Heretical Gnosticism

1 Timothy 4:3: “[They] forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.”

Gnosticism: “Forbidding people to marry” and “abstaining from certain foods” were teachings of early Gnostic dualism. The “teachings of demons” do not label themselves as such; instead, they are hidden under a cloak of goodness and holiness, and they appeal to human reasoning. Believers should hold fast to the teachings of the Bible, neither giving in to lust nor practicing asceticism, but “receiving with thanksgiving” everything God has created.

The Greek word Gnosis means “knowledge.” Gnostics held a dualistic belief that the spiritual world was holy, while the material world was evil. They believed that salvation could only be attained through a kind of secret, mystical knowledge. Gnosticism reached its peak in the early 2nd century. Paul points out the core error of Gnostic dualism here: the denial of the material world created by God. “Forbidding marriage” and “abstaining from foods” were superficially practices of seeking holiness, but in reality, they were attempts to achieve self-righteousness through the flesh.

This heresy taught that:

1、Since the material world is corrupt, the holy, supreme God could not possibly have any connection with it. Therefore, Gnostics invented various theories to deny the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

2、Since the material world is evil, the God who created the heavens and the earth (Yahweh) must be an inferior, evil god, not the supreme, good God. Therefore, anyone Yahweh considered evil became a hero (e.g., the serpent in the Garden of Eden, Cain, Sodom and Gomorrah, Judas), and anything Yahweh considered good was to be opposed (e.g., marriage, the Law).

Gnosticism led to two extreme tendencies: one was asceticism, which held that the material body was worthless and should therefore be disciplined; the other was libertinism, which argued that since the spirit was superior to the body, indulging in physical desires did not affect one’s spirituality. Gnosticism influenced many religions in the 1st to 3rd centuries, such as Manichaeism, and also infiltrated the early church, becoming one of its earliest heresies. The Gospel of Judas is an example of a Gnostic text. Modern Gnosticism is popular in the New Age movement, and the novel The Da Vinci Code is based on Gnostic ideas.