Gnosticism

[txborn]

What do you think of Gnosticism?
Would you consider it christian at all?

 

[DaveS]

Gnosticism is an interesting one! I did do a fair bit of research a few years back and even involved myself in some of it's meditation etc. practices - this I find very useful actually in the more 'mainstream' Christianity I actually believe in now.
As far as if it is Christian or not... yes and no. On the one hand they do follow Christ and they do recognise Him as the 'Great'. However, they also believe a very Buddhist principle that anyone can be God - this most certainly is not Christian. It depends who you talk to really, Gnosticism isn't really a united sect/faith etc. but more of a group of people who hold similar ideas.

 

[txborn]

Thanks

 

[Stinker]

The gnostics (as I was taught about) had a problem with a literal resurrection. The argument that we never hear about is that Moses was not resurrected, yet it is written that he was seen by the disciples (along with Elijah) talking with Jesus.

 

[dvd_holc]

Gnosticism is not Christianity. It is a greek philophy of escaping this world to the "real" world of pure spirit. It is the matrix gone wild. Christianity is about what you are going to do in this world namely loving God and one another so that you become a humble servant. Gnostic beliefs want people to escape the fleshy part of the world to enter the world of pure spirit. The Christian God enters the world to be join in the struggles and pains of the world and rebuild the world into the garden. The Gnostic god or gods never are attached to the physical world and don't really care about the world. Christian God is working toward completing His creation and providing comfort to the exile. Gnostic gods could care less of your mental/emotional state right now because it is rooted in illogical emotional entaglements...when you leave your body you leave the irrational part of you body to be formed by the pure logic without the emotional entanglements. Jesus cried at the death of friends because He loved and missed them. Gnostic...yeah get out of your skin.

 

[dv81]

Gnosticism is a man made belief custom designed for what he wants, not God.

Mat 12:30 He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth.

There's no nice way to put this, when it comes to faith there's good and evil, lukewarm would be worse than evil.

 

[Calminian]

What do you think of Gnosticism?
Would you consider it christian at all?

Hi txborn. Just to clarify a little further, gnosticism is the idea that everything physical is evil and everything spiritual is good. At first glance this may seem compatible with christianity, but it's not. The term contains the idea of knowledge. Post N.T. gnostics believed that by this special knowledge they were better able to understand and interpret the Bible. Once this movement became popular, christian apologists began to examine it by the scriptures. They looked to passages that were in the apolistic period to refute the very same error. John said,

1John 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, 3 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.

The idea that all that is non-physical is good is also not supported by scripture. Satan is an example of a non-physical evil being.

The moral of the story is to always interpret scripture exegetically. That is, let it speak for itself. We don't need some outside knowledge that was even foreign to the authors themselves. Hope that helps.

 

[revmalone]

What do you think of Gnosticism?
Would you consider it christian at all?

Greetings
No it is not. If you'd like a big explaination it would be a history lesson that would take months to study, I could explain if you will read, ha ha.

No it's really not Christian.

Rev Malone