What is the definition of the termGnostic?

Before the first century closed there arose the Gnostics — i.e. "The knowing Ones" — who claimed to give a more intellectual version of the faith than had been given by the "unlearned and ignorant men" (Acts 4:13), as the Apostles were from a worldly standpoint. Thus they turned some aside. It was an adulteration, and hence John's repeated reference to what was "from the beginning." Nothing other or different from that is set before us in the Scriptures.

The early Christians were much troubled by the so-called "Gnostics;" that is, the "Knowing-ones." We have been made familiar with agnostics, that is, people who deny that any certain knowledge of God and His things is possible. The Gnostics were at the opposite pole: they claimed to be initiated and have the superior knowledge, but their theories denied both the essential Godhead and the true humanity of Jesus. Then there were those who separated Jesus from the Christ. The Christ was to them an ideal, a state into which man might graduate; whereas Jesus was the historic Man who appeared at Nazareth. The Gospel that John wrote meets these errors, and was designed to do so.

These people were called Gnostics, a name derived from the Greek word for knowledge. They professed to be “the knowing ones,” whereas their teaching was anti-Christian and blasphemous. It was this that led the Apostle to instruct the saints to “try the spirits, whether they are of God.” Its warning to us is that we beware of theological novelties, and that we rely on what has been made known from the outset. The word is, “ Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father” (2:24).

We may now well ask, What is the precise meaning of confessing “Jesus Christ come in the flesh”? To understand the need of the warning, we may say that a set of people arose in the days of the Apostle John called “Gnostics”. They professed to have advanced from the simplicity of early Christianity and to have received further light. The word “Gnostic,” means one who knows. It is just the opposite of Agnostic, which means the one who does not know; though as a matter of fact the Agnostic usually thinks that he knows more than the Christian, and holds him in contempt as being enslaved in superstition.

The successors of Simon, such as Cerinthus and Valentinus so systematised his theories as to become the founders of that form of gnosticism with which the church had to contend in the second century. The name implies pretensions to some superior knowledge. It is generally thought that St. Paul refers to this meaning of the word when warning his son Timothy against "science," or knowledge, "falsely so called."

This fact furnished the "antichrists" with a point of attack. These earliest "antichrists" were known as gnostics, a word which signified, the knowing ones. They too would speak by power that was obviously of a spirit. They claimed that they knew, and set up their ideas in opposition to that which had been revealed through the apostles. It was because of this that the Apostle digresses a little from his main theme in the opening verses of chapter 4.

When the Apostle John wrote these two Epistles he was confronted with that which was imperilling the truth. The adversary was coming in very strongly and that in a twofold way. First of all, men had appeared actively propagating error as to Christ, and if teaching as to Him be falsified, everything is marred, since He is the truth. These first century deceivers were known as "Gnostics," a term derived from the Greek word for knowledge. They claimed to be the knowing ones. The Apostles of our Lord were as to the things of the world, "unlearned and ignorant men," so the Gnostics claimed to be able to lead on to improved and more intellectual teaching. They did not abide in that which was "from the beginning." The word translated, "transgresses" in 2 John 9, really means "goes forward," that is, they claimed to be making an advance on earlier ideas in what they taught. In reality their fancied developments were destructive.

One of the first attacks came from a sect called Gnostics, their name derived from the Greek word, Gnosis, knowledge. They denied that the Lord had a true human body. They taught that He was an apparition, appearing in the likeness of a man, that He suffered on the cross in appearance only, and not in reality. They professed that they knew. Their attitude is described thus:

Such was the doctrine and attitude of Gnosticism. We see it reproduced in principle in all esoteric cults, whose adherents pride themselves upon being in the know, and despise and hold as of no account all outside their ranks. This spirit is their sufficient condemnation. The doctrines of the Christian faith are plainly set forth for all to know. It is written of the little children in the family of God,

An early system of philosophy professedly Christian. One of their theories was that the Lord was an Æon and not really a man. Apparently to refute this the apostle insists on Christ having come 'in flesh.' 1 John 4:2-3; 2 John 7. The same may be alluded to in Col. 2:9, "in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," in opposition to their mysticism. See GENEALOGIES.

1883 356 All the various heretical sects up to this time are but offshoots of Gnosticism. They caused parties within the church rather than distinct and separate communities without. The time however had now come when an open and antagonistic division cut in twain that which in the past was considered as one church. Gnosticism, was itself fundamentally a combination of Judaism and heathen philosophy, which denied the Christ of God and put a creation of its own in His place. In this all the principal Gnostic sects united, however they varied otherwise in detail. But it had to make way for a simpler and less gross but equally fatal error, Arianism.