Hi Felix,
Thanks for the support. Ichthus seems to have gnosticism on the brain … Once he has read the information below, he should tell me where gnosticism enters into my threads so that we can address these issues.
Gnosticism
Gnosticism, dualistic religious and philosophical movement of the late Hellenistic and early Christian eras. The term designates a wide assortment of sects, numerous by the 2d cent. A.D.; they all promised salvation through an occult knowledge that they claimed was revealed to them alone. Scholars trace these salvation religions back to such diverse sources as Jewish mysticism, Hellenistic mystery cults, Iranian religious dualism (see Zoroastrianism), and Babylonian and Egyptian mythology. The definition of gnosis [knowledge] as concern with the Eternal was already present in earlier Greek philosophy, although its connection with the later Gnostic movement is distant at best. Christian ideas were quickly incorporated into these syncretistic systems, and by the 2d cent. the largest of them, organized by Valentinus and Basilides, were a significant rival to Christianity. Much of early Christian doctrine was formulated in reaction to this movement.
Until the discovery at Nag Hammadi in Egypt of key Manichaean (1930) and Coptic Gnostic (c.1945) papyri, knowledge of Gnosticism depended on Christian sources, notably St. Irenaeus, St. Hippolytus, Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria. Among principal Gnostic writings are the Valentinian documents Pistis-Sophia and the Gospel of Truth (perhaps by Valentinus himself). Important too is the literature of the Mandaeans in modern Iraq, who are the only Gnostic sect extant. Gnostic elements are found in the Acts of Thomas, the Odes of Solomon, and other wisdom literature of the pseudepigrapha.
Some Gnostics taught that the world is ruled by evil archons, among them the deity of the Old Testament, who hold captive the spirit of humanity. The heavenly pleroma was the center of the divine life, and Jesus was interpreted as an intermediary eternal being, or aeon, sent from the pleroma to restore the lost knowledge of humanity’s divine origin. Gnostics held secret formulas, which they believed would free them at death from the evil archons and restore them to their heavenly abode. See Valentinus for typical Gnostic teaching on the pleroma.
Gnosticism held that human beings consist of flesh, soul, and spirit (the divine spark), and that humanity is divided into classes representing each of these elements. The purely corporeal (hylic) lacked spirit and could never be saved; the Gnostics proper (pneumatic) bore knowingly the divine spark and their salvation was certain; and those, like the Christians, who stood in between (psychic), might attain a lesser salvation through faith. Such a doctrine may have inspired extreme asceticism (as in the Valentinian school) or extreme licentiousness (as in the sect of Caprocrates and the Ophites). The influence of Gnosticism on the later development of the Jewish kabbalah and heterodox Islamic sects such as the Ismailis is much debated.
See H. Jonas, Gnostic Religion (rev. ed. 1964); R. Haardt, Gnosis: Character and Testimony (1971); E. H. Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels (1979); M. W. Meyer, The Secret Teachings of Jesus (1984); B. Layton, The Gnostic Scriptures (1987); J. M. Robinson and R. Smith, The Nag Hammadi Library (1988); H.-J. Klimkeit, tr., Gnosis on the Silk Road: Gnostic Texts from Central Asia (1993).
American Psychological Association (APA):
Gnosticism. (n.d.). Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 12, 2008, from Reference.com website: reference.com/browse/columbia/Gnostici
Chicago Manual Style (CMS):
Gnosticism. Reference.com. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press. reference.com/browse/columbia/Gnostici (accessed: January 12, 2008).
Modern Language Association (MLA):
“Gnosticism.” Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Columbia University Press. 12 Jan. 2008. <Reference.com reference.com/browse/columbia/Gnostici>.
Needless to say, I have extensively rejected Dualism and even said that the greatest problem of modern man is the fact that he is dualistic and doesn’t know it – or ignores it. What Jesus taught was a holistic view of humanity, which is the Hebrew/Aramaic stance as against the Greek philosophies which reach deep into our own time.
Secondly, I do not promise salvation through an occult knowledge, but I say that the Prayer that takes place in your room, behind closed doors, “in secret†has contemplative potential that goes beyond the typical petitional prayer in as much as it is active listening, rather than speaking. In this practise, there is an exchange that imparts insight that I would otherwise not have, and it is what Paul gave thanks for, namely that “the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all discourse and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you are not lacking in any gift …†however, he warns that “knowledge puffs up, but love builds upâ€. The example given in 1 Corinthians is the eating of meat from temples.
The knowledge that has especially been presented by you, Ichthus, with your endless quotes from Zondervan (which you really expect people to read?), has had exactly that effect on you, whereas the contemplative prayer promotes humility through knowing ones self. This is the first “knowledge†that a contemplative or a mystic has, before he goes on to gain insight into the true nature of things. “For through the Spirit is given to one a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit and to another, faith by the same Spirit, and to another, gifts of healing by the same Spirit, and to another, workings of powers, and to another, prophecy, and to another, discerning of spirits, and to another, kinds of languages, and to another, interpretation of languages. But the one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing separately to each as He wills.â€
The key word, something which I have continuously quoted, is love. “And if I have prophecies, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.†I have experienced – and still experience – that those who take a literalist view of the Bible often accentuate the memorisation of verses from the Bible, which no doubt I have in the past too, but it has become a habit that installs fear at the end of their days, when the memory is weak. I have had to comfort numerous elderly evangelicals who weep in anxiety, and ask, “how shall I believe, if I can’t remember?†I comforted them with a word from Meister Eckhardt (loosely translated): “If the thought that you are not close to God worries you, find consolation in knowing that He is close to you!â€
The slander that I have had to put up with here is the same as any mystic or contemplative has to go through (although others have suffered considerably), and shows the kind of insecurity which you can only forgive and try to sway. Some react to such efforts in the way that Ichthus has, by gaining security in all of the things he thinks he “knows†- and blasting others.
Shalom
