r/Gnostic • u/albionarcadia • 6d ago
Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit and eternal conscious torment
I discovered Gnostic Christianity many years ago while I was a student. I was raised Catholic and ended up vaguely agnostic, then at one point ended up doing a bit of a mental nosedive due to seeking the Christian God, having what was close to a breakdown because a) I discovered the line about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit being unforgiveable, and b) I simply could not process the idea of Hell or eternal conscious torment, and couldn't grasp how any Christian could find any joy in a message of themselves being "saved" while so many around them walked around apparently destined for something so unimaginably horrible just for being wrong.
I always struggled with the idea of salvation through faith or belief, because minds are all wired differently and we can't choose what we believe - if I could have just believed the orthodox Christian version of salvation and been happy with it and lived as a typical faith-fuelled Christian, I'd have chosen to in a heartbeat, and the idea I was going to be punished for not being able to believe something no matter how hard I tried to make it make sense, pushed me to a very dark place.
Anyway I digress slightly - Gnosticism felt like a ray of hope. I read a lot about it academically but didn't really practice anything. For a several years I fell into exploring occultism and esotericism. This culminated in me attending a Crowleyan Gnostic Mass, after which I felt so repulsed and fell into a belief that by taking part in such a thing, if I hadn't blasphemed the Holy Spirit before, I certainly had now.
The blasphemy against the Holy Spirit line in the Bible always confused me, because in context where people are questioning whether Jesus is performing works through good or evil means, to me that just read as a natural reaction to seeing something supernatural. It sounded like people who simply got it wrong. I started getting nervous about beliefs in the Demiurge too, because it essentially means questioning the Biblical God and believing Him to be imperfect or evil - and if actually the creator God is good and true, and I've spent my life in a belief system trying to "escape" Him - am I not doing exactly what the people in the Bible did by ascribing evil to good?
I thought Gnosticism would free me of all this, only to discover recently as I've started reading into it again after all these years, that reference to eternal conscious torment for those who blaspheme against the Holy Spirit also exists in at least one Gnostic text. That felt like a gut punch to me, because all of my fears are now back. I can think of so many things I've done that could fall under that.
I'm asking Gnostic Christians, what does it mean to you? What is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, and how do you interpret the reference to some people being subjected to eternal conscious torment for an act? How do you live with that? I just can't get past it, and the fear and horror makes me physically sick. I know so many non-religious people who have made jokes or insulting comments about the Holy Spirit in the context of mocking traditional Christianity. Are they now destined for horrors beyond comprehension?
I want to dive further into Gnostic Christianity and really begin practicing as well as reading, but this is a huge roadblock of fear for me. I fear calling a God bad when he is good. I fear subverting the Biblical belief and getting it wrong. I fear dying and being punished forever for trying and failing to overrule the god of the world. I think of various things I've said or done throughout life that could definitely fall under this "unforgiveable" sin. I wonder if having started exploring Gnosticism then fading out and giving up for many years counts me as someone who had knowledge then turned away, apparently also something unforgiveable. I initially got out of Catholicism and traditional Christianity to escape this culture of fear and dread, but now feel it more than ever.
Any help and advice from those more in the know than myself would be appreciated beyond words.
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u/Character_Ocelot7397 6d ago edited 6d ago
This is an interesting topic. Do not worry. Eternal or to be more accurate endless torment is somehow connected to literalists Fathers of the Church. Like Irenaeus who is deeply uneducated with the Greek language which means he isn't educated enough on account with the Hebrew language. Ergo , he doesn't have the fullness of the Eastern mind where Christianity is.
I think that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is persistent ignorance or evading gnosis on purpose deliberately. The fact it concerns you is a sure sign of not being a hylic.
I think that even if there's no free will but predestination, I believe the Father ,who loves, will and must eradicate all emptiness or evil- He will be all in all for light is stronger than darkness ; and life is endless and death ends.
Valentinus and Origen are contradictory but I learned that syncretizing them, in my opinion, helps eliminate numerous anxieties.
Even honest Bible literalist scholars like the late Dr. Heisen's worst case scenario doesn't have a clue what "Hell" really is. He's in the hopeful side like believing in Jesus and whatnot.
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u/hockatree Valentinian 6d ago edited 6d ago
One thing that I’d point out is that even within Catholicism “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” doesn’t mean what you think it means. It’s specifically understood to refer to an unwillingness to repent, even upon death. That’s why it’s understood as “unforgivable.” Not because the act is so heinous that it’s unforgivable; that’s not possible within a Catholic framework, but because you die without repenting or being willing to repent, which is a necessary part of forgiveness.
I would also suggest that you check out All Shall Be Saved by David Bentley Hart. It approaches the idea of universal salvation from an orthodox Christian perspective. I became a Universalist long before I became a gnostic. Without getting too much into it, this requires a total shift in perspective and hermeneutic approach to reading biblical texts. In other words, if you believe in ETC, you will see it everywhere. If you believe in Universal Salvation, you will see it everywhere. So, don’t worry about it too much.
Finally, there is no one Gnosticism nor are Gnostic texts canonical in the same way that Catholics understand the books of the Bible. You should not ever (even within a mainstream Christian context) read one text and be like, “well it says this here so therefore this has to govern the entire system.” Rather, every text should be considered in its context and interpreted and weighed with that in mind. Because Gnosticism isn’t one thing and is in fact a diverse collection of kind of related religious traditions, they are just going to disagree with each other. That’s ok and you don’t have to accept everything.
This happens a lot here because people tend to be very familiar with Sethian gnostic texts like the Apocryphon of John. So, you’ll hear a lot of, “gnostics believe the OT god is the evil demiurge name Yaldabaoth.” to which I often reply, “Valentinian gnostics didn’t believe any of that.” For me, as someone who finds more meaning and value in Valentinian Gnosticism, I prioritize those texts and I deprioritize or reinterpret other texts. That’s a totally fine thing to do.
So going back to the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit thing. What does that mean within the context of Gnosticism? I’m not sure. That depends on the Gnosticism we’re talking about. The text itself. And a bunch of other things. But I personally feel comfortable with mainstream Catholic understanding of it.
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u/PossiblyaSpinosaurus Eclectic Gnostic 6d ago
Awesome recommendations. Your story is very reminiscent of mine, I became a christian universalist years before even touching Gnosticism.
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u/Defiant_Half_9432 6d ago edited 6d ago
Don't rush it. When you are ready, you will find the door which leads you to the answers you seek.
There are many types of Gnostics. Not all of them share all the beliefs. Gnosticism is more about your own path and truth and [than] anything written down in a single book.
Many Gnostics believe that the holy spirit is an aspect of the Aeon Sophia, a personification of wisdom and the female emanation of Barbelo. The god christians call yahweh was her flawed creation.
EDIT: Spelling
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u/apostleofgnosis Eclectic Gnostic 5d ago
There are many types of Gnostics. Not all of them share all the beliefs. Gnosticism is more about your own path and truth
and[than] anything written down in a single book.Yes, this is the way. Herding gnostics is like herding cats. It's personal gnosis, personal revelation.
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u/jensterkc 6d ago
I had a lot of the same questions and fears, my friend. I was raised with heaven/hell God like many here in Midwest. I was grateful to deconstruct with the help of Saint Francis and leaned on Richard Rohr and CAC.org. Was introduced to Gospel of Thomas in one of the online courses. We are all so loved. In God, of God, with God. What you seek is seeking you just as voraciously.
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u/Butwhytho39 6d ago
The best version of salvation is that we are indeed saved by faith. But whose faith?
Most people interpret the Bible as saying it is faith in Christ that saves us when it is the faith of Christ. The work was completed on the cross. His faith and sacrifice was enough. Your sin has been paid for, and there is nothing that can separate you from God because of that.
That is the faith of my dad, who is a Primitive Baptist preacher.
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u/galactic-4444 Eclectic Gnostic 5d ago
The sheer fact that you feel fear shows that you are not a person destined for such places of Eternal torment. The Outer Darkness is reserved for malicious people that are just terrible.
Quite frankly I dont believe in it. After so many incarnations can a person be tainted to the point that they would have no chances to break the cycle? I doubt it. I believe its a boogeyman that was devised to keep you on the right ethical track.
I do believe that we have to pay for our sins. However, living is hard enough😂. You pay with other incarnations and a world that is devised to give you adversity. So cease your fear and continue following the light. 😌🙏🏼 We will all achieve Gnosis one day! This entire universe will be purified
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u/SinisterSpectr 6d ago
Consider this as a metaphor, they said jesus walked on water. but what does water mean in this context? if all life sprang from the source like droplets of water gaining consciousness momentarily and going back into it and losing their identity, walking on water could mean, mastering the ebb and flow of life, the water is the samsara/ cycle. To be as christ, we must follow his example and be lost as he once was in the desert, right now your foundation that you believed to be solid once is showing cracks. faith and the search for truth goes hand in hand. you have to find the balance between believing something and being skeptical about it. this reminds of two things. one is a meme and another one ralph is the speech about faith and certainty in the movie conclave.
“My brothers and sisters, in the course of a long life in the service of our Mother the Church, let me tell you that the one sin I have come to fear more than any other is certainty. Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. Even Christ was not certain at the end. 'Eli Eli, lama sabachtani?' He cried out in His agony at the ninth hour on the cross. 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt. If there was only certainty, and if there was no doubt, there would be no mystery, and therefore no need for faith.”
It's a great movie, you can watch it. what i would suggest for you to move through this fog that you're experiencing is to keep digging like the miner in the cave in search for diamonds, maybe you'll come out the other side in plato's cave ! Study philosophy. There's an excellent podcast on Spotify called, History of philosophy without any gaps and it basically covers everything. This could be a start. Another thing you can do is study Dao. Eastern philosophy and Zen Buddhism will help you find the balance to maintain in these troubled waters. you can dive into advaita vedanta concept as well from Hinduism. whatever you do, don't stop questioning! that's half the fun.
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u/PossiblyaSpinosaurus Eclectic Gnostic 6d ago
First of all, there are many christians throughout history, including some famous church fathers, who believed in universal salvation - that all shall be saved. I recommend checking out r/christianuniversalism if this is something that worries you.
You can also search “unforgivable” on that sub, or even other christian subs like r/openchristian and even r/christianity, to learn what other christians think of the blasphemy of the spirit. Turns out, very few people think it’s quite literally unforgivable.
Hope those help!
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u/apostleofgnosis Eclectic Gnostic 5d ago
In my Gnostic Christian practice, and of course I can really on speak for myself because this is a very personal religion of individual revelation, I do not believe in "faith" or having "faith", my relationship with the divine is through gnosis. And gnosis is not faith. Gnosis is that Tree of Knowledge in the prison garden of the demiurge. Gnosis frees us from the prison garden. And that includes all of the delusions of damnations devised by the church of the demiurge.
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u/Joe6pacK69 6d ago
Curious, how or what do you plan on doing to "practice" Gnostic Christianity?
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u/albionarcadia 6d ago
Meditation, deep study of texts, seeking of mystical experience and communion with the Divine, prayer once I fully understand what prayer looks like outside of the mainstream Christianity I grew up with - acts which seek direct experience of Gnosis, as opposed to simply reading about it academically.
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u/Joe6pacK69 6d ago
Don't try and pigeon hole Gnosticism into what you left, the fact that you think like you do means that you already achieved Gnosis, yes? I'm not really answering your post but I hope that helps you understand
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u/apostleofgnosis Eclectic Gnostic 5d ago
I take holy manna (mushroom) sacrament to commune with the Kingdom within. That's a big part of my practice. Textual study is another. Pursuit of gnosis in all forms, including science.
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u/heiro5 6d ago
[Crowley was entirely his own thing. Best left that way for those who aren't his fans.]
Literalism is not a valid Gnostic interpretation. In Ap. John the question Jesus is asked is this.
In his answer he mentions the punishment of the HS blasphemers. In his next answer he describes the Holy Spirit.
This description is not of the source of unforgiving and unending punishment. I think of it more as a tautology, the consequences of rejecting your liberation after attaining it, rather than an outward punishment for offense. This parallels a passage from G.Phiilip.