INTRODUCTION TO
GNOSTICISM
Rolan D. Monje, APLA 2011
1.0 Why study Gnosticism?
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Today we have to deal with numerous attractive
teachings:
 New
Age Movement
 Astrological Prophecies
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But these have their roots in schools of counterfeit
Christianity we find in Early Church History
1.1 The Threat of Gnosticism
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First Christian Generation (AD 30-60)
 Apostolic
presence and effect of eyewitnesses
 Strong Gentile missions
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Second Christian Generation (AD 60-90)
 Waning
apostolic presence
 Emergence of false prophets and false messiahs (2
Peter 2:1-3 etc).
 Cooling off (Matthew 24:12)
 Spurious writings
2.0 How did Gnosticism develop?
Combination of elements present before and during NT
times with Christian teaching (blending religions).
 To Aristotle and Plato it owed much of its philosophical
form and tendencies.
 It was further developed by Philo:
To Philo, the creation of the universe was a gradual
molding out of matter; hence, arises evil. He also teaches
the preexistence of the soul, which is now imprisoned in
the flesh. The wise man, therefore, will break the
thralldom of the flesh, and will rise by a sort of ecstasy to
the immediate vision of God.
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3.0 What it is about?
Gnosticism is complex of religious philosophies
(alternative Christianity, which is heresy)
 Refers to different strands of philosophical
interpretations of Christianity
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[Gnosticism] involves, as the name denotes, a claim
to 'knowledge,' (Grk: gnosis) knowledge of a kind of
which the ordinary believer was incapable, and in
the possession of which 'salvation' in the full sense
consisted. - G. Orr
The Gnostics prided themselves in being gnostikos,
i.e. having or claiming knowledge (Grk: gnosis,
knowledge).
Key concepts
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Gnosis: A claim on the part of the initiated to a
special knowledge of the truth, a tendency to
regard knowledge as superior to faith
Dualism: The essential separation of matter and
spirit, the former of these being essentially evil, and
the source from which all evil has arisen.
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God-emanations: There are aeons or emanations
extending between God and the visible universe.
Docetism: A denial of the true humanity of Christ, a
docetic Christology, (which looked upon the earthly
life of Christ and especially on His sufferings on the
cross as unreal.
Gnostic Thought Characterized
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This world is unredeemably bad.
Salvation is escape from the world, by means of selfknowledge.
God is completely transcendent.
Between God & the world are numerous intermediate
spirit beings, called aeons, one (or more) of whom
made this world.
Somehow, some of the divine spark was trapped in
the world in (some) humans.
The Redeemer came down to give knowledge by
which humans may be saved.
Gnostic "Aeons"
in system of Valentinus
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The Ogdoad, Decad, &
Duodecad make up the
PLEROMA.
Sophia, also called Acamoth
(Wisdom), consists of spirit,
animal, and matter.
Her child is the Demiurge,
the God of everything
outside the Pleroma, the
Creator in Genesis.
From “Gospel of Judas”
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“Come, that I may teach you about [secrets] no
person [has] seen…” (GJ)
Characters such as Nebro, Yaldabaoth, Saklas,
Galila, Yobel, Adonaios, Seth. “The first is Seth, who
is called Christ” (GJ) Jesus is Seth, one of the five
rulers of the underworld.
From “The Gospel of Thomas”
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(supposedly quoting Peter) “Let Mary go away from
us, because women are not worthy of life.” (GT)
Then Jesus allegedly tells Peter that he will make
Mary male so that she may enter the kingdom of
heaven.
4.0 So what’s wrong with it?
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The intellectual pride of the Gnostics refined away
the gospel into a philosophy.
Gnosticism puts knowledge in the place which can
only rightly be occupied by Christian faith.
To the Gnostic the great question was not the
intensely practical one, “What must I do to be
saved from sin?” but “What is the origin of evil?”
“How is the primitive order of the universe to be
restored?”
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Creator God is an inferior being. Matter is evil:
asceticism or hedonism as responses; no resurrection.
Jesus is not a true human. Docetism (dokeo + “seem”)
troubled the communities of the apostle John (1-2
John).
Salvation is enlightenment, not freedom from sin.
Historian’s comment: “…they made it rather a
redemption of the philosophers from matter, than a
redemption of mankind from sin.”
5.0 How did the early church react to it?
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They were passionate and relentless in dealing with
false teaching.
Paul
John
Peter
Irenaeus
Some NT letters addressing Gnosticism
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Colossians
1 Corinthians
1 and 2 Timothy
1 and 2 John
Jude
Sample verses in 1 Timothy: 1:3, 2:5, 2:12, 2:15, 4:3,
4:7, 6:3-5, 6:20-21.
NT addressing Gnosticism
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Colossians: In the Epistle to the Colossians,
accordingly, there are definite references to ascetic
practices which were inculcated by the false
teachers at Colosse. The very terms which they
employed have been preserved, “Touch not,” “Taste
not,” “Handle not.”
See Colossians 2
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Corinthians: They thought themselves “wise,” they
were always disputing, they professed that they “all
had knowledge” (1Co 8:1) and they could “know all
mysteries and all knowledge” (1Co 13:2); but this
knowledge did not edify them, did not build them
up, it only puffed them up (1Co 8:1)
Knowledge did not make them sympathetic or
tender-hearted toward the weak (1Co 8:7-11).
Refuting Gnosticism - Pastorals
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1Tim 1:7 They want to be teachers of the law, but
they do not know what they are talking about or what
they so confidently affirm.
1Tim 2:4 who wants all men to be saved and to come
to a knowledge of the truth.
1 Tim 3:9 …keep hold of the deep truths of the faith
1Tim 4:3 They forbid people to marry and order
them to abstain from certain foods, which God
created to be received with thanksgiving by those
who believe and who know the truth.
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1Tim 1:4 nor to devote themselves to myths and
endless genealogies. These promote controversies
rather than God's work which is by faith.
1Tim 4:7 Have nothing to do with godless myths and
old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.
2Tim 4:4 They will turn their ears away from the
truth and turn aside to myths.
Tit 1:14 and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or
to the commands of those who reject the truth.
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1Ti 6:16 who alone is immortal and who lives in
unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can
see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
1Ti 6:20 Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to
your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the
opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge,
2Ti 2:25 Those who oppose him he must gently
instruct, in the hope that God will grant them
repentance leading them to a knowledge of the
truth
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Tit 1:1 Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of
Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the
knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness
Tit 1:2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope
of eternal life, which God, who does not lie,
promised before the beginning of time,
Tit 1:14 and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or
to the commands of those who reject the truth.
6.0 What should we do today?
6.1 Know the proponents
6.2 Know their terminology
6.3 Beware of watered-down Christianity
Popular proponents of New Age
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Shirley Maclaine
Neal Donald Walsh
John Lennon
Deepak Chopra
Jane Roberts
Elaine Pagels
Hillary Clinton
John Travolta
Terms and Taglines
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“Christ Consciousness” or “Raising Consciousness”
“Lost books of the Bible”
“The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus”
“We are all manifestations of Christ”
“Renewal of Moses”
“God in all of us” or “Universal Mind”
“Dream Induction”
“Field of Awareness” or “Field beyond the Mind”
“Channeling”
Beware of watered-down Christianity
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Today, many popular churches and mega-churches
teach ecumenism, fuzzy Christianity, and “easy
believism.”
Remember, not everyone who calls themselves
Christian is truly a Christian.
Irenaeus of Lyons,
c. 130-200 A.D.
27
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When we come to refute them [the Gnostics], we will
show in its proper place that this class of men have
been instigated by Satan to a denial of that
baptism which is regeneration to God. Thus, they
have renounced the whole faith…. For the baptism
instituted by the visible Jesus was for the remission of
sins. Irenaeus (c. 180, E/W), 1.346.)
Salvation by mental assent (faith alone). Perhaps
evangelicals don’t realize that by downplaying
baptism they are being somehow ‘gnostic!’
Paul and Ignatius
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According to Paul, the false teachers and their
followers, were “lovers of self, lovers of money,
boastful, haughty, rollers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, without natural affection,
implacable, slanderers, without self-control, fierce,
no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, puffed-up,
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God…
They had “a form of godliness, but denying its
power.” (2Ti 3:2, 2Ti 3:3, 2Ti 3:4).
Ignatius (Law, The Tests of Life, 30)
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“They give no heed to love, caring not for the
widow, the orphan or the afflicted, neither for those
who are in bonds, nor for those who are released
from bonds, neither for the hungry nor the thirsty.”
Such persons professed that they knew God, but by
their works they denied Him; they were
“abominable, and disobedient, and unto every
good work reprobate” (Tit 1:16). They enticed
others into sins of impurity (2Ti 3:5, 2Ti 3:6).
Personal Learning
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We need to seek and adhere to true knowledge.
One sign of false teaching is the lack of conviction
about sin.
Let us keep growing in our love for the Bible and
our passion to help people meet the true God!