At the most basic level, the terms

Gnostic and Gnosticism refer to a belief

that is rooted in special knowledge. The
term gnosis is where we get the English
word knowledge from. Gnosticism in
its broadest sense is about a religious
view based on a claim about
knowledge.
1.Dualism: this means that there is
both in the creation and in man and in
man a mix of good and evil that is
distinguishable, at they exist side by
side. God is seen as being two different
god’s. There is a god who created, then
there is a secret god who is
unknowable.
2. Cosmogony (Origin of the
universe): In creation there is a
contrast of spheres, often called light
versus darkness, spirit versus flesh,
and knowledge versus ignorance.
Immaterial is good (Spirit), material
(flesh) is bad.
3. Soteriology (or salvation): Salvation
and redemption are understood
primarily in terms of secret knowledge.
Salvation of the spirit within a person is
what matters, not salvation of the flesh.
In fact, the flesh is not redeemable.
There is no resurrection of the body
from the dead.
4. Eschatology (or the teaching
about the last things): The only
important matter is someone
understands leaving the flesh
(material) behind.
The Gnostic gospels were discovered
in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, near Cairo in
1945 and translated into English in
1977. The Gospel of Thomas (140–
170) has 114 “secret sayings” of Jesus.

Where do these texts come from?

• In the Nag Hammadi materials we find
new, intriguing titles, some gospels and
some not. Such titles include Gospel of
Thomas, Gospel of Philip, Gospel of
Mary, Acts of John, Testimony of Truth,
Pistis Sophia, Wisdom of Jesus Christ,
and many others. Their dates range from
the second to the third century A.D.
• The bulk of this material is a few
generations removed from the
foundations of the Christian faith, a
vital point to remember when
assessing the contents.
This movement had “bad seeds” (Acts
8, 1 Tim. 6:20, 1 John) in the first
century, but it “grew” in the second
century as a heretical movement
against true Christianity.
The Person of Jesus, the Work of the
Cross, and Salvation: An unorthodox
feature of Gnosticism involved how
Jesus was understood in His person,
suffering, and work of salvation. Here
we consider the of Apocalypse of Peter
81:4–24.
I saw him apparently being seized by them. And I
said, “What am I seeing, O Lord? Is it really you
whom they take? And are you holding on to me? And
are they hammering the feet and hands of another?
Who is this one above the cross, who is glad and
laughing?” The Savior said to me, “He whom you
saw being glad and laughing above the cross is the
Living Jesus. But he into whose hands and feet they
are driving the nails is his fleshly part, which is the
substitute. They put to shame that which remained in
his likeness. And look at him, and [look at] me!
Why look at the Gospel of Thomas: This is the most
popular of the findings. It has the most verses and it is
the most complete of the manuscripts.

Thomas is also a “fan” favorite among liberal scholars.

Some feel that we should get rid of all the gospels and
base out faith on this gospel alone.

Our best defense against these people is simply to see

what the text says for itself, and show them how the text
is not the same as the bible.
A supporter for the Gospel of Thomas is
Elaine Pagels: She said, “the discovery of
Thomas's gospel shows us that other early
Christians held quite different
understandings of “the gospel." We should
read the gospel not as something wrong,
rather as unfamiliar to us, getting a chance
to know it more.”
In 1945, two years before the Dead Sea
Scroll were discovered, some Bedouin
workers were digging for fertilizer near a cliff
a few hundred kilometers south of Cairo
stumbling across some manuscripts in a jar.
The unique thing about these manuscripts
were them being in “book form” already.
 Prior to this find some of the early
church fathers, (Origen, Ambrose,
Jerome) were already condemning
the writing in the 3-4 century. No
one knew where it was until many
years later.