Justice Kennedy’s Pursuit of Gnosis

[OldSchool2]

from The American Spectator:

"America’s errors typically aren’t due to secularism or revived paganism but some form of Christian heresy.

"The Supreme Court’s creation of a right to same-sex marriage seems mostly Gnostic, not rooted in concrete law but an ethereal empowering of the supreme self. Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion reads like a spiritual journey towards self-revelation, or Gnosis...."

http://spectator.org/articles/63320/justice-kennedy%E2%80%99s-pursuit-gnosis

"Gnosticism broadly defined is pervasive in modern American culture, although its devotees usually don’t fully realize the antecedents of their lofty spirituality. There is a formal Universal Gnostic Fellowship, which explains, 'To be Gnostic is to believe we can know the Divine, we can learn the Divine’s purpose for us, we can approach the Divine in consciousness, we can move closer to the Divine ... whomever and whatever the Divine may be.' Its doctrines are 'optional,' and it proudly 'has no dogma.'

"But its dogma is really about rejecting external authority and fixed reality in favor of self-empowerment, self-actualization, and some level of self-deification. There are no rules, or sins, in Gnosticism, just the self’s endless quest for fulfillment through greater freedom and knowledge...."

Read more at http://spectator.org/articles/63320/justice-kennedy%E2%80%99s-pursuit-gnosis

[MorningGlory]

Good article, OldSchool.  I'm extremely unhappy about the direction we see the country going in.  This 'Gnosis' stuff is pure fertilizer and should be treated as such. 

[Bible2]

MorningGlory said in post 2:

 

This 'Gnosis' stuff is pure fertilizer and should be treated as such.

 

That's right, in the bad sense of "fertilizer" (b.s.), rather than the good sense (e.g. Luke 13:6-9). For Gnosticism is an ancient religious movement which says everything material is inherently evil, while only that which is pure spirit can be good. Gnosticism teaches all humans used to be pure spirit and dwelling in bliss from all eternity in a purely-spiritual heaven, called the "Pleroma", until by some mishap, humanity fell into the material universe and became trapped in fleshly bodies. Gnosticism reviles YHWH, the God of Biblical Christians, and the Creator of the material universe and all fleshly bodies, as an evil, subordinate deity, a "Demiurge", who is keeping humans imprisoned and suffering in fleshly bodies and in the material universe.

 

Gnosticism became one of the main enemies of the early church, and it will become the greatest enemy of the church during the future tribulation of Revelation chapters 6 to 18 and Matthew 24. For the Antichrist will be a Gnostic. He will teach the Gnostic/antichrist lie that Christ isn't in the flesh (1 John 4:3). And the Antichrist, like the Gnostics, will utterly revile YHWH (Revelation 13:6, Daniel 11:36). The Antichrist (the individual-man aspect of Revelation's "beast") will instead bring the world into the conscious and open worship of Lucifer (Satan, the dragon) and himself (Revelation 13:4,8, Revelation 12:9).

 

--

 

Gnosticism has some core teachings in common with the major religions of Buddhism and Hinduism:

 

1. The material realm is unreal and evil. (Both Buddhism and Gnosticism got this mistaken idea, originally called "Maya", from Hinduism.)

 

2. People must strive to escape the material realm completely, and enter a state which is wholly non-physical (Parinirvana in Buddhism, the Pleroma in Gnosticism). Buddhism and Gnosticism got this mistaken idea, originally called "Brahman", from Hinduism.

 

3. The way for people to get free from their imprisonment within the material realm is through their minds attaining a certain level of enlightenment (Nirvana in Buddhism, Gnosis in Gnosticism). Buddhism and Gnosticism got this mistaken idea, originally called "Moksha", from Hinduism.

 

4. The way for their minds to attain this certain level of enlightenment is through following the way of the Serpent (one legend of Buddhism says the Buddha was given the true Buddhism by the King of the Serpents; and in Gnosticism, Gnosis comes from the Christ/the Serpent). Both Buddhism and Gnosticism got this mistaken idea of the enlightening serpent, originally called "Kundalini", from Hinduism. (Regarding the serpent in Genesis 3, Gnostics see him as the good guy, just as they see YHWH as the bad guy.)

 

The Bible contradicts each of the 4 points above:

 

1. The material realm is real, and was created by God as something very good (Genesis 1:31). God himself is in the flesh (John 1:1,14, Luke 24:39), and remains wholly without sin (Hebrews 4:15). So there is nothing evil about matter in itself.

 

2. People must strive to attain to a resurrection (Philippians 3:11), in an immortal human body of flesh and bones, like the immortal human body of flesh and bones that Jesus Christ obtained at his resurrection on the 3rd day after his death (Luke 24:39,46; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4,21-23,51-53, Philippians 3:21, Romans 8:23-25), and in which he will remain forever as believers' fully-human mediator/high priest (1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 2:16-17, Hebrews 7:24-26). His tomb is empty (Matthew 28:6), and when he returns, he will show the scars of the Crucifixion on his body (Zechariah 13:6, Zechariah 12:10-14).

 

3. Resurrected people who have been truly enlightened/illuminated (Ephesians 1:18, Hebrews 10:32) by Jesus Christ (John 14:6-7, John 8:32, John 3:36) will remain in the material realm (Revelation 20:4-6, Revelation 5:10, Revelation 2:26-29), ultimately living on a new earth with God (Revelation 21:1-4).

 

4. The Serpent, Satan/Lucifer, is the deceiver of the whole world (Revelation 12:9).

 

--

 

Also, it should be pointed out that Gnosticism is different than the "New Age" religion.

 

For New Age is a modern spiritual movement which says everything is One and we are all God, we just need to realize it. This mistaken idea comes from "Advaita (Non-duality)" Vedanta Hinduism, by way of Theosophy (the founder of which used the term "New Age" in her book "The Secret Doctrine" in 1888). Unlike Gnostics, New Age adherents don't think the material realm is evil per se. They don't want to escape this physical life, or stop reincarnating, but want to create their own amazing destinies within this physical universe (whether during their lives on this planet, or after being reincarnated on some other planets), or in some other, spiritual universes, by employing their own, innate powers as God. They believe all they have to do is think the right things, and because (as they say) "Thought Creates", whatever they think will materialize. They think they can override physical reality as God, create their own reality around themselves, and make it whatever they want.

 

Also, for New Age adherents, ultimately nothing is evil: There is no such thing as sin, for everything is God. Even people who seem evil are just working through some lessons. They will eventually become tired of toying with that which is merely delaying them from manifesting themselves as the wonderful God they are. New Age adherents believe everyone and everything in the universe is working together, whether they consciously realize it or not, to move everything forward, to ultimately bring the entire universe (even the entire universe of universes) into a wonderful, perfect destiny for everyone and everything. This sounds good, but it is a Satanic pipe dream, so people will feel no need to fear the eternal punishment of hell (Luke 12:5, Matthew 25:41,46, Revelation 20:10,15, Revelation 14:10-11, Mark 9:45-46), feel no need to repent from their sins (Luke 13:3) and believe in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the only begotten (only-born) Son of God (John 14:6, John 3:16,36, Acts 4:12), and in his death on the Cross for our sins and his rising physically from the dead on the 3rd day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Matthew 26:28, Romans 3:25-26).

[archaeologist55]

gnosticism was a false religious belief and not strictly a pursuit of knowledge. they altered the essence of Christ and made him out ot be something he was not.  one cannot expect that the followers of gnosticism to hold any pure intent about their pursuit of knowledge. that pursuit would be influenced by evil and their own sensibilities. You could say that many or most modern alternative believers would be in some way shape or form to be gnostic as they stray from the truth and rely upon their own understanding and evil's influence over them.

[FresnoJoe]

from The American Spectator:

"America’s errors typically aren’t due to secularism or revived paganism but some form of Christian heresy.

"The Supreme Court’s creation of a right to same-sex marriage seems mostly Gnostic, not rooted in concrete law but an ethereal empowering of the supreme self. Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion reads like a spiritual journey towards self-revelation, or Gnosis...."

http://spectator.org/articles/63320/justice-kennedy%E2%80%99s-pursuit-gnosis

 

~

 

Down From A Heart Of Love For His Children

 

There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Deuteronomy 18:10

 

The Supreme Court’s creation of a right to same-sex marriage seems mostly Gnostic, not rooted in concrete law but an ethereal empowering of the supreme self. Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion reads like a spiritual journey towards self-revelation, or Gnosis. His mindset is maybe best encapsulated in his infamous 1992 abortion rights ruling, in which he mystically opined: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life.”

 

Deep, and profoundly Gnostic. The Gnostic of early Christianity rejected Jesus Christ as a physical person, preferring Him as a spirit who transcended this world. Gnostics rejected the plain meaning of Scripture as the orthodox Church taught but developed their own parallel, secret doctrines discerned through superior wisdom and spirituality. Gnosticism was for self-elevated special people, not the common people to whom Early Christianity typically most appealed. http://spectator.org/articles/63320/justice-kennedy%E2%80%99s-pursuit-gnosis

 

Comes a Voice Echoing Forward

 

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Genesis 1:27-28

 

From Grandfather's Garden

 

Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Psalms 127:3