“In Our Image”

The science of reinventing God

A city man took a winter vacation in an isolated rural area. After a few days of pure peace
and quiet, though, he started to get restless.

"What do you do for fun and excitement here?" he asked one of the locals.

"We go down to the lake and watch the moose dance on the ice," was the reply. "It's
delightful."

The city fellow didn't think too much of that idea, but after another night of watching the
wallpaper, he decided it was better than nothing. So that evening he went down to the
lake. The next day he saw the local man who had recommended the trip. "I went down to
the lake last night to watch the moose dance on the ice," the city man said. "It was the
worst thing I ever saw. Those animals were so clumsy and uncoordinated, they were
falling all over themselves."

"Well of course they were," snorted the local. "Nobody goes to the lake on Wednesday.
That's amateur night." - Rev. Lowell's Treasury of Humor: He Who Laughs, Lasts
Bardon Data Systems (510) 526-8470

To be honest with you, as I handle this book tonight I feel like an amateur myself. I hope
that I’m not clumsy and falling all over myself, because what I want to share with you this
evening is so important and it’s critical that I get it right.

So, open your Bibles with me to 1 John chapter 1. (Read entire chapter)

Over at Fortitude Holiness Tabernacle, Dexter Rice, the Sunday School teacher, was telling
his class the story of the Prodigal Son. Wishing to emphasize the resentful attitude of the
elder brother, he laid stress on this part of the parable.

After describing the rejoicing of the household over the return of the wayward son, Dexter
spoke of one who, in the midst of the festivities, failed to share in the jubilant spirit of the
occasion. "Can anybody in the class," he asked, "tell me who this was?"

Nine year old Olivia Crombie had been listening sympathetically to the story. She waved
her hand in the air. "I know!" she said beamingly. "It was the fatted calf." Rev. Lowell's Treasury of
Humor: He Who Laughs, Lasts Bardon Data Systems (510) 526-8470

You know, it truly is amazing what we sometimes come up with when we misunderstand
what we read and the intent of the author in his writings.
Such is the case with 1 John. Most of us have been conditioned over the years to regard
this book as a church letter. In fact, we call it an ‘epistle’, which means, ‘letter’. But if you
read 1 John you find that it isn’t a letter at all. In fact, it has no greeting, and lacks the
proper closing to be categorized as a letter.

It is believed by some to be more of a treatise than a letter. And a careful examination of it

The answer isn’t obvious in the text, but it is in essence for the very same reason that Jude
wrote in his book in verse 3 “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the
common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you that ye should earnestly
contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”

Jude said, “I really wanted to write to you about something else, but this matter is so
urgent and so pressing that I have to write about it instead!”

And this is the same reason John wrote the Treatise we call 1 John. Heresy was alive and
well in the church. Blasphemous teachings that were rooted in Roman religion, philosophy
and culture were infiltrating and infecting the church.

And the primary danger was Gnosticism. 1 John was written as a defense against the
spreading Gnosticism in the church.

Gnosticism is the system of belief based on gnosis – or mystical knowledge. It is the very
word that Paul used when he warned of this false religious system in I Timothy 6:20-21,
“O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain
babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred
concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.”

The word translated ‘science’ is the Greek word ‘gnosis’ which literally means ‘knowing’,
or ‘knowledge’.

Gnosticism was a subtle enemy of the faith, creeping into the church under the premise
that there was secret knowledge to be obtained, that the faith is shrouded in mystery. In
early NT church there were two main lines of Gnosticism:

Stoicism taught that men should be free from all passion, unmoved by either joy or grief,
and submissive to natural law. Stoics practiced rigidity and harsh self-discipline.
Epicureanism taught that pleasure, rather than truth, was and is the purpose of life. At
first, the Epicureans sought pleasure through intellectualism, but as this system of thought
developed it took its inevitable course to the belief that a person must aggressively satisfy
the desires of the flesh as the only way of removing those desires.

J Vernon McGhee writes, “There were all shades and differences between the two
extremes of Stoicism and Epicureanism, but all of them denied the Messiahship of Jesus.

But, over time these doctrines began to infiltrate the church and corrupt the pure doctrine
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And as they did, two doctrines emerged: Docetic Gnosticism
and Cerinthetic Gnosticism.

Docetic Gnosticism taught that all matter is evil, therefore the incarnation of God was
impossible. God could not possibly unite Himself with anything evil such as a body. They
taught that Jesus only seemed to have a body. They believed that when Jesus walked, He
left no footprints.

Cerinthetic Gnosticism was far more subtle. Cerinthius taught that there were really two
Jesus’ – a human Jesus, and a divine Jesus. He taught that Jesus divinity entered Him at
His baptism and left Him before He died on the cross.

Both forms of Gnosticism had been blended with Christianity, twisting and perverting the
truth; one teaching that Jesus could not have been human, and the other teaching that he
could not have been God, but only endowed with divinity for a time.

Both attacked the very core beliefs of Christianity by denying the true nature of Jesus
Christ.

And it was within this framework that John wrote this book. He wrote it to defend the truth
and to refute the heresy that was invading the Church. And that is what we must know as
we read it. Consider how much more it makes sense that John would write these words in
chapter 4:2-3 “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have
heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.”

Now we understand that John was writing to refute the teaching of the Gnostics who
neither believed that Jesus was God Almighty, or that God could ever become human. John
calls them anti-Christ.

John is a soldier using the pen to combat the heresies of Gnosticism, or, as Paul calls it,
“science falsely so called.”
Maybe you’re feeling a bit dry right now and wondering what this has to do with the Super
Bowl… I mean your life. (Ha Ha)

The truth is – everything; because Gnosticism is not dead. It is not a religious belief of the
past - it is alive and well today!

We see it in the New Age Movement which had grown rapidly since the 1980’s. New age
belief is that there is a Christ spirit that has rested upon certain individuals down through
the ages, including Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, and Jesus. But there is another
‘Christ’ yet to come who will be greater than all of them and will usher in a New Age.

We see forms of it in cults such as Jehovah’s Witnesses, who believe that they hold the
mysteries of truth in the Watchtower. They teach that Jesus was not THE ONLY
BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD; and that HE IS NOT AS THE FATHER, and that He did not
physically rise from the dead.

Mormons believe that an angel Moroni delivered the book of Mormon in golden plates to
Joseph Smith, who they claim is the greatest prophet to ever live. They give the Book of
Mormon greater credence than the Bible, and they believe that they hold the special
mysteries of God that the rest of us do not have.

Islam was born of the musings of Mohammed in a desert cave, supposedly revealed by the
angel Gabriel. It teaches that Jesus was only a prophet of God, and that he wasn’t really
crucified, but was spirited away and someone else died in His place.

My point is that every religion outside of Christianity is based on Gnosis – a secret and
mysterious knowledge that was supposedly revealed outside of the truths of this book.
And every single one of them denies the deity of Jesus Christ, as taught in this book.

Gnosticism is alive and well today, and it is working hard to infiltrate the Church. More
and more who could once be called faithful to the truths are capitulating to Gnosticism.
Calling themselves Christian, they deny the central truths of the Gospel- the virgin birth,
the deity and sinlessness of Jesus, and His exclusive claims to salvation.

Oh, but listen, don’t think that Gnosticism is a new thing, or even a thing 2,000 years old.
In fact, it is a religion as old as the world itself.

Do you remember the conversation Eve and the Serpent had in the Garden?

Genesis chapter 3… The Serpent whispered in her ear, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not
eat of every tree of the garden?” And the woman said unto the serpent, “We may eat of the
fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” And the
serpent said unto the woman, “Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day
ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil.”

Satan promised gnosis. He tricked the woman into believing that there was some
mysterious, knowledge in that fruit that would make her a GOD; and she would know
(Hebrew - yada) good and evil.

And she bought the lie of Gnosticism. And you know what, we’ve been buying it ever
since. We hunger to know more. We say “knowledge is power!” and we teach our children
that the key to life success is education and knowledge.

But the Bible says in Psalm 111:10 that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom”

Proverbs 1:7 says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge:”

And Proverbs 15:33 says, “The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom”

At its heart, Gnosticism denies the wisdom of God and the knowledge of the Holy and the
fear of the Lord, and replaces the God of the Bible with the God of knowledge. And in this
idolatrous move, it seeks to remove God from His throne and replace Him with a God
made in our own image.

And this is what John fights in chapter one of 1 John. He writes to destroy the idol gods
that Gnosticism tries to sell to the church. The first idol is the “god like us”

Notice verse 6. “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie,
and do not the truth:”

The Epicureans satisfied the lust of the flesh, believing that pleasure was their primary
pursuit and that godliness was obtained in this mystic spirituality that really had nothing to
do with how a person lived morally. They created for themselves a “god like us”.

They said, “We can do what we want to. It’s not sin. We are in fellowship with God!”
They remind me of the photo I saw recently of a homosexual activist demonstration
outside of a church which was hosting a Love Won Out conference, designed to help
lesbians and gays break from the homosexual lifestyle. In the photo, there was a woman
holding a sign that said, “I love God AND my girlfriend”

We may wonder how in the world anyone can think that they can be Christian – a believer
in the God of the Bible, and claim to have fellowship with God. Well, they can’t! So they
change God into a “god like us”. They bring God down to our level. They manufacture a
god who will not judge their sin, but accept them as they are, with their evil behavior
intact.

But John says, if you say that you are in fellowship with the true God – the God of the
Bible – and you live a lifestyle that this book teaches is sinful, you are lying and not living
in the truth.

ROUND 1 – The Apostle John!

The second heresy that John deals with is the “I am like God” belief. Notice verse 8, “If
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

In this verse John lays waste the second blasphemy – the teaching that there is no sin,
therefore, I am not a sinner. In this belief system, the Gnostics were elevating man to the
level of godhood.

Once again, this is a very present problem today. We read of Shirley McLaine and her
writings on the god within. We’ve heard of this infectious waste even in Christian circles
with one TV minister quoted as saying, You don’t have a god in you, you are one!”

The belief that there is really no such thing as sin is not some unique doctrine held by a
fringe group. It is THE core belief of every form of philosophy in America. It is the pillar
of our social and educational systems that tell have designed what are children are taught
around the premise that they are basically good and only need education to make them
shining successes.

Sin is a byword, a throwback to the dark ages. No one sins anymore because there is no
more sin. There are only mistakes and diseases and disorders.

I once read about a man who had a nagging secret that he couldn't keep any longer. He
went to confession and there admitted to the priest that for years he had been stealing
building supplies from the lumberyard where he worked.

"What did you take?" his parish priest asked.

"Enough to build my own home and enough for my son's house. And houses for our two
daughters. And our cottage at the lake."

"This is very serious," the priest said. "I shall have to think of a far-reaching penance.
Have you ever done a retreat?"
"No, Father, I haven't," the man replied. "But if you can get the plans, I can get the
lumber."

And that, my friends, is the influence that Gnosticism is having over our society and our
churches. By removing the enormity of sin Gnosticism has tried to bring God down and
lift man up.

Don’t believe me? Then I challenge you to turn on your TV and listen to the sermons of
some of the TV preachers. Take a pencil and paper and count the number of sermons on
sin and judgment, and count the number of times the preacher talks about sin. Then
compare that to how much is preached on the myriad of other subjects that have nothing to
do with sin or judgment or righteous living. See if I am telling the truth.

Listen, Gnosticism influences you too! Don’t think it doesn’t! Has your heart ever been
filled with pride? Have you ever denied the evil of the bad things you thought or did?
Have you ever denied that they were really sin? Have you ever, by rationalizing, debating,
or arguing with God, in effect, brought Him down to your level?

It’s said that Golfer Tommy Bolt had a terrible temper. Once, after missing six straight
putts, generally leaving them teetering on the very edge of the cup, Bolt shook his fist at
the heavens and shouted, "Why don't you come down and fight like a man!"

Tommy Bolt played the fool to think that God is like a man. But God is not like us.

Numbers 23:19 warns us, “God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man,
that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he
not make it good?”

Mankind can deny that he has sin. He can lift himself up and hope to reach as high as the
heavens to sit where God dwells; but he will only be a cheap, Johnny-come-lately imitator
of the one who already failed in that endeavor and who was cast out of the heavens with a
third of the angels who followed.

John says, if you say you have no sin, you are only deceiving yourself. In verse 10 he says,
If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. To the
Gnostics John writes, “You are not like God, and you never will be, and you are guilty of
the worst form of deception and blasphemy because your attempts to declare your own
innocence are only blinding you.” “God knows the truth about you – and by the way, so
does your wife, your kids, your boss, and your neighbor. Mr. Sinless – you are not!”

ROUND 2! – JOHN!
CONCLUSION
In two verses John has knocked the legs from underneath Gnosticism. But he doesn’t
leave it there. You see, God is love, and it wouldn’t be the loving thing to do to simply
destroy the false hopes of the Gnostic. So, John, filled with the Love of Christ, even for the
enemies of the cross, writes about the one true way that man can have fellowship with
God- the one true way that man can actually ascend up to the heavens and dwell with God
–the one true way that man can achieve sinless perfection. He writes in verse 9 – “If we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.”

The path to the presence of God – the road to godliness – the highway to holiness and
perfection in eternity is not through Gnosis. It can never be found in secret, mysterious
revelations, or in expanding one’s mind. It will not be achieved through declaring
ourselves to be like God, or declaring God to be like us.

It’s time we refused the believe lie of Satan that our first mother believed, and receive
instead the Truth – Jesus Christ, the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIFE. It’s time we
followed God’s path to enlightenment and righteousness.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and (through JESUS
CHRIST whom he has already declared in verses 1-3) cleanse us from all unrighteousness!