Please give the basic tenets of Gnosticism and how 1 John answered this system of thought.

Question:

The Epistle of 1 John was written (among other things) to combat the heresy of Gnosticism. Please give the basic tenets of Gnosticism and how I John answered this system of thought.

Answer:

Firstly, the term Gnosticism is derived from the Greek word “gnosis” translated “knowledge”. It is this term that helps us begin our understanding of the positioning of the value found in its beliefs  –  that is in salvation gained through “special knowledge” (gnosis). So what is this “special knowledge” that supposedly helps us gain salvation?

We must begin with exploring the worldview of the Gnostics which removes the element of a personal God and makes Him unknowable. This is concluded from a simple and flawed logic based on the fact that God is by nature too perfect and pure for us. The origins of our being are also very different than the Christian worldview as Gnostics believe that God created lesser gods called emanations and in turn one of these tried to know the unknowable God via Wisdom. This mistake that seems to mark a loose parallel to Satan wanting to have God’s nature and humanity’s original sin of wanting to seek knowledge from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (God’s domain) seems eerily familiar. Out of this faulty goal came an evil god (demiurge) who created the universe and beings known as the archons who subdued us “mortals” to prevent our souls from returning to our intended state with God. Indeed, this is all extremely fascinating mythology …