Where is the wise?
Where is the Scribe?
Where is the disputer
of this age?
Has not God made
foolish the wisdom of this world?
For since, in wisdom
did not know God,
It pleased God trough
the foolishness
Of the message
preached to save
Those who believe.
…that you faith
should not be in the
wisdom of men but in
the power of God.
However, we speak
wisdom among those
Who are mature, yet
not the wisdom of this age,
Nor of he rulers of
this age, who are coming to nothing.
1Corinthians 1:20–21;
2:5–6
Legalistic
heresies were a problem in the early Church and they are a problem in some
Churches in this present age; but as bad as they were and are there is a much
bigger problem that affect the early Church and is affecting many Christians in
this present age. That which is a threat within the Church is those
philosophical heresies that destroy the doctrinal purity of the Christian
faith, and much of this philosophy has come by means of Greek philosophy. I
wrote in earlier blogs about Platoism, and Neoplatonism and its affect upon
some Christians and this was due to the attempt to syncretize Greek philosophy
with Christian philosophy, to make Christianity a system of philosophy. Out of
Neoplatonism came Gnosticism which peaked in its power about 150 A.D. and Paul
as in the opening Scripture seems to be addressing this problem. Paul in his
letter to the Colossians seems to be fighting against an incipient form of
Gnosticism. The Gnostics did not believe that Jesus was God, God in the flesh.
It was that they did not think of Jesus as divine, they did. But not a true
human. The Christ or Messiah was in Jesus, but Jesus was not considered by the
Gnostics as the Christ. They taught that the wisdom (Greek Sophia) descended
into Jesus when Jesus became an adult and them Jesus became the Christ.
Gnostics taught that Jesus did not die on the cross and that sin was not the
cause that needed salvation. They believed that it was with mystical knowledge
based on self–actualization. Does this not sound like some of the New Age teachings,
and in some Churches that teach that one needs some special knowledge to know
God and be saved? People must come to receive this special knowledge, this
illumination or wisdom, then they can realized who they really are, then they
can receive the same knowledge of God that Jesus had. Christian tradition gives
the origin of Gnosticism to Simon Magus,[1]
the very same one that Peter had to rebuke when Simon offered to pay for the
miraculous works done by Peter.
Gnosticism
became accepted due to the fallen nature of man that desires to create a
theodicy, a way to explain evil, how it things became evil, a way to vindicate
God’s justice in His toleration for the existence of evil. The Gnostics
associated matter with evil and they tried to remove from God by developing a
philosophical system where not only God could be freed from the existence of
evil and a way for man to become related spiritually through man’s deity, which
they believe man had by means of an offshoot from God a spirit that makes them
to a god. This is a form of Platoism, and Neoplatonism whereby there are many
gods, and man’s spirit was from eternity, then placed into a human body: this
is what is taught by Mormons. This philosophy aided those who sound to seek
answers to the question of the origin of man, it seemed logical. Yet, all this
was is a synthesizing Christianity with Grecian philosophy. The Greeks sought
wisdom to understand both human wisdom, and God’s wisdom, and by doing so they
attempted to avoid what they considered to be the stigma of the cross. Many
today attempt the same thing, they just will not accept the cross and the work
of God to pay the debt of sin so His justice would be satisfied.
It took men
such as Irenaeus a great polemicist and his skill and knowledge of Scripture to
attempt to to ward off this heresy. Heresy was much the cause for the need of a
rule of faith by which leaders of the Christian movement would know if a person
was truly a Christian or not. This need also afforded a need for the
Scriptures, the writings of the Apostles, Luke, Mark, the writer of Hebrews, to
be canonized, so that this threat to Christianity may be overcome. If the
Gnostics succeeded Christianity would only be another philosophy, a mystery
religion from ancient times. Heresy, instead of diminishing Christianity and
reducing it to some philosophical religion only aided it to develop creeds,
which are the rule of faith written down so that there is not mistake as to
what is truth and what is not, and to develop a Bible which contained all the
writings inspired of God. I will in time address the debate over the many
manuscripts available, and of translations which we have so many as to whether
or not they conform to the original autographs. Until that time, we must
understand that dualism was a major tenet of Gnosticism. This dualism of the
Neoplatonists were somewhat different from Plato’s dualism, yet had much
similarity for Plato Forms were only a visible representation of the same thing
in heaven, remove a chair, if one could, and there would be no chair in heaven,
for the Neoplatonists there was a clear separation between the worlds that were
material and those spiritual for matter was always evil and spirit good.
Therefore, God could not have been the creator of this world, the material
world. Some today say the very same thing; are they right? This will be
examined in upcoming blogs.
For by Him all things were created that
Are in
heaven and that are on earth,
Visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions
Or
principalities or powers. All things were
Created through Him and for Him. And He is
Before all
things, and in Him all things consist.
Colossians
1:16–17
Pray for God’s wisdom: not the wisdom of the world
Richard L. Crumb
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