Gnosticism’s Invasion of the Early Church One of the earliest denials of Christ’s sufficiency was gnosticism, a cult that flourished in the first four centuries of church history. Many of the pseudo-biblical writings, including The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Mary, The Apocryphon of John, The Wisdom of Jesus Christ, and The Gospel of Philip were gnostic works. Gnostics believed matter is evil and spirit is good. They invented heretical explanations of how Christ could be God (pure, undefiled
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