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Today, we take a closer look at Gnosticism. We'll explore the dramatic discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts, the unique divine family of the Gnostics, the story of Sophia and Yaldabaoth, and their different perspective on Jesus… Welcome to Religion Camp!
I had another episode planned for today, but at the last minute I decided to rerun this Christmas episode for you. I think this will become our traditional Christmas episode here at Gnostic Insights. And, if you are new to this podcast, welcome! Next week’s episode will be controversial, so I thought it best to wait until after Christmas for its release. Today, we're going to look at the nature of the Christ—the who, what, why of Christ. Most people are familiar with seeing the baby Jesus in the manger and that's what we celebrate at Christmas time, the birth of the Christ on Earth in the form of a human. But the Christ is an ethereal creature that predates the birth of Jesus. Jesus and the Christ aren't exactly the same, although Jesus was fully Christ. The Christ predates the birth of the human known as Jesus. So, let's learn more about the Christ and why the Christ figure is so essential to us Second Order Powers. Gnosticism is the forerunner of the modern Christian faith. As such, a better understanding of the figure of the Christ is essential to understanding both Gnosticism and Christianity. The cosmology that I talk about here on the podcast was well known to Jesus and his original followers, but it was cut out of Christianity about 1700 years ago by the Nicene Council, at the urging of the Pope and the Roman Emperor. Because this theology was subtracted from orthodox Christianity, many of the ideas of gnostic cosmology sound odd and unfamiliar to modern churchgoers. Some of the ideas may even sound heretical at first glance due to their unfamiliarity. Yet the theology contained in these early scriptures makes sense of so many puzzling aspects of Christian faith that they must be reexamined. That's why I call the Substack The Gnostic Reformation. I'm confident that once you understand gnostic Christianity, you will better understand your relationship with God. According to gnostic cosmology as laid out in the Nag Hammadi, we humans and all other forms of life on Earth, from bacteria and eukaryotes on up, are the fruit of the Pleroma and Logos. We Second Order Powers find ourselves locked in a never-ending battle for dominion over the Earth with forces that were generated as a result of the Fall. Due to the law of mutual combat, we have forgotten our origin in the Fullness and our mission to bring love and harmony to creation and have instead taken on many of the characteristics of the shadows of the Deficiency. The Second Order Powers are locked in a never-ending war with the Deficiency. Here below, we constantly battle the physical forces of death and entropy, as well as the spiritual forces of vice, sin, delusion and despair. In order to restore memory and reason to the Second Order Powers, the Aeons of the Fullness, every one of them individually and all of them collectively, gave glory in unison to their Father while praying for a helper to bring peace to the Deficiency and forgiveness to Logos. Out of this focused prayer, a unique fruit emerged, one that contained all of the capabilities and powers of the Fullness, along with all of the love and eternal qualities of the Father. The singular fruit of the Fullness and the Father is known by various names: the Christ, the Savior and the Redeemer, the Advocate, the Light, and the Beloved. In Simple Explanation terms, the Christ is a perfect and full fractal of the Father and the Son, all rolled-up into one perfect form. Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth was both perfect man and perfect God incarnate. Christian Gnostics believed the same. Here is a more complete explanation of who Jesus was. It's said that Jesus was conceived without sin because he carried within his body the perfection of man and God. This would mean that Jesus was perfect and true to the original DNA formula for humanity. Hence the importance of the virgin birth that then imparted that perfect DNA to the baby. Jesus was also without negative karma attached to his soul, as his soul was the soul of God. The components of Jesus's body were also without sin, as the cells and flesh that became Jesus were in fact the Aeons of the Fullness incarnate. As Colossians 1:19 says, “For God was pleased to have all his Fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on Earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.” This one sentence from Colossians contains the entire Christian Gnostic Gospel. Because Jesus brought along the entire Fullness of the Pleroma when he incarnated, every aspect of the Father and Son came to material instantiation on Earth. In this manner, the eternal God experienced the finite life of us Second Order Powers and all of the struggle between birth and death that plague us all. Here is how the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi scriptures describes this process: “As for those of the shadow, Logos separated himself from them in every way, since they fight against him and are not at all humble before him. The stumbling which happened to the Aeons of the Father was brought to them as if it were their own, in a careful and non-malicious and immensely sweet way. It was brought to the Fullnesses so that they might be instructed about the Deficiency by the single One, from whom alone they all received strength to eliminate the defects. They gathered together, asking the Father, with beneficent intent, that there be aid from above from the Father for his glory, since the defective one could not become perfect in any other way unless it was the will of the Pleroma of the Father, which he had drawn to himself, revealed, and given to the defective one. Then, from the harmony, in a joyous willingness which had come into being, they brought forth the fruit which was a begetting from the harmony, a unity, a possession of the Fullnesses, revealing the countenance of the Father of whom the Aeons thought as they gave glory and prayed for help for their brother with a wish in which the Father counted himself with them. Thus it was willingly and gladly that they brought forth the fruit. And he made manifest the agreement of the revelation of his union with them, which was his beloved Son, but the Son in whom the Fullnesses are pleased to put himself on them as a garment through which he gave perfection to the defective one and gave confirmation to those who are perfect, the One who is properly called Savior and the Redeemer and the Well-pleasing One, and the Beloved, the One to whom prayers have been offered, and the Christ and the light of those appointed in accordance with the ones from whom he was brought forth, since he has become the names of the positions which were given to him. Yet what other name may be applied to him except the Son, as we have previously said, since he is the knowledge of the Father whom he wanted them to know? Not only did the Aeons generate the countenance of the Father to whom they gave praise, but also they generated their own, for the Aeons who give glory, generated their countenance and their face. They came forth in a multifaceted form in order that the one to whom help was to be given might see those to whom he had prayed for help. He also sees the One who gave it to him.” (That is from the Tripartite Tractate sections 85 through 87.) So you see, the mission of the Christ, as stated in Colossians, was to redeem all of creation, including the fallen Aeon who had founded our material universe. Because the Christ came to redeem everyone, the body of Jesus came to Earth with every one of the Fullnesses on board. For every fallen spirit, the Christ brought forth their own personal and recognizable Savior. Redemption has already taken place. It is up to the Second Order Powers and the one who fell to recognize and accept that redemption in order to complete the mission of the Christ. In Simple Explanation terms, the Christ brought the correcting formula for all of our spirits and souls, each unique and personally formulated to meet our individual needs. The baptism of the Christ washes away the mental and spiritual confusion brought on by the endless war with shadows of the Fall. Gnostics are apocalyptic, as are Christians. Gnostics believe that some day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus, the Christ, is Lord. Repentance and redemption comes harder for some than for others. Some souls take more time to recognize and remember. Ultimately, though, there comes a day of reckoning, for the Father will not be denied forever. There will soon come a day when the Deficiency ends. On that day, a new economy will unite Heaven and Earth, and all souls will find their joyful place in Paradise. The only forms banished to the outer darkness will be the shadows and phantoms of the Fall, which did not exist within the Father's consciousness from the beginning. These shadows are not real and they will have no home with us in Paradise. The hierarchy of the Fullness of God dreams of Paradise. Logos crowns the hierarchy and contains fractals of all the other Aeons. Now here's a gnostic perspective of Jesus on the cross. One of the central themes of the Christian faith is the death of Jesus on the cross. Christians the world over focus on the body of Jesus hanging on the cross, and I've often wondered, why this fixation of Jesus on the cross? Why is the crucifix the focal point of every church and altar? Why do people wear the cross as jewelry or hang a crucifix in their bedroom? The obvious answer Christians give is that without the cross, Jesus could not have saved humanity from sin, for he bore our sins into the grave with his death and they were washed away with his resurrection from the dead. Praise be to God, but why the cross? If Jesus had been stoned to death or drowned or beaten or thrown from a high tower, would we still feel such affinity for the stone, a lake, a club or a roof? I don't think so. I think there is something very special about the shape of the cross itself. I ask this question because Jesus never said, I'm soon to pass on from this world, and I want you to focus on my body hanging on the cross as I take on the sins of the world. And yet, that's what people do, as if that were the entire point of the Gospel. As far as I can tell, Jesus did not ask for his death and resurrection to be the focal point of worship. What Jesus actually said was: “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30), and, “Whoever welcomes me welcomes the Father that sent me” (Luke 9:48). In other words, Jesus acknowledged himself in reference to his Father and he deflected glory to his Father. Yet Jesus is worshipped by modern Christians to the extent that the Father almost goes unmentioned. Thank goodness for the Lord's prayer, which is directed to the Father and not to the Son. Jesus taught it to be said to the Father; he did not teach it to be recited to himself. No slight to the Son, of course, we're merely emphasizing the importance of the God Above All Gods. During the last supper, Jesus instructed his followers to think of his broken body as they break and eat bread and to consider his blood as the fulfillment of a contract with humanity as they drink wine. This is what Jesus left the church as instruction regarding his death. He did not instruct them to erect images of crosses and to worship him hanging on a cross, as if he were stuck up there forever. Yes, Protestants have allowed Jesus to come down off the cross and therefore their crosses are unoccupied to remind us that Jesus resurrected, but still the focus is on the cross. Again—why the cross in particular? Here is the symbolism of the cross as I understand it. We who dwell on Earth are engaged in endless warfare with the Imitation that always seeks to lure us away from our Father in Heaven. Oftentimes we don't even realize we're engaged in warfare with the Imitation, because it can appear disguised as goodness. This is what is meant by the Devil being a liar. Things are proposed “for our own good,” but they're not; they're proposed for power and control. We Second Order of Powers are engaged in this endless warfare and, although we come from a good disposition of the Father and the Fullness, we have forgotten our heavenly nature and become deluded because of rage and other passions and addictions. The Christ came to Earth in the form of a Son of Man to bring the Third Order of Powers to Earth as the solution to overcoming the phantoms of the Imitation that have mired the Second Order Powers in error and ignorance. Those who have eyes to see the Christ are able to remember their Father in Heaven. Those who remember their Father in Heaven and repent from the Imitation are redeemed. Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the promise to redeem the fallen. Jesus as the Son of God and the Son of Man brought salvation to the Deficiency and restored it to the Kingdom of Heaven. The reason the cross looks as it does and occupies such a central role in worship is that the cross represents human beings. The Cross is shaped like a human, a Son of Man. It is no accident that Jesus was crucified on a cross because Jesus is a Son of Man, the Son of Man. The Cross should remind us that humankind has been redeemed by the body and blood of Christ in an even more profound way than acknowledging the indignity and suffering of Christ on the cross. It should remind us that the Son of God—the Christ—bridged with the form of his human body spirit-to-matter, which is top-to-bottom, and neighbor-to-neighbor, which is side-to-side, just as the shape of the cross. In the Gnostic Gospel, redemption comes to all of creation through the incarnation of the Son of God into the body of the Son of Man. The manner of the Savior's birth, death, and resurrection will come to every soul as they realize their Father is in Heaven and to Heaven they will return. For, as it says, “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” That affirmation comes from the New Testament (Philippians 2:10). It just takes time. We aren't there yet because of the common delusion of presumptuous thought, which causes people to behave selfishly. Ego must first make way for the love of Christ to take over the throne of the Self. Only then may you rise above the egoic imitation, for then you will have a champion and a king. The very public way that Jesus was crucified and the very public way that he resurrected gives us all hope of the same: Jesus demonstrates proof of resurrection and his life, death, and resurrection is about all of us, not only about the Christ. Jesus is the exemplar of our resurrection. And, by the way, in a Gnostic sense, which could be considered heretical by many Christians, the story of Jesus and the Christ and the Father don't even have to be believed as historical fact, which many nay-sayers make the cornerstone of their argument against Christ and God. The very concepts themselves—the very thoughts, the mind—is what carries this. We are consciousness and this Christ story is in our consciousness for our salvation. Think on that… I acknowledge that this is a very different version of Christianity than has been traditionally presented to us. This is gnosis that was originally contained in the sacred scriptures that formed the New Testament prior to the Pope and Emperor of Rome getting their hands on it and stripping it out. It's nice to know. I hope you get it. It doesn't really matter, because all you need to know is that we come from the Father and to the Father we will return. That is the bottom line. We are emanations directly of the Father and the Father has promised to save us all and bring us all home. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.” This has been taken to mean that one must acknowledge the power of the Christ before the Christ can redeem you. But, you see, this would put all of the power of redemption in your hands rather than Christ's. The Christ will redeem all Second Order Powers by the end of time, with or without your prior acknowledgment. All redemption comes to the Father through the Christ, and that is in Christ's hands. What accepting the Christ now does for you is open the door for the Third Order Powers to enter your egoic soul. This power makes it possible to live a joyous and virtuous life. It allows the love of the Father to flow through you and out into the world. And it eases your transition after the physical death of your body, so you may enter the afterlife without fear, knowing that you rest in the Pleroma of the Christ. The Final Economy is our foretaste of Paradise. No more shadows, no more sorrow. I hope that this information is helpful to you and will help you remember your gnosis. Merry Christmas. God bless us all. And onward and upward. If you are getting any gnosis from this information, please consider supporting Gnostic Insights with a generous donation. It helps keep me motivated. I’m a one-person enterprise with full responsibility for every aspect of this podcast, from writing to recording to editing to artwork to paying for the hosting services that bring this gnosis to you. I could really use some more support! Please do what you can. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *Stripe Credit Card *Choose your item *Item A - $10.00Item B - $25.00Item C - $50.00Total$0.00Submit
I had another episode planned for today, but at the last minute I decided to rerun this Christmas episode for you. I think this will become our traditional Christmas episode here at Gnostic Insights. And, if you are new to this podcast, welcome! Next week’s episode will be controversial, so I thought it best to wait until after Christmas for its release. Today, we're going to look at the nature of the Christ—the who, what, why of Christ. Most people are familiar with seeing the baby Jesus in the manger and that's what we celebrate at Christmas time, the birth of the Christ on Earth in the form of a human. But the Christ is an ethereal creature that predates the birth of Jesus. Jesus and the Christ aren't exactly the same, although Jesus was fully Christ. The Christ predates the birth of the human known as Jesus. So, let's learn more about the Christ and why the Christ figure is so essential to us Second Order Powers. Gnosticism is the forerunner of the modern Christian faith. As such, a better understanding of the figure of the Christ is essential to understanding both Gnosticism and Christianity. The cosmology that I talk about here on the podcast was well known to Jesus and his original followers, but it was cut out of Christianity about 1700 years ago by the Nicene Council, at the urging of the Pope and the Roman Emperor. Because this theology was subtracted from orthodox Christianity, many of the ideas of gnostic cosmology sound odd and unfamiliar to modern churchgoers. Some of the ideas may even sound heretical at first glance due to their unfamiliarity. Yet the theology contained in these early scriptures makes sense of so many puzzling aspects of Christian faith that they must be reexamined. That's why I call the Substack The Gnostic Reformation. I'm confident that once you understand gnostic Christianity, you will better understand your relationship with God. According to gnostic cosmology as laid out in the Nag Hammadi, we humans and all other forms of life on Earth, from bacteria and eukaryotes on up, are the fruit of the Pleroma and Logos. We Second Order Powers find ourselves locked in a never-ending battle for dominion over the Earth with forces that were generated as a result of the Fall. Due to the law of mutual combat, we have forgotten our origin in the Fullness and our mission to bring love and harmony to creation and have instead taken on many of the characteristics of the shadows of the Deficiency. The Second Order Powers are locked in a never-ending war with the Deficiency. Here below, we constantly battle the physical forces of death and entropy, as well as the spiritual forces of vice, sin, delusion and despair. In order to restore memory and reason to the Second Order Powers, the Aeons of the Fullness, every one of them individually and all of them collectively, gave glory in unison to their Father while praying for a helper to bring peace to the Deficiency and forgiveness to Logos. Out of this focused prayer, a unique fruit emerged, one that contained all of the capabilities and powers of the Fullness, along with all of the love and eternal qualities of the Father. The singular fruit of the Fullness and the Father is known by various names: the Christ, the Savior and the Redeemer, the Advocate, the Light, and the Beloved. In Simple Explanation terms, the Christ is a perfect and full fractal of the Father and the Son, all rolled-up into one perfect form. Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth was both perfect man and perfect God incarnate. Christian Gnostics believed the same. Here is a more complete explanation of who Jesus was. It's said that Jesus was conceived without sin because he carried within his body the perfection of man and God. This would mean that Jesus was perfect and true to the original DNA formula for humanity. Hence the importance of the virgin birth that then imparted that perfect DNA to the baby. Jesus was also without negative karma attached to his soul, as his soul was the soul of God. The components of Jesus's body were also without sin, as the cells and flesh that became Jesus were in fact the Aeons of the Fullness incarnate. As Colossians 1:19 says, “For God was pleased to have all his Fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on Earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross.” This one sentence from Colossians contains the entire Christian Gnostic Gospel. Because Jesus brought along the entire Fullness of the Pleroma when he incarnated, every aspect of the Father and Son came to material instantiation on Earth. In this manner, the eternal God experienced the finite life of us Second Order Powers and all of the struggle between birth and death that plague us all. Here is how the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi scriptures describes this process: “As for those of the shadow, Logos separated himself from them in every way, since they fight against him and are not at all humble before him. The stumbling which happened to the Aeons of the Father was brought to them as if it were their own, in a careful and non-malicious and immensely sweet way. It was brought to the Fullnesses so that they might be instructed about the Deficiency by the single One, from whom alone they all received strength to eliminate the defects. They gathered together, asking the Father, with beneficent intent, that there be aid from above from the Father for his glory, since the defective one could not become perfect in any other way unless it was the will of the Pleroma of the Father, which he had drawn to himself, revealed, and given to the defective one. Then, from the harmony, in a joyous willingness which had come into being, they brought forth the fruit which was a begetting from the harmony, a unity, a possession of the Fullnesses, revealing the countenance of the Father of whom the Aeons thought as they gave glory and prayed for help for their brother with a wish in which the Father counted himself with them. Thus it was willingly and gladly that they brought forth the fruit. And he made manifest the agreement of the revelation of his union with them, which was his beloved Son, but the Son in whom the Fullnesses are pleased to put himself on them as a garment through which he gave perfection to the defective one and gave confirmation to those who are perfect, the One who is properly called Savior and the Redeemer and the Well-pleasing One, and the Beloved, the One to whom prayers have been offered, and the Christ and the light of those appointed in accordance with the ones from whom he was brought forth, since he has become the names of the positions which were given to him. Yet what other name may be applied to him except the Son, as we have previously said, since he is the knowledge of the Father whom he wanted them to know? Not only did the Aeons generate the countenance of the Father to whom they gave praise, but also they generated their own, for the Aeons who give glory, generated their countenance and their face. They came forth in a multifaceted form in order that the one to whom help was to be given might see those to whom he had prayed for help. He also sees the One who gave it to him.” (That is from the Tripartite Tractate sections 85 through 87.) So you see, the mission of the Christ, as stated in Colossians, was to redeem all of creation, including the fallen Aeon who had founded our material universe. Because the Christ came to redeem everyone, the body of Jesus came to Earth with every one of the Fullnesses on board. For every fallen spirit, the Christ brought forth their own personal and recognizable Savior. Redemption has already taken place. It is up to the Second Order Powers and the one who fell to recognize and accept that redemption in order to complete the mission of the Christ. In Simple Explanation terms, the Christ brought the correcting formula for all of our spirits and souls, each unique and personally formulated to meet our individual needs. The baptism of the Christ washes away the mental and spiritual confusion brought on by the endless war with shadows of the Fall. Gnostics are apocalyptic, as are Christians. Gnostics believe that some day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus, the Christ, is Lord. Repentance and redemption comes harder for some than for others. Some souls take more time to recognize and remember. Ultimately, though, there comes a day of reckoning, for the Father will not be denied forever. There will soon come a day when the Deficiency ends. On that day, a new economy will unite Heaven and Earth, and all souls will find their joyful place in Paradise. The only forms banished to the outer darkness will be the shadows and phantoms of the Fall, which did not exist within the Father's consciousness from the beginning. These shadows are not real and they will have no home with us in Paradise. The hierarchy of the Fullness of God dreams of Paradise. Logos crowns the hierarchy and contains fractals of all the other Aeons. Now here's a gnostic perspective of Jesus on the cross. One of the central themes of the Christian faith is the death of Jesus on the cross. Christians the world over focus on the body of Jesus hanging on the cross, and I've often wondered, why this fixation of Jesus on the cross? Why is the crucifix the focal point of every church and altar? Why do people wear the cross as jewelry or hang a crucifix in their bedroom? The obvious answer Christians give is that without the cross, Jesus could not have saved humanity from sin, for he bore our sins into the grave with his death and they were washed away with his resurrection from the dead. Praise be to God, but why the cross? If Jesus had been stoned to death or drowned or beaten or thrown from a high tower, would we still feel such affinity for the stone, a lake, a club or a roof? I don't think so. I think there is something very special about the shape of the cross itself. I ask this question because Jesus never said, I'm soon to pass on from this world, and I want you to focus on my body hanging on the cross as I take on the sins of the world. And yet, that's what people do, as if that were the entire point of the Gospel. As far as I can tell, Jesus did not ask for his death and resurrection to be the focal point of worship. What Jesus actually said was: “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30), and, “Whoever welcomes me welcomes the Father that sent me” (Luke 9:48). In other words, Jesus acknowledged himself in reference to his Father and he deflected glory to his Father. Yet Jesus is worshipped by modern Christians to the extent that the Father almost goes unmentioned. Thank goodness for the Lord's prayer, which is directed to the Father and not to the Son. Jesus taught it to be said to the Father; he did not teach it to be recited to himself. No slight to the Son, of course, we're merely emphasizing the importance of the God Above All Gods. During the last supper, Jesus instructed his followers to think of his broken body as they break and eat bread and to consider his blood as the fulfillment of a contract with humanity as they drink wine. This is what Jesus left the church as instruction regarding his death. He did not instruct them to erect images of crosses and to worship him hanging on a cross, as if he were stuck up there forever. Yes, Protestants have allowed Jesus to come down off the cross and therefore their crosses are unoccupied to remind us that Jesus resurrected, but still the focus is on the cross. Again—why the cross in particular? Here is the symbolism of the cross as I understand it. We who dwell on Earth are engaged in endless warfare with the Imitation that always seeks to lure us away from our Father in Heaven. Oftentimes we don't even realize we're engaged in warfare with the Imitation, because it can appear disguised as goodness. This is what is meant by the Devil being a liar. Things are proposed “for our own good,” but they're not; they're proposed for power and control. We Second Order of Powers are engaged in this endless warfare and, although we come from a good disposition of the Father and the Fullness, we have forgotten our heavenly nature and become deluded because of rage and other passions and addictions. The Christ came to Earth in the form of a Son of Man to bring the Third Order of Powers to Earth as the solution to overcoming the phantoms of the Imitation that have mired the Second Order Powers in error and ignorance. Those who have eyes to see the Christ are able to remember their Father in Heaven. Those who remember their Father in Heaven and repent from the Imitation are redeemed. Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the promise to redeem the fallen. Jesus as the Son of God and the Son of Man brought salvation to the Deficiency and restored it to the Kingdom of Heaven. The reason the cross looks as it does and occupies such a central role in worship is that the cross represents human beings. The Cross is shaped like a human, a Son of Man. It is no accident that Jesus was crucified on a cross because Jesus is a Son of Man, the Son of Man. The Cross should remind us that humankind has been redeemed by the body and blood of Christ in an even more profound way than acknowledging the indignity and suffering of Christ on the cross. It should remind us that the Son of God—the Christ—bridged with the form of his human body spirit-to-matter, which is top-to-bottom, and neighbor-to-neighbor, which is side-to-side, just as the shape of the cross. In the Gnostic Gospel, redemption comes to all of creation through the incarnation of the Son of God into the body of the Son of Man. The manner of the Savior's birth, death, and resurrection will come to every soul as they realize their Father is in Heaven and to Heaven they will return. For, as it says, “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” That affirmation comes from the New Testament (Philippians 2:10). It just takes time. We aren't there yet because of the common delusion of presumptuous thought, which causes people to behave selfishly. Ego must first make way for the love of Christ to take over the throne of the Self. Only then may you rise above the egoic imitation, for then you will have a champion and a king. The very public way that Jesus was crucified and the very public way that he resurrected gives us all hope of the same: Jesus demonstrates proof of resurrection and his life, death, and resurrection is about all of us, not only about the Christ. Jesus is the exemplar of our resurrection. And, by the way, in a Gnostic sense, which could be considered heretical by many Christians, the story of Jesus and the Christ and the Father don't even have to be believed as historical fact, which many nay-sayers make the cornerstone of their argument against Christ and God. The very concepts themselves—the very thoughts, the mind—is what carries this. We are consciousness and this Christ story is in our consciousness for our salvation. Think on that… I acknowledge that this is a very different version of Christianity than has been traditionally presented to us. This is gnosis that was originally contained in the sacred scriptures that formed the New Testament prior to the Pope and Emperor of Rome getting their hands on it and stripping it out. It's nice to know. I hope you get it. It doesn't really matter, because all you need to know is that we come from the Father and to the Father we will return. That is the bottom line. We are emanations directly of the Father and the Father has promised to save us all and bring us all home. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through me.” This has been taken to mean that one must acknowledge the power of the Christ before the Christ can redeem you. But, you see, this would put all of the power of redemption in your hands rather than Christ's. The Christ will redeem all Second Order Powers by the end of time, with or without your prior acknowledgment. All redemption comes to the Father through the Christ, and that is in Christ's hands. What accepting the Christ now does for you is open the door for the Third Order Powers to enter your egoic soul. This power makes it possible to live a joyous and virtuous life. It allows the love of the Father to flow through you and out into the world. And it eases your transition after the physical death of your body, so you may enter the afterlife without fear, knowing that you rest in the Pleroma of the Christ. The Final Economy is our foretaste of Paradise. No more shadows, no more sorrow. I hope that this information is helpful to you and will help you remember your gnosis. Merry Christmas. God bless us all. And onward and upward. If you are getting any gnosis from this information, please consider supporting Gnostic Insights with a generous donation. It helps keep me motivated. I’m a one-person enterprise with full responsibility for every aspect of this podcast, from writing to recording to editing to artwork to paying for the hosting services that bring this gnosis to you. I could really use some more support! Please do what you can. Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.Name *FirstLastEmail *Stripe Credit Card *Choose your item *Item A - $10.00Item B - $25.00Item C - $50.00Total$0.00Submit
Please enjoy these 13 new inspirational soul songs for November 2025. It's time to color more magic and music in the world. These soul songs are found in my November 2025 ~ Part 2 video. They aim to inspire your rising Divine Creative Hero/Heroine in changing times.Song titles in November 2025 - Playlist include: Days Like These, Be The Light, Knowers In November, Eve's Spark, Echoes of Before, Echoes of the Master, Breathe Deep, Ascension Colors, Fly Star Seeds Fly, Sophia's Song for Humanity, Rise and Echo, Soul Echoes, and Remember November. Songs like these can elevate our frequencies ~ empowering us to rise in our daily lives, consciously create, and make a positive impact in the world. Thank you for joining me and please share with others who could use some inspiration today!You can find me on Substack (my main hub now for all of my messages) through these links:https://frequencywriter.com/https://frequencywriter.substack.com/For more information about life/soul coaching with me, or to contact me, please email me: info@frequencywriter.comYou can find me on other Social Media platforms here:X: https://x.com/marie_mohlerFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/wholesoulmasteryYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@colorthemagicRumble.com: https://rumble.com/c/c-353585Telegram: https://t.me/wholesoulmasteryTruth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@frequencywriter* For educational purposes only.Support the show
Please enjoy these new 28 soul songs for December 2025! It's time to color more magic and music in the world. These soul songs are found in my December 2025 ~ Part 2 video. They aim to inspire you throughout the Holiday Season as well as to empower your rising Divine Creative Hero/Heroine in changing times.Song titles in December 2025 Holiday Playlist include: Higher Ground, Lanterns In The Storm, Shine On, The Knower's Flame, The Garden We Never Left, We Are The Ark, Endings & Beginnings, Higher Ground 2, Awakening Light, The Light of Gnosis, Eve The Knower, Ending & Beginnings 2, We Are The Ark, Home In Our Sacred Soul Songs, Tis The Season, Home For The Holidays, Journey Home, Unity Star, Light A Candle, Light The Flame, Mother Mary - The Light You Are, Mother Mary - Christ Light, The Ark You Are, The True Ark, The True Ark 2, The True Ark Calls, The True Ark Calls 2, & Exponential Rising (2026). Songs like these can elevate our frequencies ~ empowering us to rise every day, consciously create, and make a positive impact in the world. Thank you for joining me and please share with others who could use some inspiration today!You can find me on Substack (my main hub now for all of my messages) through these links:https://frequencywriter.com/https://frequencywriter.substack.com/For more information about life/soul coaching with me, or to contact me, please email me: info@frequencywriter.comYou can find me on other Social Media platforms here:X: https://x.com/marie_mohlerFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/wholesoulmasteryYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@colorthemagicRumble.com: https://rumble.com/c/c-353585Telegram: https://t.me/wholesoulmasteryTruth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@frequencywriter* For educational purposes only.Support the show
An exclusive Patreon/AB Prime show is now public. I was thrilled to chat with the amazing Ryan Bledsoe on a variety of topics. We started with his incredible journey. Then he shared his ideas on the astral vibe of the Gnostics, Extraterrestrial, and the White Lady. We got in the weeds on the Cathars, Fatima, ancient spiritual offworlders, and alien gods. Check out my interview on his podcast as a nice, heretical complement. More on Ryan: https://www.bledsoesaidso.com/ Get The Occult Elvis: https://amzn.to/4jnTjE4 Virtual Alexandria Academy: https://thegodabovegod.com/virtual-alexandria-academy/ Gnostic Tarot Readings: https://thegodabovegod.com/gnostic-tarot-reading/ The Gnostic Tarot: https://www.makeplayingcards.com/sell/synkrasis Homepage: https://thegodabovegod.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aeonbyte AB Prime: https://thegodabovegod.com/members/subscription-levels/ Voice Over services: https://thegodabovegod.com/voice-talent/ Support with donation: https://buy.stripe.com/00g16Q8RK8D93mw288 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Last week's episode, The Key to Gnostic Cosmology, was well-timed to greet the slew of new subscribers who joined The Gnostic Reformation as a result of the wonderful review by The New Unhinged that appeared on Mariah's Substack website on November 28, 2025. It's titled: Roast for Relief #17: The Gnostic Who Broke My Brain in the Best Way If you haven't seen the piece yet, please hightail it over there and take a look. It's funny and reverentially irreverent at the same time. I feel honored by Mariah's appreciation and the hours she spent on the review. Today, I'm going to run through the Gnostic Cosmology again, this time pairing the explanations with illustrations from my kid's book, Children of the Fullness: A Gnostic Myth. My brother Bill thinks the kid's book will be the version that survives into the far future as a new Gnostic Gospel in some distant version of the Nag Hammadi codices. Personally, I’m not so sure there will be a far future here on this material plane, but we'll see… In any event, I'm doing my best to get the hard cover edition into libraries and bookstores in the here and now. Meanwhile, we need more reader reviews to help the book rise up in amazon. So, please, buy the paperback or download the kindle version for free or almost free and then leave your review. You will be supporting gnosis and love. ALL of the following illustrations are from Children of the Fullness. For the purposes of this episode, I have removed the text from the pages and am only presenting the images as I narrate a grown-up version of the pictured events. Believe me, the kiddie book is written as a young child's bedtime story. And because of that, the Gnostic characters are personified into recognizable forms. The Father looks like a father. The Son looks like a son. The Aeons are personified as Angels, although in truth, not all Aeons are angels. But kids can relate to angels, so I gave the Aeons wings and halos. I’m putting the illustrations into the transcript so that if you are listening to this as an audio podcast, you can go to GnosticInsights.com or to my Substack location, the Gnostic Reformation, under the name of Cyd Ropp, so that you can see the illustrations. The gnosis is simple. It has to be, because all living creatures know and embody it. So, if my dog can't understand the gnosis, it ain't gnosis, it's just knowledge or good or bad information. And if you can grasp today's illustrated gnosis, then you will have enough to go onward and upward. Sure, more explanations are nice, but they are not essential. All we really need to know is that we come from Above, and we will return to Above. That's it in a nutshell. The rest is a lifetime of practicing love and embodying virtue. So let’s get started. The Father’s mind is the initial, illimitable consciousness. Consciousness is the ground state that predates everything. Consciousness is part of the existence of God, and it is the very first thing before anything that follows. There is no gender associated with this Father. Obviously the Father is not a man with a beard and long robes, rather “he possesses this constitution without having a face or form, things which are understood through perception.” The Tripartite Tractate describes the Father this way: Whence also comes the title, the incomprehensible. If he is incomprehensible, then it follows that he is unknowable, that he is the one who is inconceivable by any thought, invisible by anything, ineffable by any word, untouchable by any hand. He alone is the one who knows himself as he is, along with his form and his greatness and his magnitude. Step number two is the emergence of the Son. It is the emergence of consciousness from the illimitable, infinite consciousness of the Father into a singularity—into a monad, as it’s called. It’s like the bucket dipped into the sea. It contains all of the characteristics and quality of the Father, but it’s contained as an individual. The Son doesn’t separate from the Father. It stays plugged into the Father. This first illustration shows the Father holding his baby Son and showing Him the contents of His imagination. The facing page shows the mature Son releasing Aeons into the vision. The Tripartite Tractate says that as soon as the Son was formed, what are called the Totalities of the ALL were formed. The Totalities of the ALL are all of the variabilities that make up the Son, all broken out and enumerated. The Totalities of the ALL do not recognize themselves as individuals. It is only through their giving of glory to the Father and Son that each of the Totalities comes to self-awareness. In the children's book, we skip the step where the Son divides itself into all of its discreet variables and jump right to the self-aware Aeons populating the hierarchy of the Fullness of God. Now, back to the children's book. The next page shows the Aeons giving glory to the Father and Son by singing their songs of praise. The facing page shows the Aeons reproducing and making new Aeons through their combined singing. Each of the Aeons of the hierarchy of the Fullness has a position, a place, a duty, and a name—in the Gnostic Gospel as I describe it, I say that this is the emergence of ego, for every Aeon is a self-identified individual. And basically what they do is sing songs of glory upstream to the Father and the Son, just like the Totalities did. And all together, they dream of Paradise. We turn the page of the children's book to see a young Aeon building a model of Paradise as the other Aeons look on with admiration. This final Aeon was produced through a combination of all of the Aeons of the Fullness of God giving glory to the Father and the Son at the same time. “This aeon was last to have brought forth by mutual assistance, and he was small in magnitude,” referring, I think, to the fractal nature of his pleroma. This youngest Aeon carried within itself all of the traits of every other Aeon, perfect and complete. This was a very talented Aeon resembling the Son of God Himself, who also carried all of the traits of the Aeons within its singular Self. This final Aeon was named Logos, because he was also endowed with the ability to reason thoughtfully and to figure things out in a step-by-step manner. The word Logos in Greek means reason and logic. The Tripartite Tractate puts it this way: “This aeon was among those to whom was given wisdom, so that he could become pre-existent in each one's thought. By that which he wills, will they be produced. Therefore, he received a wise nature in order to examine the hidden basis, since he is a wise fruit…” This is a curious statement, because it seems to indicate that Logos was equipped to bring others into existence without the cooperation of his fellow Aeons. If the Father had not wanted an individual Aeon to be able to procreate without the agreement of the Fullness, why would the Father have equipped Logos to do so? All of the Aeons have free will, because the Father has free will and everything that emanates from the Father carries the attributes of the Father. The Tripartite Tractate says, “for, the free will which was begotten with the Totalities was a cause for this one such as to make him do what he desired, with no one to restrain him.” Logos was loaded with free will, as are all of the Aeons. The Father foresees our behavior before we do, which seems to contradict the idea of free will. We can resolve this classic theological conundrum by realizing that the Father anticipates every possible outcome of our free will. At the universal level, the infinity of the Fullness of God is represented by the potentiality of all possible choices a person could make as their life passes from one decision to the next. The fullness of all possible futures are within our reach as we pass through this universe; our own free will is driving our consciousness through those possibilities. The Father anticipates all possibilities in his infinite wisdom, and all possible courses of action are anticipated. This choice that Logos made was anticipated though not predetermined. We turn the page in the children's book to see Logos happily carrying his model of Paradise upward to the Father's mountain top. The Father is not there to receive the gift. The middle panel shows Logos falling down from the heights. The panel on the far right shows Logos crashed down into a dark space with his broken model of Paradise scattered about him. He wears an expression of pain and clutches his head. An eerie, shadowy copy of Logos emerges from him. Logos didn’t have the power or greatness of the original Son, but he had the blueprint—he had the model. He thought he was complete and could build a perfect Paradise on his own because he contained the Fullness of God in a smaller fractal iteration. He left his position and place in the hierarchy of the Fullness and headed upward to “the realm of perfect glory.” But he was mistaken and he crashed out of the ethereal plane, broke apart, and his pleroma lost its hierarchical arrangement. It became random and chaotic. Logos tried his best to bring it all back in order, tried to put his pleroma back together into a proper hierarchy, but it would not cooperate. Quote: “The Logos himself caused it to happen, being complete and unitary, for the glory of the Father, whom he desired, and (he did so) being content with it, but those whom he wished to take hold of firmly he begot in shadows and copies and likenesses. For, he was not able to bear the sight of the light, but he looked into the depth and he doubted. Out of this there was a division – he became deeply troubled – and a turning away because of his self-doubt and division, forgetfulness and ignorance of himself and which is.” “He became increasingly desperate. He was dumbfounded. Instead of perfection he saw deficiency; instead of unity he saw division; instead of stability he saw disturbance; instead of rest, upheaval. He was unable to bring their love of disturbance to an end, nor could he destroy it; he had become utterly powerless when his wholeness and his perfection had abandoned him.” Turning to the next page we see sad Logos flying back up to the Fullness, looking over his shoulder at the mess below and his shadow rising from the gloom. And on the facing page we see the shadow of Logos, whom we call the Demiurge in Gnosticism, dark, no halo, a mean look on his face, staring at the pieces of the broken model of Paradise scattered about. When Logos falls and abandons his ego down below, his ego is separated from the direct flow of consciousness, life, and love of the Father, Son, and Fullness. So this is the beginning of ego running amok. Ego found itself in this weird, dark, chaotic space, and thought it was all that existed because it didn’t remember what came before. It had all of the blueprints for Paradise because they were in the mind of Logos when he fell. It also had the ambitious overreaching that Logos was engaged in when he fell. The next two pages show the Demiurge building our material creation, with Logos looking down from above. The Demiurge builds rocks and mud, but he can't make his muddy models come to life because he doesn’t contain the consciousness and life of the Fullness and the Father. On the next double-page spread we see the Angels sending living creatures down from the Fullness to the Earth. The Tripartite Tractate says that the Earth was populated by the fruit of the Aeons, “from the smallest to the largest.” In Gnosticism the fruit of the Aeons are known as the Second Order of Powers, and they/we contain all of the attributes of the Fullness—the life, consciousness, free will, and love of the Father flowing down from the Fullness of God. Everything that’s alive, from the bacteria and the cells and the organs that make up our bodies and all of the critters and birds and fish, all of the insects and mammals, all living creatures, the grasses and the trees, the moss and the slime molds—everything that’s alive is a fruit of the Fullness of God, pre-designed in the Fullness. And we come down with a mission. We Second Order Powers were supposed to come down here to remind the Demiurge of the Father above; to remind the Demiurge of Logos, his better half; to remind the Demiurge of love and consciousness and that he is not God and he needs to return home. We are supposed to be calling to the Demiurge to return home to the Fullness of God. So the next page of the children's book shows a loving Earth. Hearts and flowers; everybody happy and loving. We Second Order Powers operate according to the same Aeonic principle I call the Simple Golden Rule of reaching out to others with love to help build things that we can’t do on our own. We make families and work together. We make villages and work together. We make small communities and build things that we can all enjoy together. Sadly, this state didn't last long, because the Second Order of Powers became caught up in a “never-ending war” with the material world. Gnostics speak of a division between the material world and our eternal spirits. Gnostics say that our eternal spirits are “trapped” in the material. We forgot about bringing love and remembrance to the Demiurge because of the never-ending war of spirit against material, the never-ending war of right and left, the never-ending war between us and the archons. It’s a constant battle here between life and death, with the Aeons promoting life and love and the archons promoting death and division. I portray this division on the next two pages as the once-happy people and animals fight tooth and claw against one another. Because of their isolation and strife, the Second Order Powers lost their purpose and joy. The people let their egos take control. Because the ego of Logos had been reaching for the heights, the egos of the Second Order Powers also reached for power and control, each thinking they were more worthy than the next. They forgot about the Simple Golden Rule and couldn't work together in cooperation without favoring themselves. Narcissism ruled. The next two pages of the children's book shows people filling their spiritual poverty with lots of materials riches and tasty treats as the Aeons watch and pray from Above. We Gnostics would say that you can't patch over a spiritual void with material prosperity, no matter how much stuff you accumulate. And so the Fullnesses realized that that plan wasn’t working. The Aeons prayed to the Father, the Son, and the Totalities for true salvation to come and rescue the Second Order Powers, just like we were supposed to rescue the Demiurge. Now it takes a superpower, the most super Power, to come into our cosmos, rescue all of the Second Order Powers by reminding us of God’s love and what our true mission is of sharing love. Christ has the most power of any entity ever, more than enough power to bring remembrance, love, salvation, peace, comfort, joy to all of us down here who have forgotten. That’s the job of the Christ. On the next page, we see the Savior standing with his hands on the shoulders of a pretty girl. The facing page shows many of the kids we saw in the previous unhappy page now feeling love and salvation as the Savior radiates love to them all. Once the Christ succeeds in bringing remembrance to everyone, then the Demiurge will remember Logos above. Logos and his ego reunited. All is joy. All is gnosis. The material cosmos dissolves like snow and all souls are released to return to their home in the Fullness. This ushers in the age known as the Third Economy. Paradise at last. To quote from my book, The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated, Redemption means returning to the Father's abode—that Paradise dreamed by the Fullness, where there is no death, no disease, no disappointment, and no deficiency. That Paradise where Christ is King and peace reigns supreme, and there is only cooperation, fellowship, and true love. In Paradise there is naught but life; so all the grass is green, and flowers blossom endlessly, and every soul that has ever lived, lives happily with their friends and families. That’s the end of this Gnostic Cosmology, as illustrated in my kid's book, “Children of the Fullness: A Gnostic Myth.” It’s not all that complicated, is it? Last week I said we'd get into the applications of gnosis, and I released an extra episode this week for that purpose. It's called “Remembering the Mission,” and it's an update of an earlier episode from 2021 called “Why Not Be Sinful?”. Meanwhile, if you have any questions or comments, please don’t be shy. Make some comments. I look forward to reading them. God bless us all and onward and upward. The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated presents gnosis as simply as possible for your enlightenment.
Last week's episode, The Key to Gnostic Cosmology, was well-timed to greet the slew of new subscribers who joined The Gnostic Reformation as a result of the wonderful review by The New Unhinged that appeared on Mariah's Substack website on November 28, 2025. It's titled: Roast for Relief #17: The Gnostic Who Broke My Brain in the Best Way If you haven't seen the piece yet, please hightail it over there and take a look. It's funny and reverentially irreverent at the same time. I feel honored by Mariah's appreciation and the hours she spent on the review. Today, I'm going to run through the Gnostic Cosmology again, this time pairing the explanations with illustrations from my kid's book, Children of the Fullness: A Gnostic Myth. My brother Bill thinks the kid's book will be the version that survives into the far future as a new Gnostic Gospel in some distant version of the Nag Hammadi codices. Personally, I’m not so sure there will be a far future here on this material plane, but we'll see… In any event, I'm doing my best to get the hard cover edition into libraries and bookstores in the here and now. Meanwhile, we need more reader reviews to help the book rise up in amazon. So, please, buy the paperback or download the kindle version for free or almost free and then leave your review. You will be supporting gnosis and love. ALL of the following illustrations are from Children of the Fullness. For the purposes of this episode, I have removed the text from the pages and am only presenting the images as I narrate a grown-up version of the pictured events. Believe me, the kiddie book is written as a young child's bedtime story. And because of that, the Gnostic characters are personified into recognizable forms. The Father looks like a father. The Son looks like a son. The Aeons are personified as Angels, although in truth, not all Aeons are angels. But kids can relate to angels, so I gave the Aeons wings and halos. I’m putting the illustrations into the transcript so that if you are listening to this as an audio podcast, you can go to GnosticInsights.com or to my Substack location, the Gnostic Reformation, under the name of Cyd Ropp, so that you can see the illustrations. The gnosis is simple. It has to be, because all living creatures know and embody it. So, if my dog can't understand the gnosis, it ain't gnosis, it's just knowledge or good or bad information. And if you can grasp today's illustrated gnosis, then you will have enough to go onward and upward. Sure, more explanations are nice, but they are not essential. All we really need to know is that we come from Above, and we will return to Above. That's it in a nutshell. The rest is a lifetime of practicing love and embodying virtue. So let’s get started. The Father’s mind is the initial, illimitable consciousness. Consciousness is the ground state that predates everything. Consciousness is part of the existence of God, and it is the very first thing before anything that follows. There is no gender associated with this Father. Obviously the Father is not a man with a beard and long robes, rather “he possesses this constitution without having a face or form, things which are understood through perception.” The Tripartite Tractate describes the Father this way: Whence also comes the title, the incomprehensible. If he is incomprehensible, then it follows that he is unknowable, that he is the one who is inconceivable by any thought, invisible by anything, ineffable by any word, untouchable by any hand. He alone is the one who knows himself as he is, along with his form and his greatness and his magnitude. Step number two is the emergence of the Son. It is the emergence of consciousness from the illimitable, infinite consciousness of the Father into a singularity—into a monad, as it’s called. It’s like the bucket dipped into the sea. It contains all of the characteristics and quality of the Father, but it’s contained as an individual. The Son doesn’t separate from the Father. It stays plugged into the Father. This first illustration shows the Father holding his baby Son and showing Him the contents of His imagination. The facing page shows the mature Son releasing Aeons into the vision. The Tripartite Tractate says that as soon as the Son was formed, what are called the Totalities of the ALL were formed. The Totalities of the ALL are all of the variabilities that make up the Son, all broken out and enumerated. The Totalities of the ALL do not recognize themselves as individuals. It is only through their giving of glory to the Father and Son that each of the Totalities comes to self-awareness. In the children's book, we skip the step where the Son divides itself into all of its discreet variables and jump right to the self-aware Aeons populating the hierarchy of the Fullness of God. Now, back to the children's book. The next page shows the Aeons giving glory to the Father and Son by singing their songs of praise. The facing page shows the Aeons reproducing and making new Aeons through their combined singing. Each of the Aeons of the hierarchy of the Fullness has a position, a place, a duty, and a name—in the Gnostic Gospel as I describe it, I say that this is the emergence of ego, for every Aeon is a self-identified individual. And basically what they do is sing songs of glory upstream to the Father and the Son, just like the Totalities did. And all together, they dream of Paradise. We turn the page of the children's book to see a young Aeon building a model of Paradise as the other Aeons look on with admiration. This final Aeon was produced through a combination of all of the Aeons of the Fullness of God giving glory to the Father and the Son at the same time. “This aeon was last to have brought forth by mutual assistance, and he was small in magnitude,” referring, I think, to the fractal nature of his pleroma. This youngest Aeon carried within itself all of the traits of every other Aeon, perfect and complete. This was a very talented Aeon resembling the Son of God Himself, who also carried all of the traits of the Aeons within its singular Self. This final Aeon was named Logos, because he was also endowed with the ability to reason thoughtfully and to figure things out in a step-by-step manner. The word Logos in Greek means reason and logic. The Tripartite Tractate puts it this way: “This aeon was among those to whom was given wisdom, so that he could become pre-existent in each one's thought. By that which he wills, will they be produced. Therefore, he received a wise nature in order to examine the hidden basis, since he is a wise fruit…” This is a curious statement, because it seems to indicate that Logos was equipped to bring others into existence without the cooperation of his fellow Aeons. If the Father had not wanted an individual Aeon to be able to procreate without the agreement of the Fullness, why would the Father have equipped Logos to do so? All of the Aeons have free will, because the Father has free will and everything that emanates from the Father carries the attributes of the Father. The Tripartite Tractate says, “for, the free will which was begotten with the Totalities was a cause for this one such as to make him do what he desired, with no one to restrain him.” Logos was loaded with free will, as are all of the Aeons. The Father foresees our behavior before we do, which seems to contradict the idea of free will. We can resolve this classic theological conundrum by realizing that the Father anticipates every possible outcome of our free will. At the universal level, the infinity of the Fullness of God is represented by the potentiality of all possible choices a person could make as their life passes from one decision to the next. The fullness of all possible futures are within our reach as we pass through this universe; our own free will is driving our consciousness through those possibilities. The Father anticipates all possibilities in his infinite wisdom, and all possible courses of action are anticipated. This choice that Logos made was anticipated though not predetermined. We turn the page in the children's book to see Logos happily carrying his model of Paradise upward to the Father's mountain top. The Father is not there to receive the gift. The middle panel shows Logos falling down from the heights. The panel on the far right shows Logos crashed down into a dark space with his broken model of Paradise scattered about him. He wears an expression of pain and clutches his head. An eerie, shadowy copy of Logos emerges from him. Logos didn’t have the power or greatness of the original Son, but he had the blueprint—he had the model. He thought he was complete and could build a perfect Paradise on his own because he contained the Fullness of God in a smaller fractal iteration. He left his position and place in the hierarchy of the Fullness and headed upward to “the realm of perfect glory.” But he was mistaken and he crashed out of the ethereal plane, broke apart, and his pleroma lost its hierarchical arrangement. It became random and chaotic. Logos tried his best to bring it all back in order, tried to put his pleroma back together into a proper hierarchy, but it would not cooperate. Quote: “The Logos himself caused it to happen, being complete and unitary, for the glory of the Father, whom he desired, and (he did so) being content with it, but those whom he wished to take hold of firmly he begot in shadows and copies and likenesses. For, he was not able to bear the sight of the light, but he looked into the depth and he doubted. Out of this there was a division – he became deeply troubled – and a turning away because of his self-doubt and division, forgetfulness and ignorance of himself and which is.” “He became increasingly desperate. He was dumbfounded. Instead of perfection he saw deficiency; instead of unity he saw division; instead of stability he saw disturbance; instead of rest, upheaval. He was unable to bring their love of disturbance to an end, nor could he destroy it; he had become utterly powerless when his wholeness and his perfection had abandoned him.” Turning to the next page we see sad Logos flying back up to the Fullness, looking over his shoulder at the mess below and his shadow rising from the gloom. And on the facing page we see the shadow of Logos, whom we call the Demiurge in Gnosticism, dark, no halo, a mean look on his face, staring at the pieces of the broken model of Paradise scattered about. When Logos falls and abandons his ego down below, his ego is separated from the direct flow of consciousness, life, and love of the Father, Son, and Fullness. So this is the beginning of ego running amok. Ego found itself in this weird, dark, chaotic space, and thought it was all that existed because it didn’t remember what came before. It had all of the blueprints for Paradise because they were in the mind of Logos when he fell. It also had the ambitious overreaching that Logos was engaged in when he fell. The next two pages show the Demiurge building our material creation, with Logos looking down from above. The Demiurge builds rocks and mud, but he can't make his muddy models come to life because he doesn’t contain the consciousness and life of the Fullness and the Father. On the next double-page spread we see the Angels sending living creatures down from the Fullness to the Earth. The Tripartite Tractate says that the Earth was populated by the fruit of the Aeons, “from the smallest to the largest.” In Gnosticism the fruit of the Aeons are known as the Second Order of Powers, and they/we contain all of the attributes of the Fullness—the life, consciousness, free will, and love of the Father flowing down from the Fullness of God. Everything that’s alive, from the bacteria and the cells and the organs that make up our bodies and all of the critters and birds and fish, all of the insects and mammals, all living creatures, the grasses and the trees, the moss and the slime molds—everything that’s alive is a fruit of the Fullness of God, pre-designed in the Fullness. And we come down with a mission. We Second Order Powers were supposed to come down here to remind the Demiurge of the Father above; to remind the Demiurge of Logos, his better half; to remind the Demiurge of love and consciousness and that he is not God and he needs to return home. We are supposed to be calling to the Demiurge to return home to the Fullness of God. So the next page of the children's book shows a loving Earth. Hearts and flowers; everybody happy and loving. We Second Order Powers operate according to the same Aeonic principle I call the Simple Golden Rule of reaching out to others with love to help build things that we can’t do on our own. We make families and work together. We make villages and work together. We make small communities and build things that we can all enjoy together. Sadly, this state didn't last long, because the Second Order of Powers became caught up in a “never-ending war” with the material world. Gnostics speak of a division between the material world and our eternal spirits. Gnostics say that our eternal spirits are “trapped” in the material. We forgot about bringing love and remembrance to the Demiurge because of the never-ending war of spirit against material, the never-ending war of right and left, the never-ending war between us and the archons. It’s a constant battle here between life and death, with the Aeons promoting life and love and the archons promoting death and division. I portray this division on the next two pages as the once-happy people and animals fight tooth and claw against one another. Because of their isolation and strife, the Second Order Powers lost their purpose and joy. The people let their egos take control. Because the ego of Logos had been reaching for the heights, the egos of the Second Order Powers also reached for power and control, each thinking they were more worthy than the next. They forgot about the Simple Golden Rule and couldn't work together in cooperation without favoring themselves. Narcissism ruled. The next two pages of the children's book shows people filling their spiritual poverty with lots of materials riches and tasty treats as the Aeons watch and pray from Above. We Gnostics would say that you can't patch over a spiritual void with material prosperity, no matter how much stuff you accumulate. And so the Fullnesses realized that that plan wasn’t working. The Aeons prayed to the Father, the Son, and the Totalities for true salvation to come and rescue the Second Order Powers, just like we were supposed to rescue the Demiurge. Now it takes a superpower, the most super Power, to come into our cosmos, rescue all of the Second Order Powers by reminding us of God’s love and what our true mission is of sharing love. Christ has the most power of any entity ever, more than enough power to bring remembrance, love, salvation, peace, comfort, joy to all of us down here who have forgotten. That’s the job of the Christ. On the next page, we see the Savior standing with his hands on the shoulders of a pretty girl. The facing page shows many of the kids we saw in the previous unhappy page now feeling love and salvation as the Savior radiates love to them all. Once the Christ succeeds in bringing remembrance to everyone, then the Demiurge will remember Logos above. Logos and his ego reunited. All is joy. All is gnosis. The material cosmos dissolves like snow and all souls are released to return to their home in the Fullness. This ushers in the age known as the Third Economy. Paradise at last. To quote from my book, The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated, Redemption means returning to the Father's abode—that Paradise dreamed by the Fullness, where there is no death, no disease, no disappointment, and no deficiency. That Paradise where Christ is King and peace reigns supreme, and there is only cooperation, fellowship, and true love. In Paradise there is naught but life; so all the grass is green, and flowers blossom endlessly, and every soul that has ever lived, lives happily with their friends and families. That’s the end of this Gnostic Cosmology, as illustrated in my kid's book, “Children of the Fullness: A Gnostic Myth.” It’s not all that complicated, is it? Last week I said we'd get into the applications of gnosis, and I released an extra episode this week for that purpose. It's called “Remembering the Mission,” and it's an update of an earlier episode from 2021 called “Why Not Be Sinful?”. Meanwhile, if you have any questions or comments, please don’t be shy. Make some comments. I look forward to reading them. God bless us all and onward and upward. The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated presents gnosis as simply as possible for your enlightenment.
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Welcome back to Gnostic Insights and to the Gnostic Reformation on Substack. I think we’ve got a lot of new listeners now and new subscribers. And since you haven’t been with us from the beginning, I’d like to review the Gnostic cosmology. A basic premise of Gnosticism is that we are all born with gnosis inherent within us. We already have the answers. We already are our perfect Selves. But because of the nature of the never-ending war that we find ourselves in here in this material cosmos, we forget our inherent nature. And we begin to engage in the war through what the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi calls the law of mutual combat. That being, since we are attacked, we attack back. And then we engage in that back and forth enough that we completely forget our mission and our goal and who we are. So today, I want to run through what I call the illustrated Gnostic cosmology. And I’m putting the illustration into the transcript so that if you are listening to this as an audio podcast, you really would do well to go to GnosticInsights.com or to my Substack location, the Gnostic Reformation, under the name of Cyd Ropp, so that you can see the illustration that we’re talking about. Now, when you first look at this Gnostic cosmology, it’s very strange looking, and it’s probably incomprehensible. But by the time I talk you through this, you’ll be able to follow the steps. There are 15 steps in this Gnostic cosmology. And once you recognize these stations, then you will literally understand Gnosis. You will remember your Gnosis, and you’ll understand what all of the various versions of Gnosticism have been trying to say. One reason is that this is a pictorial presentation. It’s not just words, because I’ve noticed when reading the various books of the Nag Hammadi, for example, some of which are Valentinian Gnosticism, some of which are Sethian Gnosticism, some are straight-out Greek philosophy by Plato. They use different words, but the concepts are the same. So what I always attempt to do is to level up to a meta-level, above the words, and envision and then picture it so that you can describe it with the words you prefer. So let’s get started. The background image of this entire Gnostic cosmology key I picture as pure inky blackness, like the sky with no stars or moons. That is the ground state of consciousness. And that is the Father’s mind. Now the Father is another one of these words where many people would like to disagree with saying Father. They want to say Source, or, for example, as it is called in the Secret Book of John, the One, the Parent, the Invisible Spirit. However, in the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi, which is the book that I mainly use as a reference, that initial, illimitable consciousness is called the Father. Now, that’s the ground state. That’s the first principle. Consciousness is not a byproduct of the little gray cells. Consciousness predates everything. Consciousness is part of the existence of God, and it is the very first thing before anything that follows. Step number two is the emergence of the Son. It is the emergence of consciousness from the illimitable, infinite consciousness of the Father into a singularity, into a monad, as it’s called. It’s like the bucket dipped into the sea. It contains all of the characteristics and quality of the Father, but it’s contained as an individual. The Son doesn’t separate from the Father. It stays plugged into the Father. The Tripartite Tractate says that as soon as the Son was formed, what are called the Totalities of the All were formed. That’s step number three. And the Totalities of the All are all of the variabilities that make up the Son. So, the Totalities and the Son are coexistent, but it is all of the characteristics broken out and enumerated that form what are called the Totalities of the All. The Totalities of the All do not recognize themselves as individuals. They are only spokes on the wheel. They have no personal identity. They know that they are part of the Son, and they glorify the Son, and they glorify the Father. So, they are glorifying upstream, as we like to say. And it is through this giving of glory that each of the Totalities comes to self-awareness. Now, instead of one singular unit that is coexistent entirely with the Son, they blossom into self-identities, and they arrange themselves in a hierarchy. So, step four is the Totalities of the All migrating from a burst of sunshine that’s sitting within the Son into a pyramidal shape, because the pyramid is the essential shape of a hierarchy. There’s more at the bottom than there is at the top. Everything keeps leveling up, following a basic Gnostic rule of the higher the fewer, until you eventually arrive at a capstone at the very top, just like our physical pyramids look. And this entity, at number five, is called the hierarchy of the Aeons of the Fullness. And in Gnosticism, we usually identify the word aeon with consciousness, with an individual. It’s an entity. It’s not a unit of time. It’s a unit of consciousness. And so the Aeons of the hierarchy of the Fullness of God are infinite in number. There aren’t only eight or 64 or 365. Those may be ones that are named in other books of Gnosticism, but conceptually, you see, they’d have to be innumerable, because they are part of the illimitable consciousness of the Father, via the Son. And the job of the hierarchies of the Fullness, well, they’ve each got a position, a place, a duty, and a name. And basically what they do is sing songs of glory upstream to the Father and the Son, just like the Totalities did. And in this combination of the Aeons in the Fullness of God, they dream. They dream of Paradise. They dream of the intelligent design of this cosmos that we live in. And so all of us down here, we’re prefigured in the minds of the Fullness of God. And that Fullness of God is generally what we humans imagine as Heaven or Paradise. Humans in cultures all over the world have a dream of Paradise. And the reason why we all have this exact same dream of Paradise is because that’s where we come from. We are the fruit of the Aeons of the Fullness, and we instantiate their dream of Paradise. Now, according to the Tripartite Tractate, the object that in my drawings looks like a starburst re-sorted themselves into this hierarchy of the Fullness of God. The last Aeon that was produced through a combination of all of the Aeons of the Fullness of God, giving glory to the Father and the Son. In the Tripartite Tractate, that Aeon, that final Aeon, the capstone to the pyramid, sitting right up there on top, is called Logos. And Logos means reasoning. It means logic. The next step in the story is when that final Aeon that’s sitting on top of the Fullness of God wants to re-insert itself into the Father—the original source of consciousness—wants to plug into the Father the way that the Son remains plugged into the Father. It tries to take that position, and it can’t do it. And it is repelled by the Father, and that is the Fall. The Father repelled that Aeon from being able to plug into itself. I wouldn’t say that Logos was trying to become God. That’s kind of an insulting way to put it. I would say that that final Aeon was simply trying to reunite with the Father. But it couldn’t. It was repelled because no one can come to the illimitable. It’s too powerful. The Tripartite Tractate says they would be annihilated because the Father’s power is too great. It would just burn it up. And so instead of plugging into the Father, Logos fell. And that, according to Gnosticism, is the Fall. And it was the Fall that created our material cosmos. Now, you could say that that was Sophia that fell and her child Yaldabaoth. I prefer to keep it simple and just to say that it’s Logos that fell. Logos was a very special Aeon that contained within its one unity, fractal representations of all of the other Aeons of the Fullness. So Logos was perfect and complete, representing the Son of God. However, he was a fractal level down. Logos crowned the top of the Fullness with fractals of all the other Aeons. He didn’t have the power, didn’t have the greatness of the original Son in step two. But he had the pattern. He had the blueprint. He thought he was complete and could build Paradise, the Paradise that all of the Aeons dreamed up together in step five. He thought he could do that because he contained the Fullness of God in a smaller fractal form. But he was mistaken and he crashed out of the ethereal plane, boom, broke apart, and his pleroma lost its hierarchical arrangement. It became random and chaotic. That is step eight. I generally depict that random chaos as quantum foam. It’s just boiling in and out of existence. Nothing can stick. Nothing can stay. Nothing can level up. It’s chaotic. Logos tried his best to bring it all back in order, tried to put his pleroma back together into a proper hierarchy, but it would not cooperate. And he was aghast, it says. He was very upset, very disturbed by the disturbance that had come out of him. He meant to bring perfection and instead he brought chaos. And he was now separated from the Fullness of God. Well, the Fullnesses prayed to help Logos return, and the best part of Logos, it says in the Tripartite Tractate, step 10, the best part of Logos returned to the Fullness of God, but it abandoned the chaos below. So what is that chaos? I’ve identified that chaotic disturbance that came out of Logos as not only quantum foam, but the Fallen ego of Logos. You see, all of the Aeons have an ego. They’ve got their perfect One Self that is a fractal copy of the Son, but they’ve also got positions, places, names, duties, which is to say they have an ego. And an ego is just their designation. It’s just their address and their name, rank, and serial number. That’s their ego. It’s not self-centered. It’s just a name. But when Logos falls and abandons his ego down below, then it is an ego that came into being that is separated from the One Self of the Son. It’s outside of the direct flow of consciousness and life and love of the Father and the Son and the God. So it is the beginning of ego running amok. Ego came to its own realization, woke up, so to speak, found itself in this weird, dark, chaotic space, and he thought he was God because he didn’t remember where he came from. He didn’t realize he was the fallen ego of Logos. He had all of the blueprints for Paradise because they were in the mind of Logos when he fell. And he also had the ambitious overreaching that Logos was doing when he fell. Step 11 in the diagram shows the chaos and this disordered pleroma of the ego of Logos down here, no longer looking like a pyramid but just random bubbles. But there’s a border around it now because the Father put up a border around the fallen bits in order to contain them, in order to protect the Fullness of God from the disaster that was occurring, we would say, down below. Logos, now reunited with the Fullness, prays for his fallen ego, prays for this mess that he left behind. Demiurge came to awareness down there at step 11. So the ego of Logos, abandoned down below, becomes what Gnostics call the Demiurge. And the Demiurge, thinking it was God, having all the blueprints for Paradise, thought it could build Paradise now down here inside of this border. And this border, by the way, could be likened to the expanding bubble around our universe. The Big Bang would have been the splat in step 8 when Logos crashed apart and began emitting these particles. So Fullness and Logos prayed for help to come to what is called now the Deficiency. Our cosmos is known as the Deficiency or the imitation because it’s a knock-off of Paradise. And what they want is to rescue the Demiurge. They’re not trying to condemn the Demiurge to hell. They’re trying to rescue the Demiurge and bring him back up to the Fullness to reunite with Logos and plug back in with them because that’s where it belongs. So in step 12, we have the fruit of the Aeons of the Fullness being sent down into this material cosmos. The Demiurge has been working on the material cosmos in step 11. He can’t get it to come to life because he doesn’t contain the consciousness and life of the Fullness and the Father. He’s a flat version, like a mirror image or like a projection on a movie screen. He doesn’t have the true depth of consciousness. Archons lack consciousness, they are not self-aware the way the Aeons are. They are tightly restrained and very strictly ordered by very strict laws of physics and chemistry and whatnot by the mind of the Demiurge only. They are projections of the Demiurge. They are shadows of the Aeons. They’re like the inversions of the beauty of that Aeonic Golden Pyramid, but they are lacking consciousness, life, and love. So the Aeons send down what are called the Second Order of Powers. The First Order of Powers were the Aeons and the Fullness of God. The Second Order of Powers is all of the life and consciousness and love of the Father flowing down from the Fullness of God down into this fallen cosmos. That is all living creatures. Everything that’s alive from the bacteria and the cells and the organs that make up our bodies and all of the critters and birds and fish, all of the insects and mammals, all living creatures, the grasses and the trees, the moss and the slime molds, everything that’s alive is a fruit of the Fullness of God. Fruits of the Aeons pre-designed in the Fullness of God and sent down here to instantiate life, love, and consciousness into this otherwise dead disaster of a cosmos. And we come down with a mission. We Second Order Powers were supposed to come down here to remind the Demiurge of the Father above; to remind the Demiurge of Logos, his better half; to remind the Demiurge of love and consciousness and that he is not God and he needs to return home. Come home, Demiurge, come home. We are supposed to be calling to the Demiurge to return home to the Fullness of God. Well, we got caught in a never-ending war instead with the material world. See, at conception, we are all bonded to the molecular level. So when a creature has the spark of life come into it from the Fullness down here, when it bonds to that material level, that molecule that then begins reproducing, reproducing, reproducing according to the pattern from above that that creature brought into the cosmos with it. We all carry the Fullness of God within every part of our living bodies, every one of our cells, every one of our organs. We are full of the Fullness of God. We have consciousness. It’s self-evident. We love. That is also self-evident. We operate according to the Simple Golden Rule of reaching out to others to help build things that we can’t do on our own. We make families and work together. We make villages and work together. We make small communities and build things that we can all enjoy together. But we forget our job. We forget about bringing love and remembrance to the Demiurge because of the never-ending war of spirit against material, the never-ending war of right and left, the never-ending war between us and the archons, the never-ending war. It’s a constant battle here between life and death. And so the Fullnesses realized that that plan wasn’t working. We forgot to do our jobs. They prayed upstream to the Father, to the Son, to the Totalities, and they prayed for true salvation to come now and rescue the Second Order Powers, just like we were supposed to rescue the Demiurge. Now it takes a superpower, the most superpower, to come into our cosmos, rescue all of the Second Order Powers by reminding us of God’s love and what our true mission is of sharing love. We can’t do it on our own. We already proved that we lost the battle in step 13. So step 14 is sending down the Savior, sending down the most powerful entity of the ethereal plane, that being what is called the Christ. And Christ is the Son of God. Christ is the Fullnesses all praying together. Christ is the Totalities all singing the song together. Christ has the most power of any entity ever, more than enough power to bring remembrance, love, salvation, peace, comfort, joy to all of us down here who have forgotten. That’s the job of the Christ. That’s step 14. And step 15 is once the Christ succeeds in bringing remembrance to everyone, then we can move into what will be called the Third Economy. We’re in the Second Economy now. That’s the economy or the system of the material world. The First Economy was the Fullness of God, where the First Order of Powers live. The Second Economy is this cosmos that we live in, where the Second Order of Powers live. And the Third Economy is after this material cosmos passes away, dissolves like snow, gets all rolled up and wrapped up, and we all return to the Fullness of God. The Third Economy is the dream of Paradise the cosmos will instantiate after this Second Economy dissolves at the end of time. We all return to the new Third Economy ruled by the Third Order of Powers, and that’s the pleroma of Christ. Christ is the Third Order of Powers, and there is an individual Third Order Power for every one of us Second Order Powers. We can’t do it on our own. We cannot love to the extent needed to demonstrate to the Demiurge love. We get caught in wars. We kill each other. We fight with each other. We quarrel. We quibble. We blow each other up and chop off heads. Bad, very bad. The Christ and the Third Order Powers comes to each of us as an individual, comes to you, comes to me, comes to our neighbors, comes to all of the critters and all of the plants, but I don’t think they’re quite as fallen as we are. I think they’re doing a pretty good job of living their lives according to what is required down here in the Second Economy. But true salvation, true redemption from this world comes by accepting the assistance of the Christ. Okay, I think we’ll stop there today. That’s the end of this Gnostic Cosmology. Next week, we’ll talk about the yeah, so what? to all of this. What good will that do me? What good will that do the world? Tune back in next week and we’ll talk about it. Meanwhile, if you have any questions or comments, please don’t be shy. Make some comments. I look forward to reading them. God bless and onward and upward. 15 steps in Gnostic Cosmology
Welcome back to Gnostic Insights and to the Gnostic Reformation on Substack. I think we’ve got a lot of new listeners now and new subscribers. And since you haven’t been with us from the beginning, I’d like to review the Gnostic cosmology. A basic premise of Gnosticism is that we are all born with gnosis inherent within us. We already have the answers. We already are our perfect Selves. But because of the nature of the never-ending war that we find ourselves in here in this material cosmos, we forget our inherent nature. And we begin to engage in the war through what the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi calls the law of mutual combat. That being, since we are attacked, we attack back. And then we engage in that back and forth enough that we completely forget our mission and our goal and who we are. So today, I want to run through what I call the illustrated Gnostic cosmology. And I’m putting the illustration into the transcript so that if you are listening to this as an audio podcast, you really would do well to go to GnosticInsights.com or to my Substack location, the Gnostic Reformation, under the name of Cyd Ropp, so that you can see the illustration that we’re talking about. Now, when you first look at this Gnostic cosmology, it’s very strange looking, and it’s probably incomprehensible. But by the time I talk you through this, you’ll be able to follow the steps. There are 15 steps in this Gnostic cosmology. And once you recognize these stations, then you will literally understand Gnosis. You will remember your Gnosis, and you’ll understand what all of the various versions of Gnosticism have been trying to say. One reason is that this is a pictorial presentation. It’s not just words, because I’ve noticed when reading the various books of the Nag Hammadi, for example, some of which are Valentinian Gnosticism, some of which are Sethian Gnosticism, some are straight-out Greek philosophy by Plato. They use different words, but the concepts are the same. So what I always attempt to do is to level up to a meta-level, above the words, and envision and then picture it so that you can describe it with the words you prefer. So let’s get started. The background image of this entire Gnostic cosmology key I picture as pure inky blackness, like the sky with no stars or moons. That is the ground state of consciousness. And that is the Father’s mind. Now the Father is another one of these words where many people would like to disagree with saying Father. They want to say Source, or, for example, as it is called in the Secret Book of John, the One, the Parent, the Invisible Spirit. However, in the Tripartite Tractate of the Nag Hammadi, which is the book that I mainly use as a reference, that initial, illimitable consciousness is called the Father. Now, that’s the ground state. That’s the first principle. Consciousness is not a byproduct of the little gray cells. Consciousness predates everything. Consciousness is part of the existence of God, and it is the very first thing before anything that follows. Step number two is the emergence of the Son. It is the emergence of consciousness from the illimitable, infinite consciousness of the Father into a singularity, into a monad, as it’s called. It’s like the bucket dipped into the sea. It contains all of the characteristics and quality of the Father, but it’s contained as an individual. The Son doesn’t separate from the Father. It stays plugged into the Father. The Tripartite Tractate says that as soon as the Son was formed, what are called the Totalities of the All were formed. That’s step number three. And the Totalities of the All are all of the variabilities that make up the Son. So, the Totalities and the Son are coexistent, but it is all of the characteristics broken out and enumerated that form what are called the Totalities of the All. The Totalities of the All do not recognize themselves as individuals. They are only spokes on the wheel. They have no personal identity. They know that they are part of the Son, and they glorify the Son, and they glorify the Father. So, they are glorifying upstream, as we like to say. And it is through this giving of glory that each of the Totalities comes to self-awareness. Now, instead of one singular unit that is coexistent entirely with the Son, they blossom into self-identities, and they arrange themselves in a hierarchy. So, step four is the Totalities of the All migrating from a burst of sunshine that’s sitting within the Son into a pyramidal shape, because the pyramid is the essential shape of a hierarchy. There’s more at the bottom than there is at the top. Everything keeps leveling up, following a basic Gnostic rule of the higher the fewer, until you eventually arrive at a capstone at the very top, just like our physical pyramids look. And this entity, at number five, is called the hierarchy of the Aeons of the Fullness. And in Gnosticism, we usually identify the word aeon with consciousness, with an individual. It’s an entity. It’s not a unit of time. It’s a unit of consciousness. And so the Aeons of the hierarchy of the Fullness of God are infinite in number. There aren’t only eight or 64 or 365. Those may be ones that are named in other books of Gnosticism, but conceptually, you see, they’d have to be innumerable, because they are part of the illimitable consciousness of the Father, via the Son. And the job of the hierarchies of the Fullness, well, they’ve each got a position, a place, a duty, and a name. And basically what they do is sing songs of glory upstream to the Father and the Son, just like the Totalities did. And in this combination of the Aeons in the Fullness of God, they dream. They dream of Paradise. They dream of the intelligent design of this cosmos that we live in. And so all of us down here, we’re prefigured in the minds of the Fullness of God. And that Fullness of God is generally what we humans imagine as Heaven or Paradise. Humans in cultures all over the world have a dream of Paradise. And the reason why we all have this exact same dream of Paradise is because that’s where we come from. We are the fruit of the Aeons of the Fullness, and we instantiate their dream of Paradise. Now, according to the Tripartite Tractate, the object that in my drawings looks like a starburst re-sorted themselves into this hierarchy of the Fullness of God. The last Aeon that was produced through a combination of all of the Aeons of the Fullness of God, giving glory to the Father and the Son. In the Tripartite Tractate, that Aeon, that final Aeon, the capstone to the pyramid, sitting right up there on top, is called Logos. And Logos means reasoning. It means logic. The next step in the story is when that final Aeon that’s sitting on top of the Fullness of God wants to re-insert itself into the Father—the original source of consciousness—wants to plug into the Father the way that the Son remains plugged into the Father. It tries to take that position, and it can’t do it. And it is repelled by the Father, and that is the Fall. The Father repelled that Aeon from being able to plug into itself. I wouldn’t say that Logos was trying to become God. That’s kind of an insulting way to put it. I would say that that final Aeon was simply trying to reunite with the Father. But it couldn’t. It was repelled because no one can come to the illimitable. It’s too powerful. The Tripartite Tractate says they would be annihilated because the Father’s power is too great. It would just burn it up. And so instead of plugging into the Father, Logos fell. And that, according to Gnosticism, is the Fall. And it was the Fall that created our material cosmos. Now, you could say that that was Sophia that fell and her child Yaldabaoth. I prefer to keep it simple and just to say that it’s Logos that fell. Logos was a very special Aeon that contained within its one unity, fractal representations of all of the other Aeons of the Fullness. So Logos was perfect and complete, representing the Son of God. However, he was a fractal level down. Logos crowned the top of the Fullness with fractals of all the other Aeons. He didn’t have the power, didn’t have the greatness of the original Son in step two. But he had the pattern. He had the blueprint. He thought he was complete and could build Paradise, the Paradise that all of the Aeons dreamed up together in step five. He thought he could do that because he contained the Fullness of God in a smaller fractal form. But he was mistaken and he crashed out of the ethereal plane, boom, broke apart, and his pleroma lost its hierarchical arrangement. It became random and chaotic. That is step eight. I generally depict that random chaos as quantum foam. It’s just boiling in and out of existence. Nothing can stick. Nothing can stay. Nothing can level up. It’s chaotic. Logos tried his best to bring it all back in order, tried to put his pleroma back together into a proper hierarchy, but it would not cooperate. And he was aghast, it says. He was very upset, very disturbed by the disturbance that had come out of him. He meant to bring perfection and instead he brought chaos. And he was now separated from the Fullness of God. Well, the Fullnesses prayed to help Logos return, and the best part of Logos, it says in the Tripartite Tractate, step 10, the best part of Logos returned to the Fullness of God, but it abandoned the chaos below. So what is that chaos? I’ve identified that chaotic disturbance that came out of Logos as not only quantum foam, but the Fallen ego of Logos. You see, all of the Aeons have an ego. They’ve got their perfect One Self that is a fractal copy of the Son, but they’ve also got positions, places, names, duties, which is to say they have an ego. And an ego is just their designation. It’s just their address and their name, rank, and serial number. That’s their ego. It’s not self-centered. It’s just a name. But when Logos falls and abandons his ego down below, then it is an ego that came into being that is separated from the One Self of the Son. It’s outside of the direct flow of consciousness and life and love of the Father and the Son and the God. So it is the beginning of ego running amok. Ego came to its own realization, woke up, so to speak, found itself in this weird, dark, chaotic space, and he thought he was God because he didn’t remember where he came from. He didn’t realize he was the fallen ego of Logos. He had all of the blueprints for Paradise because they were in the mind of Logos when he fell. And he also had the ambitious overreaching that Logos was doing when he fell. Step 11 in the diagram shows the chaos and this disordered pleroma of the ego of Logos down here, no longer looking like a pyramid but just random bubbles. But there’s a border around it now because the Father put up a border around the fallen bits in order to contain them, in order to protect the Fullness of God from the disaster that was occurring, we would say, down below. Logos, now reunited with the Fullness, prays for his fallen ego, prays for this mess that he left behind. Demiurge came to awareness down there at step 11. So the ego of Logos, abandoned down below, becomes what Gnostics call the Demiurge. And the Demiurge, thinking it was God, having all the blueprints for Paradise, thought it could build Paradise now down here inside of this border. And this border, by the way, could be likened to the expanding bubble around our universe. The Big Bang would have been the splat in step 8 when Logos crashed apart and began emitting these particles. So Fullness and Logos prayed for help to come to what is called now the Deficiency. Our cosmos is known as the Deficiency or the imitation because it’s a knock-off of Paradise. And what they want is to rescue the Demiurge. They’re not trying to condemn the Demiurge to hell. They’re trying to rescue the Demiurge and bring him back up to the Fullness to reunite with Logos and plug back in with them because that’s where it belongs. So in step 12, we have the fruit of the Aeons of the Fullness being sent down into this material cosmos. The Demiurge has been working on the material cosmos in step 11. He can’t get it to come to life because he doesn’t contain the consciousness and life of the Fullness and the Father. He’s a flat version, like a mirror image or like a projection on a movie screen. He doesn’t have the true depth of consciousness. Archons lack consciousness, they are not self-aware the way the Aeons are. They are tightly restrained and very strictly ordered by very strict laws of physics and chemistry and whatnot by the mind of the Demiurge only. They are projections of the Demiurge. They are shadows of the Aeons. They’re like the inversions of the beauty of that Aeonic Golden Pyramid, but they are lacking consciousness, life, and love. So the Aeons send down what are called the Second Order of Powers. The First Order of Powers were the Aeons and the Fullness of God. The Second Order of Powers is all of the life and consciousness and love of the Father flowing down from the Fullness of God down into this fallen cosmos. That is all living creatures. Everything that’s alive from the bacteria and the cells and the organs that make up our bodies and all of the critters and birds and fish, all of the insects and mammals, all living creatures, the grasses and the trees, the moss and the slime molds, everything that’s alive is a fruit of the Fullness of God. Fruits of the Aeons pre-designed in the Fullness of God and sent down here to instantiate life, love, and consciousness into this otherwise dead disaster of a cosmos. And we come down with a mission. We Second Order Powers were supposed to come down here to remind the Demiurge of the Father above; to remind the Demiurge of Logos, his better half; to remind the Demiurge of love and consciousness and that he is not God and he needs to return home. Come home, Demiurge, come home. We are supposed to be calling to the Demiurge to return home to the Fullness of God. Well, we got caught in a never-ending war instead with the material world. See, at conception, we are all bonded to the molecular level. So when a creature has the spark of life come into it from the Fullness down here, when it bonds to that material level, that molecule that then begins reproducing, reproducing, reproducing according to the pattern from above that that creature brought into the cosmos with it. We all carry the Fullness of God within every part of our living bodies, every one of our cells, every one of our organs. We are full of the Fullness of God. We have consciousness. It’s self-evident. We love. That is also self-evident. We operate according to the Simple Golden Rule of reaching out to others to help build things that we can’t do on our own. We make families and work together. We make villages and work together. We make small communities and build things that we can all enjoy together. But we forget our job. We forget about bringing love and remembrance to the Demiurge because of the never-ending war of spirit against material, the never-ending war of right and left, the never-ending war between us and the archons, the never-ending war. It’s a constant battle here between life and death. And so the Fullnesses realized that that plan wasn’t working. We forgot to do our jobs. They prayed upstream to the Father, to the Son, to the Totalities, and they prayed for true salvation to come now and rescue the Second Order Powers, just like we were supposed to rescue the Demiurge. Now it takes a superpower, the most superpower, to come into our cosmos, rescue all of the Second Order Powers by reminding us of God’s love and what our true mission is of sharing love. We can’t do it on our own. We already proved that we lost the battle in step 13. So step 14 is sending down the Savior, sending down the most powerful entity of the ethereal plane, that being what is called the Christ. And Christ is the Son of God. Christ is the Fullnesses all praying together. Christ is the Totalities all singing the song together. Christ has the most power of any entity ever, more than enough power to bring remembrance, love, salvation, peace, comfort, joy to all of us down here who have forgotten. That’s the job of the Christ. That’s step 14. And step 15 is once the Christ succeeds in bringing remembrance to everyone, then we can move into what will be called the Third Economy. We’re in the Second Economy now. That’s the economy or the system of the material world. The First Economy was the Fullness of God, where the First Order of Powers live. The Second Economy is this cosmos that we live in, where the Second Order of Powers live. And the Third Economy is after this material cosmos passes away, dissolves like snow, gets all rolled up and wrapped up, and we all return to the Fullness of God. The Third Economy is the dream of Paradise the cosmos will instantiate after this Second Economy dissolves at the end of time. We all return to the new Third Economy ruled by the Third Order of Powers, and that’s the pleroma of Christ. Christ is the Third Order of Powers, and there is an individual Third Order Power for every one of us Second Order Powers. We can’t do it on our own. We cannot love to the extent needed to demonstrate to the Demiurge love. We get caught in wars. We kill each other. We fight with each other. We quarrel. We quibble. We blow each other up and chop off heads. Bad, very bad. The Christ and the Third Order Powers comes to each of us as an individual, comes to you, comes to me, comes to our neighbors, comes to all of the critters and all of the plants, but I don’t think they’re quite as fallen as we are. I think they’re doing a pretty good job of living their lives according to what is required down here in the Second Economy. But true salvation, true redemption from this world comes by accepting the assistance of the Christ. Okay, I think we’ll stop there today. That’s the end of this Gnostic Cosmology. Next week, we’ll talk about the yeah, so what? to all of this. What good will that do me? What good will that do the world? Tune back in next week and we’ll talk about it. Meanwhile, if you have any questions or comments, please don’t be shy. Make some comments. I look forward to reading them. God bless and onward and upward. 15 steps in Gnostic Cosmology
Gnosticism is one of the most confusing and enigmatic early Christian groups, whose beliefs were considered secret knowledge meant only for a select few. Today, Dr. Bart Ehrman answers my questions about what Gnostics thought about Jesus - where he came from, what he was doing on earth, and whether or not he was divine.
Human beings have always prided themselves on the advantage gained from possessing knowledge that others lack. We boast of being smarter, more informed, more enlightened—as if we were the elite guardians of some secret insight reserved for our sect, our institution, or our circle. Whether the advantage lies in religious doctrine, education, status, political ideology, or modern technology, it always devolves into the same pattern: insiders against outsiders, the few who “know” against the many who do not.From ancient cults, esoteric associations, and manufactured religions (steeped in symbols wrongly appropriated from sacred texts) to modern marketing campaigns promising the “secret to success,” humanity's obsession with exclusive knowledge endures. Yet all of it is vanity—corruption and folly dressed as wisdom. Whether through ritual, ideology, or playground-style cliques, every claim to possess hidden knowledge and to exercise control over others is sublime vanity, doomed to folly.There is only one source of knowledge—the Father of all—and he alone is the fountain of might, power, and strength. Scripture repeats this warning at every turn, and when human beings ignore it, all things collapse in ruin. The arrogant, trusting in themselves, gleefully amplify human chaos in opposition to him, emboldened by misguided self-confidence.Indeed, their knowledge springs from self-importance, and their strength from oppression. In their false eschaton, the work of men's hands turns to dust, even as the God of Abraham remains—ever present, all-knowing, all-wise, and all-powerful. Moreover, as Matthew wrote, this God stands as the enemy of those among them who invoke his name, “Lord, Lord.”But Yahweh, our Elohim, is always in control despite the schemes of Baal's followers who deceive the devout who have fallen for the institutions he destroys.“For they plan, and God plans; and God is the best of planners.”وَمَكَرُوا وَمَكَرَ اللَّهُ، وَاللَّهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَwa-makarū wa-makara llāhu, wa-llāhu khayru l-mākirīn(Qurʾan, Surat Āl ʿImrān سورة آل عمران “The Family of Imran” 3:54)Every time the human being seizes power or claims insight as his own, the result is the same: pride, decay, and judgment. Yet each collapse becomes Elohim's opportunity to remind us of his immutable sovereignty. He alone commands and restores. As it is written by Paul's right hand:“God is not mocked.” (Galatians 6:7)His wisdom is not ours to possess, let alone to control or co-opt. His dominion is written into the fabric of creation itself. The heavens do not father the earth; both submit to the patriarchy of the one God of Abraham, the Master of all things.This is the reality encoded in Scriptural grammar and function and fulfilled in the obedience of Jesus. It is the recognition that knowledge and strength proceed only from God's command, which has the power to heal even Israel.This week, I discuss Luke 8:46.“ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν· Ἥψατό μού τις, ἐγὼ γὰρ ἔγνων (י-ד-ע) δύναμιν (ח-י-ל) ἐξεληλυθυῖαν ἀπʼ ἐμοῦ.”“But Jesus said, ‘Someone did touch me, for I was aware [ἔγνων (egnon) / י־ד־ע (yod–dalet–ʿayin)] that power [δύναμιν (dynamin) / ח־י־ל (ḥet–yod–lamed)] had gone out of me.'”(Luke 8:46)γινώσκω (ginosko) / י-ד-ע (yod–dalet–ʿayin) / ع-ر-ف (ʿayn–rāʾ–fāʾ)In its scriptural itinerary, יָדַע (yadaʿ) functions as relational recognition rooted in revelation and obedience. Gnostics invert this by treating knowledge as an object of possession: a secret commodity that grants status or liberation to a spiritual elite.The Itinerary of Knowledge“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew [וַיֵּדְעוּ (wayyedaʿu)] that they were naked.” (Genesis 3:7)When Adam and Eve transgress the divine command, their eyes are “opened,” and י-ד-ע (yod–dalet–ʿayin) marks the moment of realization. They do not gain divine insight; they recognize their separation and vulnerability.“You shall know [וִידַעְתֶּם (widaʿtem)] that I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” (Exodus 6:7)In Egypt, Yahweh assured deliverance. Israel will know him as the mighty one who was victorious against the elite rulers who burdened his people. Knowledge comes through divine encounter (in this case, remembrance at the opportune time) and obedience, not human speculation.“Then they shall know [וְיָדְעוּ (weyadeʿu)] that I am Yahweh.” (Ezekiel 6:7)The same Yahweh declares judgment upon Israel for their idolatry. Weyadeʿu means that through destruction and exile—the opportune time—through divine encounter, the people will come to recognize his immutable sovereignty.“The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge [דַּעַת (daʿat)].” (Proverbs 1:7)Wisdom begins not in self-referential discovery but in submission. Daʿat, י-ד-ע (yod–dalet–ʿayin), denotes divine instruction. It is submission to God's ordering of creation that begins with fear, that is, reverent submission to his command.“But Jesus said, ‘Someone did touch me, for I was aware [ἔγνων (egnon)] that power had gone out of me.'” (Luke 8:46)When the woman touches Jesus' garment, ἔγνων (egnon) expresses not psychological awareness but recognition of divine power at work. In Genesis 3:7, Adam and Eve know [wayyedaʿu] only after breaking the divine command. What they perceive is separation, not illumination. In Exodus 6:7, Israel knows [widaʿtem] Yahweh because at the opportune time, they remember his act of deliverance; the exiles know [weyadeʿu] Yahweh through judgment. In every case, knowledge is not a self-referential human discovery but an encounter with God's judgment. Even in Proverbs 1:7, daʿat signifies not human moral or ethical insight but awareness of divine instruction grounded in reverent fear.When Jesus knows that power has gone out from him (Luke 8:46), the same dynamic unfolds: divine initiative, human encounter, recognition, and restoration. The “knowing” is God-referential. It is an acknowledgment of divine operation rather than an act of introspection.This same itinerary and literary pattern continues in the Qurʾan, where the Arabic triliteral root ع-ر-ف (ʿayn–rāʾ–fāʾ) appears frequently. Its core function is to know, recognize, acknowledge, or make known. It parallels the Hebrew י-ד-ע (yod–dalet–ʿayin) and the Greek γινώσκω (ginosko) in expressing knowledge as submission to God rather than human possession.“And say, ‘All praise be to God! He will show you his signs, and you will recognize them [فَتَعْرِفُونَهَا (fa-taʿrifūnahā)]. And your Lord is never unaware of what you do.'” (Qurʾan, Surat al-Naml سورة النمل “The Ant” 27:93)The Prophet is commanded to proclaim divine praise. God will reveal his آيَات (āyāt, “signs”), and humans will recognize them. تَعْرِفُونَهَا
In this powerful episode of the Conscious Living Podcast, Jackie welcomes Dr. Mik Ludwig—a psychotherapist, theologian, and philosopher whose work bridges psychology, spirituality, and human transformation. The conversation explores how spiritual awakening and psychological growth are inseparable paths toward living a conscious and integrated life.Here's what you will discover in this new podcast episode:1. Metaphysical & Evolutionary Spirituality2. Dangers of Religious Fundamentalism3. The Role of the Mystics, Gnostics & Esoteric Christianity in Reclaiming Spiritual Truth4. Why Psychological and Spiritual Growth Cannot Be Separated5. How Psychotheosophy and Integrative Psychotherapy Support Healing6. Understanding the True Meaning of Biblical Text beyond Mistranslations7. The Importance of Freeing the Mind from Ego and Conditioning to Live Consciously8. Introducing TheosomaticsThank you for tuning in, for caring about conscious evolution, and for being part of this growing movement to elevate our world.
Friends of the Rosary,Today, October 28, we celebrate the feast day of two great apostles: St. Jude Thaddeus and St. Simon the ZealotSt. Jude Thaddeus, brother of St. James the Lesser, preached the Gospel in Judea, Samaria, Idumaea, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Libya. He suffered martyrdom in Armenia, which was then under Persian rule.He is the author of an epistle (letter) to the Churches of the East, in particular the Jewish converts, directed against the heresies of the Simonians, Nicolaites, and Gnostics.St. Jude was the one who asked Jesus at the Last Supper why He would not manifest Himself to the whole world after His resurrection.He is invoked as the patron of desperate, forgotten, and lost situations and causes because his New Testament letter stresses that the faithful should persevere in the environment of harsh, difficult circumstances, just as their forefathers had done before them.Every image of him depicts him wearing a medallion with a profile of Jesus.Saint Jude Thaddeus is not the same person as Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Our Lord and despaired because of his great sin and lack of trust in God's mercy.St. Simon, who had been called a Zealot, is thought to have preached in Egypt and then to have joined St. Jude in Persia. Here, he was supposedly martyred by being cut in half with a saw, a tool he is often depicted with.Today, we also celebrate the Fourth Anniversary of the departure for the glory of heaven of Maria Blanca, co-founder of the Rosary Network, along with Mikel A. Ave Maria!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.Please give us the grace to respond with joy!+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New YorkEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play• October 28, 2025, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET
Tim Hogan joins us for a deep chat about the Templars and Freemasons, and the time we are in and the secrets coming out. We chat about true alchemy, making Manna, The arks as powerful artifacts, gothic manuscripts, the Templars bringing back esoteric knowledge to the West, gothic cathedrals, Atlantis, Egypt, Moses and Akhenaten, granite temples, ley lines and making monoatomic Gold and platinum based metal tinctures. In the second half we get into how the ancients worked with Granite using these processes, Cyclopean architecture, the Gnostics, Sophia, Atlas and seeding the planet with ancient myths, ancient and modern UAP's, levitation, the Rose Cross, and the American revolutionary war funded by Templars, and how you can become a Templar. Timothy Hogan is an author and lecturer within the Western Mystery school tradition. He is a Past Master within several different spiritual traditions, including many bodies in Freemasonry (AF&AM) and of Rosicrucian lineages. He is a Grand Master for multiple Knight Templar lineages https://www.youtube.com/@timothyhogan5494 https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B006QH94T4 https://neurobuddha.wordpress.com/ https://www.templarcollegia.org/ https://www.youtube.com/@TemplarTravelTours To gain access to the second half of show and our Plus feed for audio and podcast please clink the link http://www.grimericaoutlawed.ca/support. For second half of video (when applicable and audio) go to our Substack and Subscribe. https://grimericaoutlawed.substack.com/ or to our Locals https://grimericaoutlawed.locals.com/ or Rokfin www.Rokfin.com/Grimerica Patreon https://www.patreon.com/grimericaoutlawed Support the show directly: https://grimericacbd.com/ CBD / THC Tinctures and Gummies https://grimerica.ca/support-2/ Eh-List Podcast and site: https://eh-list.ca/ Eh-List YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheEh-List Our Adultbrain Audiobook Podcast and Website: www.adultbrain.ca Our Audiobook Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@adultbrainaudiobookpublishing/videos Darren's book www.acanadianshame.ca Check out our next trip/conference/meetup - Contact at the Cabin www.contactatthecabin.com Other affiliated shows: www.grimerica.ca The OG Grimerica Show www.Rokfin.com/Grimerica Our channel on free speech Rokfin Join the chat / hangout with a bunch of fellow Grimericans Https://t.me.grimerica grimerica.ca/chats Discord Leave a review on iTunes and/or Stitcher: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/grimerica-outlawed http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/grimerica-outlawed Sign up for our newsletter http://www.grimerica.ca/news SPAM Graham = and send him your synchronicities, feedback, strange experiences and psychedelic trip reports!! graham@grimerica.com InstaGRAM https://www.instagram.com/the_grimerica_show_podcast/ Purchase swag, with partial proceeds donated to the show www.grimerica.ca/swag Send us a postcard or letter http://www.grimerica.ca/contact/ ART - Napolean Duheme's site http://www.lostbreadcomic.com/ MUSIC Tru Northperception, Felix's Site sirfelix.bandcamp.com
If you enjoy this episode, we're sure you will enjoy more content like this on The Occult Rejects. In fact, we have curated playlists on occult topics like grimoires, esoteric concepts and phenomena, occult history, analyzing true crime and cults with an occult lens, Para politics, and occultism in music. Whether you enjoy consuming your content visually or via audio, we've got you covered - and it will always be provided free of charge. So, if you enjoy what we do and want to support our work of providing accessible, free content on various platforms, please consider making a donation to the links provided below. Thank you and enjoy the episode!Links For The Occult Rejects and The Spiritual Gangsters https://linktr.ee/theoccultrejectsOccult Research Institutehttps://www.occultresearchinstitute.org/Cash Apphttps://cash.app/$theoccultrejectsVenmo@TheOccultRejectsBuy Me A Coffeebuymeacoffee.com/TheOccultRejectsPatreonhttps://www.patreon.com/TheOccultRejectsEvents The Occult Rejects will be atOctober 18th - Charlies Beyond Belief at Tropical Lodge 56 F & AM Fort Myers, FLhttps://www.charliesbeyond.com/October 25-26, ARKANSAS PARANORMAL EXPO,at 503 East Ninth, Little Rock, ARhttps://www.arkansasparanormalexpo.com/Events The Occult Rejects will be atOctober 18th - Charlies Beyond Belief at Tropical Lodge 56 F & AM Fort Myers, FLhttps://www.charliesbeyond.com/October 25-26, ARKANSAS PARANORMAL EXPO at 503 East Ninth, Little Rock, ARhttps://www.arkansasparanormalexpo.com/
Oliver is a Wisdom Keeper, Writer, Storyteller, Teacher and Sacred Site Guide. Currently deepening his connection to the Land and Mysteries of Ancient Wales whilst writing his first book. He is on a soul mission to bring back lost Mystery School Wisdom and Initiations from the Druids, Gnostics and a lost Celtic Christianity. Oliver is also a scholar specializing in the life and story of ‘Joseph of Arimathea'; who was an Uncle, mentor to Yeshua, guardian and protector to Mary Magdalene and Mother Mary.He is a passionate teacher for the ancient language of Aramaic spoken by Yeshua and the Essenes. Oliver has over ten years of experience in holding land based retreats all over the world, specializing in the unification of the Gnostic and Druidic Mysteries of Avalon (Glastonbury) and Cymru (Wales). He has the rare ability to take you on an adventure uniting the worlds of Spiritual Initiation, Historical Knowledge and the Wisdom of Nature. Guiding individuals and groups through sacred journeys. Oliver weaves together sacred stories, ceremonies and teachings long forgotten from the Gnostics and Druids. Helping you remember and reconnect to the ancestral magic of the land and the stories of its holy history.This episode covers the the following topics:Celtic ChristianityJoseph of ArimatheaAramaic languageMary MagdaleneMother MaryPilgrimage GnosticismVisit Oliver's website: https://www.thegnosticdruid.com/Oliver's Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/ My Law of Positivism Healing Oracle Card Deck:https://www.lawofpositivism.com/healingoracle.htmlMy book The Law of Positivism – Live a life of higher vibrations, love and gratitude:https://www.lawofpositivism.com/book.html My readings and healing sessions:https://www.lawofpositivism.com/offerings.htmlVisit Law of Positivism:https://www.instagram.com/lawofpositivism/Website: https://www.lawofpositivism.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawofpositivism/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/lawofpositivismTikTok: www.tiktok.com/@lawofpositivism
Was Nietzsche right? Is God dead? Did he have to die to make room for the modern world? Join Jason […]
Join the conversation as Matt and John talk sports, the heresy of gnosticism, and one thing they liked. 0:00 Intro 2:54 Sports Roundup 19:10 Know Your Heretics Part 1 - Gnostics 41:53 This Day in Sports History 45:58 One Thing We Liked
Missionary Evangelist and Pastor Robert Breaker talks about the modern battle over the biblical doctrine of "Faith in the Blood," and how there are many today who say you don't have to know about it or believe in it. He further shows how Unitarians and Gnostics are historically the ones who have been against it, and deny the blood atonement of Jesus Christ.
Daily Dose of Hope September 29, 2025 Scripture - John 1:1-18 Prayer: Holy God, We come before you in this new week with humility and gratefulness. We praise your powerful name. Thank you, so much, Lord, that you came to earth to dwell among us and show us a different way of being. Help us to pay attention to your example. Help us to be more loving and more merciful in all we do. Help us to be even but a small reflection of you. You are King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, a deep dive into the Gospels and Acts. This is the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Church daily Bible reading plan. Today, we are starting our final Gospel, John. And John is different from the other three Gospels, we will see that as we work our way through it. It's also a beautiful Gospel. It goes deep. Be prepared for life change as we engage with the book of John. This first chapter is John's Christmas story. It's quite different from the other Gospels. In fact, the Gospel of John doesn't have any of the Christmas characters we know and love so well–no Joseph or Mary, no shepherds or angels, no manger and animals, no wise men traveling from the east. John didn't need to rehash those details of the incarnation. Afterall, the other Gospels had already been written and did a great job telling the story of baby Jesus. John chose to go about it differently, focusing less on how Jesus came and more on why Jesus came, and how the whole idea of the incarnation was so incredible, so mind-blowing, so amazingly significant for all people for all time. For in Jesus, God announced to the world that “I'm with you!” and that has made all the difference. We find John's Christmas story in two verses in this chapter: John 1:1,In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 1:14, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. What does this mean? Both the Jewish and Greek listeners would have been familiar with the term “Word,” which was Logos in Greek. -Jews were in the habit of substituting the Word of God for God himself in their concept of wisdom/reason---wisdom/reason is one of the meanings for LOGOS. -Greeks thought of Logos as the ruling principle of life and the universe. -Gnostics–believed the Spirit was imprisoned in the physical body and the secret to get it out was gnosis, knowledge, logos. (They didn't believe Jesus possessed a true, physical body.) So when John writes that the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, he means that the Word, LOGOS, is Jesus Christ. Please know that this was a mind-blowing claim. Jesus wasn't just a little baby who was born under unusual circumstances when Caesar Augustus was governor of Syria. He wasn't just a wise man who told amazing stories and fed a lot of people. No, Jesus (the Word) was present at the very beginning of time, Jesus (the Word) was with God, and Jesus (the Word) was God himself. To the Jews, John says the Word of God (GOD) is Jesus. To the Greeks, John says the ruling principle of life/universe is Jesus. To the Gnostics, John says the secret knowledge that leads to freedom is Jesus who had a true, physical body and dwelt among us. Jesus was not some mental concept, some intangible thought life; No, Jesus, God himself, became flesh and made his dwelling among us. Let's unpack this a bit more because it's pretty amazing. Let's start with the Word dwelt among us. A more accurate translation of the term “dwell” actually is “tabernacle” or “pitched his tent.” When a Jewish listener heard this, they would immediately think of the tabernacle in the Exodus. The tabernacle was where God met with his people before the temple was built---it housed the ark of the covenant and it represented God's presence/God's dwelling among his people. Now, John is saying, God has chosen to dwell among his people in an even more personal way, in the Word became flesh, in the person of Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God chose to dwell among his people. What was the benefit of God dwelling among the people? Think about this. You can kind of know someone, but when you dwell with someone, when you live with someone, then you really get to know them. If you've ever had a roommate, you know this well. You might be friends and know about one another but when you dwell together, when you live with one another, then you know all the stuff–the good and the bad. It's the same when you get married and live together. You know if they put their dishes in the dishwasher, you know if they leave trash around, you know the thoughtful things they do, you know the annoying things they do .You don't just kind of know them. You truly know them. When God came to earth to dwell among us in the person of Jesus, it was so humans could truly understand who God was, truly know God. God is Jesus and Jesus is God. So the character of Jesus was the character of God. The teachings of Jesus were the teachings of God. The miracles of Jesus were the miracles of God. When Jesus voluntarily gave his life on a cross for the sins of all humanity, it was a demonstration of God's amazing, expansive love for us. When Jesus was resurrected three days later, it was a demonstration of how God conquered death once and for all, meaning that we could have new life now and eternal life in the future. God dwelling among us in Jesus meant that God was not some distance, far off, hard to understand deity. No, the WORD was with us, hanging out in the living room, sitting at the kitchen table with us, and we could get to know him in a very personal, very intimate way. I love to think about Jesus walking with the disciples, dining with the tax collectors and prostitutes, spending a few days resting in the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. He dwelled with the people in a very intimate way. So the WORD made his dwelling among us. But some of you might be like---but that was so long ago. We personally did not walk with Jesus and talk with Jesus. He didn't literally dwell with Us personally. I would argue that Jesus does in fact walk among us and speak to us today. Afterall, we serve a living God and God's presence is everywhere. There is no place that we can go where God's presence is not. God's presence is here through the presence of the Holy Spirit. And we can also still dwell with the Word in another way – through the Bible. Just as the Word came to dwell among us, we can dwell in the Word. The Bible is the Word of God. We meet Jesus, Logos, God on the pages of Scripture. As we dwell in Scripture, we enter into the life of God and God enters into our lives. The Bible is not simply for information but for transformation. The purpose of Scripture is for us to get to know and love God more fully and be drawn more deeply into the life of faith so we can be changed from the inside out. It is not a textbook---we don't simply study it to acquire information and show people how smart we are. This is God's story from Genesis to Revelation. We learn about God's character. We learn about how God has been present throughout history. We learn about God's mission and plan of redemption for all people for all time. We learn about Jesus' ministry, death, and resurrection. We learn about the Kingdom of God and how Jesus demonstrated this new way of doing life, the way God always intended his world to be. We learn about the early church and the coming of the Holy Spirit. We learn about how God's mission continues through the church, through us, not in our own power but as God works through us. And while God revealed himself in Scripture through a specific people group, the miracle of God's Word is that it transcends time and place. When we dwell in the Word, God continues to reveal himself to us in new ways, we get to know God better, we begin to be transformed little by little. As we dwell in God's Word, the WORD, Jesus, becomes more real to us. How has the Bible become more real to you as we have worked our way through Mark, Matthew, and Luke? Blessings, Pastor Vicki
To donate to Whole Soul School and Foundation, click here: https://give.cornerstone.cc/wholesoulschoolandfoundation In podcast #34, Dr. Paul Panzica joins Marie Mohler to discuss 3 Castles in the Current Astrology, Once-Twice-Thrice Greatness, Ascension Insights, Gnostic and Cathar-Inspired Wisdom, The Prophesy of the Cathars, The Essence of Truth, What It Means To Be Sovereign, The Truth of Love, The Power of Discernment, Seers, and more.Join us for this deeper dive into the profound energies and insights emanating from Dr. Paul Panzica's teachings and awareness about the 3 Castles in our current astrology, Thrice Greatness, the Light of Gnosis, and the Gift of the Prophesy of the Cathars in our lives today! Please share this video with others. Podcasts like these offer a bridge into higher perspectives that aim to empower the human spirit to ground, heal, expand, and ascend in changing times.To learn more about Dr. Paul Panzica, visit his website: https://beyondthesoulsmeridian.org/To read Dr. Paul Panzica's Castle In The Sky article, visit:https://beyondthesoulsmeridian.org/2025/09/18/castles-in-the-sky-2025-fall-equinox/For more information and to check out Marie's current offerings, please visit:https://www.frequencywriter.com/To contact her, send email to: info@frequencywriter.comTo listen to more amazing podcasts and insightful broadcasts, or to make a donation, visit: http://www.wholesoulschoolandfoundation.orgTo donate: https://give.cornerstone.cc/wholesoulschoolandfoundationTo shop our apparel: https://www.bonfire.com/store/whole-soul-school-and-foundation/You can follow Marie here:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@colorthemagicX: https://x.com/marie_mohlerRumble.com: https://rumble.com/c/c-353585Telegram: https://t.me/wholesoulmasteryTruth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@frequencywriterYou can also tune into your favorite audio streaming platform to listen in to our podcasts: Spotify, Apple iTunes, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, etc. You can also mail donations to:Whole Soul School and Foundationc/o Marie Mohler400 S. Elliott Rd., Suite D259Chapel Hill, NC 27514Every donation is appreciated. Thank you! ***Disclaimer*** These podcasts are for educational purposes only.Support the show
In Episode #82 of the Collaborative Spotlight podcast series, Dr. Paul Panzica joins me to discuss 3 Castles in the Current Astrology, Once-Twice-Thrice Greatness, Ascension Insights, Gnostic and Cathar-Inspired Wisdom, The Prophesy of the Cathars, The Essence of Truth, What It Means To Be Sovereign, The Truth of Love, The Power of Discernment, Seers, and more.Join us for this deeper dive into the profound energies and insights emanating from Dr. Paul Panzica's teachings and awareness about the 3 Castles in our current astrology, Thrice Greatness, the Light of Gnosis, and the Gift of the Prophesy of the Cathars in our lives today! Please share this video with others. Podcasts like these offer a bridge into higher frequencies and perspectives that aim to empower the human spirit to ground, heal, expand, and ascend in changing times.To learn more about Dr. Paul Panzica, visit his website: https://beyondthesoulsmeridian.org/To read Dr. Paul Panzica's Castle In The Sky article, visit:https://beyondthesoulsmeridian.org/2025/09/18/castles-in-the-sky-2025-fall-equinox/For more information and to check out additional inspirational messages, please visit: https://www.frequencywriter.com/If you are interested in scheduling a Life Coaching appointment with me, please email me: info@frequencywriter.comTo listen to more amazing podcasts and insightful broadcasts, or to make a donation, visit: http://https://wholesoulschoolandfoundation.org/To donate: https://give.cornerstone.cc/wholesoulschoolandfoundationFollow Me on Social Media:Substack: https://frequencywriter.substack.com/X: https://x.com/marie_mohlerYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@colorthemagicRumble.com: https://rumble.com/c/c-353585Telegram: https://t.me/wholesoulmasteryTruth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@frequencywriterOr tune in via your favorite audio streaming platform:Spotify, Apple iTunes, and moreIf you would like to support me and my work directly, please send donations to: https://buy.stripe.com/3csbIU4v8a52eR2aEEYou can also mail donations to:Marie Mohler/Whole Soul Mastery400 S. Elliott Rd., Suite D259Chapel Hill, NC 27514Every donation is appreciated! Thank you
This week we're diving into the beliefs of the ancient Gnostics. Were we created by the Demiurge and not a loving God? Are there trickster Archons persuading us to stay stuck in a cycle of birth, death and rebirth? What can the beliefs of the Gnostics teach us today?Thanks for listening! If you enjoy the show, please tell a friend, subscribe, rate and leave us a kind review.Don't forget to join our community on Facebook by searching Psychic Teachers. If you have a question or story to share with us, send us an email at psychicteachers@gmail.com. For more information on us, check out our websites: debbowen.com and samanthafey.com.You can also find Samantha on Instagram @samanthaofey. If you want to pre-order Deb's book, go to debbowen.com or (if outside the US), check out clairegelder.com Signed copies of Samantha's book Heavenly Alliance and The Awake Dreamer are available at samanthafey.com. Be sure to check out Samantha's other podcast Enlightened Empaths. Have a great week. Be the Light!
In this episode, Stewart Alsop speaks with Nico Sarian, Executive Director of the Eternity Foundation and PhD candidate in Religious Studies, about the strange currents that run through Armenian history, the fractured birth of early Christianity, and the survival of Gnostic and Hermetic traditions into the Renaissance. The conversation weaves through questions of empire and nation state, mysticism and metaphysics, the occult roots of modern science, and the unsettling horizon of accelerationism, drawing unexpected lines between the ancient world, the bureaucratic order critiqued by David Graeber, and our present entanglement with surveillance and identity. For more on Nico's work, see The Eternity Foundation at eternity.giving.Check out this GPT we trained on the conversationTimestamps00:00 Stewart Alsop introduces Nico Sarian and sets the stage with Armenian history and the legacy of empire.05:00 The rise of early Christianity is traced, showing its fractures, Gnostic currents, and the persistence of esotericism.10:00 Hermeticism enters the frame, connecting mystical knowledge with the scientific spirit of the Renaissance.15:00 Empire versus nation state is explored, touching on bureaucracy, power, and identity.20:00 Mysticism and metaphysics are tied to questions of apocalypse, renewal, and hidden traditions.25:00 Nico brings in David Graeber, critiquing modern bureaucracy and how systems shape consciousness.30:00 Accelerationism surfaces, framed as both danger and possibility in modernity.35:00 Surveillance and identity are examined, echoing ancient struggles for meaning.40:00 Esotericism and religious syncretism are reconsidered as resources for navigating technological upheaval.45:00 The conversation closes with reflections on continuity, rupture, and the strange endurance of wisdom.Key InsightsOne of the central insights from Nico Sarian's conversation with Stewart Alsop is that Armenian history carries a unique vantage point on the ancient world, positioned between empire and nation, East and West. Its survival under domination reveals how smaller cultures can preserve mysticism, ritual, and identity even within overwhelming imperial structures.The episode underscores how early Christianity was never monolithic but a field of competing visions. Gnostics, proto-orthodox bishops, and other sects fought over scripture, ritual, and authority, leaving traces of suppressed traditions that still haunt religious and philosophical discourse today.A powerful thread emerges around Hermeticism and Renaissance science, where occult traditions did not oppose but actively shaped early scientific inquiry. The magical and the rational were not enemies; rather, they grew together in ways that modern categories tend to obscure.Sarian and Alsop discuss empire versus the nation state, showing how forms of political order encode metaphysical assumptions. Empires sought transcendence through universality, while nation states leaned on identity and bureaucracy, each carrying spiritual implications for those living under them.Another insight is the role of mysticism and apocalypse as recurring frameworks for understanding collapse and renewal. Whether in ancient prophetic traditions or modern accelerationism, there is a yearning for rupture that promises transformation but also carries danger.David Graeber's critique of bureaucracy becomes a lens for seeing how systems shape human consciousness. What appears as neutral administration actually molds imagination, desire, and even metaphysical assumptions about what is possible in the world.Finally, the episode points to the enduring tension between surveillance, identity, and esotericism. Just as ancient sects guarded secret knowledge from empire, modern individuals navigate the exposure of digital systems, suggesting that hidden wisdom traditions may offer unexpected resources for our technological present.
Reformed Brotherhood | Sound Doctrine, Systematic Theology, and Brotherly Love
In this solo episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Tony Arsenal tackles the concerning theological trend of "Divine Council Theology" and its recent resurgence within Reformed circles. He offers a critical analysis of Michael Heiser's influential work and its problematic popularization by Reformed figures like Doug Van Dorn and John Moffitt. Tony demonstrates how redefining the biblical term "Elohim" to include both God and created spiritual beings in the same ontological category fundamentally undermines the creator-creature distinction essential to Christian orthodoxy. Through careful examination of systematic theological categories, communicable and incommunicable attributes, and implications for Christology, he reveals why this seemingly academic redefinition poses serious threats to biblical monotheism and classical Reformed theology. Key Takeaways Divine Council Theology, popularized by Michael Heiser and now being promoted within Reformed circles, attempts to redefine "Elohim" as a functional category that includes both God and created spiritual beings. This theological trend commits an etymological fallacy by redefining the predominant usage of "Elohim" (which refers to the God of Israel in ~2,300 of 2,600 occurrences) based on minority usages. The approach dangerously blurs the fundamental creator-creature distinction that is essential to Christian monotheism and orthodox theology. Proponents incorrectly classify divine power as a communicable attribute rather than recognizing omnipotence as an incommunicable attribute that cannot be shared with creatures. The theological system makes problematic analogies to the incarnation, showing a confused understanding of the hypostatic union and potentially opening the door to Arian implications. This theology represents a concerning return to concepts the early church fathers fought against when confronting pagan Greek thought, rather than a retrieval of biblical teaching. Departing from the "pattern of sound words" handed down through church history in favor of novel interpretations should raise significant warning flags. Key Concepts The Creator-Creature Distinction The most fundamental division in Christian theology is not between spiritual and material beings, but between the uncreated Creator and everything else that exists. Divine Council Theology dangerously undermines this distinction by placing God and created spiritual beings in the same category of "Elohim." While proponents acknowledge God as the uncreated Creator, they nevertheless insist on categorizing Him alongside angels, demons, and other spiritual entities based on shared attributes of power or function. This categorization system parallels pagan worldviews more than biblical theology, where God exists in a class of one. By defining "Elohim" as a functional category related to spiritual power rather than an ontological one, this approach inadvertently returns to a hierarchical view of spiritual beings with God merely at the "top of the totem pole" rather than in an entirely separate and unique category of existence. This framework subtly but significantly undermines biblical monotheism by suggesting God shares a fundamental nature with His creatures. Communicable vs. Incommunicable Attributes Divine Council Theology mishandles the traditional theological distinction between God's communicable and incommunicable attributes. In classical Reformed theology, communicable attributes (like love or wisdom) can be shared with creatures in a limited, analogical way, while incommunicable attributes (like omnipotence, eternality, or divine simplicity) belong exclusively to God and cannot be shared without making the creature into God. Proponents of Divine Council Theology erroneously suggest that the power denoted by "Elohim" is a communicable attribute that God shares with spiritual beings, rather than recognizing omnipotence as properly incommunicable. This misclassification creates theological incoherence: if God could truly share His omnipotence with creatures, those creatures would effectively become equal to God in power, creating the logical impossibility of multiple omnipotent beings. This confusion of categories demonstrates how this theological system fails to maintain proper distinctions that are essential for preserving the uniqueness and transcendence of God in Christian theology. Memorable Quotes "Christianity and biblical Judaism—the primary distinction is not between spiritual and matter... The primary distinction when we're talking about the most absolute line is the distinction between the uncreated creator and his creation." "Rather than rely on the safe time-tested words and concepts that have been proven and validated, and attacked and defended and have been victorious for hundreds and thousands of years... Moffitt and Van Dorn think it is smarter and safer to depart from the pattern of sound words rather than to keep the pattern of sound words because they think that they are able to look at the Bible the way basically no one ever has in the 2000 years of the church and find something they haven't." "These teachings are pagan. This is talking about returning to a world populated by spiritual beings, and God is kind of just on the highest part of the totem pole... We're just returning to something that the early church fought hard to get rid of when they came out of their pagan culture." Resources Mentioned Reformed Arsenal article series on Divine Council Theology Full Transcript [00:00:24] Introduction and Episode Setup Tony Arsenal: Welcome to episode 461 of the Reformed Brotherhood. I am Tony, and today it's just me. Hey, brothers and sisters. We had a little bit of a scheduling conflict this week, so Jesse is taking the week off and uh, it gives me an opportunity to talk about something that I've been doing a little bit of research on. [00:00:47] Affirmations and Denials Tony Arsenal: Hopefully the listener has noticed that Jesse and I have been trying to keep our affirmations and denials a little bit tighter so we can get into the meat of the episode a little bit quicker. But occasionally we do run into a denial, usually a denial, but we run into a denial that, uh, we often say this could be an episode of its own. And so today is one of those episodes. So I'm not gonna give you my normal affirmation or denial. I'm just gonna jump into it. Now this is gonna be a little bit off the cuff. I've been doing some research, so I may not have as much of the receipts as the kids say, um, as I normally would. But I am writing a series of articles on this issue over@reformedarsenal.com. I'll make sure to put the link to the first article in the show notes. All of the receipts are there, all of the timestamps for the podcast episodes that I'll be. Discussing your critiquing. Are there citations for research work that I'm doing? All that stuff is there. So if you're interested in digging into the meet and you're the kind of guy who, or girl who likes to nerd out in the footnotes, then head over to uh reformed arsenal.com. You'll find the series pretty quick. [00:01:56] Introduction to Divine Counsel Theology Tony Arsenal: What I wanted to talk about today, and I'm glad we have kind of a whole episode, uh, to talk about it, is a movement, uh, that has some foothold in reformed theology. Uh, it's not new, uh, it didn't start in reformed theology, but for some reason, uh, those who are within our orbits tend to be a little bit enamored by this kind of theology. I'm not exactly sure why. [00:02:19] Michael Heiser's Influence Tony Arsenal: This theology is often called Divine Counsel Theology, and it was really, um, you know, it's not entirely new even with, with this figure, but it was really made popular and sort of, um, spread about and made accessible by the late Michael Heiser. Um, part of this is because he was just a very winsome, uh, guy. He took. Sort of highfalutin academic concepts and was able to bring them down to, uh, to an understandable level, including things like ancient near Eastern context, biblical, you know, ex of Jesus Hebrew language, other ancient near Eastern languages, which of course, that's that kind of stuff is what this podcast is all about, taking difficult, sometimes technical concepts. Talking about them, translating them into kind of the language that everybody else speaks. So that project was fine. The issue is the direction that he goes with a lot of the theology. So Michael Heiser writes a book called Unseen Realms, which is seen as kind of a retrieval of the supernatural mindset and worldview of the Bible. Uh, there's a lot to be commended about that, uh, enterprise, about that intention. I do agree with part of what he has to say when he says that we've lost a lot of the supernatural context of the Bible. Um, but I think where he goes with it is a direction that we really ought not go and we'll dig into it. [00:03:43] Critique of Reformed Fringe Podcast Tony Arsenal: The reason this is coming up now is because recently there's been a series of articles and podcasts put out by a show called The Reformed Fringe. Uh, some if you're in the Telegram chat, which you can join at, uh, t Me slash Reformed Brotherhood. You've already seen some of this stuff. We've already talked about it a little bit. But the Reformed Fringe is a podcast that sort of tries to fill a space that's something like Haunted Cosmos, which we've talked about before. Um, fills sort of looking at the weird fringe kind of things in the world. Ghosts, paranormal activity, trying to explain it through a biblical, uh, lens or worldview. Again, that's a commendable. Effort. There are strange things that happen in our world that are not easily explainable or at all explainable by natural, uh, naturalistic means. And so coming to those things with the Bible as our, uh, rubric to instruct us on how the world works is a commendable thing. But again, this project, which is by and large, um, and we'll get into maybe, but by and large is just an extension of, um, Heiser's project really goes in directions that cause all sorts of problems down the road. So the podcast is, uh, run by a guy named Doug Van Dorn, who most of the audience probably hasn't heard of. I have had run-ins with Doug over the years. Um, the last time I ran into him actually was revolving around similar kinds of issues that I'm gonna be calling out today. Um, and it, it ended up with him kind of having to depart from the reform pub, uh, maybe to put it a little bit politely and, um. You know, he has, he has taken, he's theology, which was not explicitly reformed. Heiser was not a reformed guy. He had no claims to be a Calvinist in many ways. Uh, he was sort of anticon confessional in, in that he opposed not the idea of a faith statement, but he sort of purported to come to the Bible with no biases, with no tradition. He wanted to approach what he called the Naked Bible. That was actually the name of his podcast before he died a few years ago. And so what Doug Van Dorn is, has done who, uh, Doug is a claims to be a 1689 Reformed Baptist. He's a pastor in Colorado, I believe. Um, he has tried to take this divine counsel theology and bring it into the reformed world. So he comes at it with a, a slightly different angle, but for the most part, his conclusions are the same. And in many cases he just straight up steals ER's work and doesn't cite it, doesn't do much to, uh, articulate that this is not his original research. Um, so he's taken that and he's trying to bring it into the reformed world. And Heiser himself was actually quite influential when I was a, an admin in the reform pub. We would run into lots of, lots of young reformed guys. Who were really enamored with this and they really saw, he's project as sort of a return to a pure form of exo Jesus that really got at what the Hebrew was saying. And it tickled, I think, kind of an intellectual, uh, an intellectual itch that a lot of those guys had combined with sort of this desire for the new and novel, um, which is in itself can be pretty dangerous. To sort of make things a little bit more pressing, Heiser has teamed up with John Moffitt, who many of our listeners may know. Uh, he's one of the co-hosts and founders of the podcast, Theo Cast, uh, which otherwise is a perfectly fine podcast. Um, he's also a 1680 or claims to be a 1689 Reform Baptist. He's a pastor. Um, their podcast is sort of what you would get if you had, uh, and I don't mean this to be pejorative, although maybe it is a little pejorative. Theo cast is what you would get if you took r Scott Clark. Uh, you made it much less intellectual and careful, and then made it Baptist. And what I mean by that is Scott's whole project. In large part is to recover and to emphasize the law gospel distinction. Theo cast has taken that and sort of cranked it up to 11. Uh, and they have um, they have sort of moved away from a lot of the classical reform distinctions of the law itself, so they don't full on deny the third use of the law. But in practice they would say that, um, good works is no kind of evidence whatsoever for your, um, for your faith. It's no kind of evidence of your, your salvation, which of course are confessions themselves. Um, say that there is a kind of evidential value to assessing our good works within certain reason and con. So the show is otherwise orthodox. You know, I I, I recall hearing episodes where they were refuting things like EFS, um, but because of that, Moffitt brings with him sort of an air of credibility and an error in orthodoxy that, um, the show itself probably hasn't merited. If Doug just recorded, pushed, play and put it on the. I don't think there would've been too much, uh, too much of a following. He would've probably, you know, grabbed a couple people who heard it and thought it was interesting. But because Moffitt has such a following on Theo cast, he brings with him a large audience, and that makes it particularly dangerous because his name attached to it makes it more widespread. It makes it feel like it's safer. And so I think a lot of people, uh, assume that what he's saying is orthodox and good. And I think what we'll find out is, is that it's not. So I think that's enough ProGo. [00:09:10] Elohim and Its Implications Tony Arsenal: I'm gonna go ahead and, and jump into explaining kind of what the theology that we're talking about is and, and what the problems are. So this all started kicked off, uh, with a series of podcast episodes and the first episode, and again, I don't have the specific titles here. I'll put a bibliography in the show notes on this one just so you have links to all the relevant episodes. Um, this all kind of kicked off with a podcast episode called something like The History of the Word God, or something like that. And, um, basically what Moffitt and Van Dorn want to do is they wanna look at the word Elohim in the Bible, which of course is a plural noun. Uh, in Hebrew, the, the suffix, just like in English, we might add an S or an ES, um, to a word to make it plural. Or in Greek, it's usually, if it's a masculine, uh, noun, it's, it's an oi or an omicron iota that sort of always sound at the end. Um, or when we, we talk about Latin, you have, you have like, um, you add the I at the end, so we say octopi instead of octopuses or something like that. Cacti instead of cactus. Although both of those are kind of pig Latins, um, in, in Hebrew for, uh, for masculine nouns. The suffix that you add to make it plural, is that eam sound. It's a, it's an Im if you transliterate in English. So the word Elohim is a plural of the original noun El which is a proper name for a eury deity. But it came to just be the singular word for, for God. Um, and, and in non-biblical language, we would say in a God. Um, and we do see in English, there are in, in Hebrew, in the Bible, there are places where we see the singular of this. It's kind of an older form, so it doesn't show up as much. Um, but by and large when we see the word Elohim in the Bible. Something like, uh, outta 2,600 references or more than 2,600 references in the Bible. Um, the word Elohim is associated with a single, a singular noun, and it only refers to the God of Israel. What Moffitt and Van Dorn want to do is they want to take this word and they wanna define it based on the abnormal. Uh, use of it. So the vast minority, minority of cases in the Old Testament, the word Elohim refers to the gods or to a non, like what we might say is lower G God, either like the God, Baal, or some sort of collective reference to the gods, the gods of the nation, or something like that. They wanna take the fact that there is this variation in the way the word is used and sort of radically redefine how the Bible uses it. And this, this is what I call and what a lot of people would call an etymological fallacy. So what they're doing is, instead of, uh, looking at the word and defining it based on how it's used in an, in an overwhelming fashion, they're looking at sort of the etymology of the word. And then they're using the fact that there are, uh, some pretty Dr. Dramatically minority cases where the word is used in a different way and they wanna redefine it and say, in, in all or most cases in the Bible actually. This is what the word means. So they look at the word L, which from its root has something to do probably with the, with the word for power or something like that. Um, they wanna look at it. And, you know, if you read someone like Vos in Reformed dogmatics in his volume one, he talks about how when we see the name Elohim for God, it denotes or, or refers to his sort of power, his omnipotence, which is all good and fine, just like we would say Yahweh. Uh, as a proper name refers to God sort of in his covenant role. It's his covenant name, his, his intimate, familial name that he shares, uh, with his people or he reveals to his people. Elohim is a more abstract name and it refers to God's power. Usually we see it in relation to his cre creation. So in Genesis one, um, when it's God created, it's Elohim created, which is also important and relevant for, for later. So what they wanna do is they want to say that Elohim actually. What Act Elohim actually means is it's a reference to a class of beings, spiritual beings, and that that it means sort of any spiritual being that has some type of supernatural power or enhanced power, some sort of spiritual power. They do this by saying that the noun is not an ontological noun, it's actually like a noun of function. Um, so like we would say a, a good example in English would be a painter that's a noun of function. It's a title of function. It any person could be called a painter if they engage in the verbal action of painting. And so what they're saying is that any being that engages in the action of having power. Is, uh, is an Elohim. And so that would include, in narrating at least, it would include angels, demons. Uh, I, you know, I don't know that they've said this explicitly, but I, I think Heiser would've included things like ghosts, disembodied spirits, um, humans in sort of the intermediary state might be considered Elohim humans in the, in the, um, this. Life are called Elohim, uh, in some instances. So, so this is where the Divine Council theology comes from, and that comes from Psalm 82, I think, where there's this council of Elohim that, that Yahweh seems to be speaking to and deliberating with. Or you look at Joe, where the sons of God come and they sort of pulled court in God's heavenly presence. So he would say those are examples where the, the collected Elohim. God being one of the Elohim are somehow gathered in this heavenly divine counsel. Now what this does is just devastating to Christian theology is it takes God who exists in a class of one. The, the, the God of the universe is, is the only uncreated entity in all of of the world. And so when we start to talk, and this is ironic, when we start to talk about the ways to divide up the world, the ancient world, the, the pagan world tended to divide the world between, um. Between spiritual and material. So think of g Gnostics where matter was bad and spirit was good. Or even think of something like, um, the Greek pantheons, the Greek, um, Greek religion, like ancient Greek mythology. You have sort of the spirits and the spiritual world and the gods inhabit a spiritual, have a spiritual existence for the most part. And then you have the physical world where kind of people live, uh, at least while they're alive. Christianity and, and Judaism, at least Biblical Judaism. On the other hand, the, the primary distinction is not between spiritual and matter. There is of course that distinction. There are humans, which are spiritual and material. There are animals which are entirely material, and then there are angels which are entirely spiritual. And so we would say that God is spiritual. So that is a distinction in the world. But the primary distinction when we're talking about the most absolute line is the distinction between the, the uncreated creator and his creation. So what Moffitt, Moffitt and Van Dorn do is instead of observing that biblical distinction, which really all of Christian theology and Christian monotheism rests on, they wanna say that instead, the distinction is between the. Um, is between the Elohim as the sort of spiritual beings and then sort of everything else of the created world, and so they wouldn't deny that God, that Yahweh is. The uncreated creator of all things, but they would say he's an uncreated Elohim and that there is a class of created Elohim. So I don't, I don't think you have to go too far down this road to see what this does. It puts God on the same level as his creatures in at least one way. Um, and I think we'll find out later, uh, as we talk through this, actually it does it in a couple ways that are really, uh, really can be problematic as we go. And so, uh, just let me be clear if all that, if all that Moffitt and Van Dorn were saying, if, if all they said was, um, we can use the word Elohim to describe any creature. Or God that doesn't have a body. Elohim is a synonym for the word spirit. Um, that wouldn't be the wisest way to speak, I don't think. It wouldn't be the, the most, um, felicitous or safe way to talk about the distinction. But it wouldn't be controversial. There'd be nothing wrong with that. It'd just be using a different word. It'd be like if I said, well, instead of the word spirit, I'm gonna use the word bibly bop, you know? So we have. We have God who is bibly bop, and we have the angels who is bibly bop, and humans are biblio bop. And also material, again, not the safest way to talk. There's no reason to use that alternative language when the Bible gives us perfectly legitimate language. Um, but it wouldn't be a problem. But Moffit and Van Dorn go. Way past this and maybe they don't realize it. I've asked them on Twitter, I asked them to clarify. I didn't get a response. So if they are hearing this, which maybe they will, maybe they won't. If they're hearing this, I would really love to get some clarification on some of these questions because I would love nothing more than to be able to say that this was all a big misunderstanding and that actually all they're saying is that there is this spiritual existence. That, um, we can put all things that are spirit without a body or spirit with a body. We can put all those in the same category and call that category Elohim. Again, I don't think that's safe, but if that's all they were doing, that would be fine. But we see in their episodes, and I'm gonna try to grab some quotes, um, from, from some of the articles I've written. But again, go read the articles because this goes way more in depth. It's got timestamps of it. It's got links to their episodes. Don't take my word for it. Go listen to their. Words and, and check, you know, check my math on this. But what they do is they actually start to, in, in an attempt to justify why it's okay to put God in the same category as his creatures. Um, and in at least one way, they start to make some weird statements that have a lot of systematic theology, um, implications that are, are just really, really risky. So, for example, one of the ways that they try to kind of explain this, I'm gonna pull, pull the article that I wrote up here. So, great podcasting. [00:19:34] Communicable vs. Incommunicable Attributes Tony Arsenal: Um, one of the ways they start to try to do this is again, they, they wanna say they use this distinction between incommunicable and communicable attributes, right? So in, in Christian theology, classically speaking, a communicable attribute of God is an attribute that he shares or could share with. A creature and primarily we're talking, you know, we're talking about attributes that he shares with his image bearers. So something like, um, love. Love is a communicable attribute. Our love is different than God's love, but when we say love, we're talking about the same basic category of things God loves differently than we do. But love and in a human sense, and love in a, in a divine sense, are still talking about the same thing. There's a point of contact there. Um, an incommunicable attribute would be something like, um, something like eternity. Right. Eternity is not just an extended infinite sequence of time. If it was, he could share that with us. Um, but eternity or infinity is an entirely different way of existing than a creature could ever, could ever exist in divine Simplicity is another example. Um, God could not make humans simple because simplicity entails all sorts of things like infinity. Um, eternality. Um, you know, omnipresence, omni, potent, all of these things are entailed by simplicity. So God could not make a creature infinite because in order for it to be infinite, it would have to be God. Uh, God could not make a creature simple, uh, in the, in the sense of no composition of parts. Uh, because that would mean that that creature is actually God and has no composer. So, so those would be the classic, uh, incommunicable attributes and omnipotence. Is considered, although it's a little bit weird, it sort of crosses the line in some ways. But omnipotence is considered. An incommunicable attribute. God cannot share his omnipotence with a creature because you can't have two omnipotence. Um, if you have two omnipotence, then those two omnipotence cancel each other out in some sense. If God, and, and, and he has a will, God wills one thing, and then I as a creature, if he shared his omnipotence with me, somehow willed a different thing, then we would no longer be, neither of us would be omnipotent. Where this goes sideways with Moffitt and Vandorn is rather than respect omnipotence as a an incommunicable attribute, they say that the attribute or the word Elohim denotes power or might, and that is a communicable attribute. So God does give us a certain level of power. He allows us a certain level of agency. He grants that to us. Again, I'm not even sure that we would call that an an. A communicable attribute. Um, but in a sense, I guess it is. And so they say here, um, Elohim does not mean omnipotent. It means power. It's not an incommunicable attribute. It's a communicable attribute that all kinds of entities could possess. So they're saying that the word, um, the word Elohim, uh, in the Bible denotes that a. A, an entity possesses a certain kind of power or acts in a certain role of executing a certain kind of power. And that doesn't mean omnipotence. It means it means potence. It means some sort of power. And so that that wielding power attribute that. Uh, being a, being that wields power, that attribute, whatever we want to call it, however we want to phrase it, that is a communicable attribute that God shares. He communicates that attribute to all other beings in the class of Elohim. Now, let's just back that up for a second. Um, this still would mean that God has to be the creator and they don't deny that, but it would still mean that God, prior to creation. Was an Elohim in a category of one, and then somehow he created a class and because he's extended. This attribute of wielding power, say power wielder, to try to make it actually more of an attribute. He's extended this attribute of power wielder to uncreate or to created angels, demons, human spirits, whatever other spiritual entities there might be. They would bring in things like principalities, powers, they have a whole, in other, other contexts, they'll talk about this whole different bifurcation of types of spiritual beings that I think is a little speculative, but not a big deal. He extends this power wielder attribute to these created categories. And instead of this now creating a separate category of power wields who are not God, it now is uh, he expands this category of one to now include all sorts of other things, which again, as you can, you can imagine, just runs into problems. And so the, again, this, this word Elohim appears over 2,600 times, and of these instances, 230 of them refer to the God of Israel. So the idea that that. This word is not used specifically as a reference to the God of Israel, or should not be thought of as uniquely titling or almost exclusively titling God. The God of Israel just doesn't really match the data, but it's also just really poor Exogenic method. So rather than take the predominant usage and look at the context. Understanding that the predominant usage is the predominant usage. Instead, we're gonna go back and say, well, these, these minority, these 300 or so cases outside, and not even all 300 of them are used the same way, but these 300 or so cases of them not referring to the God of Israel, we're gonna use that to redefine the word. Its entirety. It's just poor. It's just poor scholarship. It's overly speculative. Um, I haven't read much of. He's work on this in the primary sources. Um, I, I would venture a guess that Heiser makes a much more robust argument than this. And this is part of the problem. When you take an already speculative, already dangerous theology and you try to pop popularize it when you just don't have the same chops that he did, uh, you end up really making some crass, simplistic arguments that just make you look a little silly. To think we can take 200 or 2,600 instances and redefine 2 20, 300 of them. By the way, it's used 300 of the times Just doesn't make any sense. So it again, if, if all we are saying is that God is spiritual and angels are spiritual and so there is some point of affinity between the two, then that would be okay. That wouldn't be a problem. Again, there's some risk in using the word Elohim in that. Sort of placeholder, but, um, that would be a semantic discussion. What they're doing is far, far deeper and far more problematic than that. [00:26:30] Systematic Theology Concerns Tony Arsenal: And so the, the other thing they do, um, that I think is really dangerous, and I don't have all of the, I haven't finished this article yet, so I don't have all of the timestamps in front of me to, to, to get there, is in attempting to justify this Moffitt, uh, in, in one of the other episodes, he turns to the incarnation as a sort of model. And so he'll say that, you know, the son of God is divine, but he's also human. And the fact that he's human, uh, doesn't therefore mean he's not also uniquely the uncreated creator. I would assume everyone hearing this who listens to this show, uh, which has done many, many episodes on Christology, it's one of our pet projects, is just throwing their listening device across the room because what Moffitt seems to miss entirely is that Christ is not, the sun is not in the category of human. Uh, sort of in a simple sense, Christ is in the category of human because he assumes to himself a second created nature. So what, what the, the analogy he's trying to draw is if the sun can be human without ceasing to be the unique one, uncreated God, then so also can, the whole trinity, I guess, can also be Elohim without ceasing to be the one uncreated God. He even goes so far as to say that there is Uncreated Elohim, and then there is created Elohim, and they're all in the category of Elohim, but because there's this commonality, we should still consider that class. And he draws that distinction or he draws the implication that. Um, there's somehow uncreated humanity in Christ, which is a whole different ball of worms that we won't get into. But in, in drawing this analogy, he sort of shows that he really doesn't understand the hypostatic union. He doesn't understand the incarnation, or if he does, he's really making a poor comparison because in the hypostatic union it's not as though the son, uh, as divinity, the son, as the one uncreated. God simply adds to himself in a raw sense and merges. Uh, he doesn't become part of the category of human without taking on a second nature. And then now we are even getting into some inconsistencies. Is human an ontological category or is that a category of function? Are there other categories of function, uh, other creatures in existence that the category of function human might fit? So I think you can see that this just is not a self consistent. Um, a self-consistent system and it leads to all these weird implications. Um, you know, and then they'll even go on to talk about how the Son is the angel of the Lord. I'm not gonna get into a lot of it here, and I agree with that thesis that the, when we see the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament, in the vast majority of cases, we're probably seeing a pre-incarnate appearance of, um, of the second person of the Trinity. They go so far as to say that this is actually a sort of. Incarnation or a sort of hypostatic union of the Elohim nature. So they, they, they draw this distinction, or they draw this parallel between created Elohim and Uncreated Elohim, and they, they argue again, I think implicitly, but in some instances it's almost, it's almost explicit that the son in, in being the angel of the Lord, takes on the uncreated or takes on the created Elohim nature. It's, it's really, um, it's really problematic. So now we have the son who is, uh, sort of hypostatic united to the unc, to the created Elohim nature, and then also is hypostatic united to the human nature. Um, it, it really just gets messy and it confuses categories in a way that is not helpful. And if I'm just being frank, a lot of the younger reformed guys. And when I say younger, I'm talking, maybe I'm projecting back to when I was a younger reform guy, um, I'm talking about people in their mid twenties to maybe early thirties, right? The, the people who were maybe the second or third generation of the young restless reform guys, they didn't necessarily learn, uh, ref young restless reform theology directly from RC Sproul. You know, they weren't the first generation. Um, and, and maybe their pastors weren't the first generation, but, but maybe their pastors were the second generation and now they're learning it from their pastors. So you might think of 'em as like the third generation, to be frank, they don't usually have a great grasp on some of these systematic theology categories as part of why. Jesse and I do this podcast, and part of why we cover the same topic over and over again, part of why we're gonna go through this parable series. But when we're done, we're probably gonna go back and start over with systematic theology. We're gonna go back, we're gonna go through another confession. That's why we spent, we spent like six years going through systematic theology. And almost immediately went back to the Scott's confession and did most of it all over again because these truths need to be taught again and again and again. This is part of what Jude is talking about when he says, we have to contend for the faith. It's not just fighting with people online. It's not just polemics or apologetics. It is reteaching and handing down the faith that was once delivered to the saints. Again, and this is perhaps, and this is the last point I'll make. This is perhaps the most. Telling a reason we should be weary and suspicious of this theology. Paul, in, uh, one of the letters to Timothy, second Timothy, maybe he says, follow the pattern of the sound words that you heard from me. He's not talking about the scriptures. He doesn't say follow the sound words that I'm writing to you. He's referring to a body of doctrine sometimes. The Bible calls it the faith, right? Jude says to contend for the faith. There's this body of doctrine that is the teaching of the apostles, and it is encapsulated in this sort of set pattern of words. Erin A is called it the rule of faith or the regular fide, right? This is where we get things like the Nicean Creed or the Hanian Creed. Why we have creeds and confessions is because we don't need to reinvent the wheel and rather than rely on the safe time-tested words and concepts that have been proven and validated, and attacked and defended and, and um, have been victorious for hundreds and thousands of years, rather than rely on those. Moffitt and Van Doran think it is smarter and safer to depart from the pattern of sound words rather than to keep the pattern of sound words because they think that they are able to look at the Bible the way basically no one ever has in the 2000 years of the church and find something they haven't. I don't wanna be too bombastic. Um, I don't, I don't know either of them. Well, um, from what I can tell, what I've heard of their professions of faith, uh, they're, they're Christian believers. They love the Lord and are very confused. But these teachings are pagan. This is, we're talking about returning to a world of, of populated by spiritual beings. And God is kind of just on the highest part of the totem pole, and maybe there's a firm line between his place on the totem pole and the, the next level down. Maybe there is, um, gets a little bit less firm of a line when we're talking about Jesus, right? So there's some potential Arian implications there that the son, uh, is not the highest deity he is. He's like the father in some ways, but he, you know, in his sort of original form is like creatures in other ways. Um, we're just returning to something that the early church fought hard to get rid of when they came out of their pagan culture. When we started to see Greeks convert to Christianity, they had to figure out how do we come out of our polytheistic culture, and this is where we get the best defenses of monotheism. Jewish Christians didn't have to argue for monotheism because all the Jewish Christians already were monotheists in a biblical sense. The Greek Christians had to fight this stuff. Justin Martyr had to fight this stuff. Athanasius and the Cappadocian fathers had to fight this stuff constantly pushing back against the background Greek culture. And Moffitt and Van Dorn wanna point to that and say, see, really, they're just Greeks in disguise and in the reality is Athanasius and the cap oceans, were fighting against the theology that is making a resurgence in this divine council theory. [00:34:55] Conclusion and Call to Action Tony Arsenal: So I think that's enough for now. Please. Again, I'm writing a long series on this. I don't know how long it's gonna take. I think it's gonna be probably 10 or 13, 10 to 13 articles. It's, it's gonna be a pretty extensive project. But go read them. Go look at them, listen to their episodes, read their articles, and then you compare that to the word of God, has what I said made more sense or does what they make more sense. So I'll leave you with that. The dog is losing her mind. And uh, with that honor, everyone love the brotherhood.
Guest Marisa Acocella is a NY Times best-selling author of the graphic memoir Cancer Vixen, and the graphic novels The Big She-Bang, Ann Tenna and Just Who the Hell is She, Anyway? Being a professional cartoonist, she is also creating Divine Mother Earth Time with her dear friend Laura Eisenhower. In our show, she talks about her awakening (from Catholicism/to her pharma•nutrition dad/always critical), to her thoughts now on her experience with breast cancer and chemo, history to herstory discussing Eve/earning ascension to feminism, Ruth Bader, Gloria Steinem and AI.She leads the "Just Be Practice," expressing the healing of the sun as well as words to we women.Links to Marisa:Website: https://www.marisaacocella.comMARISA'S BOOKS: The Big She-Bang:https://www.amazon.com/Big-She-Bang-Herstory-Universe-According/dp/006290566X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=345YIQRGZYF0A&keywords=the+big+shebang&qid=1686080544&sprefix=the+big+sheban%2Caps%2C72&sr=8-1https://www.amazon.com/stores/Marisa-Acocella-Marchetto/author/B001ILHJIG?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1707579295&sr=8-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true*Host Eden Koz is a soul realignment specialist utilizing psychological empathy, intuition, psychic ability, mediumship, meditation, mindset shift, Reiki, dimensional and galactic healing, to name a few. She also performs spiritual Co#id Vac+ Healing as well as remote & face-to-face sessions with individuals and groups. **Additionally, in spreading the word... If you are questioning your Gold IRA because of scams (see EP188) or want to invest in a precious metals company with integrity...email: info@milesfranklin.com and put "Eden" in the subject line (they know me personally, so the best of attention and heart will come your way!)Miles Franklin's website: https://milesfranklin.com Contact info for Eden Koz / Just Be®, LLC:Website: EdenJustBe.com Socials: TikTok, FB, FB (Just Be), X, Insta, LinkedInJust Be~Spiritual BOOM Podcast - Video Directories: BitChute, Rumble, ...
This discussion features Judah Thomas, David LaManna, Lenny Salgado, Ben Cossette, Mike McHugh, and James Gowell. Edited by: Tim NicholsonThe crew continues their discussion on 1 John and Mike kicks us off with some great questions about the letter/sermon from John. David (our history guru) responds with his research to address Mike's question and the conversation goes from there. Please help us spread the word about Thriving in the Word, read 1 John 1-5 with us and come along for the journey. Thank you for listening and being part of the Thriving in the Word family.Have a blessed day.For more information visit: www.thrive.churchIf you would like to give financially you can do so here: www.thrive.church/give/If you need prayer email us at prayer@thrive.churchThis is a presentation of Thrive.Church©All Rights Reserved
We call the result of the Fall the deficiency, commonly referred to as the material cosmos. Here's the Sethian take on the structure of our cosmos: Yaldabaoth organized everything after the pattern of the first aeons that had come into being, so that he might create everything in an incorruptible form. (The Secret Book of John, verse 12) The Tripartite Tractate adds this caution to the construction of the cosmos: Those who came into being from the presumptuous thought resemble in fact the Fullnesses of whom they are imitations, though they are phantoms, shadows, and illusions, deprived of reason and light, belonging to this empty thought, being nobody's offspring. (TTT, verse 78) We Second Order Powers were subsequently fruited into this material realm by the will of the Fullness in order to restore the fallen Aeon to the Fullness and bring this material creation to an end. Gnostics say that this material world was constructed by the Demiurge as a fallen imitation of the Paradise that exists on the ethereal plane. We think of this cosmos as being material in contrast to the ethereal nature of the originating consciousness of the Father, Son, and Fullness of God. But, as my brother needs to remind me from time to time, there is no such thing as matter. Matter itself is an illusion. In other words, there is no dualism.
The sermon addresses the escalating deception in the end times, drawing parallels to the early church's confrontation with the Gnostics. It emphasizes the importance of discerning truth through a deep understanding of Scripture, particularly concerning the nature of Christ and the necessity of fellowship with Him. The message cautions against false teachers and encourages believers to remain steadfast by recognizing the hallmarks of deception and grounding their faith in the unchanging truth of God's Word, ultimately asserting that only through Christ can one truly know and experience the Father.
Open debate and calls and questions on the topics listed - or pretty much anything! Gnostics, Mormons, MAGA, feminists, libertarians, JWs, Hebrew Israelites, Hebrew Roots, Dispensationalists, current events and news, atheist, on and on! I will be speaking at this conference! Get tickets here https://southernorthodox.org/conferences/3rd-annual-conference/ Send Superchats at any time here: https://streamlabs.com/jaydyer/tip Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnt7Iy8GlmdPwy_Tzyx93bA/join PRE-Order New Book Available in Sept here: https://jaysanalysis.com/product/esoteric-hollywood-3-sex-cults-apocalypse-in-films/ Get started with Bitcoin here: https://www.swanbitcoin.com/jaydyer/ The New Philosophy Course is here: https://marketplace.autonomyagora.com/philosophy101 Set up recurring Choq subscription with the discount code JAY44LIFE for 44% off now https://choq.com Lore coffee is here: https://www.patristicfaith.com/coffee/ Subscribe to my site here: https://jaysanalysis.com/membership-account/membership-levels/ Follow me on R0kfin here: https://rokfin.com/jaydyer Music by Amid the Ruins 1453 https://www.youtube.com/@amidtheruinsOVERHAUL Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnt7Iy8GlmdPwy_Tzyx93bA/join Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnt7Iy8GlmdPwy_Tzyx93bA/join #comedy #religion #podcastBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jay-sanalysis--1423846/support.
Open debate and calls and questions on the topics listed - or pretty much anything! I will be covering social dynamics, men and women and C1A tips, Xian Nationalism, and open calls on everythin and perpaps reels - Gnostics, Mormons, MAGA, feminists, libertarians, JWs, Hebrew Israelites, Hebrew Roots, Dispensationalists, current events and news, atheist, on and on! I will be speaking at this conference! Get tickets here https://southernorthodox.org/conferences/3rd-annual-conference/ Send Superchats at any time here: https://streamlabs.com/jaydyer/tip Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnt7Iy8GlmdPwy_Tzyx93bA/join PRE-Order New Book Available in Sept here: https://jaysanalysis.com/product/esoteric-hollywood-3-sex-cults-apocalypse-in-films/ Get started with Bitcoin here: https://www.swanbitcoin.com/jaydyer/ The New Philosophy Course is here: https://marketplace.autonomyagora.com/philosophy101 Set up recurring Choq subscription with the discount code JAY44LIFE for 44% off now https://choq.com Lore coffee is here: https://www.patristicfaith.com/coffee/ Subscribe to my site here: https://jaysanalysis.com/membership-account/membership-levels/ Follow me on R0kfin here: https://rokfin.com/jaydyer Music by Amid the Ruins 1453 https://www.youtube.com/@amidtheruinsOVERHAUL Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnt7Iy8GlmdPwy_Tzyx93bA/join Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnt7Iy8GlmdPwy_Tzyx93bA/join #comedy #religion #podcastBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/jay-sanalysis--1423846/support.
Today we're diving into the real Mary Magdalene story. Not the repentant sinner you heard about in Sunday school, but Mary the priestess, the apostle, the mystic, and spiritual teacher who some early Christians, aka Gnostics, saw as Jesus's equal partner in transmitting sacred wisdom. A Divine Tale This is a tale about divine feminine ... Read more The post Mary Magdalene Story – The Apostle They Tried to Silence appeared first on Intuitive Edge.
vArt Bell - John Lash - Gnostics and Archons
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In today's episode, we recap what Gnostics believe and teach, highlight some of the ways we see it in the world today, and wrap up with how Christians can fight against it.
Topics: Losing Fellowship, Confess Sins for Fellowship, 1 John 1:9 Fellowship Debate, One-Time Confession of Faith, Faith Not Words, Invitation for Sin Deniers, Gnostics and Jesus' Flesh, Testing the Spirits, Admitting You Have Sin, 1 Corinthians 6:17 One Spirit with God, John Uses "We" in 1 John, John's Fellowship with God, If You Sin Really Big, No Small Sins to God, Weightier Matters of the Law, Romans 14 Anything Not of Faith is Sin, Wages of Sin is Death, Romans 6:23 and the Gift of God, Romans 6:10 Died to Sin Once, Hebrews 9:26 Sins Put Away by One Sacrifice, Confessing Sins for Forgiveness, Backsliding and Fellowship, God Slid Down to Us, Hebrews 2 Lower Than Angels, John 3:16 God Loved the World, Romans 5 Powerless, Nobody Can Snatch You Out of His Hand, Old Testament Backsliding, Hebrews 9 New Covenant Beneficiaries, Blood Ratified Covenant, Secure in Christ, Religious Effort for Fellowship, Pharisees and Lawlessness, Matthew 5:48 Perfection Required, Matthew 7 Depart From Me, John 10:14 Jesus Knows His Sheep, Colossians 3:3 Hidden in Christ, Romans 8:38-39 Nothing Separates Us from God's LoveSupport the showSign up for Matt's free daily devotional! https://mattmcmillen.com/newsletter
Freddy Silva is an author, a speaker and an independent researcher of ancient knowledge and lost civilizations, in particular the temples and other megalithic sites our ancestors built and left behind. The old cultures knew where to build these things to harness the flow of energy. In Freddy Silva's mind, they are portals.“All of these places around the world that we call temples, for lack of a better word, are located at seismically active spots, and the foundation on which they stand create an electrical charge or current along the landscape.”The builders also carefully chose the rocks they used to build their temples. They would sometimes go hundreds of miles to find the right stones, which have the properties to act as a kind of energy field.“All this makes the laws of physics act differently within these sites”, says Freddy.Very few of the megalithic temples were burial sites. They were used for out of body experiences, shamanism and “accessing information from an astral reference library”.“We can call them portals because they literally punch a hole in the way we view the third dimension, and they get you to access another level of reality.”Today we know that the heightened energetic lines where old megalithic temples are found are telluric currents. NASA has actually mapped them.“Anywhere these telluric currents cross on the surface of the earth, you'll find a standing stone, a dolmen, a mound, a pyramid, a stonehenge”, says Freddy.Thousands of years ago, people knew how to pick up on these energetic lines. They didn't really need to build anything to harness the energy. So why did many of them do that? Freddy Silva thinks they wanted to “x-mark” the highly charged places by placing megaliths on them and preserve them, because they knew that humans in the future – us – would forget this knowledge.“That's the only explanation that makes sense to me.”In fact, not all ancient cultures built megaliths. Neither the indigenous Australians nor the Hopis did, for example. They just knew where the sacred places were.When Christianity arrived, we were well into forgetfulness. Interestingly enough, however, the Gothic cathedrals of the late medieval era were built on sacred sites. The ancient knowledge had gone underground and secretly been preserved and conveyed, starting with the mystery schools of Egypt and continuing with the Essenes and the Gnostics. The Knights templar were one of these groups that were privy to the old wisdom“They were essentially the Essenes under a different name.”The Templars oversaw the erection of some of the most magnificent Gothic cathedrals in Europe in the 12th and 13th century. “They built sacred spaces disguised as catholic churches. This is the best joke in history”, Freddy quips.He believes that the knowledge of “the gods” – how nature really works – goes all the way back to the Atlantean civilization, which collapsed in the Younger Dryas period 12,000 to 13,000 years ago.The cataclysm that ended the previous high civilizations was likely caused by a devastating bombardment of cosmic debris, which gave rise to an obsession our ancestors had with looking at the sky.“Like in Central America. Why this obsession with long range calendars? The Maya have something like 14 calendars, and some cover hundreds of thousands of years.”Our ancestors are telling us a cautionary tale. Today scientists know that the chunks of rock that created the big flood – the bulk of the Taurid meteor stream – are coming back between 2036 and 2042.But Freddy Silva is hopeful. We can be prepared.“The old cultures teach us that we are the Gods we've been waiting for. The help is there for us to find.”Freddy Silva's website
After all the deep truths covered in 1 John, we see an added “P.S.” in John’s following epistles. Pastor Greg Laurie shares they’re filled with love, warning, and encouragement. Notes: Focus verse - 2 John 1 2nd and 3rd John are filled with love, warning and encouragement. We can find comfort in God’s Word—His ultimate love letter to us. 1st John was written to give assurance to believers.(1 John 5:13) The Bible promises, “He who began a good work in you will complete it.”(Philippians 1:6) Salvation is God’s work from beginning to end. It’s not based on how you feel, it’s based on what Jesus did. John was refuting something called Gnosticism. Gnostics did not believe that God came into this world and walked among us. “If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God.”(1 John 4:2) To be a Christian, you must believe that Jesus was born of a virgin and was God among us; that He was fully God and fully man and He died on the cross for our sins, and He bodily rose three days later and will come again. 1 John can be divided into three sections:1. God is Light (1 John 1:1–2:2)2. God is Love (1 John 2:3–4:21)3. God is Life (1 John 5) Read: 2 John 1:1–3 1. God wants us to walk in truth and love. Truth without love is harsh. Love without truth is hollow. Truth anchors us while love moves us.Truth gives us the message; love gives us the method. Love is obeying the Lord. 2. When we walk in truth and love the devil will be opposing us.(2 John 1:7–8) John has warned us about both Antichrist and Antichrists. 3. God cares about every area of your life.(3 John 1:1–2) “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”(3 John 1:2) God does want us to prosper, but what is Biblical prosperity?In short, it is knowing and walking with God and bringing forth spiritual fruit. God can and will bless you with wealth, but with that wealth comes responsibility.(1 Timothy 6:17–18) If you are blessed financially that’s not a sin, it’s a stewardship. “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”(3 John 1:2) God does not heal everyone, but He does still heal today. 4. Coming to Christ is life-changing; continuing with Christ is life-sustaining.(3 John 1:3–4) “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”(3 John 1:4) “A good character is the best tombstone. Those who love you and were helped by you will remember you, so carve your name on hearts, not marble.” —C.H. Spurgeon 5. God’s people should underwrite God’s work.(3 John 1:5–8) It pleases God when we support God’s Word financially.(3 John 1:6) We should not have a discomfort talking or hearing about giving.The Bible speaks more about giving than prayer or faith. There are over 2,000 verses on the topic of money, possessions, and giving. Giving is not just about finances, it’s a test of trust and obedience to God. We share in the reward when we invest our money. 6. There are real and fake believers in the church.(3 John 1:9–11) Ultimately, it is God who will sort out the real and the counterfeit. 7. Be a Demetrius not a Diotrephes.(3 John 1:9, 12) Demetrius v. DiotrephesHad a good testimony. Had a poor testimony.Respected by all. Rebuked by John for being divisive and proud.Welcoming and faithful. Kicked people out of the church and drove them away. 1. Walk in truth and love.2. Support God’s people and God’s work.3. Be a bridge-builder, not a bridge-burner.4. Leave a godly legacy.5. Don’t be a Diotrephes, be a Demetrius. Learn more about this year's Harvest Crusade! --- Learn more about Greg Laurie and Harvest Ministries at harvest.org. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://harvest.org/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
After all the deep truths covered in 1 John, we see an added “P.S.” in John’s following epistles. Pastor Greg Laurie shares they’re filled with love, warning, and encouragement. Notes: Focus verse - 2 John 1 2nd and 3rd John are filled with love, warning and encouragement. We can find comfort in God’s Word—His ultimate love letter to us. 1st John was written to give assurance to believers.(1 John 5:13) The Bible promises, “He who began a good work in you will complete it.”(Philippians 1:6) Salvation is God’s work from beginning to end. It’s not based on how you feel, it’s based on what Jesus did. John was refuting something called Gnosticism. Gnostics did not believe that God came into this world and walked among us. “If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God.”(1 John 4:2) To be a Christian, you must believe that Jesus was born of a virgin and was God among us; that He was fully God and fully man and He died on the cross for our sins, and He bodily rose three days later and will come again. 1 John can be divided into three sections:1. God is Light (1 John 1:1–2:2)2. God is Love (1 John 2:3–4:21)3. God is Life (1 John 5) Read: 2 John 1:1–3 1. God wants us to walk in truth and love. Truth without love is harsh. Love without truth is hollow. Truth anchors us while love moves us.Truth gives us the message; love gives us the method. Love is obeying the Lord. 2. When we walk in truth and love the devil will be opposing us.(2 John 1:7–8) John has warned us about both Antichrist and Antichrists. 3. God cares about every area of your life.(3 John 1:1–2) “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”(3 John 1:2) God does want us to prosper, but what is Biblical prosperity?In short, it is knowing and walking with God and bringing forth spiritual fruit. God can and will bless you with wealth, but with that wealth comes responsibility.(1 Timothy 6:17–18) If you are blessed financially that’s not a sin, it’s a stewardship. “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.”(3 John 1:2) God does not heal everyone, but He does still heal today. 4. Coming to Christ is life-changing; continuing with Christ is life-sustaining.(3 John 1:3–4) “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.”(3 John 1:4) “A good character is the best tombstone. Those who love you and were helped by you will remember you, so carve your name on hearts, not marble.” —C.H. Spurgeon 5. God’s people should underwrite God’s work.(3 John 1:5–8) It pleases God when we support God’s Word financially.(3 John 1:6) We should not have a discomfort talking or hearing about giving.The Bible speaks more about giving than prayer or faith. There are over 2,000 verses on the topic of money, possessions, and giving. Giving is not just about finances, it’s a test of trust and obedience to God. We share in the reward when we invest our money. 6. There are real and fake believers in the church.(3 John 1:9–11) Ultimately, it is God who will sort out the real and the counterfeit. 7. Be a Demetrius not a Diotrephes.(3 John 1:9, 12) Demetrius v. DiotrephesHad a good testimony. Had a poor testimony.Respected by all. Rebuked by John for being divisive and proud.Welcoming and faithful. Kicked people out of the church and drove them away. 1. Walk in truth and love.2. Support God’s people and God’s work.3. Be a bridge-builder, not a bridge-burner.4. Leave a godly legacy.5. Don’t be a Diotrephes, be a Demetrius. Learn more about this year's Harvest Crusade! --- Learn more about Greg Laurie and Harvest Ministries at harvest.org. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://harvest.org/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Full Text of ReadingsSaturday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 376The Saint of the day is Saint IrenaeusSaint Irenaeus' Story The Church is fortunate that Irenaeus was involved in many of its controversies in the second century. He was a student, well trained no doubt, with great patience in investigating, tremendously protective of apostolic teaching, but prompted more by a desire to win over his opponents than to prove them in error. As bishop of Lyons he was especially concerned with the Gnostics, who took their name from the Greek word for “knowledge.” Claiming access to secret knowledge imparted by Jesus to only a few disciples, their teaching was attracting and confusing many Christians. After thoroughly investigating the various Gnostic sects and their “secret,” Irenaeus showed to what logical conclusions their tenets led. These he contrasted with the teaching of the apostles and the text of Holy Scripture, giving us, in five books, a system of theology of great importance to subsequent times. Moreover, his work, widely used and translated into Latin and Armenian, gradually ended the influence of the Gnostics. The circumstances and details about his death, like those of his birth and early life in Asia Minor, are not at all clear. However in 2022, Pope Francis named Saint Irenaeus a Doctor of the Church. Reflection A deep and genuine concern for other people will remind us that the discovery of truth is not to be a victory for some and a defeat for others. Unless all can claim a share in that victory, truth itself will continue to be rejected by the losers, because it will be regarded as inseparable from the yoke of defeat. And so, confrontation, controversy and the like might yield to a genuine united search for God's truth and how it can best be served. Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media
Saturday of the 12th Week in Ordinary Time Memorial of St. Irenaeus, 130-202; as bishop of Lyons, he was especially concerned with the "Gnostics," who claimed "secret knowlege" which Jesus had imparted to only a few disciples; Irenaeus compared their "secret" with Holy Scripture, and showed a system of theology of great importance to subsequent times; his work gradually ended the influence of the Gnostics Office of Readings and Morning Prayer for 6/28/25 Gospel: Matthew 8:5-17
A little know Biblical account of Moses' body. God's personal handling on his burial. What does this mean for our own bodies? How has the Church been lied to, or has been lying? Jesus' Body is everything, our bodies are dust. The Gnostics believed the very substance of our bodies were pure defilement. But something isnt adding up...
Archons flee as Dr. David Litwa once again graces the Virtual Alexandria. Let's understand Gnosis in the most historical yet intimate way, based on David's new book, Understanding Gnosis. Yet this spiritual tech didn't happen in a vacuum, so we'll unearth key concepts like the Divine Spark, the evil Demiurge, syncretism, and more. Did this mode of divine knowledge happen before the Gnostics, perhaps in ancient Sumeria? How did Gnosis inform the political and moral views of Classical Gnosticism? Get ready for this and more answers, leading to better self-knowledge for you. More on David: https://mdavidlitwa.com/ e-book https://mdavidlitwa.thrivecart.com/understanding-gnosis/ Get his book: https://amzn.to/4jv0Z78 Get The Occult Elvis: https://amzn.to/4jnTjE4 The Gnostic Tarot: https://www.makeplayingcards.com/sell/synkrasis Homepage: https://thegodabovegod.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/aeonbyte AB Prime: https://thegodabovegod.com/members/subscription-levels/ Virtual Alexandria Academy: https://thegodabovegod.com/virtual-alexandria-academy/ Voice Over services: https://thegodabovegod.com/voice-talent/ Support with donation: https://buy.stripe.com/00g16Q8RK8D93mw288Stream All Astro Gnosis Conferences for the price of one: https://thegodabovegod.com/replay-sophia/
God is bigger than whatever you're facing in life right now. But not only is He all-powerful, but very loving. In this message, Pastor Greg Laurie teaches on God's deep love for you, faith in the storm, and much more. Notes: Focus verse - 1 John 4 There will be more false prophets and false messiahs in the last days. “Don’t believe every spirit. Test them, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”1 John 4:1 The bible speaks of the spiritual battle we are engaged in. The bible tells us, “To take up the whole armor of God.” Hebrews 13:2 Read 1 John 4:1–3 #1 We are in a spiritual war. Antichrist will be a real person, a world leader; he will deceive the world. John was refuting Gnosticism. Gnostics believed salvation came through “hidden spiritual knowledge,” not Christ. To be a Christian, you must believe that Jesus was born of a virgin and was God among us.He was fully God and fully man and He died on the cross for our sins.He bodily rose again three days later, and He will come again. The purpose of 1 John was so we could know God,and so you could know you have eternal life. I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,so that you may know you have eternal life.1 John 5:13 (NLT) John uses the word ginosko for 'know'.John is saying, “there is no secret knowledge, you can know this now.” #2 God is bigger and greater than everyone and everything.1 John 4:4 God is greater than Satan, greater than sin, greater than your problem. A. Moses at the Red SeaGod said, “I will fight for you, you need only to be still.”Exodus 14:14 B. David and GoliathGoliath was big, but God was bigger. C. The disciples on the Sea of GalileeJesus was bigger than the storm. #3 If we really know God, we will love others.1 John 4:7–11 #1 God is light.1 John 1:1–2:2 #2 God is love.1 John 2:3–4:21 #3 God is life.1 John 5 Light and love are inseparable, as are truth and grace. Light exposes darkness.Love reaches out to the people in darkness. #4 God’s love is greater than our worst fears.I John 4:18 This is simply having the confidence that you are loved and forgiven by God.He lovingly will guide your life and one day welcome you to heaven. If you are living in fear, especially fear of judgement,you have not yet grasped what it is to be loved by God. Jesus absorbed God’s wrath for you. #5 God will never stop loving you.Romans 8:38–39 Fears change with the passing of time. God has something to say to us at every stage of life. #6 Our love for God is a response to God’s love for us.1 John 4:19 God’s love is what draws us to Him. We’re remembering that love moved in, and fear had to move out. --- Learn more about Greg Laurie and Harvest Ministries at harvest.org. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://harvest.org/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
God is bigger than whatever you're facing in life right now. But not only is He all-powerful, but very loving. In this message, Pastor Greg Laurie teaches on God's deep love for you, faith in the storm, and much more. Notes: Focus verse - 1 John 4 There will be more false prophets and false messiahs in the last days. “Don’t believe every spirit. Test them, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”1 John 4:1 The bible speaks of the spiritual battle we are engaged in. The bible tells us, “To take up the whole armor of God.” Hebrews 13:2 Read 1 John 4:1–3 #1 We are in a spiritual war. Antichrist will be a real person, a world leader; he will deceive the world. John was refuting Gnosticism. Gnostics believed salvation came through “hidden spiritual knowledge,” not Christ. To be a Christian, you must believe that Jesus was born of a virgin and was God among us.He was fully God and fully man and He died on the cross for our sins.He bodily rose again three days later, and He will come again. The purpose of 1 John was so we could know God,and so you could know you have eternal life. I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God,so that you may know you have eternal life.1 John 5:13 (NLT) John uses the word ginosko for 'know'.John is saying, “there is no secret knowledge, you can know this now.” #2 God is bigger and greater than everyone and everything.1 John 4:4 God is greater than Satan, greater than sin, greater than your problem. A. Moses at the Red SeaGod said, “I will fight for you, you need only to be still.”Exodus 14:14 B. David and GoliathGoliath was big, but God was bigger. C. The disciples on the Sea of GalileeJesus was bigger than the storm. #3 If we really know God, we will love others.1 John 4:7–11 #1 God is light.1 John 1:1–2:2 #2 God is love.1 John 2:3–4:21 #3 God is life.1 John 5 Light and love are inseparable, as are truth and grace. Light exposes darkness.Love reaches out to the people in darkness. #4 God’s love is greater than our worst fears.I John 4:18 This is simply having the confidence that you are loved and forgiven by God.He lovingly will guide your life and one day welcome you to heaven. If you are living in fear, especially fear of judgement,you have not yet grasped what it is to be loved by God. Jesus absorbed God’s wrath for you. #5 God will never stop loving you.Romans 8:38–39 Fears change with the passing of time. God has something to say to us at every stage of life. #6 Our love for God is a response to God’s love for us.1 John 4:19 God’s love is what draws us to Him. We’re remembering that love moved in, and fear had to move out. --- Learn more about Greg Laurie and Harvest Ministries at harvest.org. This podcast is supported by the generosity of our Harvest Partners.Support the show: https://harvest.org/supportSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In the early centuries of Church history as well as in our day, many cults and false teachings have denied either the full deity or the full humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Groups such as the Arians taught that Jesus was merely God's highest created being, while the Gnostics believed that he was divine and only appeared to be human. What does the Bible teach about the deity and the humanity of Jesus Christ? Find out on Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/791/29
Many Protestants see relics as idolatrous—but are they? We explore the biblical and historical support for relics in Catholicism, and also answer questions on praying to saints, Marian apparitions, and what makes Good Friday “good.” Join The CA Live Club Newsletter: Click Here Questions Covered: 04:54 – How do we support the use of relics when Protestants see it as idolatry? 14:01 – I'm in OCIA. How are Catholics different from Gnostics and Protestants? 21:29 – The bible tells us not to seek mediums or speak to the deceased. How is it then you can speak to the saints? 34:53 – My protestant sister asked me, why do they call it Good Friday if that was the day Jesus suffered and died? Who gave it that name? 42:03 – Why do Catholics take John 6 literally but John 6:58 sounds more metaphorical? 48:39 – How do we know that Marian apparitions are not taking away attention from Jesus? How do we get the title of Queen of Heaven for her?