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The Demiurge – Then and NowA while ago, I made a series on the various false teachings that have existed over the centuries. In the video on Docetism & Gnosticismi, I mentioned toe the so-called ‘demiurge.’ One of you asked if I could tell a bit more about that.
I left that topic on the shelf for a while. But recently it popped up again. It was in the video of a Dutch brother Chris Verhagen, from the YouTube channel ‘Christelijke apologeet.’ In it, Chris explains why certain books did not make it into the Bible. He briefly referred to Gnosticism and the belief in some kind of lesser god, the demiurge. If you understand Dutch, that video is definitely worth watching. I’ll post the link below in endnotes.ii
Anyway, what exactly is this so-called demiurge? Is it something we can see today? Or is it just an idea from the past?
Craftsman
A demiurge comes from ancient Greek (δημιουργός, dèmiourgós) and literally means craftsman or builder. This term was used by the Gnostics of the first centuries to designate the god of the Old Testament. The demiurge, i.e. the lesser god, is responsible for the creation of the material world and humans.
The Gnostics believed that the supreme god is too holy and too perfect to demean himself by creating the material. That supreme god used a lesser god, the demiurge, to do so. So the demiurge is responsible for creation as we know it. This creation is actually a moderate imitation of the reality in the pleroma.
What is the pleroma? The pleroma is the place of fullness, and the abode of the divine world. In that world, the supreme god resides.
After the lesser god, the demiurge, created the world and humankind, the supreme god intervened by infusing man with a divine spark. That spark got trapped, as it were, in man’s physical shell. That was a very fragile connection because the body was not perfect but that spark was. The Gnostics taught that it was the demiurge’s job to ensure that that spark would remain trapped in it.
There are several variations on this idea within Gnosticism, but it was generally taught that YHWH, the Hebrew God of the Old Testament is thus that demiurge itself. In other words, God the Father, or YHWH, is a lesser god because the real supreme god is somewhere in the pleroma.
Problems
I will talk a little more about modern ideas about the demiurge in a moment. First, I want to look at the implications of this idea. I suspect that most of you can sense that we run into problems when we look at God in this way.
Without putting them in order of importance, these are just a few issues that come to mind.
Number 1.
It suggests that the material world is inherently evil. Actually, then, it does not matter what we do with our body. After all, it is just a shell and only the divine spark within us matters.
This contradicts what the Bible teaches.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Number 2.
Eschatology can also be jettisoned. Eschatology is the doctrine of last things. As Christians, we believe that the Lord Jesus is coming back and will change us in an instant. We will then have a body that will no longer die and will then live with Him on a new earth.
But yes, anything built from matter is evil. So even in that new state, we cannot speak of holiness. We will never be able to get close to the supreme god.
The demiurge is a lower deity who is ignorant of the true nature of existence. Opposed to it is the Supreme Being who is seen as the ultimate source of divine wisdom and light. If the demiurge has interfered with our salvation, we can assume it is imperfect.
It is also why Gnostics believed that the demiurge is responsible for imprisoning human souls in an endless cycle of reincarnation and spiritual ignorance.
Number 3.
Indeed, the misery in this world comes from god. If everything is created by a lesser god, we no longer need to wonder where the misery comes from. In this case, it would not be strange to think of god as a moral monster, as many atheists like to cry out loud. According to the Gnostics, this demiurge is indeed an evil, or at least a naive god.
In the Apocrypha of John, the demiurge is described as a lion-faced being who creates the physical world in ignorance and arrogance. An apocrypha is a writing in Judaism and Christianity from around 200 BC to 400 AD and is not part of the canon of the Bible.
Similarly, the demiurge in the Pistis Sophia is seen as a blind ruler who mistakenly believes he is the ultimate creator.
These are just three of many problems and I suspect you can think of a few more yourself.
Man is the Demiurge
Even today, there are those who believe in the concept of the demiurge. They see the demiurge as a symbol of human creativity and creative power. In other words we, human beings, are God’s demiurge. We are made to create and rule.
It is only a small group that actually names this out loud today, but we see this line of thinking popping up all around us. We, humanity, do not literally call ourselves demiurge, but we seem to act like it.
Covid Injections
This became painfully obvious when covid injections, known as mRNA vaccinations, were introduced. The mRNA injection actively changes how our bodies function. This is where we see the ignorance of the demiurge. The official reading was that the mRNA would be converted outside the body cells into a protein similar to covid’s spike protein. It was also said that the mRNA would be degraded quite quickly if not used. This example highlights our firm belief that we understand how life works. Like a true demiurge, we want to bend everything to our own will.
Geo-Engineering
What about our endless drive to manipulate the environment? We also call this climate engineering—intentionally affecting the earth’s natural systems on a large scale. The drive is to change our climate. We want to combat global warming. An example is spreading condensation nuclei—that is, very fine, water-attracting, dust particles—above the sea. By doing so, we hope to stimulate cloud formation that reflects solar heat. We do this without really understanding the long-term effects.
LGBTI+
And no, we don’t escape the whole LGBTI+ ideology. Human beings see themselves as creators, but since we can’t really make something out of nothing, we resort to surrogate methods. We believe we can make a biological man into a woman. We give hormone blocking drugs and turn to sex change surgeries. We remove healthy body parts and fabricate something that resembles the body part of the opposite sex. In this way, we place ourselves on the throne of the Creator because we, the naive demiurge, know better.
Demiurgic Thinking
The demiurge as creator is not something many people will still profess. But as the earlier examples show, the philosophy behind this idea is still alive and well. I will conveniently call this the ‘demiurgic thinking.’
If the idea of the demiurge is correct then we can say that the supreme god is totally uninterested in the lower creation. He just does his thing without ever really taking into account the lower, creation and thus man.
We see this kind of thinking on a regular basis. Consider highly educated people who look down on the hard-working artisans. At the same time, they just can’t understand why they have to wait for a plumber or a good electrician. They don’t understand why it is so difficult to find a good and affordable carpenter.
Or how about some politicians who battle each other when it comes to ideological positions while often having no idea what is really going on in the real world. All sorts of calculations are made about livestock, but they rarely set foot in a barn. They don’t even seem to know what substances they are talking about. They don’t need to because, after all, they are high and lofty and don’t have to concern themselves with what is below.
Nothing New Under the Sun
Throughout the centuries, we see man being tempted to think that God does not want to interfere in creation. The temptation then lies in thinking that we have to fend for ourselves. But also that we have to intervene in the world because, after all, it is not good enough.
As human beings, we should function under God The Creator.
Genesis 1:26-28
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Instead of caring for God’s creation, man wants to bend creation to his will. Many people have forgotten that we are part of creation. Not we are creator, but creature.
The idea that we can bend everything to our will is the first lie that ever entered the world. Satan said to Eve in Genesis 3:5
for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Trust in God
Instead of relying on our own insights and instead of thinking we can govern creation, we would do well to consult God’s word.
Proverbs 3:5-7
Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; And lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, And he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: Fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
In Matthew 24:37-39, Jesus spoke of the signs of His return and the end of the world. Jesus told us that His coming would be like in the days of Noah. We know that sin was great on the earth in Noah’s time.
Sin was so great at that time that the whole world groaned under it, everything became infected by it. God made the decision to destroy everything in a worldwide flood. With Noah and his family, He began anew.
Once again, we see that man’s sin knows no bounds. Today, we want to attribute misery to climate change, single-minded greed and overpopulation, for example. But there is nothing new under the sun. The real cause is man’s sin and iniquity, just like in the days of Noah. But that is not what man wants to hear.
2 Timothy 4:3-5
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
And be honest, what tickles the ear more than hearing that we can control everything ourselves. It gives a powerful feeling to think we can control the climate at the touch of a button. What a powerful feeling to think we can modify our DNA or eradicate all diseases. We humanity as a demiurge!
And that is why God’s word calls us to preach the word, to persevere in it. We must do that whether it is convenient or inconvenient. We must refute false teaching, and help one another. And all this with all patience and sound teaching.
2 Timothy 4:2
preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
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Anyway, thanks very much for watching.
I close with the words from 2 Peter 1:2
grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord
Endnotes
i Apologeet, Heresies All Around Us – Docetism & Gnosticism, Jurgen Hofmann, 12-04-2024, [website] <https://www.apologeet.nl/studies/heresies-10-docetism-gnosticism/> seen 27-08-2024.
ii Christelijke Apologeet, Hoort het ‘evangelie van Thomas’ thuis in de Bijbel? – Reactie op Bart Ehrman, Chris Verhagen, 23-08-2024, [YouTube] <https://youtu.be/k_D1PTakVGc?si=KHaf5e6STLAiQMSL&t=355>, seen 17-08-2024.
