The Origins of Gnosticism

Depths of Pentecost ^ | October 27, 2018 | Philip Cottraux

[pcottraux]

Sources:

-Viola, Frank. The Untold Story of the New Testament. Destiny Image Publishers, Shippensburg, PA, 2004, pages 158-160.

-Strobel, Lee. The Case for the Real Jesus. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 2007, page 55.

-Religion For Breakfast: “What Did Gnostic Christians Believe?”

-Religion For Breakfast: ”What Did Marcion Believe?”

-Religion For Breakfast: “Gospel of Judas: What Does it Really Say?”

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[pcottraux]

My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge: Hosea 4:6.

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[Jonty30]

Sounds like a form of Christian liberalism to me.

[Yashcheritsiy]

Gnosticism essentially had three elements that combined to form it: Eastern dualism from Persia, Jewish esotericism (e.g. qabbalah), and neoplatonism.

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[MarchonDC09122009]

Thank you for posting this enlightening piece on Gnosticism.
It never ceases to amaze me that there have been so many false prophets making up their own versions of new-and-improved religion: Gnostics, Catholics, Muslims, Mormons, “Christian Scientists” Jehovah Witnesses, etc.
Craven jealous, hell bent to become independent messiahs.

[Shadow44]

Gnosticism was more than Christian heresy. There was other non-Christian variations of it. Having read a lot of these texts, especially the Nag Hammadi library, it is very bizarre to say the least. The general consensus was the material world was evil and a prison of the spirit created by a malevolent entity.

I personally don’t see how someone who is skeptical of the Bible can view any of these texts as being more credible.

[texas booster]

Thanks for this concise lesson.

[Salvation]

From the Catholic Dictionary:

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=33756

GNOSTICISM

Definition
The theory of salvation by knowledge. Already in the first century of the Christian era there were Gnostics who claimed to know the mysteries of the universe. They were disciples of the various pantheistic sects that existed before Christ. The Gnostics borrowed what suited their purpose from the Gospels, wrote new gospels of their own, and in general proposed a dualistic system of belief. Matter was said to be hostile to spirit, and the universe was held to be a depravation of the Deity. Although extinct as an organized religion, Gnosticism is the invariable element in every major Christian heresy, by its denial of an objective revelation that was completed in the apostolic age and its disclaimer that Christ established in the Church a teaching authority to interpret decisively the meaning of the revealed word of God.

[TBP]

I recently took a course in Gnosticism. The professor, an Eastern European immigrant, is a Gnostic bishop in LA. (We had class discussions online.) It was quite interesting.

Much of this article matches what he is saying. Some doesn’t quite match Gnosticism as I understand it. For example, you did not even discuss Sophia and Gnosticism.

I find Gnosticism fascinating. Apparently, Carl Jung was influenced by Gnosticism. I don’t know a lot about psychology, but I consider myself a Jungian. I’m certainly not a behaviorist.

[Jonty30]

Don’t liberals, more or less, believe the same thing? They think capitalism and material goods is an evil of the world and, if everybody lived like communists, where we gave up material goods and we live as complete equals?

Every movement of liberalism today involves purity. If you’re not pure, you’re going to be exorcised from society.

I think it’s what Bible prophecies as the power of God, but lacking the morality of God.

[Ezekiel]

GNOSTICISM

Definition
The theory of salvation by knowledge.

Proverbs 1

1 The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;
2 To know wisdom and instruction; to perceive the words of understanding;
3 To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity;
4 To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.
5 A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels:
6 To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
8 My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
9 For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

Seeking direct knowledge of God is discouraged by way of the scary, pagan-esque word gnosticism, that way the folks defer to the self-appointed keepers of knowledge who are threatened by independent-minded students. The Establishment scam is up across the board, regardless of the particular man-made Establishment. "D.C." has been connected to "David's Capital" for a reason.

The Bible describes a simple, kind, industrious Messiah who has a broad every-man knowledge-base of practical skills, a righteous work ethic, and a vast capacity to love. He's the blueprint of salvation.

Like he cares about all the bling and blather that has been generated "in Jesus' name" for Jesus. Materialists giving gifts to a materialistic Jesus, not the real one who just wants to love and heal people. Worship of superficial nonsense has got to be right up there on the list of the social diseases that he needs to cure. There's the salvation by knowledge. It's not a theory.

[YogicCowboy]

3. God created Eve first.

Did this give rise to the Lilith myth?

[Bellflower]

Knowledge is truth. Jesus is The Word. He IS, or “I Am” the information creation consist of. He IS The Way, The Truth and The Life. He IS God. No one can be what He IS and not be God. He is not merely a saviour, He iS God who IS our one and only Saviour.

Everything about Jesus IS God, who loved us so much He become flesh to become our unblemished lamb of God 5sacrifice, dying to pay the horrific price of our sins. He isn’t just a blueprint, He IS our salvation, our LORD, Saviour and God.

He IS everything we need, but without Him, the true Him, not just a happy, benign, humanistic version of Him, painted by our own desire for an imaginary super friend, we will surely die in our sins. We will be unclean eternal exiles, unfit to live in God’s eternal Kingdom, existing separated from God, tormented in the lake of fire and brimstone forever.

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Matthew 28:19 - Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the HolyGhost:

[pcottraux]

Did this give rise to the Lilith myth?

Don't know, but that's an interesting observation.

[pcottraux]

Sounds like a form of Christian liberalism to me.

A. MEN.

[pcottraux]

I'm not Catholic, and I recognize that much of what I had to say about gnosticism is incomplete (it's complicated to get into the depths of an entire religion in a short article), but nothing you listed seems to contradict anything I said...

[pcottraux]

It never ceases to amaze me that there have been so many false prophets making up their own versions of new-and-improved religion: Gnostics, Catholics, Muslims, Mormons, “Christian Scientists” Jehovah Witnesses, etc.

I've made some Mormon friends on social media and have had interesting Bible studies with them. Some are unbelievably nice people.

That said, I can't fathom how anyone can believe Mormonism. Everything about it is either bonkers or obviously shady. Joseph Smith especially strikes me as a snake oil salesman of his day. Not entirely unlike an L. Ron Hubbard of the 19th century.

Craven jealous, hell bent to become independent messiahs.

If you're interested in seeing the dark side of Mormonism firsthand, I highly recommend Irene Spencer's books. She grew up in a Mormon polygamist cult and was the second wife of eight. It's very eye-opening how manipulative, deceitful, and oppressive that kind of fundamentalism is.

I especially recommend Cult Insanity, one of the disturbing books I've ever read. Irene was a survivor of the reign of terror of Ervil LeBaron, also known as the "Mormon Manson" (he was her brother-in-law).

Ervil went berserk and had at least 40 members of his own family brutally murdered. The scary part is that every gruesome act he committed was justified by scriptures in the book of Mormon or in the writings of the early Mormon church.

[pcottraux]

Much of this article matches what he is saying. Some doesn’t quite match Gnosticism as I understand it. For example, you did not even discuss Sophia and Gnosticism.

It's really just for the sake of time and space. I try to limit my blogs to about 1,500 words or less (any longer and people tend to lose interest). I could have gone into much more detail but had to keep this as a "basic history" article.

Apparently, Carl Jung was influenced by Gnosticism. I don’t know a lot about psychology, but I consider myself a Jungian.

Everything I know about Jung I've learned from Jordan Peterson. ;-)

That said, from my understanding Jung got a lot more right about psychology than Freud so I definitely have him on my reading list.

[pcottraux]

You’re welcome! I love talking about this sort of stuff.