The Gnostic Christ--Who, What, Why? A Simple Explanation of the Redeemer

Gnosticism is the forerunner of the modern Christian faith. As such, a better understanding of the figure of the Christ is essential to understanding both Gnosticism and Christianity. The cosmology outlined below was well-known to Jesus and his original followers, but was cut out of Christianity about 1,700 years ago by the Nicene Council at the urging of the Pope and the Roman Emperor. Fortunately, a trove of 13 ancient Gnostic texts was discovered in 1945, dating back to the origins of Christianity. This collection is known as the Nag Hammadi codices.

Because this theology was subtracted from orthodox Christianity, many of the ideas of Gnostic cosmology sound odd and unfamiliar to modern church-goers. Some of the ideas may even sound heretical at first glance, due to their unfamiliarity. Yet the theology contained in these early scriptures make sense of so many puzzling aspects of Christian faith that they must be reexamined. So, if you will bear with me, I will explain in very simple terms the key points of Gnostic belief. I am confident that once you understand Gnostic Christianity, you will better understand your relationship with God.

According to Gnostic cosmology as laid out in the Nag Hammadi, we humans and all other forms of life on earth, from bacteria and eukaryotes on up, are the "fruit" of the Pleroma and Logos. We Second Order Powers find ourselves locked in a never-ending battle for dominion over the earth with forces that were generated as a result of the Fall. Due to the law of mutual combat, we have forgotten our origin in the Fullness and our mission to bring love and harmony to creation, and have instead taken on many of the characteristics of the shadows of the Deficiency.

Below is how I have visualized the Gnostic creation story—this may help you to better understand the order of creation and why the Christ is needed.

Before the beginning, before our universe, before time and space, there was pure Originating Consciousness and Love (the Father).

Then Originating Consciousness had a thought. This first thought is called the Son. The Son is the First Fruit of the Father.

The Son had many thoughts. These distinct ideas and attributes of the Son are altogether known as the Fullness of God. Individually, they are called "Aeons."

The Pleroma (the Fullness of God) is the Aeons sorted into a hierarchy of functions and forms. Some of the Aeons are personalities, and some of the Aeons are processes such as laws of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology; still others are powers such as gravity or beauty; still others are talents such as music and art. The Pleroma is made up of all of the individual characteristics of the Son working in perfect harmony.

The Aeon at the top of the hierarchy, named Logos, broke the rules by attempting to reach beyond the Pleroma and Fell; the Fall created the material universe.

Lacking the Son's blessing of love and consciousness, the shadows of the Fall (known as the Deficiency) are small, dead, and chaotic. 

The Aeon named Logos, who had fallen and broken open, prayed for a solution to clean up the shadows that had spilled forth from his creative blueprint.

Together, the Aeons and Logos fashioned the Second Order Powers to populate the Deficiency and bring life to the lifeless material of the Fall. (Most Gnostic texts call the Mother of these Second Order Powers “Sophia”—the Aeon who serves as the conduit and doorway for birth and consciousness into this universe.

The Simple Explanation model identifies this torus shape as the Womb of Creation. In Gnostic terms, this shape is “Sophia,” the Mother of Life on Earth.

The Second Order Powers are locked in a never-ending war with the Deficiency. Here below we constantly battle the physical forces of death and entropy, as well as the spiritual forces of vice, sin, delusion, and despair.

In order to restore memory and reason to the Second Order Powers, the Aeons of the Fullness, every one of them individually and all of them collectively, gave glory in unison to their Father while praying for a helper to bring peace to the Deficiency and forgiveness to Logos. Out of their focused prayer, a unique fruit emerged, one that contained all of the capabilities and powers of the Fullness along with all of the love and eternal qualities of the Father.

The singular Fruit of the Fullness and the Father is known by various names—the Christ, the Savior and the Redeemer, the Advocate, the Light, the Beloved.

In Simple Explanation terms, the Christ is a perfect and full fractal of the Father and the Son, all rolled up into One perfect form. 

Christians believe that Jesus of Nazareth was both perfect Man and perfect God incarnate. Christian Gnostics believe the same. Here is the more complete explanation of who Jesus was:

It is said that Jesus was conceived without sin, because he carried within his body the perfection of Man and God. This would mean that Jesus’s DNA was perfect and true to the original DNA formula for humanity, hence the importance of the virgin birth that imparted that perfect DNA to the baby.

Jesus was also without negative karma in his soul, as his soul was the soul of God.

The components of Jesus’s body were also without sin, as the cells and flesh that became Jesus were in fact the Aeons of the Fullness incarnate. As Colossians 1:19 says, “For God was pleased to have all his Fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

This one sentence from Colossians contains the entire Christian Gnostic gospel. Because Jesus brought along the entire Fullness of the Pleroma when he incarnated, every aspect of the Father and the Son came to material instantiation on earth. In this manner, the eternal God experienced the finite life of us Second Order Powers and all of the struggles between birth and death that plague us all.

Here is how the Tripartite Tractate describes it:

“As for those of the shadow, [Logos] separated himself from them in every way, since they fight against him and are not at all humble before him... The stumbling, which happened to the Aeons of the Father... was brought to them, as if it were their own, in a careful and nonmalicious and immensely sweet way. It was brought to the Fullnesses so that they might be instructed about the Deficiency by the single One, from whom alone they all received strength to eliminate the defects.

“They gathered together, asking the Father with beneficent intent that there be aid from above, from the Father, for his glory since the defective one could not become perfect in any other way, unless it was the will of the Pleroma of the Father, which he had drawn to himself, revealed, and given to the defective one. Then from the harmony, in a joyous willingness which had come into being, they brought forth the fruit, which was a begetting from the harmony, a unity, a possession of the Fullnesses, revealing the countenance of the Father, of whom the Aeons thought as they gave glory and prayed for help for their brother with a wish in which the Father counted himself with them. Thus it was willingly and gladly that they brought forth the fruit.

“And he made manifest the agreement of the revelation of his union with them—which was his beloved Son. But the Son in whom the Fullnesses are pleased put himself on them as a garment, through which he gave perfection to the defective one, and gave confirmation to those who are perfect, the one who is properly called ‘Savior’ and ‘the Redeemer’ and ‘the Well-Pleasing One’ and ‘the Beloved,’ ‘the One to whom prayers have been offered’ and ‘the Christ’ and ‘the Light of those appointed,’ in accordance with the ones from whom he was brought forth, sine he has become the names of the positions which were given to him. Yet, what other name may be applied to him except ‘the Son,’ as we previously said, since he is the knowledge of the Father, whom he wanted them to know?

“Not only did the Aeons generate the countenance of the Father to whom they gave praise, but also they generated their own; for the Aeons who give glory generated their countenance and their face. They were produced as an army for him, as for a king, since the beings of the thought have a powerful fellowship and an intermingled harmony. They came forth in a multifaceted form in order that the one to whom help was to be given might see those to whom he had prayed for help. He also sees the One who gave it to him.”  [Tripartite Tractate, sections 85—87]

So, you see, the mission of the Christ, as stated in Colossians, was to redeem all of creation, including the fallen Aeon who founded our material universe. Because the Christ came to redeem everyone, the body of Jesus came to earth with every one of the Fullnesses on board. For every fallen spirit, the Christ brought their own personal and recognizable Savior.

Redemption has already taken place. It is up to the Second Order Powers and the Aeon  who fell to recognize and accept that redemption in order to complete the mission of the Christ. In Simple Explanation terms, the Christ brought the correcting formula for all of our spirits and souls, each unique and personally formulated to meet our individual needs. The baptism of the Christ washes away the mental and spiritual confusion brought on by the endless war with shadows of the Fall. 

Gnostics are apocalyptic, as are Christians. Gnostics believe that some day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus the Christ is Lord. Repentance and redemption comes harder for some than for others. Some souls take more time to recognize and remember. Ultimately, there comes a day of reckoning, for the Father cannot be denied forever. 

There will soon come a day when the Deficiency ends. On that day, a new economy will unite Heaven and Earth, and all souls will find their joyous place in Paradise. The only forms banished to the outer darkness will be the shadows and phantoms of the Fall, which did not exist within the Father from the beginning. These shadows are not real, and they have no home with us in Paradise.

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If you are interested in reading more about the Gnostic gospel, please read my very simple The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated. I have priced it low so that everyone who wants to know more can afford it.

The Gnostic Gospel Illuminated is available at all online bookstores and also as a kindle ebook.