Category: Theology

As a Progressive Christian and Gnostic sympathizer, how much of orthodox doctrine can I affirm? Here is what I agree with.

I believe that the Holy Scriptures are inspired by God.

I believe that God created all things through the Logos and the Holy Spirit.

I believe in the Holy Trinity, that God is both one and three, known to us as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins.

I believe that Jesus Christ was crucified, died, was buried, and rose again on the third day.

I believe that Jesus Christ was God incarnate in the flesh.

I believe that Jesus Christ will come again.

I believe that salvation is gained through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord, Savior, and Friend.

Simon Peter said to them, “Mary should leave us, for females are not worthy of life.” Jesus said, “Look, I shall guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter heaven’s kingdom.” (GThom 114).

If you read this with a literal interpretation, you will misinterpret it. This does not mean what it appears to say, as any Gnostic will know. This is a metaphor. A man is a symbol of the educated, a woman is a symbol of the uneducated. It has nothing to do with changing genders. It has to do with the fact that in this historical context, men were given an education and women were not.

Simon Peter, the spokesman for the patriarchy, says that Mary isn’t worthy of spiritual life. Jesus responds by saying, in effect, “I will make her educated. This will make her equal to you men. For every woman who makes herself educated will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Of course, the education Jesus is talking about is the education of gnosis, the mystical knowledge of God. This education would also include the spiritual illumination of the Holy Spirit. In these times, very few could read and write. Most Christians got their scripture through public reading on Sunday in church.

We know that this passage cannot be taken literally because the Bible is filled with passages where women are filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:17; 21:9). And as Paul said, “there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). If we are all one, then we are all equal, and therefore equally worthy of life.

Unfortunately, most people come to the Bible and think that it is historically accurate and literally true. The truth is that the Bible is the record of peoples encounter with God and is conveyed in the language of myth, metaphor, and parable. Interpret the Bible allegorically unless outside evidence points to a literal meaning.

References

Marvin Meyers, The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts, New York: Harper One, 2007.

Before we talk about Gnosticism, we must define it. But defining Gnosticism has become one of the leading problems in the field. Whole books have been dedicated to the subject (See books by Karen L. King and Michael Allen Williams).

The problem is that Western scholars see religion as something dealing with beliefs. So, naturally, they think that Gnosticism should have something to do with doctrines and beliefs. I think this is a mistake. In fact, I think it is the mistake.

Gnosticism, in my opinion, should refer to the orientation by which groups deal with their religion. Not the content of what they believe, but how they believe. Not concepts in the mind, but practices and actions in dealing with living their religion.

In a recent book of mine, I gave the following definition:

Gnosticism is an orientation towards religion that approaches Scripture as myths, interprets Scripture allegorically, has mysteries (musterion) reserved for the initiated, aims for salvation through mystical insight (gnosis), is open to new revelations from God, and follows a Messiah Savior-God.1

Notice that it is an approach, a method of interpretation, an initiation practice, an aim, an openness, and a following. These are all verbs and deal with actions.

This means that Gnosticism says nothing about beliefs. So Gnosticism, as orientation, must be added to the belief system of the group. Gnostic Christianity, for example, fills in their Gnosticism with the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah Savior-God. This is their central guiding myth.

Therefore, there is no such thing as classical Gnosticism. A group is Gnostic or it is not. Gnostic Sethians fill in their Gnosticism with Seth being the Messiah Savior-God. This is their central guiding myth.

Whenever you make beliefs the defining characteristic of Gnosticism, you immediately have to have a hundred qualifications for why this group or that person didn’t believe it. You have to explain how Clement of Alexardria is a Gnostic, as he calls himself, and how the Sethians, Valentinians, Cathars, Manichaens, and Madeans are also Gnostic.

My solution is the only real solution. Otherwise, the category must be dumped. Study each one of these and you will see that all of them share an orientation towards religion, but that they differ widely on what they believe, what Scriptures they hold sacred, and who their Messiah Savior-God is.

What is ironic, is that Ireanius’s intuition that they were all related somehow, was right. But as a Fundamentalist, he couldn’t quite understand how. For him, they were just all heresy. That is because he was living in his own orientation, Fundamentalism.

Reference

1. Jay N. Forrest, The Five Gnostic Sacraments, Albuquerque: Tserrof Books, 2024, 11-12. Note: I changed the original transformation to salvation.

Get the Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DGL6W8DM/

This is the oldest creed of Christianity. It is recorded in the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians (15:3-8).

• For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the [Jewish] scriptures
• And that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the [Jewish] scriptures
• And that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
• Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.
• Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.
• Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

I believe in God the Father almighty.

And in Christ Jesus, His only Son, our Lord,
who was born of the Holy Spirit from the Virgin Mary,
who under Pontius Pilate was crucified and buried,
on the third day rose from the dead,
ascended into the heavens,
he sits at the right hand of the Father,
from which He will come to judge the living and the dead.

And in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Ecclesia,
the remission of sins,
the resurrection of the body
(the life everlasting).

____________

This is an early version of what later became the Apostles’ Creed, called the “Old Roman Creed.” It was in use as early as the second century (Kelly, Creeds, 101). It was the only doctrinal requirement in the early church. It was confessed before baptism.

Translated from the Latin by Jay N. Forrest