Gnosticism:The Church Seduced

Dear Saints,

As we come into the endtime most have noticed a resurgence of Arthurian legends in the culture with their medieval themes of earthy romance, chivalry and "derring do". Some would say this is just "sex and violence" but I suggest to you that there is more to it than just the release of unbridled flesh. There is something deeply spiritual going on here as well. The popularity of these magical stories reveals a deepseated desire for a return to solid blood covenant relationships. People who would never admit to an interest in religious things can actually go deep into gnostic magic in the romances of just the common popular films, books and video games of the present culture. This is long before they get into sorcery of "Harry Potter" or "dungeons and dragons". These stories are very powerful in their ability to cast a spell over seeking souls and to entice them into the pathways of spiritual darkness.

The legends of Camelot are almost pure gnosticism. They draw their energy from the most powerful themes in the universe, the romantic and redemptive story of our God and His people and the undefiled marriage relationship which God intended for mankind. These romantic themes are then twisted into wickedness and woven into extemely seductive and earthy gnostic romances. Gnostic dreams are thereby harnessed to serve not only the selfism of our personal lives but also intoduce their profane energy into our political, military, and religious institutions. These themes that once were holy are thereby magically transformed to be harnessed for the powers of this world. This is the process of gnostic transformation. Holy themes that are true and good are twisted into powerful yet profane stories and images that can be used in the witchcraft of domination, intimidation and manipulation. Using ritual or pageantry or other showcasing techniques gnostic magical paganism has by this means been woven into the established Christendom of the western nations. In this clandestine fashion, pagan gnosticism entered the church quite early. And it came into the fold by a route other than the Door. Paganism became established in the church. It was like a gargoyle built into the roof and walls. Very few seemed to notice.

In the 2nd century the religious game of gnostic allegorisation had already begun. It began to change the interpretations of scripture. The result has always been the same. The gnostic twist cloaks the real meaning and intent of the God's Word. The new story covers over the real story as a religious overlay. This misleads the people that hear it and confuses them as well.

This was the pattern of medieval Christianity/Paganism. The poor peasants did not have the scriptures as the Jews and the Muslims did. So they were forced to have to listen to the Word of God through a gnostic politico-religious grid. Through the magic of priestcraft a new Pagan-Christian message was channeled into christianity. God's magnificent original message is filtered out and this with the full approval of the ecclesiastical powers. We have a God who desires to walk through life with His people in simple faith. The truth about this simple personal relationship fades away to be replaced by a religious magic show where everything happens up at the fron of the church which is fashioned in the architecture of a pagan temple. This is the dark underworld of humanistic religion. Most Christians are scarcely aware of what is happening. All they know is that they remain strangely confused about the message of Jesus Christ. They don't know who He really is. They are kept from knowing Him.

Our Saviour desires to have a vital and real personal relationship with His people. This wonderful reality fades sadly away to be obscured by a religious mist. The God of the Bible is replaced by gnostic religious rituals, the idolatry of icons and relics, reverence for vestments and all the outward trappings of church tradition. In the ensuing fog of dissinformation the man in the pew quite understandably thinks that it is normal to be confused about God. They think that their God, like the religion they know, is obscure and distant, unknowable, and dissinterested in him. Our teenagers think Christianity is boring.

All this is a lie. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Through much of our Christian churchianity the message of ancient pagan gnosticism comes through loud and clear. God, like the Greek and Roman gods are up in heaven. But that they are pretty much like us down here on earth. Perhaps the one true God might possibly be found in purity up there in the realms above. But, ....well....er, ... we can't be sure. Anyway, mankind is chained to this ruined earth here below. We are bound in irredeemable corruption. Between heaven and earth is a chasm. A gulf that cannot be crossed. Except, that is, by secret "gnosis" or "hidden knowledge". Only by the ministrations of a secret priesthood can man be delivered out of this hopelessly flawed realm where mortal men made of clay are destined for death. Only the magic of religion can deliver man out of this awful state of disconnectedness and 'angst'.

This was the spiritual condition of the average man back in the pagan days when Greece and Rome were the superpowers. Strange to say it remains the spiritual condition of many nominal christians today. They still do not "know" God personally. Like the Lady of Shalott, they see God only indirectly through a mirror; a mirror of gnostic paganised religion.

But then we saw the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And we saw Him take mankind across that chasm between heaven and earth ruled over by pagan gnosticism. How did He bridge that awful gap? How did He redeem a lost humanity bound in sin in this ruined creation? And how did he make a real and personal connection with a covenant family to draw out for Himself a covenant people? How did He 'call out' a congregation or 'ekklesia' whom He would welcome to Himself as His friends?

The answer to that question, dear reader, in the magnificent redemption story found in the pages of our Holy Bible. Very early on God showed our patriarch Jacob a ladder. That ladder was seen reaching down from heaven to earth. Jacob saw the angels ministering in the gap.

This is a magnificent truth. Our God is the One who stretches out His hand to save. By invitation God enters into a personal blood covenant communion with each member of His great extended family of faith. Every one of them without exception emerges into eternal Life by grace through faith in the promised Seed of Abraham, our Lord Jesus Christ. In this family all the nations of the world would be blessed. -Gal.3:8 By His mercy, He saves us. God in the flesh, our Jesus/Yeshua, in His sacrificial death on the cross makes a Way for us to get to heaven. Jesus Christ/Yeshua Hamashiach became that 'bridge over troubled waters'. The indwelling Presence of God would work within the matrix of human hearts. By this means many are wooed out of a lost humanity and brought on to redemption.

But His work would not stop there. The indwelling Christ takes us through through the defining events of our lives. By this means we are brought into sanctification and then on beyond this life into the eternal glory of His coming Kingdom. That is the full Gospel.

But for those who have not yet opened their heart and mind and will to Christ to come into their lives they have a problem. There remains that constant sense of guilt and alienation. And so it is a matter of necessity that man-centered cultural systems must choose spiritual or carnal substitutes to try to help people deal with this inner "angst". For most, the 'Way of the cross' and personal communion with Christ who gave Himself for others is 'a bridge too far'. To take His 'cup' and to identify with Him in the 'fellowship of His sufferings' is just a bit too much. As for the 'divine romance' with God and the pathway of Christian devotion well that too seems too extreme for most to accept. At least as things stand at present. So they must seek out more "down to earth", perhaps even "earthy" alternatives to that true and faithful love walk with God. This is why we see these gnostic spiritual substitutes being presented in place of a true personal relationship with God.

The key magical transformation or "gnosis", (hidden knowledge or hidden meaning), was to get the saints of Christendom to forsake the Way of the cross. The Christian Church was enticed by the Roman caesar Constantine at the Council of Nicea. The established Church went on to receive the political protection of the sword offered by other secular gentile rulers.

Not all Christians went along with this. It was not easy to hoodwink those devoted Christians who knew their God personally. For Christian hearts set on the inward Kingdom of Christ in the heart and a future Kingdom of Messiah on this earth this was a real problem. This devotion and this 'way of the cross' was a major stumbling block for those who sought to take over the early church by political power play. They knew that they had to get a handle on the church by some means or another.

The Roman powers and their Nicolaitan religious politicians knew that all the overt frontal attacks on Christian believers had failed and would continue to fail. They were counterproductive in fact. So in order for the church to be 'brought to heel' it had to be corrupted in the manner Balaam had specified to King Balak of Moab.'-Num.22 Then, like Samson with Delilah, or Israel with her idols, the church, thus compromised, would lose its power. Then it could be paganised and taken over to be annexed as part of the world system. But,...... there was a problem.

The early church, springing up from the blood of the martyrs, had been devoted to Christ. Even during those times of hard persecutiont the true saints had not been inclined to compromise. So why should it compromise in the easy times?

Well, as it turned out, the church did in fact compromise. They fell into compromise and corruption when the times were easy, just as ancient Israel had done one thousand years before. As a suffering church the early church had been faithful. During three centuries it had been refined and built up into a large devoted body of believers. Through the administrations of ten Caesars Christians had shown that while they would pay taxes and be good citizens of Rome they simply would not offer any spiritual allegiance to Caesar. If Roman officials tested believers by asking them to burn incense to Caesar and in effect worship him as god then Christians would refuse. If they were then threatened with death they would gladly die. Hence the persecutions which became more and more severe. Christians were thrown to the lions in the Roman Colliseum.

Late in the third century the Emperor Diocletian unleashed a final horrific campaign against the Christians. The persecution under Diocletian sickened even the pagans. But it was all to no avail. And Rome knew it. The campaign was a complete failure. The more Rome persecuted the Christians the more converts came to the faith. The cross of Christ was slowly winning the Roman world. What was worse, paganism was steadily losing its esteem and sway over the masses. There was also talk in the streets of a god who was a saviour. This was disturbing to the pagan priesthood who could not offer anyone in their earthy Greek/Roman pantheon of gods even remotely qualifying as a savior. The whole issue was upsetting the status quo. Something was going to have to give. The Roman Caesar was growing a little weary of his state licensed pagan priests. Their glory was fading and they were letting him down in the political popularity area. In fact the emperor was beginning to shop around for some new religious clothes. His secular rule had to be covered by some sort of official religion. And so it was that in 325 A.D. Constantine sent letters to the church leaders throughout his empire inviting them to Nicea for a little chat. Perhaps a new "church-state" relationship might be just the ticket for him politically. But could the Christian church be corrupted? Would they come and sit down at table with him and make covenant? That was the question. He sent out the letters and waited.

Meanwhile, as the persecutions ran out of steam the fortunes of the church were changing. In 308 A.D. Constantine issued the Edict of Milan tolerating Christianity. The church began to come into a period of political and economic ascendency. In these heady times the Way of the Cross began to be forgotten. As the compromising section of the church came up to Nicea and sat down at covenant table with Constantine and the Roman and pagan wheeler dealers the inevitable slide of western culture downhill into the dark ages was set. In the hubbub of quasichristian pagan admixture the door of the church was opened to gnostic paganism, see this article on the sellout and corruption of the church at Nicea. The seduction of the church proceeded from there through a process of gnostic substitutions of profane and pagan things for divine Christian realities. There was religious subterfuge and the game of bait and switch was on in earnest. The holy vision was replaced with a religious ritual of showcasing in vestments, the lifting up of an elitist priestcraft, idolatry in beads, pageantry, magical transformations of the bread and wine of communion, reverence and merchandising of relics, prayers for the dead, worship of dead saints, etc. All of these pagan substitutions for the simple Christian walk of faith would cast a spell over the hearts and minds of Christian people for one thousand years. Worst of all, the holy scriptures were not allowed in the hands of the people. That disastrous state of affairs would not be changed until the 1300's. The Jewish diaspora still had their Hebrew shools and ready access to the old testament. Yet the established church would not allow the common man direct access to the scriptures. It was only through the dying Roman language of Latin and a few faithful priests that there was any hope of the Word of God getting through to the peasants. Because thst is what they had become in this spiritual wasteland of what was called "Christendom". It was an awful state of affairs. Clerical fables would replace the Word of God. God's message of redemption and friendship with man through the simple message of the Gospel would be locked up in a mixture of pagan-christian ritual. The "good news" was spirited away from the people and only accessable in the increasingly arcane language of Latin. All that was left of true Christianity would have to be seen through a smokescreen of church formalism and traditional church teachings. That time of spiritual deprivation would come to be known as the "Dark Ages". And this awful state of affairs would go on for a thousand years.

What replaced the gospel? What was substituted for the Word of God? Religious tradition spiked with political messages would replace the scriptures. The love story between God and His people would fade away into the medieval religious fog. In such a manner Europe or 'Christendom' descended into the Dark Ages. This church-state accord established a military-ready Christendom ready to die not for Christ, but for the political rulers of the day.

What prompted Constantine to make Christianity the key religion of the Roman Empire. After all, hadn't ten caesars in a row tried to exterminate Chritians, crucifying them and throwing them to the lions? The classic foundational legend was a story of a vision supposedly seen by Roman Emperor Constantine before the Battle of Milvian bridge. This was early in the 4th century. Constantine was said to have seen a cross in the sky on the eve of the battle. But the words from "heaven" were in direct opposition to the cross of Christ and all that it stands for. The words were, "In this sign conquer".

The importance of this 'vision' cannot be overemphasised. Indeed this vision is still with us today, even inside the church. In this magical gnostic transformation the cross of Christ, a symbol of a life surrendered to the will of God, was replaced. It was replaced by the sword of secular power. This emerges clearly in the magical sword known as the "Excaliber" in the legends of King Arthur. And so the cross of Christ would fade away into the medieval mists. Christian faith and love for God would be replaced by the mystical power and the military politics of the sword. See the book Constantine's Sword by noted Roman Catholic scholar James Carroll. This would have profound implications for Jews and also for evangelical Christians.

There is no evidence that the Roman Emperor Constantine had committed himself to the cross of Christ. He was a politician and a military ruler for Rome. His interest in Christianity was to use it as a religious consort to his world empire. He himself would not make a personal profession of Christian faith until he came to his deathbed years later. As for his vision of a glorified sword replacing the cross of Christ well this spectre still casts its spell over most of the Christian church even today. This is particularly true of the present day Anglo-American Puritans.

So was Constantine's vision at Milvian Bridge a holy vision from God? Or might it have come from the seedier parts of the lower second heaven and from the dark angelic principalities and powers of this world? And what about the implications of this vision down here on earth? Could it have been just a political maneuver spawned in the courts of Roman power? You be the judge.

Another gnostic transformation was the doctrine of "replacement theology" started by Origen and St. Augustine. With this "replacement theology" the priestcraft waved the magic wand and said that "abracadabra" the church was now Israel. The established church would hereafter be the recipient of all the blessings God had promised to Israel. This left the Jewish nation with no future divine purpose whatsoever. The church's gnostic religious allegorization machine also axed the future Millennium of Messiah. The future 1,000 years is prophesied in prose and poetry in a host of places throughout the old testament and also spelled out in three places in Rev.20. But the clear literal interpretation of those scriptures was "vaporised", just "spirited away". By whom? Well the angelic princes over western nations didn't want to hear about it. So Merlin or Thor, or whoever the principality or power was leaned on their religious consort, the church in their land, and had the message of the coming Messiah in the scripture deleted, or "cloaked". It was replaced with an allegorical interpretation or false "cover story". This particular gnostic transformation was not just a theological matter. That uppity churchy jingoism would later manifest itself in the bloody antisemitic politics of the church-state union that would dominate western history after Nicea. It would give excuse for the emergence of the awful antisemitism seen repeatedly in church history. The Crusades, the Inquisitions, the pogroms, the holocaust, all arose from a scripturally unfounded doctrine of "Israel" now being "the church". This "replacement theology" is a serpent still well hidden within the church to this day.

What is "replacement theology"? It affirms that all the promises made to Israel in holy scripture now belong to the Christian Church. This was is simple Gentile lust for the sceptre of Jewish House of Judah. The church, beholden to her secular European princes/lovers, seeks to sanctify European political aspirations for Jerusalem. It showed that in the crusades. That sceptre, held by our Jewish brethren, is the only true God-given land right to Jerusalem. The same can be said of the territory of Judea in Israel, now in the so called, "West Bank".-Gen.49:8-12 Even today Israel is being pressured to give up this land to international powers. In its own way the crusades of yesteryear and the Oslo Accords of today are a form of theft or rape by the west and the church against national Israel. Replacement theology gave theological excuse for those crusades. in fact the crusades started off by mass killings of Jews in Europe. This was even before the crusaders set out for the Holy Land. Replacement theology insofar as it marginalised Jews and denied their future national salvation was one of the main roots of antisemitism (anti-Judahism). Church history manifested this antisemitism in the purges, the Spanish Inquisition, and on to the more recent pogroms and the holocaust in the mid 20th century. Replacement theology is still with us today. It will continue to generate more tragic history for the established church against the Jews unless it is soundly and decisively renounced for the unscriptural travesty that it is and the church decisively confesses and repents of her antisemitic sins.

Of all English Literature the Arthurian medieval legends charm us far more than any other. They eclipse the classic literature of Roman and Greek mythology, which, lets face it, were getting pretty boring even before Christendom arrived on the scene 2,000 years ago. Where are the Legends of Camelot today? Right in front of our noses. They are in the seductive dreamscapes on the big screen and television. The romance is woven with images of uncovered sexuality, idolatry and blood letting. The gnostic spells are woven to charm and capture the imaginations of those not being protected or initiated into God. Godless people and carnal Christians are vulnerable because they are empty of spiritual meaning in their lives. They are vulnerable because they have not entered into a meaningful romantic love relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They become the unwitting prey of the principalities and powers of popular entertainment and popular religion. Souls are penetrated and entered by these carnal gnostic spirits of romantic/religious seduction. This is an untold story and it is happening all around us right now.

The stories of the Knights of Camelot are nowadays being restated in E.T, "Star Wars", Indiana Jones, and Xena the barbarian "princess". These are almost pure gnosticism with the magical transformations of holy and sacred themes being carried over into very earthy and profane carnal storyline. That way the heavenly flows instead of going between man and God to redeem and sanctify are instead re-routed and grounded into more earthy and carnal themes. The pattern of medieval/gothic romance is always the same. A damsel in distress calls for help. She is worthy of blood being spilled on her behalf and she awaits her true love. She is barricaded in a castle of purity but in the story it is made into a house of bondage and unsatisfied yearnings. There she stays, weaving her tapestry and looking at the world through a mirror of romantic/religious fantasies that are not real. But she desires to "come out" into the "real world" and unite with the world of "real men". In all this her betrothed is curiously absent or else she has shunned him. Tournament day approaches. She offers a scarf, her covering, to any man worthy of her consort. But he must rise to the occasion to guard her honor against an enemy who has made a claim to her. What is to be done? Fortunately a knight in shining armour, (human glory and a covering of Roman iron), happens upon the scene. For a brief moment we see the holy symbol of the cross on the hilt of his sword. But suddenly it is magically transformed in the hand of the knight into something else. The cross becomes a sword. Our hero swings his large sword/gun/phaser and the evil antagonist is cut down. Then the knight comes and sweeps the damsel in distress off her feet. He puts her on his horse, and carries her off into the sunset where they live happily ever after. This is the medieval romance. Perhaps it harks back even further to pagan legends instilled in Greek mythology. But is it more than that?

I would ask you to consider that this may be a typical story of the established church since she was first "had" by the Roman Emperor Constantine in 325 A.D. For 1700 years she has depended on secular "protection" by kings and rulers whom she honored with the title, "defenders of the faith". And so it is that she has been corrupted and defiled by them. In the poem of 'The Lady of Shalott' she leaves her castle of protection behind going out toward the city lights of Camelot and her knight in shining armour, Sir Lancelot. She enters a boat and drifts into the stream. Reclining in the boat she is seen singing her last mournful song and floating down the river in search of that ultimate lover. Is this a picture of the apostate worldly church in the endtime? I believe it most assuredly is.

There is a section of the church which has lost the way. These are those who have forgotten the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They have been overcome by the world and are truly adrift and in a swoon over temporal rulers. This is seen so clearly in the ecumenical movement, the United Religions Organisation, and now in the Kingdom Now/Dominionism and some elements of the prophetic movement. The prophetic movement is of late going ape wild over Arthurian legends, roundtables and knights. They see themselves in fact as knights. So do the Christians in the "patriot movement" along with their political counterparts in the Puritan "Christian Coalition" and Kingdom Dominionist/Reconstructionist movement. Truly these are the endtime crusader warrior monks rising up onto the scene to do battle in the "last crusade".

In all this the established church has been seduced and defiled by its covenants with the powers of this world. And it is getting worse. Apostasy with the Antichrist is just around the corner. Papers are probably even now being drawn up for a multifaceted global megadeal, a "covenant with many" by the coming peacemaking Antichrist. -Dan.9:27 He is probably even now waiting in the wings for his cue to go on the stage of history. The worldly church, all hot and bothered, is standing ready to corrupt and defile herself with him, - to the max this time. She has been seduced both in the realm of her imaginations and in her political church-state life. While she decries "secular humanists" she herself has become the comsumate "religious humanist". She has left the devotion to Christ and has looked instead to the world systems of mammon to deliver her one more time. In the previous centuries the anabaptists dared to tell of this duplicity. They affirmed the words of Jesus, "No man can serve two masters........ You cannot serve God and Mammon".-Mat.6:24 They made a call to holiness and a resolved to pledge allegiance to only Christ as their King. They spoke out against the practice of the wayward church in seeking secular protection. For this they were bitterly persecuted to the death. When these saints of holiness were betrayed and deliverd up before their accusers it was the fearful established church, not pagans or secularists, that led them off to be burned at the stake. Compromised Christians have always persecuted uncompromising Christians. And so they ever shall. This is an untold story.

So what to do? These gnostic transformations are ubiquitous in our culture. It is in ritualistic religion. Instead of the communion bread and wine being a means of remembering our Lord Jesus and personally committing ourselves to Him it is instead transformed by a process of religious magic into body and blood of Christ. The "He" who desires our fellowship becomes a "thing", a piece of magic bread for us to receive from our priest intermediary and eat ritualistically. Gnostic tranformations of God's realities are seen in films, television, music, paperback books and now the video games and internet. Among many Christians the Divine Romance with God remains overshadowed by a humanised version, the gothic romance. Many Christian ladies would rather read Mills and Boone paperbacks and "Self:" magazine than enter into a REAL romance with their God. The time they spend in His presence and in His word shows where their true devotion is at this point. But will this continue?

Well there may be some good news and a wonderful surprise here. Future events may cause the saints to cry out to God in their distress and to serendipidously discover what real Agape love and romance with God is all about? This pattern has happened before on many occasions. David, as he was being hounded by King Saul discovered that romance. He wrote about it in that most sublime piece of literature, the 23rd Psalm. The Shulamite in the Song of Songs also found true love with her Shepherd Lover in the end. She finds him at the end of her trials. -Song of Songs 8:5-7. Hosea tells a similar story of his wife, Gomer, finding her Beloved, her Ishi, in the Valley of Achor, a place of trouble and affliction. -Hos. 2:15&16

So I believe these earthy gnostic stories of medieval/gothic romance, these dreamscapes of Camelot and an idolised and glorified humanity will fade away. They will fade away just as surely as the legends and romances of Greek mythology faded away before them. They will become BORING in comparison to the magnificent and glorious Divine Romance that is even now beginning to unfold before us of the returning King of Kings. The medieval carnal romances with earthly rulers will fade away just as surely as the early morning mist disappears when that new day dawns. And Someone else will outshine them in "that day" when the "sun/Son of righteousness will arise with healing and restoration in His wings". -Mal 4:2

Charis and shalom to the saints.