In the face of Gnosticism, which so spiritualized God into an abstract Deity detached from the world, John strongly presented the Christian doctrine of the God who created and is very much present in the world He created. John seems to go to great lengths to emphasize the pre-existence of and the real humanity of Jesus Christ. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touchedthis we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. 1 John 1:1-4.
James Holden notes in The Johnannine Epistles that John makes a series of references to the Last Days, the Day of Judgement, and the coming resurrection of the believer, which are all anti-Gnostic in tendency and are at the center of his mind and a prime reason for the urgency of his attack on the heretics. The emergence of false teaching was such a desperate threat that it ignited a furious Christian conviction. The Johannine Epistles seem to be part of an intentional campaign to halt those who would depreciate the Johannine tradition of Christian teaching through Gnosticism. The defense of the reality of the human Jesus as the way to God and the nature of the moral struggle were two causes which were absolutely critical to defend. It was also crucial to insist, as John did, that the two could in no way be separated. The negative assertion of the Epistles clearly shows that the heretics claim to belong to the Christian congregation were unjustified. John rigidly opposes the Gnostics who were within the Christian community and claimed to represent the genuine Christian faith. The Johnannine Epistles strikes at the core of the Gnostic system that denied God as world creator and rejected, as Bultmann so adequately put it, the Christian idea of revelation namely, the paradox that a historical event (or historical form) in the eschatological event (or form) is grounded in the historical fact that Jesus Christ has come. The Gnosticizing false teachers deny precisely that Jesus has come in the flesh. No one can read Johns Epistles and not feel his hard blows against the Gnostic idea that certain conditions have to be met in order for man to be able to come to the knowledge of God and subsequently, procure a direct vision. John does not bite his tongue in succinctly pointing out that knowledge of God is not a theoretical or speculative knowledge, but is rather a relationship with God, in which the one knowing is validated in his existence (and conduct) by God. In summary, the Johannine Epistles boldly attacks the heretical teachings that were agitating the young Christian communities. Such doctrines not only undercut the foundations of the churchs inherited witness from the apostles, but it also dissolved the traditional ties with Jewish faith in a Creator God. John wanted to arrest the Gnostic persuasion by strengthening the authority of Christianity and safeguard the church against the insidious dangers of heresy. NOTE: The intent of this article, Gnosticism and the Johannine Literature - Part 1 & 2, is to give a brief overview of the Johnannine Epistles response to Gnosticism. It is limited in scope and severely deficient in addressing the vast content found in Johns Epistles relating to Gnosticism. REFERENCES:
Walter Nigg, The Heretics.
Werner Foerster, Gnosis.
Elaine Pagels, The Gnostic Gospels.
James Holden, The Johannine Epistles.
Rudolf Bultmann, The Johannine Epistles. RECOMMENDED READING: The New Gnosticism
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