,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all
things were created by Him and for Him, and He is _before all things_,
and by Him _all things consist_." [203:1]

The philosophical system of the Gnostics also led them to adopt false
views respecting the _body of Christ_. As, according to their theory,
the Messiah appeared to deliver men from the bondage of evil matter,
they could not consistently acknowledge that He himself inhabited an
earthly tabernacle. They refused to admit that our Lord was born of a
human parent; and, as they asserted that He had a body only in
appearance, or that His visible form as man was in reality a phantom,
they were at length known by the title of Docetae. [204:1] The Apostle
John repeatedly attests the folly and the danger of such speculations.
"The Word," says he, "was _made flesh_ and dwelt among us. [204:2] ...
Every spirit that _confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the
flesh_ is not of God. [204:3] ... That which was from the beginning,
which we have _heard_, which we have _seen_ with our eyes, which we have
_looked upon_, and _our hands have handled_ of the Word of Life ...
declare we unto you. [204:4] ... _Many deceivers_ are entered into the
world who confess not that _Jesus Christ is come in the flesh_." [204:5]

Reasoning from the principle that evil is inherent in matter, the
Gnostics believed the union of the soul and the body to be a calamity.
According to their views the spiritual being can never attain the
perfection of which he is susceptible so long as he remains connected
with his present corporeal organization. Hence they rejected the
doctrine of the resurrection of the body. When Paul asks the
Corinthians--"How say some among you that there is no resurrection of
the dead?" [204:6]--he alludes to the Gnostic denial of this article of
the Christian theology. He also refers to the same circumstance when he
denounces the "profane and vain babblings" of those who "concerning the
truth" had erred, "saying that the resurrection is past already."
[204:7] These heretics, it would appear, maintained that an introduction
to their _Gnosis_, or knowledge, was the only genuine deliverance from
the dominion of death; and argued accordingly that, in the case of those
who had been initiated into the mysteries of their system, the
resurrection was "past already."

The ancient Christian writers concur in stating that Simon, mentioned in
the Acts of the Apos