It is the idea that understanding is the key to peace and salvation. the Gospel tells us that YAHUSHUA is the key to peace and understanding, and that gnosticism is an error.
Some Christian Gnostics had Gospels where Jesus wanted every person to find their own Messiah within themselves. They thought the old testament God, the demureGEas a lesser God than the real God. The real God that lived in the realm of Barbelo was pure spirit.
Read the gospel of Mary Magdala and the gospel of Judas Iscariot
It comes from the Greek 'nosies' meaning 'to know', and if you are referring to early Christian gnosticism it was a sect which claimed specially revealed knowledge from God or Jesus which was NOT available to the general public so to speak. Today as well as in the past most Christians consider gnosticism to be unorthodox and without theological merit.
Often apocryphal writings came from gnostic Christians. The Book of Mary is a good example in which Jesus is described as giving Mary Magdelene information which he did not share with his other disciples. It's very interesting stuff and I would recommend work by Elaine Pagels.
EDIT:
Lil Important to distinguish between gnosticism and Agnosticism. The prefix 'a' makes the word mean 'without knowledge'.
I'll do my best. Gnosticism (coming from "Gnosis" which means "knowledge" in Greek) refers to a broad religious movement in antiquity. Typically, the movement includes a sense of Platonic Dualism in that it makes reference to the physical world and the spiritual world. The movement also focuses on the knowledge of self - and that this deep and intimate knowledge of the self leads to a spiritual awakening.
In Gnostic Christianity, Jesus was often seen as a sage; as a man who "awakened" people from focusing on the mundane and to instead focus on the knowledge of self. In addition, many gnostic Christians believed in a transcendent deity who was above the cruel (or inept) god that created the world: Yahweh.
It varied through time and location, but often the Old Testament God was seen as a secondary, lesser god that was in charge of creation but was also sometimes played the part of the devil since creation was corrupted. Jesus was seen as a separate and sometime more the real god than the O.T. god, and actually somewhat of a nemesis to the O.T. god. In other cases, Jesus was just seen as a man with more knowledge of the situation but not a true deity himself.
1) that there are equally powerful "good" and "evil" deities that are in a constant battle
2) that the good deity made things like 'reason' and 'spirit' while the evil deity made the physical world, desires and chaos
3) As a result, the gnostic measure of goodness is to distance yourself from the physical universe and from your physical desires in order to become a "good" person.
A common story related to this is Plato's cave where a man is sitting in a cave casting shadows on the wall, this is a persons life. He argues that for a man to be truly free he must get up and walk past the things making the shadows, and the fire illuminating it, and past everything to the outside. While it works in the setting it is difficult to see how we could believe this about our universe.
This is contrary to religions such as Christianity which teach that a good God made the universe and that, as such, physical things are things of beauty that are to be enjoyed and used appropriately.
The Gnostics were a diverse bunch. Many insisted that the Biblical God was not the TRUE God, but only a jealous pretender who lied and said He was the Almighty. The True God did not create the flawed material world, the false god (known as the "Demiurge" and called by the names "Yaldabaoth", "Saclas", "Authades" and others) created it with the aid of his Archons. This false god was given birth to by a goddess names Sophia by mistake, and she has been trying to fix the problems he has caused ever since. Sophia is a member of the Aeons, a group of deities under the leadership of the True God. She gave birth to a defective, evil-willed child because she went against the wishes of her spouse and tried to conceive by herself. Since she was a deity, her effort was not without result, but the child turned out bad and went on to create a world modeled imperfectly on the heavenly regions. In some schemes, the Demiurge is not portrayed as evil, or the world is created by the true God. It varied by the sect. Some advocated abstaining from sex, while others were alleged to be libertines (but may have been maligned by Christian authorities). For further info, see the books "The Gnostic Gospels", "The Gnostic Bible", "The Other Bible", etc. or search under "Gnosticism" at Wikipedia.com
Gnosticism was a mix of Greek philosophy and Christianity. They were viewed as heretics. Paul counters their claims in the entire book of Colossians.
*Important secret knowledge is hidden from most believers and only their select group can interpret it. Paul counters that this knowledge is available and manifest to all believers.
*The body was evil (asceticism). Paul says that God himself lived in a body.
*Christ was spirit and only one mediator (including angels) in a chain between God and man. Paul stated that Jesus had a physical body and was fully God and fully man. We need nothing else to get to heaven. "In him ye are complete."
It would be helpful to you if you would study this book with a good study Bible.
can someone explain gnosticism to me?
