What are Gnostic beliefs.?

Question

Gnostics believe that they have secret knowledge about God, humanity and the rest of the universe of which the general population was unaware. It became one of the three main belief systems within 1st century Christianity, and was noted for four factors by which differed from the two other branches of Christianity: Novel beliefs about Gods, the Bible and the world which differed from those of other Christian groups.
Tolerance of different religious beliefs within and outside of Gnosticism.
Lack of discrimination against women. Although Jesus treated women as equals, and Paul mostly did the same, the other Christian belief systems started to oppress women in later generations.
A belief that salvation is achieved through relational and experiential knowledge.

Answer 1

The Gospels of Mary are also part of the Gnostic texts. You are so right about the teaching of Jesus. In the beginning he kept women close to him and they were central to his ministry. In fact the whole basis of Christianity hinges on Mary witnessing the Resurrection of the Christ. Why would he have allowed her such a central role in this if she was not his favourite disciple. Mary and Martha were also his best friends. With Mary Magdalene they tried to ruin her reputations and paint her as a prostitute in order to make her seem unworthy and to rid any credibility that she had. Her book is beautiful and should have been included in the bible if it had not been for the jealousy that the others had of her special friendship with Christ.
Early christian women were central to the teaching of Jesus and as the bible gets further away from the birth of Jesus they become more and more marginalized so that men could have more of an excuse to treat them as leasers. They were prophetesses and mystics and many saints.
The funny part about the bible is that the pronoun that means God is not really a male pronoun but that it was turned into one by the male scholars who interepreted the original documents mainly because they thought the "it" was not respectful enough.

Answer 2

Gnostics believe that they have secret knowledge about God, humanity and the rest of the universe of which the general population was unaware. It became one of the three main belief systems within 1st century Christianity, and was noted for four factors by which differed from the two other branches of Christianity: Novel beliefs about Gods, the Bible and the world which differed from those of other Christian groups.

Tolerance of different religious beliefs within and outside of Gnosticism.

Lack of discrimination against women. Although Jesus treated women as equals, and Paul mostly did the same, the other Christian belief systems started to oppress women in later generations.

A belief that salvation is achieved through relational and experiential knowledge.

Answer 3

Gnostics aren't a Christian denomination at all. According to gnostic gospels, they believe in the oppression of women, as noted in the gospel of Thomas when Peter asks what will happen to Mary since she is a woman, and thus according to that gospel could not enter heaven. Jesus' response in this text is that he will turn her into a man.
Gnostics are most noted for their lack of concern for truth. They don't really care if their doctrines have any shred of historical validity, which is why they generally don't. All that matters in a gnostic worldview is the message that is portrayed. In other words, if you lie through your teeth, but get people to believe what you want them to, then you've done something good.
Gnostics first appeared in the first century, as people who wanted to play shopping mall religion started to mix and match different beliefs that they liked of different religious systems.
To this day there are many religions which are very gnostic in base, such as Scientology, Christian Science, and New Age.

Answer 4

I have no clue where you got this info, dearest....but - do yourself a favor and Google:

Valentinus and/or the Valentinians.

The hallmark of Gnosticism was that spirit and matter cannot coincide or coexist.

Now - for extra credit - read St. Irenaeus "Adversus haereses" where Irenaeus first makes all of the Gnostic points and then answers them, one after another.

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0103.htm

Answer 5

Just want to make a clarification to an answer above. The languages available to translate into(Latin,Greek) did not have a neutral pronoun. It was by default a "him" unless it was specifically referring to "her" or a female word. (the word itself could be male or female) and this still exists. The romance languages all still carry that trait. French examples would be "le" for male and "la" for female with no neuter gender.

Answer 6

Thanks for answering your own question. A good book on gnostic beliefs within mainstream Christianity is "Against Protestant Gnostics" by Philip Lee.

Answer 7

I wish you wouldn't do that. You asked a question in which I didn't care to hear the answer and then you went ahead and answered your own question. Did you just want people to think you were smart? It was a dumb question in the first place. And your answer no matter if it was true or not was a dumb answer.

Answer 8

I read Father K's link as much as possible. It seemed like it proved the old axiom "if you can't dazzel them with brilliance, baffel them with BullS----". It carries no weight. If you can't convience me in fewer words, I will just believe someone who can. Thanks for the words gorgeoustxwoman2

Answer 9

Here's a good description.
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-hEhYPrI4fKld04PWL6apE5k-?cq=1

Answer 10

It means that you believe in the tooth fairy