A Friends wisdom

One could argue fairly compellingly that gnostic Christianity died because it is a philosophy of individual enlightenment, not a strict set of rules and dogma for the whole public to follow. As rules and dogma make rulers and kings much happier than any philosophy that encourages individual thought and action, the various manifestations of gnostic Christianity weren't supported by very many powerful folks, and within a few hundred years of the Christian conquest of Rome and its empire, any remaining Gnostics had to head for the hills or face exile or execution. Interestingly, even in the orthodox scriptures, most notably the gospels of John and Mark, and some of Paul's epistles (especially those considered more likely to be 'genuine' by modern scholars), there's a lot of subtle gnostic philosophy...though if you suggested that to just about any priest or minister, they'd freak out. There are also many gospels and biblical-era inspired writings that are just as old as the orthodox biblical texts that are completely and openly dedicated to gnostic ideals and interpretations of the Christian message. Do a search on 'Nag Hammadi texts' and 'gospel of Thomas' to learn more from the original source material.

Oh, as a side note -- unlike the orthodox denominations (orthodox with a small 'o,' that is, the vast majority of modern organized Christianity that is more similar than dissimilar, including accepting largely the same text as biblical canon), there isn't one gnostic philosophy. Gnostic itself derives from 'gnosis,' meaning knowledge, and gnostic Christianity accepts personal experience, inspiration, and knowledge over any absolute rules or any canonical text. That said, most of the gnostic schools accepted or considered the idea of the false or ignorant creator as laid out in the first post. However, if one takes the essence of the term gnostic, it could be argued that the Quaker/Society of Friends interpretation of Christianity is a modern manifestation of Gnosticism. In fact, plenty of modern scholars have argued precisely that, and this is most apparent among the liberal Quakers. Another more evident modern manifestation of gnosticism is in the writings and illustrations of William Blake, who was quite blatantly gnostic, including talking about the importance of personal knowledge and inner experience, and the value and power of the 'inner light' for guiding the individual, as well as writing extensively about the demiurge (the false, fallen, and ignorant creator who trapped life, the manifestation of the divine light, in the prison of flesh and the darkness of the material world and the body). Some charges thrown at various gnostic churches by the dominant churches is that they're Satanists. Since most gnostics consider the god of the Old Testament as being the evil or ignorant demiurge, this has a little bit of truth to it, but only in an extremely roundabout and misleading fashion. According to some of the Gnostics who thought this, the serpent in the garden was actually a liberator, possibly even the Christ manifest, because the serpent gave humanity the gift of knowledge that could eventually be used to liberate humanity from the trap of the material world. There are also some similarities between Gnostic Christianity and Buddhism, as may be apparent to some even just reading this thread.