Does anyone one know if there are gnostics today? If so can you give me any info about their religion today?

Question

I'm writing an article on Gnosticism for my school newspaper and I would really like to find out what are gnostics like today. Not just information about the religon or how it began I already have that I just really need to find out about gnostics today and if there are any rituals or traditions they participate in.

Answer 1

here goes a couple of links


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism


http://www.meta-religion.com/Esoterism/Gnosticism/gnosticism.htm


http://altreligion.about.com/od/gnostic/Gnosticism_and_Gnostic_Thought.htm


http://www.religioustolerance.org/gnostic.htm


http://www.sacred-texts.com/

i hope this helps you out good luck

Answer 2

Yes, there are gnostics out there nowadays and they follow the gnostic gospels. You'd be far better served in looking up at your local bookstore in the religion section... there are lots of books on gnosticism. That's far too much information for me to type in HERE. Sorry friend, but I hope you find what you seek. Good luck on your article!

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Answer 3

Hey, one good resource available. Go to the website www.sermonaudio.com and type in Benny Hinn for the search. It should bring up an mp3 titled something like "The Strange World of Benny Hinn". It's over two hours long but well worth it. The speaker shows how Word of Faith and Gnosticism are closely related. Might help.

Answer 4

False teaching........Hellenism.

Second Epistle Of Saint Paul To The Corinthians
Ch 11
13 For such false apostles are deceitful workmen, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder: for Satan himself transformeth himself into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers be transformed as the ministers of justice, whose end shall be according to their works.

WIKIPEDIA;

Gnosticism (from Greek gnosis, knowledge) is a term created by modern scholars to describe a diverse religious movement often associated with Christianity, although textual evidence for the movement contains distinctly non- and anti-Christian elements, as well as anti-Judaic elements. These beliefs had largely syncretistic origins in that they were often based on various influences from such idea systems.

Several Gnostic texts appear to have no Christian element at all. Because the textual evidence comes from the first few centuries AD, many scholars have assumed that Gnosticism did not predate this period, but earlier historians of religion saw it as an outgrowth of ancient mystical traditions in Asia, especially Iran.


CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA;

The doctrine of salvation by knowledge. This definition, based on the etymology of the word (gnosis "knowledge", gnostikos, "good at knowing"), is correct as far as it goes, but it gives only one, though perhaps the predominant, characteristic of Gnostic systems of thought. Whereas Judaism and Christianity, and almost all pagan systems, hold that the soul attains its proper end by obedience of mind and will to the Supreme Power, i.e. by faith and works, it is markedly peculiar to Gnosticism that it places the salvation of the soul merely in the possession of a quasi-intuitive knowledge of the mysteries of the universe and of magic formulae indicative of that knowledge. Gnostics were "people who knew", and their knowledge at once constituted them a superior class of beings, whose present and future status was essentially different from that of those who, for whatever reason, did not know. A more complete and historical definition of Gnosticism would be:


A collective name for a large number of greatly-varying and pantheistic-idealistic sects, which flourished from some time before the Christian Era down to the fifth century, and which, while borrowing the phraseology and some of the tenets of the chief religions of the day, and especially of Christianity, held matter to be a deterioration of spirit, and the whole universe a depravation of the Deity, and taught the ultimate end of all being to be the overcoming of the grossness of matter and the return to the Parent-Spirit, which return they held to be inaugurated and facilitated by the appearance of some God-sent Saviour.
However unsatisfactory this definition may be, the obscurity, multiplicity, and wild confusion of Gnostic systems will hardly allow of another. Many scholars, moreover, would hold that every attempt to give a generic description of Gnostic sects is labour lost.

Answer 5

Gnosticism is satanism.

The Bible rejects gnosticism. The Bible says that those who refuse to believe the truth, and choose something that is a lie like gnosticism, know deep down that Jesus and the Bible are true, but those people stuff the truth in exchange for a lie. They know the truth, but reject it, and they are simply liars.

Answer 6

Yes, they are still around. I've seen some gnostics who actually post Q&A on this board, so be patient, and ask again if no one responds right away.