Israel from their separateness into guilty mixture with the nations and their idolatry round about. The type is easily read, and the examples of it distressingly numerous. When the Church and the world become on good terms with one another, and the Church has the things of the world with which to attract the natural heart, the hireling prophet is a matter of course, who for his own ends will seek to destroy whatever remains of godly separateness.

Thus He "who has the sharp sword with two edges" said to Pergamos, "I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication" (Rev. 2:14). A fresh phase of the diabolical conspiracy of Balaam and Balak against Israel is here exposed. These men had zealously striven to array the forces of earth and Hell against the people of God, and their efforts had been turned to confusion by Israel's faithful Jehovah. The episode concludes in Num. 24:25 thus: "Balaam rose up and went and returned to his own place; and Balak also went his way." But before the soothsayer left his disappointed patron, he apparently made a vile suggestion to him. If Jehovah could not be turned away from His people, perhaps the people could be turned away from Jehovah! Balaam knew enough of God to be sure that if the people of Israel could be tempted into sin Jehovah's hand would come down upon them in judgment. Thus we read in Num. 25:1-2: "Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods; and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods." Balak was recommended by Balaam to bring out the women and girls of Moab, and thus cast a snare before the all too frail people of Jehovah! Moses became aware of this later, for he referred to it when reproving the people for sparing all the women after a campaign against Midian. "Have ye saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against Jehovah in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of Jehovah" (Num. 31:15-16). The record in Num. 25:1-9 is painfully solemn; a great lesson is here which we must not miss. As surely as Balaam sought to mingle the people of God with the ungodly in a by-gone age, the teachers of the doctrine of Balaam have laboured to mingle Church and world together in our own era and they have been sadly successful. History is continually repeating itself. Satan first endeavours to destroy, then, finding this impossible he seeks to corrupt, for a pure testimony for God in the earth is abhorrent to him.