As some of you might know I proclaimed myself as being gnostic a few years ago. I will now give you a glimpse what that means.
The word Gnostic means knowledge or secret knowledge to be precise. Gnostics believe that Jesus (the one from the bible, from a historical perspective) thought his closest followers, more than is proclaimed in the bible. Take in mind that I say followers and not say disciples which are spoken of in the bible . These teachings where not for all of his followers, but only the ones in his inner circle. Both the men and the women.
First a little history
Now, the bibles new testament contains 4 gospels and 23 other text. The content of the New testament was decided on, in the Concile of Nicaea around 325 AD*. At this same date Jesus was declared a deity and the Roman catholic church was founded. In those times the empire of Rome was in turmoil and was plagued by countless civil unrests. Because of it’s size and structure all kinds of religions had mingled and the traditional Roman faith was no longer the most practiced religion in the empire. Emperor Constantine had his handful on religious feuds and things where spinning quite out of control. Especially a new fate had began to gather followers in a tremendous rate. This fate embraced martyrdom as the largest act of fate. This, primarily because the most important figure in this fate had been crucified. Constantine’s predecessors had tried to squash this fate down relentlessly, but the harder they tried the faster the faith grew. Constantine was in trouble. He had to do something. So he got together with a few prominent leaders of that faith, men he could talk to. And a plan grew. Soon after he proclaimed Christianity as the new faith of the empire and together with these prominent figures (Church fathers)founded the church.
Now in the sametime, there where two main factions in Christianity. On the one hand you had the conservationists, followers of Peter. Who took the words of the disciples literally, proclaiming them as the sacred few and believing them to the letter. Believing in the resurrection of the flesh of Jesus. The other factions called themselves Gnostics. Gnostics believed that all the words of Jesus had a hidden meaning. Teachings which had to be scrutinized and thought of to come to the true meanings of what he said. In other words the hidden knowledge. Gnostics do did not narrow themselves to just the words of the 12 disciples but also to the women(Like Mary of Magdalene) and other persons around Jesus.
Notice that I say 12 disciples Gnostics include Judas as one of his disciples, which is utter blasphemy for regular Christians. In fact Judas, according to various Gnostics texts, received more of the secret knowledge thought by Jesus, than the other disciples because he understood better than the other 11 the true meaning of his teachings. Some Gnostic text even state that Judas was asked by Jesus to fulfill the destiny of Jesus and was asked to make sure Jesus got arrested. For a fact, The Gospel of Judas is interesting stuff to read indeed.
To a Gnostic the traditional view of Jesus being reborn in the flesh is preposterous. No Gnostic believes Jesus body has been raised from the grave. They do however believe Jesus returned to the disciples in his astral form or as a spirit. Gnostics also believe, that Jesus was but a regular human being and no deity as the Christians do. They believe Jesus was the first son and a teacher. Not the only son of God, but a son of God. Like we are all sons and daughters of God. A reference to this can be found in the bible e.g.: ‘ Jesus loves all his children’ , ‘ There is a place in my fathers heaven for all of Gods Children’, ‘ If your faith would be as great as a mustard seed, you could all perform my miracles’ .
Just before I continue Gnostics don’t think of God as a man in a beard or women in a white dress figure. God to a Gnostic is the All. The force driving all and everything. (Not going further into that on this post. Defining the All can’t be blogged or written, to much to consider for that)
Now I can keep on continuing about why a Gnostic believes all this but that is just to much for a single post. In fact I believe it is to much for an entire blog. If you really want to know I suggest you start reading the Nag hammadi or, if you just want to establish if you want to read more, try the stuff from some scholars like, Elaine Pagels.Who actually study for it and read The Gnostic gospels for instance.
I can discuss about this subject for ages if needs be, but basically being a gnostic to me, comes down to the following:
- Love one other like you love yourself.
- Love the all (life in general ) above all else.
- The truth can be found in one’s self
- Question all matters of faith even you own.
- Knowing leads to enlightenment
When I feel up to it I will blog more about this subject. Enough food for thought now I guess.
* I can be a little of on the dates it has been quite a while since I last researched it and I was never hot on the exact dates. In fact there where a few of these Concilia. I just wanted to tell you how the church was founded.
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