Food is for the Stomach...

This is from one of my Facebook Messianic brothers. Fascinating!

"Food for the Stomach and the Stomach for Food"
The Gnostic Mantra
1 Corinthians 6:13

"Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food"—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

Verse taken from the English Standard Version of the Bible, which has quotation marks on this Gnostic Mantra.

The Carpocrations were a group of Gnostics popular in the Corinth Church. While they didn't take on that name until around 160, when Marcion the Gnostic was attempting to altar the writings of Paul, and Valentian the Gnostic missed becoming Bishop of Rome by only a few votes. Gnosticism is everywhere in the Church today, often under the name of being "Spirit-Filled" it has actually become a "New Age Christianity" or better yet "Ancient Gnostic Christianity." What we call "New Age Influence" in the Church, has been an influence in the Church since before Paul finished writing Epistles. Don't get me wrong, being Spirit-filled with G-d's Spirit is vitally important, but the Spirit of G-d which inspired His written Word never tells us to break His Law/Written Word.

Gnosticism seeks to have only half of John 4:24 (Spirit and Truth). They wanted the Spirit, but not the Truth (another name for the Torah as recorded in Psalm 119 and Daniel 12). They believed that the Law could be Spiritualized, so it was to them instructions for living in a Spirit body but not for a physical body.

The Sadducees wanted the Truth but not the Spirit, not believing in an afterlife, the Torah was ONLY an instruction for living in a physical body.The Pharisees wanted their traditions over the Spirit or the Truth, with the Torah as a basis for excluding them from "Gentiles" or even Jews who didn't meet their standards, believing that G-d gave the Torah only to Jews.

The Carpocation motto "Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food" referred to all of the physical pleasures of the body, and basically meant, "if it feels good then do it" or "the body is meant for all pleasures, and all pleasures for the body." The Carpocatians thought that since the body is decaying, as is all of the physical world, then it should be enjoyed to the fullest possible extent. They therefore traded wives on a regular basis, slept with other men and children, got drunk, ate anything they thought may taste good, and did whatever they felt like.

They also believed in a type of Hyper-Calvinism, that the "Elect" are chosen and can do nothing to lose their salvation. Since they are "once saved always saved" no matter how much of G-d's Law they break, they thought they would live it up, they could "Sin so that Grace may abound".

The Carpocations also believed that the written Law was a form of bondage, and keeping it kept people from advancing spiritually. In their mind, Christ came to set them free from the Law. Every Law they believed, was simply a spiritual lesson.

For example, the dietary Laws meant that the Gnostics should separate themselves from those not as "Spiritually advanced" as they were, people they considered as animals, those without the Spiritualized version of the Law or the Written Law. They also separated themselves from those under the "Bondage" of the Written Law, those who seek G-d but just aren't "Spiritual Enough" for the Dreams, Revelations, Supernatural visitations, Prophecies, and Speaking in tongues they claimed to experience. The Pharisees had the opposite view, calling anyone who didn't follow their traditions built around the written Law by the term "Am Ha'Aretz" or "people of the earth, who were not allowed to fellowship with the Pharisees.

The Gnostics also felt that something was only sin if it violated their conscience (and since they seem to be Sociopaths-people without conscience, everything was permissible according to their conscience), and the only Law was to Love G-d and love one's fellow man-and each person would rely on the "Christ Inside" to tell them how to do that.

The end result of this is (Once Saved Always Saved, Reliance on Revelation alone, Spiritualizing the Commands, disdaining the Written Law, and relying on conscience to tell right and wrong) resulted in a society of complete utter heathens, and of total Lawlessness. Hence telling the Corinthians in 2nd Corinthians 6:13 "What fellowship can Righteousness have with Lawlessness? What fellowship can Christ have with Baal? What fellowship can Light have with darkness?"

Paul's response in 1st Corinthians 6:13 and 2nd Corinthians 6:13 shows more of their ideology.1 Corinthians 6:13"Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food"—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.

The Carpocatians believed that what was done in the physical body could not taint or corrupt the soul. Nothing physical could make someone Spiritually "unclean", even sleeping with another man's wife.

In 1st Corinthians, Paul however said that both body and soul would be destroyed in Hell/Gehenna, no matter how elect they thought they were, no matter how many visions they had, how often they spoke in tongues, or how little their conscience bothered them.

In 2nd Corinthians Paul asks "What fellowship can Christ have with Baal?"Since the Carpocatians believed that wisdom and knowledge could be found in part, in all spiritual paths, though they did believe Christ to be the Messiah (not one to save them from their sins which is breaking G-d's Law, but one who came to show them how to live, how to "love" and to "free" them from "the Law".) They had a mixed worship of claiming Christ to be the Messiah (their idea of a Messiah), while also communing with angels, and the "Spirit of Christ" within them, as well as accepting other pagan practices."What fellowship can light have with darkness?"The Gnostics were fond of calling themselves "Children of the Light", the "Light of Christ" and saw no reason that their Lawless deeds could dim that light. According to the Written Law of Gd, their deeds were Dark. And Paul reminded them that you can't be a child of light and live like those in darkness.

"What fellowship can Righteousness have with Lawlessness?"Paul also reminded the Gnostics in Corinth and those influenced by Gnostic culture (New Age Christianity), that Righteousness is something you walk out in the body by obedience to G-d's Law, not just something you try to be on a spiritual level.

Site from Gnostic Christians today:Yes, they still exist! Actually, they exist all over the place but most preachers don't know they are preaching Gnosticism.

http://gnosticschristians.com/wst_page2.html