Bishop Robert Barron And The Gnostic New World Order

by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer


Bishop Robert Barron is a world renowned social media personality and a #1 Amazon bestselling author. He produced the Word on Fire YouTube video “Gnosticism, The Enduring Heresy." In this video Barron says: When looking at Gnosticism the perceptive person will see overtones of Platonism. You know there is something of Plato’s anthropology of imprisonment, of the soul being entrapped in the body. The idea is a prison break.

The video's interviewer, Brandon Vogt, tells the video viewers that Bishop Barron has described Gnosticism many times in his books and videos. And has often described it as one of the most enduring heresies of the Church. He states that it has ancient roots almost to the beginning of the Church and you still see it not only throughout the general culture but even inside the religious world too. Barron then agrees.

Barron says the early Gnostics claimed to have had a special knowledge of how things really are. Barron then takes his audience back to the 2nd century when Gnosticism was very strong. He says the Gnostics of this time period believed that this world, the physical world, was kind of a fallen world, but within it are sparks of a spiritual reality. And the salvation enterprise was to get these sparks, or souls, out of their captivity to matter and to reunite with their (Barron points upward) truly spiritual origin.

Barron says for Gnostics there is a primal source to all of reality, a purely spiritual source, and then there is a whole series of emanations that come forth from that primal source leading finally to a very low spiritual level who creates the physical world. The physical world is therefore a fallen world, it’s a compromised world. Elements of the spiritual world [souls] get trapped in the physical world. The whole point of this philosophy is to raise up above, to escape from matter. Gnostics borrow from Platonism which has kind of a semi-Gnostic point of view. Although Gnosticism borrows from a number of other sources this is the basis of it.

In the video Barron does not mention that Plato believed in reincarnation, as the early Gnostics also believed, and as today’s Gnostics believe too. Barron says: "For Gnostics salvation is escaping from matter and returning to one's spiritual source." Gnostics believe it might take a number of lifetimes to attain this goal.

Amongst the early Church Fathers, Barron says, Irenaeus was probably the most staunch opponent of Gnosticism. One of Irenaeus’s greatest opponents was Marcion, the founder of Marcionism. Barron explains Marcion’s Gnostic view of Bible scripture by saying Marcion believed that the Old Testament is kind of a testament of a fallen god and that that god is Yahweh, the creator in the Old Testament, who makes the grubby world of matter and then calls it good. But the true God had nothing to do with the creation of matter. Marcion recommended that his followers get rid of the Old Testament and only keep certain parts of the New Testament.

This author, yours truly, says scientific discoveries reveal that the early Gnostics were right, the creation was corrupt or "grubby" from its origins and the Old Testament god lied when he said the creation was, when finished, "very good" or pure.

The Catechism Of the Catholic Church also says the creation was originally pure (paragraph 2336). St. Basil the Great described the "pure" creation this way: It is customary for vultures to feed on corpses, but since there were not yet [before Adam's transgression] corpses, nor yet their stench, so there was not yet such food for vultures. But all animals followed the diet of swans and all grazed the meadows."

The truth is... before the first humans came forth on earth there were hundreds of millions of years of death and corruption on earth. Five mass extinctions of animals had already occurred. That's a lot of dead animal carcasses (or non-vegetarian food) for the vultures to eat. In other words, the creation was NOT pure at its origins and CAN NOT, therefore, be restored to the purity of its origins at the end of history, as the Church teaches. And as scripture also teaches: The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox. Isaiah 65:35

Vogt, the interviewer, says Gnosticism exploded on the public scene about fifteen to twenty years ago with the publication of Dan Brown’s book "The Da Vinci Code." It positioned the whole narrative of Christianity as not what you have been taught. There is this secret knowledge about Jesus and Mary Magdalene and there are these hidden Gnostic gospels that the Church has been trying to hide. From its explosion on the public scene Gnosticism just seems prevalent now in our movies and cultural issues. Barron agrees.

Bishop Barron mentions the movie Star Wars as an example of Gnosticism on film. Barron says Star Wars promotes Gnosticism because of its fundamental metaphysical dualism. In Christianity sin is the problem not matter. The Star Wars telling is a Gnostic telling. Its producer was indirectly influenced by Carl Jung, a famous 20th Century psychologist who was deeply influenced by the Gnostic approach.

Barron says Irenarus said that the human body and matter are good and the program is not escaping from the body, the program is the salvation of the body, of the whole person. Marcion said the resurrection of the body, forget that.

Mr. Vogt states that Barron has, in his many videos and books, countless times talked about how Gnosticism is in the culture today, as "the culture of self invention." Barron says in the Gnostic view the body is fallen and our spirits inside us are what it is all about. So in today’s gender ideology we [as spirits] can remake or manipulate our own bodies. Christians say “I am a creature of God, I am both body and soul.” Gnosticism views the body in a denigrated position.

Yours truly is a neo-Gnostic and I say: I have a body, but it is not a part of who I am and neither is my individual personality identity (or ego) a part of who I am. I am God-working to fully realize this reality.

In the video Barron mentions the 17th century philosopher René Descartes who he describes as having a "Gnostic quality." I believe that Descartes once found himself outside of his ego and said "I think therefore I am", which is arguably the most famous philosophical phrase in the history of Western philosophy. There is a level of our consciousness where we are "standing back," so to speak, and witnessing what we are doing. There is a conscious entity that we can be aware of (an "I") before we think. The thinking entity that is being witnessed by the non-thinking entity is not who we are. Our true self is the witness.

The purpose and goal of non-thinking Gnostic meditation, like Hindu and Buddhist meditation, is to fully come to know our essence, our observing pure awareness or witness-consciousness. I have a body. It will die and never be resurrected. I also have a soul, it is eternal, but it is not who I am, nor is it a part of who I am. I am not “both body and soul,” I am Spirit. Barron mistakenly thinks he is the “I” (body and individual self/ego/soul/thinker) and not the "I" who is the witness, his “higher” or true Self.

Father Richard Rohr (recently deceased) was one of the most popular spirituality authors and speakers in the world. When addressing Catholics he said: "We are God having a human experience." He produced a video titled: You Become the God You Worship. The goal is to transcend the human experience, or the human identity, to become God.

In the video Barron says many of the modern philosophers have a Gnostic quality. They elevate the interior over the exterior, privileging the spirit over the body. The philosopher Marx has a lot of influence on contemporary thinking. Marx’s teacher was Hegel and he is often seen as a semi-Gnostic figure.

Dr. James Lindsay, Micheal O’Fallen And Gnostic Communism

This author, yours truly, will now present information about two renowned people who work together to educate the public on this same topic, Gnosticism. I am referring to Dr. James Lindsay and Micheal O’Fallen.

In 2020, James A. Lindsay, a promoter of (soft) Christian nationalism, as his (conservative, but not-Christian) means to stop “Gnostic Communism” (his words) from taking over our nation and the entire world... released the book Cynical Theories, co-authored with Helen Pluckrose. The book became a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller upon release. Mr. Lindsay is the founder of the website New Discourses, which is owned by Christian nationalist commentator Michael O'Fallon.

Michael O'Fallon, an American Christian Nationalist, argues—-along with his renowned agnostic friend Dr. James Lindsay—-that America's Judeo-Christian heritage and “the right of self governance” are under attack by the globalists of the United Nations, World Economic Forum, Open Society Foundations and society in general.

In Mr. O’Fallon’s Sovereign Nations Youtube video “Third Leg Of The Stool” he summarizes his worldview. Here’s his worldview: Many people around the world are becoming aware of the plans and strategies of the World Economic Forum’s globalists to disrupt and dismantle the current systems and ways of life and replace them with the environmental--communist--fascist supranationalist concepts of the WEF’s founder and chairman, Klaus Schwab, and the Helena Blavatsky and disciple Alice Bailey inspired New Age Theosophically-Gnostic minded elites.

The function of the World Economic Forum’s modus operandi is properly described as a two-legged stool: a public-private partnership that is attempting to leverage the corporate and financial giants of the world with the governmental leaders of their own making to usher in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. But a two-legged stool cannot stand on its own. A two-legged stool will ultimately fall. To properly support the weight of complete societal and systemic change, faith must be introduced as the third leg of the completed WEF stool. And so, faith leaders of the world have been incentivized to participate in helping to create a "woke" critical consciousness within the minds of their faithful flocks.

Roman Catholic Integralists have led the way to creating the three-part faith-infused process of governance in the 20th and 21st centuries. Dom Helder Camara, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Recife, Brazil introduced the mechanisms of integralism in the early 1970s and as well influenced the Catholic Church’s current "very Marxist leaning" Pope Francis. This “Catholic-Communist-Fascist Totalitarian Supernationalism” has manifested itself in movements that have taken the Protestant Church by storm. From Rick Warren to Richard Land to Pope Francis, thousands of faith leaders have capitulated to the seemingly inevitable dialectical spiral into digital totalitarianism and Hermetic/Gnostic "dreams" (theology) of Blavatsky and Bailey.

In O’Fallen’s video he says in the 1960s Vatican II was changing the Catholic Church. As the Church was changing at this time, what else was happening in the early 1960s? Herbert Marcus writes in “One Dimensional Man," the hippie movement was happening. There was also the civil rights movement happening. And in France and Italy there were the seeds of revolution. As these things were happening to create a new social order, and the Church was doing the same thing. It was part of the culture. There was the hippie culture. If you think about how revolutionary it was then, think about how it is now. It is all encompassing. It never stops.

O'Fallen says the UN’s sustainability is a new religion. It brings about another social order...a kind of ecumenical bringing together of the faiths. The different faiths should not be concerned about their different religious doctrines, but with social justice. The United Nations' and the WEF's new religious doctrines are basically infused with Gnosticism and Hermeticism. The goal for this contemporary form of Gnosticism, with its new doctrines, is to become the new religion for every faith. It is what the globalists believe has to happen for the Gnostic New World Order to be established.

Relevant Information About Bishop Barron And This Author's Work With The Catholic Church's Hierarchy

(1.) Bishop Robert Barron is the bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota. There was a Minnesota Sesquicentennial gathering of Dakota tribal leaders and state government officials in Winona on May 9, 2008. As an advocate, I was invited by a Dakota hereditary chief, Chief Leonard Wabasha, to address these tribal leaders and government officials, which I did. There is an annual Winona-Dakota reconciliation gathering. It is why the Sesquicentennial gathering took place in Winona.

(2.) In a letter to Bishop Barron, I enclosed a Winona Daily News "Guest View" article of mine about this Sesquicentennial reconciliation gathering. This newspaper titled the article STATE LOOKS TO SETTLE UP WITH THE PAST. The article acknowledges the complicity of the state with what the Catholic Church did to this land's aboriginal people in the past and recommends what the Church and state should do to "settle up with the past." I hope Bishop Barron will get deeply involved with this reconciliation mission and also convert to the Gnostic approach.

(3.) The Archbishop of the Saint Paul and Minneapolis Archdiocese granted me a meeting with the Head of the Archdiocesan Commission on Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs (ACEIA). When we met we talked about my advocacy work and association with Steven Newcomb (Shawnee, Lenape), the leader of a global movement to set indigenous people free from an international legal construct known as the Doctrine of Discovery, a doctrine based on a series of 15th century papal bulls.

(4.) Newcomb had some input in an apology resolution that tribal leaders and a Minnesota representative asked me to write. After writing it, it was—-with the approval of Chief Leonard Wabasha—-introduced to the legislature. A part of the resolution addresses the Doctrine of Discovery.

(5.) Years ago, another archbishop of this same archdiocese gave his support for my Native rights advocacy initiative to restore the sacred Dakota-Lakota-Nakota name WAHKON to a badly named Minnesota river. And because of this support of his, as well as the support from several internationally renowned Native activists, I received a response letter from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. I also received a letter of support from the United Nations Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues.

(6.) A Bishop Barron video segment of this article is about the Church's doctrine on the "purity" of the creation. This was another topic that the Head of the ACEIA and I talked about. I recently had some correspondence with the former Executive Director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference. He now has an advisory role with the MCC. He said a recent article of mine, titled Christianity And Hinduism Merge Into One Religion In The New Age was "very interesting." The article presents (in detail) some of my "I am God" theology, as briefly presented (above) in this article.

(7.) The Head of the ACEIA also talked with me about my theological work and association with Reverend Matthew Fox, a world renowned Episcopal Priest, eco-theologian and indigenous people rights advocate. Reverend Fox is a former Catholic Priest. He promotes the famous fourteenth-century Catholic priest and mystic Meister Eckhart, who said “in this breakthrough I discovered that I and God are one." Eckhart discovered that he was God. I hope Barron and the Church will accept this Gnostic theology.