Posted on 06/28/2006 9:37:50 AM PDT by DeweyCA
The Da Vinci Code's gnosticism is not something that disappeared centuries ago. It survives as the religious substance of today's liberalism and its kindred sects of socialism.
Gnosticism is the belief that intellectual elites have secret knowledge about the structure of human society and about the relationship between humans and the cosmos. These elites are thereby empowered to direct human affairs.
Gnosticism has surfaced repeatedly over the ages, in modern times in the philosophical underpinnings of the 1789 French Revolution.
The Da Vinci Code's depiction of gnosticism as the preserver of the "truth" about Jesus and Christianity falls into the debunking tradition that commenced in 18th century France with attacks by Voltaire and others on the Catholic Church.
Appropriately, American liberalism, a lineal descendant of the gnosticism of the French Revolution, is implicit in Dan Brown's novel. In the Da Vinci Code, a fictional gnostic doctrine preserved knowledge with the power to destroy Christianity. American liberals seek to destroy Christianity in order to create a society of egalitarian perfection.
A characteristic common to all the varieties of gnostic socialism is the belief that human conduct, indeed fundamental human nature, can be manipulated by controlling and changing the the conditions in which people live. This will be found in all of the 19th and 20th century varieties of socialism, from Henri de Saint-Simon and Auguste Comte, to Charles Fourier and Robert Owen, to Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Benito Mussolini, Adolph Hitler, and Franklin Roosevelt.
The corollary is that, in order to restructure society and control the conditions which determine human nature and conduct, it is necessary to get rid of inconveniences like Christianity, personal moral responsibility, and private ownership of property that stand in the way. This is the role played by The Da Vinci Code's debunking.
Eric Voegelin in his 1959 "Science, Politics & Gnosticism" describes the salient characteristics of gnosticism, all of which apply to the doctrines of American liberalism.
First, the gnostic liberal is dissatisfied with the world as he finds it. He rejects the evidence of history that there always will be strife, wars, inequalities in ability and station, and some degree of poverty. And he is confident that he has the knowledge (gnosis) to make things perfect, which he defines as equality in all things.
Second, the gnostic-liberal attributes the problems of human life to poor organization of the economic and political realms. Evil and hardship must therefore arise from some identifiable source (capitalism? ownership of private property?) that deforms the proper structure of society.
Third, the gnostic-liberal has a deep faith that earthly salvation from the world's tribulations is attainable, a trait markedly evident in the theoretical models of Soviet Russia and Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.
Fourth, the gnostic-liberal believes that this salvation is attainable through the process of history (which , of course, he uniquely understands). Auguste Comte's 1820s gnosis was his discovery of the "immutable law of history," according to which there are three ages of human social development, the third stage in the 19th century being the new scientific, socialistic age into which only knowledgeable intellectuals could lead the masses.
The same three-phase philosophy of history reappears in Hegel and Marx. Note that Hitler's National Socialism was consciously called the Third Reich to identify it with the gnostic millennium of earthly harmony and peace.
Note also that the nature of gnosis is that its secret knowledge is available and comprehensible only to a select few. This has always implied in socialism a vulnerability to dictatorial concentration of power in the collectivized state. In Italy and Germany of the 1920s and 1930s it was expressed as the Leader Principle - Il Duce and Der Fuhrer.
Fifth, the gnostic-liberal believes that, having discovered the secret meaning of history, he can implement and control the process of history by political and economic means, i. e., via socialism.
And, finally, the gnostic-liberal's core belief is that salvation, the perfection of social relations and human conduct, is attainable via human action, here on earth. This is the source of Lenin's mystical concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat that would bring peace and harmony to the people and would lead to a gradual withering away of formal government, leaving the Soviet people living in a modern Garden of Eden - from each according to ability, to each according to need.
We see the manifestation of this mystical, gnostic vision every day in liberal politicians' belief that individuals are incapable of fending for themselves, that only the national political state can do the job. There is always something wrong with society and always a politician confident that one more set of regulations or one more welfare-state program will make everything OK.
Gnosticism's message that life really can be made perfect here on earth, I believe, accounts for the mass appeal of Ron Brown's "Da Vinci Code," which is a sort of adult version of Harry Potter wizardry.
People want to believe that a body of secret knowledge will free them from Christianity's stern admonitions to work hard, save for a rainy day, abjure hedonism, and recognize that perfection of human life is impossible in the earthly realm. It's so much easier to eat, drink, be merry, and let the government take care of us.
Thomas E. Brewton is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance, Inc. The New Media Alliance is a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets.
Thomas E. Brewton's weblog is THE VIEW FROM 1776 (www.thomasbrewton.com).
Bump!
They also worship Nature in the abstract, and have an eschatology based on "climate change".
Climate change is the Trojan Horse used to gain access to the controlling levers of the economy.
It's the watermelon strategy - green on the outside, red on the inside.
But, hey, it's a great book report!
Have to say that I agree with everything said here. Arrogance makes the blinders even more limiting in their narrow view of the real world...liberals are nothing short of arrogant.
"Geometry or gnosticism?"
I have always wanted to join them and find out.
There are no Christian liberals?
You mean like Bill and Hillary Clinton?
My only difference with the author is a quibble. Liberals do have, in general, a gnostic worldview. But the only reason they bother with any form of religion is twofold: (1) Deep inside, they are scared of God's Justice and want an explanation of how things work that requires no change in their behavior; and (2) They recognize Christianity as the single biggest barrier to obtaining the power to do as they will. Creeds like gnosticism weaken the Gospel by raising doubt.
Howard Dean was one, yesterday.
LOL!
In one sense, that is correct. The liberal worldview is fundamentally inconsistent with the Christian worldview.
* One is humanist, the other is God centered. Liberals believe that man has the wisdom and power to remake the world and humanity in their own image. In biblical terms they believe they have drunk from the Book of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and have become like God--in other words, their sin is the sin of Adam, which caused the whole mess in the first place. OTOH, the New Testament is pretty clear that the world and humanity will be remade; but that it will happen at the second coming and that God will do the remaking in his image and in his own time. In fact, Paul and others in the New Testament are quite clear that Christ's coming and sacrifice was necessary balance to repair the sin of Adam (which sin was to aspire to the knowledge and power of God, when he ate the apple). So the New Testament specifically rejects the heart of the liberal worldview.
* One wants to throw out all biblical notions of morality (except their twisted reading of "Judge not" and their notion that giving alms to the poor means that Jesus was a socialist). That means no repentance and no forgiveness because none is needed--man creates his own morality. OTOH, The whole point of Christ incarnating was that mankind was irrevocably messed up with sin and that Christ's sacrifice and God's Grace was the necessary propitiation for our sin. But we have to reach out and accept that grace with repentance. God created morality, not man. It is our job to conform ourselves to His holiness as much as we can and where we fall, recognize it and repent. So God's morality, repentence and forgiveness are at the heart of the New Testament.
To be sure, there are people who call themselves Christian and who are liberals. But their 'Christianity' is usually (not always) something very different from what appears in the New Testament. I do not regard them as Christians. As to the remainder, I attribute that to folks who haven't really figured out the implications of the New Testament for their political philosophy. The religion of humanism is potent indeed and leads many Christians astray.
That said, I welcome any man who confesses the resurrected Jesus Christ as his personal savior and believes the Gospel as my brother in Christ, even if he hasn't figured out all the ramifications. I, undoubtedly, have not either.
I should add, it is not only liberalism that is fundamentally inconsistent with Christianity. Liberalism is merely the most successful of the humanist worldviews. Ayn Rand's Objectivism would be another example, but at least she was honest and smart enough to realize that her creed put her in direct opposition to Christianity. Her dishonest cousins on the left have waged a continuous war to change Christianity into a humanist religion so that they can call themselves Christians. In an odd way, it is similar to the struggle in the middle ages to wear the crown of the Holy Roman Emperor. It had little or nothing to do with Christianity. Rather, it had to do with power and legitimacy. The left seeks that crown today for the same reasons.
Da Vinci is SO last month....
Here we go.
So what is a Christian?
It's not what I (or you) say, it's what the Jesus says that matters. People who call themselves Christians but have a flagrant disregard for scripture just because it conflicts with their personal beliefs/philosophies/politics are in a precarious position. Do they really have a real saving faith? Or is it cultural? Convenient? (Inconvenient?).
"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven. Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'" Matthew 7:21-23
Those who profess Christ, but continue in gross sin (adultery, fornication, rape, false witness, murder, ...) and not show repentence, should worry about their eternal souls. (Again, not me speaking.)
When the Republican Party starts to act too much like the Democrat Party, then the Christians will leave to find another party that more accurately reflects their views. Until then Christians are gaining more power within the Republican Party and they should continue to try to push their values as stated in the Bible. It's the Democrats, with their friends in the ACLU, PFAW, NEA, and Americans United, who try to silence conservative Christians on cultural and moral matters. Please explain to me how a committed Christian could vote for the Democrat national agenda.
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