Ask RC- How does the ancient heresy of Gnosticism impact the church today?

There are at least two ways, one most of us are on guard against, the other we’re oblivious to. One of the defining qualities of the gnostic worldview is that it sees that which is material as bad, inherently inferior to that which is spiritual. This mindset may have had deep roots in the older fundamentalism that has all but passed away, the kind that opposed alcohol, cards, movies, dancing, seemingly seeing the evil in those things rather than in our hearts.

Gnosticism spread rapidly across the middle east and beyond in the second century. Why? It certainly didn’t come equipped with a coherent, rational theology complete with a solid apologetic. The truth is when someone explains gnostic theology it’s kind of hard not to giggle. And it probably was then too. So why the appeal? That’s the second part of the worldview that besets us to this day.

Gnosticism didn’t spread through the bold proclamation of its silly doctrines. It spread through the appeal of getting into the inner circle. Their methodology was much like what you see in Freemasonry. You are initiated slowly into the group. With each step more of the secret knowledge is revealed to you. As long as you continue to “progress” you are brought further and further in to the secrets, into the inner circle. In short, it appealed to human pride, to our gnawing desire to be among the elite who know the secrets the great unwashed don’t know.

Here the actual content matters not at all. All that matters is that I know it and others don’t. That, not the wisdom, sophistication, insight of what I believe, is what makes me feel special, set apart. And I can bring you in simply by presenting what I know as a secret that I don’t share with many, that you have to earn the right to hear.

To be sure we’re not as crass as either the original gnostics nor the Freemasons. We have no secret handshake. But we do drop the right names to prove we’re in the fraternity. We do display the right books to show we’re in the know. We do tell the knowing jokes that serve as a secret wink to prove we’re on board. We have well worn paths where people get saved among this group, progress to the next group that has a more robust theology, mature to the point that they are talking about Turretin while smoking fine cigars and from there they look for the next new thing, which may very well claim to be the secret lost old thing.

The antidote is humility. It comes from remembering that all that we have truly learned we’ve learned because we were fools and He rescued us. We are not where we are because we’re better, smarter, more insightful than the next guy. We are where we are because He found us dead at the bottom of the sea and has been leading us. We are where we are because even after He raised us from the dead we wander off and He finds us once again. We not only have no secrets, we keep no secrets, confessing what is obvious to all, that we are wretched sinners saved by the grace that was put on display at Calvary for all to see.

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