Azrael Ondi-Ahman

Azrael Ondi-Ahman, real name Archie Dean Wood, is a former Southbaptist that converted to Mormonism but then decided to preach a new message, which have some traits in common with Gnosticism:

• he claims that the world is ruled by an evil god Yaldaboath [sic], and it's emanation "Jehovah-Yahweh" although they didn't create this world,
• he claims that Sophia Wisdom is the wisdom made manifest in God, which is in quite accord with antique Gnostic theory, who called the heavenly sophia Barbelo,
• he claims that sex and procreation is necessary to be fully spiritual (but believes that the original Gnostics didn't), however this ethics is in accord with the Mandean opinion who are horrified by the Catholic ideas of celibacy and monasteries.

Azrael Ondi-Ahman has formed the "True Gnostic Church" based solely on his own book The Song of God declaring it to be the sole source for "True" Gnosticism in opposition to all other Gnostic Scriptures. In order to become a member of the "True Gnostic Church" you have to:

be at least 18 years old	good so far, misleading young is evil according to Gnostic ethics
have read The Song of God in its entirety and have a working knowledge of its content	Gnosticism per term coiner primacy is defined by Irenaeus (early 2nd century – circa 202 AD), so the 2008 AD book The Song of God should be irrelevant
must take the three covenants of Discipleship, Fellowship, and Tithe	it is notable that good Azrael requires Tithes for membership, this indicates that our man Azrael requires lots of money — good for him but not good for anyone else!

In opposition to real Gnosticism, Azrael Ondi-Ahman claims:

• that the Demiurges didn't create this universe, therefore the Christian theodicé ("why did the good God create evil?") remains,
• he rejects that this universe is "evil", which would (seemingly) imply that he denies that time, entropy, diseases and death are fundamental parts of this universe — but it might actually occur that he hasn't actually understood Gnosticism in depth,
• he hails the "archons" as "arch-angels", which would (seemingly) imply that he hails forces of sinister passions that clouds clear judgement (in short: deadly sins) as virtues — but it might actually occur that he doesn't understand what the concept "archons" entail,
• he disregards "aeons",
• he claims that man created God, which is upside-down from real Gnosticism, which claims that "the principle" or "the notion" preceeds and causes the "instances" or the "examples".

My personal opinion about the man so called "Azrael Ondi-Ahman", i.e. Archie Dean Wood, is that he is a greedy cult leader that wants money and power based on an exclusivist "truth" message. His self-fashioned "religion" is only superficially Gnostic, not genuine since it disregards the Nag Hammadi library and Pistis Sophia, and it seems that Archie in reality haven't actually studied real Gnosticism, since he doesn't understand that the "evil" of real Gnosticism regards entropic decay rather than sadistic narcissist behavior of bad people that is usually regarded as "evil" by other religions.

Archie Dean Wood is a cult leader. Those who join his church will lose money and time. The better alternatives to Archie Dean Wood are:

• join one of the non-cultic Gnostic movements, such as Ecclesia Gnostica, Societas Gnostica Norwegia, Ecclesia Gnostica Mysteriorum or similar,
• read everything yourself, before deciding,
• try another religion according to your individual nature — according to my personal view, Gnostic enlightenment is the end point of the soul's travel, and it should not be forced upon anyone immaturely for any purpose.