The Fall of the Gnostics

Who were the Gnostics? What secret knowledge did they keep? Why did they die out?

In Christianity’s first centuries, a powerful challenge to leaders of the emerging orthodoxy came from the Gnostics. “Gnostic” means “having knowledge” and these groups believed they had secret, esoteric information about life’s meaning. What were the secrets kept by the Gnostics and why did their sect eventually die out?