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By David Webb
Gnosticism is a philosophy that refers to a body of teachings that stress the acquisition of “gnosis,” or inner knowledge. This knowledge is not mere intellectual, but mystical knowledge; not merely knowing about something or someone, but a mystical knowledge that comes from within each of us. This special mystical knowledge allows us to discover an esoteric divine nature within each of us that is obscured by ignorance and false teaching about God and Jesus. Furthermore, the Gnostics believe this knowledge is not in the possession of the masses, but only to the Gnostics (the Knowers) who truly understand its benefits and how to attain it. To the Gnostic, the masses are trapped in the ignorance of religious teaching and doctrine that serves to control and regulate the conduct of believers. The Gnostic, on the other hand, believes he has pierced through the ignorance and trappings of organized religion and has reached the core of special spiritual knowledge about God and the God-nature in each of us. The only problem is that this “core of special spiritual knowledge” of God and the God-nature is a “core of special spiritual knowledge” of their own creation. In reality, this special enlightened spiritual knowledge claimed by the Gnostic simply doesn’t exist.
Therefore, to deal with this ancient belief that
even troubled Christians in New Testament times, and was addressed in the
writings of the apostle Paul and John, there are certain things we need to
understand. First we need to understand why Gnosticism is becoming popular in
our own day and examine the threat it poses. Then we need to examine its origin
and historical claims of this heresy. And finally, we need to expose the false
teachings and beliefs about the so-called Gnostic Jesus, and compare this false
Christ with the One revealed in the divinely inspired word of God. Modern Gnosticism
Gnosticism is experiencing a revival in our day, and is being promoted through various publications, through popular novels and soon-to-be-released movies (such as The Di Vinci Code), and through the broadcast media in special documentary-style programs that subtly endorse ancient Gnostic writings (including the Gospel of Thomas and the discovery 30 years ago of the Gospel of Judas). There has also been the creation of so-called “Gnostic churches” that hold to some of the basic symbolic and ritual forms of orthodox Christianity while reinterpreting the essential and core beliefs of Christianity.
Gnosticism appeals to many self-proclaimed intellectuals who are searching for some kind of unique spiritual experience and spiritual enlightenment. Many are advocates of the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, who believed that Christianity has repressed the Gnostic approach to religion, and that our culture has suffered by remaining in the ignorance of organized religion. Yung believed that Gnosticism and all its related beliefs are far superior to what he called “the orthodox church.”
Nag Hammadi
Those who deny the basic teachings of the New
Testament and who deny the deity of Christ find these Gnostic Gospels very
appealing. The reason being, they present a view of Jesus that is completely
different from the Jesus of the New Testament. The Gnostic Message
So, what do these Gnostic Gospels actually teach that caused them to be labeled as heresy by early Christians? For example, Gnosticism teaches that the universe and the world was not created by an all-knowing God, but by a lesser god, who lacked the intellect to create a perfect universe. The Gospel of Philip says that “the world came about through a mistake. For he who created it wanted to create it imperishable and immortal. He fell short of attaining his desire.” It is believed that this lesser god came from fall out among cosmic beings, making him a substandard deity. The result of his creation was a universe polluted with ignorance, pain, decay and death. And yet this deity demands worship and even proclaims himself to be the one true God.
The Gnostic belief, as one theory has it, is that this inept creator-god accidentally infused into humanity a spark of the highest form of a so-called “spiritual reality.” And that perfection can be attained through a process of self-discovery. Closely coupled with this desire to attain the highest form of spiritual reality through self-discovery is the belief that the spirit is good and desirable, but matter and the flesh is evil and detestable. This is where the Gnostic Jesus begins to emerge, not as a sacrifice for sin, but as one who descended from one of the higher spiritual realms with a message of self-redemption. He is not the son of the creator-god revealed in the Old Testament – the creator-god who got the universe into a royal mess in the first place. Rather, Jesus came to assist humanity with achieving enlightenment through self-discovery, and not as the means of eternal salvation through his death, burial and resurrection.
The Gnostic Jesus is a remarkable counterfeit of
the biblical Jesus in that the Gnostic concept of Jesus borrows closely from the
Jesus of scripture and gives a “Gnostic spin” to the teachings of Jesus found in
the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and in the writings of the
apostles. Since Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36) and
“the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), the Gnostic belief is that
Jesus came to awaken those trapped in ignorance (often called “darkness” by
Jesus) by helping them to discover the “kingdom of God” within themselves. The Gospel of Thomas
Among the most widely read and most popular of
the Gnostic Gospels is the Gospel of Thomas. Although scholars do not
believe it was actually written by the apostle Thomas, it is, nevertheless,
composed of one hundred fourteen alleged sayings of Jesus. Some of the
teachings attributed to Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas are clearly Gnostic
in origin, while others closely parallel or even mirror the teachings of Jesus
found in the synoptic Gospels. The text begins: “These are the secret sayings
which the living Jesus spoke and which Didymos Judas Thomas wrote down. And he
said, ‘Whoever finds the interpretation of these sayings will not experience
death.’” From the very opening words of the Gospel of Thomas we find
that eternal life does not come through the death, burial and resurrection of
Jesus, but rather through the attainment of a special knowledge (gnosis) from
the secret sayings of Jesus. The Gnostic Jesus
Other Gnostic writings carry the same theme. In the Book of Thomas the Contender, Jesus says, “he who has not known himself has known nothing, but he who has known himself has at the same time already achieved knowledge of the depth of the all.” According to Valentinus, a Gnostic teacher of the second century, Christ is “the Paraclete (Helper) from the Unknown who reveals… the discovery of self – the divine spark within you.”
Therefore, the issue for the Gnostic is freedom
from ignorance (sometimes called “sleep,” “blindness” or “darkness”), and not in
freedom from sin. To the Gnostic teacher Valentinus there is no need for guilt
or for repentance from sin, and there is certainly no need for a blind belief
that salvation comes through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
According to Valentinian beliefs, Jesus is savior in the sense of being one who
provides for “spiritual wholeness” by curing us of the sickness of ignorance. Gnosticism on the Crucifixion and the Resurrection Although the Gospel of Thomas makes no mention of the crucifixion and resurrection, other Gnostic texts give a new and completely different concept of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus from that found in the inspired writings of the apostles. For example, in the First Apocalypse of James, Jesus comforts James by saying, “Never have I suffered in any way, nor have I been distressed. And this people has done me no harm.” In the Second Treatise of the Great Seth, Jesus says, “I did not die in reality, but in appearance.” Those “in error and blindness… saw me; they punished me. It was another, their father, who drank the gall and vinegar; it was not I. They struck me with the reed; it was another, Simon, who bore the cross on his shoulder. I was rejoicing in the height over all… and I was laughing at their ignorance.” The Gnostic stories of Jesus have him mocking his executioners while the accounts in Matthew, Mark and Luke have the soldiers and chief priests mock Jesus. (Matthew 27:29, 31; Mark 15:20; Luke 22:63; 23:11, 36) Furthermore, the Jesus of divine scripture, while suffering on the cross, prays for his Father to forgive his executioners. (Luke 23:34) In the teachings of Valentinus, the crucifixion and death of Jesus is presented as a very moving event, and yet he sees the purpose of the death of Jesus as being completely different from the purpose presented in the synoptic gospels. Although the Gospel of Truth says “his death is life for many,” the “life” mentioned here is not seen as the acquisition of eternal life. Nor is it a “newness of life” that comes through being “buried with Him (Christ) through baptism into death” and thus being raised to a newness of life free from the bondage of sin. (Romans 6:1-14) To Valentinus, the “life” that Jesus accomplished for many through his death is the imparting of gnosis – a special, secret knowledge that allows one to discover the divine self within.
In the Treatise of the Resurrection,
the resurrection story is affirmed: “Do not think the resurrection is an
illusion. It is no illusion, but it is truth! In deed, it is more fitting to
say that the world is an illusion rather than the resurrection.” However, the
appearances of Jesus to his disciples following the resurrection differ
significantly from the accounts in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In the
Treatise of the Resurrection, the appearances of Jesus are through
spiritual visions rather than physical appearance. This differs
significantly from the claims of Luke in the opening of Acts of the Apostles:
“The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and
teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit
had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also
presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being
seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the
kingdom of God.” (Acts 1:1-3) Obviously, the biblical Jesus has very little in
common with the Jesus portrayed in the Gnostic gospels. Did Christ Really Suffer and Die?
Valentinus contended that Christ descended on Jesus at his baptism but left him before his death on the cross. To counter this teaching, Irenaeus (a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of the apostle John) wrote the treatise Against Heresies. He writes, “The Gospel… knew no other son of man but Him who was of Mary, who also suffered; and no Christ who flew away from Jesus before the passion; but Him who was born… as Jesus Christ the Son of God, and that this same suffered and rose again.” Irenaeus also quoted from the Gospel of John that “Jesus is the Christ” (John 20:31) in an effort to counter the Gnostic claim that the Jesus and the Christ were “formed of two different substances.” Irenaeus contended that Christ would have never exhorted his disciples to take up the cross if he was to escape the pain and suffering of the crucifixion by flying away from it. Furthermore, Irenaeus argues that the suffering of Jesus the Christ on the cross was absolutely essential to bring about salvation for all mankind. He also argued there was no divine “spark” in the human heart to rekindle and that self-knowledge was not at all equal to biblical concept of knowing God as presented by the apostle John: “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” (1 John 2:3-6) The apostle John also wrote: “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.” (1 John 5:20) Irenaeus contended that "it was not possible that the man...who had been destroyed through disobedience, could reform himself," the Son brought salvation by "descending from the Father, becoming incarnate, stooping low, even to death, and consummating the arranged plan of our salvation." Near the end of the first century, when the apostle John penned his collection of three letters known as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John, the heresy of Gnosticism was already troubling the church. In his letters, John argued: “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.” (1 John 4:2-3) He also warned first century Christians against being deceived by these false teachings: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Look to yourselves, that we do not lose those things we worked for, but that we may receive a full reward. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds.” (2 John 7-11) Polycarp (disciple of the apostle John) likewise argues: “Let us then continually persevere in our hope and the earnest of our righteousness, which Jesus Christ, "who bore our sins in His own body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24), "who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth" (1 Peter 2:22), but endured all things for us, that we might live in Him.”
The apostle John said: "By this we know love,
because He laid down His life for us." (1 John 3:16); and "In this is love, not
that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins." (1 John 4:10) The Matter of the Resurrection
And yet, on Pentecost the apostle Peter preached that Jesus of Nazareth was "a Man attested by God… whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it." To support his claim, the apostle Peter quotes a prophecy of David from the Psalms. Peter says, "For David says concerning Him: 'I foresaw the LORD always before my face, for He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption." (Acts 2:22-27) In conclusion, Peter tells the crowd on Pentecost that David, "foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption." (Acts 2:31) The apostle Peter then summarizes by claiming that he and his fellow apostles have all seen the resurrected Jesus. "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses." (Acts 2:32) Furthermore, the apostle Paul claims that if the bodily resurrection of Jesus is not a historical fact, the faith of every Christian is useless. “And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up — if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.” (1 Corinthians 15:14-19) While it’s true that Paul speaks of a “natural body” that is raised a “spiritual body,” he is not speaking about some nonphysical, ethereal, mystical body, but rather a body raised in “incorruption,” “glory,” and “power.”
When Jesus was resurrected from the dead he had
an identifiable body with nail holes in his hands and a spear wound in his side
(John 20:19-29). His disciples were able to touch Him. In fact, the apostle
John affirms that he and his fellow apostles did not just see and hear the
resurrected Christ, but actually touched Him: “That which was from the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have
looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life… we declare
to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is
with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:1-3) Jesus, Judaism and Gnosticism
Modern supporters of Gnosticism claim that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and especially John are anti-Semitic and speak of the Jews and their role in the crucifixion of Jesus in a highly inflammatory and accusing nature. It is argued that the Gnostic Gospels, on the other hand, are far from being anti-Semitic, and actually see the relationship between Jesus and his Jewish brethren in a much more positive light. In a recent documentary on the Gospel of Judas, it was suggested that the tone of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have helped promote anti-Semitism in modern times. However, the Gnostic Gospels actually ridicule some of the most basic and cherished beliefs of Judaism. For example, the god of the Old Testament is seen by Gnostics as an inferior deity who lacked the ability to create a world and a universe as good. Furthermore, this god demands complete obedience and claims that he is the one true God – something Gnosticism denies. Many Gnostic documents completely pervert the Old Testament stories in an effort to mock the Hebrew God. For example, in the Apocryphon of John, Jesus allegedly says he encouraged Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – the reason being that the attainment of God-like knowledge (gnosis) is the highest goal for humanity, and the very purpose for Jesus coming into the world. This same anti-Semitic element is found in the Gospel of Thomas, where the disciples say to Jesus, “Twenty-four prophets spoke in Israel, and all of them spoke in you.” To which Jesus replies, “You have omitted the one living in your presence and have spoken (only) of the dead.” By this, the Gnostic Jesus simply brushes away the significance of the Old Testament prophets and their prophecies because they are “dead.” And yet, the Jesus of the Bible frequently quotes the prophets, claiming he has come to fulfill their prophecies. He further stresses the significance of the Old Testament prophecies as providing proof of his deity. To his critics he says, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” (John 5:39) When Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus, after his death, burial and resurrection, he mildly rebuked them for being disheartened over the crucifixion. He told them they were “slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!” Then we’re told, “beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:25-27)
Jesus of the New Testament honors the God of the
Old Testament as his Father whose will he came to accomplish in offering himself
for the sins of all mankind. He furthermore quotes from the Old Testament
prophets, not only giving them credibility as prophets of the One true God, but
emphasizing the fact that they repeatedly spoke of Him. The Gnostic Gospels
mock the God of the Old Testament as an inept minor deity who made a complete
mess of creation, and demands that he be accepted as the only true God who alone
is worthy of worship and praise. And the Jesus of the Gnostic Gospels did not
come to do the will of this minor deity in offering himself to redeem mankind
from their sins, but came to simply enlighten mankind with a secret knowledge to
discover the spark of a God-like essence within themselves. The Gnostic Jesus – Anti-Feminist The Gnostic attitude toward women was definitely not pro-feminist. Occasionally Gnostic groups allowed a women's participation in religious activities since several of the divine beings were seen as feminine. However, even though the feminist movement in the 1980’s saw the Gnostic Gospels in a favorable light, women fare far worse in Gnosticism than many think. In the concluding statements from the Gospel of Thomas, Simon Peter says: "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life." Jesus allegedly says, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven."
The Jesus of the New Testament never spoke of
making a woman into a male as a requirement for entering the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus never thought of women as being inferior to the male. He had women
disciples, and silenced the mob that had entrapped a woman in the act of
adultery and were demanding her death by stoning. (John 8:2-11) Jesus also went
against the custom of his day by speaking to an outcast Samaritan woman, telling
her that he was the Messiah. Even his disciples were upset over what they
considered inappropriate behavior. (John 4:1-39) The New Testament also records
the testimony of the women who first witnessed the resurrected Jesus. (Matthew
28:1-10) All this was done in a society where women were denied a number of
legal rights, and where they were never considered qualified to be legal
witnesses. Is God Knowable or Unknowable?
For example, the Gospel of the Egyptians says the ultimate reality is the, “unrevealable, unmarked, ageless, unproclaimable Father.” He is described as “the great invisible Spirit” who is “the silence of silent silence.” In the Sophia of Jesus Christ, Matthew asks Jesus, “Lord… teach us the truth,” to which Jesus replies, “He Who Is, is ineffable… He is unnameable… he is ever incomprehensible.”
However, the Jesus of the New Testament says he came to reveal the true nature and character of his Father in heaven. When Jesus told his disciples, "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him," Philip replied by saying, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us." This is the moment when Jesus made one of his most profound statements. He said, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves." (John 14:7-11) In essence, he is telling his disciples they are able to understand the true nature and character of God by looking at the nature and character of Jesus.
The writer of the Hebrew letter affirms the divine nature of Jesus in his opening remarks. He writes that the Son is the “brightness of His (God’s) glory and the express image of His person.” (Hebrews 1:3) Therefore, the very fact that Jesus came into the world shows that God is neither “unrevealable” or “silence of silent silence,” but chose to reveal Himself and His true nature through his Son, Jesus Christ. While it’s true that His judgments are “unsearchable” and “His ways past finding out,” His divine nature and character are clearly seen in Jesus. And even though not everyone will accept the life and testimony of Jesus as evidence of God’s attributes, the apostle Paul says the divine nature of God is revealed another way. “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20)
The Gnostic God is unknown and unknowable. The God of the Bible has revealed his divine attributes and character through Jesus Christ and through creation itself. |
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In our time there has been a renewed assault on the biblical Jesus – the Jesus
found in the inspired word of God. Many of the conceptions about Jesus that are
presently being promoted are coming from New Age circles and are rooted
in an ancient movement known as Gnosticism. The New Age portrait of
Jesus reveals a completely different Jesus than the one found in the New
Testament writings of the inspired apostles. For example, the current view of
Jesus is that he is not the Son of God, as his followers claimed, nor was he
born of a virgin, nor resurrected from the dead following his crucifixion. The
claims of Jesus that he and “the Father are one” (John 10:30) and that “the
Father is in me and I in Him” (John 10:38) are explained in New Age language as
meaning that Jesus realized in himself that he and the One he called the Father
were One in the sense that they are both illuminated with a knowledge that
transcends mere human understanding, and that Jesus lived his life out of this
illuminated knowledge that shaped and molded his god-like nature. To the
Gnostic, anyone can attain this awakening of the essence of their true nature
and live it out their lives. In other words, God is in all of us and it is our
purpose in life to be awakened and illuminated with the true knowledge of this
divine nature that is already in us all so that we can live it out in our
lives. This philosophy finds its roots in Buddhism as well as in the
ancient Gnostic beliefs about God and the nature of man.
In December, 1945, an Arab farmer was digging in
the soil near the Egyptian city of Nag Hammadi when he uncovered an
earthen jab containing thirteen leather-bound papyrus books (or codices),
dating back to the third century – some two hundred years after the birth of
Christianity. Since that time, some fifty-two texts were eventually recovered.
Gnosticism has gained the interest of many with the discovery of these ancient
writings that have since been called the Gnostic Gospels. The most recent
discovery, an ancient papyrus manuscript called the Gospel of Judas, has
fanned the flame of interest even further. Although these ancient Gnostic
writers produced an unknown number of manuscripts, including some that were
written around the same time as the gospels of the New Testament, they were
identified by the early church fathers as heretical and were intentionally left
out of the Bible as we know it today. However, today these ancient texts are
being promoted as perhaps the most significant archeological find of modern
times and are believed by many as archeological and textual proof that will
eventually overthrow the orthodox view of Jesus and Christianity forever.
.JPG)
The Gnostic Jesus presented in the Gospel of
Thomas is not one who was crucified and resurrected from the dead, but
rather one who is the giver of wisdom. In fact, the crucifixion and
resurrection of Jesus are not mentioned at all in the Gospel of Thomas.
Instead, Jesus speaks of the kingdom. He says, “The kingdom is inside of you,
and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourself, then you will become
known, and you will realize that it is you who are sons of the living father.
But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are
that poverty.”.JPG)
One of the most significant points of difference
between the biblical account of Jesus and the Gnostic Jesus is the question of
whether the Christ actually suffered and died..JPG)
Gnosticism categorically denies the bodily
resurrection of Jesus Christ. The reason being, to the Gnostic, the world and
the flesh are evil. The soul or spirit of man is good. Therefore, to attain
ultimate good, the soul must be freed from the flesh. When faced with the
belief among Christians that Jesus Christ was bodily and physically resurrected
from the dead, the Gnostic sees the whole resurrection story as completely
absurd. To their way of thinking a bodily resurrection would continue to
confine the soul or spirit of man in a fleshly body.
The Gnostic Gospels
frequently speak of the ultimate reality or godhead as beyond the comprehension
of mankind and that to contact this reality requires one to go through numerous
intermediary beings of lesser stature than the godhead itself.