The Mosaic of Christian Belief: Twenty Centuries of Unity & Diversity

by Roger E. Olson

The early church of the first and second centuries was plagued by people claiming to be Christian but teaching “another gospel” known to historical theologians as Gnosticism. The Gnostics considered matter evil and denied the real incarnation and bodily resurrection of the Son of God. Their teachings about creation, Christ and salvation were so utterly contrary to what the apostles preached and the church fathers after them taught that the Christian churches of the Roman Empire developed baptismal confessions of right belief to be affirmed by all persons joining the churches. The early Christian leaders rightly recognized that a “Christianity” that included both adherents of the gospel proclaimed by the apostles such as Paul and John and Gnostics would be meaningless because it would be compatible with too much, if not everything.