>From my reading "The Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary" edited by
Charles M. Laymon, page 1048.
As the early Christian Church formed, there were many splinters.
Gnosticism (knowledge)being one of the "great heresies". Began as
"Docetism" - denying Christ's earthly life reality. It became the
replacing of Christ's birth thru God grace with a system of 'knowledge',
which would bring 'eternal life'. These beginnings were in the 2d and
3d centuries. Statements in the letter of Paul (II Cor. 4:4) seem to
speak to this form of belief. The crisis for the universal church as
opposed to Gnosticism was about the 2d century. A man named Marcion was
making a formal list of the scriptures for a new - new testament. His
teaching was that the old testament had nothing to do with the new -
that the old creator God was not the High God who had begotten Christ.
It took a while of authoritarian leadership that defenses could be made
and a formal canon of scripture with systematic theology to bring about
the "Universal" Catholic Church.
Freemasonry is an ideal! To find out how much so, you must know the
beliefs and practice of Freemasonry. Freemasonry as evolved over the
centuries, but I don't believe it has become non-Christian.
Agnosticism today is not quite a believer in the whole canon of the
Church, but not a non-believer either - rather a seeker of 'knowledge'
of the teachings of Christ. Willing to believe, but not quite
understanding. Sally
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