Listen to the
disturbing audio at the end of this article.
I
have been saved for over forty years, and from the very beginning I suspected
there was something missing in the theology of the Church regardless of
denomination. The sermons I heard and the language people used to describe
their faith in Christ did not fully encapsulate all that I read in the
Bible. The pervasiveness of the problem pointed to something that happened
long ago, far back as the second century. Since then, Church history can be
clearly seen with a hole straight through the middle of it. At its
fledgling state it grew alongside a blasphemous religion of Gnosticism, which posed as a legitimate sect of Christianity, but spoke in
different terms and derived opposing conclusions about the Old Testament
and the teachings of
Christ and those of the original apostles. Some of their ideas were
appalling, while others seemed to parallel Christian theology, giving the
appearance of blending with the true faith, and consequently making them
very dangerous to those who were trusting in Jesus for their eternal souls. The
second and third century Christians feverishly fought against them, trying
to rid the Church of their evil influences, and inadvertently threw out
the baby with the bathwater. It is not fair to say that the Gnostics stole
anything from the Church, for Satan is the real culprit, yet we can’t
even say that he stole anything, since we willingly surrendered to
him the heart and soul of the gospel, like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden gave him what
he wanted. In this
paper we will compare the teachings of Gnosticism with the Scriptures and
note the differences and similarities between them. The differences we
will use to reveal an extremely toxic and blasphemous religion, while the
similarities we will use to expose the method by which the devil used
Gnosticism to steal the central core of Christianity from the Church.
Following are teachings and quotes of the Gnostics that
oppose Christian theology:
1. What the historical Christian writers thought about
Gnosticism–
In his book Stephan A. Hoeller writes, “Three of the writers were known
for their vehemently anti-Gnostic views: Irenaeus of Lyons, Hippolytus of
Rome, and Epiphanius of Salamis. All three were elevated to sainthood, and
the works of all three are never free from mendacity [tendency to lie] and
theological ire.” (p.193). You can hear the anger in his own writing
about these saints who fought against the Gnostics with a tenacity that is
missing in today’s fight for truth.
2. Gnostics seek liberation instead of salvation–
Hoeller again writes, “There is no need whatsoever for guilt, for
repentance from so-called sin; neither is there need for blind belief in a
vicarious salvation by way of the death of Jesus. We don’t need to be
saved; we need to be transformed by gnosis [knowledge].” (p.116). This
sounds eerily familiar to our society today. People call it New-Age,
showing the influence of Gnosticism on the world's current belief
systems. Then again it sounds like Hinduism, a plethora of religious ideas
thrown together, shaken-not-stirred, resulting in
what the average unbeliever calls truth in today’s heathenish society.
a)They dismiss mainstream Christian atonement theology –
Again he writes “The entire message of mainstream Christian atonement
theology is meaningless to the Gnostic. The world was not created perfect,
its present state is not the result of a fall, and the human race did not
incur an original sin that is passed on to all men and women. Consequently
there is no need for God’s son to be sacrificed in order to pacify his
wrathful Father and thereby save humanity.” (p. 20).
b)They do not live by faith but by an experiential knowledge (individual
salvation) that liberates them from Christianity and sadly from the God of
heaven. “There occurs a significant altering of consciousness that
transports the knower beyond the limitations of personal consciousness and
indeed, beyond the limitations of the very world we live in.” (p. 6)
This is not something God is interested in doing for anybody, but in fact
uses our will to accomplish His will, and He certainly can’t do that
while we are under a satanic trance.
c)Instead of salvation they seek divine liberation found in
Buddhist and Hindu traditions – “There are several specific features that join Gnosticism and
Hinduism. One is the teaching regarding the presence of the Divine in the
human spirit… The Hindu and the Gnostic would agree that to know one’s
deepest self is tantamount to knowing God.” (p. 179). In contrast the
apostle Paul wrote, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is,
in my flesh” (Rom 7-18). “In my flesh” gave exception to the fact
that the Holy Spirit dwelled in Him, but the Gnostics apparently don’t
need the Holy Spirit to have something divine dwelling in them.
3. Gnostics are polytheists – They deny the Judeo-Christian doctrine of
one God (monotheism): They believe in a flawed creation because of a
flawed creator. “Since the Gnostics—rather reasonable, it
seems—could not believe that an erring pair of human ancestors could
have brought about the innumerable evils and unpleasantries of the world,
they were left with only one culprit: the Creator, God himself. The world
did not fall, the Gnostics said: rather, it was imperfect from the
start.” (p. 16)."The
Gnostics asked the great question: Is this flawed creator truly the
ultimate, true, and good God, or is he a lesser deity who is either
ignorant of a power beyond himself or is conscious of a divine authority
superior to himself but decides to usurp the position of the highest
Deity? The Gnostics answered that this Creator is obviously not the true,
ultimate God but is rather a demiurgos, a secondary deity. The Demiurgos
is the originator of evil and imperfection in the world.” (p. 75).“The Gnostics see this imperfect state of the world as the
result, not of original sin, but of an original flaw. Put in slightly more
abstract terms, evil is part of the fabric of the world we live in. If
there is a Creator of this reality, then surely this Creator is
responsible for the evil in it. For believers in monotheistic religions,
however, the Gnostic position appears blasphemous, and even those who
consider themselves unbelievers often view it with dismay.” (p. 74).
4. Gnostics believe God is evil–
They believe the god who created the universe is evil, the God of Moses
who gave us the Law. Then there was another god independent of the creator
who sent Jesus Christ; He is the “good god”. The Gnostics' end goal is
to become gods themselves and possibly supplant the Creator God. This was
Satan’s endgame, and now apparently the Gnostics have adopted it. “Far
from the embodiment of evil, the serpent is considered the wisest creature
in Paradise. The text extols the wisdom of the serpent and casts serious
aspersions on the Creator, asking: ‘What sort is he then, this God?’
It answers that God’s prohibition concerning the fruit of the tree is
motivated by envy, because he does not wish humans to awaken to higher
knowledge.” (p. 28).He
continues, “While the mainstream version of Genesis says that after
eating the forbidden fruit Adam and Eve fell from paradisiacal grace, the
Gnostic version says that ‘their eyes were opened’—a metaphor for
gnosis. The first humans could then see for the first time that the
deities who had created them were loathsome in appearance, having the
faces of animals, and they recoiled in horror at the sight of them.” (p.
29). “Adam’s prediction catalogues the two major calamities that
follow: the Flood and the fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorra. Both
come about not because of the sinfulness of humans, but because of the
envy and anger of the Creator-Demiurge [the inferior god], who could not
tolerate people acquiring Gnostic wisdom.” (p. 31).
5. Gnostics readily confess to believing in myths; thus, they
dismiss the notion of absolute Truth – “At the core of Gnosticism is a specific
spiritual experience, grounded in vision and union, that does not lend
itself to the language of theology and philosophy, but instead has a close
affinity to and expresses itself through myth. In this context, the term myth
does not mean stories that are not true, but rather, stories that embody
truths of a different order than the dogmas of theology or the theories of
philosophy. Myths were held in high regard in the ancient world.”(p. 13). “Gnosticism has a worldview, but it has no
theology and no doctrines to believe in. the Gnostic scriptures are
primarily mythical in content and all myths can be interpreted in diverse
ways.” (p. 24). The Gnostics insisted on being accepted into fellowship with
mainstream Christianity, but they were no Christians at all, troubling the
saints with their false teachings and heretical nonsense.
6. Gnostics do not deny the resurrection of Jesus Christ;
instead, they deny He ever had a physical body like ours
– The Gnostics say, “… that the resurrection, like most events
recounted in the New Testament, is not to be taken literally. Some sort of
reanimation of Jesus’ body may have taken place on Easter morning…
This does not mean that Jesus came back to life in a physical body like
ours. Indeed, there is doubt whether he ever occupied a physical body like
ours. Physical bodies do not walk on water, pass through walls, or shine
like the sun. The precise nature of Jesus’ body is a mystery, said the
Gnostics, and they felt this applied to both the body he occupied before
the resurrection and the one in which he appeared thereafter.” (P. 64).
Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene near the tomb and instructed her not to
touch Him, the Gnostics believe because His body was insubstantial.
7. Simon (Megus) the magician (Act 8,9-24) was the first
Gnostic prophet
– He wrote two papers: The Four Quarters of the World and The
Sermon of the Refuter that spoke about the Old Testament God as an
impostor and the serpent of paradise as “a benevolent character. (p.
97). The book (cited at the end of this article) gives the
reference Acts 8,9-12, but if we keep reading, it continues, starting in
verse 18, “Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the
laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, ‘Give
this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may
receive the Holy Spirit.’ But Peter said to him, ‘May your silver
perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with
money! You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not
right before God. Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray
the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven
you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage
of iniquity.’ But Simon answered and said, ‘Pray to the Lord for me
yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.’”
Simon was momentarily penitent, but his Gnostic tendencies and his demons got the
best of him and he received honor from his fellow Gnostics as their first
prophet. To cite Acts chapter eight, ignoring verses 18-24, is a classic
example of compartmentalizing their minds for the purpose of accepting
some aspects of the truth while rejecting others, a craft that is
perfected by narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths.
8. Gnostics have too many things in common with the Catholics
– Catholicism adopted Christian doctrines and sacraments in an
environment of paganism, and was apparently influenced also by Gnostic
views and ideas. The Vatican says that the collation period of biblical
cannon never expired, so whatever comes to the Pope’s mind he adds to
the Catholic perception of divine truth, which is an accurate description
of Gnosticism.
9. Gnosticism can be found in most charismatic leaders
– The so-called “Charismatic denomination” of Christianity that
teaches the prosperity doctrine has a history of making up
teachings that they claim can be found in the Bible, but are really just
poor misrepresentations of the Scriptures, bent, twisted and stretched to
fit their desired beliefs. This too can be used to describe Gnosticism, or
if you prefer, New-Age.
10. Gnosticism is undefined, they say… we’ll see about
that
Following are Gnostic teachings and quotes that somewhat
parallel Christian theology
Keep
in mind that the similarities of Gnosticism are far more insidious than
their differences. The similarities are what caused the second century
Church so much trouble in distinguishing between it and the true Christian
faith, and what ultimately caused the Church to cave to the currents of
Catholicism.
1. Gnosticism means “knowledge” or insight
– Since the Gnostics claim “knowledge and insight", does that mean
Christians have to give up theirs? I’m not giving up mine that God has
given me. That is just what the Gnostics want us to do, though; in fact
the Church at large has already done this. Claiming to have knowledge and
insight in the ears of a fundamentalist Christian sounds like Gnosticism
to his religious sensitivities. This is what Gnosticism has done to
Christianity; it has made us feel guilty of developing an ear to hear what
the Spirit is saying to the churches (Rev 2-7,11,17,29; 3-6,13,22). The
Bible doesn’t teach Gnosticism, so what’s the difference between it
and the true Christian faith? The only real difference is in the Spirit
that is speaking and in the message that He leaves, but then
again those are the only two things that are involved, and the Gnostics
have them both
wrong, so in that sense Gnosticism is the
polar opposite of Christianity. In other words,
Gnosticism is a counterfeit to Christianity.
2. Gnostics interpret the sayings of Jesus in their favor
– “St. Paul the apostle used the term [gnosis] frequently in
reference to the knowledge of God. One
of the clearest statements he made concerning the visionary and perhaps
even visual character of gnosis is in 2Cor 4-6: ‘God… has shone in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge [gnosis] of the glory of God in the face of Christ.’" (p. 6).
Hoeller writes,
“The Gospel of John is not the only canonical evidence for the Gnostic
character of the teachings of Jesus. At least part of the considerable
body of the sayings of Jesus was incorporated into the gospels of Matthew
and Luke, and some even into Mark. Many of the sayings in the canonical
gospels contain teachings that make eminent sense when interpreted in a
Gnostic light.” (p. 57). What Hoeller is saying is that the essence of
Gnosticism is not that different from true Christianity. In a sense he is
right; hence, it was too complicated and confusing for
the second and third century Church to untangle these similarities from
Christianity, so they determined that anything remotely resembling
Gnosticism would be removed from the Christian faith; the Church has been reeling from
the consequences of this ever since. The writings of the second
century Church revolve around the teachings of Scripture, doctrine and
church structure, but they are silent about the the Holy Spirit
enlightening the word of God in our hearts, because they had already truncated
this teaching from the Christian faith.
3. Gnostics think Paul had Gnostic tendencies based on 2Cor
12,2-4 –
“Paul’s account of being ‘Caught up to the third heaven,’
‘whether in the body our out of the body I do not know,’ and there
learning ‘things that cannot be told, which man may not utter,’ fully
qualified him as the Gnostic apostle par excellence.” (p. 112). The
Gnostics say that Paul’s rapture to the third heaven and hearing
inexpressible words that a man is not permitted to speak details the
experiences of the Gnostics. I doubt it. For the blasphemous things they
believe, their experiences derive from demons, and whatever heavenly
places they claim to have seen are hellish compared to what Paul heard
that day.
Gnosticism versus Christianity
Tallying
up everything we have read so far and going by some of the other things
Hoeller said in his book, it sounds like the Gnostics are loosely based on
certain teachings, gurus and authors, many ancient but some newer. They
seek truth from whatever spirit will speak to them, except of course the
Holy Spirit, and whatever they extrapolate from their sessions become
their personal truth, regardless of how wacky it sounds or how much it
deviates from Scripture. This means that in practice Gnosticism is in no
way similar to faith, making the only thing they have in common with
Christianity being that they seek to be spiritual. Their problem is they listen to
the wrong spirits.
The
Bible says we should have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. We hear the
phrase “walking by the spirit” every day, but not many people actually
do it, and if they did, they would be too afraid to take the first step in
God’s direction, because there are no doctrines in place in the Church
giving them permission to obey the Holy Spirit. If people walked with God
as the Bible teaches and as Abraham did, they would suddenly find
themselves alone in the Church experiencing God in a way that no one of
their fellow believers could relate, and so they would have to keep their
mouth shut about it and walk with God as though it were a secret.
There
is nothing in the Bible that has Gnostic tones or resembles Gnosticism in
any way, but the Gnostics think so, and that is how they were able to
convince Christianity to abandon their relationship with the Holy Spirit, leaving
the Church with a lot of lifeless doctrines they are supposed to believe
without the help of the Holy Spirit. They say that the Holy Spirit is
helping them, but if He is able to do anything in people’s lives it is
inadvertent. The Church has not permitted anyone to intentionally develop a
relationship with the Holy Spirit since the first century. Paul said to
Timothy, “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in
Christ Jesus” (2Tim 2-1). This speaks of a deliberate working together
with God, just as Abraham walked with God.
This
is what the Bible teaches
The Spirit and the Word
--
Review
the many reference of Scripture pertaining to this subject
The
Holy Spirit and the word of God are often found together throughout the
New Testament, revealing that they have a dynamic relationship with each
other. The significance of observing so many instances of the Spirit and
the Word together in the New Testament is that each case refers to
the manner in which God desires to communicate with His people. When we
bring the Spirit and the word together through prayer, wonderful things
happen. A good example of this is the book of Psalms; it is a book of
prayers. King David understood these things
thousands of years ago, but we seem to have forgotten them even after
Jesus spoke about them and fulfilled them by shedding His blood on the
cross and sent the Holy Spirit in His place. There is a
plethora of references in the Bible that speak about the interaction
between the Holy Spirit and the word of God, and we are going to explore
just a few of them.
Mat 16,13-18
"When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it."
– Jesus
just said that He would build His church on the principle that the Holy
Spirit reveals His word to His people. If the Holy Spirit does
not reveal the Bible to us, all we have is a lot of facts, but not the
truth.
Jn
14-26 "But
the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will
teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you"
– Although Jesus alluded to the Holy Spirit from
the beginning of His discourse with His disciples, He formally introduced
Him in verse 16, calling Him the Helper of the Christian walk. His primary
purpose is to dwell in the believer and teach us the word of God. The
"Spirit and the Word" refer to the Holy Spirit working with the
word of God through our studies in the Bible together in our devotion to
prayer.
Just as Paul said, by way of hypocrisy the devil sears false teachings in
the hearts of liars "as with a branding iron"
(1Tim 4-2), so God stamps His truth in His people through the Spirit.
1Cor
2,6-8 "Yet
we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of
this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak
God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before
the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has
understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified
the Lord of glory"– What is this mysterious wisdom that only the
mature can understand? It is the anointing, which itself is a mystery. The
anointing is the very substance of Christianity, making the many concerns
within the Church peripheral by comparison. The anointing is
something that only the mature can receive, incorporating every aspect of
Christianity into singularity with obeying the Holy Spirit. Doing this
requires faith and obedience, and it requires a deep understanding of the
truth. Jesus reiterated this statement in the Book of Revelation more than
any other statement: “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the
Spirit says to the Churches.” Nevertheless, there are those who opt out
of obeying the Holy Spirit. The only people who are fulfilling their
calling and purpose are those who obey the Holy Spirit. How are we supposed to know the truth unless we let God
speak to us? This is the mark
of true maturity in Christians. The one who has a deep understanding of
the Bible is good; and the one who has a close walk with God is better, but the one who obeys the Holy Spirit has both, plus fulfills
his calling from God. This is the one who truly knows God, but
there are very few people in the Church today matching this description,
very few indeed who even know about these things.
Jn 16,12-15"I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.
All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you" – There were many more things Jesus wanted to tell His disciples, but they could not bear His words. He told them that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will guide them into all the truth. The things Jesus wanted
them to know only the Holy Spirit could reveal to them. They were not facts they could learn in a university college where they go to understand various disciplines of science and
mathematics. Jesus had to wait for the Holy Spirit to come and reveal His
word to them, because that is His ministry, to guide the Church into all the truth. Not even Jesus could do this. His ministry was to come and give His life in obedience to the Father, to become the door through which we would enter and receive God’s righteousness by faith in the cross, but it was the Holy Spirit’s ministry to reveal the truth behind the cross.Although we are taught by men and read the
Bible for ourselves, we still need to receive the Scriptures by
revelation of the Holy Spirit, otherwise His word
remains inkblots on a page.
Eph
1,15-19 "For
this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which
exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving
thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of
wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray that the eyes of
your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of
His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the
saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who
believe" – The “Spirit of wisdom and of revelation” is another
example of how the Holy Spirit works to enlighten His word in us. In this case Paul is praying that God would work His
wisdom into the Church to reveal the “hope of His calling.”
Every
Christian has a general calling and a specific calling from God. Generally
we are all called in one hope of eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord, and specifically we are called to walk in the good works that God
has "prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Eph
2-10), referring to a trail of good works that God has preordained for us
to walk, and if we do, we are "Working the Grace of God", which
is the subject of the next section.
The
subject of Working the Grace of God encapsulates the power of God
in human flesh. It is a biblical subject that is virtually unknown to the
Christian Church, though it is etched into the scriptures from Genesis to
Revelation. Obviously the Church knew about it in the days of Paul, since
he wrote about it here and elsewhere, and Jesus’ teachings revolved
around this ethereal subject, so the question is why don't we know about
it? The Church fathers after the apostles fell asleep never mentioned it
in their writings, being totally absent in church history, making this
subject one of the very first doctrines to be truncated from Christian
theology. There is a reason the devil slated this doctrine for immediate
expulsion; it was his greatest obstacle in his quest to enslave the
Church. Working the Grace of God is not something the devil could allow
people to believe, though had the Church stood its ground he wouldn't have
had a choice. There is a plethora of references in the Bible that speak
about “Working the Grace of God”, and we are going to explore just a
few of them.
Rom
4,18-22
"In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a
father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, "So
shall your descendants be. Without becoming weak in faith he
contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a
hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, with respect
to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in
faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had
promised, he was able also to perform. Therefore it was also credited to
him as righteousness" – God has called us to obedience just as He has
called Abraham. If we are going to hear the Holy Spirit speak to us as
Abraham did, and
if He is going to give us a ministry, then we will have to do something.
The works we perform in obedience to the Holy Spirit is holy to the Lord.
This is the concept of working with the grace of God, which is exactly
what Abraham did. Heb 11-8 puts it most succinctly, “By faith Abraham,
when he was called, obeyed….” The Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts
guiding us through life, giving us a ministry, and our corresponding
obedience works the grace of God. Over the years Abraham began to
doubt, yet in spite of his doubts he continued to believe, and he
demonstrated his belief on the soles of his feet, which ultimately brought
fulfillment of the promise.
Heb
4,7-11
"He again fixes a certain day, 'Today', saying through
David after so long a time just as has been said before, 'Today if
you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.' For if Joshua had
given them rest, He would not have spoken of another day after that. So
there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For the one who has
entered His rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from
His. Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will
fall, through following the same example of disobedience" – The voice
of the Holy Spirit is the very essence of Christianity. We learn about God
in the Bible, but we actually live out our Christianity through the
Spirit. Once we acquire the hearing ear, we pick up the good works that
God is calling us to do and run with them, and whatever we do according to
His will we do in a state of rest. It will no longer be us doing it but
God working through us. We will be pleasing to the Lord, because then we
will be doing His will and not our own will. In this way God
initiates our works as a matter of obedience, which He guarantees to bear
fruit. We will be inspirational to others and our works will have the
effect that God intended. He wants every aspect of our lives to be a
product of the Holy Spirit working in us.
Heb
11,8-10 "By
faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he
was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he
was going. By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a
foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the
same promise; for he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose
architect and builder is God" – Abraham heard the voice of God, and
the experience was so persuasive that he dropped everything and went on a
life-long journey into the unknown in search of the fulfillment of God’s
promise. He fashioned his life around the Holy Spirit, making sure the
voice he heard was at the very center of his life. This is exactly how we
should be living, especially in the new covenant era, which is designed to
give us the same experience and way of life that Abraham lived. When God
speaks to us, His manner of giving directions is very similar to the way
he spoke to Abraham, except that he heard an audible voice, while we hear
an inaudible voice. God
didn’t tell him where he was going, but He did tell Abraham why he was
going: there was an inheritance that awaited him, and he devoted his life pursuing it.
Heb
11,28-31
"By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of the blood,
so that he who destroyed the firstborn would not touch them. By faith they
passed through the Red Sea as though they were passing through dry land;
and the Egyptians, when they attempted it, were drowned. By faith the
walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.
By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were
disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace" – Passover
was a very simple act of faith, yet it moved the spiritual realm. They
followed a handful of simple instructions and marked their doorpost with
the blood of a lamb, yet it held as much credence as the faith of Abraham
and all the toil and hardship he endured in effort to fulfill the call of
God on his life. They passed through the Red Sea, and marched around
Jericho, and Rahab welcomed the spies, all examples of a single premise: a
simple faith in God. However, faith really isn’t easy. Abraham, while he resided in
his homeland planning out his personal life, heard the voice of God,
and he had to dump all his ideas and follow the direction of the Holy
Spirit. The Bible teaches that
faith is faith, regardless of the ease or difficulty of God’s demand. We determine in our heart to obey Him, whether it's a simple
matter of smearing a little blood on a doorpost or wandering in a foreign
land through life. No matter where it leads, we will go; no matter the
suffering, we will endure for the
hope of eternal life. In the meantime He has a few things for us to do.
The ways of God are different from our ways, and the things He will ask of
us will not be anything we would have done apart from His calling.
The
difference between Gnosticism and true Christianity is that the Gnostics
listen to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons (1Tim 4-1), while the
Church listens to the Holy Spirit, who teaches them the truth about His
word. The Gnostics despise the tenets of
Christianity, considering them static and monotonous, and so they made the
goal of their pursuit to be about liberation from faith in absolute truth, but as we have seen,
our relationship with God can be dynamic. Their religion
does not revolve around faith or truth but
around their experience of knowledge, not in knowledge itself. Anybody
who attempts to stir the spirit realm using false knowledge conjures
demons in the practice of witchcraft. In his book Stephan Hoeller claimed
that Gnosticism is indefinable, but then in his short glossary he provided
a definition; this is what he said: Gnosis is “Salvific knowing, arrived
at intuitively but facilitated by various stimuli, including the teachings
and mysteries brought to humans by messengers of divinity from outside the
cosmos.” This definition sounds intentionally confusing, so I will take
a stab at defining Gnosticism: Conferring with demons. There is always a price to pay for
preferring demons over the Spirit of God.
The
original apostles had a daunting task of evangelizing the known world in
the time they were given, and they brilliantly succeeded. The next
generation had just as important job to do: they were called to properly
understand the gospel of Christ and convey it to the next century, but
they did not do so well. This is what Paul said about the Gnostics of the
second century: "I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock;
and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after
them" (Act 20-29,30). The true Church became fearful of allowing Gnostic
teachings to infiltrate their doctrines, so they abandoned the ministry of
the Holy Spirit enlightening our minds to the word of God. As a result, when the third century came along the Church
mutated into Catholicism, which incorporated a blend of paganistic Gnosticism.
Jesus
tried to explain the gospel to His disciples before His crucifixion, but
none of them got it until Jesus rose from the dead, ascended to the Father
and sent the Holy Spirit in His place. Then they understood the gospel as
an age of grace in which God would work with His people through the Holy
Spirit. The second century Church didn’t know how to understand this in
the midst of battle with the Gnostics who counterfeited Christianity. They
didn’t know how to tease out the differences between the apostles’
teachings and teachings of Gnosticism, so they played it safe and jettisoned the
ministry of the Holy Spirit, which was the substance of God’s grace that
Jesus bled and died to provide for us. All that remained for the Church to
manage the gospel after that were a lot of
promises, a handful of doctrines and a few sacraments and ceremonies
imposed on the body until a time of reformation (Heb 9-10). Jesus Christ
was the reformation, and then another reformation came in the fifteen
hundreds, and not even Martin Luther could see the problem. He recognized
that salvation came through faith in Jesus’ blood sacrifice, not through
loyalty to the Church, but He didn’t understand that God wants us to
acquire His faith by obeying the Holy Spirit.
Hoeller,
Stephan A. (2002). Gnosticism: New Light on the Ancient Tradition of Inner
Knowing. Quest Books: Theosophical Publishing House. Wheaton, IL.
The following link refers to an
audio recording of two evangelical pastors attacking my faith as a result of
the above article. My claim is that they are stiff-arming
the Holy Spirit, and their claim is that I
am arrogant for confronting them about it. Their intimidating methods
were meant to discourage me from attending their church; their methods worked beautifully. In this
recording please note:
1. They refused to discuss
this paper with me, refusing even to peruse my website, and I thought
that was the reason for the meeting.
2. They criticized me for
believing in
the concept of "knowing beyond knowing," but this teaching is biblical. Paul said
in Eph 3-19, "to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge."
3. Their intimidating methods were meant to
discourage me from attending their
church.
4. They said that if my goal
was
to teach, then I have wrong motives, as though wanting to help build up of the body of Christ were somehow
wrong.
COM
