Why do you think the Catholic Church was so threatened by the Gnostic movement.?

Question

The Gnostics were not about control through fear. They did not instill fear to keep the sheep in church and gather their money.

You know I love you and respect you Father K.

Answer 1

Gnosticism, which predates Christianity by a few centuries, teaches:
+ The physical world is bad
+ Only spirituality is good
+ Humans are trapped in between
+ Salvation comes from knowledge (gnosis means knowledge)
+ Elitism, only a chosen few will be saved

All of which go against the teaching of Christianity
+ The physical world is good. God said so in Genesis.
+ Humans are physical and spiritual beings and both natures are good
+ Salvation comes from grace and not merit
+ God wants all to be saved

I have heard the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints(Mormons) described as a Gnostic religion.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

The main thing that the Catholic Church objected to about the Gnostic movement was that it espoused the idea of decentralizing religious authority. Part of the gnostic idea was that the churches of individual nations should be answerable to the main church for that nation, rather than to the church in Rome. Also, the Gnositc sects accepted the validity of teachings that the CAtholic Church did not, some of which were more relevant to specific arer than others and all of which were considered heretical by the Catholic Church.

Answer 3

The Gnostics were and are preachers of a false gospel. They denied essential truths about Jesus Christ and claimed that they had been given "secret wisdom" that was necessary for salvation. There have been many Gnostic cults throughout the centuries and the Apostle John wrote his first epistle to counter the Gnostic heresies that were going around in the 1st century AD. One of the things some of them taught was that Jesus was only a spirit and not God come in the flesh because they thought that all matter was evil and only things of the spirit world were pure and holy. They used this false doctrine to justify all types of sexual sin claiming that since it was only the spirit that counted people could do whatever they wanted with their evil material bodies.

1 John 4:1-3 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

Answer 4

The Catholic Church is not threatened by the Gnostic movement. Your posing a gratuitious rant.

Answer 5

The catholic church came into being in 388 AD.

Before that it was called just the church.

A church is not a building it is a gathering of people.

Gnostic's were before the Catholic Church began as an entity.

Answer 6

I think the gnostics were the first iconoclats (destroyers of icons/idols) and felt that idolizing God takes power away from Him and reduces him to a tool for us to use. The Catholic Church it seems was all about having people follow rituals and that is where their faith came from - their ability to follow rituals and not a personal reationship with God. The gnostics I think didn't want man to make God a tool for man.

Answer 7

Because GNostisicm was attractive to the individual but is entirely false in its theology.

And you have your history a little lopsided. The insults you throw at the Church, were not even issues in the beginning centuries of Christianity. You're mixing 2nd and 3rd Century history with 12th - 15th Century. Not to mention that the internal reformation of about 500 years ago fixed those problems.

Answer 8

If someone is telling lies about you, you have a right to defend yourself. The Gnostics were wrong and were influencing people with little formal education. The Catholic Church had every right to defend itself.

Answer 9

Because heresy is always a threat to truth, and the Catholic Church is the sole repository of the fullness of truth.
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Answer 10

It was a power grab for money and control. It's far easier to squash the one who really turns the other cheek by using force and to demonize them as being "wrong" or "evil" or "satanically inspired" to further prop up your agenda. It feeds the dualism monster that lurks in all of us... the "us vs. them" people who need to hang with the crowd, and then when you add "obey me or be cut off" to the formula, you get quite a turnout.

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