DeConick A.D

126
PAUL AND GNOSTIC DOGMA
found guilty and executed. Everyone would be a hypocrite and charlatan
facing God’s wrath.
Paul’s resolution for this impossible situation in which all stand condemned
begins with his understanding of the Damascus experience. Paul’s
personal encounter with God on the road to Damascus, a revelation of
Jesus the Messiah, was an experience of God in a form and figure that
shocked Paul. YHWH manifest is Jesus the Messiah! This was something
Paul never imagined possible.
After getting over the initial shock, Paul surmised that his ancestors
must not have really known YHWH. YHWH wasn’t the God of the Jews
and the giver of the laws of Moses but the universal One God hidden in
a distant heaven, largely unknown to both Gentiles and Jews until the advent
of Jesus. This God, who wanted to be sought out and known, must
have been concealed from humans because we were ensnared by fallen
angels, tricked into worshipping them through idols (Colossians 2:18).
So although YHWH is far removed from earth, living in a distant
heaven, demonic powers, including Death, rule the earth and its atmosphere.
These are fallen angels who have taken control of the world and
its inhabitants. They were able to take control because humans allowed
themselves to fall under their wicked influence and were duped by their
deceit. They keep humans enslaved to them through the temptation to
wickedness and sin (Ephesians 2:3).
In addition to archon, Paul uses many terms to refer to these mighty demons,
including exousia (authority), dynamis (power), cosmocrator (world
power), pneumatika (spiritual forces), and stoicheia (elemental forces)
(1 Corinthians 2:8; Galatians 4:3, 9; Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 2:8, 20).
These forces include Satan, the traditional devil, whom Paul mentions several
times in his letters (1 Corinthians 5:5, 7:5; 2 Corinthians 2:11; 1 Thessalonians
2:18). He also names the demon Beliar (2 Corinthians 6:15).
Paul thinks that one authority rules over all the other demons, but
it is unclear who this figure is. Paul calls him the “power of darkness”
and believes that he has kept humans as slaves in his kingdom (Colossians
1:13). He mentions this figure again in 2 Corinthians, only here he
calls him the “god of this aeon [age].” This is the god who Paul says “has
blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light
of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God” (2 Corinthians
4:3–4).