Its not you that I'm reacting to, but the year of trying to learn from the Eastern Orthodox and ultimately finding it lacking. I've made an assumption, but I think you are representing that worldview.
There is no Gnosticism. What the internet has settled on as gnostic beliefs is really just one group that was extreme enough to satisfy the internet's collective appetite for the weird. What is now all grouped together into the category of gnosticism is the many separate movements which eventually gave rise to the political church. Before 325 AD, there was no canon, the Trinity was much more loosely understood, and symbolism played a much greater role in Christianity. The EO church gradually tightened the interpretation of scripture allowed, labelling anything outside their momentary window of acceptability as anathema and heresy, until now their reading of the Greek right in front of their faces lacks the depth of meaning which those "gnostic" symbols retained. I am not saying all gnostic beliefs are correct. I am saying that the church pretending to be the straight path has lost meaning, which is to be expected in a political organization.
Backing up just a bit - although there is no Gnosticism, there is a gnosis. That's knowing Christ, knowing God, knowing what it means. Its this :
Where is Christ? Saying you bow to none but Christ is great, but its meaningless without knowing where Christ is, what "Christ" means, the history of the word... But most importantly, where. Within.
Okay, **_what_** is the kingdom of God? Its Jesus. As you pointed out the other day, Israel is Jesus. So, not a place. Its a process or a state of being. Look within.
The Bible uses dualism to teach you. But for there to be duality, there must be unity. Duality of what? Of what medium? Often you can see things presented in a polarity. One extreme is presented first, then the opposite extreme. Oftentimes these extremes are broken into two different stories by our Bibles - but their positioning can't be accidental, being so oft repeated. You are meant to meditate on these dualities. Seeing unity does not preclude duality or separation of created things. Seeing created things does not preclude unity. The goal is to achieve unity with God - in church they call it wearing the mantle of Christ. You don't gain magical powers... But you do gain calm. You came from God, which is symbolically the descent, and you return to God by knowing Christ. Knowing... Gnosis. One way to know a thing is via contradistinction from what it's not - here we're utilizing the descent, the fruit of knowledge - duality. If it worries you that coming from God is a conflation with God, consider that an infinite thing can never be diminished by its subtraction or division.
To give the pretender church a bit of credit, there is certainly merit in placing Christ outside of yourself. You literally can't know Christ without humility, and serving exoterically will require humility. But don't make an idol out of it! To serve Christ is not to make Jesus into an idol. It is by recognizing the separation between you and Truth, that you can attain Truth - but its not your choice - its a mutual recognition. There's no way to say these things without falling back on polarity. Truth/separation, Christ/antichrist, humility/pride, sight/blindness ... All the same. But you can't see that if you don't go within!
And... Sorry if I jumped to the wrong conclusion about your response to that discussion. A bit more humility would have prevented that, ironically.
