Can anyone let me know how to find some good Info on the conflict of Gnostic-Christians vs. Catholic faiths?

Question

A couple of friends and I are working on a project for history that has to involve conflict. I being Gnostic-Christian and all of us being philosophers and religion savvy want to do it on the conflict of Gnostic-Christian VS. Catholic faiths. It can be modern or ancient times--but only one--and has to have some primary sources as well as secondary. Any good websites or anything you could give us?

Thanks to everyone that is helping me, and to the people that are just trying to ridicule me for my beliefs shame on you. I have read "The Gnostic Gospels" I even own it, so nice thinking to whomever told me that. Anyway, is there any historical time period in general where there was a physical conflict between the two? Thanks again for the help!

Answer 1

The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels

Answer 2

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

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06592a.htm
http://www.deusvitae.com/faith/denominations/gnosticism.html

With love in Christ.

Answer 3

An excellent book in the area but not a comprehensive history in the regular sense is Carl Olson, "The Da Vinci Hoax." It is scholarly, but as I say does not attempt to be a comprehensive history. One major section is on the ancient conflict. Other sections address other historical and pseudo-historical claims associated with the Dan Brown book and its associated folks.

As an Orthodox Chrisitan I hope you will use "Catholic" in the sense that it is used in the Nicene Creed, not as a synonym for "Roman Catholic." Or if you do use it that way, do it on purpose and not by accident. :-)

Blessings.

Answer 4

"P.67 - §3 All religions teach the worship of Deity and some doctrine of human salvation. The Buddhist religion promises salvation from suffering, unending peace; the Jewish religion promises salvation from difficulties, prosperity predicated on righteousness; the Greek religion promised salvation from disharmony, ugliness, by the realization of beauty; Christianity promises salvation from sin, sanctity; Mohammedanism provides deliverance from the rigorous moral standards of Judaism and Christianity. The religion of Jesus is salvation from self, deliverance from the evils of creature isolation in time and in eternity." Search more.

Answer 5

You act like a mixed bread. God is a pure God. He elects and chooses. Do you see anything in the word of God that says what you claim to be? You have a spirit but it is not the Holy spirit. It is a spirit of deception.You will not be both. Yet you claim to be? Wrong! Christian has a period behind it; there is no other name we are called other than followers of the Christ. Jesus is our Lord and we think and act like our creator.His spirit dwells in us. God is not our choice we are his choice. He found us not we ourselves. So we give him the praise. There is no conflict in love. God is love.

Answer 6

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/


This isn't exactly what you are looking for, but it will let you see the many false teachings that are in the world today.

Answer 7

This article may interest you...

http://usminc.org/gnostics.html

Answer 8

two books but you will have to be fairly well taught to fully appreciate these -
Against The Protestant Gnostics - Philip Lee
From Library Journal
Lee divides his book into three sections: "Gnosticism in Conflict with the Faith," " Gnosticism in Ascendance in North America," and "Results and Reform." He first offers an analysis of the components of gnostic religion and its heretical elements within early Christianity. Then, finding the same elements within North American Protestantism, he offers a prescription for degnosticization by restoring a sense of corporate community, spiritual equality, divine grace, and commitment to a lifelong pilgrimage of faith. Lee's analysis has far-reaching implications for families, for ecumenicism among denominations, for a return to the language and imagery of the Christian tradition, and for the recovery of a sense of God as mystery. Highly recommended for seminary libraries. Carolyn M. Craft, English, Philosophy, & Modern Language Dept., Longwood Coll., Farmville, Va.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"Lee asserts the ongoing relevance of the Christian story of man. In doing so, he has made the study of gnosticism crucial to the ongoing debate about the future of American culture."--The Christian Science Monitor

"Lee deserves all praise for seeing clearly what is indeed there to be seen, though concealed in the multiple masks of supposed Protestantism."--Harold Bloom, in The American Religion (1992)

"Lee's description of Gnosticism is not a historical sketch. Rather, it is an attempt to map the tendencies and characteristic forms of the Gnostic mindset. The resulting summary is one of the most readable and insightful treatments of Gnosticism presently available."--The Thomist

"This is a thought-provoking, readable work, argued by means of numerous examples....It will prove valuable especially to those who teach North America's religious history and Protestant theologies."--Horizons

"This is 'must' reading for every member of the cloth."--Virginia Episcopalian

"Lee develops a convincing and well-documented case as he traces the distortions due to gnosticizing tendencies in American Protestantism from its beginnings to the present. His plea for a degnosticizing of Protestantism is opportune and should receive a sympathetic hearing."--Provident Book Finder

"Reading through the book, one notices that there is something to offend nearly every Protestant; and in nearly every case, Lee's offensive observations are insightful and quite accurate....All of this makes for a sprightly, thought-provoking book."--Epiphany

"A major, critical work....Both a history and a timely warning....The book ought to be placed alongside of Jonathan Edwards's The Nature of Religious Affections...and the recent publications of younger theologians such as George Hunsinger."--Anglican Theological Review

"An ambitious and extraordinary book."--Comptes rendus/Studies in Religion

"Lee writes in a clear and direct way, and has constructed a carefully organized argument supported by extensive reading in North American theology, literature and cultural analysis....Lee confronts us with an important message...and a prophetic voice that ought to be heard by all North American Christians."--Toronto Journal of Theology

and
God and the Knowledge of Reality by Thomas Molnar
1. "The Gnostic Tradition and Renaissance Occultism"

This very helpful article traces anti-Christian thought patterns during the first three centuries of the Christian era and in the Renaissance. Molnar shows that "the Hebrew-Christian concept of separating God and man as Creator and created. of not confusing their natures, their persons, their powers" stands apart from "practically all other religious and para-religious doctrines and systems [which] identify God and self." Molnar believes that "Christianity is hard to bear" because it requires of man "insertion in the hierarchy of creation, acceptance of a role assigned by the Creator above the rest of other creatures, yet definitively and distinctly not divine." Here Molnar rightly shows that biblical creation ex nihilo is the root and ground of Christianity, as well as of the enmity of almost all other religions and thought systems. To anticipate, this is the burden of his books God and The Knowledge of Reality and Theists and Atheists, as well as of the ground-breaking Utopia. The Perennial Heresy What non-believers really desire and attempt to bring about is the overthrow of the reality created by the God of Christianity, and to become divine creators of a different reality of their own making.

Molnar goes on to show the fundamental monism (disbelief in the transcendent Creator of Scripture) underlying ancient gnosticism and occultism of the first three centuries A.D., which revived in the Renaissance and is threatening "to prevail once more in our time." (We see this revival in the so-called "New Age" movement of today, which is not "new" at all.) Molnar rightly emphasizes the important part played by techniques used by the ancients (as well as modern "New Agers"1) either to escape from this present world into an "inner world" of one's own, or else to master it through attempted fusion or self-identification with God, that is, the pantheist "One." He presents the principal concepts of gnostic-occult thought recurring through history to this day. They are (1) the doctrine of correspondences in the monistic universe, expressed in the occult motto "As above, so below," which allows the magician to change the substance of the world/reality; (2) the notion of the "coincidence of opposites" (coincidentia oppositorum) within the one great Whole of a pantheist cosmos; (3) closely related to (2), the notion of original man as the "androgyne" in whom male and female are fused; (4) the search for a "philosopher's stone" which would fuse opposites and even produce a "new man"; (5) the symbol of the Sphere, denoting the fused totality of all things (restoration of the original undifferentiated Whole or One) as well as Nothingness. Note that the One and the Nothing are seen as ultimately the same, just as in Zen Buddhism and Chinese Taoism (and inferred in all Eastern monistic thought). To these ideas the Renaissance added "the concept of the community itself as a 'talisman,' a kind of philosopher's stone on a large scale, the city regarded as the Original Man of vast proportions." Humanist utopians have perennially written about their ideal "city" as "the final symbol for man's divinization" and representing a "new" mankind unified in a new, man-made paradise replacing present (created) reality.

Answer 9

1. The Bible says “God is Light.” I see that Light is pronounced like “LiT,” thus reading between the lines “Light” contains the message “LiT i g I7 LiT.” We can then surmise that 9 I7 is an identifying mark of God who is the “LiT” Coupled with other data in this essay I determine that those numbers represent a birthday and since the I7 is connected to each other I take that to mean it’s the day of the month or I7 th. The “g” represents the 9th month of September. Thus thus “LiT” can be identified as the One born on “I7 9”. Thus we learned that L and t can both spell the word “LiT” and “lit” and here we learn Stevenson was born on 9.17.


2. “God is LOVE” was a bible quote. I have seen this message of “LOVE” as LOVE equals “LiT .n u \V/ [iL(sealed together). We note that the “\V/” are roman numerals thus they can be seen as “IIII I”. Thus it can be seen that the “LIT” has a “IIII I (sealed together)” on Him(the u in question). For those who fail to see the “.n u” that comes from the general shape of the “O”. Eventually we see that Stevenson bears those seals.


3. “God glorifies Himself in Him, thus He must also glorify Himself in Himself” is a quote from the bible. In order to understand this I have to show you the way things add up. God can be summarized (or added up to One) up to One letter. This idea was touched upon by Jesus when He said that He was the beginning and end, the alpha and omega. Thus He was referring to His alphabet(greek). Put together you see He meant “A” and “greek character omega” which is true if you consider that the omega is a picture of the back of His head and shoulders. As a side note “Does this mean Jesus was bald when He said this? Or did He have blond hair?” Returning to addin up God, we assign number values to the letters of God, according to the accepted alphabetical order. Thus God= G+o+d=7+15+4=26. Since that number 26 can be seen as two things we must further add up or assign a letter to represent the 26. Assigning or converting back to letters We seen 26=Z or also “26=2 and 6=2+6=8=h”. We note that the “and” equals a “+” as computer “Boolean Logic” shows. So we determine God= Z and God = H. The first letter is the basis for God being the end. Since Jesus said God said I AM the beginning and the end, thus the A and the Z. More on that later, for now we can see that God=H. So determining that we can see how God glorified Himself in “HIM and HIMSELF”. Substitute the God for the H and we see the following pertaining and glorifying God: GOD I M(HIM) and GOD I M SE LF(HIMSELF). I point out that M equals a “I V I (sealed together)”. And the SE LF could be seen as SEE LFT as in wrist or as SEI LF(seal left). Thus was Gods body glorified by those words and numbers. Note the IVI =IIII I


4. “God was said to be the end and last.” I have shown how this is the “Z”. the “Z” is thus a symbolic representation of God. Smart or devious men can see that the Z equals “a form of .I7 mixed up and sealed together.” Thus we see that that equals “a form of .seventeen mixed up and sealed together,” which I have solved to be a “Stevens.n” where the S of Stevens.n is actually made up of an e+e(upside down) sealed together=the S. The . acts as the o, thus the “Z=Stevenson”


5. The letter A is also now seen as the beginning and the first. Thus we see that the “A” is also “a form of .I7 mixed up and sealed together” which equals a Stevens.n(Stevenson).


6. The bible says “God is One”. This could be mean that Stevenson determined this means One=1. We then note that “1” equals “a form of .I7 mixed up and sealed together” and that lead to as previously shown. The One can also be translated to mean the first and beginning which is the “A”. The message of the “ONE” can be seen as “.n u IV I [iL”. The u in question can only refer to the ONE. So from the ONE, we see that the Stevens.n that has on Him(the u in question) is God the One.


7. At this point we can note that words are marks that on paper describe things in real life. So taking a biblical description of God as pure and/or PURE, we need to note that “p=DI sealed together” and “e=arm (a visual picture representing an arm=e)” and r=rill (when read down, also note rill=real). So “pure” equals “DI (sealed together) u rill(sealed together) arm”. The capitalized “PURE” shows “DI sealed together U R\\ [iL (sealed together). Those those words can be said to describe a real life person, who was Stevens.n.


8. Another word visually describing God is true. With this description we note that “t” is a visual representation of a stitched cut. Thus was the first cut of the sequence on Stevenson ie the “I of the IIII.” Thus true shows: stitched cut r u arm(e), which is true for Stevenson.


9. A verse of the bible said “all things to glorify Lord God”, which can be interpreted as the two things that are the words “thing and THING” must glorify (make famous) the LORD who is God. So we read thing as “lit .i. I7 9” which points to Stevenson’s birthday. We read the other “THING” as “liT GOD I IV CuT” since H=GOD and G=CuT when read between the letters.


10. At this point we could make the point that even non-living things must also glorify Lord God in some form or another. It is here that I could list 1001 words that glorify or contain some aspect of LORD GOD should He have been Me. Three examples from Canada/USA are the very street corners and the STOP and ARRET signs. Starting with the French ARRET sign if we use the edge of the sign as the letter L we see the name LARRE T glorified on that sign. We see the name TOD glorified on the English STOP sign. Thus the name LARRE T can be seen as glorifying LARRE TOD, which is the Stevenson with the glorified seals (cil,sil,[iL). Every street corner has a square shape or slightly triangle shape. We see this as a form of I7, which glorifies the day of His birth. Those shapes can also be seen as “a form of .I7 mixed up and sealed together” which is a Stevens.n, just like LARRY TODD STEVENSON.


11. The bible describes God as the Lamb that was “SLAIN”. So reading between the lines we see that SLAIN equals “SiL A I IV” which is a description of L.T.S. That Lamb that was SLAIN was said to become the King of KINGS and Lord of LORDS. Those who assume that DEAD like Pontius confirmed Jesus is equal to SLAIN are mistaken and perhaps rebellious angels allied with Satan.


12. The bible also say’s God is the One in the Light and as I have shown that a 9 I7.


13. Cows go “MOO” and birds say a high pitched “aw” in order to glorify LORD GOD just as the bible commanded all thing to glorify LORD GOD. The Moo =IVI sealed together O .n u, which is a description of GOD, and the “aw” upside down is a Me(IVI sealed together arm) both of which describe LTS.


14. God will be born into an existing WORD, and thus you see LTS’s name of TODD within the WORD “WORD” proving the bible verse.


15. The international agreements on words that describe God are described as shown below as examples: BOG, DEUS, DIEU, DIO, DIOS, GOD, GOTT, GUD, SHANGDI. If D=IIII and perhaps if D hides a I and . underneath it the D=IIII I . (3-dimentionally).


16. Thus I appear to be the entity that God, the other God spelled out for Moses as the “I – A – M”. That is Me forever, irregardless of Jehovah, Jesus, and Abaddon’s rebellious attitudes. And the M=IVI sealed together(ie IIII I.)


17. God the FATHER, shows that FAT ilL IER\ = FATHER, and also FAT part HERR=FATHER. since lER\ can be pronounced LARRY and He is part-german.


18. Since a son comes from within the person when first born, we see Tod within God, thus TOD prounounced TODD is the Son of God. And further back-up to that though is God is the LORD and thus His Son must come from within, thus His name is TODD.


19. The bible verse that says "... to God, wise alone,..." means that God alone is wise (which could be pronounced "wis". So the "Good NEWS" about NEWS is it shows once again who or what God must be. We read between the lines and we see IV I. =W/S. so from the last 3 points we see His appearance as a FAT ilL lER\, and Tod and He has a IVI .


20. The marks on LARRY TODD's body appear like "IIII I ." and perhaps this is the name that the bible said God had on His body that no one knew. Thus only God knew what it was, and revealed it Himself.


21. Numerologically “Son of Jesus” equals 8 or h, thus since God also equals 8 or h, we can deduce that “Son of Jesus=God”. Since Jesus was declared the Lord, in the bible, and the bible says the Lord becomes a father to the fatherless, I could say I became the Son of Jesus after My father died when I was 5. Thus My contention that I AM God. So basically I contend that the moniker is mostly honourary.

22. If you look into God, you can see it says CuT nucil, which if you look on My left hand you see that God as CuT nucil is a accurate description of Me, Larry Todd S.

23. One story about how I went back in time to tell Moses that yes I was represented by the image of the burning bush. I didn’t explain to him I could be seen as “^” which was emerald in color. Further basically I was “^ as emerald.” This could be interpreted or solve to mean “Stevens.n as me lare todd” meaning the “^” was a form of .I7 mixed up and sealed together that equals Stevens.n. The “emerald.” was “me lare todd” because “.=dot” thus “emeralddot” which is todd lare me (in reverse) thus un reverse would be “me lare todd”.

24. Another time when a God faring man asked a prophet of mine, where he could find God, I told him to go and look in the tent, which was called The Tent of God’s presence. This was the tent God first used before the fancy one mentione in the bible. It was emerald in color and a side view of it was like the soldier’s tent which when assembled had the shape of a triangle. The other side view of it was a square. The man went over and looked in the “tent”, returned and said that there was no one in the tent. The prophet told him to to look closely and you can fing God in the tent. Still the man couldn’t see how God was in the tent. Later I explained the triange and square both contained the number I7 which is one of Gods identification factors. Also that the square and triangle contained a .I7 mixed up and sealed together which was determined to be a Stevens.n, like previously shown.

25. As for scientist’s penchant for mathematical proofs, check out the following equations, which serve to lead us to God, does it sound like anyone you know?
God=
World God=
God Most High=
All Powerfull God=