The Doctrines of Gnosticism

1. The first thing that needs to be understood about Gnosticism is that it is pantheistic in nature.

1) Gnosticism teaches that there are multiple “gods” in existence called the “aeons.”

2) These gods form a hierarchy of deities going back to the “Monad” from whom all things came.

3) The teaching says that the “Monad” emanated lesser deities.

4) From these lesser deities came the “Demiurge” which created all physical things.

5) The higher order of “gods” were thought to be “spiritual” the lower order “physical.”

6) Hence, a distinction developed between the spiritual and the physical: in essence the spiritual is good and the physical is inherently evil.

7) This distinction ultimately affected the practices of those who believed Gnosticism.

8) Some Gnostics believed that the Demiurge was the Old Testament god and that Jesus, an aeon of the Monad was sent to correct him.

2. The Bible teaches that there is ONE God.

1) Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:”

2) John 17:3 “And this is life eternal, that they should know thee the only true God, and him whom thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.”

3) 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 states, “For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth; as there are gods many, and lords many; yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we unto him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through him.”

4) Ephesians 4:6 “one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.”

1. Part of the teaching of Gnosticism is that Christ was a created/emanated aeon.

1) The implication of this is that Jesus was not deity, but merely another created being.

2) As was mentioned, some Gnostics believed that Christ came to set man back on the path of “enlightenment” in contrast to the god of the Old Testament.

3) This is affirmed in “The Da Vinci Code.”

4) It is stated in that book that it wasn’t until the time of Constantine that Christ was set forth as a divine.

a. The question facing the council of Nicea was not whether Jesus was divine, but rather how to describe His divine relationship to God.

b. The church had long believed that Jesus was divine and God.

2. But some Gnostics also denied the humanity of Christ.

1) They taught that the REAL Christ came upon Jesus, the man, at baptism and left him at his crucifixion.

2) Some even taught that the Christ wasn’t even a person at all, but a phantasm or only seemed to be a man.

3. The Bible teaches the divinity of Jesus.

1) John 1:1 is a scathing rebuke of Gnosticism. It teaches that Jesus was in fact God himself and took on flesh, a doctrine that the Gnostics would not have tolerated.

2) Colossians 1:15-17 is a clear denial of the Gnostic conception of the aeons and demiurge. “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

3) Colossians 2:9 states, “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”

4) Acts 20:28 teaches that the church was purchased by God’s blood.

5) Titus 2:13 “looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;”

4. The Bible also teaches the humanity of Jesus.

1) In 1 John 4:2, John uses this doctrine as a test of fellowship. He says, “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:”

2) Also in 2 John 1:7, “For many deceivers are gone forth into the world, even they that confess not that Jesus Christ cometh in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.”

1. The Gnostics were keenly interested in “gnosis” or “knowledge.”

1) Gnostics believed that there was a special secret knowledge that lead to salvation.

2) This knowledge consisted of their pantheism and condemnation of the physical.

3) Some Gnostics held that there was no such thing as sin, since all flesh is sinful.

4) The only sin is ignorance of their special knowledge.

5) It is thus through the casting off of one’s participation in physical reality that one can achieve a higher plane of existence or “enlightenment.”

2. The Bible teaches that knowledge isn’t “special” and isn’t “secret” but available for all.

1) Consider Colossians 2

2) The word “know” is used some 26 times in the book of 1 John.

3) 1 John 2:3 “And hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.”

4) 1 John 2:21 “I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and because no lie is of the truth.”

5) 1 John 5:13 “These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.”

6) 1 Timothy 6:20 “Knowledge falsely so called.”

1. We’ve seen the distinctions made in their pantheon regarding how physical things were created.

2. They continue such distinctions on a practical level in two schools of thought.

3. The ascetics practiced a thorough going denial of the physical body.

1) They believed that to overcome the sinfulness of the physical state, one had to refuse himself all earthly pleasures.

2) This included one’s diet, sexual practices, handling of monies, drinking habits, etc.

4. On the other hand, there were the antinomians.

1) They believed that since the flesh was sinful and the spirit was holy that nothing could be done in the flesh to corrupt the spirit.

2) They thus indulged in all sorts of fleshly delights and carnal appetites.

5. Once again, the Bible refutes both of these positions.

1) The former is refuted chiefly in Colossians 2:16-23.

2) The latter is refuted in 1 John, 2 Peter, and Jude.

3) Consider the following passages.

4) 1 John 2:4-6 “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoso keepeth his word, in him verily hath the love of God been perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him: he that saith he abideth in him ought himself also to walk even as he walked.”

5) 1 John 2:9-11 “He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother, is in the darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in the darkness, and walketh in the darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes.”

6) 1 John 3:7-8 “My little children, let no man lead you astray: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous: he that doeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. To this end was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”

7) 1 Peter 2:1-2 “But there arose false prophets also among the people, as among you also there shall be false teachers, who shall privily bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master that bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their lascivious doings; by reason of whom the way of the truth shall be evil spoken of” and really the rest of the chapter.

8) The entire book of Jude, but noticed 3-4 “Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in privily, even they who were of old written of beforehand unto this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

1. “The Da Vinci Code” is nothing more than a work of fiction.

2. While some aspects of it are based in fact, the majority of it is fiction purported to be based on fact.

3. The premise of the book is that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and that they had children and that these children are preserved today as the “holy grail” by a secret society known as the Priory of Sion.

4. The “Priory of Sion” was started by a man named Pierre Plantard in 1956 who said he had genealogical records to prove he was descended from Jesus. But it was all an elaborate hoax and was confessed as such before a French court before Plantard died in the year 2000.

5. Dan Brown, the author, has gone on record as saying that he believes this based upon a passage in the Gnostic “Gospel of Philip” which says, ” “…the companion of the [Savior is] Mary Magdalene. [But Christ loved] her more than [all] the disciples and used to kiss her [often] on her [mouth]. The rest of the [disciples were offended]…They said to him, “Why do you love her more than all of us?” The Savior answered and said to them, “Why do I not love you as (I love) her?””

1) The word “companion” is assumed to mean “spouse.” Such isn’t necessarily the case; see Hebrews 10:33 where the same word is used not to mean spouse.

2) It is also assumed that Jesus kissed her on the “mouth.” The word really isn’t in the original text; it could just as easily be “cheek.”

6. The text, however, is excluded from the New Testament precisely because it is one of those “Gnostic” texts and so it isn’t reliable as a source of history.

7. The gospel of Judas (and the rest of the Nag Hammadi documents) are also Gnostic works claiming that Jesus had entrusted to Judas special knowledge regarding his death. This goes right along with the teachings of Gnosticism, not the Bible.

8. Where did these texts come from?

1) When you have something valuable it is common for it to be counterfeited.

2) Gnostic texts were merely texts that were counterfeited and purported to be by such and such apostles or disciples for the purpose of advancing the Gnostic teachings.