Introduction
A growing trend in the world of Christianity, I have personally noticed, is the rise of “Demiurgism” or “Yaldabaothism”, as understood by the sects of Gnosticsm.
For those unfamiliar, “Gnosticism” is a term which was applied to a group of early Christian sects in the 1st-2nd centuries A.D, who made various claims about God, Yeshua and the scriptures. The term “Gnostic” comes from the Greek word “gnosis”, which means “knowledge”.
The Gnostics came in various forms, but what they all had in common, was the idea of “secret knowledge” or “secret wisdom” encoded in the texts, which only they could attain from scripture by means of self-attainment and enlightenment.
Gnostic beliefs ranged from Yeshua not coming in the flesh, but was only pretending to be a man – a belief known as “docetism” (a doctrine Apostle John himself condemned in his letters), that Yeshua did not die for our sins but instead came to teach us secret esoteric knowledge to escape our bodies or become all powerful Gods, and many other strange and wild teachings contradicting the Gospel as we know it.
The specific doctrine of Gnosticism I will be addressing in this article is “Demiurgism” or “Yaldabaothism”, which was promoted by groups such as the followers of Simon Magus (the Sorcerer) in the late 1st Century and their offshoot sects under teachers such as Cerinthus, Valentinus and Marcion in the 2nd Century, again by the Cathars in the Middle Ages, and once more in the 21st century via the very popular 2006 hit movie; “The Da Vinci Code”.
What is Demiurgism?
The phrase “Demiurge”, originates from Greek myth and religion, and is understood to be a figure who acts as a creator god, or as an artisan god of the physical Universe, but was not seen as the “only True God”, for of course the Greeks were polytheists.
The phrase was later adopted by some later Second Temple period Greek-Jews and early Greek-Christians, to describe the “Word of God”, as the “lesser god” or “agent” who had a hand in the creation of the Universe, as per their ancient understanding of the “Two Powers of Heaven” and various scriptures such as Proverbs 8, John 1:1-3 and Colossians 1:15.
Early 1st Century famous (or infamous) Greek-Jewish philosopher and theologian, Philo of Alexandria, held to a form of this concept and was one of earliest innovators of merging this Greek concept with pre-existing Hebrew theology on the “Second Power”.
However, certain groups of Gnostics and other Christian groups such as the Marcionites, during the late 1st Century and following, believed that the “Demiurge” was evil, and had nothing to do with the will of the “True God” of Heaven.
This form of Gnostic belief asserts that the physical world is evil, and that Yeshua, who was sent by the True God, came to teach us how to “escape the body” and take on a spiritual existence to be free of the “evil material world”, a belief system very akin to Buddhism and Hinduism.
These Gnostics believed that the God of the Old Testament, YHWH, and the True God of the New Testament, were two different individuals. They believed that the god who created the physical universe, Yah, was actually the “Greek Demiurge” and some asserted that his true name was “Yaldabaoth”, and some believers of these sects even thought Satan, Yah, Yaldabaoth, and this “Demiurge”, were all the same individual.
Resurgence in Modern Times
Whilst these belief systems were swiftly repelled by the majority of early Christians, beginning with Apostle John, and with other Christian figures in the 1st-2nd centuries, such as Ignatius, Irenaeus and Tertullian… During the last couple of years or so, I have noticed a resurgence of this school of thought amongst various groups of Christians across the internet, and of course, I find it both curious, yet disturbing.
These Christians can often be seen on various internet forums, chat rooms, comment sections, content channels, and so on, promoting their ideas to the masses, and to one another, presenting themselves to be holders of “hidden truths”. Such videos have gained hundreds of thousands, if not millions of views.
By pointing out the historical corruption and crimes of the ancient Catholic Church, many today try to claim that the the supression of the Gnostic teachings and scriptures are just yet more “Catholic crimes” and “supression of true Apostolic doctrine”.
Often, many use shock tactics, such as WRITING IN ALL CAPS, videos and articles labelled; “THE TRUE GOSPEL YOU’VE NEVER SEEN BEFORE!”, “WHAT THE CHURCH HAS HIDDEN FROM CHRISTIANS” or typing messages with clusters of emoticons (emojis) of shocked faces; “YAHWEH IS SATAN, READ THIS SCRIPTURE, WHO ARE ‘YOU’ WORSHIPPING!!!??? 😮 😮 😮 “.
This behaviour can be attributed to many things, be that ignorance, mob mentality, mental instability, genuine fear, overzealousness, or even purposeful deception and scare tactics which are aimed to frighten or frustrate the reader, and as a result dims their critical thinking ability. Sadly, as a result, many genuine Christians are pulled into it, and the disease spreads.
This frenzy catches the spiritually unaware, uncritically thinking, or Biblically uneducated, and drags them into a rushing river of falsehood, before they even know what happened or how they got there.
How is this Doctrine Attained?
Whilst these ideas are seen by most Christians as wild and outlandish, those who subscribe to these ideas do so with great vigour, and assert their ideas as “the only truth”, “divine of origin”, and the “only way to salvation”, sometimes to a disturbingly obsessive or cult-like degree, and claim that scripture supports them.
The doctrine is attained by those who would promote it, by means of these scriptures in the Bible:
- “And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form”. – John 5:37
- “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is the only begotten god, and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known”. – John 1:18
- “…and they saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was a work like a pavement made of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself”. – Exodus 24:10
- “Thus YHWH would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend”. – Exodus 33:11
- Then Satan stood up against Israel and incited David to number Israel. So David said to Joʹab and the chiefs of the people: “Go, count Israel from Beersheba to Dan; then report to me so that I may know their number.” – 1 Chronicles 21:1, 2
- The anger of YHWH again blazed against Israel when he incited David against them, saying: “Go, take a count of Israel and Judah.” – 2 Samuel 24:1
- “So Satan went out from the presence of YHWH and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head” – Job 2:7
- All his brothers and sisters and all his former friends came to him and ate a meal with him in his house. They sympathized with him and comforted him over all the calamity that YHWH had brought upon him. Each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring. – Job 42:11
- “I’m the One who prepared both the light and the darkness. I’m the One who created peace and evil“. – Isaiah 45:7
- “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all“. – 1 John 1:5
Through this collection of scriptures, and similar ones, people assert that because “nobody has seen God” and the prophets of the Old Testament claimed to see God “face to face”, that either the Bible contradicts itself, or it must have been a “different God”.
They will also often target scriptures which appear to identify Satan and YHWH doing the same actions, such as the incitement against David.
And another tactic is pointing out supposed contradictions between the Old and New Testaments when it comes to describing God’s attributes, such as his vengeance versus his love.
However, a closer look at the evidence in scripture as a whole easily dismisses this line of thinking.
Examining the Evidence
Seeing God
When looking at scriptures such as John 5:37 or John 1:18, which are used to prove “God never interacted with people” because Yeshua said “you have not heard his voice”, we must first read the entire context of the passages, and not the singled out quote alone.
- “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Yeshua [the] Anointed. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is the only-begotten god and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known”. – John 1:17-18
As we can see already, just by including the former sentence in this passage, we are told that “the Law”, that is, the law of God, which Yeshua himself said he claimed to “fulfil, not abolish” (Matthew 5:17), was given to Israel through Moses. This one statement alone could be used to dismiss the idea altogether that Moses was speaking to a false god in the Old Testament, but of course, I will continue to delve further into these assertions to utterly disprove these Gnostic claims.
Again, if we look to the full context of Yeshua’s words in John 5, the meaning of his statement is revealed.
- “And the Father who sent me has Himself testified about me. You have never heard His voice nor seen His form, nor does His word abide in you, because you do not believe the one He sent. The Witness of Scripture. You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life”. – John 5:37-39
As we can see by reading the full context, Yeshua was talking to the Pharisees here, not “in general”. He follows; “nor does His word abide in you, because you do not believe the one He sent… scripture testifies about me”. Yeshua is telling us, not that “nobody has literally heard God’s voice”, but that the wicked Jews of his days had not heard God, because they “refused to believe”.
Furthermore, he goes on to confirm further, that the scriptures of the Old Testament of which were written by the prophets of Yah, “foretold” of him, yet another attestment that the God of the Old Testament was the true God, who foretold truth and was the one Yeshua served.
However, we do have verses to address which appear to contradict one another, that is, the verses in which Yeshua and his Apostles did say “nobody has seen God”, does this conflict with the Old Testament such as Exodus 33:11?
If we take a look further, we are given clarity:
- “But He added, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.” – Exodus 33:20
As we can see, the authors of Exodus, in the very same passage where we are told Moses spoke “face to face” with God, did not see his face at all! Clearly, they would not contradict themselves so blatantly within a single paragraph. The idea we are meant to gleam from this, is that God had a “man to man” or “personal relationship” with Moses, but not that Moses ‘literally’ saw God.
In the same way, Yeshua told the Jews of his day, they had not “seen God”, because they did not have a relationship with him, because they lacked loyalty and faith. However, other passages which state that “no man had seen God but Yeshua” would refer to the ‘literal’ seeing of God, for Yeshua came down from Heaven, and is why he was the one who could explain Him in a way no prophet could before him (John 1:18, John 8:23).
Is the God Yah Satan?
Looking into the cited scriptures above, 2 Samuel 24:1, 1 Chronicles 21:1, 2, Job 2:7 and Job 42:11, are we being told the Devil and YHWH are the same person?
As mentioned in my Trinity article, this is a drastic misunderstanding of the language structure of ancient Hebrew writing style.
What we are seeing here, is the language of “cause and effect”. We see an example of this in other places in scripture, one prime is example can be found in the New Testament:
- “When he entered Capernaum, an army officer came to him, pleading with him and saying: “Sir, my servant is laid up in the house with paralysis, and he is suffering terribly””. – Matthew 8:5-6
- “When he had completed what he had to say to the people, he entered Capernaum. Now an army officer’s slave, who was dear to him, was seriously ill and about to pass away. When he heard about Yeshua, he sent some elders of the Jews to him to ask him to come and make his slave well”. – Luke 7:1-3
As we can see, two people might be easily confused for one another, but the way ancient Hebrews spoke and wrote, was often through agency. For example, if my name was Ben, and I sent someone called James to tell someone a message, the recipient would say “Ben just told me…”, when in fact, it was James who I told to tell that man my message, but to that man, James ‘is Ben’, because he speaks Ben’s words, and not his own.
In the same way, we see God is attributed the acts of Satan, not because he is Satan, but because he allowed Satan to operate on David when he sinned.
This is all part of an ancient Hebrew agency law, known as “Sheliah”:
“In Jewish law, a shaliaḥ (Hebrew: שָלִיחַ, [ʃaˈliaχ]; pl. שְלִיחִים, sheliḥim [ʃliˈχim] or sheliah, literally “emissary” or “messenger”) is a legal agent. In practice, “the shaliaḥ for a person is as this person himself.” Accordingly, a shaliaḥ performs an act of legal significance for the benefit of the sender, as opposed to him or herself”. – Wikipedia on Shaliah
“The Law of Agency deals with the status of a person (known as the agent) acting by direction of another (the principal), and thereby legally binding the principal in his connection with a third person. The person who binds a principal in this manner is his agent, known in Jewish law as sheluaḥ or sheliaḥ (one that is sent): the relation of the former to the latter is known as agency (sheliḥut). The general principle is enunciated thus: A man’s agent is like himself“. – Jewish Encyclopedia
The Christian Scriptures Attest Yah to be the True God & Father of Yeshua
If we further examine the Christian scriptures, we are told the prophets of old, all of them who interacted with Yah, were servants of the true God who sent Yeshua to us, who foretold of his coming, Abraham who foretold the sacrifice of the begotten son (Hebrews 11:17), Moses who gave the Law, Micah, Isaiah and Daniel who by the word of the Old Testament God promised the coming of the Anointed Son (John 5:39, 46, Acts 3:18).
All of them, drank the “spiritual drink” provided to them by YHWH, that drink was the Anointed One:
- “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was [the] Anointed“. – 1 Corinthians 10:1-4
Furthermore, we also see God’s name, Yah, praised in the book of Revelation, by the phrase “hallelujah” which means “praise Yah!”:
- “After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out: “Hallelu-jah! The salvation and the glory and the power to our God!”. – Revelation 19:1
- Hallelu-jah! Give praise, O servants of YHWH; praise the name of YHWH“. – Psalm 113:1
The Name of Yeshua Attests Yah as the True God
The name of Yeshua himself also undoubtly proves YHWH to be the God and Father of Yeshua.
In Hebrew, “Jesus'” name is spelled “Yeshua” or “Yehoshua” (which is translated as “Joshua” in English from Hebrew, and as “Jesus” from Greek and Latin). This name means “Yah saves” or “YHWH saves”. This name was not given to the Messiah by mere chance, according to the Gospels, but was purposeful, a command from God:
- “…behold, a messenger of The LORD (YHWH Adonai) appeared to him in a dream, saying…. ‘She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Yeshua, for he will save his people from their sins'”. – Matthew 1:20-21
So, even the very name of the Old Testament God is embedded into Son’s own name, by command of the God who sent him to save us. And names in Hebrew culture were very important, as they held weight, meaning and even authority.
Both the early Christians and Gnostic groups agreed that the name of the Messiah was Yeshua (“YHWH Saves”), and that the name was given to him from the True God as cited in the Gospels and accepted in Gnostic texts both. Thereby, this makes the notion of the True God not being YHWH of the Old Testament rather ridiculous, for the True God commanded the Son to be named “YHWH is Salvation”, which gives credit to Yah as the author of all of Yeshua’s teachings and actions.
The ignorance of this on part of the Gnostics only showcases their overall lack of knowledge of scripture, language, and culture. All of which is a demonstration of quite an embarrassing irony, that of all people who claimed to have “gnosis” (knowledge), they were lacking in it.
Conclusion
As we can see, we can conclusively prove without a shadow of a doubt, that Yah of the Old Testament is the true God, and the same God of the New Testament, the Father of our Lord Yeshua. Through the statements of his prophets, the Apostles, Yeshua himself, and even Yeshua’s very name.
Sadly, many Christians have too little knowledge of scripture to spread real truth, but often just enough knowledge to be dangerous and spread terribly corrupted teachings. In this, I can only echo the sentiments of our Lord who said:
- “You are mistaken because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God”. – Matthew 22:29
But we can trust that our Father, Yah, is the undeniable Father of Yeshua the Anointed. We must sharply bear in mind, if we reject one, we lose the other. Therefore, I wish to lovingly warn my brothers and sisters, and anyone else who is coming to know our God and his Son, to beware of this Satanic teaching.
“…This is the antichrist, the denying the Father and the Son”
1 John 2:23
Proselyte of Yah 