Rev. David Holwick Z After Acts: Early Church series #8
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
August 1, 2004
Revelation 2:18-25
GNOSTICISM - THE NEW AGE AIN'T SO NEW
I. Into the Matrix.
A. The Ultimate Choice.
Morpheus, a man with circular mirrored glasses, approaches
Neo Anderson.
Neo is a young man who feels something is wrong with the world.
"You are a slave, Neo," the man says.
"You, like everyone else, were born into bondage - kept inside
a prison that you cannot smell, taste or touch.
A prison for your mind."
Morpheus holds two pills in his hands - one blue, one red.
Morpheus says, "This is your last chance.
After this, there is no going back.
You take the blue pill and the story ends.
You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to
believe.
You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you
how deep the rabbit-hole goes."
Neo takes the red pill.
Does this story ring a bell to you?
You probably have to be under age 20 to appreciate it.
It is a memorable scene from the hit movie "The Matrix."
Morpheus' offer visualizes what our culture often offers.
The blue pill stands for materialistic relativism - believing
there is no truth nor right and wrong.
Or, as Morpheus put it, "You believe whatever you want to
believe."
Consequently, "You wake in bed" - you enjoy yourself in
comfort, money, hedonistic pleasures, social success.
The red pill stands for Gnosticism - believing reality is
ultimately divine and spiritual rather than material.
It can be manipulated by whoever has "secret knowledge."
B. Secret knowledge is "hot" right now.
1) Madonna recently changed her name to Esther and she attends
a Kabbala center.
2) Kabbala is a form of Jewish mysticism.
a) By careful study and special instruction, they can
experience God in a new way.
b) The special instruction comes from leaders who have had
the secret knowledge passed on to them.
3) This kabbala center is said to be filled with Hollywood
stars, so it must be great stuff.
see #26639
II. The ancient source.
A. The "Matrix" philosophy can be traced to two thousand years ago.
1) The ancient Greeks thought that the spirit world was
the ultimate reality, and the physical world was
evil, or at best an illusion.
2) The goal of life is to escape this body and this world
and be reunited with the divine.
3) You can accomplish this escape when you gain special
knowledge, which in Greek is called "gnosis."
a) This is why the Apostle Paul had such a hard time
evangelizing in the city of Athens.
b) His sermon to the Athenians is a masterpiece.
He opens with a "kicker" illustration - a temple
dedicated to An Unknown God.
Of course, Paul feels their Unknown God is the God of
the Bible.
Paul alludes to nature, he quotes their own poets, but
he does not quote the Bible - they didn't know it.
His conclusion is that God's purpose has been
accomplished by one man, Jesus.
Jesus has been authenticated by his resurrection.
Once he mentioned the resurrection, where our dead
bodies come alive again and live forever, the
Greeks sneered at him. Acts 17:32
Why bring back what you don't want to begin with?
B. Some early Christians adapted this Greek idea.
1) In A.D. 140, a man named Valentinus came to Rome.
2) He taught a secret gnosis, or knowledge, that would
liberate our spirits from our physical bodies and take
us straight to God.
a) Jesus was a spiritual guide for this journey.
3) His movement was called Gnosticism, and it was the one
heresy that came closest to destroying the church.
a) The roots go back to the New Testament - characters
like the prophetess Jezebel offered a new way to God.
"Jezebel" is probably a fake name for a real person.
She was inside the church, and her teaching involved
secret knowledge, immorality, and a loose attitude
about idolatry.
Rather than being a literal Satan-worshipper (Rev 2:24)
she probably claimed to have a secret way to Jesus.
The immorality may have been an outcome of her Gnostic
teaching - the body doesn't matter, so sex doesn't
matter, either.
b) Special knowledge was the key.
III. Gnosticism is alive and well today.
A. It is found throughout our popular culture.
1) Movies - Star Wars Harry Potter, The Matrix, etc.
2) Television - The X Files.
3) Books - A Course in Miracles by Deepak Chopra.
a) One million copies sold.
b) Neo-gnostic interpretation of Jesus' teaching, with
some Hinduism thrown in.
c) (In many bookstores, Bibles are now kept in the
New Age section.)
4) Movements.
a) Wicca - white witches.
b) Psychics and New Age.
c) Neo-paganism. (Nature worshippers)
1> These are the ones who gather at Stonehenge when
there is a solar solstice.
d) New Age. (general term for psychic emphasis)
5) The Christian church.
a) This one may surprise you.
b) Yale professor Harold Bloom argues that many Americans,
even some professing Christians, are Gnostics.
Their religion is based on personal experience and has
little room for tradition or authority.
The goal of their religion is "to be alone with God or
Jesus." #26639
I think Bloom makes a valid point.
B. Gnosticism's attraction.
1) It is easily accessible and understandable.
a) You can make it into whatever you want it to be.
b) Roger Ebert, the movie critic, wrote this in 1998:
"New Age spirituality is Me oriented and gives its
followers top billing in the soap operas of their
own lives.
People like to believe they've had lots of previous
incarnations, get messages in their dreams, and are
psychic.
When there's a trend toward humility and selflessness,
then we'll know we're getting somewhere on the
spiritual front.
That time is not yet."
#28050
2) It is largely non-institutional.
a) (No big churches to maintain)
3) It is countercultural.
a) Modern life is too sterile and dead.
b) Gnosticism can bring you to something new and exciting.
4) It imposes few social obligations and taboos. #28043
a) Experience-based Christianity can fall into this trap.
b) Once one has been saved, petty moral considerations can
fall away with distressing regularity.
Philip Yancey offered the case of a friend of his
named Susan.
She was a Christian who told Yancey "that her husband
did not measure up and she was actively looking for
other men to meet her needs for intimacy."
Susan mentioned that she got up early each day to
"spend an hour with the Father."
Yancey asked, "In your meetings with the Father, do any
moral issues come up that might influence this
pending decision about leaving your husband?"
Susan bristled: "That sounds like the response of a
white Anglo-Saxon male.
The Father and I are into relationship, not morality.
Relationship means being wholly supportive and
standing alongside me, not judging me."
#28051
IV. Gnosis is already here.
A. Nature can point the way to God, but it is not God.
1) Romans 1:20 - God's invisible qualities can be seen in
nature.
2) But it is idolatry to worship Nature.
B. Supernatural power is available, but you need discernment.
1) Not all "spirituality" is legitimate.
2) Check out their claims.
Frederick Lenz of Malibu, California, claimed to be an
enlightened guru, the Zen Master "Rama."
He advertised in The New York Times.
In 6 months he spent half a million dollars on ads.
Lenz claims to be one of 12 truly enlightened beings on
the planet, but won't say who other 11 are.
Buddhists believe in two paths to enlightenment, the
fast and slow.
Slow takes thousands of lifetimes, fast takes one.
Lenz's path is express lane - an hour with him is worth
100 years of meditation.
This is why he can charge so much.
Monthly sessions cost $600.
He likes cash in big denominations; small bills are
"low vibed." He also takes credit cards.
It must work, because he owns 2 Porsches and a Learjet.
But beware - a seminar he held put this disclaimer on
the bottom of the program:
"Neither Rama Seminars Inc. nor any of its agents or
employees, including Dr. Frederick Lenz, make any
express, implied or other representation or warranty
of any kind whatsoever that your attendance at any Rama
Seminars may or will result in your receiving any
particular benefit(s) whatsoever.
This includes without limitation benefits concerning your
health, prosperity, life-style, personal growth,
meditation ability, psychological well-being, personal
circumstances and/or any other matters.
Your attendance at Rama Seminars is solely at your own
risk." #20
C. The knowledge of Christ is available to all.
1) Jesus told the religious authorities his teaching was never
a secret. He proclaimed it publicly.
2) Paul does mentions the "mystery of Christ."
a) It used to be a secret, but now anything can get it.
Romans 16:25-26
b) Just surrender your life to Jesus and accept his
sacrifice of himself for your sins.
3) Christian spirituality is not a search for religious
experience nor a self-help movement.
It is not a philosophy, nor a search for enlightenment.
It is not an idea or a technique of meditation.
It is simply a life lived in Christ.
#3615
4) Do you KNOW Jesus?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
# 20 "An Enlightened Guru Without Guarantees" Newsweek magazine,
February 1, 1988, pages 58-59.
# 3615 "Blinded By The 'Lite'," editorial by Thomas C. Oden, Online
Christianity Today (America Online), September 12, 1994.
#26639 "An Old Error In A New Package: Hollywood And Kabbalah,"
BreakPoint Commentary by Charles Colson, May 14, 2004.
#28043 "Christians and the New Pagans" by Nicola Hoggard Creegan,
Lecturer In Theology, Bible College Of New Zealand,
http://www.reality.org.nz/articles/44/44-creegan.html
#28050 "Heavenly Hollywood?" by Roger Ebert, in "Roger Ebert on
spirituality in movies," The Gazette (Colorado Springs),
April 10, 1998, quoted in Discipleship Journal #106 Currents,
Jul/Aug 1998.
#28051 "Does God Care About Our Morality?" by Jeremy Lott, Christianity
Today International / Books & Culture Magazine, Nov/Dec 2002.
These and 25,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/illust.html
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