On Feb 27, 7:00�am, "
Your remarks appear to imply an orderly transition to the orthodox
church hammered together by compromise at coucils like the one
held inNicea. Hundreds of years AD Christians were still debating the
Trinity.

Um, I'm not sure this is right. �Even at Nicaea both sides were
Trinitarian. �Possibly you have the �various 5th century
Christological controversies in mind here?

One of the major points of debate and controversy at Nicea was the
"Arian heresy". It would be grossly inaccurate to say that both sides
were trinitarian. The Bishop Arius postulated that if Jesus was the
son of God then Jesus was created by God and could not be equal to God
without creating a second God. Adding the Holy Spirit to the mix
created a third, as far as Arius was concerned.

Arius was banished from the church. One of his prominent supporters,
Eusebius (sp?) backed down from his support of Arius and was allowed
to remain in the church even though he refused to sign what is now
known as the Nicene Creed. The Creed places great emphasis on a triune
diety.

some details:

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/g...p/aa082499.htm






Um, gnosis *is* secret knowledge. �The gnostics pretended that their
ever-changing teachings were apostolic. �The fathers challenged this
by pointing out that the churches founded by these apostles knew
nothing of them teaching any such thing. �The gnostic response was
that these teachings were transmitted privately -- which sort of gives
the game away.


There is a difference between surpressed knowledge and secret
knowledge. Many of the texts that freely circulated in the first few
hundred years AD were eventually surpressed by the othodox church. The
Gospel of Thomas is an excellent example of a freely distributed text
that reflected the gnostic, vs. orthodox philosophy. It's available
today in an English translation at Barnes and Noble, how secret can
that be? :-)



My advice would be: always be wary of anybody who tells you, "You
don't have the authority or capacity to understand the message, so hire
me to understand it and interpret it for you." Woa, talk about a
slippery slope........



Surely. �But this is a classic gnostic position.


I would imagine that gnostic Christians were/are not too disturbed to
be called "heretics" by the orthodox church. That was the same charge
that the Sanhedrin brought against Jesus for such offenses as healing
during Sabbat, offering to forgive sins, etc. If the gnostics have a
secret, it may well be that the Kingdom of God is spiritual in
nature-