The Great Escape?
Gnosticism’s ongoing threat to Christianity
10 I September 2011 I Salvationist
believing that their physical bodies had no connection to their spiritual lives. Gnostics who claimed to follow Jesus rejected many of the central claims of Christianity. For example, they denied the Incarnation. If the physical world is evil, they reasoned, how could Jesus have taken on flesh? Gnostics also denied that Jesus had died on the cross. They certainly would not accept his bodily resurrection.
• Christ had indeed taken on human flesh and blood, and salvation included the human body. As the Church father Ireneaus put it, “If the flesh were not in a position to be saved, the Word of God would in no wise have become flesh.” Gnostic ideas might seem far-fetched, but shadowy hints of Gnosticism still creep into contemporary Christian thinking. Here are three examples: 1. Many Christians are still prone to escapist thinking—
The heresy of Gnosticism was important in the history of Christian doctrine because it pushed Christians to clarify their views about the goodness of creation, the Incarnation of Christ and the nature of human salvation. Against the Gnostics, Christians affirmed that: • the material world was God’s good work, which he created from nothing—not the evil byproduct of a struggle between forces of good and evil.
that is, they desire to get away from this fallen world so we can be with God in Heaven. While it is true that we will be with the Lord in Heaven immediately when we die (see 2 Corinthians 5:8), we are also assured that this intermediate state will be followed by a bodily resurrection (see 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). The final vision of Scripture is not that humans will be taken from earth to live in Heaven forever, but that
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nosticism was the first major threat to the orthodox Christian faith in the post-New Testament era. Gnosticism began sometime around the birth of Christ and, by the middle of the second century, there were so many Gnostics who claimed to be Christians that Early Church fathers such as Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and Tertullian felt compelled to write about its dangers. Gnostic comes from the Greek word gnosis, meaning knowledge or wisdom. Gnostics claimed to be part of an elite group with secret wisdom that would lead them to salvation. Some Gnostics claimed that Jesus was God’s bearer of secret knowledge— one who had been sent to help the chosen few escape the imprisonment of their bodies. Most Gnostics had a dualistic view of the universe in which good and evil were seen as locked in a great struggle with one another. As a result of this struggle, the soul had somehow become trapped in the body. Gnostics believed that the human body was evil, along with the rest of the physical world. Therefore, our only hope for salvation was to escape the physical world and return to a purely spiritual state. Because Gnostics thought that matter was evil, they tended toward two extremes. They either regularly denied themselves the necessities of life in an attempt to purify their souls, or lived lives of extravagant indulgence,
Second of a six-part series on heresy BY JAMES PEDLAR Heaven and earth will be joined in a kind of marriage, and God will dwell among his people when all things have been made new (see Revelation 21:1-5). In short, the Christian hope is not for an escape from earth, but for a new Heaven and a new earth! 2. Escapism can also lead Christians to downplay the physical needs of other people. If going to Heaven is all that matters, why worry about the temporary sufferings of people in today’s world? The Salvation Army stands against this perversion of the gospel! William Booth rejected this kind of thinking long ago. The good news embraces human beings as whole persons, not disembodied souls, and therefore Christians need a holistic, integrated approach to mission. 3. Finally, escapism can also be used to promote the exploitation of creation. Christians should beware of the Gnostic error of thinking that the natural world does not matter. God commissioned humanity to act as stewards of his creation (see Genesis 1:26), and therefore we are responsible for its flourishing. As those who hope for the new creation, we should faithfully care for the present creation, in imitation of the One who “has compassion on all he has made” (see Psalm 145:9). James Pedlar is a doctoral student at Wycliffe College, in the Toronto School of Theology. He works parttime as assistant co-ordinator of faith and witness at the Canadian Council of Churches. Visit his blog at jamespedlar.wordpress.com.