Honestly, the way I see it, Gnosticism of course does have Pagan origins and does share some connections with Hermeticism, but It think the current form of "Christian" Gnosticism might have been specifically created by the Romans to persecute Christianity and undermine and destroy it from the inside.
Think about it, until the Christians came along, the Romans were able to conquer and assimilate any religions they encountered, just not Christianity. Why? Because pretty much all the other religions they encountered were based on polytheistic Paganism and their gods were all planetary deities.
Those can all be easily assimilated into the equally Pagan, polytheistic and planet based Roman religion and that's what they did and how they dealt with it. But since Christianity isn't like that and since Christians would refuse to acknowledge any and all polytheistic Pagan deities, the Romans couldn't deal with that - hence the persecution.
But even persecuting them didn't work, as even their god was persecuted to death and crucified, so in the eyes of those Christians that would just bring them closer to their god.
If only there was a form of Christianity that wasn't like that and that was - well more like the Roman religion and hence compatible with it. A form of Christianity that is polytheist and believes in a multitude of Pagan planetary deities and were Jesus isn't more or less divine than anyone else and were Jehovah is at best a god of a particular low level who is especially stupid and incompetent and is literally making an ass (donkey) of himself.
And right when the Romans were all desperately thinking that, exactly that kind of "Christianity" that they dreamed about starts popping up all over the Roman Empire - what a coincidence.
Learning about the huge amount of early converts, who were so touched by these early Christian’s; who had no fear of death, and had been transformed by The Savior; really helped strengthen my faith...a faith that is so tried I forget I have it.
Thank you!
It is hard to stand alone; hoping you’re not failing.
I just converted to Orthodoxy. There is a lot more than anyone realizes in the original Christianity. Look up the concept of 'Theosis'. Catholics broke off from the Orthodox Church in 998 AD in a way many point to as the beginning of 1000 years of the anti-Christ from Revelations.
It is ok that you butcher the names. We can look them up and try to do better if it is an issue. Your research is great.
The Tim Ballard series should be a real interesting one .. can’t wait till you do it.
Honestly, the way I see it, Gnosticism of course does have Pagan origins and does share some connections with Hermeticism, but It think the current form of "Christian" Gnosticism might have been specifically created by the Romans to persecute Christianity and undermine and destroy it from the inside.
Think about it, until the Christians came along, the Romans were able to conquer and assimilate any religions they encountered, just not Christianity. Why? Because pretty much all the other religions they encountered were based on polytheistic Paganism and their gods were all planetary deities.
Those can all be easily assimilated into the equally Pagan, polytheistic and planet based Roman religion and that's what they did and how they dealt with it. But since Christianity isn't like that and since Christians would refuse to acknowledge any and all polytheistic Pagan deities, the Romans couldn't deal with that - hence the persecution.
But even persecuting them didn't work, as even their god was persecuted to death and crucified, so in the eyes of those Christians that would just bring them closer to their god.
If only there was a form of Christianity that wasn't like that and that was - well more like the Roman religion and hence compatible with it. A form of Christianity that is polytheist and believes in a multitude of Pagan planetary deities and were Jesus isn't more or less divine than anyone else and were Jehovah is at best a god of a particular low level who is especially stupid and incompetent and is literally making an ass (donkey) of himself.
And right when the Romans were all desperately thinking that, exactly that kind of "Christianity" that they dreamed about starts popping up all over the Roman Empire - what a coincidence.
Thank you!
Learning about the huge amount of early converts, who were so touched by these early Christian’s; who had no fear of death, and had been transformed by The Savior; really helped strengthen my faith...a faith that is so tried I forget I have it.
Thank you!
It is hard to stand alone; hoping you’re not failing.
I just converted to Orthodoxy. There is a lot more than anyone realizes in the original Christianity. Look up the concept of 'Theosis'. Catholics broke off from the Orthodox Church in 998 AD in a way many point to as the beginning of 1000 years of the anti-Christ from Revelations.
http://orthodoxhistory.info/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Orthodox-Dogmatic-Theology.pdf