Top Ten Interesting Facts You'll Learn about the Gnostics

1. Gnostic heresies prompted early Christian leaders to refine their beliefs.
2. The Gnostics believed that God the Father of Jesus was not same God worshipped by the ancient Hebrews.
3. The earthly realm and physical universe were created in error god called the Demiurge, the Gnostics believed.
4. Salvation, the Gnostics believed, did not come from the death of Jesus but rather through secret self-knowledge, or gnosis .
5. The Gnostics believed that the physical world has entrapped those who possess sparks of the divine light (or divine nature) within them.
6. Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Nag Hammadi library has worldwide interest in the origins of Christianity and the role the Gnostics.
7. Scholarly interpretations and commentary of the recently discovered ancient texts have led to a clearer understanding of the diversity Christian communities, including those of the Gnostic Christians, tumultuous period in which they emerged.
8. The Gnostics did not discriminate against women in their worship or fellowship sessions.
9. Valentinus founded a system of Gnostic belief that flourished and posed a real threat to orthodox Christianity.
10. Gnostic traditions flourished between the second and fourth centuries but the movement all but died out by the middle of the fifth century.