The Discovery Of The Traditional Orthodox Form Of Christianity

Christianity began its succession into the most dominant worldwide religion after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this temple made with hands, and within three days build another made without hands.” Upon Jesus’ death and resurrection, he completed this task setting forth the development of Christianity. Since Jesus left no formal authoritative power, organization, or agreed upon scriptures, a wide variety of sects gained popularity in the development of Christianity. Most of these sects were later deemed as heretic, one of the most notable being Gnosticism. Gnosticism was a dualist religion believing the material world evil and the invisible spirit realm good. This belief obligated Gnosticism to follow Docetic interpretations. Docetism is the belief that Jesus was never truly man but rather a divine from the spirit world. All forms of Christianity, however, believe Jesus is son of God sent as humanity’s savior from damnation. Docetism, along with other aspects of Gnosticism, drove other Christians condemn Gnosticism as heresy. Gnosticism, however, is more comparable to Canonical Christians than realized. Specifically, the distinction between Docetism and strict Canonical belief is not only insignificant but also justifiable due to Canonical contradictions surrounding Jesus’ existence.

Their idea of salvation is that God sent a “spiritual redeemer” to teach those humans that will listen where their true home is and that they can obtain their salvation through self-knowledge. Gnostics held to the idea that Jesus was the “spiritual redeemer” sent from God to teach humans about their true home. However they did not believe as Christians do that Jesus was the incarnate of God because they believed that all material is evil and that God could not take on the form of a human who died and rose bodily. To justify that Jesus was indeed their spiritual redeemer they claimed that whoever entered Jesus at his baptism left him before his death on the cross. So while Gnostics identify themselves as Christians many of their doctrines are not biblically based.

Christianity was born and flourished in an empire where the common language was Latin and Greek. Two important people like Paul and Constantine further influenced and were a major part of the development of Christianity. The history of the Jews leading up to the time of Jesus had a major impact on the development of Christianity. “When Christianity was clearly identified as a distant religion, the new religion was considered by its members to be the fulfillment of Judaism rather than a new religion.” “Since Jesus was a Jew and preached to the Jews, Christianity was closely linked to Judaism.” The development of Christianity was due to several historical, political, and social circumstances.

The Greek Alexander Romance describes the life of Alexander the Great, focusing primarily on his great military feats as a leader of Greece and highlighting why he is remembered as a great Greco-Roman leader. Similarly, the Gospel of Matthew explains the life of Jesus Christ through his teachings and miracles, which underline why he is known as the greatest figure from Judeo-Christian culture. Alexander and Jesus easily compare because they died in their early thirties, were known as kings, and are remembered for impressive triumphs while on earth. Alexander sought to build his empire and essentially rule the world through victories on the battlefield and the conquering of neighboring countries. Jesus sought to destroy evil on earth by establishing God’s Kingdom and teachings in the hearts of all. Comparing the lives of these great Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian leaders highlight the differences in cultural opinion on the highest good in life, how one obtains that good, and what that means in connection to an afterlife. Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman perspectives on elements of a meaningful life contrast in the sense that Judeo-Christian actions to pursue these elements are motivated by the desire for everlasting life in heaven, while Greco-Roman actions are motivated by the desire for perpetual fame on earth after one dies.

For example, the Gospel of Thomas includes salvation by secret knowledge, polytheism, disregard for the bodily appetites, and the thought of a blissful teaching Christ who is not necessarily human. It is likely related to Sethian Gnosticism. However, “Gnosticism” is largely an umbrella term for the beliefs of several movements in the post-Apostolic era that sought out special knowledge. Gnosticism is a term that is used for spiritual practices and religious beliefs. This term was very common for early Christians, as well as Zoroastrianism, Hellenistic Judaism, and Neoplatonism. The discovery of this Gospel, which was founded in 1945, along with the rest of the Nag-Hamaddi library is very revealing of certain gnostic groups that we previously had less knowledge of. We knew of Gnosticism from other texts and witnesses to them (Irenaeus) before. However, now there are many more source texts. There is also a difference between Gnostics and Orthodox Christianity. The Old Testament prophecies were described as fulfilled by Jesus. That is that Jesus was explained in the canonical Gospels as the Messiah. The Canonical Gospels are highly Jewish in their language and references. They were written by Hebrews. The Gnostic Gospels seem to be ignorant of the fact of the Jewish nature of Christ. They basically use His name but attach it

Most of Irenaeus’s quotations and references to scripture from the Old Testament, against Gnosticism, he meant to show how the old testament pointed to Christ and how the two testaments were connected. Christ had no connection to the Old Testament and his father was not the God of the Hebrews. The material world was a cosmic blunder, and Christ came to save humanity from the inept Creator God of the Old Testament. Irenaeus countered the Gnostics’ claim to secret knowledge with the concept of apostolic succession. He reasoned that if Jesus had indeed brought secret knowledge he would have told the apostles, who would have in turn have told their successors, that if any secret knowledge had been handed on by Jesus he would know it. The Docetists

The Gnostic Gospels written by Elaine Pagel discusses the origins of the Christian faith and the true reasons behind some of the Christian’s beliefs. Pagel claims that the theological disputes between the Orthodox Church and Gnostics in the early stages of Christianity were largely motivated by the political struggle for leadership of the religion. Orthodox Christians supported texts and interpretations to strengthen their goal which was to create an organization of believers. Gnostics, who was not necessarily seeking authority over Christianity, were eventually overshadowed by the supremacy of the Orthodox. Prior to the discovery of the artifact at Nag Hammadi in Egypt 1945 there were only had texts that support the Orthodox Christians belief, now historians were able to fully evaluate the two groups in a new prospective. Some of the writings found in this newly discovered artifact are believed to be the Gospel of Thomas and Mary Magdalene. Although Mary Magdalene does not have a book in the current bible, it is believed by many gnostic Christians that Jesus came to her in spirit after his death and passed on to her the secret knowledge of enlightenment. The new gospels that were discovered in Nag Hammadi doesn’t emphases on the birth or death of Jesus as the current biblical gospels do, but focuses more on Jesus’ life. Each chapter is devoted to a major theological problem that divides the Orthodox from the Gnostic. Pagel makes a compelling case that theological beliefs

Gnosticism, which was viewed as a threat to early Christian beliefs can be defined as the “thought and practice especially of various cults of late pre Christian and early Christian centuries distinguished by the conviction that matter is evil and that emancipation comes through gnosis (King, p.5).” Besides the dictionary’s condensed definition summarizing Gnosticism, “Gnosticism” is a much more complex belief composed of numerous myths defining humans and God and viewed as an ancient Christian heresy. Gnosticism is rather a term invented in the early modern period to aid in defining the boundaries of normative Christianity. Yet, it has been mistakenly come to be thought of as a distinctive Christian heresy or seen as a religion in its own

The Gospel of Thomas teaches Gnosticism along with Valentinus. For a person, the spirit in the body is good, but not the body. It also explains that all the matter in the world is not good. This applies to Valentinus when he explained that people who do not know this knowledge have bad experiences like forgetfulness. The Gospel of Thomas is also similar to the gospel of truth when it reveals that Jesus was the giver of this secret knowledge. In this gospel, Jesus freed the material world by revealing this knowledge. Jesus was no different from anyone else, except He held in His body the secret knowledge that man does not have when they are in the material world. Jesus’ goal in the Gospel of Thomas then was to tell man how to be united with the Father, just like in the gospel of truth by

Religion has existed for countless centuries. Christianity is one of the major religions in this world, which had people be criticized, battle in wars, and killed for, but it still survived to this day. The purpose of this paper is to study the source of the religion, recognize the teachings, observe its spread throughout the world, and to identify how it stands among people today. Approaching this paper by a factual report I will explain these major points and why we need to know about this religion and other religions that existed before our generation.

As shown below, the similarities between the Gnostic Christology and Trinity of the Valentinians and the orthodox Trinitarians are striking. The Valentinians were teaching a Christology very similar to the Christology of the Trinity Doctrine expressed in the Athanasian Creed about 350 before the proclamation of the Athanasian Creed.

Gnosticism is a religion that is derived from the ‘orthodox’ teachings the implies the belief of more than one God and the belief that women are of equal authority to men. This belief is quite unpopular and unknown to the modern Christianity due to its downplay from the orthodox believers. It is perceived as ‘wrong’ because the orthodox teachings were against everything the gnostic believers were. Gnosticism embraces the idea of worshipping more than one God and the belief that there are female Gods meant to rule certain things. The whole world believed in it, totally and completely--we have had many lives. The word ‘gnostic’ means ‘knowledge’ and comes from the Greek word ‘gnosis’. The Gnostics believed that they were privy

Throughout history, Christianity always had a reputation, or a “name” following it. Different perspectives approached the reputation that was attached to Christianity in different manners. Justin Martyr and Porphyry had objectives when defining whether this “name” really defined Christianity and the past. They wondered whether the past really represented Christianity. Additionally they honed in on the question of was the past that people represented as Christianity really the roots of Christianity? All around Porphyry and Justin was perceptions of what Christianity rooted from and stood for.

Furthermore, the research intends to discuss or define the term Gnosticism, it will also look at its origin and how it relates to Christianity.

“Christians, for all their orthodox profession of faith in the Trinity, are almost just monotheist in their actual religious experience. One might almost dare to affirm that if the doctrine of the Trinity were to be erased as false, most religious literature could be preserved almost unchanged throughout the process.”