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Mystic Beliefs and Heresies of the Early Church Some of the early Jewish mystics believed
that it was possible, in a trance-like state, to ascend to heaven, experience
God and his angels, and then return to earth.
(This is possibly what is alluded to in Colossians 2:18 and
elsewhere.) Some mystics claimed to be superior,
saying that God had given them ‘special revelations’ and ‘special knowledge’
unknown to everyone else. This belief
later became known as one of the ‘Gnostic’ religions. At various times in Paul’s letters he
opposes the teachings of these mystics (eg Colossians 1:15-20; 1:26-27;
2:2-4), and tells his readers that they have no need to feel inferior by this
kind of arrogant teaching. Gnosticism The word ‘Gnosticism’ comes from the
Greek word ‘gnosis’, meaning ‘knowledge’.
Gnostics were people who were so-called ‘in the know’. Gnosticism was one of the most popular and
dangerous heresies during Paul’s time, and much of his writing was concerned
with correcting this false teaching as it began to infiltrate the
Church. The basic teaching of Gnosticism was
that everything material was entirely evil, and that everything spiritual was
entirely good. From this basic
assumption, suppositions were that:
Other false teachings used this
basic idea, but took slightly different slants, ie: Some believed that since the body was evil
it was to be treated austerely and harshly in an attempt to punish, and if
possible, even to rid it of evil.
(This is what may be alluded to in Colossians 2:23.) Conversely, some used the Gnostic
idea to promote licentiousness. If the
body is already evil, then what happens to it while it is alive is of no
consequence, therefore live life and treat the body in any way that pleases. The word ‘Gnosticism’ was not
actually used in Paul’s time; it was a later description given to all the
mystery religions that evolved from this basic belief. But Paul had to deal repeatedly with an
early form of this heresy. In later years, the same basic
heresy took slightly different forms, and later still became intricately and
highly developed; some combining mystic ideas with Judaism, Christianity and
other religions. A relatively recent
form of Gnosticism can be found in the New Age ideology, which tries to blend
Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and popular psychology. Writings from some of the early
forms of Gnosticism include:
Gospel of Thomas;
Gnostic Apocrypha of John;
Gospel of Philip;
Gospel of Truth;
Gospel to the Hebrews;
Gospel of the Egyptians;
Gospel of the Twelve;
Gospel of Peter;
Gospel of Mary Magdalene;
and numerous writings of the Oxyrhynchus Papyruses. Many of these were discovered in Another of these Gnostic writings is
the ‘Gospel of Judas’, a leather bound codex papyrus manuscript, dated at
around AD 300. It was discovered in a
cave near Also on the subject of Jesus’ death,
another of the Gnostics, Basilides of Alexandria (AD 130) wrote, ‘Simon of Cyrene was transfigured by him,
that he might be thought to be Jesus, and was crucified through ignorance and
error, while Jesus himself received the form of Simon and, standing by,
laughed at them’. Two other forms of this heresy that
dogged the early church were Docetism and Cerenthianism. Docetism The word comes from the Greek word
‘dokeo’ which means ‘to seem’. This
belief caused a denial of Christ’s true humanity. The belief held that Christ was just
spirit, and only seemed to have a body, therefore his excruciating death on
the cross was of no real consequence. Cerenthianism This name came from the founder of
the belief, Cerinthius. This belief
denied the true deity of Christ. The
belief held that Jesus’ divine spirit entered him at his baptism, and left
him before he died. Therefore Jesus
was born a man, and died a man. John,
in his gospel and in his letters, goes to great lengths to explain that Jesus
was the true Christ (human and divine) on both these occasions. Paul’s
Defence of Jesus and the True Gospel Words such as: ‘mysteries’,
‘secret’, ‘revelation’, ‘wisdom’, ‘knowledge’ etc were used abundantly amid
the vocabulary of these mystics.
Consequently Paul deliberately used the same sort of terminology when
countering their false teachings, in order to effectively show his readers
that God’s ‘mysteries’ (glimpsed by the Old Testament prophets) have now been
‘revealed’ in Jesus Christ. Throughout
Paul’s letters, he devoted much time to explaining both the full humanity and
full deity of Jesus, thus emphasising the fact that Jesus was in fact the
true Messiah, and as such he is the only way to eternal salvation (summarised
in Romans 1:2-4). |
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