We Are not Gnostics
Scripture Reading: Revelation 22
A few weeks ago, I finished reading through the New Testament again. My daily Bible reading plan consists of reading a chapter of the Old and New Testaments as well as one from Psalms and one from Proverbs each day and then starting over again when I finish each one. So, it doesn’t follow the yearly calendar. Of course, Revelation 22 is the last chapter in the New Testament, and it is always a wonderful text to finish as it casts the vision of the future eternal state.
Gnosticism is an ancient heresy that still rears its ugly head amongst believers. One of the elements of gnostic philosophy is that the material/physical world is evil and the spiritual/non-physical world is good. What logically follows is a belief that God didn’t directly create the physical world because He wouldn’t create something evil. It also logically follows that the eternal state of a person, life after death, would not have any physical aspect to it. Death would translate us into a “spiritual” realm where we would be disembodied and absorbed into a divine consciousness.
While most Christians would reject this when it is stated this way, many unwittingly follow some of the gnostic teachings about the afterlife. They don’t think of the resurrection of the body as essential for our eternal state. They believe in it to some degree, but they emphasize the non-material, non-physical vision of heaven they have adopted.
What the Bible teaches is that God created everything and it is good. While the world exists under a curse because of sin, the physical is not inherently evil. Therefore, God’s redemptive purposes don’t abandon the good physical world he created. It restores and recreates it. Thus, when the Bible speaks about our eternal state it includes physically resurrected bodies, cities, rivers, trees, lions, and lambs.
We are not headed toward some ethereal existence of a non-physical eternity. We are headed toward the good kingdom of God with all the beauty and wonder of a physical world with nature and cities and people. And it will be free from all of the elements that harm and kill in this present world. It is going to be a New Heaven and a New Earth in which we will live with new bodies to the glory of God and Jesus Christ, our King.
We are not gnostics.
