Gnosticism

False knowledge exalted about Scriptures – “O Timothy, keep that which is commited to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called.” (1 Tim. 6:20)
The Greek word in this verse which is translated “science”, is, “gnosis.” “Gnosis” means knowledge. The apostle condemned, not knowledge in general, but false knowledge. False teachers were placing their own interpretations on Christian truth by reading into it human ideas. This tendency grew and increased until a great system bearing the name of Christianity, known as Gnosticism, was established. To show that this religion was not a theory without an organization among men, but that it had communities and was widespread, I quote from Milman: “The later Gnostics were bolder, but more consistent innovators on the simple scheme of Christianity…In all the great cities of the East in which Christianity had established its most flourishing communities, sprang up this rival which aspired to a still higher degree of knowledge than was revealed in the Gospel, and boasted that it soared almost as much above the vulgar Christianity as the vulgar paganism.”