Gnostic Christianity

Etymologically: The word Gnosticism comes from a Greek root that means "knowledge." This concept of knowledge is one of the most emphasized by our masters, may their glory be exalted.

Technically: Gnosticism refers to factions that hold a set of esoteric beliefs. Among these is the idea that human souls are trapped within their "sinful" bodies, meaning the body is a prison for the soul. They believe people are subject to repeated births, known today as "reincarnation" or the "cycles and periods." Salvation and escape from this body can only be achieved when a person discovers the origin of their soul and the reality of its source through self-knowledge.

Gnostics believe in the journey of the human soul. It descends to Earth within a material spirit—the "sinful body"—then ascends to the heavens to enter the world of light. This is conditioned on the person awakening in their life from the illusion of the "ego" to realize the essence and source of their soul. Otherwise, they will remain in endless cycles of incarnation in the lower material world through reincarnation.

Gnostics believe in a God of Light, "the Supreme Luminous One," and a God of Darkness, "the lesser god who represents the lower world." They hold that the God of Darkness is the one who created matter, such as the body, the Earth, and similar things.

Gnostics believe that the Lord Messiah, may his glory be exalted, did not have a body but was a phantom. His life on Earth was an illusion, an abstract image. When evil spread among humanity, the God of Light sent the Lord Messiah to them to save them from the evil in which they were immersed.

As their scholar Saturninus says: The Savior—the Lord Messiah—was without birth, without a body, and without form. He was seen only hypothetically. He came to destroy the God of the Jews, who was one of the angels, and to save those who believe.

Their scholar Valentinus said: The Messiah was not born of the Virgin, but his ethereal body passed through her virginal body.