As Christianity developed and came into contact with other cultural forms, it encountered many diverse challenges. Although the theological conflict certainly resulted in a better understanding of the meaning of Christ and a clearer presentation of Christian belief, it presented a serious threat to the very existence of Christianity. The challenge was in the arena of thought and it would either "make" or "break" Christianity. Gnosticism posed such a challenge.

Gnosticism was one of several sects existing during the early life of the Christian church. It denotes the teachings of a group of first and second century deviationists who were the scorned objects of many orthodox fathers. Gnosticism claimed to be a sure way to the knowledge, hence the vision, of God. It claimed that its rites, ceremonies, prescriptions, and its path to God were divinely inspired and transmitted to the elite esoteric through a mysterious tradition. Furthermore, it claimed, in essence, that its magical formulas offered an infallible means to salvation.

Gnosticism exerted a particular attraction upon the educated and sophisticated church Christians and threatened to overwhelm the primitive communities. The church increasingly came to think of the Gnostics as dangerous opponents of which there could be no peaceful co-existence. Nigg expresses it thusly: “There was no room for both to live peacefully side by side; one group had to yield to the other, especially since the Gnostics ‘claimed to form the true pneumatic (i.e. spiritual) church.’”

As I explained in an earlier article on Gnosticism, the basic doctrine of Gnosticism was that matter is essentially evil and spirit is essentially good. Since God could not be charged with the responsibility for the evil constitution of the world, the Gnostics differentiated the supreme God from the Creator of the world. Therefore, to account for evil matter, the Gnostics evolved a doctrine of emanations from God. These emanations flowed from God and each further from Him until finally there was one so distant from Him that it could touch matter. This emanation was the creator of the world.

It is not difficult to understand why the Christian church had serious problems with this doctrine. It tended to spiritualize God into a being who could not possibly have anything to do with the world. God’s presence was not in the world and neither did He participate in the world. Christ was thought to be the superior of emanations. He was attributed the decisive role in the cosmic process.

A group of Gnostics known as Docetists held the belief that Christ’s body had only been a phantom. The true Christ, they contended, has no bodily form which is why He was able to accomplish redemption.

The Cerinthian Gnostics held that Jesus was merely a man and was not born of a virgin but was the natural born son of Mary and Joseph. They did credit Him however, with being far beyond other men in justice, wisdom and prudence. These Gnostics further believed that Christ descended upon Jesus at the baptism and then He proclaimed the unknown Father and performed miracles. Understand that for these Cerinthian Gnostics Christ was impassable and separated from Jesus again before the Passion. Jesus then suffered and was raised again, but Christ remained impassable, since He was pneumatic. Jesus Christ is thus the bearer of the call who proclaims the Father who, up until that point was unknown (Foerster).

Pagels, in his book, The Gnostic Gospels, points out that some Valentinian Gnostics “even went so far as to claim that humanity created God and so, from its own inner potential, discovered for itself the revelation of truth.”

The Gnostic belief system then, simultaneously destroyed the divinity and humanness of Jesus; a doctrine central to the Christian faith. Not only did Gnosticism deny the incarnate Christ, but their ethics was in violation of traditional church views.

One branch of Gnosticism advocated strict asceticism, the extirpation of all sensuality to be as much like Christ as possible. Sexual intercourse was absolutely forbidden. These Gnostics opposed marital relationships as well, even for the purpose of procreation. The extreme antagonism toward the body was again founded upon their view of the evil character of matter. Evil was a physical quality.

According to Werner Forester (Gnosis), the antithetical ethic, unlimited freedom from all matter, was also practiced by some Gnostics. It directly glorified pleasure as a divine phenomenon. The most perfect among the Gnostics “freely practice everything that is forbidden…For they eat food that was offered to idols with indifference, and they are the first to arrive at any festival party of the Gentiles that takes place in honor of the idol…and some, who are immoderately given over to the desires of the flesh, say that they are repaying to the flesh what belongs to the flesh, and to the spirit what belongs to the spirit.” Lust was highly exalted as the bond between all created things. Sin was to be obliterated through sexual release.

As you can probably guess, Gnosticism was a system fused with ideas from the Orient, Greek and Christian philosophy. Cerinthus was one of the early proponents of this view. It was a religious phenomenon firmly grounded in a dualism between spirit and matter. Salvation was predicated on knowledge dispensed by an emanation from the supreme God. Christ was an appearance without a real human body or nature. Jesus was a human man like any other man.

Gnosticism threatened to undermine the essential foundations of Christianity. These foundations the church was bound and determined to protect even if only to preserve the human historical Jesus.

The Epistles of John forcefully attack the Gnostics and therefore express the antagonism existing between these opponents. In Part 2 we will explore John's strong reaction to this great threat to the Christian faith.

Rev. Saundra L. Washington, D.D., is an ordained clergywoman, veteran social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries. She is also the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances: Homilies that Teach which can be reviewed on her site. Her new book, Out of Deep Waters: My Grief Management Workbook, though delayed in publication, is expected to be available early 2006.

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