Post by rmcdra on Aug 23, 2014 0:13:39 GMT -5
"And he made a plan with his powers. He sent his angels to the daughters of men, that they might take some of them for themselves and raise offspring for their enjoyment. And at first they did not succeed. When they had no success, they gathered together again and they made a plan together. They created a counterfeit spirit, who resembles the Spirit who had descended, so as to pollute the souls through it. And the angels changed themselves in their likeness into the likeness of their mates (the daughters of men), filling them with the spirit of darkness, which they had mixed for them, and with evil. They brought gold and silver and a gift and copper and iron and metal and all kinds of things. And they steered the people who had followed them into great troubles, by leading them astray with many deceptions. They (the people) became old without having enjoyment. They died, not having found truth and without knowing the God of truth. And thus the whole creation became enslaved forever, from the foundation of the world until now. And they took women and begot children out of the darkness according to the likeness of their spirit. And they closed their hearts, and they hardened themselves through the hardness of the counterfeit spirit until now. – Apocryphon of John
For those who take the Gnostic mythos seriously, you cannot escape dualism. Dualism is fundamental to understanding the texts and Gnostic Christian Spirituality. It is not good versus evil but how spirit and matter are distinct. That matter is a container for spirit; and that matter will eventually perish and die, while the spirit will live on. This analogy works for explaining truth and image. As expressed in the Gospel of Philip, truth comes in images. The truth can only be expressed to us in images but images can be deceptive. What image conveys truth to one person, may not convey truth to another person. A maniac can use an image of something true to convey something that is not true to someone. But images are NOT the truth in and of themselves. This is a trap that we all fall prey to at some point in our life and why understanding dualism can help us avoid this trap. Now what exactly is spirit, you may be asking yourself at this point. Spirit is basically a nonphysical force that moves us to act in a particular way. It is not a disembodied wisp of ether but how we are moved to act. Now that we have a basic understanding of what spirit is, we can now explain the counterfeit spirit and the true spirit.
The counterfeit spirit is the compilation of all the forces that keep us from knowing God. It manifests itself in different ways in our lives. It could be competition; it could be the sexual desire; it could be greed; it could even be the spirit of justice but they all have a common thread. That common thread is they convince you to follow in a way that is opposed to the love and wisdom of God. It is this spirit that tells us that the homeless got what they deserve; that you should “win” by any means necessary even it means cutting your brother’s throat; that we are “God’s nation.” The counterfeit spirit is not new, it has always been around us but it manifests itself in subtle ways and it is always about keeping control and maintaining a particular order. It manifests in response to the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit which is our instructor that tries to wake us up to this illusion.
I have spent a good amount of time talking about the counterfeit spirit so what is the Holy Spirit? Why is the Holy Spirit so frightening to the rulers that a counterfeit spirit has to be created? The Holy Spirit is the spirit of truth. It is the spirit of the perfect union of wisdom and love. As stated in other scripture, it is our instructor that moves us to show the image of the true God. It encourages us to go against the order that is built on a lie. It encourages us to do move in ways that goes against the law when the law is not righteous. It is not vengeance but merciful. It teaches a way that is not of this world. It teaches to be compassionate, merciful and a lover of truth. It brings chaos that eventually brings true peace and rest. It is like the withdrawals an addict, feels before they become clean. They know that it is good for them but their body is telling them to not stop; to not mess up the order. It produces all kinds of ways to convince you to not give it up. This is how the world reacts to the spirit of truth. It does not care about truth or what is good; but for what will keep things the way they are and maintain control. The spirit of truth is about life and freedom, the counterfeit spirit is about death and control.
We are all addicts in this world of forms. We all have our own struggles that we have to overcome to find our life and the light that is within us. We are encouraged to look inward because we have our own unique struggles, so that we do not condemn others that are going through struggles of their own. It is easier to denounce the struggles of others than to denounce our own failings and for a system that is looking to control, all it needs to do is to capitalize on that and that is what the counterfeit spirit hopes to do. If we are ever overcome the virus that is the empire, we need the Holy Spirit. It brings truth that will expose the lies that will free us from our own captors. It always comes from the unlikeliest of places which is why we must remain vigilant. Like Christ, the Spirit does not come to us as a conquering warrior with an army of angels. It does not come as a powerful man with the most advance weaponry. It comes as a little child born in filthy barn. It comes as a child who says “I am not broken because some lady ate an apple.”
Amen.
www.aeonbytegnosticradio.com/2014/08/the-spirit-counterfeit-spirit-by-robert.html
