Gnostic - Ropes of Sand

We next see how Irenaeus reveals how the Gnostics change the use and meaning of scriptures to support their own views.

Irenaeus [A.D. 120–202.]

 

Chapter VIII.—How the Valentinians pervert the Scriptures to support their own pious opinions.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf01.ix.ii.ix.html

 

1. Such, then, is their system, which neither the prophets announced, nor the Lord taught, nor the apostles delivered, but of which they boast that beyond all others they have a perfect knowledge. They gather their views from other sources than the Scriptures; and, to use a common proverb, they strive to weave ropes of sand, while they endeavor to adapt with an air of probability to their own peculiar assertions the parables of the Lord, the sayings of the prophets, and the words of the apostles, in order that their scheme may not seem altogether without support. In doing so, however, they disregard the order and the connection of the Scriptures, and so far as in them lies, dismember and destroy the truth. By transferring passages, and dressing them up anew, and making one thing out of another, they succeed in deluding many through their wicked art in adapting the oracles of the Lord to their opinions.