Gnosticism – A New Thing?

November 4, 2007 in apostasy, Bible, discernment, Dominionism, religion | Tags: christianity, Church, contemplative spirituality, Emergent Church, faith, God, IHOP, Jesus, Life, Mike Bickle, new age, Rick Warren, Spiritual Life, theosophy

There are many who are very intrigued with the mysticism that has been entering the church. I have heard it said, I need and desire the mystical side of faith. Where does it say in the Bible that we are to understand the mysteries of God and the universe? Why is it that some need to go outside scripture to “get the feeling”, or to have an “experience”? There is a good reason…It is difficult to create a euphoric bliss, a new ministry, or create a new following on revelation of the scripture alone. Therefore, we have a “new gospel”, for those who do not get enough sensations or feeling from reading the Bible or worshiping God in a traditional manner.

A social gospel is being taught, and this gospel promotes a god of love and prosperity. The problem is…….without truly following Christ by repenting, and picking up a cross daily, your spiritual life will be void of any true regeneration.

I watched a special on GODTV last New Years Eve’s featuring Mike Bickle at IHOP. He was teaching young people at a huge conference. It hit me while watching that he was just all talk and had absolutely no substance. Over and over again he was telling these young people to Live For the Lord and to be Holy, Holy, Holy. But he did not give any scripture. Without scripture and the Holy Spirit, these young boys and girls were doomed to fail. When people fail in love, have no control over sin in their life, and have not the joy in times of trouble…..they become discouraged and may turn away from the Lord. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can be holy. We have no righteousness of our own.

These are the ones who may need to reach out into an unknown mystical world for a spiritual “fix”. Gnosticism provides this spiritual fix.

First, let’s take a look at early Gnosticism. It was introduced into the first two centuries of the church and taught that the spirit was good and matter was evil. Therefore, to be saved was to be freed from the body which was deemed evil. To be freed from this slavery, one needed the special “knowledge” (gnosis). This eliminated the need for the cross and a savior. Today, much of this can be seen today…Man’s salvation is not by faith in God but rather, in the special, mystical knowledge than one can learn by experience. This experience or enlightenment is a key word in New Age religion.

This heresy flourished in the 2nd and 3rd century and the gnostics claimed to still be Christians. Please read this paragraph from a gnostic site that has a definition of Gnostic Christianity.

“A Gnostic is a person who believes that salvation is gained through the acquisition of divine knowledge or gnosis..When gnostics speak of salvation, they mean being freed from these illusions of darkness so that they can perceive Reality. Gnostic Christians have commenced following a Path of never ending increase in Knowledge, Enlightenment, Power, Peace, and every Divine Attribute. They are led along this Path by those disciples who have preceded them, a chain of initiates going back to Jesus himself.”

A spiritual fix…..What is it in the above sentence that may appeal to someone looking for spirituality? Divine Knowledge perhaps? Who doesn’t want to be in on a secret…Who doesn’t want to be part of an elite group…Is it Power? Hasn’t power corrupted men over and over again. To be powerful is to be over and above others. To be in charge or at the “Head of the Table” Ah, Divine….Divinity is self-consciousness, to find the Divine Spark within himself. Godhood. One can attain a spiritual fix by experiencing an emotional outpouring or is it “in-pouring”, of supposedly godly manifestations.

Also I was interested to find out what the Path was. Here is what I found:

The Mystic Christ
by Ethan Walker III

The light of non-duality and the path of love according to the life and teachings of Jesus. The Gnostic path is the inner path to God-realization. Buddha, Krishna, Jesus and the other great Masters are all one and in essence taught the same thing.

Meditation is the means by which the individual may achieve direct union with God. In order to attain this gnosis, one must first fully understand the mind. All through our lives, we have grown accustomed to indirect experiences.

See how Jesus Christ is grouped with Buddha and Krishna? Jesus Christ is the Son of God and here He is reduced to a great master. Another heresy is that they “taught the same thing”? Unfortunately, Gnostic trends were never totally eliminated and have always been filtering into the church and of late have exploded and taken a stronghold. Meditation is added to assure that one can reach God directly. What happened to prayer?

Have you heard any of these phrases lately?

LatterRain, Overcomers, Manifest Sons of God, Universal Consciousness, Christ Consciousness, A New Breed, The Anointed, The New Prophets, New Order, A Harvets of a Billion Souls, A New Thing, or Spiritual Warfare. This is but a thimble in a pool of phrases. Lingo is created in certain ministries to numb the mind of the believer. When jargon is heard over and over again, one ceases to question it. This is a huge issue in these end times, because the Bible teaches of end-time deception and if you do not know the Word of God, and study it in context, relying on the KJV, you may be easily deceived.

Most of these phrases come out of the LatterRain influence, and out of LatterRain we have Word-of-Faith, The New Apostolic Reformation, and Dominionism. Because we hear and read these phrases that are being used readily today, we know that Gnosticism is alive and well and is currently at work destroying the true Christian faith. If you hear these or similar phrases in your church then you need to do some research.

So Gnosticism has many names. From it flows the Rosicrucian Order and from it Freemasonry. All is a basis for New Age thought and religion. I know that many cringe at the thought that some churches today may truly be involved in New Age religion, but sadly it is so. Theosophy’s main goal was to infiltrate the church with Eastern mysticism and this is being accomplished.

According to Theosophist Alice Bailey, (she was a channeler) the Church is being used as merely a part of an overall plan to bring in world peace, world domination and to set up the “Kingdom on Earth”. This kingdom is not a godly kingdom. This kingdom belongs to Satan.

2Ti 3:1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days.

2Ti 3:2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

2Ti 3:3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,

2Ti 3:4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God–

2Ti 3:5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

So if you are falling into the trap of Warrens Peace Plan, Wagner’s Apostolic Reformation, or IHOP’s Joel’s Army, you are furthering the plans of the “enlightened” ones. Is this what you are doing? If so, then you are not following Jesus Christ. He told us in the Beatitudes to: Mourn over our sinful nature, to be meek, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, and that we will be persecuted because of Him. Can this be any more opposite than the Gnostic gospel of self-deity?

So if you are in need of a spiritual “fix”. Get down on your knees, confess your sin, repent and turn away from sin.

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77 comments

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November 8, 2007 at 11:01 pm

IWanthetruth

Lee,

The Rev. above propbably knows who they are. Click on his name and look at the site!!!! WHEW!

John,

Are you a member of the The Association of Life-Giving Churches (ALC)?

November 8, 2007 at 11:09 pm

Lee

IWant,

YIKES!

November 8, 2007 at 11:23 pm

Kim

I copied this off of the site in the Gnostic Art section…..

“The occult knowledge of the gnostic gospels, explained and explored through collage and cartoon art by visionary artist Rev. Illuminatus. Third-eye opening, pineal gland stimulating, kundalini arousing, reptilian repelling fun!”

Reptilian repelling fun???? Yikes is right!

November 9, 2007 at 12:31 am

IWanthetruth

I tried to post this under a different topic…

I found this. Interesting… http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/10/willow_creek_re.html
and this http://availablelightonline.com/blog/2007/10/20/willow-weep-for-me/

November 9, 2007 at 12:44 am

IWanthetruth

Good Intentions

If It Looks So Good . . .
How Can It Be Deception?
Part 2
By Barbara Wilhelm

Aren’t good intentions and a sincere, heartfelt desire to honor and please God enough of a safeguard to keep us from deception and sin?
If God sees that our intentions are good and our motives sincere in our desire to glorify Him, won’t this please Him, no matter what?

Sadly, the answers to both these questions are NO!

There is one other essential factor that must be entered into the equation: Is the action done in accordance with His Divine will and His stated commands as found in His Word? If it is a clear violation of His commands, it will NOT please Him no matter how sincere and well-intentioned it is! To prove this premise, let’s look at 1 Chronicles 13 and 15 and 2 Samuel 6.

Here we have David’s pious proposal to bring up the ark of God to Jerusalem that God would be honored. He consults with the people to see “if it seems good to them” and if they think that the idea is “of God” (1 Chron 13:2). 2 Sa 6:1 and 1 Chron 13:1 tell us that these were all the “chosen” (meaning excellent) men of Israel. These were the leaders and elect of the people whom he consulted. And what was proposed seemed “right in the eyes of all the people” (v.4). It was unanimously agreed that this was a good thing. And they performed their task with the greatest joy, in fact they solemnly “celebrated before God with all their might” (v.8).

There is no doubt that those involved held the Lord in the very highest esteem, verse two clearly demonstrates that: “the ark of God, Whose Name is called by the Name of the Lord of Hosts, Who dwells between the cherubim” (2 Sam 6:2).

So, we have pious, well-meaning, sincere men of God – His very elect – attempting to perform a service to their God with their only purpose in mind being to honor Him “with all their might.” Surely, God will be thoroughly pleased with them. . . but He was not! So displeased was God that “He smote Uzzah” and killed him!

Let us study more thoroughly that we might “rightly divide the Word of Truth” (2 Ti 2:15) and that we would understand that a good intention will not justify a bad action. God had, in His Word, given specific instructions as to how the ark was to be carried and who was allowed to touch it. He will never leave us ignorant of His Divine will, if we will but seek it out.

Nu 1:50 ” …appoint the Levites over the tabernacle of the testimony and over all things that belong to it. They shall carry the tabernacle.”

Yes, Uzzah was a Levite (he was, after all, the son of Abinadab, a Levite). . . BUT that was not all. . .

Nu 7:9 “. . .to the sons of Kohath (one of three divisions of Levi) were assigned the care of the sanctuary which had to be carried on their shoulders.”

And nowhere does it say that Abinadab’s house was that of the Kohaths.

In addition, David had the ark put on a cart. Perhaps, the Philistines were allowed to place the ark in a cart (1 Sa 6:7), but they were not His chosen people who were supposed to be well-versed in His commands. To place the ark on a cart – even a new cart – was against God’s specific written command. This was God’s holiest thing – the ark of the covenant – and He would determine His holy commands over it.

Was God’s righteous judgment against Uzzah a rash and unrighteous act? No indeed, for He had already given the Israelites the warning that “the sons of Kohath shall carry (the ark) but they shall not touch the holy things, lest they die” (Nu 4:15). Again, He repeats it in Nu 18: 3 ” . . . only they (the Levites) shall not come near the sacred vessels of the sanctuary that they. . . die not.”

Matthew Henry Commentary states:

“The priests must instruct the people and admonish them concerning the due distance they were to keep and not allow them to break the boundaries set before them.” For to break through those boundaries results in death, as it did for Uzzah.

Lindsell Bible Commentary states:

“David disregarded God’s specific instructions and however pious his intention, disaster followed his disobedience.”

If we find fault with God’s reaction to all this, we become like David; we become “offended with God” (1 Chron 13:11). The word offended here means “blazed up in anger;” blazing anger against God for what God had done! Instead, David should have humbled himself under God’s mighty Hand, confessed his sin, acknowledged God’s righteousness, sought His exact Will as found in His Word, and then gone on with his actions. Because of David’s “offendedness” at God, the ark was delayed three more months from entering Jerusalem.

(How often does God try to get our attention and chasten us in His love
and we become offended with Him instead of seeking His Truth?)

1 Chron 15 shows us that seeking God’s Truth as written in His Holy Word was exactly what David finally did:

v.2 “Then David said, None should carry the ark of God but the Levites, for the Lord chose them to carry the ark of God and to minister to Him for ever.”
v.15 “The Levites carried the ark of God on their shoulders with the poles, as Moses commanded by the Word of the Lord.”

DAVID ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THE ENTIRE PROBLEM WAS THAT THEY HAD NOT OBEYED THE EXPLICIT WORD OF GOD!

v. 13 “For because you bore it not (as God directed) at the first, the Lord our God broke forth upon us, BECAUSE WE DID NOT SEEK HIM IN THE WAY HE ORDAINED.”

CONCLUSIONS: Yes, they were the elect, the excellent, the chosen people, the leaders of Israel. Yes, what they did they did with a heart’s desire to glorify God. Yes, they were well-intentioned. BUT…GOD HIMSELF WAS NOT PLEASED BECAUSE THEY DID NOT SEEK HIM AS HE HAD ORDAINED!

OUR ACTIONS, IN ORDER TO BE TOTALLY PLEASING TO GOD,
MUST BE IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE REVEALED TRUTH OF HIS WORD!

Is 8:20 states: “Direct (them) to the Word and the testimony: if their teachings are not in accord with this word, there is no light in them.”

There is another aspect that bears study in relation to the problem with good intentions: good intentions sometimes may “sound religious” but they aren’t what God has commanded. 1 Samuel 15 relates the command of God that King Saul slay all the Amalekites and all they owned. Saul, however, did not do this but destroyed only what was inferior, keeping the best part from destruction. He uses as an excuse for this lack of obedience that it was done with a good intention, for the religious-sounding idea that he was going to use these things (v.21b) “to sacrifice to the Lord thy God.”

His intentions looked and sounded good, but they were not the command of God. Matthew Henry’s Commentary, detailing the conversation between Saul and Samuel is very explicit on this matter:

“It was with a good intention: ‘It was to sacrifice to the Lord thy God.’ He is thy God, and thou wilt not be against any thing that is done, as this is, for His honor.” This was a false plea, for both King Saul and the people designed their own profit in sparing the cattle. But, if it had been true, it would still have been frivolous, for God hates robbery for burnt-offering. God appointed these cattle to be sacrificed to Him in the field, and therefore will give those no thanks that bring them to be sacrificed at His altar; for He will be served in His own way, and according to the rule He Himself has prescribed. Nor will a good intention justify a bad action.” [emphasis added]

It sounded and look so holy, so religious to offer sacrifice to God. But what God required was not sacrifice but obedience to His commands.

“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to hearken than the fat of rams.
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” (1 Sa 15:22-23)

Such harsh words Samuel used! He called this “religious-sounding, “good-intentioned”-sounding action — rebellion! Witchcraft, stubbornness, idolatry! Why? Because God has given specific commands that were to be fully obeyed in their execution. God gave His commands; anything less than full obedience to those commands is sin. No matter how good-intentioned it sounds.

MODERN DAY APPLICATIONS

There are those who are sincere in their desire to please God, who are well-intentioned and who say that we are to covenant with all those who “name the Name of Jesus.” BUT Ps 138:2 says that God Himself “has magnified His WORD above that Name.” So we must seek His Word to see if that union would be God’s intent.

These same people say that the unity of all those who “name the Name of Jesus” is the ultimate goal of the church and that it was Jesus’ ultimate prayer in John 17. BUT v.17 in that same chapter also quotes the rest of Jesus’ prayer: “Sanctify them by the Truth. Your WORD is Truth.” Unity can only come about when it is done in accordance with His express Word. God’s express Word says that “we are to separate ourselves from idolaters and not even eat with them” (1 Cor 5: 11-13).

We now have “Christian” yoga – a mixture of the name of Christ with that of idolatry. We now have “Christian” meditation which is nothing more than Eastern mysticism. We have brought into the Church, under the banner of “Emerging Church,” many of the rituals of Roman Catholicism – the stations of the cross, the Eucharist, the lectio divina.

When Uzzah touched God’s holy ark, he died. When Nadab and Abihu tried to offer “strange fire,” they died. When Ananias and Sapphira lied, they died. Dear Lord, sanctify your people!

One last point:

1 Chron 13: 2 states that “all the priests and Levites” were in attendance on that fateful day:

all those in leadership,
who surely knew the Word of God,
and who surely knew
that the actions David proposed
were in direct violation of that Word.

Why did they not speak up and stop him, and all the people gathered with him, from an action that God, ultimately, found to be so totally displeasing to Himself?

or read it here http://herescope.blogspot.com/

I think this article speaks to some of this thread

November 9, 2007 at 5:11 am

Kim

Just so you all know. For some reason a comment here or there is being held for moderation. I do not know why… The settings are to allow any comment to be instantly shown. So please do not take it personal if your comment does not show up right away.

November 9, 2007 at 5:17 am

Mary

Just in case it’s not clear,
My most recent post:
“LOL!”-
was inresponse to Lee’s pancake madonna comment. I was not making fun of John’s comment. I hope if you are still reading John , you wouldn’t think I was being rude.

November 9, 2007 at 6:08 am

Kim

I said previously that i would have some questions about Burtons book “Covens in the Church”. I also downloaded “100% Effective Prayer”. There are many…many issues….but i will select only one from “Covens” for now.

John i want to make sure i am understanding.

pg 9-10

You are talking about Jimmy Swaggart’s confession.

“Jimmy Swaggart famously admitted he had sinned and at that very moment all of the forces of hell were released on the Church around the world….”

“Legions from hell were released”

“….the response of believers after this event was tragic! It was devasting.”

“The response has nearly destoyed the Church. Missions from God have been aborted or ignored and many people have gone to hell, NOT because of what Jimmy Swaggart and Jimmy Baker did, but because of the response of the Church.”

pg 11.

“People had a knock at their door that year. Demonic spirits were released from their nest in Baton Rouge to homes of believers around the world”

“…the people of God aligned themselves with demonic salesmen who offered them some free gifts. What were these gifts? Freely given and eagerly received evil spirits of Independence, Self-government, and Lawlessness. These spiritual gifts were masquerading as freedom from control, though they were themselves assigned by the very spirit of control….Control was offered and the church has clung to it for nearly two decades.”

“Spontaneously, across the nation and the world, covens of Christians who entertained spirits of Self-government, Independance and Control were established in homes and churches.”

“The monster of personal opinion was showing its teeth as scrutiny and criticism became acceptable in the minds of believers. People who were once submitted and in love with those who God placed in their lives – now they were the authority and it was time for their leaders to submit to their plans, ideas, demands, and desires….Demons were now ruling the churches in individuals from coast to coast- all while they read their Bibles and sang their hymns.”

Does this have to do with the 5-fold apostolic office? Are you saying that people in their churches cannot have any say or “personal opinions”? Are you saying that the people who rejected the sinful leader are covens in the church? Are3 you saying because they no longer wanted to answer to a sinful man and his ministry they are evil?

Is this what the 5-fold offices propose, that those who do not conform or leave are the ones who are to blame and that they are the evil ones?

I know that i edited, but i believe i picked out the main points.

Actually i believe that there is witchcraft in the church too! But i believe it has existed and has been a problem for a long time. Currently we are seeing, yoga, mysticism, meditation in prayer which is divination in the church. There is another spirit in the church and it is not the Holy Spirit.

There are those who want to dominate the world with the unholy spirit, and make a kingdom here on earth. Jesus’ kingdom is not of this earth.

I give my life to the Lord in meekness, even if i am martyred.

November 10, 2007 at 6:18 am

Peg

Hi Kim,

Wow, looks like I’ve been missing quite a discussion! Tossing in my 2c, late as it is… very much in support of your post….

We just finished studying Gnosticism in Church History and it’s quite clear the “orthodox” (Bible-teaching and believing) church has always considered Gnosticism a heresy. Its roots are actually in the ancient Greek philosophers, particularly Plato, though Gnosticism is a serious twisting of what Plato taught.

Whoever it was who commented that Gnosticism grew up alongside the church, and spread to Alexandria Egypt, was correct. The appearance of Gnosticism actually predates the birth of Jesus by a little bit, and its teachings had spread to Egypt by the time of the early church. When Christianity spread out of the Middle East and into Greece, some of the new believers attempted to fuse Christianity with Gnosticism, and this was the first heresy the early church had to deal with.

If you’re interested one of our textbooks — “Readings in the History of Christian Theology, Vol 1” by Wm Placher gives original quotations of the writers who supported and refuted Gnosticism. Athanasius is my hero. 🙂

One of the things you wrote in your post was especially good: “Gnosticism taught that the spirit was good and matter was evil”. Exactly. If Christianity had held fast to its roots in Judaism this heresy would never have even been attractive, as Old Testament theology is very holistic (does not make exclusive separations between mind, body, spirit the way we Westerners do… the ancient Jews knew all these things are connected and depend on each other).

This led to extreme practices of asceticism — whipping oneself, starving oneself, etc to “mortify the flesh” — or sometimes the opposite extreme (“whatever I do with my body doesn’t matter since only the spirit matters, so I might as well go attend the orgy…”). Gnosticism also taught that there were “secrets” to be learned that would help a person’s spirit ascend into heaven. By the way I should mention — there were many kinds of Gnosticism, not just one. Some were more erroneous than others, but all of them were considered heresy by the church.

To your comments on my comments: I still say there is a legitimate form of Christian mysticism. 😉 It has absolutely nothing to do with Gnosticism. “Where does it say in the Bible that we are to understand the mysteries of God and the universe?” That’s not my point at all. I want to know Jesus, I want to know His Father, I want to know them better than I do now, I want to grow in my relationship with them. That’s all. Christian mysticism at its best is more like a celestial kiss than anything else (not meaning to offend your buddy…) Not so much uncovering mysteries as sharing love.

Pop on over to my site when you have a minute, I’ve posted a couple examples of real Christian mysticism, plus a post that somewhat parallels yours on false teachings…