An examination of what Johannine Gnostics believe concerning several religious topics.
If your son or daughter was to tell you that they were considering becoming a Gnostic, should you be concerned?
Now, before I go any further I should clarify that I will be talking about Gnosticism of the Johannine sort in this article. This is classical Gnosticism, from the foundational text The Secret Book (or Apocryphon) of John. There are other types of Gnosticism, but this is the primary version. If someone tells you that they are a Gnostic, chances are, they mean this sort. (Full disclosure: I consider myself to be a Gnostic but of another type of Gnosticism called Thomasine).
Okay, right. So rather than me telling you that this belief system is positive or not, as that is a very subjective quality, I will instead explore a few hot religious topics and see what the Johannine Gnostics believe concerning these issues.
Do Gnostics believe in Evolution or Creationism?
In Gnostic cosmology, the creator god is called the Demiurge. The entire concept of the Demiurge was taken from Plato's Timaeus, where the process of creation is quite clearly laid out. The Demiurge imprints the simulacra of the Forms onto matter. The Forms themselves are eternal and unchanging. This philosophy is essentially anti-evolutionary because evolution requires variation. Yet as the Forms are already ideally suited to their environment there is no place for evolution.
When we look at the Apocryphon of John we find that man was created by 365 demons many of which contributed a single body part or component. This is not development by evolution, but rather construction in the manner of a Frankenstein.
Answer: Johannine Gnostics believe in Creationism.
Do Gnostics believe in a flat Earth? Here, one would think that the fact that Plato believed the Earth was round would make this an easy no. In Phaedo, Plato wrote, If man could soar high above the clouds, Earth would resemble "one of those balls which have leather coverings in twelve pieces, and is decked with various colors, of which the colors used by painters on Earth are in a manner samples."
However, many of the Gnostics I have encountered believe that the Earth is, in fact, flat, and that the masses have been deceived by the all-powerful archons, arch-demons directly beneath the Demiurge.
Answer: Johannine Gnostics believe that everything we learn from the mainstream media is a lie.
They believe that the experts and the scientists and the politicians struggling to hold the liberal international economic order together are all controlled by the archons. They understand that evolution is a lie, there is no global warming, and the moon landings were faked.
Is Gnosticism Anti-Semitic?
The original Gnostics of the Johannine school also created the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is considered the most anti-Semitic of the canonical Gospels.
In John 8:44 we read where Jesus accuses the Jews: You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do.
The Apocryphon of John continues this tradition. In the Apocryphon, we learn that the God of the Jews is the mad Demiurge named Yaltabaoth. This book has been attacked by Irenaeus as Gnostic heresy, but make no mistake, this text was produced in house by members of the Johannine school.
Let’s take a quick look at The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, an apocryphal collection of stories about Jesus while he was growing up.
I. The stories of Thomas the Israelite, the Philosopher, concerning the works of the Childhood of the Lord. I, Thomas the Israelite, tell you, and all the brethren that are Gentiles, the works of the childhood of our Lord Jesus Christ and his mighty deeds, and all that he did when he was born in our land:
II. 1. This little child Jesus when he was five years old was playing at the ford of a brook: and he gathered together the waters that flowed there into pools, and made them clean, and commanded them by his word alone.
2. Having made soft clay, he fashioned twelve sparrows. It was the Sabbath when he did these things. And there were also many other little children playing with him.
3. A certain Jew when he saw what Jesus did, playing upon the Sabbath day, departed and told his father Joseph: Your child is at the brook, and he has taken clay and fashioned twelve little birds, and has polluted the Sabbath day.
4. Joseph came to the place and saw: and cried out to him, saying: Why do you these things on the Sabbath, which it is not lawful to do? But Jesus clapped his hands together and cried out to the sparrows and said to them: Go! and the sparrows took their flight and went away chirping.
5. When the Jews saw it they were amazed, and departed and told their chief men that which they had seen Jesus do.
III. 1. The son of Annas the scribe was standing there with Joseph; and he took a branch of a willow and dispersed the waters which Jesus had gathered together. 2. When Jesus saw what was done, he was angry and said to him: O evil, ungodly, and foolish one, what harm did the pools and the waters do you? Now you will be withered like a tree, and shall not bear leaves, neither root, nor fruit.
3. That lad withered up completely. Jesus departed and went to Joseph's house. The parents of the boy who was withered took him up wailing and brought him to Joseph, and accused him 'for you have such a child which does such deeds.'
In the apocryphal tale, we have Jesus forming a pool. Then he fashions twelve sparrows from clay. Finally, the son of Annas lets the water out of the pool which Jesus had formed and Jesus causes the boy to be dried up like a tree with no water.
Clearly, the pool is to represent Christianity. Concerning the tree, it must be remarked that, according to Luke, Annas was the high priest during the time of Jesus. Hence the tree represents the Jews.
Keeping those givens in mind, the tale appears to be a veiled threat to the Jews. If the Jews let the water out from the Christian pools, the end result will be that the Jews themselves shall dry up and whither.
Indeed, what we have is an ecological parable. Christianity is a pool of water which supports the tree of Judaism. Notice that the son of Annas uses a willow branch to disperse the water. Willows grow only in close proximity to fresh water.
This tale can be seen as referring to an uneasy alliance between Christianity and Judaism, the pool and the tree which the pool supports.
My belief is that the Secret Book of John was written to serve as a prototype for a Christianity severed from its Judaic roots. Mainstream Christianity is the result of an early marriage between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. Johannine Gnosticism is essentially pure Gentile Christianity. Forget the Old Testament, the god of the Jews is Samuel, the blind mad god.
The Secret Book of John was the ax that was set to strike at the roots of Judaism. As though to say, “Things might not be that great for you now, being as how the Bible describes your people killing Jesus. However, if you should decide to reveal the truth concerning Jesus, we will declare the God of the Jews a demon and hunt your kind to the ends of the Earth,” or something to that effect.
Answer: Yes. Johannine Gnosticism is by its very nature anti-Semitic.
There we have it. Johannine Gnosticism is essentially Evangelical Christianity on steroids. There are, of course, differences of doctrine. Gnosticism is concerned with the bits of light that are hidden within our evil bodies. This light is spirit and it comes from the true God that exists outside of time and space. This light has become trapped in matter and certain redeemers such as Seth and Jesus have been sent to deliver the knowledge necessary for freeing ourselves at the time of our deaths.
So the story isn’t that we are born into sin and must be saved by believing in Jesus Christ. No, instead we are sparks of light that have been trapped in material bodies and we must be freed by learning the secrets revealed by Jesus Christ. Different in specifics while being the same in function. One has merely replaced faith with knowledge, the knowledge likely consisting of little more than the rote memorization of ritualized phrases.
Complications arise where one considers the possibility that some people might have more light in them than others. When light is painted, one uses colors such as white and yellow. Isn’t it likely that people with lighter complexity would be considered possessing more spirit, while people with darker skin might be thought to have less light within them, or perhaps none at all?
But again, I am talking only about Johannine Gnosticism. I myself an a Thomasine Gnostic and we have quite different views on all of these issues.