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So, Pastor Noble, what are you getting at anyway? Gnosticism was (and is) a direct attack on the divinity of Jesus Christ. According to orthodox Christian belief, God became flesh and dwelt among us, in other words, God took on matter – a body like ours – in order to come and save us humans. Jesus came into the world not to be a teacher of “hidden knowledge,” but to die on the cross for the redemption of our sins, and to rise again so that we might have life. Gnosticism (as seen in Islam, Mormonism, modern New Age religions) refuses to acknowledge the death of Christ on the cross. According to Gnosticism, matter is evil, and if Jesus was God, then God couldn’t die. No, instead Gnosticism teaches that you and I save ourselves by seeking secrets and knowledge that is hidden. This is not the Christian Gospel by any means. Scripture teaches that Jesus physically died and physically rose again so our sins might be forgiven and so that we might have life eternal. Central to our Christian Faith is that Jesus came to die in our place, that his death on the cross atoned for our sins, that is, he took our place and because of him we are free. God does the action for us, we do nothing. We are saved by grace, through Faith in Jesus Christ. Gnosticism taught that you do all the work and that you are responsible for your “salvation.”
The flood gates of modern Gnosticism have been open wide in our society. There is the “Da Vinci Code”, the “gospel of Judas,” and very bias programs with “scholars” on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, CBS and NBC. These flood gates pour out false information about the Christian Faith, and unfortunately even Christian people are having their faith shook off of their foundations by the trash dropped on our society.
As a pastor all I can do is follow the Scripture and attempt to prepare my people to be able to understand false teaching and to identify what false teaching is. I must admit that pastors sometimes become discouraged when we preach from Scripture and people don’t hear us. Pastors become discouraged when less than 1% of their members come to Adult Bible Study. Pastors become discouraged when our members know all about sports or how to succeed at the gambling boats, but are easily swayed by false doctrine and false teaching that so easily comes into our homes via TV or movies. All of us need to take St. Paul’s words to heart as he wrote to Timothy, “guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have wandered from the faith.” May God be with us and his grace be with us.
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