Gnostics In The Know

Lord, we just thank you today for this blessed time. Although it is cold outside, Lord, we ask that you would warm our hearts, that we would learn more about you, that we would enjoy the meat of your word throughout this day.

Lord, something that would just be pleasing to you, that would be an aroma to you. We ask that you will continue to bless us, although we don't deserve it, in the many ways that you do each and every day.

And we just ask, Lord, that you will bless each and every one of us as you do.

In your holy and precious name, we pray. Amen. Today, I'd like to take a brief look at a religious system that's very different from probably the three well -known religious systems out there.

Most of you could probably name them. Those would be Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. This religion is said to have been around for quite some time.

It's often been called a philosophy rather than a religion. It's often referred to today as also a philosophy or a psychology.

But as you'll see as we go through today's study, this religious system is nothing more than a full -blown religious system.

Does anyone want to take a guess as to what that may sound like? I know it sounds like a lot of different religions. Atheism is a good guess.

Mormon is a good guess. And we'll actually talk a little bit about that. Let me give you a hint. I'll give you a hint by providing one of the prayers that this group uses during baptism and see if it makes sense.

The prayer goes as follows. In the name, quote, in the name of the Father unknown to all, in the truth, mother of all, in the one who has come down upon Jesus in the union, redemption, and communion of powers.

I know what a lot of you are probably thinking. Catholic, UCC, the

Unitarian Church of Christ, or even some of the liberal Anglican side or even the liberal

Protestant side. Although the prayer I quoted is not far from some of these other religious systems that we know of today, it's not what we're going to be talking about.

What if I told you that this religion has a different gospel? Many of you are going to now say, well, it must be

Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses, as was earlier discussed. But you might recall that I said this system was old and in some ways actually ancient in a lot of ways.

It's over a century old. No, the religion is a little bit different from these modern cults, yet most of these modern cults have taken parts from this religious system we're going to be discussing.

Its scriptures include additional apocalyptic texts and other books of acts and of the gospels.

What if I told you that this religion actually believes that Jesus Christ was sent into the world only as an example or a liberator of something that we should follow to meet the needs of our earthly brothers and sisters?

Again, it sounds a lot like the modern day gospel that's preached so often today, rather than the biblical gospel.

The system says that Christ didn't actually die on the cross. There was no redemption through the cross. They say it was a different person who actually died in the place of Jesus Christ.

Any more guesses? Is it Islam? Not Islam. Good guess, though.

Let me start again by saying that this system itself is somewhat like nailing Jell -O to the wall, if you've heard that analogy.

It's very hard to get your hands around. And as I studied it even more, a little more in depth, I want to change that analogy and say it's more like nailing runny cereal or cream of wheat, if you've ever had that, to the wall.

It's almost an impossible thing to do. It may give you an idea if I told you that the scriptures that this system follows was actually found in the desert in December of 1945 when a farmer was looking for fertilizer, very similar to the discovery of the

Dead Sea Scrolls. He was digging, and this man uncovered a jar. And this large jar contained over 52 sacred texts of this religious system.

Any guesses? What? Baha 'i, did

I hear? No? Another good one? No. A little bit of everything, a hodgepodge, as we'll see from this.

Let me start by saying, again, getting your hands around the system is very difficult. And I found it difficult while studying it.

And I have to agree with the statement that it is. This mysterious religion or philosophy is what is more commonly called

Gnosticism. It's said to have existed in a pre -Christian era, a period, but yet it still exists today.

And we'll see that, as many of you are probably familiar with. Some have even said that with the rise of secular humanism, this religion has quickly taken roots once again around the world.

And not only is it impacting our society around us, it's actually impacting our churches. In the time we have today,

I desire to really take just a snorkeling view of this religious system. It's not anything we can get our hands around completely in the time that we have, but I want to show how dangerous this system really is to Christianity and that it does exist today.

We'll also see why it's impossible that someone can say that they are both a Christian and a Gnostic or a

Gnostic Christian. This is like saying I'm a Christian Muslim or I'm a

Christian Hindu or I'm a Buddhist Jew. They're exact opposites or contradictory terms in and of themselves.

As time doesn't permit us to go deep and to examine the nuances and intricacies of this given religious system, let me state that Gnosticism is much more than a passing fad or movement, as we'll see as we go through some of the history.

It's been around for a very long time. It actually is not going to pass like the church growth movement or some of the emergent church movements as they move throughout.

And like all religions apart from Christianity, Gnosticism is taking people straight to hell as it preaches a different Jesus Christ.

We need to be educated in what it teaches. You may be asking how prevalent Gnosticism is today.

It was something that the church fathers had battled and won back in the 4th and 2nd through 4th centuries, mostly in the 2nd.

We saw people, the church fathers like Irenaeus, determined in the 2nd century in his writings that Gnosticism was a heresy and it would not be allowed in the churches.

It should not take you all that long to remember the recent book by Dan Brown called

The Da Vinci Code, also a movie that was made. Much of that was Gnostic teaching.

Some of you may have even remembered the Discovery Channel and when they went through the lost tomb of Jesus Christ, which happened to be right around Easter time this year.

Dr. White actually came and preached and taught a little bit about Gnosticism at that time. But of these modern examples, we'll see that their roots and many other systems have their roots in the bowels of Gnostic teaching and thinking.

So what is Gnosticism? It's much like asking an emergent what the emergent church is or what the emergent church means.

You can ask 100 different Gnostics and you'll get 100 different answers, which makes it very difficult to define what it really is.

As I alluded to earlier, again, it's like nailing jello to a wall. It's nearly an impossible task to really define it.

So why is it so hard to define? It sounds like it'd be a simple thing in many ways. One needs to realize also that there are nearly 100 documented different schools of Gnostic teaching or groups of Gnostics, and they are going to claim that their doctrine is different from another's doctrine.

So getting a correct definition is very difficult as to what they believe based on what school of Gnosticism you're talking about.

What I'm going to talk about today are mostly those universal truths that are defined that most Gnostics would say, yes, we agree to these, kind of like their creeds.

So to better understand, let's look at the word itself. If we dissect the word and look at the first half, gnosis, who knows what the word gnosis in Greek means?

Knowledge. That's right, knowledge. It's translated in English as knowledge or the act of knowing.

So a Gnostic is one who is, quote, in the know, quote. Some of you may be thinking of other words that may sound close, and it was mentioned actually earlier today, agnostic, which refers to someone who does not know or is not in the know.

These are often people who will say, well, I'll believe or I'll do something when I die if I stand before God.

Well, we need to let them know it's too late at that point. In very simple terms,

Gnosticism is defined this way, quote, Gnosticism is said to be a religious system that follows a doctrine of salvation through knowledge, end quote.

Within even its own system, such knowledge is often thought to be, quote, obscured and or not available to all.

It is only for a select few, end quote. Those in the know will be saved.

Those not in the know will not be saved. For a longer definition,

Gnosticism is said to be, quote, a religion that differentiates the evil God of the world, who is also the

God of the Old Testament, as we'll soon see, from a higher, more abstract God revealed by Jesus Christ when he came to this earth.

Salvation is gained by way of special knowledge, end quote. I'm sure this definition makes knowing what

Gnosticism is as clear as mud to you probably today as it was for me. Some of you may have also heard that Gnosticism is often defined as a group that believes or holds that the material parts of the world are evil and the spiritual or non -material are considered good.

That's a very common Gnostic teaching. And that's core, as we'll see, to their doctrines.

I think that's what most of us would think of when we hear the word Gnostic, apart from the other heresies that we'll be looking at today that it contains.

But I hope to show you that as we go through time together, that simple belief alone regarding material and non -material is just the tip of the

Gnostic iceberg. One writer wrote regarding what is called, quote, Christian Gnostics.

And as you'll find out, this is an oxymoron in terms. He said, quote, some will exclaim, no way.

This is a contradictory in terms. Heresy is not orthodoxy. While others have retorted, quote, there's no contradiction between Gnosticism and Christianity.

Orthodoxy is heresy, end quote. So let's have a brief look at to where Gnosticism came from.

What is its roots? How did it begin? What do we know? As to when

Gnosticism came about, it's a hotly debated point of controversy between historians and even scholars today.

And it has been for centuries. Finding out when it began is just about as hard as it is to define the term itself, as you'll soon see.

It ends up being a painful exercise that often will make one's head swim. Some argue that until we have all the research completed, all the details done, all the things looked at and compiled, we'll never really know where this system began.

Although some hold that its roots began solely in the second century, others are now claiming that it has its roots in pre -Christian time frames, and in some cases, way before, as we'll soon see.

Without a doubt, we know that it existed between the second and fourth centuries, as we know that the writings from the church fathers that battled

Gnosticism. So let's look briefly at pre -Christian Gnosticism, or what some have said about when it existed before Christ.

Most of us have heard that Gnosticism is identified as a philosophy or a religion that has grown out of a corrupt

Christianity. That's where most here would say Gnosticism came from. All aspects of that are true.

Gnosticism has taken a lot from both Jewish and Christian tradition for their own doctrine.

Some may not be aware that there's research going on today that is still attempting to find the even deeper roots of Gnosticism.

Some research, beware that it's not accepted by all scholars. This is as I was digging through some of these things, have claimed that Gnosticism came about centuries before Christ and or Christianity even existed.

Its roots are said to be found in the ancient Eastern religions. Some have said that in their study of the religion, they've seen influences from such areas as India, Syria, Phoenicia, and even some of the

Gnostic belief systems come from the Asian and Eastern areas.

Others have pointed out that Gnosticism, of course, has its origins in Greek Platonic philosophy,

Plato. They've also been claims that Gnosticism has its roots in ancient

Babylon through its astrology and its rituals. There have even been people who have said that Gnosticism grew out of some form of corrupted, splintered

Jewish sect. Others state their research determines that Gnosticism and its roots came from Greek Hellenistic and or Alexandrian areas.

It's been said that the Greek influence, if not the root of the religion itself, is very prominent in Gnostic teachings and doctrines, as we'll soon see how they deal with the many gods that they have in their system.

Just to confuse its roots even more, a large number believe that Gnosticism came out of Egypt. As we'll see, the influence of Egypt and the religion found in Gnosticism out of the text that we found in 1945 were all done in the

Coptic language, which is mostly an Egyptian language. And again, to make things even clearer, a lot more still say that it has

Asian roots and the Eastern ancient religions. As was stated earlier, finding the roots of Gnosticism is about as clear as mud can be.

If nothing else, you can see that the Gnostic religion itself has taken bits and pieces from all different religions around the world and added it to its own system.

So it makes it very difficult to find out how its roots began, because it's very difficult to dig through the history without running into all these rabbit trails.

Gnostic beliefs prior to the first century would be considered what some call proto -Gnostics, not that the religion itself was fully developed at that time, but that it was in the process of being developed.

So they'd be called proto -Gnostics. Trying to find where this mysterious religion began is very difficult, as I said earlier.

One source said, quote, Gnosticism consists of many different belief systems, which combine elements taken from Asian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, Syrian, pagan, religions, astrology,

Judaism, and Christianity. Do we need to add any more to this hodgepodge of religions to understand

Gnosticism is just that? It's a pool of various beliefs. So let's move from pre -Christian to the second and fourth centuries, where we do have some documentation.

As to the exact time of when or where Gnosticism began, again, this is a question that we don't know.

And if it existed during Christ's time, we don't know. Some claim that we can see Gnostic teaching in the

New Testament. Others have argued that the scriptures there don't speak specifically of Gnosticism as a system, but a proto -Gnostic system.

So different religions were doing different things. And as we see today, a lot of that relates back to Gnostics.

So what can be said about Gnosticism? In one way or another, it is alive, it is growing, and it was doing so in the second through fourth centuries.

This early period is more likely to have been one of two generations removed from the apostles, as we see from the church fathers' writing.

How do we know? Again, we have people like Irenaeus, who battled this area of truth of those who were attacking the

Bible and Christ. And it was a battle that he was able to win, not that there was something that needed to be won.

But he was going after those who were attacking the core doctrines of the Christian faith. It is said that classical

Gnosticism was lost from the Western world in the fourth and fifth centuries. And that's why a lot of people will say that it probably remains still in the

Eastern side of the world. So let's move quickly to modern -day Gnostics, and then we'll get into a little bit about what they believe.

So it appears that Gnostics' belief may be very old, yet are there any true examples of modern -day

Gnostics? Gave you a couple at the introduction of this. We had things such as the

Da Vinci Code. We had the lost tomb of Jesus. But are those kind of just one -offs?

Although it might not seem very modern to us today, Gnosticism started a resurgence in the 19th century.

Here we see thinkers like Albert Pike, Herman Melville, and W .B. Yeats all involved in Gnosticism.

In 1890, a Gnostic church opened in France. And it said that it's still active today, yet its membership is much smaller than it was.

In the 20th century, we see people such as Carl Jung. And a name that may sound familiar to most of you, a gentleman by the name of Aleister Crowley, who is known, if you don't know, to be the father of the

Satanic Bible. Both of these people had heavy study and promotion of Gnostic teachings in their writings.

And in 1909, a publication called The Gnostic Review was released and held in high regard from non -Christians, of course, wanting to learn more about the

Gnostic religion. Again, it wasn't until 1945, with the discovery of the

Nag Hemini, which was all of the modern texts, as we talked about, that the farmer discovered, that it took off like a runaway train.

Gnosticism just ran after that point. And for a better term, I would say it's almost more of a train wreck than a runaway train.

After this period, we began to see a rise in the number of Gnostic churches, Gnostic rituals, Gnostic foundations created to spread the news of Gnosticism around the world.

In 1985, a magazine called Gnosis, or In the Know, was launched with a circulation of about 2 ,500, which back then sounds fairly small.

But in September of 1990, the circulation reached over 11 ,000. And in 1999, the magazine ceased publication, which was a little while ago.

But today, you can still find it online in back orders and pay for the publication. So we can see by just briefly looking at an overview in the history that Gnosticism is alive and well on planet

Earth. Some have said that there's been an increase due to the secular humanistic focus and the secularism that's coming from other parts of the world.

Gnosticism has really started to flourish all the more. So let's get into the more interesting things.

Now that you have some history and some background information of what Gnosticism is, let's now have a look at some of the doctrines that Gnosticism actually teaches.

Again, let me caveat that some of these teachings, specifically, are not across the board of all

Gnostics. I tried to pull out what was more universal. But some

Gnostics may argue that what I'm teaching today doesn't follow their specific school of system. One theologian wrote, quote,

Gnosticism in its various forms has often appealed to the alienated intellectuals who yearn for spiritual things.

Let us not allow the Gnostics, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, or the Mormons, to spread their gospel to a dying world when the

Bible commands us to spread the true gospel to the dying world. How are you doing on that?

Let's look at a few areas of Gnostic teaching. Namely, I'm going to take a brief look, in the time that we have, in Gnostic theology, how do they know or understand

God? Their cosmology, how did they see the beginnings of the world? Their anthropology, what do they say about mankind?

Their Christology, what do they say about Christ? Their soteriology, what do they say about salvation?

How does one in the Gnostic system get saved? And some bibliology, what do they believe about the

Bible itself? And I think it's first and most important to start with what the

Gnostics believe who God is. And if you're familiar with the four W's that are sometimes used to preach the gospel, the first W is, who is

God? So what better thing to start with than talking about the doctrines in one's understanding of God, because that will usually then shape the rest of one's doctrines.

What does a Gnostic believe about God? Let's have a look at some of the things they say. Let me start by opening this section by giving you a piece of Gnostic scripture, see what your thoughts are.

Quote, Jesus said, where there are three gods, they are gods.

Where there are two or one, I am with him. That comes from the Gospel of Thomas.

So I'm going to go through a couple of bulleted items here and let it sink in to see how the teachings of Gnosticism here line up or don't line up with Christianity.

Gnostics hold that the true God has both a masculine and a feminine side. And the feminine side is called something that you may hear in Gnosticism called

Sophia. Sophia is said to be the spirit of God. So as Christians would be calling it the

Holy Spirit, the Gnostics would call this Sophia. Sophia, or the

Holy Spirit, desired on her own to have a child like herself. But God didn't want her to have a child.

So without God's knowledge, which in and of itself should say something to you about a God that is all knowing in the

Christian faith, so apart from God's knowledge, Sophia went out and had a child with another deity. Tell you something else.

This child is said to be imperfect, as it did not come from the perfect God. And Sophia was so ashamed that she took this child that she had and she hid it behind a cloud so the other gods could not see it.

Kind of strange teachings. Third, the child of Sophia was also called what

Gnostics will call the Demiurge. He was born with some supreme powers as he had come from the spirit or from part of Sophia.

And with those powers, this imperfect deity or this demigod created the earth.

And we'll learn a little bit about that as we talk about cosmology. The Gnostics teach that this

Demiurge, this imperfect God that came from Sophia, which in the

Greek, Demiurge actually means public craftsman, is the same God that we see when reading the

Old Testament. They see the God of the Old Testament different from the God of the New Testament. They're two different gods.

And as we know today here as I'm preaching to the choir, those are heresies compared to Orthodox Christianity.

Gnostics also claim that because the world was created by an imperfect being, the world is also seen as being imperfect, which goes against the creation story that we see in the

Old Testament, where God said that he created, and what he created was good. And as we were teaching,

Mark and I, to the Awana kids, God doesn't say good by saying good, better, best.

So he could have improved on things. In God's eyes, good is perfect. So we know from Christian doctrine that what the

Gnostics teach here is incorrect. The true God of Gnosticism can also be only transcendent.

He cannot be eminent. He cannot be close. He cannot be near. He can only be far off and other and apart from.

And a lot of that comes from the conflict they have between material and spiritual things. The Gnostic cannot hold that God could enter something that would be considered evil or material.

Gnostics hold that the true God is unknowable and undetectable by human senses. And in some ways, we may hold that.

Yet the Bible says that God has revealed himself, and man suppresses that truth. God has revealed himself in both the heart of men and through nature, through his own creation.

He or she, the God of Gnosticism, is said to have created a series of finite beings, supernatural beings, called aeons.

That's A -E -O -N -S. And these aeons have each become further and further from the true

God. So in essence, what some of the schools of Gnosticism believe is God created an aeon, and that aeon created another aeon, and so forth and so forth and so forth.

And eventually, one of these aeons, millions and billions down the line, is so far from the true

God, he was able to create something that was evil. The God of the

Old Testament is said to be an evil, jealous, rigid, lacking in compassion, and prone to genocide.

He's considered to be the great cosmic meanie in Gnosticism. Sounds like a lot of what's being taught today in some of our churches.

Two of the Gnostic Gospels clearly teach pantheism by clearly stating that God is everywhere and in everything, or everyone.

That's found both in the Gospel of Thomas and Gnostic writings and in the Gospel of Eve, which is another

Gnostic writing. Now, it should raise a question in your mind if you've been listening, how can God be in everything when he's only transcendent and he can't enter evil?

These are things that a Gnostic can't actually clear up. Let me give you another quote from their scripture.

Again, his disciples said, quote, tell us clearly how we came down from the invisibilities, from the immortal to the world that dies.

And the perfect Savior said, son of man, consented with Sophia, his consort, and revealed a great androgynous light.

His male name is designated Savior, begetter of all things. His female name is designated as all -begetteress,

Sophia. That comes from a text of theirs called The Book of Sophia of Jesus Christ.

Yet Psalm 139 .3 says, you search my paths and my lying downs and are acquainted with all my ways.

We know that God loves and knows his creation intimately. So let's move quickly down to some of their cosmology now that we understand some of their theology, what they understand about God.

Let's see how, again, complementary these two systems could be. Gnosticism, as we'll see, is about as far away from Christianity as the rest of the cults and world religions are today.

Speaking of the word, I'm going to skip that part.

Let me read another quote of scripture here from them. She, Sophia, remember, the female side of God, functioned as a veil dividing both mankind from the things above.

So Sophia is actually the Christ image that we see in Gnosticism.

And yet scripture openly says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1 .1. It's clear.

I don't know how you can mess that up. We see that the world, by Gnosticism, was created by the child of Sophia after desiring to have a child with God, which he refused to give her.

And apart from his knowledge, again, she had a child with another deity.

And that child was the one that created the earth. The world was not originally created perfect or good, as the

Gnostic will say. It was also not the sin of Adam and Eve that made the world fall.

It was that the world was created imperfect from the beginning. The world was corrupt and imperfect because it was created by an inferior deity, is what the

Gnostics teach. Gnostics claim that a world that contains so much sin or suffering, it is only logical by looking at suffering that they conclude that it must have been created flawed in the first place.

They don't have an answer for the doctrine of sin or a fallen creation as we do.

In regard to the snake in the Garden of Eden, most of you will say that was either a demon or Satan himself.

Well, listen to what the Gnostics claim. The Gnostics claim that the snake in the Garden of Eden is not seen as being an evil being, or even the devil as found in Christian orthodoxy.

The snake is really seen by the Gnostic as a liberator by giving knowledge to Adam and Eve about the tree of knowledge.

So it was a good thing that Satan did that. Or they wouldn't even call it

Satan. They would call it another god. Gnostics believe also that a god who would create a world out of nex hilo, out of nothing, is, quote, a lying demon that is not the true

God. Again, how completely opposite is this from orthodoxy? Let me give you another quote of their scripture.

Mary said to him, this is to Jesus, Holy Lord, where did your disciples come from, and where are they going, and what should we do here?

The perfect Savior said to them, I want you to know that Sophia, the mother of the universe and the consort, desired by herself to bring these to existence without her male consort.

But by the will of the father of the universe and his unimaginable goodness that it might be revealed, he created that curtain between the immortals and those that come afterwards that the consequences might follow.

And yet we see in Genesis 127, so God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him.

Male and female, he created them. God is the creator of man and of the world, not some other god or gods.

So let's briefly take a look at the anthropology. Check my time here. Let's look at the anthropology.

What is their doctrine of man? How did man come about? Let me read another part of scripture that may surprise some of you.

But Simon Peter said to them, to the disciples, let

Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life. Jesus said, look,

I will guide her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit like you males.

For every female who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven. That's basic Gnostic teaching.

And if that makes any sense to you, come on up and teach, because I don't know how that can happen. But it's surprising we don't have the feminists or the now group attacking

Gnosticism, but they are attacking Christianity. Romans 3, 10 through 12 says, as it is written, none is righteous, no, not one.

No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together we have become worthless.

No one does good. And we'll see the Gnostic says the opposite. It's said that the

Gnostic believes that the self, quote, or the I, are considered divine. We're all divine.

This is where the implied idea of pantheism comes into their view. They see us all as trapped gods.

Yet as we're in this material world, we're unable to reach our divine nature, is what the Gnostics say. They claim that the self has been imprisoned or captivated by this world, and that it's impossible to free oneself apart from this special Gnostic teaching or knowledge.

Only at the end of the world, quote, or notice not after death, but only at the end of the world does man actually become divine.

So they hold that death is a place once you die, you go into a soul sleep, as some of you may have heard it termed in other doctrines.

Until the end of the world, and then they become gods once again. Because the world is created by this demi -urge or this demi -god who was an imperfect god, man was created imperfect, but his spirit was considered good.

But the imperfect part is his goodness is trapped inside of an evil body. Historians have actually said that the

Gnostics have issue with moral virtue. They have no interest in moralism or any morals.

There's actually two camps of Gnosticism. As you've probably been listening to this, you might be able to understand what they are. You have the camp that says the body is evil, so we must suppress what the body wants to do.

So they deny the body various aspects of pleasure or things, sometimes to an extreme.

And it's easy from that to guess then what the second camp is. The second camp says, well, since the body is evil, the spirit is good.

I can do anything I want with my body, and it doesn't matter what I do, because my spirit isn't doing it.

Man is said to be a duality of both evil material and good spiritual.

Mankind is said only to be ignorant, as they are kept suppressed of the truth by the other demigods.

So you've got this Roman and Greek fighting between gods that, in between, we live in this world where some are trying to suppress us and some are trying to show us the knowledge,

Gnosticism. So it's this battle between good and evil, as most of the Roman and Greek gods have done, or what you've seen in some of the writings.

Man became fully human only when he ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Prior to that time, man was considered to be only spiritual and not have a human being, not have actually a physical being.

Although Gnostic teaching does not openly claim an acceptance for reincarnation, the scriptures that they have actually leave room open for it, as we'll see a little bit in their salvific side of things or how one is saved.

Another quote from their scripture says, quote, Adam came into being from a great power and a great wealth.

And he did not become worthy of you, for if he had been worthy of you, he would not have experienced death.

When I first read that too, I said, boy, the health and wealth preachers would love this one because it said he came from great power and great wealth, which means we could probably name and claim it ourselves.

So who is Christ? We've looked at the Gnostic theology, their cosmology a little bit, their views on anthropology.

Now let's take a look at their Christology, or what do they say about Jesus Christ? You may be surprised to see how different the

Jesus is. You may not be surprised after what you've already heard to that that we were taught in Orthodox theology.

A Bible commentary said, quote, the key question for any Christian is, quote, who is

Jesus Christ? Is Christ merely an example, a good man, a wonderful teacher, or has he come in the flesh, end quote?

Your Christology is as important, if not equal to theology, your understanding of God.

Colossians 1 .16 says, He is the image of the invisible God, He, Jesus Christ, the firstborn of all creation, for in Him all things were created in heaven and on earth.

Visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him.

I don't know how you take that piece of Scripture and confound it the way that the Gnostics do. John 11 .25

says, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.

So what are a couple of bullet points on Gnostic teachings on Christology or what they believe about Christ? Jesus is said to be a product, a created being, if you have, if you will, between God and Sophia.

So this was the second child. Different from the Demiurge, remember, he was the Old Testament God that created the world that was evil.

So Christ was actually the product between God and Sophia. And this is what the

Gnostics would actually claim as the Trinity. The Trinity is God, Christ, and Sophia.

Jesus is said to have come from the consummation between God and Sophia, not from Demiurge, was not created that way.

So Christ is the only being that can be as perfect as those two are, because Jesus was not created from an imperfect being.

It was he and he alone who could teach what the Gnostics have regarding their knowledge of salvation.

Jesus came to spread Gnosticism, is what the Gnostics will say. It's believed that Jesus did not desire to teach the church the gnosis or the knowledge, because the church had become corrupt.

He came to a select few and only a few, knowing that they would not corrupt it.

Jesus was also not born of a virgin, as we see in scriptures. The earthly Jesus, and this sounds a little confusing,

I'll try to clear it up for you. The earthly Jesus, quote, was a product of intercourse between Mary and Joseph, not the

God -man that the scriptures teach. We don't have the hypostatic union. Historians have even recorded that earthly Catholic Gnostics, if that goes together again, were looked down upon for making the sign of the cross because they believed that Jesus' death was not an actual event that took place, but it was seen only as a symbol of the universal condition of mankind.

Lacking knowledge, not requiring the need for a savior for our sins. They didn't believe in the hypostatic union, that Christ was both fully

God and fully man. As Jesus could not have come into the flesh, he needed to be separate from a material and spiritual world.

Christ is not seen by the Gnostic as the savior or a judge like the Old Testament God, this evil cosmic meanie.

He is actually seen as the liberator by providing those with a seed of knowledge of the true

God, not the creator God. Many of the

Gnostic schools hold to what is called docetism, which means that Christ wasn't actually ever a material being.

He was more of a phantom body. And that's why he was able to do the different things he was able to do, some of the miracles.

He only appeared to have a body to those who saw him. They believe that Jesus, the deity, so there are two here, died before the death on the cross.

And that upon his death, he was released from his evil body and returned to the supreme being. The Gnostics hold that Jesus himself descended upon the earthly Jesus upon baptism.

When John baptized Jesus is when the Gnostics believe Christ, the deity, entered

Jesus, the man. Very confusing, I hate to say, but that's what they hold.

Luke 24, 47 says, and that repentance and forgiveness for sins should be proclaimed in his name.

That's the name of Jesus Christ that we have in scripture, not the Christ or the false gospel that's taught here in Gnosticism.

Real briefly, let's take a look at their soteriology, just a couple of things on how to get saved.

Another quote from their texts say, fortunate are you, the alone and the elect four, you will find the kingdom because you came from the kingdom and there you will also return again.

Yet Luke 13, three says, no, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will likewise perish.

Jesus was talking about the temple of Salome. Another quotes from their scripture says,

Jesus said, if you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you.

If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you will kill you.

That Matthew 16, 24 says, and Jesus told his disciples, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Gnostics believe from a salvation perspective that humans err because they are only ignorant.

We're not to blame, we're just ignorant. We are said to be born of a corrupt world from a corrupt deity.

We are all inherently good is what the Gnostics teach. So we don't need to be saved from anything. We just need to be given this new knowledge.

Salvation comes from this secret knowledge that's only now given to a select few. It's not for everyone.

The majority of this religious group would be considered annihilists. If you're familiar with the term annihilists, those who are not in the know and die are annihilated.

Those who may be in the know, and we'll hear about that next, those who may be in the know are ones that may come back.

And that's where the whole reincarnation aspect of Gnosticism comes into play. People are said to be trapped within and have a spark of divinity within them, often called what might be known as the seed of light.

And that was supplied by Sophia, the feminine portion of God. The Gnostics hold that there are three types of people.

Unlike Christians that would say there are saved and unsaved, the Gnostics say there is the quote spiritual. And those are the ones who will be saved no matter their behavior here on earth.

If you are spiritual, you can do anything you would like. There is quote the soulish. Those are the ones who could be saved if they only embrace

Gnosticism. They actually have that inner spark, the path. They just need to embrace it and go with it.

And you have the carnal, and those are the ones who will be lost for eternity and annihilated upon death. Those are the carnal.

They have the spiritual, the soulish, and the carnal. James 4, 8 and 10 says, draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

Very different from the God of Gnosticism. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double -minded.

Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourself before the

Lord and He will exalt you. Very different from the I or self or me that can save myself of the

Gnostic teaching. About as horrible as that is, and I don't have time to get into it now, is their view of Scripture.

Their view of Scripture, as you might know, is just as bad. They actually look down upon Christians and other groups that have creeds or have doctrines because they really see

Gnosticism as an experience. It's all about experience and feelings.

It has nothing to do with dogma and doctrine and creeds. They actually see that as foolishness in their world.

Yet God says in 1 Colossians 1, 21, for since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know

God through wisdom, which hopefully would tell a Gnostic something, God through the folly of what was preached, the true gospel that is, is preached to save those who believe.

1 Corinthians 2, 1 also says that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of the true

God. So let me conclude. Just like any worldly religion,

Gnosticism is a religious system that is void of hope, of any assurance.

They have a God who is not all -knowing, a God that is not all -powerful, that can change his mind at a whim, and is only one amongst many other gods.

He's not sovereign over creation. He's not said to be eminent. He is only transcendent.

Gnostics say that mankind is naturally good, just lacks a little bit of knowledge. And when he gets that knowledge, he can save himself.

One just needs to ignite that spark within. Christ is not the God -man of Christianity.

He was never actually a person, the Gnostics would say. He didn't die for our sins. He actually didn't even die. He's not fully

God or even equal to God. He's only a product from God. Now, if you knew the true gospel message, the true message that we get preached here, and you compare that to the

Gnostic gospel message, which one would you rather have?

A message of hope, a message of strength, a message of sovereignty, of a

God who's in control, or would you rather have the Gnostic teaching, which again is similar to nailing

Jell -O to the wall? Let's pray. Lord, we just thank you.

Although some of this is hard to go through, Lord, it's like school in many ways.

Lord, I think it's important that we understand some of the different religions and philosophies and doctrines that are taught by some of these.

As we run into people on the streets, as we bring your word to others, we'll be attacked, or some of these questions will be raised about other scriptures and things of that sort.

We need to be able to not only defend, but to clearly preach and teach the true gospel to these people.

Lord, we know that there are those who are daily dying, and yet you are merciful and you are patient, and we just pray,

Lord, that you will continue in that mercy and patience, that your grace will abound upon even more so they can be snatched from the pits of hell and can be called children of yours, and not children of wrath.