Gnosticism

Gnosticism teaches that evil lies in the material world and that salvation comes through secret knowledge, not through Christ’s finished work. It rejects the Old Testament, God’s law, and moral responsibility, replacing grace with human insight and autonomy.

Though ancient, Gnosticism lives on today—in modern art, philosophy, theology, and ethics—where immediacy replaces mediation, feelings replace truth, and man replaces God. Against this, Scripture declares a God who speaks, commands, judges, and saves—and who is nearer to us than we are to ourselves.

Heresy today thrives under the banner of “personal choice.” In the name of peace, churches often silence defenders of orthodoxy while tolerating false teaching. Truth is sacrificed to harmony, and those who insist on Scripture are labeled divisive.

Modern culture denies objective truth altogether, treating belief as personal preference rather than submission to God’s revealed Word. This spirit makes heresy normal and orthodoxy suspect. Yet the task remains: to contend for the faith once delivered, even when the age prefers choice over truth.

Heresy originally meant choice—placing personal opinion above God’s revealed truth. Throughout history, heresies have taken many forms, but they share a common root: redefining God, Christ, or salvation to fit human philosophy rather than Scripture.

From ancient Gnosticism and Arianism to modern process theology, heresy consistently undermines revelation, incarnation, and God’s authority. When man reshapes theology, truth erodes. Orthodoxy is not rigidity—it is faithfulness to the God who has spoken.

Modern religion often claims belief in God while rejecting His law. When pastors say Jesus had “no rules,” they replace God’s authority with human preference. A god without law makes no claim on our lives—and therefore changes nothing.

This antinomian faith breeds lawlessness. When obedience is grounded in feelings instead of God’s commandments, man dethrones God and enthrones himself. God is not dethroned in reality—only in man’s imagination. He still reigns, and the call remains: repent and submit to His rule.

All true knowledge begins with God. When man makes himself the final judge of truth—treating nature, reason, or experience as ultimate—knowledge collapses into meaninglessness. Apart from God, facts become brute and irrational, and reason has no foundation.

Scripture is clear: man cannot escape dependence on his Creator. Though he rebels morally, he remains under God’s law and government. Without God there is no knowledge—only confusion; with God, meaning and truth are possible.

Modern man tries to redefine reality to escape God. By making reality equal to human reason, experience, or this physical world alone, God is pushed aside as unnecessary—or silenced altogether. This is autonomy at work: man making himself the measure of all things.

Scripture exposes the flaw. When reality begins with man, God is eventually eliminated. When reality begins with God, truth, meaning, and moral accountability remain intact. Denying God doesn’t change reality—it only distorts how we see it.

Autonomy is man’s ancient sin—the desire to be his own god, defining good and evil by personal standards. In modern life this shows up as art for art’s sake, science for science’s sake, and reason judging all things, all detached from God, law, and accountability.

Scripture exposes autonomy as rebellion. God’s law reveals man’s sin, not to destroy him, but to point him to grace. The real choice is clear: autonomy or theonomy—self-law or God’s law. Autonomy leads to anarchy; only submission to God’s authority leads to truth, order, and life.

Why do revolutions fail—and what kind of authority can truly hold a society together? In this episode, R.J. Rushdoony traces the deep conflict between elitism, equalitarianism, and Biblical authority. From aristocrats to academics, man-made power structures always collapse under sin. Only Christ’s atonement can restore true authority—rooted not in control, but in covenant service. Tune in to discover why regeneration, not revolution, is the only path to real community.