Like all heresies, hyper-antignosticism, or over-realized eschatology, emerges from an attempt to counter another heresy, in this case gnosticism. Gnosticism, however, like any heresy is not completely wrong or it wouldn't be convincing. Hyper-antignosticism, by attempting to correct all of what gnosticism teaches and emphasizes, ends up denying the truths found within it along with the errors and therefore becomes a heresy itself.
For instance, in the attempt to argue against anything that even resembles the gnostic tendency to deny material good, one creates an overemphasis on the material in such a way as to now oppose the truths of the New Testament and deny the nature of the new covenant before the coming of our Lord.
One is now judged, not for the content of his character, but for the wellness and order of his physical life. The Apostle Paul would have been viewed correctly by the Corinthians then as one who is lesser than they are in many ways (prestige, health, wealth, etc.). Physically speaking, his life was a mess. The type of materialism created by hyper-antignosticism could not tolerate such a life.
But Scripture is clear that in the time of the "already, not yet" we are to "set our minds on the things above and not on the things below." Notice, it does not say "set your minds on the things above and the things below," but the emphasis is on the things above rather than the things below. Christ tells us that we should not store up our riches here but rather to "store up" our "treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy." Peter tells us that our inheritance is not something we receive now but rather is stored up in heaven for us and that our salvation is ready to be revealed but has not yet been fully received. He says this in light of the suffering and oppression that the Christians who he is addressing are experiencing in the world. He does not argue that their release will be a future period before Christ returns but rather when He returns. Paul says that if our earthly tent (a temporal structure) is torn down we have a heavenly one that is eternal in the future, one already conceived in heaven (this, of course, in Pauline thought is talking about the natures of the mortal body before it is clothed with immortality). Hence, Christians do not bind themselves to the world through the physical but rather learn to not love their lives even to the point of death, as all the saints are said to do in the Apocalypse of John.
Hence, in the Book of Acts, Christians sell their lands, possessions, etc. in order to help the poor because they are looking toward the day when they must be granted entrance into the eternal dwellings. This does not mean that one does not plant his apple tree or work that none might have need or tend to the physical birth of children etc., but what is does mean is that His kingdom is not of this world nor does He seek to take it through his followers (or they would be fighting He declares to Pilate). Instead, He will return to wipe out all other rule and authority upon the earth and take what He has won through His obedience, and He will do this because He alone is the Savior and needs no help from His followers. They are not his means to overcoming the physical world. They function as His images in their words and character even while their bodies are given over to suffering and death.
The difference between NT Christianity and Gnosticism, therefore, is not that one emphasizes the spiritual and one does not. The difference is that one emphasizes the spiritual now in view of the redemption of the physical to come and one emphasizes the spiritual in view of the annihilation of the physical to come. In other words, they both have different eschatologies because they both have different views of theology, cosmology and anthropology.
In Christianity, the God of the Old Testament is the only God that exists and He is good. Therefore, whatever He makes is good and will be redeemed. In Gnosticism, however, there is more than one god and the god who makes the world is either evil or just incompetent, and therefore, makes either a deficient physical world or an evil one. Spirits come from the highest god, and since he is good, those spirits are good but now trapped in a physical world from which they must escape.
These are two different religions, not because one emphasizes spirituality over the physical world, but because their differing eschatologies and ethics are born from their differing theologies, christologies, cosmologies, and anthropologies. Hence, their emphases on spirituality, although looking similar, are miles apart.
Hyper-antignosticism ignores this and ignorantly just chalks up all spiritual emphases as gnostic, flying straight into the heresy and apostasy of the type of materialism we see in the health and wealth cult of our day, which has its manifestations not only in the charismatic movement but even in more conservative evangelical and reformed congregations. Cults throughout history have done this many times before. Over-realized eschatology isn't new. In fact, I would argue that it is the basis of most cults, especially those, ironically, who have gnostic tendencies. It is easier to argue that Jesus wants to rule now through our efforts if we argue that he has returned already to rule the earth. Yet, we can't see him so it must be that its a spiritual reign. The belief in the spiritual reign of Jesus as opposed to the actual physical reign at his return has fueled numerous cults, a big one being that of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Other cults just place a heavy emphasis on their times as the end times and so see themselves as the last generation through whom Christ will change the world in some way (Latter Day Saints come to mind). Cults, then, are largely created by over-realized eschatology, and this, again, is something hyper-antignosticism has in common with the cults, not something from which it distinguishes itself.
As 2 Thessalonians would argue, the good hope is the future return of Christ. The bad hope, i.e., the false hope, is a hope in the present world that believes Christ is already transforming the physical world and its institutions. Such was the hope of the Roman Christians who saw their empire fall and given over to savages instead. Such was the hope of Christendom which fell the Muslims and later the secularists. Such was the hope of the Munster rebels right before their leaders were killed by an army that did not share their over-realized eschatological views.
But 2 Thessalonians also lets us understand that each hope, the good and the bad one, have fruit that tell Christians, who were told by Christ to judge false prophets by their fruit, which hope they are in. If the hope produces a judgmentalism of others based on their physical circumstances, looks, health, wealth, class, problems, etc. this evidences the bad hope that is Satanic. If the fruit is one of love and care for others in their physical problems, lack of health or wealth etc., this is the good hope, the one that looks to take care of Jesus through His people until He comes and rights the physical wrongs with the world. But if I must right the physical wrongs and so must you? Well, then, you better get with it or you will be considered lesser.
Hyper-antignosticism does not lead to love. It leads to lifting some up over others. It leads to judging character by what class, health, wealth, or position in which one finds himself. It leads to a life of the flesh, not the life of the Spirit, and so it is not Christian but a Christian heresy that leads to the ruin of its hearers.
Paul rebukes the Galatians for thinking that they have already received the promises of Christ through physical things. He mocks them by saying that they have already become perfect without us. Yet, he says that those who are truly in Christ are waiting for their salvation, their deliverance into a new physical world where there is no more opposition to our God who is spirit sanctifying all physical things and immortalizing them by His Spirit. This has happened in our spirits but the physical remains to be perfected and only He who is perfect can come and do that for us. That is Christianity. That is the good hope. That is our hope. Hyper-antignosticism sets people up to expect things from God and other people that are not promised on this side of Christ's return and so by lying about God and other Christians, it fails to love God and neighbor. It is a true heresy of heresies, therefore, that must be rejected.
No comments:
Post a Comment