Signs of the Times  

     "Truth is the disciple of the ascetic, the quest of the mystic, the faith of the simple, the ransom of the weak, the standard of the righteous, the doctrine of the meek, and the challenge of Nature.  Together, all these constitute the Law of the Universe."
                                                                                                                 John Hay Allison

      "The greatest friend of Truth is Time; her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility."
                                                                                                  Charles C. Colton; "Lacon"


     "God has revealed many truths which He has not explained.  We will just have to be content to let Him know some things we do not and take Him at His Word."
                                                                                              B.A.Copass


       "History warns us that it is the customary fate of new truths to begin as heresies and to end as superstitions."
                                                                       Thomas Henry Huxley; "Science and Culture"

       "Superstition, idolatry, and hypocrisy have ample wages, but truth goes a begging."
                                                                                  Martin Luther; "Table Talk"

       "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me."
                                                                                                  Sir Isaac Newton



     Deception is a terrible thing which leads us away from the Truth.  A life based on a lie is like a house built on sand.  In the end, it cannot survive.
    
       A new Christianity based on a new gospel is today's new grand deception or illusion.  Actually, it's an old show with a modern twist.  In 1985, opening with the "Jesus Seminar" -- this revival of ancient Gnosticism as true Christianity, caught the attention of major news periodicals such as Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report; Discovery Channel gave it prime time coverage and Peter Jennings of ABC News thought it was significant enough to qualify as a TV special.  The world had discovered a new Jesus who was more human than the Biblical Jesus and people were delighted.
 
        Fast-forward 25 years after being bantered around in pop culture via mainstream media and various sects of the religious culture of our times--modern Gnosticism is having a field day in the public forum, publicly slandering the Church and historical Christianity as deliberate frauds who have squelched the truth about Jesus for centuries.  Jesus is not God and the Bible is a contrived fabrication to hide the genuine or "real" Gospel.  Christianity has supposedly terrorized the world with its exclusive message of a Divine Savior long enough.  Now, finally everyone can relax and enjoy life--guilt-free!

        Recently, there has been a meteoric rise in the popularity for the revisionist ideas of the Jesus Seminar--Dan Brown's novel, "The Da Vinci Code" and now the upcoming sequel this summer of "Angels and Demons"  -- is forging an indelible impression on our post-modernist culture with the same Gnostic ideas about Jesus.  With over 10 million copies sold, the "Da Vinci Code," with its new gospel has turned the Jesus Seminar into popular conversation.  The audience is wowed by this illusion and millions of people are loving the show.

     "Gnosis" is a actually a Greek word for knowledge and Gnostics were those who believed that ultimate union with God was achieved through special knowledge (or "hidden") and transcendent spiritual experiences.  Epiphanius (AD 310-403) was the first to use the term "practicing Gnostics"--giving the name to this strange heresy and teaching then.  Iraneus (AD 120-202) earlier described them as those who "overthrow the faith of many, by drawing them away, under a pretense of superior knowledge."

      The roots of Gnosticism sprouted in the early years of the Church.  Influenced by Plato and the ancient mystery religions, certain quasi-Christian groups claimed to have an inside track on spirituality as a result of secret knowledge obtained from various sources.  The apostle, Paul warned Timothy about the "opposing arguments of what is falsely called, 'knowledge' which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith."  (Tim.6:20-21)  The temptation to elitism through secretive knowledge that went beyond the teachings of the apostles were already present in the formative years of the Church.
 
      Yet, fully developed Gnosticism did not come into its own until the 2nd and 3rd century after Christ.  A well-defined system of esoteric Christianity eventually emerged as a separate and competitive force to the apostolic teaching of the Church.  Followers of this system claimed to have special insights gleaned from secret encounters with God that elevated them over the historic Church.  Epiphanius and Iraneous wrote against them in strong, polemic language and branded these teachings as heresy.  This was not your mainstream Christianity nor was it the original Gospel of Jesus.  It was an aberrant cult that reinterpreted the message of Christ by transforming it into the likeness of a mystery religion in the name of Christianity.

      So, Gnosticism is not a new thing.  What is new is the contemporary fascination of many with the writings of Gnosticism in the attempt to redefine Christianity as a man-centered religion; ie., humanizing Jesus' divinity, rather than the divinization of his humanity.  Humans are their own gods and the way to a utopian existence is to follow the path of enlightenment.  This is Gnosticism and it is the new Christianity that is posing as the true faith rediscovered.

       The catalyst for this resurgence of interest in gnostic thinking was a spectacular archeological find at Nag Hammadi, Egypt in 1945.  It has taken several decades to decipher and translate the Coptic scrolls of this now famous Nag Hammadi Library thanks to NatGeo, History and Discovery Channel these past few years.  An English edition of these writings was published in 1977 and French and German translations have been published as well.  In fact, this project was the impetus for the Jesus Seminar launched by Robet Funk in 1985 and it is the foundation for the alternative Christianity espoused by Dan Brown in the "Da Vinci Code".  There is now a new Bible that reveals to us a new Jesus and a new Christianity and it's all the rage.
 
     Some people like this alternate Bible better than the one we're acquainted with--they like what it teaches about God, Christ, mankind and women.  This Bible gives permission to make God into whatever we want him to be.  This Bible accepts the divine feminine and personal esoteric knowledge.  At last, we are free from restricting doctrines such as the Virgin birth, the unique Deity of Christ and His Crucifixion and Resurrection.  This new Bible is broad enough to embrace our culture and lets us believe pretty much whatever we want to believe.

     So, Gnosticism is not Christianity and the Jesus of Gnosticism is not the Jesus of the Bible.  It is not the true version of the Gospel--far from it.  It is a corruption of the message of Jesus masquerading as the genuine thing--a magic show where illusion is presented as reality.  Very dangerous for these times we are currently living in.

    Our theme this week is on Gnosticism (go to "GnosticNotions" in our April Archives) and we will also be playing a special show this weekend called "The Battle for Your Child's Mind" where there is a lively discussion and Q&A portion on what books your kids are reading, especially Harry Potter and why it is much more dangerous reading and seeing these movies while society is immersed in a Pagan Worldview than a Christian/Catholic Worldview of a few decades ago.

    Join us tomorrow for a LIVE interview with our regular guest, Bro. Ignatius....