Here’s a question for you: What do the “Gospel of Judas”, the “Gospel of Thomas”, the “Gospel of Mary Magdalene”, and The Da Vinci Code have in common? Well, besides the fact that they’re all fictional works, they all share the worldview of Gnosticism. They are Gnostic literature to the core. But what is Gnosticism? I’ll dedicate this article to this very question.

Gnosticism comes from the Greek word “gnosis” which means “knowledge.” While no one is sure about Gnosticism’s origins, we do know it was a major threat to orthodox Christian faith from the second to fourth centuries (especially). Some of the great early church fathers such as Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Origen, and Augustine battled against the Gnostics. Irenaeus wrote extensively against them in his classic work, Against Heresies. There is no doubt that the Gnostics were teachers of heresy and the early Christian church fought hard to “contend earnestly for the faith” (Jude 3) against them.

But what did the Gnostics believe and teach? And why was the early Christian church so preoccupied with them? While Gnosticism lacked a common authority, central to its teachings were:

1) There is a cosmic dualism between spirit (good) and matter (evil).
2) There is a distinction between Yahweh, a finite Old Testament God, and the transcendent God of the New Testament. Yahweh is the same God as Plato’s Demiurge.
3) Jesus was not truly human and did not die on a cross.
4) Jesus did, however, bring salvation in the form of “secret gnosis”, and understanding one’s true condition in the light of this secret knowledge was key.
5) Similar to Plato’s metaphysic, the goal of life was to escape the prison of the body, to pursue release from the body, which is evil. [Note: Biblical Christianity affirms not the release from the body, but the resurrection of the body.]
6) The creation of woman was the source of evil, and procreation simply multiplies humanity into more bondage to this evil, material world.
7) Women could be saved only through becoming men and returning to the conditions of Eden prior to Eve’s creation.
There is no physical resurrection (since physicality is evil); the resurrection is spiritual in nature.

While Gnosticism in its historic sense and as an organization has all but died, it continues today in a very real way through the New Age Movement (see Dr. Peter Jones’ The Gnostic Empire Strikes Back: An Old Heresy for the New Age). But not only in the New Age Movement is Gnosticism rampant, we also see its deceptive head lurking all over the pages of The Da Vinci Code and all these so-called, second to fourth century “gospels” that are being popularized in the media today.

As Christians, we are commanded to “contend earnestly for the faith” (Jude 3). We do so because truth matters and ideas have consequences. The truths that Jesus is God, that He became flesh and dwelt among us, that He is risen bodily, that the Bible is God’s inerrant and infallible Word, that faith in Jesus Christ (the Jesus portrayed in the four canonical gospels) alone saves — these truths and many others are precious and life-changing, and we must contend for them. May we as a church family here at Evergreen SGV continue to humbly and boldly declare the truth of God in the culture God has placed us — through our life, our love, and our lips — to the praise and honor of Jesus Christ, our King, our God, and our Redeemer.

Contending for the faith with you,

Pastor Jojo