The Dangerous Appeal Of Hidden Spiritual Power

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[00:00:00]So, talked a bit about the history of Gnosticism and why Irenaeus would want to attack it. And actually how he beat it. He did not attack an individual group. He didn't start yelling, "This group is satanic. This group is Luciferian. They're invading our churches. They're invading our government systems. They have There are secret government agents that are Luciferian because they're in this specific Gnostic group."

[00:00:26]Instead, [clears throat] he started attacking the underlying framework, the architecture of what Gnosticism consisted of and why it it was such a converging apostasy. He beat it by making Christianity >> [laughter] >> uh actually and this is kind of a funny way to to say it and think through it, but he beat it by making Christianity boring in the best way.

[00:00:51]Public truth, shared confessions, a real Jesus Christ in the flesh, not a hidden mystery. It To the Gnostic groups who had all of these rituals and all of these secret mysteries, the the divine gnosis, this was [clears throat] the most boring thing ever.

[00:01:10]>> [laughter] >> But, that's what he did. He attacked it by showing Christianity for what it was and showing the Gnostic evil pagan ideas and their roots for what they are.

[00:01:23]That's how he attacked it. Again, he did not go to an individual group. So, where does that leave us? How does Gnosticism survive through time? How How do we have what we have today? How is the Freemason groups have similarities between Gnosticism? How does the NAR, people who are claiming to be Christian, how do they have all of these Gnostic ideas?

[00:01:48]We have to understand Gnosticism is less of a club and it's more of a recurring temptation through time.

[00:01:57]It's very powerful to tell somebody, "I know a secret."

[00:02:01]>> [laughter] >> I remember when I was a kid and we're all sitting around and one one guy found out one kid found out how to do something with, I don't know, a marble or whatever. LEGOs usually in my case.

[00:02:13]And he would turn around and say, "I I I know how to do this. I know the secret."

[00:02:16]And they wouldn't want to tell you the secret.

[00:02:19]Carry it a step further. Every kid who's fascinated with magic and doing magic tricks to trick their parents, they don't want to tell their parents the secret how they did it. It's powerful to have a secret.

[00:02:32]Well, Gnosticism is much like this. It's not a club with a ritual that is summoning a demon. It It's not so much that as it is a recurring temptation to mix the truth with something that is false.

[00:02:49]That is Gnosticism in its essence.

[00:02:52]Telling people you have a mystery when I have to believe that many of the people who were Gnostics knew that these mysteries weren't real.

[00:03:01]They knew They knew they had robbed them, stolen them from some of the pagan mythologies. So, I have to believe that they knew that this was not a real Christian thing. But they were tricking people. They were rebranding it as Christianity and tricking people.

[00:03:16]And that's [clears throat] where it gets to be a bit insidious.

[00:03:20]People want to have a higher plane of spirituality.

[00:03:25]Men have always strived to become like gods. That's why you have all of the books on gods. That's why you have the Marvel, the DC comic books. They want to become like gods. The children want to become Superman, right?

[00:03:40]Well, adults want this, too. Adults want to have a mystery. Adults want to be like God.

[00:03:46]And if you have [clears throat] somebody who's boasting and telling them, "I know a secret. I know how to make you like gods. I know how to make you a manifested son of God.

[00:03:57]That's why this gets so insidious.

[00:03:59]Gnosticism is not a club. And >> [clears throat] >> in many ways, I mentioned several times that I'm against Freemasonry, but in many ways I see the uh one of the reasons why I use The Little Rascals as my movie example is because I see it as such a less problematic thing than its underlying reason for existence, which is Gnosticism.

[00:04:25]If you can teach people that you have a secret and teach them that you are the secret giver, that empowers you.

[00:04:33]So, think of in Gnosticism uh in Freemasonry, I mean, you've got all of the different degrees and you get all the way up to the 33rd degree.

[00:04:42]Well, every person who's at the bottom and they see a smaller number, they want a higher number.

[00:04:47]And so, they want more. They want to know the mysteries. If I know the mysteries, I can climb up and become a 33rd degree Mason.

[00:04:55]Well, that's how Gnosticism is. It's It's this idea that you are empowered by your secret, the secret that you know, not empowered by Christ.

[00:05:06]And in [clears throat] Freemasonry, again, it's the divine architect, the one who's teaching you how to do the divine architectural things.

[00:05:15]You can only learn this if you climb up this ladder. Well, that's exactly what Gnosticism is, but it wasn't a club. It was being touted as a religion. And that's where for me it Freemasonry sits off to the side for me because it doesn't really advertise itself as a religious thing.

[00:05:34]Gnosticism did.

[00:05:36]And yet at the same time, Gnosticism has entered into the church in many ways.

[00:05:42]We've We've talked about that in our converging apostasy series that I do with Steve.

[00:05:47]it is actually more insidious. So, I many of the people who Steve have mentioned who are spreading Gnosticism in Latter Rain, New Apostolic Reformation, Charismania, those people are actually, in my opinion, they're worse of a threat than Freemasonry because they're doing it, they're rebranding it in the name of Christian, much like the Gnostics were doing.

[00:06:11]And so, what you get in many cases that we've gone through, I think Steve actually mentions it exactly like this, people believe that they have so earned salvation through these divine mysteries without actually having repentance.

[00:06:27]And that fully explains why you have, you know, the leadership in the New Apostolic Reformation right now is suffering because so many of them are following falling to all kinds of different sins, financial sins, sexual sins, many of them are some of them are predators. So, this is a this is a very bad thing. Well, think about how they raised to the top of their fraternal order Christianity.

[00:06:52]They rose all all the way up to the top.

[00:06:55]They're teaching people that they have the secret knowledge that can make their group special.

[00:06:59]And yet, they're gaining spirituality without repentance. They are learning how to climb up this ladder and there's no tie back to Jesus.

[00:07:10]They've basically misrepresented what Christianity is to the people.

[00:07:15]And worse, so many people have come into these groups with a misrepresented version of Christianity thinking it is because it's the Gnostic idea. I have the mystery, we're better than the other Christians who don't have the mystery, and me, your all-powerful leader, can show you this mystery. So, that temptation for mystery, it keeps resurfacing.

[00:07:40]Also, I think Bob Scott is the best one who talks through this. When he talks about the different cultural things and historical things that are happening, the temptation really comes whenever there's strong anxiety or a social collapse. World War II caused all kinds of ideas to come into Christianity because there was sudden and instant fear that there would be a World War III.

[00:08:05]During the World War, there was a fear that there was going to be a complete destruction of the earth. That was a really heightened fear. They were They were actually fearing a social collapse.

[00:08:16]So, through each period of time in history, if you can find a time where there is a culture who is at fear, high anxiety, strong social collapse, there are leaders who can monetize this.

[00:08:31]And if you can tell people that you know the secret to escape this anxiety, to escape this fear, you can make a lot of money.

[00:08:39]And Branham was [clears throat] doing exactly this right on the heels of World War II. There are newspaper advertisements that say he was holding revivals and it would take two or three hefty men to carry the boxes of money that he had collected from the revivals.

[00:08:54]That anxiety is very powerful and it can make people very rich.