…and hastening the “born again” experience.

Readership: All
Reader’s Note: This post is the fourth in a series on Gnosticism.
Length: 1,200 words
Reading Time: 4 minutes

The Stronghold of Gnosticism

The last post, 10 Defining Traits of Gnosticism (2021-10-28), showed that Gnostics try to carry their own weight in life. Here, I’ll summarize these 10 traits in terms of the underlying lies they represent.

  1. Platonic/Aristotelian logic is capable of understanding and systematizing metaphysical phenomenon.
  2. The intellect is sufficient as a reliable moral and spiritual guide.
  3. An idealized human condition can be achieved.
  4. People can decide for themselves what truth is, based on their own values, beliefs, moods, preferences, prerogatives and purposes.
  5. Spiritual reality is a subjective experience.
  6. People are capable of maintaining their overall attitude, behavior, and mood.
  7. Spirituality is associated with sensuality. (Hedonic vs. Ascetic)
  8. God is purely a spirit being or force, not mortal.
  9. People can make up their own moral rules and live by them.
  10. Things of this world (pedigree, history, possessions, traditions, etc.) make up one’s life and personal worth.

I’ll refer to this list in the remainder of this essay.

It may be easy for us to get the impression that Gnosticism is equivalent to Progressivism or political liberalism, but this is not necessarily so. Gnosticism is an embodiment of the human inclination towards independence from God, and as such, it applies to everyone. We are not aware that we are all Gnostics to some degree.

Read down the list above. It is the same as saying, “I can do just fine on my own without God. I can be functional. I can be happy. I can find love, contentment, popularity, self-esteem, and so on… without having to admit any fault of my own or ask God for anything. Jesus doesn’t need to die for me.”  Those 10 defining traits of Gnosticism are man’s way of doing just that.

This collection of lies forms a stronghold that must be broken if one is to come to God.

Breaking

The Greatest Archetype (2021 May 21) described how a person needs to come to the opposite realization:  “I cannot do just fine on my own without God! I cannot be functional! I cannot be happy! I cannot find love, contentment, popularity, self-esteem, and so on… I have deep faults of my own and I cannot change myself!  God is my only hope!  I be the sinner whom Jesus died for!” 

“Only when we have come to the end of ourselves, not as we might imagine ourselves to be while in a state of desperation, but in totality, are we are able to receive the Holy Spirit. All our vows and resolutions end in denial because we have no power to carry them out. Only Christ has that power. Because the natural man is not able to reach beyond its own martyrdom, it requires the invasion of the Holy Spirit.

At the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love and Grace of God’s Truth pounces on our heart and dominates our spirit, against our will, and contrary to our natural mind. We may try to fight the realization (e.g. by relying on vain rational justifications or emotional defense mechanisms), or run and hide, just as Peter did, but deep within our being, we know that we will inevitably be dominated by the gracious providence of God, and that our self-centered will shall be overruled by His greater will. We are filled with a sense of gratefulness for having received this greater purpose for living, and the honor that it entails.”

In other words, we must come to a place where we know we will never achieve the thing we desire most. We must confess our Gnostic tendencies – our frantic grasping to achieve those things — as trial evidence of believing in lies and relinquish our claim to authority over our own lives. I must come to Jesus with the horror of knowing that I drove the nails into his hands and feet… and yet, I cannot turn away in shame. I need what only He can give me. I must trust Him to help me.

Understanding the Experience of Being Broken

I grew up in a Baptist church, so I used to have the idea that the “born again” experience is a conscious act of the will. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to believe that it is not. It has more to do with the breaking of the inherent autopilot habituation toward Gnosticism (the list of 10 traits above), and it is the same thing as the “born again” experience described in John 3. The “breaking” experience is not something that can be entered into willingly. For most people, it is unexpected, uncontrollable, and it is strongly resisted. However, it does help if one willingly avoids indulging in sin and idols, which only postpone or short-circuit the “breaking”.

To be honest, the message behind The Greatest Archetype is from God, and for a long while, I wasn’t sure I totally understood it. I started writing this post 3 years ago, but I was confused about what it meant and I didn’t know how to finish it. The reason it was so difficult and confusing for me to finish this post is because the idea of God “breaking” us, and the related idea of “knowing one’s self” are not explicitly described in the Bible. I suspected that it might have been a heretical notion.

I only began to understand the concepts after I finished writing it and started getting some feedback in the comments section. Lastmod, bless his soul, went into another one of his anti-God modes. His issue is that, all his life, God has been trying to “break” him, as was described of Peter in the post (which is also like breaking a horse), but he keeps resisting in various ways. In the past, he turned to cocaine and who knows what else. Up until recently, he was indulging in pride/distrust, bitterness, and spiritual rebellion.

It was hard to watch. I mean, it was pointless to try to engage with him, because it couldn’t go anywhere due to his attitude. It’s like I had to keep reminding myself that God knows him better than he knows himself, and He knows all about his issues, and this is just the way he is going to be, and leave it be, really.*

It was interesting to me how this post speaks directly to his issue with God — but… he said he couldn’t understand this post at all. It was obvious to me that he didn’t know himself, and couldn’t see himself.

That’s when I realized how “knowing one’s self” fits into the picture.

He carried the notion, as we all do (or did at one time), that when God is trying to break him, then it means God is trying to destroy him.

But this is a response of distrust in His authority. We must accept the Right Hand of God, for good or ill. This acceptance brings a calm humility and deep peace.

And the answer is… No, God is not seeking to utterly destroy us. It’s just a crack that runs through the hardest places in the heart – just big enough to let the sin drain out.

Knowing one’s self will be covered in the next post in this series.

* I’m proud to say that Lastmod has been making steady progress in his faith since that time.

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