GNOSTICISM

GNOSTICISM: 'YOU WILL BE AS GOD'


Copyright © 1997-2002 Zenith Harris Merrill
In John 18:20, Jesus refuted the "secret doctrine" of Gnosticism, and indeed all "secret doctrine": "Jesus answered him, 'I have spoken openly to the world; I always taught in synagogues, and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and I spoke nothing in secret.'"

All schools and forms of Gnosticism share one basic belief: They receive secret knowledge through mystical initiation by experiencing what they believe to be union with deity, by merging with and dissolving their own identity into spiritual beings, during an altered state of consciousness which leaves them believing they, themselves are Christ, i.e., they are themselves God, and have need of no other saviour, or forgiveness of sins, for how can God sin?

Jesus also refuted the idea of "realizing that one is God through meditation or mystical illumination as He told his disciples shortly before his crucifixion, resurrection and ascension back to God the Father, whence He came: Matthew 24:24-27: "For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect--if that were possible.

See, I have told you ahead of time. "So if anyone tells you, `There he is, out in the desert,' do not go out; or, `Here he is, in the inner rooms,' do not believe it.

For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man."

In 2nd Timothy, the bible calls the belief that one is a god, or can become one with God "a doctrine of demons," and certainly, those spiritual entities with whom they are making contact are not of God. God does not send a spiritual message that bypasses or contradicts His written revelation, the Bible, as this message does.

In The Gnostics, by Tobias Churton, Gnosticism's roots are traced to Hermes Trismegistus, approximately 600 B.C., and is described as "the fount from which Plato had drunk," stating that the willing initiate into the ancient theology could now enter the world of Hermes himself. Churton quotes from the ancient writing, Pymander attributed to Hermes, a legendary author of works embodying magical, astrological, and alchemical doctrines:

"Once upon a time, when I had begun to think about the things that are, and my thoughts had soared high aloft, ... methought there came to me a Being of vast and boundless magnitude, who called me by my name, and said to me, 'What do you wish to see and hear, and to learn and come to know by thought?'"

"'Who are you?' I said. 'I,' said he, 'am Poimandres, the sovereign mind (nous). 'I wish to learn,' said I, 'the things that are, and understand their nature, and get knowledge (gnonai) of God. These,' I said, 'are the things of which I wish to hear.'"

"He answered, 'I know what you wish, for indeed, I am with you everywhere. Keep in mind all that you desire to learn, and I will teach you.'"

In this introduction to the Corpus Hermeticum, which was written about by Augustine in the 4th century A.D., and spoken of as an ancient writing at that time, being recognized as a source of knowledge to Socrates and Plato, who lived in the 4th century B.C. Hermes, in the foregoing quote, acknowledges that what he received and now teaches was received, or channeled from a spirit being, or demon.

This demonic esoteric Gnostic teaching completely contradicts the message of God's word, especially the gospel of Christ, as God alone is "unique," and outside and apart from His creation. It is a continuation of Satan's lies, begun in the garden of Eden, and those who follow it will find that the result is not "salvation," through elitist, esoteric knowledge. When Satan tempted Eve with the fruit of the forbidden tree of knowledge, he promised her, that as a result of this acquired knowledge, "You shall be as God."

Within so-called "liberal" or more accurately pseudoChristianity today, after decades of attacking the word of God, through Higher Criticism, and Darwin's "theory of evolution", elevating man's knowledge above the wisdom of God, and denying all orthodox biblical standards of the Faith, as the virgin birth, resurrection of Christ, and inerrancy of God's word, and pronouncing them all as "scientifically" impossible, and unprovable; there is now a movement afoot to regain spirituality, but not orthodox spirituality, or biblical spirituality, and not from the Spirit of God.

Today, in many of the mainline churches, Gnosticism, is being rediscovered and accepted as an alternate, authentic expression of Christianity, now reemerging from ancient Gnosticism, dating back to the lst century, which, according to modern practitioners, was misunderstood and misjudged at that time.

Gnosticism is defined by Webster's Tenth Collegiate Dictionary as the thought and practice, of various cults of late pre-Christian and early Christian centuries, distinguished by the conviction that matter is evil and that emancipation from evil comes through "gnosis," Greek for knowledge in the sense of interior certainty or insight, i.e., mystically received knowledge.

Before Gnosticism pretended to become Christianized in the first century, it represented a social liberation movement, promising "freedom to all," freedom from morality, freedom from God, and from His rules, such as the ten commandments, and from His norms for society, as represented by the heteorosexual family unit.

The Pymander of Hermes was said to have been the source of inspiration for Zoroaster, Hebrew Cabala, and for Pythagorus (581-497 B.C.) as well as Plato. Gnostic spirituality combined pagan monistic Hinduism (the view that all reality is one unitary organic whole with no independent parts), with another key element, Egyptian goddess magic.

Thunder/Sophia, the Gnostic mother goddess, and feminine principle of revelation, according to Dr Peter Jones, in Spirit Wars, declares, "I am the one whose image is great in Egypt." This is a reference connecting the Gnostic mother goddess to Isis, the Egyptian mother goddess of wisdom, or magic. Those who were Initiates into her mysteries and the ecstatic sensuous experiences in her secret temple rites, believed they were becoming one with deity, and receiving a foretaste of immortality. Saint Paul called this spiritual deception "fellowship with demons."

For the first two centuries A.D., gnosticism flourished in many forms, as a religious movement blending Christian doctrine with esoteric pagan philosphy. It appeared sometimes as serious philosophical enquiry, running a gamut that also incorporated debased magic ritual. According to A Dictionary of Philosophy, from the Macmillan Press, the appeal of the esoteric and elitist aspects of gnostic teaching ensured its survival, in one form or another, for example, in the 13th century French Albigensian heretics.

The defining premise of gnosticism for all adherents, was the dualistic belief in a sharp distinction between the spiritual world being "good," and the material world being "evil." In this, and other features it resembled "Manichaeism," a religion separate from Christianity, founded by the Persian, Mani, an embodyment of Buddhist, Zoroastrian, as well as Christian theology. Rather than try to explain how a supreme and "good" God could create an "evil" material world, the gnostics attributed the creation of the world to a "Demiurge," a term derived from the Greek for craftsman, and in Plato's Timaeus, the maker of the physical world.

Those who deeply commit themselves to this new (old) spirituality, will find it contains a power that will bind them with spiritual chains. Unlike the Holy Spirit, who is a perfect gentleman, and never enters without being specifically asked, in faith; the alternate spirituality of Satan will make entrance in any deceptive way possible. Flaunting the laws of the Creator leaves one vulnerable to slavery to evil spirits.

Madame Helena Blavatsky was a Russian princess, who founded the Theosophical Society in the late 19th century, blending Western occultism with Eastern spiritual mysticism, and wrote the major work Isis Unveiled. In 1884, she wrote to a friend as follows: "I would gladly return, be Russian, be Christian, be Orthodox. I yearn for it. But there is no returning; I am in chains, I am not my own." Her only wages for rebelling against, and becoming free of God, was enslavement to he whom Christ called "a liar, and the father of liars, Satan."
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