Sorry I didn’t get a Wednesday What-Not sent out this week. I think I caught that flu that’s going around. To make it up to you, I made a quick video:
Gnosticism, when you see it, you see it everywhere.
Here are the quotations read:
Voegelin, "Science, Politics and Gnosticism," quoting St Irenaeus, page 9: Perfect salvation consists in the cognition, as such, of the Ineffable Greatness. For since sin and affliction resulted from ignorance (agnoia), this whole system originating in ignorance is dissolved through knowledge (gnosis). Hence, gnosis is the salvation of the inner man.... Gnosis redeems the inner, pneumatic man; he finds his satisfaction in the knowledge of the Whole. And this is the true salvation.
Burfeind, "Gnostic America," page 6:
What is Gnosticism? The Gnosticism 101 answer is, it was an ancient movement centered on esoteric knowledge. It held to a dualistic understanding of the cosmos, in which an evil, lesser god created all things material, and only those who had attained gnosis (knowledge) about their true Source (the higher deity) understood the bodiless Self-ness of their existence. Its salvation program was one of escape, escape of Self from materiality and this oppressive world order.
Have a great weekend.
Christ is risen!
PrBW
www.wolfmueller.co
I don’t want to be a gnostic.
When some denominations separate, say in Baptism, the water from the Word, is this a form of Gnosticism? I've heard people say Gnosticism is found in Christianity as it is in other religions.
I have also read somewhere that Gnostics don't believe Jesus was in hell, as we confess in the Apostles creed. Because Jesus who is light and good, could not be in a place if darkness and evil (much less in body and spirit as it seems only the Lutherans believe [Luther, Koehler, Kretzmann, Mueller, and Lenski in case you wish to dig deeper - around Christ's exaltation, or 1 Peter 3:18-22]). Pastor Wolfmueller was address the descent into hell, but softly.
This was a great video, thank you.