Hollywood film director Richard Stanley said this:

I guess one could see the whole of the mass media as it stands today as some sort of extension of the gnostic faith...maybe cinema itself is acting as some kind of hand maiden to the apocalypse.ⁱ

When asked if they were aware of the Gnostic theme of The Matrix, the Wachowskis, who directed the film, replied, “Do you consider that to be a good thing? I would.”ⁱⁱ

If these popular directors give any indication, Hollywood is embracing and teaching Gnosticism as truth. What, then, is Gnosticism, and where can we find it permeating the mass media?

This article is adapted from The Gnostic Gospel

i. Kinkaze 1 (1994).

ii. The Matrix Virtual Theatre Wachowski Chat (November 6, 1999).

Gnosticism is a twisted form of Christianity that sprung out of the Church in the second century. The hidden knowledge that Gnostics claim to have is simply the truth of Scripture inverted.

For example, Gnosticism teaches that the serpent in the Garden of Eden was trying to help Adam and Eve escape the clutches of their oppressive Creator. We know, however, that God created humanity in love, and that Satan has been trying to distort humanity's view of that love ever since. When we compare the serpent's words in Genesis 3 with the major religions of today, we can see that Satan has been hard at work trying to stifle God's truth with the very same lies he has been using for 6000 years.

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:1-5 NKJV).

As we can see, Satan's first interaction with humanity opened doors to the false religions deceiving humanity today:

The serpent's lies in Eden have permeated spirituality throughout history....

The Story

The Gnostic story of Creation is twisted from even before Adam and Eve. According to this doctrine, there is an unknowable being called the "True Father." He created a being called Sophia, but because Sophia was forbidden to know the True Father, she became angry and created a monstrous god named Yaldaboath or Yahweh (the most sacred Hebrew name for God).

Yaldaboath was cast out of the cosmos and forced to live in the created universe. The Bible tells us, however, that it was Satan who was cast out of heaven—not God.

Gnostic doctrine says that Sophia used the serpent in the Garden of Eden to share with humanity the secret knowledge that they are, in fact, divine.

New Age Alice Bailey makes this Gnostic declaration:

...it has been thought that the sheep went to heaven and the goats went to hell. It is the other way around. The goat in Capricorn is the initiate and from a certain esoteric angle the goats do go to heaven because they function in the spiritual Kingdom...the sheep remain on earth...until they become goats.ⁱ

Many of the rich and famous think they are God, and are worshiped as gods. Rapper Jay-Z calls himself Jay-HOVA in his song Izzo. But even beyond the Messiah complex common in the media, other Gnostic themes are widespread in Hollywood, and we must be aware of the lessons we are being taught.

Learn about these Gnostic themes in the movies in our next article

This article is adapted from The Gnostic Gospel. To find out more about Gnosticism and Hollywood, get your copy of The Gnostic Gospel from our webstore

i. Texe Marrs, Millenium: Peace, Promises, and the Day They Take Our Money Away (Austin, TX: Living Truth Publishers, 1990): 224.