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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
Discussing the gnostic	Rachel	Saturday, December 11, 2004
Question: Hi Brother, I recently met someone who seems very sincerely seeking truth, but unfortunately has been looking in the wrong place. I haven't had much of a chance to talk to him, but he is interested in my reaction to a book called something like "The Gnostic Gospels". I am certainly confident that I can read a book like this without being personally deceived (along with many prayers against the spirit of witchcraft which often permeates these heretical texts), but I am wondering if there are any specific resources that you could point me to so that I can refute any points that the book makes. I know that there's only so much you can debate before it has to be the work of the Holy Spirit that takes over, but since this man appears to be sincerely seeking, I would like to be able to answer his questions about why the "gospels" found in Nag Hammadi, for example, are false and why the Church fathers chose the books they did (what with all of this "Da Vinci Code" nonsence hanging around, everybody seems to think it was a conspiracy to keep the role of Mary Magdalene (as Jesus' wife, of course) and the somehow suppressed early Christian worship of the goddess 'Sophia' under wraps in order to serve a male hierarchy and oppress women...and to think all this time, we never knew ;) ). I'd like to be able to answer these points sincerely and intelligently, and I'd appreciate being pointed in the right direction if you have the time and resources available. Thank you very much, and please pray for this young man. -Rachel
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM Dear Rachel: The reason certain manuscripts were not accepted by the Church was because those manuscripts contains teachings that were contrary to what Jesus and the Apostles taught. Obviously, when compiling the New Testament the bishops had to evaluate whether or not the manuscripts in question contained heresies. Gnosticism is a heresy. Gnosticism is... A collective name for a large number of greatly-varying and pantheistic-idealistic sects, which flourished from some time before the Christian Era down to the fifth century, and which, while borrowing the phraseology and some of the tenets of the chief religions of the day, and especially of Christianity, held matter to be a deterioration of spirit, and the whole universe a depravation of the Deity, and taught the ultimate end of all being to be the overcoming of the grossness of matter and the return to the Parent-Spirit, which return they held to be inaugurated and facilitated by the appearance of some God-sent Saviour. View the entire article on Gnosticism from the Catholic Encyclopedia. Also the Catholic Answers article, Knowing the Gnostics. Essentially Gnosticism is the age old human arrogance that human beings can find esoteric knowledge (secret knowledge) that only they could know. As for the Da Vinci Code there is an entire book that refutes that nonsense. It is published by Ignatius Press: Click here God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary

Question Title

Posted By

Question Date

Discussing the gnostic

Rachel

Saturday, December 11, 2004

Question:

Hi Brother,

I recently met someone who seems very sincerely seeking truth, but unfortunately has been looking in the wrong place. I haven't had much of a chance to talk to him, but he is interested in my reaction to a book called something like "The Gnostic Gospels".

I am certainly confident that I can read a book like this without being personally deceived (along with many prayers against the spirit of witchcraft which often permeates these heretical texts), but I am wondering if there are any specific resources that you could point me to so that I can refute any points that the book makes.

I know that there's only so much you can debate before it has to be the work of the Holy Spirit that takes over, but since this man appears to be sincerely seeking, I would like to be able to answer his questions about why the "gospels" found in Nag Hammadi, for example, are false and why the Church fathers chose the books they did (what with all of this "Da Vinci Code" nonsence hanging around, everybody seems to think it was a conspiracy to keep the role of Mary Magdalene (as Jesus' wife, of course) and the somehow suppressed early Christian worship of the goddess 'Sophia' under wraps in order to serve a male hierarchy and oppress women...and to think all this time, we never knew ;) ).

I'd like to be able to answer these points sincerely and intelligently, and I'd appreciate being pointed in the right direction if you have the time and resources available. Thank you very much, and please pray for this young man.

-Rachel

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM

Dear Rachel:

The reason certain manuscripts were not accepted by the Church was because those manuscripts contains teachings that were contrary to what Jesus and the Apostles taught. Obviously, when compiling the New Testament the bishops had to evaluate whether or not the manuscripts in question contained heresies.

Gnosticism is a heresy. Gnosticism is...

A collective name for a large number of greatly-varying and pantheistic-idealistic sects, which flourished from some time before the Christian Era down to the fifth century, and which, while borrowing the phraseology and some of the tenets of the chief religions of the day, and especially of Christianity, held matter to be a deterioration of spirit, and the whole universe a depravation of the Deity, and taught the ultimate end of all being to be the overcoming of the grossness of matter and the return to the Parent-Spirit, which return they held to be inaugurated and facilitated by the appearance of some God-sent Saviour.

View the entire article on Gnosticism from the Catholic Encyclopedia. Also the Catholic Answers article, Knowing the Gnostics.

Essentially Gnosticism is the age old human arrogance that human beings can find esoteric knowledge (secret knowledge) that only they could know.

As for the Da Vinci Code there is an entire book that refutes that nonsense. It is published by Ignatius Press: Click here

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary