Fear, Grace, Gratitude, Gnosis and gnosticism

Word Definitions and Meaning

ver.: 02 April 2008

What is :
fear (and its word-field, including alarm, dread, qualm, worry, panic, horror, phobia, and terror)
gnosis, gnosticism,
grace, gratitude ?

What Is Fear ?

fear [ < Old English færan (to terrify, ambush, surprise)] A strong emotion due to foreseeing or becoming aware of danger; the reason or cause of such strong emotion.

At its best, fear helps us protect ourselves, and helps remind us that we don't have control over everything in our lives (and never will). At its worst, fear can turn us into murderous bigots or quivering cowards. There are many kinds of fear : sudden fear (alarm), strong desire not to do something (dread), fear of doing something against one's conscience or better judgment (qualm), fear of unfavorable results (worry), brief but strong loss of composure (panic), fear that causes immediate physical reaction (horror), fear of one specific thing beyond reason (phobia), and the surrender to extreme fear (terror). Psalm 23 says "I shall fear no evil, for Thou art with me". Fears that are turned over to God will be muted or will go away. When we stop trying to be in control and let God be in control, there is no cause for fear, for the One in Control loves us and seeks the best for us. Trust in God's love casts out fear. Go against God, and there is no reason not to be in terror.

You can also check the dictionary.

What Is Gnosis ?

gnosis : it usually refers to the 'secret' or 'special' knowledge that is said to set one free from the 'illusory' material world. [ < Greek gnosis (knowledge)]. There is no such knowledge, according to Christian beliefs :

1. the material world is not an illusion for us to be freed from, it is a work of God's creation we were made to be a part of, and God is at work today to make it whole again;
2. the knowledge on which everything hangs is revealed by (and as) Jesus Christ, and God sent the Spirit to reveal to all believers what God is up to -- this is no 'secret', and even if it was, the Christian's duty would be to give it away freely anyway.

gnosticism : Gnosticism arrived when Christianity was a mere toddler, and it tried its best to suck in the strong, fledgling Christian faith and reshape it into its image. There was a lot of variety of practice and teaching among Gnostics, but there were certain core markers.

In gnosticism, the spiritual world was full of deep secrets. Matter was evil or unreal or at best icky, and spirit was good. Terms like 'vessel', 'container', 'jacket', 'package', 'can', or 'vehicle' are how they would today describe the human body. Some spirits were more 'good' than others, and part of the task (dare I say 'game'?) was to keep these spiritual superiors happy. A few people (that is, themselves) were learning about and evolving toward the spiritual world. A follower was to stay focused on spiritual things and to ignore or not value those who lacked such knowledge. The meaning of holy writings (including some of their leaders and pagan writers but didn't include most of the Old Testament) was uncovered by way of allegory ("this really means *that*"). God as a human?? God would never stoop so low as to be contaminated with our filth. Thus, of course, they had to re-translate Jesus : he was a human who had developed the highest level of contacts in the spirit world. His body either became, or always was, an illusion. A gnostic god could never really be 'God-with-us', nor could it be so focused on loving those wallowing in the earthly mire.

Old-fashioned Gnosticism morphed into new-fangled New Thought (Unity, Christian Science) and then New Age (Celestine Prophecy, and especially Urantia), and left its traces in other places (in some of the Word of Faith preachers, in the Course on Miracles, in the late Heaven's Gate, among some religion scholars, and in much of US pop religious culture). For reasons that are baffling given its lack of logical sense, these ideas have historically had their strongest appeal among the intelligentsia and the social elite. Modern gnostics know how to dress up their ideas with a 'positive' spin about our selves and the earth. But it still winds up in the same hole.

You can also check the dictionary.

What Is Grace?

grace [ < Old French, < Latin grâtia, < grâtus (pleasing) ] God's unmerited favor.

Grace is given to all, freely. God gives us the faith that sets us straight, and gives us the Spirit that changes us and gives us Christ's goodness. God keeps this grace from noone. However if we don't accept it, it sits there with no effect, like an unopened and forgotten Christmas present. And we humans don't like the implications of the gift, namely, that we have no way to do this ourselves. So we tend not to take this grace until we have nothing else left and nowhere else to turn, and even then we might spurn it. There's more than enough grace to go around to everybody, more than enough to do the job. More than enough for you.

You can also check the dictionary.

Gratitude

gratitude [ < Latin grâtitûdô < grâtus (pleasing < favorable)] The state of being grateful. Grateful : appreciative of some sort of benefit you receive from someone; esp. to the point of doing something in return to please your benefactor. Also : thankful, appreciative.

Gratitude is a key motive for Christian morality, and thus any Christian way of living. God did everything to show love for me, so I want to do right, I want to live the kind of life that God would be happy about. A growing proportion of people have little idea of what gratitude really means. They want to think of themselves as being in control, as the one who makes their life tick. But tonight your soul may be required of you. And if it isn't, it may well be because God wanted to give you another day to remember all the things God and other people did for you along the way. An attitude of gratitude naturally leads to love, and repayment by acts of love.

"Gratitude is a virtue of the highest excellence, as it implies a feeling and generous heart, and a proper sense of responsibility."
Noah Webster

You can also check the dictionary.