“”Gnosticism” actually is capable of a specific enough meaning to be useful,  and was useful in the first few centuries of the church.  As the Greek term gnosis implies, it describes any salvation from a cognitive secret. “Before you knew this thing x,  you were lost, but now that you have received the secret,  you are “saved”.”

Almost every religion and quasi-religion other than NT Christianity is gnostic; they all start with the common assumption that we need to know something else.  It is a variation of the snake’s seduction of Eve in the garden; “you just need to know one more thing, then you will see through the illusion”.   Many strains of Christianity have fallen victim to this perennial deviltry.

Paul, in stark contrast with all that was around him, argued vehemently and often that salvation is NOT by gnosis, but by fide — trust in a Person, and not a thimbleful more knowledge or even cognitive awareness to help you get to that moment of saving submission.  It was salvation by faith that was the revolutionary assertion, and Paul was the revolutionary.

Of course, AFTER faith does come cognitive change (cf the Latin formula fide quaerens credum and pardon my dashed off Latin), EVEN mystical experience, which is never sought and never promised to newborns but is often given by grace. So the gospel always says believe in the good news, THEN add to your faith knowledge and virtues, but the gnosticism which is the world’s multifaceted religion says “learn one more thing” or “do this one thing and you will be illumined”.

It is actually a form of rebellion against the gospel. The soul cries out it has not heard enough to yet believe, the soul protests that it knows that it needs one more thing even though the gospel may say “you have heard the good news, now decide.”

Because, after all, you can be cognitively “illumined” and stay right where you are. You can grasp a secret long dark to you and still be in the same static place you were when you were ignorant. But only Jesus demands that you, by trusting, existentially MOVE, and follow Him. And you can be as ignorant as you were yesterday but in faith be walking behind Him and be saved.

Every religious system that looks for an enlightenment is gnostic. The gospel is unremittingly hostile to all these religious forms, because they do not sufficiently strip the soul of all that keeps it on the wrong side of the eye of the needle, the gate of the kingdom, the moment of trust.

We’ve become more sophisticated in our gnosticism; we would laugh at anyone who asked us to go down into a pit at midnight and have bull’s blood poured over us as we say the secret incantation. But we will stop in Wal-Mart and pick up a book that says “The 5 keys to happiness”. The check out aisles in stores, the click-bait ads online, all are filled with headlines whose premise is that your life is not right until you come to know this one more thing. Pop culture is brimming full of gnosticisms. It is more widespread and more accepted now than ever.

Even most sermons in church, when they mention the “gnosticism” of the NT era, don’t seemn to grasp that it’s not a single set of beliefs that we need to be careful of; rather, it is the culture we swim in. And has always been the case, for two thousand years.

The good new is there is nothing else for you to know.