The Gnostic Christians, on the other hand, refused to believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ as they believed the flesh and the world to be evil. For them the resurrection of Jesus was only spiritual and symbolized how Christ’s presence could still be experienced at any time. In other words, the resurrection of Jesus must not necessarily be understood as an actual event, but rather as a spiritual vision that all of us can have since he is always present among us. From this we deduce that those who have a vision of the resurrected Christ receive the same authority as the Apostles and their heirs. In other words, the Orthodox Church of Rome relies only on the public teaching given by Christ and his Apostles to the "many", whereas the Gnostic Christians offer also their secret teaching known to the "few". Jesus too, during his lifetime, and later the Apostles, told some mysteries to their disciples that they refrained to mention to the outsiders. Even after his death Jesus appeared in vision to some of his disciples, and revealed some more truths and mysteries to each of them as he did to Paul. The Gnostics were more interested in the spiritual risen Christ than in the historically obscure human being called Jesus of Nazareth. As a result the Gnostic writings very often start with stories of the spiritual Christ appearing in vision to his disciples and ignore the biography of his life on earth.

The Orthodox Christians, first among them Irenaeus, always maintained that what made the four gospels so important was due to the fact that the authors witnessed personally the events they describe. In fact nobody knows the name of the authors of the gospels. All we know is that they are attributed to Apostles (Matthew and John) or their followers (Mark and Luke). In the same way, the authors of the Gnostic gospels are attributed to various disciples who may have taken their information from early tradition, even if some Gnostics admitted that they wrote about their own experience. The Gnostics believed that they communicate directly with the Divine when they received the Spirit. At first, according to the Gnostics, people believe the teaching of the others, but the true believers must receive personally the truth. This is in direct contradiction with the Orthodox Christians who believe in "the one and only truth from the Apostles, which is handed down by the Church", as written in the four gospels of the "New Testament". Gnosis authors often attribute their own traditions to persons outside the Twelve like Paul, Mary, Magdalene and James who, they say, had received "gnosis" (i.e. knowledge) when most Apostles had not.

The controversy about resurrection was critical in shaping the Christian Church. All Christians agree that Christ - or God - is the ultimate source of spiritual authority. The real question is "Who administers this authority today"? According to the Orthodox Christians, it is the Pope, the bishops, and the priests hold this authority as heirs of Jesus Christ. The Christian Gnostics would rather say that this kind of authority is best managed by those who are in direct contact with God.

The Gnostic concept of resurrection also agrees with the traditional concept of reincarnation in that they are one and the same. According to the Gnostics, at the time of Jesus’ death, it was his spirit that rose to heaven, not his body.  Later, Jesus appeared in spirit to the disciples including Paul at his conversion. Spiritual resurrection signifies the spiritual regeneration or renewal by the Holy Spirit.  Physical resurrection signifies physical regeneration or reincarnation. In this respect, resurrection is reincarnation at both the spirit and physical levels. This is the true resurrection as revealed by Christ in my humble opinion.