The Temptations (and Dangers) of the Secret Knowledge Club

Not long after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension, one of the first "Christian" conspiracy theories began to blossom. You can see the roots of it 1st Corinthians 15, watch it develop in 1st John, and then see how it really blossomed in the early church. It came to be known as Gnosticism, and it was a big problem that hasn't completely gone away even now. 

 

A group of people in the Corinthian church began to say that they had been blessed with "secret knowledge," about "the truth" of Jesus, that no one else could see. That truth was that there really wasn't really going to be a physical resurrection of the dead. They believed the body was evil, so there was no need for a physical resurrection. Paul powerfully refutes these ideas in 1st Corinthians 15:12-19:

 Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead   are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope n this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Paul tells the church at Corinth that their "secret knowledge" is going to send them to Hell. If there is no resurrection, they are without hope, with Christ, without forgiveness, to be most pitied. But this little heresy continues to grow in the church, until a few decades later when it has developed even further - and some are now saying that Jesus never came in the flesh in the first place! See the progression - first, the body is evil. Because the body is evil, there is no physical resurrection. And because the body is evil - then Jesus could have never actually had a physical body! So, the Secret Knowledge Club has now rejected the humanity of Jesus! This is why John wrote in 1 John 4:2-3:

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already."

Two things are happening here: the "Secret Knowledge Club" was not satisfied to simply deny the resurrection of the dead. The longer they talked, the more secret knowledge they seemed to obtain. Now, they denied the humanity of Jesus. And not only are they hell-bound - John now identifies them with the anti-Christ himself.

 

Now, the Secret Knowledge Club did not end there. They continued to push and grow over the years and decades, and their heretical beliefs continued to grow. What might have been a mistaken understanding of the resurrection turned into a full-blown movement in complete contradiction to Christianity. The Gnostics twisted the sayings and teaching of Jesus in such a way that the apostles wouldn't have recognized them, all the while saying that only they had the secret and special understanding of the way the world worked. The Gnostics are still around today - read a Dan Brown novel to see it. They were convinced that there was a conspiracy to cover up the truth of the world - and only they had the real answers! 

Unfortunately, the "Secret Knowledge Club," is still around, and you don't have to read Dan Brown to find them. There are unfortunately far too many professing believers in Christ who invest far too much of their time into the latest conspiracy theories, all the while believing that they have found the truth! They find some web site in a back alley of the internet that uses a little bit of scripture, a few current events, a heaping dose of suspicion toward "the powers that be," and a sprinkle of out of context facts to create conspiracies that sound like they might just be true. And as outlandish as they are, they seem to make more sense of the world than what you're being told. 

 

It feels good to have that secret knowledge, to understand things when no one else seems to understand them. It is so tempting and alluring, and it especially so right now, when the world just seems to be upside down. If everyone else would just "get it." If they'd just stop being "sheeple." If only they could see what you could see. If only they would do their research the way you have done your research. Here's the problem. It never satisfied. There's always another conspiracy. There is always more secret knowledge to gain. And the longer you invest yourself in gaining it, the further and further you move away from God's truth.

 

Don't join the Secret Knowledge Club. Get into God's Word instead. It will help you navigate every situation in life. It will give you all of the knowledge that you need, and it is not for a special few. It's for everyone. God has not hidden the truth. It is not a riddle that needs deciphering. It's not a code that needs cracking. It's not a secret that needs researching. It's right there, in black and white, just like it has been for 2,000 years. The knowledge you need is "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone" (Ephesians 4:20). And it is enough. It will satisfy you. 

The Church Needs "Vulnerable Populations"

Ms. Mary with her hands raised in the bottom right hand corner

Ms. Mary sits on the front row at Northcrest. Though she is not a member of the worship team, she is in many ways our “lead worshipper.” She is always the first to stand, the first to raise her hands in praise, the first to clap along with the songs. But Ms. Mary, like many people in our church, is in a high-risk health group. She spends three days a week on a dialysis machine, breathes through a tracheotomy tube, and gets around with the aid of a walker. That has never stopped her from worshipping, teaching children in Sunday School, and bringing a carload of guests to church with her many Sundays.

But the coronavirus pandemic has forced her to stay at home for the last five months. She knows it is not wise for her to be out, so she basically goes to dialysis and goes home now. And she’s not alone. There are hundreds of them in our church – people who, because of their age or their health or both, are not attending church services right now. They are among the most loyal members of our church, and they faithfully worship online each Sunday, while they wait for the day when they can come back.

Our church is certainly not alone. Almost every church in America is dealing with many people in similar situations right now. Most churches are trying their best to help and stay connected to these folks, because we know that they are hurting right now. It is not easy to not be able to go to a place that means so much to you. 

But if we’re not careful, we’ll miss something important. These “missing members” are hurting, but they’re not the only ones hurting. Our churches are hurting by not having them. I don’t simply mean that the numbers are down. I mean that when a church is without “vulnerable populations,” it is less than it ought to be. A church without senior adults, without people suffering from chronic illness, without the weak and the infirmed, that is not a church that anyone should want to be a part of. When they are weak, God is strong! God can accomplish more through the weak than the strong can ever accomplish on their own. It’s not just that people like this need the church – the church needs them!

It wasn’t the strongest and the youngest and the smartest and the healthiest and the richest that found Jesus most attractive. It was those who were hurting, those who had problems, those who were sick, those who were dying! And Jesus took that group of unlikely people and built his church! He’s still doing that today! And until these people can fully return to the church, the church will never be what it supposed to be. 

In the meantime, we’ll worship without people like Ms. Mary. It’s not the same, but it’s still important that we do it. But I can tell you that everyone in my church longs for the day that she and others like her will be able to walk through those doors again. We won’t be the same until they can!