Gnosticism and its influence on New Age

[Loren Michael]

Selling fear means many ministers and churches are using false means of fear and preaching about the devil to get followers which means donations to support their false cause. They study the Bible for only two years and all they do is throw out phrases from the Bible. We all know how to read so can read the Bible ourselves, but to have a personal experience with the Lord takes effort and work. False prophets or Christian Pharisees are the problem that causes people to think Christians are narrow minded and full of prejudice.

Preaching about the devil?

That is wrong?

Was Peter wrong?

1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

I don't think you have a clue as to what you believe or what the bible teaches.

How old are you?

i may have read it wrong, but it looks like soma is railing against fear-based ministries, when it seems that the ideal ministry is a faith-based one. there's nothing wrond with being weary of the devil. but to use the devil to scare money out of people seems... well... to be doing the devil's work. church coffers (in my opinion- i could be wrong. don't hesitate to correct me, please) should be filled because of faith, not fear.

 

[Free]

Selling fear means many ministers and churches are using false means of fear and preaching about the devil to get followers which means donations to support their false cause. They study the Bible for only two years and all they do is throw out phrases from the Bible. We all know how to read so can read the Bible ourselves, but to have a personal experience with the Lord takes effort and work. False prophets or Christian Pharisees are the problem that causes people to think Christians are narrow minded and full of prejudice.

The problem is that post-modernism has taught people that no one has the right to tell them what is true or how they ought to live their life. Many people do need to have the fear of God put in them to wake them up, whether Christian or not. But a mature Christian serves God out of love. Of course, we should define what we all mean by "the fear of God" as there are both healthy and unhealthy ways to define it.

As for ministers and such studying the Bible for only two years, that is not the case, at least for the majority. It is usually four years with many going on to gte their masters or doctoral degrees. Anyone can read the Bible, but not as many can actually read it, study it, and understand it.

 

[Gary]

Good posts Free. I think soma is talking from some preconceived standpoint. It does appear as if soma THINKS there is "fear preaching"...

Well, I know that the opposite is true in some churches today. They preach an easy belief. i.e. come forward, say some "sinners prayer", accept Jesus. That is not preaching the full Gospel.

The "seeker-sensitive" gospel (if it is "good news" at all is really debatable) worries about carnal things like parking, seating, music, not too much Biblical quoting, a multimedia slide show.... and a casual minister who uses any Bible translation and out-of-context part-quote that contains any word which touches on the concept his is trying to explain... etc

Very little is said about the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the cost of following Him, the holiness of God, the wrath of God, the eternal consequences of sin, repentance or the devil. This might frighten "seeker-sensitive" people away!

Hence this false gospel attracts shallow believers who think they are "saved" but their life and words show otherwise. They see Jesus as a good example and teacher.... but they are not His followers, neither is He their Lord.

:-?

... a mature Christian serves God out of love.

Spot on! John explains....

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
1 John 3:16-18

 

[Shinto]

First off, the correlation between your father's personality and your image of God . . . that's lame.

Second, Jesus certainly warned about false prophets. Without taking sides on gnostic Christianity though - there is no way claim that the gnostics were or were not specifically the ones he was refering to. Was he talking about the gnostics? Jesuits? Martin Luther? Calvin? Baptists? Congregationalists?

 

[soma]

Jesus said, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,†because it provides an effective answer to the many problems of modern life. This call for love tells us that we are united and that no other person is separate or apart in God’s spiritual consciousness. Recognizing that we are all one in God’s consciousness gives us full protection in His unity by integrating our individual life with the world around us and providing a basic harmony and equilibrium in our hearts and minds. This is a kind of insurance from the flood of negativity surrounding us because a relaxed mind and body is positive, priceless and an indestructible way to receive successful ideas and results. When one is open and receptive, one receives ideas that guide one to prosperity because positive ideas attract while negativity repels. We find safety, security and a successful attitude in the knowledge that we are all
God’s children because in unity there is nothing to fear. Unity is love so emphasis on religious differences, race or intolerance rather that the unity of God is a strange god indeed and can be a challenge for us to overcome so we need to invoke the unity of God in all things. God is within each one of us so the first step is to open our consciousness to the unity of His spiritual consciousness because God reveals Himself in the condition of love, which is a kind of spiritual and physical unity.

Edited: Do not post links that promote teachings other than mainstream Christianity!

 

[bibleberean]

Jesus did not come to promote unity with false prophets and teachers.

Matthew 10:34-36 Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.

The god of this world promotes the type of sissified unity that throws out doctrine for the sake of "getting along".

The people that place "wimp love" over God's word are generally the biggest sowers of discord.

They promote the love of the world over the love of God.


1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Everyone is not a child of God. That is a lie!

John 8:42-44 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

The type of love the frauds use to promote unity is dung. It is simply another dirty four letter word... 8-)

 

[Free]

Jesus said, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,†because it provides an effective answer to the many problems of modern life. This call for love tells us that we are united and that no other person is separate or apart in God’s spiritual consciousness. Recognizing that we are all one in God’s consciousness gives us full protection in His unity by integrating our individual life with the world around us and providing a basic harmony and equilibrium in our hearts and minds.

Of course we are separate, even to God; He knows the number of hairs on our heads and to those who overcome he even gives them a new name. Jesus isn't saying that "we are united" or "are all one in God's consciousness," he is simply telling people to love others.

Unity is love so emphasis on religious differences, race or intolerance rather that the unity of God is a strange god indeed and can be a challenge for us to overcome so we need to invoke the unity of God in all things. God is within each one of us so the first step is to open our consciousness to the unity of His spiritual consciousness because God reveals Himself in the condition of love, which is a kind of spiritual and physical unity.

I hope you realize that it is only those who accept Christ who have God within, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and who are the "sons and daughters" of God. The strange god is the mixing of "New Age" spirituality with Christianity. Are we not commanded to "go into all the world and make disciples of all nations"? Does this not presume that those who don't follow the gospel do not follow the truth? Doesn't this emphasize religious differences? Most of your ideas are foreign to Holy Scripture and are bordering on pantheism.

 

[AHIMSA]

I hope you realize that it is only those who accept Christ who have God within, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and who are the "sons and daughters" of God. The strange god is the mixing of "New Age" spirituality with Christianity. Are we not commanded to "go into all the world and make disciples of all nations"? Does this not presume that those who don't follow the gospel do not follow the truth? Doesn't this emphasize religious differences? Most of your ideas are foreign to Holy Scripture and are bordering on pantheism.

It's unfortunate that you can't recognize the gosepl in what soma is saying. Paul himself taught that there are different stages of spiritual maturity. I think in the beginning, while we nuture our sense of God, it may be neccessary to think that the we way we percieve God is the ONLY way God can be percieved, and that our vision of him is absolute. Yet, as we grow mature in the spirit, we can begin to gather the strength and insight neccessary to shed our narrow conceptions. We can step out of the cradle of carefully crafted and cemented beliefs into a world that is much more ambiguous and uncertain, where instead of taking comfort in the certainty of God, we can begin to embrace his ultimate mystery. I think the recognition of this inherent unity and the pervasiveness of the reality of God is really the first step to this stage.

 

[Free]

It's unfortunate that you can't recognize the gosepl in what soma is saying.

That's because the gospel isn't there. The NT (especially Paul's writings) is clear that salvation starts with accepting Christ as Lord, believing in his death and resurrection. Any "gospel" that doesn't begin there or contain that as the means to salvation is a false gospel.

When Paul talks of different stages of maturity, he is writing to those who are already Christians, those who already have accepted Christ's sacrifice.

I think in the beginning, while we nuture our sense of God, it may be neccessary to think that the we way we percieve God is the ONLY way God can be percieved, and that our vision of him is absolute. Yet, as we grow mature in the spirit, we can begin to gather the strength and insight neccessary to shed our narrow conceptions.

Don't you find it strange that those on this board who claim to be the most spiritual think they are superior to those who hold to Christian orthodoxy? This is a sure sign that their spirituality is not rooted in Christ.

 

[Loren Michael]

It's unfortunate that you can't recognize the gosepl in what soma is saying.

That's because the gospel isn't there. The NT (especially Paul's writings) is clear that salvation starts with accepting Christ as Lord, believing in his death and resurrection. Any "gospel" that doesn't begin there or contain that as the means to salvation is a false gospel.

When Paul talks of different stages of maturity, he is writing to those who are already Christians, those who already have accepted Christ's sacrifice.

I think in the beginning, while we nuture our sense of God, it may be neccessary to think that the we way we percieve God is the ONLY way God can be percieved, and that our vision of him is absolute. Yet, as we grow mature in the spirit, we can begin to gather the strength and insight neccessary to shed our narrow conceptions.

Don't you find it strange that those on this board who claim to be the most spiritual think they are superior to those who hold to Christian orthodoxy? This is a sure sign that their spirituality is not rooted in Christ.

it seems more like their spirituality is rooted in something other than orthodoxy.

 

[Geo]

roots of Spirituality/Gnosticism, let's talk about "spiritual illumination"

it's that old concept of 'knowledge makes you be like God'
first introduced on the first sales call by Satan to Eve

Many miss in our days there is no liberal free value zone,
everything that's not under Jesus' authority has the natural tendency to drift
and be snapped up by occult spiritualism

Occult gnosticism is the religion of Freemasonry and that fact is kept
hidden from the average member. They think it's about making good men
better and they can remain to be a Christian once they rise in the power
pyramid.

You need to listen to at least a few ex 33th degree masons to understand the
full story, these are the ones that worship Satan and think of Jesus as the
'twin-prince' that didn't make it. He "lost his power when he was nailed to
the cross" and now there is "only one god that really has power". Well they
are right about one thing, he does have power on this earth. But not beyond,
because he is a created being - not the creator.

For people that think white magic is less problematic than the black for our health
and there is bad gnosticism and then there is "christian gnosticism":
The enemy is busy selling you knowledge that makes you feel spiritual. Lies
and lying spirits are trying to destroy all they can. Eternity has just one source,
and everyone that plays with theories of "Christ consciousness" "one with the
universe" or "nirwana" does not know this source and ist left with nothing
but a theory at the moment of physical death.

Then you know there is an enemy, and he has just robbed you.

True revelation comes from discipleship not from illumination or believing
the sponsored lies of a created being playing politics with your soul.
It's our proudness that doesn't believe we can be deceived and believe a lie.
That's why it's the humble that receive God's grace.

 

[AHIMSA]

Geo, you have quite the dramatic flair.

 

[Geo]

Read Revelation to get a better idea of the essence of dramatic,
then hammer at the message, not at the weather or how it makes
you feel what your read.

 

[soma]

Things and people have a purpose in being the way they are. Whatever we don't like in another is usually something we are afraid of within our own mind. While we are resisting something inside, we don't like to see it in other people, but this doesn’t make it wrong and we don't need to make judgments about it to make it true because that only makes it right for us and wrong for others. Acceptance is the key because when we accept others, we accept ourselves and are not disturbed with the things around us; we notice that these things have a purpose in being the way they are.

Wimpy love is the love of the White Supremacist, which stems from intolerance.

 

[Geo]

In case anyone is interested to get a better idea about the basics
of spiritualism, this one has a few points of relevant content:

THE CHALLENGING COUNTERFEIT - A Study Of Spiritualism
http://www.deceptioninthechurch.com/spiritism.htm

 

[soma]

I am sure that is a good study on spiritualism with deception in the church in the domain name. You learn well from our Christian President, the slight of hand trick. The boogy man will get you, but not if you really believe in God because God is the stongest force. The wimps without the force are afraid.

 

[Geo]

Soma, you're tricked by outside forms and your comment
has no orientation whatsoever. You need to first read and then
address issues without getting lost in the outside shell of hearsay.

"You learn well from our Christian President, the slight of hand trick"
Hahaha, and you make judgments on the level of "I think you have blond hair"

is Bush a Christian - Since when? Count his fruits here:
http://www.cuttingedge.org/news_updates/nz1086.htm

 

[soma]

Thanks for the web site that is a real eye opener. I thought most fundamental Christians believed every lie Bush has told because they gave him two terms in office.

 

[PDoug]

Gnosticism

The Gnostics followed a variety of religious movements that stressed gnosis or knowledge, especially of one’s origins. Cosmological dualism was also a feature of the systemâ€â€opposed spiritual worlds of good and evil. The material world was aligned with the dark world of evil.

No one is certain of the origins of Gnosticism. Some believe it was rooted in a heretical group within Judaism. Supporters of this theory cite The Apocalypse of Adam and The Paraphrase of Shem as early Gnostic documents revealing Jewish origins. Others give it a Christian context. An incipient form may have infiltrated the church in Colosse. Or it may have had a totally pagan root. During the second through the fourth centuries it was addressed as a major threat by such church fathers as Augustine, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and Origen.

As far as I can tell, the early Gnostics were a group of Christians who held many of the teachings Christ gave to His disciples in secret. These teachings explained in a fair amount of detail, the secrets of the kingdom of God. The reason why a lot of people in the church believe that what they taught was heresy, is the same reason why a lot of people in Israel believe that what Christ taught in the bible was also heresy: both sets of people have no real faith. It is that simple.

Early Sources

Irenaeus’s book Against Heresies provides extensive treatment of what Gnostics believed. Three Coptic Gnostic codices were published. Two were discovered in Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945. Codex Askewianus contains Pistis Sophia and Codex Brucianus contains The Book of Jeu. Best known among the Nag Hammadi documents is the Gospel of Thomas. A third work from this period, Codex Berolinensis, was found elsewhere and published in 1955. It contains a Gospel of Mary [Magdalene], a Sophia of Jesus, Acts of Peter, and an Apocryphon of John. The first translation of a tractate, The Gospel of Truth, appeared in 1956, and a translation of fifty-one treatises, including Gospel of Thomas, appeared in 1977.

Leaders

The early fathers of the church held that Gnosticism had first-century roots and that Simon the Sorcerer of Samaria (Acts 8) was the first Gnostic. According to church fathers, Simon practiced magic, claimed to be divine, and taught that his companion, a former prostitute, was reincarnated Helen of Troy. Hippolytus (d. 236) attributed the Apophasis Megale to Simon. Simon’s disciple, a former Samaritan named Menander, who taught in Syrian Antioch near the end of the first century, taught that those who believed in him would not die. That claim was nullified when he died.

At the beginning of the second century, Saturninus (Satornilos) asserted that the incorporeal Christ was the redeemer, denying that Christ was really incarnated in human flesh. This belief is shared with docetism. In this period Cerinthus of Asia Minor was teaching adoptionism, the heresy that Jesus was merely a man upon whom Christ descended at his baptism. Since Christ could not die, he departed from Jesus before his crucifixion. Basilides of Egypt was called both a dualist by Irenaeus and a monist by Hippolytus.

One of the more controversial, though atypical, Gnostics was Marcion of Pontus. He believed that the God of the Old Testament was different from the God of the New Testament and that the canon of Scripture included only a truncated version of Luke and ten of Paul’s Epistles (all but the pastoral Epistles). His views were severely attacked by Tertullian (ca. 160s–ca. 215). Marcion became a stimulus for the early church to officially define the limits of the canon.

Valentinus of Alexandria was another prominent Gnostic. He came to Rome in 140 and taught that there were a series of divine emanations. He divided humanity into three classes: (1) Hylics or unbelievers, who were immersed in material and fleshly nature; (2) psychics or common Christians, who lived by faith and pneumatics; and (3) spiritual Gnostics. His followers included Ptolemaeus, Heracleon, Theodotus, and Marcus. Heracleon’s interpretation of John is the first known New Testament commentary.

Gnostic-like beliefs persisted into the fourth century. Among the late manifestations was Manichaeism, a dualistic cult that trapped Augustine in his pre-Christian life. Against it he wrote many treatises, which are collected in The Anti-Manichaean Writings in the Ante-Nicene Fathers.

I see no difference between the above description of the Gnostics, and the descriptions of Christianity by Islamic fundamentalists, Buddhists, etc. All of the above are outright distortions of the Gnostic movement - just like Islamic fundamentalists provide distorted views of Christianity. Simon the Sorcerer never worshiped Christ: the Gnostics however did. Also I have seen no text (such as those found in the Nag Hammadi Library - and also Pistis Sophia) that indicates that any man other than Christ should be worshipped.

Also, pointing to a couple of extremists who may have called themselves Gnostics, is no different than saying that the Ku Klux Klan (and other extremist groups that use the bible) are good examples of Christianity. In addition, I cannot find any problems with writings attributed to Valentinus. Finally, Valentinus claimed to be the student of Theodotus (not the other way around), and Theodotus is known to be a student of Paul the apostle.

Teachings

Since Gnosticism lacked a common authority, it encompassed a variety of beliefs. Central to many, if not most, were:

• 1. a cosmic dualism between spirit and matter, good and evil;
  2. a distinction between a finite Old Testament God, Yahweh, who was equated with Plato’s Demiurge or Craftsman, and the transcendent God of the New Testament;
  3. view of creation as resulting from the fall of Sophia (Wisdom);
  4. identification of matter as evil;
  5. belief that most people are ignorant of their origins and condition;
  6. identification of sparks of divinity that are encapsulated in certain spiritual individuals;
  7. faith in a docetic Redeemer, who was not truly human and did not die on the cross. This Redeemer brought salvation in the form of a secret gnosis or knowledge that was communicated by Christ after his resurrection.
  8. a goal of escaping the prison of the body, traversing the planetary spheres of hostile demons, and being reunited with God;
  9. a salvation based not on faith or works, but upon special knowledge or gnosis of one’s true condition;
  10. a mixed view of morality. Carpocrates urged his followers to engage in deliberate promiscuity. Epiphanes, his son, taught that licentiousness was God’s law. Most Gnostics, however, took a strongly ascetic view of sexual intercourse and marriage, contending that the creation of woman was the source of evil and procreation of children simply multiplied the number of persons in bondage to the evil material world. Salvation of women depended on their one day becoming men and returning to the conditions of Eden before Eve was created. Oddly enough, women were prominent in many Gnostic sects.
  11. interpretation of baptism and the Lord’s supper as spiritual symbols of the gnosis;
  12. view of the resurrection as spiritual, not physical. In the Nag Hammadi codices De Resurrectione affirms that

The Saviour swallowed up death. . . . For he laid aside the world that perishes. He changed himself into an incorruptible aeon and raised himself up, after he had swallowed up the visible by the invisible, and he gave us the way to immortality. . . . But if we are made manifest in this world wearing him, we are his beams and we are encompassed by him until our setting, which is our death in this life. We are drawn upward by him like beams by the sun, without being held back by anything. This is the spiritual resurrection which swallows up the psychic together with the fleshly. [Malinine, 45]

Gnosticism as an organized movement acknowledging its source all but died. The sole surviving remnant is in southwestern Iran. However, many Gnostic teachings live on among new agers, existentialists, and Bible critics. The revival of interest in the Gospel of Thomas by the Jesus Seminar is a case in point. There is also a tendency, even among some evangelical scholars, to deny the physical nature of the resurrection. However, Gnosticism lives today in the New Age Movement in an extensive way (Jones).

Evaluation

Gnosticism was thoroughly critiqued by the early church fathers, especially Irenaeus, Tertullian, Augustine, and Origin, though Origin bought into some of their views.

Sources

• Augustine, The Anti-Manichaean Writings
  C. A. Evans, Nag Hammadi Texts and the Bible
  A. Frederick, et al., The Gnostic Gospels
  N. L. Geisler, The Battle for the Resurrection
  R. M. Grant, Gnosticism and Early Christianity
  P. Jones, Spirit Wars
  M. Malinine, et al., De Resurrection
  J. M. Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Library in English
  F. Seigert, et al., Nag-Hammadi-Register
  Tertullian, Against the Valentinians
  Tertullian, Five Books Against Marcion
  Tertullian, On the Flesh of Christ
  Tertullian, On the Resurrection of the Flesh
  Geisler, N. L. (1999). Baker encyclopedia of Christian apologetics. (Page 273).

The "Teachings" section above contains a mixture of truths and untruths that ultimately misrepresent Gnostic teachings. Quite frankly Gnostic teachings are no different from the teachings found in the Bible. They just shed more light on the mysteries of God. There is an emphasis in Gnostic scriptures on knowledge about the ways of God, that you gain from experience while having faith. But that is no different from what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, or what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 31:33-34.

It is true that new agers use Gnostics text: but these same new agers use the bible as well. There are a number of groups today who call themselves Gnostics and are into astral travel and related things. These things however don't concern me. What is important, is that everyone recognize that certain Gnostic texts (e.g. those found in the Nag Hammadi Library - and also Pistis Sophia) really have been inspired by the Holy Spirit, and it would behoove everyone to ensure that he has faith correctly, so that he may enjoy these scriptures.

 

[soma]

Some Christians have no spiritual experience so have a lack of total explanation; therefore, they have lost the power to bring about the original experience of oneness and have become superstitions and an impediment on the road to spiritual development. The preach only about fear, division, and Satan. The word that intersects their Christianity is unclear and confusing so will attack anyting that is different. Some try to clear it up, but are attacked. With Christian and spiritual explanations, Christians can touch the point, the pulse, the essence of the real problem which is the relation between the individual consciousness and the mystery of all life, the universal consciousness of Christ. A person's imagination and intuition are vital to this understanding so that God ceases to be an object and becomes an actual spiritual experience. This experience can be found in Christian mysticism. Edited.

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