Overview of Gnosticism

(Bible passages that are in parentheses show the applicable teaching is wrong.)

It seems that the Gnostics were most confused about God. Among other things, they believed that Jesus was not actually human, but only divine (2 John 7). Attempting to explain this, they developed two radical, and very incorrect, explanations. The first explanation wrongly stated that Jesus only seemed to be human (John 1:14, 1 John 1:1). The second explanation was that the divine Christ joined the man Jesus at his baptism, and left before he died (Hebrews 2:7). Gnostics also believed in spirits called Aeons who supposedly give access to God, who they called Monad (Romans 5:12). They believed that Monad did not create the physical universe, but that an inferior god, Demiurge, was creator (Genesis 1:1). Also, they believed that Jesus and the Holy Spirit were angels and were married, with Jesus being a male, and the Holy Spirit a female (Luke 20:35, 1 John 5:20, 2 Corinthians 3:17).

Gnostics also believed in many wrong teachings about good and evil, and humanity. They believed that all spirits are completely good (1 John 4:1). As well, they believed all matter is completely evil (Genesis 1:31). Thus, because our bodies are matter, they are evil. Because our bodies were thought to be evil, the Gnostics taught that they should be treated harshly (1 Corinthians 6:19). Also, because they believed that matter, not breaking God’s laws, was evil, they thought that breaking God’s laws was of no consequence (John 14:15).

Other false teachings peppered Gnosticism, including errors about salvation. They believed that salvation was escape from one’s physical body, attained not through faith in Jesus, but through special knowledge (Acts 4:11-12). They also defined ‘fullness’ as the sum of all the supernatural forces controlling the earth (Genesis 17:1). ‘Fully mature’ was defined as possessing special knowledge (Matthew 11:25). They also believed that, in order to defeat Satan, one had to enter his stronghold, i.e. experience evil deeply (Romans 12:21).

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