<TITLE>17. Par 137-144</TITLE>L-137 Now, this first Nicene Council, and it was in A.D. 330--325. About fifteen hundred delegates and bishops attended the meeting, but they overruled them in some foggy, stormy council it was. And they overruled them and voted in that the Nicolaitanes took over; and that was to take the--all the church, and put it under a supervision of popes, or--or bishops, or something; taking the power from the church and giving it over to the bishops, that the bishops should rule the church and the only one that had anything to say about it.
Did you notice in the Catholic church today? You can't read that Bible, that's not for you to interpret. That's the bishop. See where it come from? Now, you can see what the Nicolaitanes really was before it begin to squeak and crawl. It was born right there. That's true. And it was a form of Christianity: still is.
And then the Protestant types right after it. The Bible, in Revelation 17, said the mother and the daughters. We'll get to it after while, the Lord willing. Now, you notice it's the same today; they took over. Now, Constantine used Balaam's strategy.

L-140 Now, I want you to try to listen as close as you can. Now, He said here in the Bible here, "Hold fast My faith." Now.
... have a few things against thee, because thou hast the... because thou has there them... (Not these here, but there; they have them, "you have them in the--in the Pergamos church." See?)... holding the doctor--the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornications.
Now, Constantine used the same strategy that Balaam did. They had a meeting after this council meeting here that the bishops was put over the churches, and so forth, to rule it, and take all the power from the laity. And they had no thinking of theirself, neither did they have any right to interpret the Scriptures. And it was all to the priests, was to do the interpretation of the Scriptures.

L-142 Finally, after while, they make a master priest, and they--a vicar, which was the pope. But now they've come to the spot where they put, all the--the understanding belongs to the priest, and the congregation don't have to read the Bible; they don't have to do nothing; and, frankly, they--the Bible's kept from them. And now they--they've taken it all over upon themselves and it was voted in thus because it looked good.
It looked good because they was rich, and so forth, and he gave the... At this great meeting, when he called together, Constantine gave the bishops nice buildings; he got ahold of some money and--and all these big places of great, like buildings, he gave these over to the church, that they could use them as--as church houses. Oh, they were nice buildings, all dressed up, and so forth, so he gave them over to the church.

L-144 Besides that, he dressed up these bishops with great big robes, and the underskirts and things under them. And besides that, he put them up on--or built a high place like this, and put them up on there like an idol. And down below them he made marble altars, under them. And he did all this converting from the pagan idea, over, and bringing Christianity into it by taking their bishops. See, they just took down the idol and put up the bishop (See?), making him an altar, the same thing, and making him a god. Put up the bishop, he had all the say-so, dressed him all up and made him look like a god. Instead of putting him like their pagan gods, they put him on a robe like Jesus wore. See? And they made him just look like an idol setting there.
Oh, you can imagine how the pagan said, "Well, I can go for that; there's somebody can speak back to us. We've been talking to an idol, but this man can speak back to us."


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