1580s, “believer in a mystical religious doctrine of spiritual knowledge,” from Late Latin Gnosticus “a Gnostic,” from Late Greek Gnōstikos, noun use of adjective gnōstikos “knowing, able to discern, good at knowing,” from gnōstos “known, to be known,” from gignōskein “to learn, to come to know,” from PIE root *gno- “to know.” Applied to various early Christian sects that claimed direct personal knowledge beyond the Gospel or the Church hierarchy; they appeared in the first century A.D., flourished in the second, and were stamped out by the 6th.
Gnosticism (n.)
a prominent heretical movement of the 2nd-century Christian Church, partly of pre-Christian origin. Gnostic doctrine taught that the world was created and ruled by a lesser divinity, the demiurge, and that Christ was an emissary of the remote supreme divine being, esoteric knowledge (gnosis) of whom enabled the redemption of the human spirit.
Gnostics (adj.)
“relating to knowledge,” especially mystical or esoteric knowledge of spiritual things, 1650s, from Greek gnōstikos “knowing, good at knowing, able to discern,” from gnōstos “known, perceived, understood,” earlier gnōtos, from gignōskein “learn to know, come to know, perceive; discern, distinguish; observe, form a judgment,” from PIE *gi-gno-sko-, reduplicated and suffixed form of root *gno- “to know.”
⁃ Etyonline
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Sounds good to me!
Direct personal knowledge sounds like the Spirit of God, speaking personally inside of us.
Can’t be a bad thing, hey?
Perhaps only to those who love the preeminence over others.
Who profess to ‘know’ something that they have learnt from others, dogma, or of doctrines, that they have received second or third hand and not by direct revelation knowledge.
A knowing that you know that you know.
That no one can take away from you; for it is deep within you, forever.
Sounds about right doesn’t it?
But no; certain would tell us, that we cannot trust our own selves, but need to rely on these middle men, who ‘seem’ to know.
Could these be the ones that Jesus spoke to and told them that they were full of shit?
Stamped out?
Books burned!
Libraries sacked!
Free thinkers:
Burned at the stake!
Drawn and quartered!
The flesh peeled off while alive!
Fed alive to wild animals!
And various other unspeakable, despicable acts that so called orthodox self proclaimed believers, did to those, supposedly on the outside of sanctioned ‘religion’; in thought, word and deed; whom they called ‘heretics’ and judged them not worthy of life!
The same, who believe that our God, who is Love and spoke of forgiving our brothers, sisters and our ‘neighbours’, seventy times seven and to love one another even as we love God and ourselves; who, God, then goes ahead and burns his children, his offspring, in a backyard barbecue!
“If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more your Heavenly Father, knows how to give good things to those who love him.” – Jesus
( Are we talking of the same God, as the one in the Old Testament; as in:
“You are of your father the devil, for of his works you do, from the beginning.” – Jesus)
heretic (n.)
“one who holds a doctrine at variance with established or dominant standards,” mid-14c., from Old French eretique (14c., Modern French hérétique), from Church Latin haereticus “of or belonging to a heresy,” as a noun, “a heretic,” from Greek hairetikos “able to choose” (in the New Testament, “heretical”), verbal adjective of hairein “to take” (see heresy).
[T]he heretic is not an unbeliever (far from it) but rather a man who emphasizes some point of doctrine too strongly and obsessively. [Russell Kirk, “T.S. Eliot and his Age”]
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Isn’t this in the reverse by those who proclaim such?
heretic ‘heritik |
noun
a person believing in or practising religious heresy: the Vatican branded Galileo a heretic for saying the Earth revolved around the sun.
• a person holding an opinion at odds with what is generally accepted: she finds herself labelled a heretic when she dares to challenge her society’s beliefs | the new gardening movement will continue to throw up its heretics.
ORIGIN
Middle English: from Old French heretique, via ecclesiastical Latin from Greek hairetikos ‘able to choose’ (in ecclesiastical Greek, ‘heretical’), from haireomai ‘choose’.
To choose
Anyone here heard of ‘free will,’ ‘freedom of choice.’
The freedom to think as you will!
It is the ‘what I say goes;’ crowd, yet again!
To contemplate
To imagine
To intuit
To consider
To think for oneself
To know thyself
WisdomIsWealthThree co 