Ask a Gnostic Anything

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Sophia_Christ said:
I don’t believe that the Church as an institution received its authority from God. I believe that God reveals Himself in personal revelation not an authoritative body.
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How did God send Jesus into the world? With all authority.

Matthew 28:18
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Jesus sent his disciples with that same authority.

Matthew 28:19-20
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

John 20:21
Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’

Here is what Jesus said to Peter:

Matthew 16:19
19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Has Jesus said anything like that to you personally? :nope:

You can argue about what it means for an “institution” to receive authority all you want, but the plain fact is that Jesus conveyed his authority upon a very small, very select group of his closest followers who, in turn, have conveyed that authority upon others.

You, personally, are not in that group.
 
joe371 said:
Does a person have be open to such a personal revelation i.e. how can a person, regardless of religion, open him/herself up to receive said revelations form God?
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There are two ways in which knowledge of Christ can be transmitted to an individual. First, as you said, an individual can open themselves up this revelation. Also, certain individuals receive it through grace.
 
Sophia_Christ said:
Personally, I do not believe that Jesus fulfills the messianic requirements of the moshiach prophesied in the Old Testament. However, I also don’t concern myself too much with the prophecies of the God Jehovah who I believe is a flawed creature mistaking himself for the true God.

The true God is beyond any description, adjective, or religious creed. He is the mystical substratum that underlies everything seen and unseen. He can only be experienced, not explained.
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So this flawed creature whom you believe mistakes himself for God…where did he come from exactly, according to your teachings?
 
Randy_Carson said:
How did God send Jesus into the world? With all authority.

Matthew 28:18
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Jesus sent his disciples with that same authority.

Matthew 28:19-20
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

John 20:21
Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’

Here is what Jesus said to Peter:

Matthew 16:19
19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Has Jesus said anything like that to you personally? :nope:

You can argue about what it means for an “institution” to receive authority all you want, but the plain fact is that Jesus conveyed his authority upon a very small, very select group of his closest followers who, in turn, have conveyed that authority upon others.

You, personally, are not in that group.
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I am familiar with the Catholic concept of apostolic succession and the Church’s theological justification for it.However, I acknowledge the omniscient and omnipresent nature of Christ and therefore cannot accept that he only reveals Himself to the apostles and their successor bishops.

It is true that He unveiled His message to these followers while in His physical incarnation, but that does not in any way negate the fact that intimate knowledge of Christ is, was, and always will be available to all people.
 
Lucretius said:
I was apathetic then. I really didn’t care what homosexuals did. I mean, I was raised in a culture where sex is treated like a cheap consumer product. I was as apathetic to the status of homosexuals as I was to the status of mass produced McDonald’s toys

Christi pax,

Lucretius
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So you were apathetic before you joined the church and you now have an opinion on the subject. Was the reasoning for this that:

a. You felt obligated because it is the official position of the institution you pledge allegiance to.

b. Aligning yourself with the Catholic Church changed your entire mentality on such issues and therefore their line of reasoning became natural and therefore your adoption of the position was spontaneous.

c. Your change of opinion was unbiased and you would have adopted the Catholic line of reasoning no matter what the source of the opinion was.
 
Sophia_Christ said:
The feminine emanation which sprung forth from God in precosmic times.
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So, a flawed creature came from Sophia, and Sophia came from God. How is it possible, in your teachings, that a flawed creature can come from an emanation of God?
 
Denise1957 said:
So, a flawed creature came from Sophia, and Sophia came from God. How is it possible, in your teachings, that a flawed creature can come from an emanation of God?
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Think about it…Were Adam and Eve not flawed creatures? And is Jehovah not perfect according to your theology?

The entirety of God’s creation is not perfect (according to every religion).
 
Sophia_Christ said:
Think about it…Were Adam and Eve not flawed creatures? And is Jehovah not perfect according to your theology?

The entirety of God’s creation is not perfect (according to every religion).
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Well, we’re talking about your religion at the moment. Can you explain how it is that a flawed creature can come from God, according to your teachings? If you can’t explain it, that’s fine.
 
Denise1957 said:
Well, we’re talking about your religion at the moment. Can you explain how it is that a flawed creature can come from God, according to your teachings? If you can’t explain it, that’s fine.
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Fair enough-upon reflection I was not satisfied with the previous answer.

The answer is that we believe that God is beyond expression-He does not have physical form and to apply any adjectives or descriptors to Him would be mere limiting adjuncts to his ineffable greatness. Through His creative energy, Sophia was born. She had form and characteristics which are technically flaws on the ultimate level. Jehovah was created as an expression of Sophia’s anxiety from not being able to know God in His fullness (no creature can know God in his fullness because He is incomprehensible to any finite creature).
 
Sophia_Christ said:
I have never done any serious research on the historicity of Jesus because it is not important to my theology. What is important to me is the esoteric statements made by Christ in the Gnostic gospels and the miraculous stories found in scripture can be taken as myth that have a lesson attached to them.
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So truth is irrelevant to you? Sounds nice.
 
Sophia_Christ said:
Fair enough-upon reflection I was not satisfied with the previous answer.

The answer is that we believe that God is beyond expression-He does not have physical form and to apply any adjectives or descriptors to Him would be mere limiting adjuncts to his ineffable greatness. Through His creative energy, Sophia was born. She had form and characteristics which are technically flaws on the ultimate level. Jehovah was created as an expression of Sophia’s anxiety from not being able to know God in His fullness (no creature can know God in his fullness because He is incomprehensible to any finite creature).
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Thanks for the explanation. From what you’ve written, I take it that your teachings say that Sophia, who was from God, technically had flaws, as did the emanation from Sophia. The emanation from Sophia (as you mentioned in an earlier post) created the universe. You’ve also previously mentioned that you don’t think that a benevolent being could create such as miserable world for us and knowingly place us in it.

So, my question is, how is it that a perfect God could create an imperfect being who is capable of creating what you believe to be a miserable place? If God (a perfect being) is capable of creating a flawed creature, then why couldn’t he also create a world which has flaws? What’s the difference?
 
Sophia_Christ said:
There are two ways in which knowledge of Christ can be transmitted to an individual. First, as you said, an individual can open themselves up this revelation. Also, certain individuals receive it through grace.
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When I asked the following I was referring to what you call the true God; I’m aware of what is required vis-a-vis Jesus?🙂

Does a person have be open to such a personal revelation i.e. how can a person, regardless of religion, open him/herself up to receive said revelations form God?
 
Sophia_Christ said:
I am familiar with the Catholic concept of apostolic succession and the Church’s theological justification for it.However, I acknowledge the omniscient and omnipresent nature of Christ and therefore cannot accept that he only reveals Himself to the apostles and their successor bishops.
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When you say the following are you admitting that Jesus is God the second divine Person of the Trinity i.e. are you admitting that the Holy Trinity is God in view of what you said below from other posts: "I acknowledge the omniscient and omnipresent nature of Christ? If there is not Trinity, then there is no Jesus, ultimately!
Post 95 - “However, I also don’t concern myself too much with the prophecies of the God Jehovah who I believe is a flawed creature **mistaking himself for the true God.”
**
The true God is beyond any description…
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Post 101 - Right-On the ultimate level there is no trinity
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Denise1957 said:
Thanks for the explanation. From what you’ve written, I take it that your teachings say that Sophia, who was from God, technically had flaws, as did the emanation from Sophia. The emanation from Sophia (as you mentioned in an earlier post) created the universe. You’ve also previously mentioned that you don’t think that a benevolent being could create such as miserable world for us and knowingly place us in it.

So, my question is, how is it that a perfect God could create an imperfect being who is capable of creating what you believe to be a miserable place? If God (a perfect being) is capable of creating a flawed creature, then why couldn’t he also create a world which has flaws? What’s the difference?
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The difference is subtle yet important. God did not create Sophia in the sense that Jehovah created you and I in his image. She was an emanation from God similar to the way the sun emanates its rays.
 
Sophia_Christ said:
The difference is subtle yet important. God did not create Sophia in the sense that Jehovah created you and I in his image. She was an emanation from God similar to the way the sun emanates its rays.
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This getting confusing. So, in spite of the fact that the holy Trinity, ultimately, does not exist as you said in post 101, the holy Trinity, nevertheless, “created you and I in his image”?
 
Sophia_Christ said:
The difference is subtle yet important. God did not create Sophia in the sense that Jehovah created you and I in his image. She was an emanation from God similar to the way the sun emanates its rays.
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So, Sophia is not a created being. I take it, too, that her emanation (Jehovah) is also not created. And yet, this non-created being (Jehovah) somehow created the entire universe. How is it possible that an emanation (like the sun’s rays) can create an entire universe?
 
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