A rchive Date
[ 25-05-2000 ]
Category
[ Philosophy ]
sub-Categoy
[ Gnosticism ]
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[http://www.gnostic-jesus.com/
THE GNOSTIC JESUS
The Gnostic Jesus taught non-duality and the path of love as the means of attaining this.
Jesus Christ was a Gnostic. Gnosticism is the path of directly experiencing the Divine as the path to salvation. Mysticism, Gnosticism and the Jewish Kabbalah are all very similar. Their path to God is to look for God within ourselves. If we take the view that God is within everything, that nature and the universe is the very embodiment of God, then our own inner Self is the most accessible point for experiencing an all-pervading Supreme Reality. This Gnostic view is powerfully presented by Jesus in Luke 17:20-21:
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! , lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:20-21, KJV
The word “within” as it appears in the King James Bible has been translated in some modern bibles as “among.” These interpreters believe Jesus intended to say he himself was among them. However, this does not tally with preceding statements in the passage. Jesus says the kingdom of God cannot be observed. Therefore, Jesus could not have been talking about himself. He was observable. Jesus says the kingdom of God is not a place. It is neither “here” nor “there”. Thus Jesus could not have been referring to himself. We must take all physical descriptions of the kingdom, such as streets paved with gold and pearly gates, as metaphors because these things can be “observed.”
God is love and love comes from our own heart further underscoring the truth that we must look within ourselves to find God. If, according to Gnosticism, the kingdom of God is to be found within our own being then who or what is God according to the New Testament? God is love (1 John 4:8 and 4:16). Love is not observable and so love complies with Jesus’ advice that the kingdom of God does not come by observation. Love comes from the great sun of infinite life and bubbles up through the wellspring of our own inner heart. We will never directly experience love anywhere but in our own heart.
In the following scripture we read Jesus speaking of the Spirit of truth as being within us.
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. John 14:17, KJV
It is understandable that we would not be able to easily accept the Gnostic idea that God is within us if we have no awareness that we are all connected. However, Bell’s Theorem http://www.ncsu.edu/felder-public/kenny/papers/bell.html in quantum physics clearly demonstrates that we are all connected. This connection is at the very core of each of us. It is within us. This sustains another concept in Gnosticism and also in other mystical traditions.
Prior to Roman Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity in 323 c.e., the antagonism that existed between the hierarchy of priests an bishops and the followers of Gnosticism is well documented. When Gnostics met for church, they drew lots to see who would assume the various roles. Elaine Pagels writes in her book The Gnostic Gospels:
How did members of this circle of "pneumatics" [the Gnostics] (literally, "those who are spiritual") conduct their meetings? Irenaeus [Bishop of Lyons] tells us that when they met, all the members first participated in drawing lots. Whoever received a certain lot apparently was designated to take the role of priest; another was to offer the sacrament, as bishop; another would read the Scriptures for worship, and others would address the group as a prophet, offering extemporaneous spiritual instruction. The next time the group met, they would throw lots again so that the persons taking each role changed continually.
This practice effectively created a very different structure of authority. At a time when the orthodox Christians increasingly discriminated between clergy and laity, this group of Gnostic Christians demonstrated that, among themselves, they refused to acknowledge such distinction. Instead of ranking their members into superior and inferior “orders” within a hierarchy, they followed the principle of strict equality. All initiates, men and women alike, participated equally in the drawing; anyone might be selected to serve as priest, bishop, or prophet. Furthermore, because they cast lots at each meeting, even the distinctions established by lot could never become permanent “ranks.” Finally – most important – they intended, through this practice, to remove the element of human choice. A twentieth-century observer might assume that the Gnostics left these matters to random chance, but the Gnostics saw it differently. They believed that since God directs everything in the universe, the way the lots fell expressed his choice.
Such practices prompted Tertullian to attack "the behavior of the heretics":
How frivolous, how worldly, how merely human it is, without seriousness, without authority, without discipline, as fits their faith! To begin with, it is uncertain who is a catechumen, and who a believer: they all have access equally, they listen equally, they pray equally, even pagans, if any happen to come. . . . They also share the kiss of peace with all who come, for they do not care how differently they treat topics, if they meet together to storm the citadel of the one only truth. . . . All of them are arrogant . . . all offer you gnosis!
The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels
Unfortunately, Constantine sided with the hierarchy of priests and bishops. Now they had the Roman Empire at their disposal and dispatched it to eradicate Gnosticism. When the book burning was ordered, some Gnostic Christians hid existing scriptures in burial urns hoping that God would one day return them to the world. Many of these lost scriptures resurfaced on October 4, 1946, when a sheepherder discovered them. The scrolls were found buried in a three-foot tall clay urn in a cave near Nag Hammadi, Egypt. Since then these scriptures have been called the Nag Hammadi Library and they are now available to anyone who cares to go exploring.
These concepts and much more are discussed at greater length in the book The Mystic Christ. The book may be explored and also purchased on-line: www.devipress.com.
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