Blessed is the Lord
God of Israel,
for he has visited
and redeemed His people…..
To grant us that we
being delivered
From the hand of our
enemies,
might serve Him
without fear,
in holiness and
righteousness
Before Him all the
days of our life….
To give light to
those who sit in
darkness and the
shadow of death,
to guide our feet
into the way of peace.
Luke 1:68,74–75,79
This
prophesy of Zacharias who was filled with the Holy Spirit (vs. 67) and recorded
by Luke should be a wellspring of hope in our hearts driving us to follow Him
who will guide us in this life and the life to come. The one to come was not a
demiurge, a mystical union of Jesus Christ as brother to Satan as the Gnostics
believed and taught and the need for some enlightenment or special knowledge
that this knowledge would allow a person to partake of the spiritual realm and
its power while on earth, and that same knowledge would allow you to enter the pleroma
(Greek for fullness) after you die.[1]
This similarity between Gnosticism which had become infused with Neoplatonism
that knowledge is the most important thing for salvation and it is by this
knowledge that a person enters heaven has caused some to syncretize Christian
belief of salvation and heaven. Knowledge is important as this how we come to
know the will of God and what God has done by sending His Son to die on the
cross for our salvation. It was the death of Jesus Christ that paid the debt of
sin and not our knowledge of this act that saves us. John writes: “My little
children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. and if anyone
sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He
Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our only but also for the
whole world” (1John 2:1–2). For some of the Gnostics, and there were many
forms of Gnosticism, the world was wicked and the body doesn’t matter therefore
sin doesn’t matter. Scripture teaches us otherwise, that sin does matter: “If
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and he truth is not in us”
(1John 1:8). We must come to know, to have the knowledge, that we sin, and
that we are fallen in our nature and have no method within ourselves to correct
this sinfulness. God has provided, through the death of His Son justification
and sanctification for His children: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”
(1John 1:9). Unlike the Neoplatonism of the Gnostics who believed in some
secret knowledge to save them, and their belief in the wickedness of this world
which included them as one of the wicked for all matter was wicked Christians
believe in the knowledge of sin and their nature and know hat we must obey the
commandments of God. It is this knowledge that develops our religion and our
religion develops our character and our character develops our actions. We must
live a righteous life if we are to please God and to have His blessing. If we
do not deny that Jesus is the Christ, for if we do, then we are liars: “Who is
a liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist who denies
the Father and the Son” (1John 2:22). Remember this: Christ is the word in
English that means Messiah who was promised in ancient times by God’s prophets.
When Zacharias was asked what name should his baby, who was later to be called
John the Baptist, he began to speak, which beforehand he had not spoken (Luke
1:20) for he knew that God had visited the earth and was now ready to introduce
to the world the promised Messiah. John would be the forerunner who would
proclaim the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. It is not some special
knowledge for Jesus was alive, walked this earth, did miracles to give evidence
of who He was, and why He came, the promised One, the Savior. It was not some
visible representative, a form as Plato would have Him, and even though
Neoplatonism did not follow exactly Plato’s philosophy, they did not know or
believe that God would send a Savior. Gnostics as a whole did not believe in
Jesus either only some special knowledge but Scripture give us what is required
for salvation: “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God,
and everyone who loves him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By
this we know that love the children of God when we keep His commandments”
(1John 5:1–2).
Saying 22
from the Gospel of Thomas (This is not inspired from God but has much meaning
into the world of Gnoticism): When you make the two one, and you make the
inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the
below, and when you make the male and female one and the same, so that the male
not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an
eye, and a hand in the place of a hand, and a foot in the place of a foot, and
a likeness in the place of a likeness; then you will enter [the kingdom of
heaven]. (Saying 22, Italics mine).[2]
Yes, from their teachings there are those that have accepted homosexuality,
that all are the same only in different forms and there is no sin so they can
do whatever pleases them, but this is not what the Bible states as shown above.
You may say: “we are not Platonists, or Neoplatonists;” but if you think as
they do, and do as they have taught, then you are what you say you are not.
Mysticism from such thinking as invaded the Church and can be seen in
Pentecostalism, in such religions centers as Bethel Church in Redding, CA., and
in the Charismatic movement. These religions systems believe in some special
knowledge, some special revelation from God, so that they would be regarded a
pious, worthy of God’s salvation, but this is not the case for salvation comes
from God through His Son and in no other way.
Knowledge
is important and it is not just any knowledge, it by and through whom this
knowledge comes and Jesus Christ is the truth, the life (John 14:6). It is by
Jesus who came and gave us the truth: “And we know that the Son of god has
come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and
we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and
eternal life” (1John 5:20). Once again, Scripture as affirmed: Jesus is
God, God come in the flesh and it is Jesus who gives us understanding as to
salvation: not some special knowledge that some have and others may not have,
rather He came and showed us the way to eternal life, Him, and this He did by
dying on the cross paying the debt of sin, satisfying the justice of God. Now,
we have a responsibility: to live according to His commandments, and not some
teaching by men who are antichrist.
For many deceivers have gone
Out into
the world who
Do not confess Jesus Christ as
Coming in
the flesh.
This is a deceiver and an antichrist.
2John 2:7
Whatever You Do, Do It For Christ
Richard L. Crumb
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