The Two Minimal Standards for Christian Gnosticism

Gnosticism (from a Greek verb meaning "to know") was an intellectual (and sometimes lunatic fringe) form of esoteric mysticism that predated Christianity and dates back to the multicultural cosmopolitan ferment of the Hellenistic World. When Christianity emerged in the Mediterranean cultural scene, many Gnostics found certain aspects of the new faith very attractive and germane to their own thoughts, and so combined them. Gnosticism was a thoroughly decentralized movement, and no less so when forms of Gnostic Christianity began to emerge. Therefore, whether as "pure" Gnosticism or Christian Gnosticism, there were a plethora of forms. However, there are two basic (though complex) principles that unify them all: (1) the world we presently live in is not the world intended for our souls; it is in fact a "false world" created by a very sophisticated being posing as "God" who has lured souls to this material realm in order to control us; this false god is called, "The Demiurge" or "Rex Mundi", and assisting him are a group of powerful beings serving as his cosmic lieutenants, called, "The Archons"; the way to know when you are dealing with one of these supernatural charlatans is that they are concerned with manipulating the ebb and flow of worldly power; thus any form of purportedly holy scripture that contains an account where "God" or "a god" is intervening in human political, military or economic affairs, you are are seeing the record of the manipulative practices of The Demiurge or one of his Archons managing the "prison" we call Earth; (2) salvation of the soul is tantamount to freeing it from the trap of this false world by acquiring the proper knowledge of the truth; the truth is that we mortals are almost entirely cut off from the True God, who is a loving, benign, just and healing being; if we can cultivate an awareness whereby we cease to be manipulated by the cues and pressures created and promulgated by the False God and his adherents, our soul can pass freely to the heavenly world of perfect joy and not get recycled back into another material body prone to this world of grief, injustice, corruption and oppression. The special spin that Christian Gnostics put on Gnosticism was that Jesus was a higher being sent by the True God as a piloting agent to provide us with the teachings to liberate ourselves from the False World. The matter of his crucifixion, however, is variously interpreted by various Christian Gnostic camps. For some it was felt to be masterminded by the Demiurge and his Archons working through Roman Imperial authorities in order to thwart Jesus from completing his mission. For others, it was a part of Jesus' plan, whereby his crucifixion would mark his life in a signal fashion to others, because after dying a mortal death, his soul and its ethereal body could re-emerge before mortals and show them that the mortal hold the Demiurge has upon us is only temporary and not capable of retaining its grip on their actual souls. Our souls in fact, properly belong to the True God, and we can become free through acquiring the right knowledge of our beloved relationship with the True God. So, while Gnostic Christians were concerned with social justice and moral conduct, they also wrote commentaries and gospels which were esoteric readings of scriptural tradition. These esoteric readings were designed to obtain the knowledge of true salvation, which comes not by Jesus' crucifixion as a form of ultimate religious sacrifice, but by Jesus' example as world-transcending being through the proof of his Resurrection and his consistent teachings on how to throw off the yoke of worldly values -- worldly values promoted to our detriment by the Demiurge and his Archons. In short, Gnostic Christians had found a solution to the vexing question of why God is Good but there is injustice in the world: the Earth is not the proper home of our souls and we have mistaken notions of who God is. This world is one giant slave plantation for which we were never intended by the True God, and it is run by renegade demonic overseers.