However, those who wrote them, The Gnostics, were condemned by St. Paul.
This fact has never been an obstacle for the Gnostic sympathisers. For example, according to Elaine Pagels, the Apostle Paul was actually a Gnostic himself and the anti-Gnostic Pastoral Epistles were "pseudo-Pauline" forgeries written by the corrupt and ambitious Church prelates who wanted to conceal Paul's Gnosticism.
I would not say that Gnostics who uphold the divinity of Christ are somehow "non-Christians." But they do have an obnoxious inclination to knife-up scripture and remake the Bible to suit their own needs, rather like Marcion.
Last edited by marlowe007; 24th September 2009 at 01:19 AM.
apocrypha 15 books translated with vulgate, 7 of the 15 in the catholic old testament [deuterocanocals works of a lesser nature]...Judith, tobit, 1,2 macabees; Wisdom, Sirach , Song of the Hebrew children, bel and the dragon....
It's fair to say that most Gnostic principles are contained in the New Testament. The only thing that separates the Orthodox and Gnostic interpretations is that Gnostics read between the lines and apply Jesus' parables to Spiritual essence and not to Ego-creature...
Last edited by marlowe007; 7th November 2009 at 08:34 PM.
Certain heretical sects and teaching are often categorized under the term "Gnostic" (or rather "Gnostic's FALSELY so called") but the Fathers did not mean to imply by this that there is not a TRUE Christian gnosis .
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"The Devil cunningly induces us- instead of arousing us against himself-to notice our neighbors' sins, to make us spiteful and angry with others, and to awaken our contempt twoard them, thus keeping us in enmity with them, and with the Lord God himself."
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If this has been posted earlier on this thread, I apologize. If not, this site will help identify what those circa 170 A.D. saw as canonical books of The New Testament: www.bible-researcher.com/muratorian.html
It's fair to say that most Gnostic principles are contained in the New Testament. The only thing that separates the Orthodox and Gnostic interpretations is that Gnostics read between the lines and apply Jesus' parables to Spiritual essence and not to Ego-creature...
RUBBISH!!!
If your goal is to embarrass yourself by demonstrating the pinnacle of absurdity, congratulations on a job well done!!!
__________________ "May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance." 2 Thessalonians 3:5
Yes, the New Age movement borrows from ancient Gnosticism. Hence, the current interest in the Gnostic "gospels."
The sayings ripped from the Gospel of Thomas are in my opinion too intelligent and insightful to have been fabricated; the debased new-age world fails to come close to resonating with those words. By the way, I have a keen disliking of the new-age crowds draped in robes seeking the glamour of Eastern spirituality, and I do not favour the material from Thomas over the canonical Gospels in the slightest. However, upon my knowledge of the mysticism spoken by those who lived and breathed the NT Gospels, the sayings in Thomas fit perfectly within that heritage, and are a million light years beyond the ken of the average new-age goo-goo mystic.
Last edited by marlowe007; 29th November 2009 at 05:50 PM.
Perhaps you embarrass yourself - the Gospel of John is generally recognised a Gnostic Gospel.
The Gospel of John is universally recognized as written by the author of I John, who in short order declares all Gnostics damned.
We have two sets of Gospels. Those which are Jewish in thought, and those which are Greek. Which ones were written by the Jewish followers of Christ, and which ones represent the infusion of foreign philosophies into a preexisting belief system? It's not rocket science. The only hard part in studying Gnostic gospels is figuring out why so many people are under the mistaken understanding that Gnostophiles like Pagels, et. al., are unbiased scholars who produce reasonable or mainstream scholarship.
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