Marcion and Gnosticism

 MARCION & GNOSTICISM

 

MARCION

Marcion was born in Sinope in AD 85 in the northern province of Pontus (in what is now Turkey) on the coast of the Black Sea. Marcion, the son of a bishop, was an intelligent, capable, hard, unbending, vain, rich, ambitious man. He made his way to Rome and was accepted as Christian into the church there. He even gave a large gift to the congregation—200,000 sesterces (worth more than a hundred year’s wages). His time in the church at Rome, however, did not last long. He was formally excommunicated in AD 144 and his lavish gift promptly returned. 

 

“While not exactly adopting Gnosticism, Marcion was influenced by its dualism. “According to Marcion,” Holcomb notes, “the God of the Old Testament was a wrathful, vengeful deity…while Christ was sent by the real supreme God to reintroduce the old religion of love and peace.” A God who makes his people tremble with fear, a God with whom they are afraid to communicate, could not be the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Marcion taught that the god of the Old Testament was not the true God but rather that the true and higher God had been revealed only with Jesus Christ.”  Most Evangelicals Are Gnostic…and They Don’t Even Know it! Are you? | jeremy bouma.com/most-evangelicals-are-gnostic-and-they-dont-even-know-it-heres-why/

 

Because of his belief that the God of the Old Testament was an evil being and not at all the same as the good God of the New Testament, Marcion bought into Plato’s idea that matter is bad, evil, therefore God who created the world also had to be bad, or evil. In Marcion’s mind, as he followed Plato’s philosophy, the god who created the universe and world was a lesser god (a demiurge, in Plato’s thinking a subordinate god) while the God of Jesus was a greater and good God. This is very close to the Gnostic belief that Spirit is of divine origin and good; the body is inherently earthly and evil, also derived from Plato. This led to the idea that a person had accepted Christ as their savior they could do anything, any sin, with their body since it was evil but the spirit, being good, was untouched by the evil done with the body.  Paul spoke against the results of this thinking in Romans 3:5-8 and Romans 6:12-23. John also addresses this in John 1:1-5 where he clearly shows Jesus is one with God the creator of everything. There was/is no subordinate or superior god. Where the Scriptures did not support Marcion he simply ignored them, said they were not valid and wrote his own canon.

 

When we look at this we can see the idea is fundamentally pagan polytheism and closely aligned with the Greek/Roman worship of multiple gods. Despite protestation to the contrary, both then and through the present day, neither the gnostics nor Marcion’s philosophy or teaching are Christian.

 

Marcion was excommunicated from the church by his father (the Bishop of Sinope). There are different reasons given for his excommunication: one was indiscretions with a young lady, the second was his heretical beliefs and teachings. It is most probable that he was excommunicated for heresy. Marcion’s excommunication did not stop the spread of his heresy. Marcion worked tirelessly to spread his beliefs and they, unfortunately, it took root in many churches.

 

GNOSTICISM

Gnosticism is a heresy claiming that salvation could be gained through secret knowledge. Gnosticism is derived from the Greek word gnosis, meaning "to know." Gnostics also believed that the material world (matter) is evil and that only the spirit is good. They constructed an evil God and beings of the Old Testament to explain the creation of the world (matter) and considered Jesus Christ a wholly spiritual God. These two beliefs clash strongly with accepted Christian doctrine. Christianity teaches that salvation is available to everyone, not just a special few and that it comes from grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9), and not from study or works. The only source of truth is the Bible, Christianity asserts.

 

Gnostics were divided on Jesus. One view held that he only appeared to have human form but that he was actually spirit only. The other view contended that his divine spirit came upon his human body at baptism and departed before the crucifixion. Christianity, on the other hand, holds that Jesus was fully man and fully God and that his human and divine natures were both present and necessary to provide a suitable sacrifice for humanity's sin.

 

Gnostic writings are extensive. Many so-called Gnostic Gospels are presented as "lost" books of the Bible, but in fact did not meet the criteria when the canon was formed. In many instances they contradict the Bible.

 

Gnostic Beliefs:

 

“Gnostics have a low view of creation. Gnostics believe “The universe, having been created by an inferior and ignorant power, is a dark prison in which human souls are held captive….The ideas that matter is evil and the spirit is pure goodness largely characterize this aberrant philosophy.”  Most Evangelicals Are Gnostic…and They Don’t Even Know it! Are you? | jeremy bouma.com/most-evangelicals-are-gnostic-and-they-dont-even-know-it-heres-why/

 

“Deity: The Supreme Father God or Supreme God of Truth is remote from human affairs; he is unknowable and undetectable by human senses. She/he created a series of supernatural but finite beings called Aeons. One of these was Sophia, a virgin, who in turn gave birth to a defective, inferior Creator-God, also known as the Demiurge. (Demiurge means "public craftsman" in Greek.) This lower God is sometimes called Yaldabaoth or Ialdabaoth Jaldabaoth -- from Aramaic words meaning "begetter of the Heavens." This is Jehovah, the God of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). He is portrayed as the creator of the earth and its life forms. He is viewed by Gnostics as fundamentally evil, jealous, rigid, lacking in compassion, and prone to genocide. The Demiurge "thinks that he is supreme. His pride and incompetence have resulted in the sorry state of the world as we know it, and in the blind and ignorant condition of most of mankind."

 

Duality of spirit and body: Spirit is of divine origin and good; the body is inherently earthly and evil. Gnostics were hostile to the physical world, to matter and the human body. But they believed that trapped within some people's bodies were the sparks of divinity or seeds of light that were supplied to humanity by Sophia (a false goddess from human imagination).

 

Salvation: a person attains Salvation by learning secret knowledge of their spiritual essence: a device part of light or spirit. They have the opportunity to escape from the prison of their bodies at death. Their soul can ascend to be reunited with the Supreme God at the time of their death. Gnostics divided humanity into three groups;

          Not spiritual, who would be saved irrespective of their behavior while on earth.

The soulish, would be saved if they followed the Gnostic path.

The carnal who are hopelessly lost.

 

Evil: They did not look upon the world as having been created perfectly and then having degenerated as a result of the sin of Adam and Eve. Rather the world was seen as being evil at the time of its origin, because it had been created by an inferior God.”  http://www.religioustolerance.org/gnostic2.htm

 

“Gnosticism was perhaps the most dangerous heresy that threatened the early church during the first three centuries. Influenced by such philosophers as Plato, Gnosticism is based on two false premises. First, it espouses a dualism regarding spirit and matter. Gnostics assert that matter is inherently evil and spirit is good. As a result of this presupposition, Gnostics believe anything done in the body, even the grossest sin, has no meaning because real life exists in the spirit realm only.” http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-gnosticism.html

 

“All gnostic systems depend upon a principle that is at variance with Christianity- the dualism of matter in spirit. That the body was basically evil, and then no sense of creation of a good God, whether a central tenant. It caused Gnostics to dispute the underlying message of the Old Testament, and in contrast, the creator-God with the God revealed in Jesus Christ. In consequence, as we have already seen, the Old Testament was rejected and new Christian books were substituted in its place. It is interesting that not only the first New Testament Canon comes from Gnostic forces, but Gnostics with the first give New Testament passages the authority once enjoyed by the Old Testament (Basilides), to write a New Testament commentary (Heracleon), and to make a Gospel harmony (Tatian). This peculiar interest in a New Testament stems from the rejection of the old.” Cyril C. Richardson, ed. And trans., Early Christian Fathers (Library of Christian Classics 1; Philadelphia: Westminister, 1953), 24-25

 

Gnosticism is the most dangerous heresy threatening the Church of God. Gnostic philosophy masquerades as a reasonable, even Christian, philosophy while tearing down the basis of a person’s Christian beliefs.

 

So what?

Why does this matter to us?

Why should we care?

This was a long time ago.

Things have changed since then and Marcion’s heresy is out of use and no longer valid for our time. I do wish that were true. While many may not know about Marcion and also may not know about the Gnostics, the philosophy is rampant in many churches and Christian denominations as well as in our thinking.

 

Western civilization is based on Greek philosophy and Greek-style logic. Seldom is any other kind of philosophy, logic or thinking even considered. Therefore Gnosticism has insinuated itself into our Christian beliefs and worship and is very, very seldom recognized as such.

 

As we look at our present-day beliefs can we see possible gnostic or Marcion doctrine? Perhaps the song “I’ll Fly Away” is an example. The song lyrics focus on escaping this world. “Like a bird from prison bars has flown, I'll fly away“ (vs 2) and “Just a few more weary days and then, I'll fly away; To a land where joy shall never end, I'll fly away” (vs.3) both have the message that this physical world is bad but the spiritual world we go to when we die is good. Another example is the song Peace in the Valley. (By the way, I love both songs.) Both I’ll Fly Away and Peace in the Valley are about leaving this terrible material creation and going to the wonderful spiritual creation. The foundation of this is rooted in the very Marcionic and gnostic philosophy that the physical world is “bad” but the spiritual world is “good.” This thinking is totally at odds with Genesis 1:31 “³¹God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good…..” What God creates and does is all good, none of it is bad or not good.