Jesus and the Gnostic Teachings
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"And thus there came forth from above the power of the great light, the Manifestation. She gave birth to the four great lights: Harmozel, Oroiael, Davithe, Eleleth, and the great incorruptible Seth, the son of the incorruptible man Adamas."
What Christianty professes and the Gnostic teaching of Jesus are quite different. Christians of today would probably take offence to the Real Teachings of Christ if they studied them in depth. This page is not meant to offend, it is meant to share the True Teachings of Christ which also has deep and profound meaning to Masons.Note; There was never a 'Gnostic religion'. Pronunced 'Nostic' which means 'knowledge' or knowing, having direct knowledge. 'Gnosis'. The word gnosis (from the Greek word for knowledge), refers to a Hellenic philosophical term for knowledge. It is also used to mean a form of spiritual knowledge that is more commonly familiar to people as enlightenment though, the Greek word for enlightenment is (greek word) which would be closer to the word informed rather than knowledge. Gnostic also refers to a follower of one of various near eastern schools of self-realisation flourishing during the early Christian era. Though again as noted above, the term has a much broader application than being exclusive to any sectarian group (See Plato (c. 427–c. 347 BC), the Statesmen, Plotinus and gnosiology).
1. The most striking feature of Gnosticism, marking it out against the main line of Jewish and early Christian thought, is a deep and dark dualsim. The present world of space, time and matter is an inexorably bad place, not only a place where wickedness flourishes unchecked but a place which, had it not been for an evil god going ahead and creating it, would not have existed at all. The world as we know it, in other words, is evil through and through. What is more, human beings, consisting as they do of physical matter and living in this wicked space and, are themselves essentially bad—unless, as we shall see, within this shell of evil matter there lurks something very different.
2. This already points to the main feature. The world as we know was made by a stupid and perhaps caprious god. There is another divine being, a pure wise and true divinity who is quite diflerent from this creator god. Sometimes this ultimate high god is called “Father,” which is confusing for Christians who associate that title with the god who made the world. For Gnosticism, the god who made the World, along with various other intermediate beings who may have had a hand in the project at some stage, is at the least misguided or foolish, and at worst downright malevolent.
3.The main aim of any right thinking human being, therefore, will be to escape the Wicked world and the outward human existence altogether. “Salvation” means exactly this: attaining deliverance from the material cosmos and all that it means. Only so can one make one’s way to the pure, higher spiritual existence where, freed from the trammels of space, time and matter, one will be able to enjoy a bliss unavailable to those who cling to the present physical world and who mistakenly worship its creator.
4.The final feature is not so immediately obvious, but it plays a central role in gnostic thought, and indeed is the feature because of which the word "gnostic” and its derivatives are appropriate designations.The way to this “salvation” is precisely though knowledge, “gnosis.” Not just any old knowledge, certainly not through knowing the sort of thing you might he taught in school, or for that matter in an ordinary church. Rather, this special ‘gnosis is arrived at through attaining knowledge about the true god, about the true origin of the wicked world and not least about one’s own true identity. And this “knowledge” can only come if someone “reveals” it. What is needed, in other words, is a “revealer” who will come from the realms beyond, to reveal to the pure upper spiritual world, to reveal to the chosen few that they have within themselves the spark of light, the divine identity hidden deep within their shabby, gross outward material form.
A wicked world; a wicked god who made it; salvation consisting of rescue from it; and rescue coming throught the imparting of secret knowledge, especially knowledge that one has the divine spark within one's own self. Those are the four distinguishing marks of Gnosticism as we find it, not only in the polemic of Irenaeus and other early Chrisitan teachers, but in the texts themselves: the codices from Nag Hammidi and elsewhere,
and now the "Gospel of Judas." pdf format.
Judas and the Gospel of Jesus, N.T. Wright - Bishop of the church of EnglandAt great cost to all of us, Jesus' private/Gnostic teachings were "outlawed" with the Roman Emperor Constantine's decision to make Christianity the state religion. For along with that decision came his command that all Christian bishops choose between Jesus' public/Orthodox and private/Gnostic teachings. In this way Constantine could unite the empire under one official church doctrine. His command was carried out at the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) in the document Christians call the Nicene Creed and its shorter version, the Apostles' Creed. In effect, the Nicene Creed, which reflects Jesus' public teachings, became the one official doctrine of Orthodox Christianity, and in turn, made his private Gnostic teachings an outlawed heresy.
Soon after the Council, "an imperial edict ordered that all books by Arius [the principal advocate of Jesus' Gnostic teachings at Nicaea], and others like him, should be burned, and made concealment of such a book punishable by death." Bishop Eusebius (260-340), Constantine's court historian, restructured all Biblical literature to coincide with the council's decision. In 325, Eusebius issued an "Ecclesiastical history [in which time was portrayed as] the battleground of God and Satan, and all events as advancing the triumph of Christ." From that time on, Eusebius' Ecclesiastical history acted as the official supernatural model for future interpretations of Jesus' ministry. The intellectual character of Gnosticism was in conflict with Eusebius' supernatural model and was outlawed. "The Middle Ages had begun."
The Emperor is long dead. We no longer need to live in the dark ignorance of Constantine's shadow. We can now examine for ourselves every aspect of Jesus' outlawed Gnostic teachings, and bring back into our lives that part of Jesus' ministry which Constantine stole from us. see Gnostic Christianity
Gnosis; Also stated as direct knowledge of God through awareness of the divine spark within. Later, Valentinius, more usually called Valentinus, taught that gnosis was the privileged "knowledge of the heart" or "insight" about the spiritual nature of the cosmos, that brought about salvation to the pneumatics - people who believed they could achieve this insight. Gnosis was distinct from the secret teachings as they were only revealed to initiates once they had reached a certain level of progression. Rather, these teachings were paths to obtain gnosis. Gnostic ideas of salvation were similar to Buddhist conceptions of enlightenment, hence gnosis was not expressible by words.
Gnostics are not unlike Marcion in believing the troubles of the world and the dismal condition of our physical bodies (as opposed to cats, dogs and other deities) were created by an inferior, bad God. The good news was that the Good God (aka Enki) had added the spark of divinity to his human creations. Gnosticism -- possibly an adaptation of Greek philosophy -- assumed that by attaining enough knowledge (gnosis in Greek), one could release oneself from a delusional attachment to the material world and thereby free one's spiritual self in order to join the Good God in his far better place.
If as James Joyce phrased it, the world was a nightmare from which the Gnostics were trying to awake, Jesus Christ was the alarm clock. This implies that dying on the cross was a minor detail to tossing aside a fleshy body. The real point in Jesus' tenure on earth was to the transmission of wisdom and enlightenment.
The difficulty with Gnosticism is that the specifics of the wisdom to be acquired are not always spelled out in sufficient detail to be of real use. Its appeal can be that of the hero in the Matrix, that by taking the red pill, one is loosed from the illusionary wretched state. The problem is finding someone to give you your red pill! Gnostics, however, tend to be elitists, assuming that only a fraction of humans are going to have the brain power, will, or other means to attain release from the illusion.
On a more positive note, Gnostics are the epitome of democratic groups, allowing women to participate equally with men, and abandoning bishops, deacons, and other forms of hierarchy. The Gnostic way is one of individual inspiration with all attendees having equal access. The latter was a bit of a thorn in the side of early church fathers who thought of Gnostics as arrogant heretics, preferring personal knowledge and experience in matters of faith, instead of the church's controlling communal truths.
In early Christianity gnosis also carried over from Hellenic philosophy into Greek Orthodoxy via St Clement of Alexandria, Hippolytus of Rome, Hegesippus, and Origen. Gnosis meaning intuitive knowledge, an experience of God. In relation to theosis (deification) and theoria (vision of God).
The term Gnosis is related to the Sanskrit jnana (as in Jnana Yoga) and to the Hebrew daath, which is the hidden sphere in the Kabbalah, or that knowledge which was only given to the initiated.
Gnosis is also a term placed on the teachings and the text by Orthodox Christians to discredit them. There are three main criteria associated with Gnosticism. One is that the Gnostics recognize the authority of 'gnosis' or an individual experience of 'knowing'. The second is that the Gnostics were radical dualists, considering the material world as evil and only the spiritual as good. The third is that Gnostics have an elaborate alternative cosmology. Sometimes scholars talk about Gnosticism in terms of only one of these characteristics, and only rarely in terms of all three.
Jesus did not believe in the dualism that was taught in this regard. However he did believe that the god that was worshipped by the Jews and the Hebrews was not the true God. This is verified by the newly released Gospel of Judas which can be found on the "Gospel of Judas." National Geographic Web Site. This site is in PDF format. The gospel provides an alternative view of of the Jesus-Judas relationship and evidences the diverse theological beliefs that circulated among early Christians. The other Gnostic texts agree with the Gospel of Judas in that they teach that there is a false God who made and rules the Earth.
The Torah also gives us clues to this reality in the first 6 verses of Genesis where we find the 2 gods, one called 'Hashem'. Other ancient texts also verify this teaching. These texts are called the Enuma Elish tablets and they are 5000 years old. Time and time again this is detailed in the Nag Hammidi codices, especially in the books of Noah. Enoch's Books also reveal this truth. Now that's 5 different sources - all written at different times by different people.
Further Study of GnosisGnosis Library
"Simply put, the Gnostics/Platonists believed that there was 'The Good' from which a variety of emanations (Aeons) were given off. They, the Aeons, in turn are in a sequential order, which is determined by the Aeons' knowledge; the more they know the higher up and thus closer to 'the Good' they are. Each of these entities is aware of those under him, but is unaware of anything above him. They serve as the intermediaries which we have to bypass on our journey to 'The Good'. As for us humans, we are actually the sons of The Good and have been separated from him, and are given these bodies almost as a punishment, for in essence we are spirits. In order for us to once again be reunited with The Good, we must gain the secret Gnosis, which will allow us to bypass all the Aeons and also to bypass the most ignorant of which, who is the Demigure who created this material world and enfleshed us. The Gnostics believed that this secret knowledge was transmitted by savior figures, who included Seth, Enoch, and Jesus."
- Maged S. Mikhail, "The Gnostics, A Survey of Gnostic Beliefs and Gnostic-Christian Ties""The Gnostics were a closed society; they were said to carry stones inscribed with serpents and other symbols as talismans and proof of initiation, and to employ passwords and secret handshakes to identify themselves to other members of the sect."
Most of us cannot understand why a loving and forgiving god would be so cruel as to allow the sickness of aids and cancer ect. Why would he allow wars where women and children are the targets of radicals? Why would he allow the kidnapping, rape and murder of innocent children? Why are people allowed to starve to death, and why do we struggle sometimes just to survive? People who live in underdeveloped countries live in card board boxes while just a few miles away there are rich people living in mansions, drinking wine and indulging in every expensive pleasure but they ignore the plight of the poor - and the list goes on and on. The false god who controls the Earth and all that is physical matter is the answer. The true God is in our hearts, our minds, our very being. This is what Jesus was trying to teach us. This is 'gnosis' or knowledge.
Reason was the structure of orderly action…that ultimate reality was reasonable, was in fact reason itself." And because human beings have the capacity to reason, it was believed by Jesus and Gnostic Christians that our destiny is to "make contact with divine reason and, like God, discern ultimate truths." The true God does not have a Jeckel and Hyde personality! HE doesn't want us to 'FEAR' him and HE doesn't control us or demand obediance to a church or doctrine.
From the perspective of first century Gnostic Christians, Jesus' goal was to teach a new theory of human nature that is, like Newton's Theory of Gravity, true for everyone, everywhere, and for all time. One does not have to hold a particular doctrine, believe a particular religion or philosophy, or have a particular spiritual orientation to profit from Jesus' theory. We need only understand the theory to benefit from its wisdom, for it can change the character of our thoughts and, in turn, our consciousness of reality. Simply said, the goal of Gnostic Christianity is to make the reasoning mind an instrument of our spiritual nature-globally.
We stand on the edge of a revolution in consciousness, as momentous as any in history. Knowledge of Jesus' Gnostic/logos teachings is the key to that revolution. The second coming of Jesus is not Jesus in person, but his form of higher consciousness within us all.
This is the knowledge that the organized church hides from us. They call this knowledge heretical and false. But is it really?
The "first Christians" were not called "Christians"! That term was not used until the year 44 AD in Antioch. They were called "Essene Nazarene Ebionites". For short, they were usually referred to simply as "Nazarenes" or "Ebionites". There were also Marcionites, Gnostics, and Thomasines. The Marcionites were the mirror opposite of the Ebionites, and made a point of removing all vestiges of Judaism from their belief system. The only hitch was that it was necessary to abandon monotheism and embrace at least two Gods. This is clearly the stuff of Enki and Enlil - - particularly when one realizes the distinction between the two Gods.
We don't know if Jesus was Gnostic in these terms but he did have Gnosis, 'knowledge' of the truth. The word itself means 'choice'. Mary Magdalene was a gnostic. 'a prechristian Ebonite', a decendent of Aaron. She was not a Jew meaning she did not practice the Jewish religion. This distinction gave her the title of 'Harlot", but the word is not the same as today's use of it.
On our page Forbidden Forward, we opened the door to the possibility that there are two Gods. One who dislikes and is jealous of us and one who is our protector and the true God. Believe it or not, Jesus and Paul taught this. This is openly exposed in all the Gnostic writings. The evidence also lies in manuscripts and writings of early church proponets. One of these men was Marcion. He wrote; there were, in fact, two different Gods: the God of the Jews, who created the world, called Israel to be his people, and gave them his harsh law; and the God of Jesus, who sent Christ into the world to save people from the wrathful vengence of the Jewish creator God. Jesus did not believe or teach anything about a 'satan'. Church fathers made that up as well as parts of the New Testament. The evidence of this is surported in the Nag Hammidi scrolls. We provide the links below. But first lets review some of the myths created by the church.
Jesus of Nazereth? The word Nazarene specifies a sect, not a town.
A Nazirene cannot hold allegience to manmade doctrines, traditions, or religious institutions. A Nazirene knows that there is only One True teacher of the true meaning of the scriptures . A Nazirite was one who was Anointed by the Lord to teach or free His people from enslavement to the forces of this world. Namely a false god and a church which promotes its own rules and doctrines and 'enslaves' it's members to adhere to them. more..see Nazirites
The word Nazirene comes from the biblical term Nazir, which denotes one who is under a vow. Thus, the Commandment of the Lord reads: "The LORD said to Moses, Speak to the Israelites and say to them: If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of separation to the LORD as a Nazirite, he must abstain from wine and other fermented drink and must not drink vinegar made from wine or from other fermented drink. He must not drink grape juice or eat grapes or raisins. As long as he is a Nazirite, he must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins. During the entire period of his vow of separation no razor may be used on his head. He must be holy until the period of his separation to the LORD is over; he must let the hair of his head grow long. Throughout the period of his separation to the LORD he must not go near a dead body. Even if his own father or mother or brother or sister dies, he must not make himself ceremonially unclean on account of them, because the symbol of his separation to God is on his head. Throughout the period of his separation he is consecrated to the LORD" (Num 6:1-8 NIV).
With this in mind, Jesus did not 'raise Lazerus from the dead'. He raised him from a spiritual death. He then spent the night teaching Lazerus the secrets of the ages. The word 'dead' is not a literal dead and we also see the words 'sick' and 'asleep' and Jesus goes there to wake him up. John 11:1-44. A 'resurrection ceremony' was preformed by Jesus who was not a priest at the time. This was considered a 'miracle' and the Pharisees high priests objected to the arrogance of a man of a 'different faith' who knew their secrets. The Pharisees were the puppets of Rome.
Many of Jesus' very own words reveal the true meaning of the resurrection. John 11:41 - 44. "Yet he were dead, so shall he live", which refers to the raising of Lazarus. From Luke 20:36 "and they can no longer die; for they are like the angels." Luke 20:38, "He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive."
Another misunderstood verse from John 3:3. Jesus said," I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit". This means literal 'birth', from the womb - again and again. It doesn't have anything to do with 'baptisim' in a church. This totaly supports a reincarnation theory over and over again. You can be hypnotized and remember a 'past life'. So to, The 'raising of Lazarus' was not from a literal death. The missing or 'deleted' gospel of Mark confirms this.The true priests, the Samaritans, were expelled from the temple by the Romans. In 1624, the last Samaritan high priest of the line of Eleazar son of Aaron died without issue, but descendants of Aaron's other son, Ithamar, remained and took over the office. In later Samaritan theology Gnosticism play a big part, possibly because of the heresies of Simon of Samaria (Acts 8:9-24). There are also strong relationships between the Samaritans and the Essenes in the area dealing with the future, as evidenced by some of the DSS. The four Names are: Elah [God] (Exod 7:1);
Ekhyeh asher ekhyeh [I am who I am] (Exod 3:14),
Anaki [I am] (Exod 3:15),
and YHWH (Exod 6:3).Anu was amoung the Gods of the early Assyrians.. Bel, god of the region inhabited by man, beasts, and birds; Ea, god of the waters; Sin, the moon-god; Shamash, the sun-god; and Ramman, god of the storms. These gods were followed by five gods of the planets (as the Turin Papyrus shows). In addition to these primary gods, lesser gods also were worshiped. In some cases, various cities had their own patron gods. The pagan worship of the Assyrians was condemned by several prophets of the Old Testament (Is 10:5; Ezek 16:28; Hos 8.9)
Here is another verse that reveals how those in high places of the 'synagogues' or churches are misleading the public. Luke 20:46, Jesus said, "Beware of the teachers of the 'law'. They like to walk around in flowing robes and love to be greeted in the marketplaces and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows' homes and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely."
A teacher of the 'law' means 'church law' under which the country operates. Church leaders make these laws. People are punished or killed for not obeying these laws.A Dualist is; In the philosophy of mind , dualism is a set of views about the relationship between mind and matter, which begins with the claim that mental phenomena are, in some respects, non-physical. The first manifestations of mind/body dualism probably go back into the mists of time, from the point where man first began to speculate about the existence of an incorporeal soul (or spirit) which bore the faculties of intelligence and wisdom. We first encounter similar ideas in Western philosophy with the writings of Plato and Aristotle , who maintained, for different reasons, that man's "intelligence" (a faculty of the mind or soul) could not be identified with, or explained in terms of, his physical body. see more Dualism
The western response to materialism is dualism, which claims that there are two kinds of things in the universe - material objects and souls. The major exponent of dualism was Descartes. The soul is regarded a thinking self-conscious entity which interfaces with the nervous system through the pineal gland. From this organ the soul controls the rest of the body, which is a purely mechanical system. Dualists believe that only humans have souls, animals are simple incapable of any subjective mental experience. Materialism, Dualism and the Middle Way.
In Gnostic philosophy 'visions' seem to part of the real inner belief system of these early or pre-Christians. Paul even claims to have had one and all the gospels except Mark which reports post-resurrection visions of Jesus. When does a vision become Gnostic? In many ways, some of the texts found at Nag Hammidi are less Gnostic than New Testament texts, so labeling them Gnostic is too often just a way of discrediting or disregarding them.
In the Human body we suffer and experience pain as Jesus did, but the Gnostics taught there is a life beyond this one, and there is a correct path to find it. This cannot be taught in church and it cannot be accomplised by their laws or rules simply because they don't understand it.
“Mary Magdalene was chosen by our Lord as a type of the Church and would be one of the first fruits taken to be with her Lord. She was the constant companion of Jesus' Ministry, to him she ministered of her substance, she anointed him for his Ministry, and for his Burial, She was the last at the Cross, and the first at the Tomb, and to her alone He gave the commission, "Go tell Peter," and wheresoever the Gospel was to be preached, her love and devotion to her Master were to be declared.”
Gospel of the Holy Twelve
Gospel of Thomas #113
They asked him: When is the Kingdom coming? He replied: It is not coming in an easily observable manner. People will not be saying, "Look, it's over here" or "Look, it's over there." Rather, The Kingdom of the Father is already spread out on the earth., and people aren't aware of it.Gnostics and their teachings are also referred to as Enlightened Christian.
Post from a forum: The snake (serpent) was actually Jesus, who tried to free Adam and Eve from their own ignorance by making them eat of the Tree of Knowledge. Their ascent from ignorance is reflected by them opening their eyes and seeing their nakedness (they are not clothed with knowledge, or wisdom). This angers the Demiruge, who casts them out before they can eat of the Tree of Life, which would grant them immortality which, together with the Tree of Knowledge, would make them as gods. It is through envy that we were banished. Those of you who have read Nietzche's text on christianity (affectionately entitled 'Antichrist') will know the consequences of the banishment: toil, struggle and suffering to keep us from discovering the truth.
Apropos, Eve did not really come from Adam (though this myth was used to establish women as being subservient to men). Adam was put to sleep, or, if one demythologises the story, he was made ignorant, because Eve was actually a product of the Pistis Sophia (God's Wife or the Holy Spirit).
Now, one could take Adam to represent the older varient and Eve to represent the newer varient, ergo their lives (at least in the garden) would represent the first stages of evolution, from hunter-gathering creature to farmer human. They left the caves (garden) and began to toil (farm) the lands. As to the Tree, I'd suspect this symbolises the evolutionary development of craftsmanship, language, rationality, et cetera. When we reached this stage of evolution, we were set above the other animals not just sociallly, but mentally. Consequently, of course, we saw how empty our lives were, how barren our landscape. We were like beasts, but no longer so fit to be so.
We cast ourselves from the garden, but through our apparent need for material gains evolution, or rather, the pursuit of wisdom, slowed down and, for many, came to a gradual halt.
Now, for the free will bit. We are, according to this form of doctrine, spirits, created by the Pistis Sophia, trapped within the flesh of material bodies created by the Demiruge, viz. Ialbadoath (of whom Sophia may be classed as mother, or creator), ergo at a deep level (perhaps unconscious) we have free will, but it is trapped beneath the enslaved consciousness, which we mistake as being the quintessential (or at least most significant) portion of the mind.
So, is God free? The Demiurge is bound by his own ignorance, Pistis Sophia is bound by her guilt, having created the Demiruge, and the true God is separate from reality, so perhaps He is beyond free will. Frankly, He is incomprehensible so one cannot say in His case. from... Absolute benevolence and free will
The origin and birth of Religion (a word implying a "binding back" or re-ligare as with a fractured limb) can be explained in this way. After that the collective soul of humanity was fractured as a result of its "fall", men were damaged, became imperfect, and in need of restoration to their previous perfect state.
The spiritual guardians of these primitive men created the universal science of rebuilding the fallen temple of humanity. Traces of this old science are found now in every race and religion of the world. They use the same symbols, practices, and doctrines modified locally in accordance with the intelligence of the people, yet, with all of them based on the same root and purpose.
The Catholic Religion was at once a theoretical doctrine and a practical science intended to reunite Man to his Maker. This religion was supposed to be universal, unique, and for all men equally and alike. Due to the perverse distortive tendencies of humanity, it became debased and sectarianised into too many forms all over the world. However its main original principles have never been altered, although they have been understood in different ways (exoterically and esoterically) and their importance has not always been clear.
Besides the Greek Elusinian system of Ancient Mysteries , of course, many others such as the Egyptian, Samothracian, Chaldean, Mithraic, Gnostic, and others still were in place. In their time and places, they were the authoritative centers of religion and philosophy in the larger sense of these words. All these systems avoided to divulge the deeper truths, and the description of the initiation process that remained secret. Very few people were fit to receive initiation even after long and rigorous preparation, and even less are able to impart it.
The Mysteries, as public institutions, ceased to exist in the sixth century when the Roman Authorities under Justinian ordered their dissolution, and prohibited the teaching of the secret doctrine and philosophy.
These teachings were a threat to the established church because they exposed organized religion for what it was - a fraud and a lie.The earliest known teaching of the Mysteries took place in the Orient in the Sanskrit (Holy Writ or "Sanctum Scriptum") language. The student of the Ancient Secret Doctrine must also refer to the religious and philosophical scriptures of India that reached its spiritual and temporal prime when Europe was still in the ice age. Races, however, come and go when they have fulfilled their purpose. The Indian civilization, after many centuries of spiritual supremacy, collapsed, and the torch passed to Egypt, but many traces of its importance have reached us.
The Egyptian civilization and knowledge of the Divine science radiated upon its neighbors such as Chaldea, Persia, Greece, and Asia Minor.
The Greek and the Palestinian civilizations mainly concern us. As the Bible tells us, Moses was an 'initiate' of the Egyptian mysteries and wisdom. Philo adds that Moses learned music, geometry, arithmetic, hieroglyphics, and all the known arts and sciences of that time. In other words, he was a Master Mason and his immense knowledge made him the leader of the Hebrew people. With this knowledge He also formulated for them the religious system and rules of life as described in the Pentateuch. His teaching was recorded in the Old Testament, and was followed by the Gospels of the New Testament that describe the teaching of the Supreme Grand Master, who is also known as the Light of the World and its Savior, the Christ.The "first Christians" were not called "Christians"! That term was not used until years later. They were called "Essene Nazarene Ebionites". For short, they were usually referred to simply as "Nazarenes" or "Ebionites". Let us begin our description of early, pre-Pauline Christianity with a look at the meaning of the terms "Nazarene" and "Ebionite".
The term "Nazarene" refers to a member of the Essene movement associated with Mount Carmel in Northern Israel. The Essenes considered Mount Carmel to be so holy that none of the natural vegetation growing there could be disturbed: no trees cut, no bushes cleared away, no permanent dwellings built.
Some of their priests lived on Mount Carmel in tents (similar to yurts) but no permanent structures were permitted. Even their Temple atop Carmel was a type of large tent, a beautiful yurt with a bloodless altar. Only a small contingent of their priests actually lived atop Mount Carmel, the majority of their membership lived in an Essene cooperative village a couple miles from the southwestern edge of the base of the mountain.
That Essene village was called "Nazareth". Those who lived there were called "Nazarenes", as were all members of the Essene sect associated with Mount Carmel. Thus, the fact that Jesus was referred to as "the Nazarene" and his first followers were called "the sect of the Nazarenes" demonstrates the link between early Christianity and the Essene Nazarenes of Mount Carmel.
.from ESSENE CHRISTIANITYIn our research, we found many references in the Catholic Encyclopedia, that the disciples of Christ were Gnostic. Many Gnostic beliefs are recorded by them in the Scrolls that make up the Nag Hammidi library on-line. In these on-line translations you will find the sayings of; James, Thomas, Peter, Phillip and Mary Magdalene. There is one attributed to Paul and one to "The Sophia of Jesus". This "Sophia" is also known as "wisdom" and the Mother of Mankind. On our Passage page 1, we also describe her as God's wife and the mother of the living Christ. In Egypt she is known as ISIS.
We recommend this book, by Elaine Pagels, which is still in print if further study is needed.
"And the incorruptible, spiritual church increased in the four lights of the great, living Autogenes, the god of truth, praising, singing, (and) giving glory with one voice, with one accord, with a mouth which does not rest, to the Father, and the Mother, and the Son, and their whole pleroma, just as I mentioned
. The five seals which possess the myriads, and they who rule over the aeons, and they who bear the glory of the leaders, were given the command to reveal to those who are worthy. Amen"...
from The Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit.The Italian scholar Giovanni Filoramo calls attention to the fact that the Nag Hammadi scriptures were favorably received by a wide public in part because "certain areas of the cultural panorama showed a disposition, a peculiar sensitivity to the…texts,…which dealt with a phenomenon that they themselves had in some way helped to keep alive.
One of the persons who kept the Gnostic phenomenon alive was C.G. Jung's close associate, the Gnostic scholar Gilles Quispel, who labored long and hard on relating the ancient gnosis of Valentinus and other teachers to the modern gnosis of analytical psychology. He saw the Gnostic effort as involving deep insight into the ontological self, and thus as analogous to the best in depth psychology. Quispel's major work on the subject, Gnosis als Weltreligion ("Gnosis as a World Religion," published in 1972), explains in detail the relationship of Jung's model to Gnostic teachings. Quispel, like Jung himself, did not reduce Gnostic teachings to depth psychology, but rather pointed to depth psychology as a key to understanding Gnosticism.
Professor Jung had a unique opportunity. He was in possession of one of the manuscripts written by the Christ's true brother, Didymos Judas Thomas. ( Didymos means twin in Greek ) The Gospel of Thomas is called a collection of logoi ( sayings ) of Jesus. The Gospel of Thomas 5. Yeshúa says: "Recognize what is in front of thy face, and what is hidden from thee shall be revealed to thee. For there is nothing concealed which shall not be manifest". {and nothing buried that shall not be raised*}. (Matthew 10:26; Luke 8:17 *re 'Gnosticism')
The Words of Jesus, "Many are looking into this which I have written to you. To these I say: Peace (be) among them and grace. I greet you and those who love you in brotherly Love."
FREEDOM FROM BINDING DOGMAS "He has sent me to proclaim freedom...to release...¨(Luke 4:18), "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (2 Cor 3:17) SACRAMENTS FREE FROM CONDITIONS. Freely you have received. Freely give (Matt 10:8), "I am the bread that came down from heaven" (John 6.41) INTERRELIGIOUS GNOSTIC FREEDOM for "knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of Heaven" (Matt 13:11, 16:19),"We speak of God´s secret wisdom"(1 Cor 2:7)
The Gnostic Teachings originated before the birth of Jesus. As you have read on the 'Jesus' Page, the Gnostics ( Essenes ) had been awaiting the Birth of Jesus. They Knew he was coming. They had planned his arrival for centuries. Prophets had spoke of his impending arrival and the men of 'wisdom' had traveled afar to greet him in Bethlahem.
The Gnostic Christians who authored the Nag Hammadi scriptures did not read Genesis as history with a moral, but as a myth with a meaning. To them, Adam and Eve were not actual historical figures, but representatives of two intrapsychic principles within every human being. Adam was the dramatic embodiment of psyche, or soul, while Eve stood for the pneuma, or spirit. Soul, to the Gnostics, meant the embodiment of the emotional and thinking functions of the personality, while spirit represented the human capacity for spiritual consciousness. The former was the lesser self (the ego of depth psychology), the latter the transcendental function, or the "higher self," as it is sometimes known. Obviously, Eve, then, is by nature superior to Adam, rather than his inferior as implied by orthodoxy.
In his recent popular study, The American Religion, Harold Bloom suggests a second characteristic of Gnosticism that might help us conceptually circumscribe its mysterious heart. Gnosticism, says Bloom, "is a knowing, by and of an uncreated self, or self-within-the self, and [this] knowledge leads to freedom....
" Primary among all the revelatory perceptions a Gnostic might reach was the profound awakening that came with knowledge that something within him was uncreated. The Gnostics called this "uncreated self" the divine seed, the pearl, the spark of knowing: consciousness, intelligence, light.
And this seed of intellect was the self-same substance of God, it was man's authentic reality; it was the glory of humankind and the divine alike. If woman or man truly came to gnosis of this spark, she understood that she was truly free: Not contingent, not a conception of sin, not a flawed crust of flesh, but the stuff of God, and the conduit of God's immanent realization.
There was always a paradoxical cognizance of duality in experiencing this "self-within-a-self". How could it not be paradoxical: By all rational perception, man clearly was not God, and yet in essential truth, was Godly. This conundrum was a Gnostic mystery, and its knowing was their greatest treasure. from Introduction to GnosisThe creator god, the one who claimed in evolving orthodox dogma to have made man, and to own him, the god who would have man contingent upon him, born ex nihilo by his will, was a lying demon and not God at all. Gnostics called him by many names -- many of them deprecatory -- names like "Saklas", the blind one; "Samael", god of the blind; or "the Demiurge", the lesser power.
We simply refer to this enity as a 'false god'.
Theodotus, a Gnostic teacher writing in Asia Minor between A.D. 140 and 160, explained that the sacred strength of gnosis reveals "who we were, what we have become, where we have been cast out of, where we are bound for, what we have been purified of, what generation and regeneration are. Yet", the eminent scholar of Gnosticism, Elaine Pagels, comments in exegesis, "to know oneself, at the deepest level, is simultaneously to know God: this is the secret of gnosis.... Self-knowledge is knowledge of God; the self and the divine are identical."
Jesus said, `I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become drunk from the bubbling stream which I have measured out....He who will drink from my mouth will become as I am: I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him.'
Professor Helmut Koester of Harvard University notes that though ultimately this Gospel was condemned and destroyed by the evolving orthodox church, it may be as old or older than the four canonical gospels preserved, and even have served as a source document to them. This brings us to the third prominent element in our brief summary of Gnosticism: its reverence for texts and scriptures unaccepted by the orthodox fold. The Gnostic experience was mythopoetic -- in story and allegory, and perhaps also in ritual enactments, Gnosticism sought expression of subtle, visionary insights inexpressible by rational proposition or dogmatic affirmation. This is the same method of teaching used in Masonic ritual.
Hermetic theories, rituals and procedures embraced by esotericism and it's connection to the Gnostic teachings.
In Judaic type mysticism, taking the form of a search for God and an experience of divinity, esotericism is fundamentally based upon the law of correspondence with the objective of finding symbolic relations between the divine and the earthly, the transcendent and the immanent, the visible and the invisible, man and the universe, through the use of analogies. The passage from one dimension to another takes the form of initiation ceremonies, simulations and magic type rituals in which a neophyte is given the secret of transmutation, agrees to be a member of the group of his fellows and gains access to a higher spiritual level.
Whether we refer to the lessons of cosmic eschatology which announce the end of the universe and humanity, or whether we refer to individual eschatology, based on belief in the survival of the soul after death, we encounter the same obsessive idea. It is also gnostic Christianity, based on mythical discourses and sacred knowledge which promises the salvation of the faithful and the return of spirits
Esotericism is described as being knowledge of the occult, (secret) either in the form of doctrine or as a technique of symbolic expression reserved for initiates. Esotericism is therefore an ensemble of esoteric practices and teaching, belonging to a context of a multi-featured tradition embracing different eras, places and cultures. Alchemy, Masonry and the Templars, for example, incorporate hermetic theories, rituals and procedures embraced by esotericism.Regaleira also contains Rosacrucian references to the Christian esoteric current beginning in the 17th century which used the joint symbols of the rose and the cross. The Rosacrucian movement proposed social and religious reforms, extolled humility, justice, truth and chastity and appealed for the cure of all illnesses of body and soul. It became a Masonic degree in several Orders and, even today, several esoteric schools and secret societies claim to be reappearances of the Rosacrucian myth.
The following characteristics may be considered normative for all Gnostic teachers and groups in the era of classical Gnosticism; thus one who adheres to some or all of them today might properly be called a Gnostic:
The Gnostics posited an original spiritual unity that came to be split into a plurality.
As a result of the precosmic division the universe was created. This was done by a leader possessing inferior spiritual powers and who often resembled the Old Testament Jehovah.
A female emanation of God was involved in the cosmic creation (albeit in a much more positive role than the leader).
In the cosmos, space and time have a malevolent character and may be personified as demonic beings separating man from God.
For man, the universe is a vast prison. He is enslaved both by the physical laws of nature and by such moral laws as the Mosaic code.
Mankind may be personified as Adam, who lies in the deep sleep of ignorance, his powers of spiritual self-awareness stupefied by materiality.
Within each natural man is an "inner man," a fallen spark of the divine substance. Since this exists in each man, we have the possibility of awakening from our stupefaction.
What effects the awakening is not obedience, faith, or good works, but knowledge.
Before the awakening, men undergo troubled dreams. Man does not attain the knowledge that awakens him from these dreams by cognition but through revelatory experience, and this knowledge is not information but a modification of the sensate being.
The awakening (i.e., the salvation) of any individual is a cosmic event.
Since the effort is to restore the wholeness and unity of the Godhead, active rebellion against the moral law of the Old Testament is enjoined upon every man.The importance of the divine 'Mother'
Nowhere is Eve's superiority and numinous power more evident than in her role as Adam's awakener. Adam is in a deep sleep, from which Eve's liberating call arouses him. While the orthodox version has Eve physically emerge from Adam's body, the Gnostic rendering has the spiritual principle known as Eve emerging from the unconscious depths of the somnolent Adam. Before she thus emerges into liberating consciousness, Eve calls forth to the sleeping Adam in the following manner,
as stated by The Gnostic Apocryphon of John:"I entered into the midst of the dungeon which is the prison of the body. And I spoke thus: "He who hears, let him arise from the deep sleep." And then he (Adam) wept and shed tears. After he wiped away his bitter tears he spoke, asking: "Who is it that calls my name, and whence has this hope come unto me, while I am in the chains of this prison?" And I spoke thus: "I am the Pronoia of the pure light; I am the thought of the undefiled spirit. . . . Arise and remember . . . and follow your root, which is I . . . and beware of the deep sleep."
In another scripture from the same collection, entitled On the Origin of the World, we find further amplification of this theme. Here Eve whose mystical name is Zoe, meaning life, is shown as the daughter and messenger of the Divine Sophia, the feminine hypostasis of the supreme Godhead:
Sophia sent Zoe, her daughter, who is called "Eve," as an instructor in order that she might raise up Adam, in whom there is no spiritual soul so that those whom he could beget might also become vessels of light. When Eve saw her companion, who was so much like her, in his cast down condition she pitied him, and she exclaimed: "Adam, live! Rise up upon the earth!" Immediately her words produced a result for when Adam rose up, right away he opened his eyes. When he saw her, he said: "You will be called 'mother of the living', because you are the one who gave me life."
In the same scripture, the creator and his companions whisper to each other while Adam sleeps: "Let us teach him in his sleep as though she (Eve) came to be from his rib so that the woman will serve and he will be lord over her." The demeaning tale of Adam's rib is thus revealed as a propagandistic device intended to advance an attitude of male superiority. It goes without saying that such an attitude would have been more difficult among the Gnostics, who held that man was indebted to woman for bringing him to life and to consciousness.
The Western theologian Paul Tillich interpreted this scripture as the Gnostics did, declaring that "the Fall" was a symbol for the human situation, not a story of an event that happened "once upon a time." Tillich said that the Fall represented "a fall from the state of dreaming innocence" in psychological terms, an awakening from potentiality to actuality. Tillich's view was that this "fall" was necessary to the development of humankind.
If you can accept a God who co-exists with death camps, schizophrenia, and AIDS, yet remains all-powerful and somehow benign, then you have faith, and you have accepted the covenant with Yahweh who is considered the false God.... If you know yourself as having an affinity with the alien or stranger God, cut off from this world, then you are a Gnostic, and perhaps the best and strongest moments still come to what is best and oldest in you, to a breath or spark that long precedes this Creation.
The KJB declares that Adam and Eve had two sons, Cain and Abel. The third son is more difficult to name; he is Seth. The third son was provided by God as a replacement for the slain Abel, according to Genesis. He was sired rather late in life by Adam, for Adam is said to have been 130 years old at the time. The historian Josephus wrote that Seth was a very great man and that his descendants were the discoverers of many mysterious arts, including astrology. The descendants of Seth then inscribed the records of their occult (secret) discoveries, according to Josephus, on two pillars, one brick, the other stone, so that they might be preserved in times of future disasters.
In the treatise The Apocalypse of Adam, the Gnostics presented us with a scripture that tells not only of Seth (and his father) but of the future of the esoteric tradition of gnosis in ages to come. It begins:
The disclosure given by Adam to his son Seth in his seven hundredth year. And he said: "Listen to my words, my son Seth. When God created me out of the earth, along with Eve your mother, I went along with her in a glory which she had seen in the aeon from which she came forth. She taught me the word of Gnosis of the eternal God. And we resembled the great eternal angels, for we were higher than the God who created us." This fully explains that the god who created them is not the true god.
After thus informing us once again of the spiritually superior status of Eve, the scripture goes on to recount how the creator turned against Adam and Eve, robbing them of their glory and their knowledge. Actually the creator is Yaldaboath, who is the angel whom Sophia hurled from Heaven when she discovered his evil nature. see Passage of the Secrets for the complete story or 'Origin', in the Nag Hammidi Library. Humans now served the creator "in fear and in slavery," so Adam stated. Seth, who incarnates into 'the Logos, in the Nag, says, "Adam was ignorant because he did not know where he came from or who created him". While previously immortal, Adam now knew that his days were numbered. Therefore, he said he now wanted to pass on what he knew to Seth and his descendants.
In the prediction it becomes apparent that "Seth and his seed" would continue to experience gnosis, but that they would be subject to many grave tribulations. The first of these would be the flood, during which angels would rescue the Gnostic race of Seth and hide them in a secret place. Noah, on the other hand, would advise his sons to serve the creator God "in fear and slavery all the days of your life." After the return of the illumined people of Seth's kind, the creator would once again wrathfully turn against them and try to destroy them by raining fire, sulfur, and asphalt down on them-an allusion, perhaps, to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Once again many of the Gnostics would be saved by being taken by great angels to a place above the domain of the evil powers.
Much later there would be a new era with the coming of the man of light ("Phoster"), who would teach gnosis to all. The Apocalypse of Adam concludes with this passage:
This is the hidden knowledge of Adam which he gave to Seth, which is the holy baptism of those who know the imperishable Gnosis through those who are born of the Logos, through the imperishable Illuminator, who himself came from the holy seed (of Seth) Jesseus, Mazareus, Jessedekeus.
These names, which are obviously versions of the name of Jesus (they are found in other scriptures also), identify the culmination of the Gnostic tradition in the figure of Jesus. The "Race of Seth" is thus a biblical metaphor for those following this tradition. In the Gnostic book Pistis Sophia, Jesus identifies himself as coming from the "Great Race of Seth". from... The Genesis Factor by Stephan A. Hoeller
The Thought of Norea. Our research found her to be the twin sister of Seth who is called Isis or 'M'aat' - wisdom. The former does not mention her by name, but states that Noah's descendants were wise ones who were hidden in a luminous cloud, adding significantly, "[This was not] as Moses said, 'They were hidden in the ark."' In the latter it is not only one angel but "three holy helpers" who intercede on her behalf.
It is quite apparent that the creator god who visits humanity with the disaster of the flood is not identical with the "true God" to whom Norea calls out for help. Viewing the character of the deity of Genesis with a sober, critical eye, the Gnostics concluded that this God was neither good nor wise. He was envious, genocidal, unjust, and, moreover, had created a world full of bizarre and unpleasant things and conditions. In their visionary explorations of secret mysteries, the Gnostics felt that they had discovered that this deity was not the only God, as had been claimed, and that certainly there was a God above him.
This true God above was the real father of humanity, and moreover, there was a true mother as well, Sophia, the emanation of the true God. Somewhere in the course of the lengthy process of pre-creational manifestation, Sophia mistakenly gave life to a spiritual being, whose wisdom was greatly exceeded by his size and power. This being, whose true names are Yaldabaoth (child of the chaos), Samael (blind god), and also Saclas (foolish one), then proceeded to create a world, and eventually also a human being called Adam. Neither the world nor the man thus created was very serviceable as created, so Sophia and other high spiritual agencies contributed their light and power to them. The creator thus came to deserve the name "demiurge" (half maker), a Greek term employed in a slightly different sense by philosophers, including Plato.
Marcus, a student of Valentinus' (c. 150), says that a vision "descended upon him...in the form of a woman...and expounded to him alone its own nature, and the origin of things, which it had never revealed to anyone, divine or human." The presence then said to him, "I wish to show you Truth herself, for I have brought her down from above, so that you may see her without a veil, and understand her beauty."
- Irenaeus, Libros Quinque Adversus Haereses
"And that, Marcus adds, is how 'the naked Truth' came to him in a woman's form, disclosing her secrets to him. Marcus expects, in turn, that everyone whom he initiates into gnosis will also receive such experiences. In the initiation ritual, after invoking the spirit, he commands the candidate to speak in prophecy, to demonstrate that the person has received direct contact with the divine."
- Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic GospelsThe Gospel of Thomas . "Advocated looking back to the past, not only to an Edenic moment before Adam and Eve sinned but to an even more primordial moment before they were split into two beings. Its gaze was not on a male but on an androgynous Adam, image of its Creator in being neither female nor male. And it was in baptism, precisely in the primitive form of nude baptism, that the initiant, reversing the saga of Genesis 1-3, took off 'the garments of shame' mandated for a fallen humanity and assumed 'the image of the androgyne'."
- John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus, The Life of a Mediterranean Peasant (1991)The Gnostics
The basic belief of the Gnostics was that the "knowledge of self was the optium path to salvation", and this further confirms the tolerance of independent thought and is directly related to the source of direct knowledge. The Gnostic text, The Testimony of Truth states, " the Gnostic becomes a disciple of his mind, which is the father of the truth."
Gnosticism was a very popular religion influenced by Zorastrianism, Judaism, oriental religions, Greek philosphy, Persians, Hellenics, and Christianity. It became a threat the the Christian Church and the Gnostics became known as the first heretics because Gnostic teachings and the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church differed greatly.
The Gnostics believed the Catholic Church was an arm of Satan because it did not teach the truth. The Gnostics believed the Catholics teachings were introduced by the archons who were wicked rulers of the world that led men astray. The words of Jesus and Philip below confirm this.
Jesus' words in Matthew 15:7, "You Hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you; These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men".
from the Gospel of Philip #13. The authorities° desire to deceive humankind, because they perceived him being in a kinship to the truly good. So they took the word 'good', they applied it to the ungood so that thru words they might deceive and bind him within the ungood. * And subsequently whenever grace is enacted to them, they are to be withdrawn from the ungood and be appointed in the good--as these are known. For they desired to take the free person and keep him as a slave to themselves forever. There is empowerment given to humans. They do not want him [ to know ], so that they will become [ masters ] over him. For where there is humankind, there is [ slavery ]. ( Isa 5:20; ) *thus Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The First Circle: ( 'A prisoner ... who has risen to that stage of development where the bad begins to appear the good' )
"The slave seeks only to be free, but he does not hope to acquire the estate of his master. But the son is not only a son but lays claim to the inheritance of the father. Those who are heirs to the dead are themselves dead, and they inherit the dead. Those who are heirs to what is living are alive, and they are heirs to both what is living and the dead. The dead are heirs to nothing. For how can he who is dead inherit? If he who is dead inherits what is living he will not die, but he who is dead will live even more".
"A Gentile ( Greek ) does not die, for he has never lived in order that he may die. He who has believed in the truth has found life, and this one is in danger of dying, for he is alive. Since Christ came, the world has been created, the cities adorned, the dead carried out. When we were Hebrews, we were orphans and had only our mother, but when we became ( Gnostic ) Christians, we had both father and mother".
Gnostics had no church, no rules of Faith, no dogma and their communities claimed no exclusiveness against one another. They believed that priests, deacons, and bishops hindered the soul's journey back to God. There was no gnostic 'Cannon of Scripture' because they incorporated 'knowledge' from existing tradition. Gnosticism was not for everyone, but reserved for the spiritually mature because most people could not understand it. Various gnostic knowledge existed in the communities and was subject to 'change'.
Gnosis and gnosticism are still rather arcane terms, though in the last two decades the words have been increasingly encountered in the vocabulary of contemporary society. Gnosis derives from Greek, and denotes "knowledge" or the "act of knowing". (On first hearing, it is sometimes confused with another more common term of the same root but opposite sense: agnostic, literally "not knowing", a knower of nothing.)
The Greek language differentiates between rational, propositional knowledge, and the distinct form of knowing obtained not by reason, but by personal experience or perception. It is this latter knowledge, gained from experience, from an interior spark of comprehension, that constitutes gnosis. When you know it, you immediately understand it. The Gospel of Phillip taught that, "Whoever achieves gnosis becomes a 'Christ' and is no longer a Christian". ( that is 'One who comes from the Father' )
John 8:42-47 Jesus said to them, "If God were your father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speeks his native language, for he is a lier and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."
There is a message in this that most do not understand. The Children of God are pre-determined before their birth. Their names are written in the book of the 'living'.In the first century of the Christian era this term, Gnostic, began to be used to denote a prominent, even if somewhat heterodox, segment of the diverse new Christian community. Among these early followers of Christ, it appears that an elite group delineated themselves from the greater household of the Church by claiming not simply a belief in Christ and his message, but a "special witness" or revelatory experience of the divine.
"It was this experience, this gnosis, which--so these Gnostics claimed--set the true followers of Christ apart from his fellows. Stephan Hoeller explains that these Gnostic Christians held a "conviction that direct, personal and absolute knowledge of the authentic truths of existence is accessible to human beings, and, moreover, that the attainment of such knowledge must always constitute the supreme achievement of human life."
The Gnostics questioned the Christian doctrine that human suffering and death was the result of sin. They taught that the true path to God was through self knowledge and not through the organized, controlled hierarchy of the Church. They did not trust their salvation to any priesthood. They were thinking intellectuals who were dedicated to finding the truth outside the church and knew the church was not forthright in revealing the truths of spirit.
Gnostics described God as containing both male and female qualities that were part of every human's nature. ( He, She, Me as Thoth teaches ) And as we recall , Eve was not made from Adam, therefore the male and female elements are combined in Eve.
The church tried to destroy the teachings and those who taught them.
On 'the Lies of Paul' page, and here you will read many writings attributed to Thomas, John, Philip, Peter, Jesus and James. The Church omitted these teachings, and the more powerful they became the less they could care about the True teachings of the Gnostics or of Christ. They removed all the feminine images of God or men and viewed any teaching other than their's as 'evil' and 'lies'.
To make matters worse, many cleryman wrote antiheretical documents on Gnostnicism which attacked the leaders of the Gnostic movement including; Valentinius, Simon, Magus, Ptolemy and Marcus. Even Hippolytus of Rome ( 230AD ) wrote a book intitled Refutation of all Heresies . Clement and Origen from Alexandria tried to legitimize the gnostic concerns and reconcile them with Christian beliefs, but their efforts failed. Then the Church destroyed any writings and removed any reference to them until the Nag Hammadi collection was discovered in 1945 in Upper Egypt. Under the Roman rule of Constantine, all Gnostic books were burned and anyone who had one was considered a criminal.
The Government of Egypt confiscated ten and one half of the original 'codices' of the Nag Hammadi collection and placed them in the Coptic Museum in Cairo. The thirteeth, which contained five important texts were smuggled out of Egypt and purchased by the Jung Foundation. Professor Quispell recognized many verses known in the New Testament that had been placed in unfamiliar contexts within the codex suggesting an altogether different meaning than that which the scripture relates.
The codex contained a secret gospel intitled the Gospel according to Thomas and had a verse that suggested that Jesus may have had a twin as interupted in the verse, "These are the secret words which the living Jesus spoke, and which the twin Judas Thomas wrote down." There are fifty two texts in the codices. It has been determined that the codies were written in the last half of first century AD.
Another fundamental teaching of Gnosticism was that there was a difference between the Old and New Testament Gods. They believed that the God of Darkness created the world, and in it, he controlled everything.. The God of 'Light' became trapped in the world of 'Darkness'. The soul also became trapped in the world of darkness and was confined to the human body to prevent it from ascending to the 'Light'. The soul began a cycle of rebirths ( reincarnation ) until a messenger from God the Father was sent to humankind to reveal the true path out of the entrapment.
The Gnostic doctrine of redemption referred to the ascent of the soul back to it's origin once it had learned the truth. The Messenger sent by God was Christ who was believed to be not human, but an illusion of man. Wheather he was or was not could be debated for centuries, however John did describe Jesus as being able to pass through walls and he left no footprints where he walked. Christ then, could be described as a holy spirit, a Son of the Father, who was sent by him to dwell in a human body in order to do God's will on earth.
The Spirit was placed in a human body so it could be seen and heard by human-kind. Jesus brought the knowledge that the soul was imprisoned by evil powers, but could escape by practicing love, perfection, patience and wisdom. The ultimate goal of Gnostics was to release the soul from the bonds of the material world and to assist its return to it's original home in the Kingdom of light. Once the soul was aware of this, it not only saved it's self but was able join with the gods to guide others away from the bonds of darkness and the material earth-bound world. To know themselves at the deepest levels was to know God, that is, self-knowledge is knowledge of God.
"And the Spirit came to him in haste when it raised him. Having given its hand to the one lying prone on the ground, it placed him firmly on his feet, for he had not yet stood up. He gave them the means of knowing the knowledge of the Father and the revelation of his son. For when they saw it and listened to it, he permitted them to take a taste of and to smell and to grasp the beloved son". Sound familiar?..
from The Gospel of Truth in the Nag Hammidi scrolls."The enlightened will be instructed in divine knowledge and have been chosen for an everlasting covenant through which they will attain to the glorious image that God first granted to Adam."
- Howard C. Kee, "Membership in the Covenant People at Qumran and in the Teaching of Jesus" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), p. 115Gnosticism was knowledge, which was the true path to salvation. Universal truths were within the reach of understanding if one knew himself. Jesus said the kingdom of God was a state of self-discovery. It was the individual's responsibilty to search for knowledge, and they did not tell their brothern how to search. But when the initiate was on the path of spiritual enlightenment, they needed others to help them along. After maturity the initiates should not rely on the testimony of others, but should discover their own relationship with the truth. Each person had to recognize the Lord in his own way.
Gnostics believed that no one could tell another which way to go, what to do, and how to act They taught that the purpose of accepting authority was to learn how to out-grow it. As the initiate progressed in knowledge, the 'Masters' divulged their secret information verbally, not through any writting, to those they deemed ready to advance. They considered original creative resourcefullness the trademark of anyone who had become spirtually alive. Initiates were assumed to have the gift of direct inspiration through the Holy Spirit and they encouraged them to follow their hearts. The Gnostic texts quote Jesus as saying, " Do not tell lies and do not do what you hate."
The Gospel of Philip Teaches that one who had the knowledge of truth is free. Ignorance makes you a slave. The conflict between knowledge and ignorance is a universal one, deliberately created by the Father to make the victory of gnosis manifest. Knowledge is the redemption of soul. Redemption is a deliverance from this world and the body, and not as Christianity professes, from sin and guilt. Knowledge releases the soul from the material world, the act of 'resurrection from the dead'. The Gospel of Philip also says that, " He who has become free through knowledge is a slave for love's sake to those who have not yet been able to take up the freedom of knowledge."
A Valentinuius doctrine states, " What liberates is the knowledge of whom we were, what we become; where we were; where into we have been thrown; whereto we speed, wherefrom we are redeemed; what birth is, and what rebirth is." This knowledge is withheld from individuals because ignorance was the essence of the material world. This world did not know the God of Salvation and thus needed revelation. It's bearer was the messanger from the world of light, the savior, who awakened the sleeping world and imparted to it the saving knowledge. The knowledge is the soul's way out of the material world.
Valentinius taught that knowledge was the original condition of the Absolute, the Supreme God. Perfect salvation came through knowledge itself. Ignorance came about by defect and passion, and was disolved by knowledge. Ignorance, not sin, caused suffering. Self-ignorance was a form of self-destruction, and anyone who did not understand the elements of the universe was headed for annihilation. The Gospel of Truth taught, "If one has knowledge, he receives what is his own and draws to to himself... whoever is to have knowledge in this way knows where he comes from and where he is going."
Gnostic Christians believed that what distinguished the true church from the false, is not the relationship to the clergy, but the level of their relationship with one another. The Testimony of Truth states that, "Obedience to the clerical hierarchy requires believers to submit themselves to a 'blind' guide whose authority comes from the material creator".( darkness )The Gnostics believed those who merely believed the sermon they heard without questioning would remain ignorant.
Hidden text of the Holy Grail by A.E. Waite .For more information visit..'French Gnostic Tradition'Gostique.Net
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The major portions of this site are dedicated to the origins of Masonry. Any of the Links below will tell a story you've never heard before, most of which are from Gnostic sources.
Forbidden Knowledge Forward Here we discover who the false god really is.
Our Knights Templar and our and our Death of the Disciples series reveals much more.
Keepers of the Secrets by Robert Siblerud covers ancient religions, myths and rituals preformed and kept secret by the ancient societies.In Lake of Memory Rizing, William Fix covers all religions and their connection to Gnostic Thought and the truth that is addressed concerning reincarnation and the immortality of the human soul.
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Absolutely NO LINKS that are anti-Masonic in nature, contains content that is inapproiate for children, promotes vampires, devil worship, ect., are permitted to be connected to this site. Any such link will be reported to the ISP for Hate and harrassment, or any Copyright Violations which are illegal on any server. Some other rules may apply.
"Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds" -- Albert Einstein
This page has been visited Times since June 23rd, 2000
