Charismatic Gnosticism

According to Charismatics, praying in tongues (gibberish) is one of the primary tools God has given to the Spirit-baptized believer to quiet, disengage, bypass and neutralize temporarily the rational and logical mind. Regular and repetitive tongue-speaking or tongue-praying is a means of attaining a higher spiritual state, and a hidden, and esoteric knowledge of divine mysteries which transcends, and sometimes contradicts man’s rational mind (Laurence Christenson, Speaking in Tongues and its Significance for the Church, pp. 26-27, 73, 76, 81, 116).

Many of those who engage in praying in tongues often describe their experience as being “higher,” “spiritually transcending,” and “mystical.”

What this all points to is a resurrection of the first century heresy called, “Gnosticism.”  

Gnosticism was perhaps the most dangerous heresy that threatened the early church during the first three centuries. Influenced by such philosophers as Plato, Gnosticism is based on two false premises. First, it espouses a dualism regarding spirit and matter. Gnostics assert that matter is inherently evil and spirit is good. As a result of this belief, Gnostics believe anything done in the body, even the grossest sin, has no meaning because real life exists in the spirit realm only.  Since the mind is housed in the brain which is comprised of organic matter, it is to be avoided and bypassed in order to experience a higher spiritual state.

Second, Gnostics claim to possess an elevated knowledge, a “higher truth” known only to a certain few. Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis which means “to know.” Gnostics claim to possess a higher knowledge, not from the Bible, but acquired on some mystical higher plain of existence. Gnostics see themselves as a privileged class elevated above everybody else by their higher, deeper knowledge of God.

Gnosticism is based on a mystical, intuitive, subjective, inward, emotional approach to truth which is not new at all.

In reality, Gnosticism is very old going all the way back to the time of Adam and Eve. It was there that Satan questioned God and the words He spoke and convinced Adam and Eve to reject them and accept a lie. He does the same thing today.

He still calls God and the Bible into question and catches in his web those who are either naïve and scripturally uninformed or who are seeking some personal revelation to make them feel special, unique, and superior to others.

Lesson:  The heresies of the present are essentially the heresies of the past only slightly changed so as to catch the unsuspecting by surprise.  

The devil is up using his old bag of tools to weaken the church in her relationship to Christ. Christians become vulnerable when they believe that the Bible and Jesus both are not sufficient for them to fully trust.

The offer to try something experiential, which was the offer Satan made to Eve still holds a strong attraction to many in the church.