The danger of modern Gnosticism
Warning to the church an ancient foe is on the move: Modern Gnosticism
It is back. Well maybe it never went away. Modern Gnosticism is once again spreading its version of the truth and trying to convince us that dark is light, up is down and it has the secret knowledge to joy, peace and salvation.
Over my years in ministry, I have met with several individuals who were excited to share with me their secret wisdom and message from God. I love it when the Spirit (of the Lord) speaks, but I am always cautious and the first question I have is, “How do you know it is from God and not from a demon?”
I have never met anyone who claimed that their message was from a demon and not from God, but I have encountered many who clearly had been let astray be it by voices or ancient texts that were not from God. With some individuals I was able to use reason and logic and lead back to the truth. Once the error of their thinking was pointed out, they rejoiced and were self-ashamed by how easily they were deceived. I remind my friends that "Satan disguises himself as an angel of light," (2 Corinthians 11:14), and one of his greatest tricks is his ability to make evil appear good or godly. I encourage people to not live into the shame of being deceived but live into the joy of knowing Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Sadly, some individuals refuse to engage in a logical discussion and move further into the darkness of their “secret knowledge.” Because their reasoning is not based in logic or reality it is always difficult to converse with an individual deceived by the trappings of Gnosticism. This is not a new movement but one that existed form the beginning of the church and as always it must be confronted.
One of the most difficult groups to reason with is the modern Gnostic movement. You may not have heard of some of these cults, but you have probably heard of some of their teachings. Modern Gnostic cults promote a secret revealed knowledge of God apart from Scripture. They believe that the Bible has been corrupted and that a new revelation from an angelic source as in the “Course in Miracles,” “Christian Science” or an ancient text has given them “secret knowledge.” The ancient texts referenced are known as Gnostic Gospels or Apocryphal Gospels. In either case individuals in these cults claim a mystical secret knowledge that must be believed in first and later understood. These Gnostic teaching always demand a blind faith where an individual must first have faith or belief in the material in order to understand it or receive the “secret knowledge” available. The phrase “secret knowledge,” is the tell card as Gnosis literally means “secret knowledge.”
It is important to first recognize that for a devoted Gnostic believer, the act of faith or believe in must precede understanding. Their circular argument is always “You don’t understand because you don’t believe. If you would first believe then you would understand.” Rational thinking and logic are quickly dismissed because the rest of us are unwilling to open our minds and be enlightened to the “secret knowledge” that only a select few possess. Another way to state the belief in Gnosticism is that once you believe without evidence your faith will bear witness to a truth others cannot comprehend because their minds and souls are closed to the work of the supernatural being. “Enlightenment” is the key buzz word for modern Gnosticism.
For those of us who use logic and reason to support our faith (Biblical faith is based on reason and evidence), we are deceived by the Biblical teachings and indoctrination of the church. Our minds are closed and unable to conceive of what cannot be understood without first believing. Like the famous scene from the Matrix, we must choose to take the red pill before we can be free from the illusion of the Matrix we are in. To be fair to my Gnostic friends, it is possible that we are all deceived and living in a false reality. I confess that I do live with a closed mind if that means I follow evidence and want my faith to be supported by evidence and reason.
One of the core sources for the secret knowledge is the Gnostic gospels which were discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. The Nag Hammadi Library holds a collection of thirteen ancient books containing over fifty texts including the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Truth and the Secret Book of John. All of these books were written after the first century AD (that is between100 years to 200 years after Christ). These books were written to present an alternative, mystical interpretation of Jesus’s teachings that focused on inner enlightenment rather than his public ministry and teachings. The Gnostic gospels were authored by early Christian Gnostic groups not by the false titles given them. The Gnostic Gospels teach that salvation comes through acquiring secret knowledge (gnosis) about the nature of God, the soul, and the spiritual realm.
The earlies Gnostic Gospel is believed by many to be the Gospel of Thomas, written around AD 140. (The latest of the four Biblical Gospels is John written around 90 AD). The Gospel of Thomas was not written by the Apostle Thomas but was given his names to appear as a credible source for the secret knowledge. All the Gnostic gospels teach that the individual, once enlightened, has a secrete power over their world and has control of their salvation. Gnosticism teaches that by learning the secret knowledge one can be saved and not by submission to the will of God and reliance upon the atonement of Jesus upon the cross. This teaching is very seductive because we all want to be in control and have power. The concept of secret knowledge puts the weight of salvation back on the individual. This temptation is not new; in fact, it is the oldest temptation and deception recorded in the Bible as the very first sin in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve wanted to be like God (Genesis 3). Adam and Eve wanted to be in control of their own lives and morality.
Gnosticism often has a dualistic view of the universe, where the material world is considered evil or a prison, while the spirit is divine. Modern Gnosticism if also heavenly influenced by Buddhism, as the two worldviews align to present an illusion of control over one’s life through secret knowledge. Accordingly, only those with the Gnosis (secret, experiential knowledge) are saved because they have become enlightened while the rest of us live in darkness and ignorance.
Stop, Pause: Let’s think this through…
The fact that there is a secret knowledge that God has not revealed to everyone means that the god of Gnosticism is uncaring, not all powerful, not self-existing, not separate from creation, and not just. This realization alone should cause us to have great concern because we know that God must be self-existing, separate from all creation (God is Aseity), God is all powerful (omnipotent), all knowing (omniscience), all loving, all good, and just. These are attributes of God that we discover in the Bible and are also evident from the grounds of logic (General Revelation). As an example, because good exists, God must be good. There could not be good in the world if God was not good. Evil is a corruption of good therefor evil cannot exist without good, but good which is from God can exist without evil. Therefore, because there is good in the world God must be all good. If God is all good, why would there be a secret knowledge only available to a select few who must ignore their God-given ability to reason in order to believe it? Is God incapable to communicating effectively. The Biblical God of logic revealed in both General Revelation and Special Revelation is incompatible with the teachings of Gnosticism. One must choose between the all loving- all powerful – all knowing etc… God of scripture and the impotent, unloving god of Gnosticism.
Another way to express the difference is to take the core teaching of Gnosticism “Salvation through secret knowledge and compare it to the teachings of Scripture. In Gnosticism once one believes they are enlightened with the secret knowledge. Through this “secret knowledge” an individual earns or enables their salvation, and they have control over their lives. But to be fair to the teachings of Gnosticism salvation is not from evil but from ignorance. According to Gnosticism Evil is an illusion which exists only in the mind of the individual not enlightened. The material world is evil and pulls individuals into darkness, but the enlightened individual is able to separate themselves from the deception of the material world.
For the Christian evil is real. For the father who has lost his son to cancer, evil is real. To the female child molested by the adult male, evil is real. To the Jews slaughtered in death camps during World War II, evil is real. Evil is not an illusion. Evil is a corruption of good and a present reality. The Gnostic worldview demands that evil is an illusion because we hold onto the things of this world tightly and are unenlightened. The solution to evil for the Gnostic is to deny it exists, thus denying reality as we all know and experience it. Those of us who are un-enlightened are trapped in the darkness believing in real evil.
For the Christian evil painfully exists and is very present. Evil was invited into the world when Adam and Eve rejected God’s authority over their lives in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). Do not miss that the temptation was to partake of the fruit from the Tree of KNOWLEDGE of good and evil. Since that moment all humanity has lived under the curse of the corruption of evil and its impact. But God who is all good, all loving, all just created a solution for evil, and it was the cross. On the cross God himself, fully man – fully God, gave his life as an atonement for sin and evil. Those who believe in the word, work, and person of Jesus Christ, put their faith in him and repent of their sins receive salvation as a gift. It is not something earned or a secret made available to only a few. It is a gift for all people, of all nations, at all times. It is a gift that is rationally received by investigating the reliability of the Bible, the historical facts of Jesus, and the revelation of God’s presence in the world.
Let me return to the discussion of the Gnostic Gospels for a moment since it might be unfamiliar with my readers.
The Gnostic gospels are not gospels at all. These books falsely attached the names of famous Christians to their writings, such as the gospel of Thomas, the gospel of Philip, the gospel of Mary, etc. The reason the Gnostic gospels attached name of the Apostles was to appear to give them legitimacy in the early church. These books are not hidden in the basement of the Vatican as Dan Brown wrote in the DaVinci Code. These writings are available at most public libraries and are available online. When one takes the time to read the Gnostic gospels, they are a fun read. They present a much for fictional, comic book Jesus as if Marvel or DC comics were making up a story rather than the historical Jesus found in the four actual Gospels. The books are filled with self-contradicting stories and while there are some similarities between the four Canonical Gospels and the Gnostic gospels, there are direct contradictions in both historical recounting of Jesus life and theological presentation of God.
Two of my favorite stories in the Gnostic gospels are of Jesus making birds out of clay as a small boy and bringing them to life. This is found in the Gospel of Thomas. In the gospel of Peter the cross walks out of the Tomb ahead of Jesus pronouncing the resurrection. How fun is that, a wooden structure walking and talking. In these false gospels, Jesus is portrayed as angry an unenlightened to the secrete knowledge which must be learned. Jesus is often seen using his power for personal glory which contradicts his very nature taught in the Bible. In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (different from the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas), Jesus as a child uses his divine power to kill other children. Clearly, we are not talking about the same Jesus found in the four Biblical Gospels.
The Gnostic gospels promoting false teachings about virtually every core Christian doctrine stemming from a distortion of Jesus teachings. In this we often see the Gnostic gospels take a phrase or teaching of Jesus and distort it, remove it from context or modify it to fit the narrative of the secret knowledge Gnosticism promotes. The Gnostic gospels can be a good source for the study of early Christian heresies, but they are not taken seriously by historians as to their accuracy of recording the life and events of Jesus.
The believers in the Gnostic gospels and modern Gnostic movements represent a religious movement moving people not into enlightenment but into darkness. As the prophet Isaiah wrote, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter,” (Isaiah 5:20). The Gnostic cults and their teachers must be addressed with kindness and respect, but they must be confronted for their presentations of false teachings. The core of Gnosticism is in direct contradiction to the teachings of scripture which is based on God’s creation of humanity with the faculties of logic and reason. The God of scripture has gone to great lengths to reveal himself to all humanity and to clearly communicate to those who wish to examine the evidence of his existence in both General Revelation and Special Revelation. The best advice when talking with someone who believes in Gnosticism is to help them see that their practical lives are not based on secret knowledge and thus, they live in a contradiction. They would not encourage someone to get in the imaginary flying car by encouraging them they must first believe it exists then it will exist. Once a person is invested in self-delusion only then can they feel and experience the non-existent flying car. Orthodox Christianity encourages someone to first meet the mechanic, study the history of the automobile, and investigate the car, watch the car be driven by someone else, get testimony from a driver and a passenger who have bene in the car and then after all the evidence is collected take a ride.
It is back. Well maybe it never went away. Modern Gnosticism is once again spreading its version of the truth and trying to convince us that dark is light, up is down and it has the secret knowledge to joy, peace and salvation.
Over my years in ministry, I have met with several individuals who were excited to share with me their secret wisdom and message from God. I love it when the Spirit (of the Lord) speaks, but I am always cautious and the first question I have is, “How do you know it is from God and not from a demon?”
I have never met anyone who claimed that their message was from a demon and not from God, but I have encountered many who clearly had been let astray be it by voices or ancient texts that were not from God. With some individuals I was able to use reason and logic and lead back to the truth. Once the error of their thinking was pointed out, they rejoiced and were self-ashamed by how easily they were deceived. I remind my friends that "Satan disguises himself as an angel of light," (2 Corinthians 11:14), and one of his greatest tricks is his ability to make evil appear good or godly. I encourage people to not live into the shame of being deceived but live into the joy of knowing Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Sadly, some individuals refuse to engage in a logical discussion and move further into the darkness of their “secret knowledge.” Because their reasoning is not based in logic or reality it is always difficult to converse with an individual deceived by the trappings of Gnosticism. This is not a new movement but one that existed form the beginning of the church and as always it must be confronted.
One of the most difficult groups to reason with is the modern Gnostic movement. You may not have heard of some of these cults, but you have probably heard of some of their teachings. Modern Gnostic cults promote a secret revealed knowledge of God apart from Scripture. They believe that the Bible has been corrupted and that a new revelation from an angelic source as in the “Course in Miracles,” “Christian Science” or an ancient text has given them “secret knowledge.” The ancient texts referenced are known as Gnostic Gospels or Apocryphal Gospels. In either case individuals in these cults claim a mystical secret knowledge that must be believed in first and later understood. These Gnostic teaching always demand a blind faith where an individual must first have faith or belief in the material in order to understand it or receive the “secret knowledge” available. The phrase “secret knowledge,” is the tell card as Gnosis literally means “secret knowledge.”
It is important to first recognize that for a devoted Gnostic believer, the act of faith or believe in must precede understanding. Their circular argument is always “You don’t understand because you don’t believe. If you would first believe then you would understand.” Rational thinking and logic are quickly dismissed because the rest of us are unwilling to open our minds and be enlightened to the “secret knowledge” that only a select few possess. Another way to state the belief in Gnosticism is that once you believe without evidence your faith will bear witness to a truth others cannot comprehend because their minds and souls are closed to the work of the supernatural being. “Enlightenment” is the key buzz word for modern Gnosticism.
For those of us who use logic and reason to support our faith (Biblical faith is based on reason and evidence), we are deceived by the Biblical teachings and indoctrination of the church. Our minds are closed and unable to conceive of what cannot be understood without first believing. Like the famous scene from the Matrix, we must choose to take the red pill before we can be free from the illusion of the Matrix we are in. To be fair to my Gnostic friends, it is possible that we are all deceived and living in a false reality. I confess that I do live with a closed mind if that means I follow evidence and want my faith to be supported by evidence and reason.
One of the core sources for the secret knowledge is the Gnostic gospels which were discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. The Nag Hammadi Library holds a collection of thirteen ancient books containing over fifty texts including the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Truth and the Secret Book of John. All of these books were written after the first century AD (that is between100 years to 200 years after Christ). These books were written to present an alternative, mystical interpretation of Jesus’s teachings that focused on inner enlightenment rather than his public ministry and teachings. The Gnostic gospels were authored by early Christian Gnostic groups not by the false titles given them. The Gnostic Gospels teach that salvation comes through acquiring secret knowledge (gnosis) about the nature of God, the soul, and the spiritual realm.
The earlies Gnostic Gospel is believed by many to be the Gospel of Thomas, written around AD 140. (The latest of the four Biblical Gospels is John written around 90 AD). The Gospel of Thomas was not written by the Apostle Thomas but was given his names to appear as a credible source for the secret knowledge. All the Gnostic gospels teach that the individual, once enlightened, has a secrete power over their world and has control of their salvation. Gnosticism teaches that by learning the secret knowledge one can be saved and not by submission to the will of God and reliance upon the atonement of Jesus upon the cross. This teaching is very seductive because we all want to be in control and have power. The concept of secret knowledge puts the weight of salvation back on the individual. This temptation is not new; in fact, it is the oldest temptation and deception recorded in the Bible as the very first sin in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve wanted to be like God (Genesis 3). Adam and Eve wanted to be in control of their own lives and morality.
Gnosticism often has a dualistic view of the universe, where the material world is considered evil or a prison, while the spirit is divine. Modern Gnosticism if also heavenly influenced by Buddhism, as the two worldviews align to present an illusion of control over one’s life through secret knowledge. Accordingly, only those with the Gnosis (secret, experiential knowledge) are saved because they have become enlightened while the rest of us live in darkness and ignorance.
Stop, Pause: Let’s think this through…
The fact that there is a secret knowledge that God has not revealed to everyone means that the god of Gnosticism is uncaring, not all powerful, not self-existing, not separate from creation, and not just. This realization alone should cause us to have great concern because we know that God must be self-existing, separate from all creation (God is Aseity), God is all powerful (omnipotent), all knowing (omniscience), all loving, all good, and just. These are attributes of God that we discover in the Bible and are also evident from the grounds of logic (General Revelation). As an example, because good exists, God must be good. There could not be good in the world if God was not good. Evil is a corruption of good therefor evil cannot exist without good, but good which is from God can exist without evil. Therefore, because there is good in the world God must be all good. If God is all good, why would there be a secret knowledge only available to a select few who must ignore their God-given ability to reason in order to believe it? Is God incapable to communicating effectively. The Biblical God of logic revealed in both General Revelation and Special Revelation is incompatible with the teachings of Gnosticism. One must choose between the all loving- all powerful – all knowing etc… God of scripture and the impotent, unloving god of Gnosticism.
Another way to express the difference is to take the core teaching of Gnosticism “Salvation through secret knowledge and compare it to the teachings of Scripture. In Gnosticism once one believes they are enlightened with the secret knowledge. Through this “secret knowledge” an individual earns or enables their salvation, and they have control over their lives. But to be fair to the teachings of Gnosticism salvation is not from evil but from ignorance. According to Gnosticism Evil is an illusion which exists only in the mind of the individual not enlightened. The material world is evil and pulls individuals into darkness, but the enlightened individual is able to separate themselves from the deception of the material world.
For the Christian evil is real. For the father who has lost his son to cancer, evil is real. To the female child molested by the adult male, evil is real. To the Jews slaughtered in death camps during World War II, evil is real. Evil is not an illusion. Evil is a corruption of good and a present reality. The Gnostic worldview demands that evil is an illusion because we hold onto the things of this world tightly and are unenlightened. The solution to evil for the Gnostic is to deny it exists, thus denying reality as we all know and experience it. Those of us who are un-enlightened are trapped in the darkness believing in real evil.
For the Christian evil painfully exists and is very present. Evil was invited into the world when Adam and Eve rejected God’s authority over their lives in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). Do not miss that the temptation was to partake of the fruit from the Tree of KNOWLEDGE of good and evil. Since that moment all humanity has lived under the curse of the corruption of evil and its impact. But God who is all good, all loving, all just created a solution for evil, and it was the cross. On the cross God himself, fully man – fully God, gave his life as an atonement for sin and evil. Those who believe in the word, work, and person of Jesus Christ, put their faith in him and repent of their sins receive salvation as a gift. It is not something earned or a secret made available to only a few. It is a gift for all people, of all nations, at all times. It is a gift that is rationally received by investigating the reliability of the Bible, the historical facts of Jesus, and the revelation of God’s presence in the world.
Let me return to the discussion of the Gnostic Gospels for a moment since it might be unfamiliar with my readers.
The Gnostic gospels are not gospels at all. These books falsely attached the names of famous Christians to their writings, such as the gospel of Thomas, the gospel of Philip, the gospel of Mary, etc. The reason the Gnostic gospels attached name of the Apostles was to appear to give them legitimacy in the early church. These books are not hidden in the basement of the Vatican as Dan Brown wrote in the DaVinci Code. These writings are available at most public libraries and are available online. When one takes the time to read the Gnostic gospels, they are a fun read. They present a much for fictional, comic book Jesus as if Marvel or DC comics were making up a story rather than the historical Jesus found in the four actual Gospels. The books are filled with self-contradicting stories and while there are some similarities between the four Canonical Gospels and the Gnostic gospels, there are direct contradictions in both historical recounting of Jesus life and theological presentation of God.
Two of my favorite stories in the Gnostic gospels are of Jesus making birds out of clay as a small boy and bringing them to life. This is found in the Gospel of Thomas. In the gospel of Peter the cross walks out of the Tomb ahead of Jesus pronouncing the resurrection. How fun is that, a wooden structure walking and talking. In these false gospels, Jesus is portrayed as angry an unenlightened to the secrete knowledge which must be learned. Jesus is often seen using his power for personal glory which contradicts his very nature taught in the Bible. In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas (different from the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas), Jesus as a child uses his divine power to kill other children. Clearly, we are not talking about the same Jesus found in the four Biblical Gospels.
The Gnostic gospels promoting false teachings about virtually every core Christian doctrine stemming from a distortion of Jesus teachings. In this we often see the Gnostic gospels take a phrase or teaching of Jesus and distort it, remove it from context or modify it to fit the narrative of the secret knowledge Gnosticism promotes. The Gnostic gospels can be a good source for the study of early Christian heresies, but they are not taken seriously by historians as to their accuracy of recording the life and events of Jesus.
The believers in the Gnostic gospels and modern Gnostic movements represent a religious movement moving people not into enlightenment but into darkness. As the prophet Isaiah wrote, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter,” (Isaiah 5:20). The Gnostic cults and their teachers must be addressed with kindness and respect, but they must be confronted for their presentations of false teachings. The core of Gnosticism is in direct contradiction to the teachings of scripture which is based on God’s creation of humanity with the faculties of logic and reason. The God of scripture has gone to great lengths to reveal himself to all humanity and to clearly communicate to those who wish to examine the evidence of his existence in both General Revelation and Special Revelation. The best advice when talking with someone who believes in Gnosticism is to help them see that their practical lives are not based on secret knowledge and thus, they live in a contradiction. They would not encourage someone to get in the imaginary flying car by encouraging them they must first believe it exists then it will exist. Once a person is invested in self-delusion only then can they feel and experience the non-existent flying car. Orthodox Christianity encourages someone to first meet the mechanic, study the history of the automobile, and investigate the car, watch the car be driven by someone else, get testimony from a driver and a passenger who have bene in the car and then after all the evidence is collected take a ride.
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