From what I get the Gnostics believed that we lived in a material world of Illusions created by this inferior imperfect false creator God (The Abrahamic God) who in the end merely represents authority and institutions. To escape this God and his material world of illusions they ate the forbidden fruit, a forbidden mushroom from the tree of knowledge, to experience nosies, or direct experience of the spiritual world. Their eyes were opened and they became their own Gods, their own authorities.
Most of the great rock n roll, like the bible is written from a Gnostic perspective... :-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Obdx0nnM0
To be honest, I do not know what you are talking about. However, if you study ALL religions on this planet, they all have similarities with each other.
Nope, Jehovah's Witnesses follow and read the Holy Bible and live our life according to what it teaches.
100%, not half hearted as most "Christians" do! We are not hypocrites who go to church on Sunday, then the rest of the week smoke, get drunk and fornicate.
No...Agnostic dint believe this planet will e a paradise under the rule of Jesus Christ as JWs believe
Under the rule of Jesus Christ and his heavenly co rulers, peace and happiness will prevail in all the earth. (Psalm 37:9-11) Those in God's memory will be resurrected and will enjoy perfect health. (Acts 24:15) By their faithfulness to God, obedient mankind will be granted what our original parents lost?everlasting life in human perfection on a paradise earth.?Revelation 21:3, 4.
In the Bible book of Isaiah, we get a preview of what life will be like in the Paradise earth. No inhabitant of Paradise will say, "I am sick." (Isaiah 33:24) Animals will pose no danger to man. (Isaiah 11:6-9) People will build beautiful homes and inhabit them and will plant crops and eat to satisfaction. (Isaiah 65:21-25) Moreover, God "will actually swallow up death forever, and the Sovereign Lord Jehovah will certainly wipe the tears from all faces."?Isaiah 25:8.
Soon, obedient mankind will live under such blessed conditions. They "will be set free from enslavement to corruption and have the glorious freedom of the children of God." (Romans 8:21) How wonderful it will be to live forever in the promised earthly Paradise! (Luke 23:43) You can be there if you act upon accurate knowledge of the Scriptures and exercise faith in Jehovah God and Jesus Christ. And you can have confidence that it does make sense to believe in a paradise earth.
Gnosticism was/is a complex set of varying beliefs, alive at the time of the early Church, and still evident today with variations on its many themes.
One strain of Gnosticism was Docetism (from the Greek dike, 'I seem'). There were 2 main principles; matter is evil, and God cannot experience change or suffering. So they drew a sharp distinction between Jesus the man and Christ the divine. Marcion's variation was that Christ only appeared to be a man, but this was a mask. His flesh had no reality so that the one who suffered on the cross was not the Christ (who had departed from the man, Jesus, before the crucifixion). This school of thought also said that the Christ came upon the man, Jesus, at his baptism. This is the point at which JWs appear similar, for they insist that Jesus only became The Christ at his baptism!
The Witnesses also insist that Jesus was no more than a perfect man. They hate the idea that Jesus also had a divine nature (despite translating Jn. 1:1 as "the Word was a god" thus admitting to a degree of divinity.) They insist that Jesus was created by God, who then used Jesus to create everything else. This point has a connection with Gnosticism, which had the idea of a mediating creature - because God was too dignified to meddle with unclean matter in the dirty business of creating. This goes back to the Gnostic view that matter is evil. Witnesses do not think this, but their doctrines are more connected to Gnosticism than many of them are aware.
The traits of Watchtower is to bring under their authority. From believers of all sorts and those outside the Kingdom outwardly(in denial).
In my KJV bible we may bring all doctrines through prayer in subjection to the authority of Christ Jesus and bind and loose in his name.
So many accept the bible as being ye authority to test doctrines and teachings as being of God with book and verse.
We cab deal with wicked or unruly spirits as they seek to add confusion,deceit or simply not welcome as our faith.
Gnosticism doctrines of being saved by knowledge are false and ones of deceit. So for example. Knowledge of Christ may mean differing things. The scripture says to" believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thine house shall be saved" ,"except a man be born again ,He cannot see the Kingdom of God" That needs =interpretation and explanation Jesus offers. ++see Gospel of John 3:3+++
So the mileageGEf Christ may mean a whole hearted acceptance or a refusal as some know him not.
The knowledge offers no saving grace as Gnostics may offer.
It is committment as we see in Ro,mans 10 verse 9and 10.
Intellectuals and agnostics have knowledge of Christ obviously in our age. Its their committment,fellowship and standing inwardly as well as ours when confess Chjrist. He said He confesses us to God .
The JW has some works of righteousness surely. Its other doctrines that are seen soverignly by God as sin one being the144000 virgins.
Tons of othger doctrines have they corrested although over tyhe years.
I believe in God and the bible but not the watchtower bible as I believe it lacks too many scriptural passages. I am not their brethren. Many too are not under their authority by membership but they do interven at times and can assist with some matters.
Grace that Jesus died for us important and many others. Other gospel books and some of old testament books are not viewed as the inspired word of God. Enoch wasw a bible character yet the book offers a more in depth account of Genesis.
If I have some knowledge of aany religion or doctrines of the world i test and compare and seek what differences and know by the HOLY SPIRIT truth.
I do not accept the other doctrines of other religions adn am gnostic to non biblical doctrines.
Israel is Israel and I accept being a gentile and not a unbeliever or outsider to the Kingdom of God.
It is up to God to determine JW salvation and those of OLD testament and other people of this present time.
Devotional biblical time and family and or church fellowship kleeps seeking God and many offer discipleship as God does this in all sorts of churches and prior through the scriptures as when have accept Jesus and repent with truth the comforter will come and thus the Holy Ghost is manifest in us and through us . Further at some churches the HOLY GHOST and ANGELS minister as praise is entertained.
Yes, especially with the invisible return, like the Gnostic's idea of Jesus never really materialized. They believed he didn't leave footprints, etc.
I personally think the governing body of elders in New York are more like the pharisees of Jesus' time. Hard rules that they themselves would not or could not follow. Plus they cause divisions, (a two class system of Christians) and shut up the heavens, oh and they definitely strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Pray earnestly for their souls.
Here are comparisons of the teachings based on published literature's. The reader may wish to do his own research please. Then the conclusion is yours to make:
Gnosticism:
The doctrine of salvation by knowledge?. it is markedly peculiar to Gnosticism that it places the salvation of the soul merely in the possession of a quasi-intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and of magic formula indicative of that knowledge. (The Catholic Encyclopedia)
WT:
The Basis for Salvation?The Ransom
6 Everlasting salvation is possible only through Christ?s ransom sacrifice. Why? The Bible explains that when Adam sinned, he ?sold? himself and all his future descendants, including us, into sin?thus necessitating a ransom if mankind were to have any valid hope. (Romans 5:14, 15; 7:14) That God would provide a ransom for all mankind was foreshadowed by the animal sacrifices under the Mosaic Law. (Hebrews 10:1-10; 1 John 2:2) Jesus was the one whose sacrifice fulfilled those prophetic pictures. Jehovah?s angel announced before Jesus? birth: ?He will save his people from their sins.??Matthew 1:21; Hebrews 2:10. (w00 6/1 p. 11 ?Keep YourHope of Salvation? Bright!)
12 Today, as in the first century, ?the undeserved kindness of God . . . brings salvation to all sorts of men.? (Titus 2:11)-- *** w97 11/1 p. 11 Christians and the World of Mankind ***
Gnosticism:
This ascent of the soul through the planetary spheres to the heaven beyond (an idea not unknown even to ancient Babylonian speculations) began to be conceived as a struggle with adverse powers, and became the first and predominant idea in Gnosticism. (The Catholic Encyclopedia)
WT:
The first-century Christians did not view the soul as the Greeks did. Consider, for example, the death of Jesus? friend Lazarus. If Lazarus had had an immortal soul that flitted off, free and happy, at the time of death, would not the account in John chapter 11 read very differently? Surely Jesus would have told his followers if Lazarus was alive and well and conscious in heaven; on the contrary, he echoed the Hebrew Scriptures and told them that Lazarus was asleep, unconscious. (Verse 11) Surely Jesus would have rejoiced if his friend was enjoying a wonderful new existence; instead, we find him weeping publicly over this death. (Verse 35) Surely, if Lazarus? soul had been in heaven, reveling in blissful immortality, Jesus would never have been so cruel as to summon him back to live a few more years in the ?prison? of an imperfect physical body amid sick and dying mankind. *** w96 8/1 p. 6 A Better Hope for the Soul ***
Gnosticism:
Perhaps the Gnostic idea of a Redeemer is not unconnected with Jewish Messianic hopes. But from the first the Gnostic conception of a Saviour is more superhuman than that of popular Judaism; their Manda dye, or Soter, is some immediate manifestation of the Deity, a Light-King, an ?on (Aion), and an emanation of the good God. (The Catholic Encyclopedia)
WT:
Valentinus, the most prominent leader of the Gnostic movement, taught that Jesus? ethereal body passed through Mary but was not born of her. Others said Jesus had two wills, one human, the other divine, and so forth.
It was from this hodgepodge of conflicting opinions that Christendom has received her incarnation doctrine. Since some thought Jesus was man and others maintained he was God, the council at Nicaea A.D. 325 headed by a pagan political emperor, namely, Constantine, decided on a God-man to please both sides. This doctrine, though unfounded in Scripture, is generally believed by Protestants and Catholics to this day. The Catholic Encyclopedia states bluntly: ?Christ is God.? A Presbyterian Church publication speaks of Jesus as ?God and man.?
Regardless of what any council or man has said about Jesus? nature, the only reliable source of religious truth is the Bible. This Word reveals that Jesus is God?s Son and as such he was not and is not God. Jesus himself said: ?I am God?s Son.? To Mary the angel Gabriel said: ?What is born will be called holy, God?s Son.? Nothing is said of a God-man or a man-God. Nowhere in the Bible is Jesus called a ?God-man? or ?God incarnate.? Such assumptions are strictly human illusions tainted with paganism.?John 10:36; Luke 1:34, 35; 2:21.
Was Jesus flesh and blood? John tells us: ?The Word became flesh and resided among us.? Of Jesus Paul said: ?Since the ?young children? are sharers of blood and flesh, he also similarly partook of the same things.? Had Jesus been a God-man, he would have been higher than angels and man. The Scriptures tell us that he was made ?a little lower than angels.? Neither was he coequal with his Father, for he himself said: ?The Father is greater than I am.??John 1:14; Heb. 2:14, 9; John 14:28; Phil. 2:5-7.
If Jesus was an incarnation, then he was not the second Adam; his life, death and resurrection would all be a lie. The Christian faith would be in vain. We would be s
yes on certain issues,
neither believe in the deity of Christ.
Gnostic's don't even believe Jesus died,they believe he switched with another person all together,like a sinful man could do what Jesus did.
JW's believe that Jesus was nothing more than a created angel.
Denial of the deity of Jesus is the mark of both The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society and Gnosticism.
The cornerstone of the Gnostic and Watchtower teaching is the denial of who Jesus really is.
There are many forms of Gnosticism all of these deny Jesus as taught in the Holy Bible.
Jesus was only a man and a man of the flesh.
That Jesus denied He was divine.
Jesus was only a prophet or great teacher.
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What the bible really teaches:
Either Jesus has 'all power' or He did not. Since Jesus has all power and wielded the finger of God Jesus is deity and divine. To state Jesus is less is to deny He is Savior Yah (Yah'shuah) that was among and with us (Immanuel) and the Messiah (the anointed one).
Do you see any similarities with Gnosticism and teachings of the Watchtower Society?
