Gnostic Influence On Christianity

Gnostics were people who claimed to possess special personal knowledge unavailable to ordinary Christians. Some Gnostics believed that Jesus was not human, that he was not born of a virgin and that he died on the cross etc. They got these ideas from other religions. Their teachings didn’t match with the Apostles’ teachings. As the Gnostic threat grew in the 300s, Church leaders called councils to come up with ideas to show the truth. For example at the councils they stated that Jesus is fully human and fully divine. They started writing down passages that reflected from Jesus’ teachings that would soon become the New Testament. They also did apostolic succession and they wrote they Nicene Creed in 381. This was very significant because if they