Gnostics always condemned

It was after Tiberius Caesar (reigned 14 A.D. to 37 A.D.) that opposition began against the Church in the Roman Empire - always by instigation of the Jews and their co-conspirators, Gentile Gnostics.

It is a condemned Gnostic doctrine, as all Gnostic doctrines are condemned, to claim that so called "works salvation" is wrong and we should rely on grace apart from Christ alone as head over His church or repentance from sin doesn't matter or grace alone is sufficient and works are not required. All of these: repentance and grace through Christ but with works as He in fact commanded in both Old and New Testaments are in fact all required for salvation. And the works in fact include not joining with heretics nor infidels nor acquiescing to false dictums and commandments of men claiming to have dominion over that which they never could. Simon Magus, Simon the Magician, taught the falsehoods here that are condemned and was a false Christ and a false prophet - a true child of the Devil and led people only to damnation.

Simon Magus, below, was the propagator of Gnosticism in opposition to the true Gospel of Christ.

The Justice of God: Eternal faith and beliefs: Christian Belief 2 Section One through Five

Section Three

ST. IRENAEUS AGAINST HERESIES BOOK I CHAP. XXIII.-DOCTRINES AND PRACTICES OF SIMON MAGUS AND MENANDER.

I. Simon the Samaritan was that magician of whom Luke, the disciple and follower of the apostles, says, “But there was a certain man, Simon by name, who beforetime used magical arts in that city, and led astray the people of Samaria, declaring that he himself was some great one, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This is the power of God, which is called great. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had driven them mad by his sorceries.” This Simon, then - who feigned faith, supposing that the apostles themselves performed their cures by the art of magic, and not by the power of God; and with respect to their filling with the Holy Spirit, through the imposition of hands, those that believed in God through Him who was preached by them, namely, Christ Jesus - suspecting that even this was done through a kind of greater knowledge of magic, and offering money to the apostles, thought he, too, might receive this power of bestowing the Holy Spirit on whomsoever he would, - was addressed in these words by Peter: “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God can be purchased with money: thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God; for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.” 8 He, then, not putting faith in God a whit the more, set himself eagerly to contend against the apostles, in order that he himself might seem to be a wonderful being, and applied himself with still greater zeal to the study of the whole magic art, that he might the better bewilder and overpower multitudes of men. Such was his procedure in the reign of Claudius Caesar, by whom also he is said to have been honoured with a statue, on account of his magical power. This man, then, was glorified by many as if he were a god; and he taught that it was himself who appeared among the Jews as the Son; but descended in Samaria as the Father, while he came to other nations in the character of the Holy Spirit. He represented himself, in a word, as being the loftiest of all powers, that is, the Being who is the Father over all, and he allowed himself to be called by whatsoever title men were pleased to address him. For ( according to Simon ) men are saved through his grace, and not on account of their own righteous actions. [ - that is shear apostate heresy, notice that includes the idea that earthly men can arbitrarily bestow the Holy Spirit on anyone they wish, especially for bribes, or that anything of God has anything to do with magic - it never could. All of that is blasphemy.]

2. Now this Simon of Samaria, from whom all sorts of heresies derive their origin, formed his sect….
The successor of this man was Menander, also a Samaritan by birth, and he, too, was a perfect adept in the practice of magic.