Though there were many Gnostic sects, they all agreed on certain basic assumptions. They maintained that Jesus was a human martyr, rather than divine. According to Gnostic belief, the Holy Spirit and Jesus of Nazareth were two separate beings; Jesus was a man of flesh who, at baptism, received the Holy Spirit and became Christ. The spirit inhabited His body until the crucifixion, and was then altered and released. Gnostic teaching is based upon the knowledge of transcendence through internal and innate methods expressed as an exclusive religious experience. Most Gnostic scriptures take the form of myth in which a true, ultimate, and uplifting God, who is beyond all created universes and has, in fact, never created anything, has radiated from within Himself the substance of all that there is in the world, consequently everything consists of the substance of God. Despite this, many segments of the initial divine essence have been cast so far from the source that they endured objectionable alterations. All of the mythical variations of the Gnostics refer specifically to Aeons, the immediate godlike entities which exist between the True God and humans. Along with the True God, they comprise the realm of Fullness (the Pleroma) in which spirituality is able to operate. The corporeal universe was created not by the True God, but by a divinity which was himself created when the Aeon Sophia (Wisdom) sought to familiarize herself with the perfect, pre-existing Aeon. This desire had to be separated from her in order for her to remain within the Pleroma; she thereby emanated from herself a defective being who fashioned material and psychic space. This imperfect entity had been produced outside of the Pleroma and was therefore unaware of his own origin, and thus believed himself to be the True God. Contrarily, the Orthodox Church viewed the coming of Jesus as a literal event and thought that the separation of body from human life was outlandish, thus believing that Jesus was inseparably both flesh and spirit. Christianity considered the crucifixion to be a historical account; his martyrdom was therefore an allocation of the forgiveness of sins and consequently, salvation.

While Orthodoxy considered it necessary to proclaim one’s faith, Gnosticism argued that if one lived in Gnostic faith and conducted oneself well, salvation would then be attained. They held this to be a superior contention, considering the fact that even hypocrites are able to proclaim faith, yet obtain deliverance without having believed. Gnostics viewed the relationship between salvation and themselves to be on a more personal level, insisting that religious enlightenment is acquired through gnosis: knowledge and introspection. Once this had been achieved, one was considered a member of the elect few. Because human nature is comprised of both the flawed physicality of the false creator and the fragment of divine essence derived from the True God, ignorance is cultivated, preventing countless humans from realizing gnosis. Although death releases the divine “spark” from a human, if sufficient gnosis has not been previously undertaken, the “spark” will be returned to the physical world. Gnostics did not seek salvation from sin, but rather from the ignorance of which sin is a cons

Some topics in this essay:
True God, Orthodox Church, Valentinian Gnostics, Gnosticism Irenaeus, Gospel Truth, Spirit Christ, Timothy Colossians, Tree Knowledge, Adam Eve, Sophia Wisdom, true god, orthodox church, valentinian gnostics, holy spirit, tree knowledge, gnostics held, obtain victory them”, knowledge irenaeus, salvation knowledge, gospel truth, orthodox faith, exhibit sentiments obtain, salvation knowledge irenaeus, sentiments obtain victory, son holy spirit,