I have had a few friends in the past who have been very caught up in the Gnostic movement, which has gained new momentum in the past thirty years or so with people who are dissatisfied with their experiences in traditional churches. Here is why I personally could not be a Gnostic: there are too many references to God being a "cosmic unity" and "life principle" with which "all is one." While I believe that we are "partakers of the divine nature" by grace through repentance (2 Peter 1:4), for me as an Orthodox Christian this refers to Theosis, the process of becoming more and more like God through grace in our personal walk with Him, and thereby living in Communion with Him. Neither I nor the Church believes that this Communion with Him means that He is some cosmic force with which all creation is one and the same. Such thinking renders Him to be no longer a personal God who loves us, creates us and nurtures us. God sanctifies creation and blesses it, and His Second Person (the Son, Jesus Christ, the Word and Logos) became Incarnate as man so that He could undo the damage to creation and most especially redeem man, who had by free will embraced the way of separation from God (sin) which led to eternal death. Christ revealed to us the personal and loving nature of God. After Christ ascended to heaven, His Father sent us the Holy Spirit, Who not only is the Giver of life (John 6:63) but "renews the face of the earth" (Psalm 103 LXX/104 KJV: 30). God created, renewed and redeemed the earth! Christ being our Incarnate God doesn't mean that God IS the river, the soil, the sun, the moon, etc. That's like saying that the Painter is the same as the Painting. Let's use the image of a painting as a metaphor for creation. The painting represents God's energies (what He does, His free gift of grace, and the myriad Divine thoughts that are part of Him), NOT His Essence. The painting comes from the Painter and is a part of Him in that sense, but He Himself is still a separate Being from that painting. And as that Being, He is a personal Father to all of us, Who loves us beyond measure. That, in a nutshell, is what I find wrong with Gnosticism: it goes against all of my experience of God as being an infinitely personal Being Who made me, loves me, and continues to create me. I see evidence of His love and beauty in His creation all the time, and I endeavour to see all people as being like Christ and even as ways in which He sometimes shows Himself to us; but that doesn't mean that I think that I myself, Gabrielle Bronzich, am the same Person as Jesus Christ. He created me as a woman named Gabrielle. God the Father is not that oak tree out in my front yard: He made the oak tree, and it shows an aspect of His imagination and beauty. . .but that tree does not share His Divine Essence. Essence versus energies: it's an essential distinction. Without that distinction, God ceases to be a personal Being with Whom we have an intimate relationship. The other thing to note about Gnosticism is that there is no repentance in it: it is a path to "oneness" with God that does not involve taking stock of oneself, being honest with oneself about one's problems and shortcomings, and striving to get rid of destructive ways of thinking and acting. Repentance is "metanoia," the changing of the mind. My experience is that partaking in God's nature by grace--becoming like God and becoming more and more able to love others the way He does--just AIN'T gonna happen without being willing to change and be changed by Him.
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