Why do christians have a problem with Gnosticism, have they ever studied the path?
Have you read the Gnostic gospels and experienced instead of blindly following your faith, why do you have a problem with people different than you based on their interpretation of life?
There is actually no such thing as Christian Gnosticism, because true Christianity and Gnosticism are mutually exclusive systems of belief. The principles of Gnosticism contradict what it means to be a Christian. Therefore, while some forms of Gnosticism may claim to be Christian, they are in fact decidedly non-Christian.
Gnosticism was perhaps the most dangerous heresy that threatened the early church during the first three centuries. Influenced by such philosophers as Plato, Gnosticism is based on two false premises. First, it espouses a dualism regarding spirit and matter. Gnostics assert that matter is inherently evil and spirit is good. As a result of this presupposition, Gnostics believe anything done in the body, even the grossest sin, has no meaning because real life exists in the spirit realm only.
Second, Gnostics claim to possess an elevated knowledge, a ?higher truth? known only to a certain few. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word nosies which means ?to know.? Gnostics claim to possess a higher knowledge, not from the Bible, but acquired on some mystical higher plain of existence. Gnostics see themselves as a privileged class elevated above everybody else by their higher, deeper knowledge of God.
To discredit the idea of any compatibility between Christianity and Gnosticism, one has only to compare their teachings on the main doctrines of the faith. On the matter of salvation, Gnosticism teaches that salvation is gained through the acquisition of divine knowledge which frees one from the illusions of darkness. Although they claim to follow Jesus Christ and His original teachings, Gnostics contradict Him at every turn. Jesus said nothing about salvation through knowledge, but by faith in Him as Savior from sin. ?For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith?and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God?not by works, so that no one can boast? (Ephesians 2:8-9). Furthermore, the salvation Christ offers is free and available to everyone (John 3:16), not just a select few who have acquired a special revelation.
Christianity asserts that there is one source of Truth and that is the Bible, the inspired, inerrant Word of the living God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice (John 17:17; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Hebrews 4:12). It is God?s written revelation to mankind and is never superseded by man?s thoughts, ideas, writings, or visions. The Gnostics, on the other hand, use a variety of early heretical writings known as the Gnostic gospels, a collection of forgeries claiming to be ?lost books of the Bible.? Thankfully, the early church fathers were nearly unanimous in recognizing these Gnostic scrolls as fraudulent forgeries that espouse false doctrines about Jesus Christ, salvation, God, and every other crucial Christian truth. There are countless contradictions between the Gnostic ?gospels? and the Bible. Even when the so-called Christian Gnostics quote from the Bible, they rewrite verses and parts of verses to harmonize with their philosophy, a practice that is strictly forbidden and warned against by Scripture (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32; Proverbs 30:6; Revelation 22:18-19).
The Person of Jesus Christ is another area where Christianity and Gnosticism drastically differ. The Gnostics believe that Jesus? physical body was not real, but only ?seemed? to be physical, and that His spirit descended upon Him at His baptism, but left Him just before His crucifixion. Such views destroy not only the true humanity of Jesus, but also the atonement, for Jesus must not only have been truly God, but also the truly human (and physically real) man who actually suffered and died upon the cross in order to be the acceptable substitutions sacrifice for sin (Hebrews 2:14-17). The biblical view of Jesus affirms His complete humanity as well as His full deity.
Gnosticism is based on a mystical, intuitive, subjective, inward, emotional approach to truth which is not new at all. It is very old, going back in some form to the Garden of Eden, where Satan questioned God and the words He spoke and convinced Adam and Eve to reject them and accept a lie. He does the same thing today as he ?prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour? (1 Peter 5:8). He still calls God and the Bible into question and catches in his web those who are either na?ve and scripturally uninformed or who are seeking some personal revelation to make them feel special, unique, and superior to others. Let us follow the Apostle Paul who said to ?test everything. Hold on to the good? (1 Thessalonians 5:21), and this we do by comparing everything to the Word of God, the only Truth.
Gnosticism traces its roots back just after the beginning of the Christian Church. Some researchers state that evidence of its existence even predates Christianity. Whichever the case, the error of gnosticism had affected the culture and church of the time and possibly even a earned a mention in 1 John 4.
The word "gnosticism" comes from the Greek word "nosies" which means "knowledge." There were many groups that were Gnostic and it isn't possible to easily describe the nuances of each variant of Gnostic doctrines. However, generally speaking, Gnosticism taught that salvation is achieved through special knowledge (nosies). This knowledge usually dealt with the individuals relationship to the transcendent Being.
A more detailed Gnostic theology is as follows. The unknowable God was far too pure and perfect to have anything to do with the material universe which was considered evil. Therefore, God generated lesser divinities, or emanations. One of these emanations, Wisdom desired to know the unknowable God. Out of this erring desire the demureGEn evil god was formed and it was this evil god that created the universe. He along with archons kept the mortals in bondage in material matter and tried to prevent the pure spirit souls from ascending back to god after the death of the physical bodies. Since, according to the Gnostics, matter is evil, deliverance from material form was attainable only through special knowledge revealed by special Gnostic teachers. Christ was the divine redeemer who descended from the spiritual realm to reveal the knowledge necessary for this redemption. In conclusion, Gnosticism is dualistic. That is, it teaches there is a good and evil, spirit and matter, light and dark, etc. dualism in the universe.
What we know about Gnosticism is gained from the writings of Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Tertullian, Origen, and some later manuscripts discovered in the eighteenth century such as the "Codex Askew, Codex Bruce, the Berlin Gnostic Codes and, most recently, the Nag Hammadi collection."1 Nag Hammadi is a town in Upper Egypt near ancient Chenoboskion and 13 codices discovered were discovered about 1945.
The danger of gnosticism is easily apparent. It denies the incarnation of God as the Son. In so doing, it denies the true efficacy of the atonement since, if Jesus is not God, He could not atone for all of mankind and we would still be lost in our sins.
There is debate whether or not this is a Christian heresy or simply an independent development. The evidence seems to point to the later. Nevertheless, the Gnostics laid claim to Jesus as a great teacher of theirs and as such requires some attention. It is possible that 1 John was written against some of the errors that Gnosticism promoted.
Dear, I know all about The Gospel of Thomas and the Nag Hammadi scrolls and the whole nine freaking yards. There are so many problems with gnosticism that I can't even begin to name them. I'm a student of NT Wright and EP Sanders, the world's foremost historians of early Christianity, so I'm pretty much all over this, and in the end gnosticism is really just a bad joke.
I have read all the non-canonical texts, including Gnostic texts going up to about 700 AD. You can probably fill a hollow VW Beetle with all the writings.
I am an Agnostic, but I will say that most Christian have a problem with Gnosticism because of a few reasons:
1. The Gnostic duality between flesh and spirit causes a hatred towards the flesh. Christians believe that the flesh, though fallen, was still created by God and will one day be restored.
2. Messy historical credibility.
3. There were hundreds of Gnostic sects all with different tenets and beliefs. For instance, the Marcionists believed in two Gods - a Creator God of the Old Testament and the God of Love of the New Testament, and the first God is evil and to be hated. A question is then raised: which "nosies" (hidden knowledge) is the truth? What if Marcion was right but I followed Simon Magus?
I do not blindly follow faith but I experience(see) for myself the perfect will of God. One definitely cannot see gnosticism!
Gnosticism (Greek: SS'sis, knowledge) refers to diverse, synergistic religious movements in antiquity consisting of various belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world created by an imperfect god, the demure; this being is frequently identified with the Abrahamic god, and is contrasted with a superior entity, referred to by several terms including Pleroma and Godhead. Depictions of the demureGE the term originates with Plato's Timaeus - vary from being as an embodiment of evil, to being merely imperfect and as benevolent as its inadequacy permits. Thus, broadly speaking, Gnosticism was a dualistic religion, influenced by and influencing Hellenic philosophy, Judaism (see Notzrim), and Christianity; however, by contrast, later strands of the movement, such as the Valentinians, held a monistic world-view. This, along with the varying treatments of the demiurge, may be seen as indicative of the variety of positions held within the category.
The gn?sis referred to in the term is a form of revealed, esoteric knowledge through which the spiritual elements of humanity are reminded of their true origins within the superior Godhead, being thus permitted to escape materiality. Consequently, within the sects of gnosticism only the pneumatics or psychics obtain gn?sis; the hylic or Somatics, though human, being incapable of perceiving the higher reality, are unlikely to attain the gn?sis deemed by gnostic movements as necessary for salvation. Jesus of Nazareth is identified by some Gnostic sects as an embodiment of the supreme being who became incarnate to bring gn?sis to the earth. In others (e.g. the Notzrim and Mandaeans) he is considered a m?iha kdaba or "false messiah" who perverted the teachings entrusted to him by John the Baptist. Still other traditions identify Mani and Seth, third son of Adam and Eve, as salvific figures.
Whereas formerly Gnosticism was considered by some a heretical branch of Christianity, it now seems clear that traces of Gnostic systems can be discerned some centuries before the Christian Era. Gnostic sects may have existed earlier than the First Century BCE, thus predating the birth of Jesus. The movement spread in areas controlled by the Roman Empire and Arian Goths , and the Persian Empire; it continued to develop in the Mediterranean and Middle East before and during the second and third centuries. Conversion to Islam and the Albigensian Crusade (1209?1229) greatly reduced the remaining number of Gnostics throughout the Middle Ages, though a few isolated communities continue to exist to the present. Gnostic ideas became influential in the philosophies of various esoteric mystical movements of the late 19th and 20th Centuries in Europe and North America, including some that explicitly identify themselves as revivals or even continuations of earlier gnostic groups.
Gnostic's emerged in the second century and soon began to cause division within the church.
The Gnostic's taught that faith was inferior to knowledge; they taught that people were saved through knowledge, not by faith.
This was the feature of the various systems that gave the gnostic movement its designation; they were the Gnostic's, the"Bowers"; yet what this precise knowledge was is quite vague, and unclear.
They believe that the knowledge through which salvation came could be enhanced by participation in rituals or through instruction, but ultimately it was self-discovery each gnostic had to experience.
It is very much similar to near-eastern mysticism.
I respectfully decline your offer, I will stay with Christianity, and my King James Bible. God Bless You.
Christians have a problem with Gnosticism because it's the original faith which defies what Christianity became. The 66 books of the Bible were put together by a group of priests, not by God.
Jesus spoke in parables to hide the real truth from people.
Luke 8:10 says this:
He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.' "
Can you truly know Brad Pitt by reading about him in a magazine? Can you really know God by reading about him in a book? To really know someone, you have to meet them in person and gain knowledge of them directly through experience. You can't know everything about someone by reading about them in a book.
That's what Gnosticism is all about. Direct Knowledge of the divine. Christians close their mind to true knowledge because thinking for yourself is the harder path, so they adopt what someone else thinks. It's easier to do what you're told than to think for yourself. That is why they can only "have faith" instead of knowing real truth.
Personally, i don't *really* believe that "matter is evil". i think Hinduism & Taoism come closer to the Supreme Divine Truth than what is in many of the writings of the ancient Gnostic Christians *or* non-Gnostic Christians, *or* Islam. Too much of orthodox & fundamentalistICConotheism are sucking womanly back into the Dark Ages.
i think the return into human awareness of the Christian Goddess, & contemporary Gnosis, are the most *exciting* events in Christianity since Yeshua and Mary Magdalene were teaching, on Earth.
"There is actually no such thing as Christian Gnosticism..." wrote Rene O.
Nonsense!
*Really* educate yourself beyond indoctrinated biases! Read "Lost Christianities: The Battle For Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew" by Bart D. Ehrman.
"The Apocryphon of John" *exists* as one of the gospels of Christian Gnosticism. They were most *certainly* "Christian" in that they reverenced & followed the Teachings they understood as being those of the True Christ.
NO Christian denomination in existence, nor the arrogance of *any* human being has genuine Divine Authority to determine who is "Christian" and who is not!
The New Testament *fails* as to providing adequate Authority to determine who is a "true Christian" & who is not. It is an anthology including & promoting the human biases & frequent false judgments of the human writers of the tract ates therein -- canonized by the "special interest" biases of other human beings.
It is not & has *never* been "the Word of God" -- tho i would say it includes *some* words written under the Guidance of the Genuine Holy Spirit.
Jerome (340-420), who translated the Scriptures into Latin, writing in the period when the Biblical Canon was established, says the following about the Apocrypha: They "were read for edification, but not for confirming the authority of church doctrine."
The primary prerequisite for any book to get into the NT canon was that it confirmed the authority of the church doctrine of the believers choosing the canon! Ultimate Divine Spiritual Truth, totally *accurate* Teachings of Jesus, what the Holy Spirit had to say Thur those who *loved* Jesus and Her Spirit over the centuries since Jesus's crucifixion until the canon was solidified in its final form were *not* the Primary Values they were looking for. The piece of writing had to confirm the authority of the doctrine *their* church was teaching. The full spiritual truthfulness of the New Testament canon is demonstrably not there *because* of the means of its selection.
Most of the New Testament books are "forgeries," too, in the sense that most of them were *not* written by the Names they're attributed to -- as is the case with about half of the epistles attributed to Paul. It's just a pseudo-historical "tradition" that believers have been indoctrinated to believe.
The ancient Gnostics were *good* people. They were eliminated thru a massive bloodbath across the centuries, their gospels *burned* so that the lies of the violent "winners" (who were hardly doing unto others as they'd want done to themselves) could not be revealed.
"First, it espouses a dualism regarding spirit and matter." -- Rene O,
As if virtually all Christianity isn't dualistic in its thinking! "The fruit of knowledge of good & evil" is dualism from the get-go! There *may* be a few Christian mystics who aren't dualistic... & those who follow the teachings in the spiritually-advanced Christian "A Course In Miracles" may tend towards non-dualism (denying the real existence of "evil") but just to draw a religious distinction between "flesh" & "the spirit" is dualism! Paul was certainly dualistic! Galatians 5: 19-23 is dualism! There are the "works of the flesh" and the "fruit of the Spirit". The transcendent "God" is *separate* from the material cosmos. How more dualistic can you get?!
The Holy Spirit, thru the ancient Gnostics revealed the main LIE being taught by "Satan" thru "Satan"'s (Ialdabaoth's) inspiration of the Old Testament (& some verses that "Satan" inspired got into Paul's Epistles & the Gospel of John, too -- wherever there is a "curse" verse) -- that he was *not* the true, Ultimate God.
Why the Old Testament "God" is really "Satan" is covered here:
What religion has *more* dissention, party spirit, strife & enmity [Gal. 5:21-22] afterall, than conventional Christianity?!
If people want to *really* know what Jesus taught, Back Then, to my view it is *best* to start with "The Gospel According To Thomas" -- then "The Gospel of Philip" and evaluate how much of the canonized gospels can be deemed as being "true" with these two *foremost* gospels used as a measuring stick. How much of *Paul's* teachings meet the "test" of Philip's teaching -- for Philip knew the True Christ far better than the still too much of a Pharisee Paul did! The 4 canonized gospels were all influenced by the false gospel taught by Paul (who taught a "different gospel" than Yeshua did) -- so they are *not* a good measuring stick as to the fully *authentic* teachings from Yeshua. (The lateness of the copies of GoT & GoP that exist does not reveal when the *earliest* copies were written... & scholarship remains "educated guesses".)
VERY BEST is to genuinely contact Yeshua & the Holy Spirit *now*; just learn from *Them*.
My personal favorites among the ancient Gnostic scriptures are "Thunder, Perfect Mind" -- which could be viewed as coming directly from Isis-Sophia, the Divine Mother of Christ, Herself -- & "Trimorphic Protennoia." They're not easy to understand, but well repay reading dozens of times to learn to discern, more accurately, the Immensitude of Meaning they are conveying.
Narrow is the way and few will find it. This must not be true, for all the millions of the pro to-gospel Roman Christian doctrine believing individuals are so sure that they are right and are ready to condemn Gnostic's to hell. Hmm! few will find it, not the millions of masses. I'll take my chances being among the few. Paul was gnostic, Gal4;19 "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ is formed in you," Hey, Christ being formed in you, How did that dam gnostic idea end up in the canon?
Why do christians have a problem with Gnosticism, have they ever studied the path?
