The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

II. Gnostic Controversy Complicates Early Church Situation

Gnosticism, a far-flung religio-philosophical movement, came into prominence during the second century, and spread over the empire. It flourished for a century and a half, and was replaced by the powerful Manichaean philosophy that persisted for hundreds of years. In composition Gnosticism was a religious syncretism fusing different earlier beliefs, springing up alongside and within the early Christian church just as the latter was crystallizing its faith. PFF1 222.1

While it arose independently of the church, Gnosticism permeated the church, and certain of its principles long flourished within its borders. Ignatius, for example, uses the phrasings of Gnosticism as he speaks of Christ as “not proceeding forth from silence.” ⁸ Gnosticism includes such names as Saturninus, Tatian, Basilides, Valentinus, and Marcion. The apostle Paul, it will be remembered, had previously warned against a gnosis (knowledge) that was falsely so called. (1 Timothy 6:20.) PFF1 222.2

Gnosticism rejected the greater part of the Scripture. Its adherents imagined themselves the Christian intelligentsia of their day. Gnosticism was not original, but drew its speculations from earlier Oriental paganism, Alexandrian Jewish philosophy, and Christian sources, simply combining them. It sought to construct a theory of the universe—a cosmogony—and to explain how the cosmic order was originally projected, then ruined. In this theology harmony will be restored only by the destruction of all matter. PFF1 222.3

The Gnostics were concerned primarily with philosophical speculation. They believed that they possessed a secret, mysterious knowledge unaccessible to the outsider. Theirs was a mystic religion, seeking assurance of a fortunate destiny for the soul after death. According to their teaching, all men are divided by fate into three classes, higher or lower in proportion to freedom from matter—(I) the spiritual, (2) the material, and (3) the psychical—segregated according to the elements or lack of the elements of Deity within them. PFF1 222.4

The Gnostics, of course, constituted the first group, believing themselves to be the more highly endowed mortals, allegedly saved by their knowledge of the esoteric system, but characterized by other attitudes which took the strangely conflicting forms of either asceticism or libertinism. The third group was wholly material and could not be saved, for they had no spark of the divine within them. Between the two the intermediate class embraced the ordinary Christians who had not this higher knowledge, yet who might possibly be saved, though Christian faith was held to be vastly inferior to Gnostic knowledge. PFF1 223.1

Gnosticism, which had its roots in paganism, had many rites and formulas derived partly from a blending of Babylonian and Persian beliefs based on an Oriental dualism. This dualism embraced the two worlds of good and evil, of light and darkness, the divine and material worlds, with the material as the seat of evil. It taught a series of emanations from the Supreme Being, principally the “Seven,” who were half angelic and half demonic, derived from the planetary deities. From the Great Mother, or goddess of heaven, who had long been worshiped throughout Asia under various forms and names, came Gnosticism’s concept of the Sophia, or mother of the Hebdomas. The movement was also strongly influenced by Greek Platonism. PFF1 223.2

The Christian Gnosticism incorporated the historical Jesus, which afforded a new point of crystallization. These Gnostic heretics claimed one source of their knowledge to be the secret traditions committed by Christ to an inner circle. But they held that other proper sources were from enlightened men everywhere, including heathen poets and philosophers. These devotees of “knowledge” therefore claimed a place in the church, and complained bitterly when it was denied them. They held that Christianity was insufficient to afford absolute truth. They relied not so much on historical evidence or logical reasoning as on the intuitional powers of highly endowed minds. Their purpose was to construct not merely a theory of redemption but a theory regarding creation. PFF1 223.3

The Gnostic idea of redemption was liberation of the spirit from its connection with matter. Their view of the worthlessness of the material world naturally affected their concept of a bodily resurrection, for which there would be no desirability or need. The practice of asceticism was common among them, and the idea of marriage and procreation was considered either worthless or evil. These ideas were later drawn upon by Catholicism. Augustine, though combating the dualism of the Manichaeans, introduced a number of dualistic ideas into his philosophy of Christianity. PFF1 224.1

The Gnostics were moved by mysticism. They loved symbols and fostered gorgeous ritualistic worship and liturgy. The simple ordinances and observances of the Apostolic church were frowned upon as premised on the ground of mere faith. Gnosticism was preeminently a religion of sacraments and mysteries, and succeeded in introducing many of these elements into the church in general. It thus gave impetus to the strong Catholic emphasis upon salvation through religious forms. PFF1 224.2

There is no evidence that the Gnostics ever attempted an ecclesiastical organization. On the contrary, many were to be found in the orthodox churches, within which they sought to form schools or social circles. But the very aggressiveness and diversity of these conflicting groups spurred the church on to form a unified organization, and to accentuate churchly authority and tradition to protect itself against the varied forms of heretical gnosis. An organized hierarchy, a recognized canon of Scripture, a confession and rule of faith, and doctrinal discipline were all stimulated by the attacks of Gnosticism. PFF1 224.3

Thus it came about that a system which had probably developed from Oriental mythologies before it came into contact with Christianity, became a Christian heresy. The movement reached its height in the third quarter of the second century, after which it began to wane; and after the age of Cyprian (d. 258), Gnosticism became largely a negligible factor. But it was during the course of this Gnostic controversy that the early church on the one hand defined the Catholic standards and tests of orthodoxy by which it ostensibly shut out the Gnostics from Christian fellowship, yet on the other hand absorbed some of the Gnostic ideas which led the way in amalgamation of Christian and pagan thought and life. ⁹ PFF1 224.4

Most of the Gnostic literature has perished, though fragments remain. The most important witnesses concerning the subtleties of Gnosticism are Irenaeus, Tertullian; Hippolytus, Origen, and Epiphanius, whom we shall study, though Ignatius and Justin Martyr also throw light upon its early forms. Prophetic interpretation, it should be noted, was developing in the midst of this and succeeding conflicts within the church. These vicissitudes of the early church form the discordant setting in which increasingly clear and full expositions of the prophetic writings were brought forth. That is the stage on which the actors played their respective parts. PFF1 225.1