GNOSTIC AWAKENING

Part I of XIV

On this page
  1. The Rules This Document Follows
  2. Words You Will Meet
  3. How to Use It

Part I: How to Read This Document

This is not a sermon. It is evidence.

Every claim in these pages is tied to a source you can check yourself: a Bible verse by book, chapter and verse; a church council by name and year; an ancient writer by title and section; a Nag Hammadi text by codex and tractate number. You do not have to trust Apokryphon. You have to check Apokryphon. That is the whole point. The men who buried the Gnostics asked for your trust. We ask for your attention.

THE RULES THIS DOCUMENT FOLLOWS #

  • QUOTES ARE REAL. Bible quotations follow the named translation (KJV unless marked). Nag Hammadi quotations follow the standard English translations edited by James M. Robinson ("The Nag Hammadi Library in English") or Marvin Meyer ("The Nag Hammadi Scriptures"). Where a line is a summary rather than a quotation, it is marked PARAPHRASE.
  • CITATIONS ARE EXACT. "NHC I,3" means Nag Hammadi Codex I, tractate 3. A number like "18:24" after it means page 18, line 24 of the codex.
  • LEGEND IS FLAGGED. Some famous stories -- in church history and in our own history -- are legends. Where a story is legend and not record, you will see the word LEGEND. We do not need legends. The record is damning enough.
  • CONCESSIONS ARE MADE OPENLY. Where the other side has a point, we say so and then show why it does not save them. A cause that cannot admit a single fact against it is not a cause. It is a cult.
  • THE TARGET IS THE SYSTEM, NOT THE PEOPLE. Catholics, Orthodox, Baptists, Adventists, Mormons and Witnesses are not the enemy. Most of them love God with everything they have. That is exactly why they deserve the truth. Our fight is with the doctrines and the institutions that kept it from them.

WORDS YOU WILL MEET #

   GNOSIS ....... (Greek) knowledge -- not information, but knowing by
                  direct encounter, the way you "know" a person
   PLEROMA ...... (Greek) the Fullness -- the realm of the true God
   AION / AEON .. (Greek) an age; in Valentinian teaching, a living
                  power or aspect of God within the Fullness
   SOPHIA ....... (Greek) Wisdom -- the youngest aeon, whose longing
                  set the drama of this world in motion
   DEMIURGE ..... (Greek demiourgos) craftsman -- the lesser maker of
                  this world, who did not know the Fullness above him
   PNEUMA ....... (Greek) spirit, breath, wind
   PSYCHE ....... (Greek) soul, life-force
   HYLE ......... (Greek) matter, stuff, raw material
   RUACH ........ (Hebrew) spirit, breath, wind -- a feminine noun
   EKKLESIA ..... (Greek) assembly, the "called-out" gathering
   NHC .......... Nag Hammadi Codex
   CE ........... Common Era (= AD)

HOW TO USE IT #

Read it straight through once. Then go back and check five citations at random. Open a Bible. Look up the Nag Hammadi texts -- they are in print and freely available in English. When you find that the citations hold, you will understand why this document was written, and why it has to be shared.

Each part stands alone. Copy any part, paste it anywhere, and it still works. Nothing here is copyrighted. Nothing here is for sale.

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