Gnostics

[Confused]

I have read many threads now that posts questions such as "If Jesus was an ordinary man, would you still follow Him?" and "Was Jesus just a great teacher?" Most responses are that He wasn't just a man or just a great teacher, etc....... But most agree that some of what he taught were some good moral values. I question the validity of this thought.

Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis which means knowledge. Gnostics are "those in the know". What they historically claimed to know was the secrets that could bring salvation. For the gnostic, a person isn't saved by having faith in Christ or doing good deeds, rather a person is saved by knowing the truth-the truth about the world we live in, the true God, but most importantly about who we ourselves are.

According to them, the Ultimate Divine Being is completely removed from this world, He is absolute spirit with no material aspects or qualities. He has many offsprings known as "aeons who are spiritual beings. During a catrasophe one of these aeons somehow fell from the divine realm leading to lesser divine beings being created. These lesser divine beings created our material world.

I could go forever about what they think and why, but their overriding point is blatant: The god who made this world, the one of the OT, is a secondary and inferior deity. We won't gain freedom to eternity by worshipping him, but instead, we will be trapped here. We can only gain true eternity through knowledge and wisdom bestowed upon us by divine beings. In Christian gnostic religions, the one who bestows this knowledge was Christ. But Christ wasn't the son of God as the church would have you believe, which is why there are so many holes in the account of His life. Instead, he was an aeon temporarily housed in Jesus to impart the knowledge one needed if they could hear. Of his 12 disciples, only Judas could hear so after Jesus imparted his knowledge, and was on the cross, the aeon left (hence the final words "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?").

Considering that gnostics actually use less elaborate miracles and supernatural events in their beliefs and rather than stifle man but forcing him to adhere to strict commandments, why is it that Christians find it so much easier to believe in Christianity and disbelieve gnosticism.

Why, if Christ was such a good teacher, did He not impart wisdom upon His flock and why did He not encourage them to seek truth and greater knowledge? Instead, he taught that one shouldn't seek outside Him. One shouldn't question why He does what He does, but just accept it and go on? This doesn't seem to be such a good teacher. Would not a great teacher encourage His students to search all avenues to find the truth.

Why do we accept Christ as the absolute truth when we know no truths associated with him as opposed to gnostics who at least attempt to seek out the truth?

[Jester]

Fair enough. But though you present a good rebuttal, I am still left with the question of why were some of these considered important enough to preserve with the constant threat of the "heresy hunters" and the catholic church. Not only were they acknowledged in Irenaeus's book as existing during his time line to validate their existence but also the importance in obtaining them and destroying them, but people risked their lives and that of their families to prevent the destruction of them. It seems to me that if they were that insignificant, they wouldn't even be wothy of mentioning let alone searching for to destroy them.

But I accept the fact that it may be just as you say. I just don't accept it willingly.

I feel that this is a problem for the church, not because it presents the Gnostic gospels as true. It is pretty universally accepted that intensity of belief does not equate truth. But this keeps the church from claiming that the intensity of the belief of the early church somehow supports its claims. I personally (of course) do not believe that Christianity needs such claims as its support, but there are those that do, and I feel that they might have a very difficult time facing the reality of the Gnostics (as well as accepting that there were, in fact, “heresy hunters” that managed to turn Christ’s teaching of ‘love your enemies’ into a bloody attack on non-believers.)
Also, I love your tagline. I'll have to remember that.

[The Nice Centurion]

Considering that gnostics actually use less elaborate miracles and supernatural events in their beliefs and rather than stifle man but forcing him to adhere to strict commandments, why is it that Christians find it so much easier to believe in Christianity and disbelieve gnosticism.

Because it is so much easier to take drugs than really tackle problems

Believing in Miracles and magical rewards for "us true christians", while enemys (sinners) get magically vanquished is so much more relieving than seeing the world with philosophically greek eyes