Found. The third and Final Testament.

[clancy]

Yeah, I bet the gnostic bizarro Jesus wore wife beater T-shirts.

 

[glitch]

Gnostics believe that Yahweh of the Old Testament was a demiurge who called himself the only one true god because he was wicked and knew nothing of the existence of the numerous philosophical deities from which he illegally emanated. Is that correct?

They also believe Jesus never owned a body, but when he appeared on Earth, he was merely an illusion of flesh, for he was actually only a spirit. Thus Gnostics believe flesh is inherently evil and needs to be left behind.

Let me know if i'm wrong about any of this. I thought Gnostics died out way long ago, but i'm not surprised to see new Gnostics in a day when people are reviving even Egyptian Paganism ("Kemetism").

 

[Stone]

Found. The third and Final Testament.

The third and Final Testament is being written by Gnostic thinkers and the only truth that you can trust. The reason that you will trust it is simply because it is your truth based on your understanding of reality and largely based on your feelings. That is why you can and will have complete trust in it and your God.

The Jewish God was the first and only monotheistic God. That God was adopted and corrupted by Constantine and the Catholic Orthodox church that he bought. This new Church reversed much of the initial Jewish thinking of God and returned to the more ancient thinking of a triune God of war. To solidify their position they killed many Gnostics and Jews and in the Gnostic case,tried to eradicate their thinking by burning all Gnostic scriptures. They missed a few and failed Just as Hitler failed in his book burning campaign.

The Jewish and Gnostic religions were religions designed to create thinking autonomous humans who did not need big brother church and it’s hierarchical guides to lead people by the nose to a God. Gnostics used their gospels to accomplish that desired end. God to Gnostics was an internalized experience gained through apotheosis. Gnosticism is the personal connection to God that Christianity speaks of but never accomplishes. This is because their focus is to the hierarchy of the Church and not to God. The Christian highlighted obedience over thinking, even as most religions of the day were highlighting enlightenment or the finding of the right way as the path to their religions and Gods. This dogmatic reliance on obedience squelched any progress for Christianity and caused stagnation of mind and soul. Gnostics, like Gnostic Jesus and even the Christian Jesus, spoke of a God within each of us and thought the body to be the temple of God. Gnostics sought and achieved apotheosis and a true personal relationship to their God. Gnostics took to heart the notion that the laws of God were written on the heart. Something Christianity only gave passing reference to and substituted instead their “WORD of God”.

Gnosticism recognizes that you cannot gain the knowledge that produces wisdom and a good moral sense by not questioning the status quo.It demands that all concepts be questioned. So does the bible but Christians are never taught this by their church hierarchies who want sheep for followers and not thinking autonomous people. That would be too Gnostic.

It is my view that the third and Final Testament of the bible is being written in our time. Elaine Pagels has put chapter one in place for us to read and ponder with her book titled Adam, Eve and the Serpent.

http://southerncrossreview.org/14/pagels.htm

In our age, with most having access to knowledge through modern communication devices and the net means that we need no longer be hamstrung by domineering religious hierarchies and we can and will seek the God within. As more find God, society will finally stabilize into the period of longterm social stability that we have been seeking forever.

God has had quite a ride but is now close. The Old Testament showed us how unsavory a God can be. The New Testament replaced that immoral God and placed an archetypal Jesus, a man with excellent but unworkable rhetoric, above that God. This was done with Jesus’ proclamation of heaven only through me. The Jewish version of the Old Testament tried to give man autonomy with Eden as our elevation. Man has become as Gods. Christianity backed us up, for good or evil by calling Eden our fall and creating sheepish followers who were not to question but only obey. Love be damned as man’s first principle. The NewTestament tries to return us to man and God's highest ideal of love for all. It fails because Constantine tied Jesus to the unsavory God of the Old Testamentand returned to the older more barbaric style of the Old Testament God with a new and improved hell for those who will not obey. A fatal error that has backed up human thinking by 1,600 years.

Man’s Last and Final Testament, one that can only be Gnostic thanks to the mental flexibility of it’s adherents, will promote love through thought; following the unworkable rhetoric of Jesus but in a more workable way.

Man, God’s most fantastic achievement, not creation, is almost ready to take his rightful place as master of himself.

Many Christians use the bible as their external conscience.They will realize that the ancients were right and that the laws of God are to be internalized and written on our hearts. Do not fear being your own master. It will give you both pain and pleasure and you will sometimes curse it but you will know that it is as good as God intended it to be.

Seek God. He is getting near thanks to Gnosticism. Chapter one is written. If you choose to be enlightened and stop having to obey masters and take your rightful place as master of one. Jesus was here to free man, not enslave him. He was a Jew and knew Eden was our elevation and not our fall.

Jesus show the way with his question; Have ye forgotten that ye are Gods?

What is your answer?

Regards
DL

What is your answer?

Now I know why the logic in your God bashing threads looked so strange.
You merely accept literal interpretation from a different source.
While there is a gulf between yourself and fundamentalists, the process is the same just different source material. Both result in rigid belief systems, however, very conflicting and lacking the logic of reality.


Heh!

 

[Greatest I am]

Gnostics believe that Yahweh of the Old Testament was a demiurge who called himself the only one true god because he was wicked and knew nothing of the existence of the numerous philosophical deities from which he illegally emanated. Is that correct?

To some.
There was as many differing views back then as there are in Christianity today.

Generally speaking, Gnostics do not read scriptures literally and only use them to stimulate thinking that will lead them to proper morals. In this way, they are more like Jews who use Midrash to analyse their own works.
Remember that literal reading generally started in the what, 13th or 14th century.

This is worth the listen if you have the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnvEHObMMH4

They also believe Jesus never owned a body, but when he appeared on Earth, he was merely an illusion of flesh, for he was actually only a spirit. Thus Gnostics believe flesh is inherently evil and needs to be left behind.

Again, some did, not all.
Gnostics generally argued against this notion with Christians who believed in man's fall in Eden. Gnostics, like the Jews, saw Eden more as our elevation and not our fall and believed that flesh was good as it, like Jesus taught, was the home of God. Temple of God was the usual phrase. If God is within us all as Gnostics taught then they would not think the home of God as corrupt. They also saw Jesus as just a man and not a man/God. An inspired archetypal man for sure but not a God.

Let me know if i'm wrong about any of this. I thought Gnostics died out way long ago, but i'm not surprised to see new Gnostics in a day when people are reviving even Egyptian Paganism ("Kemetism").

Gnostics are basically those who question and seek God and a true religion. Some of these have always been around within all faiths. Hence the many Gnostic sects. We are the goats amoung the sheeople of all religions.

Said of Gnostic and Christian reading practices.

“Both read the Bible day andnight; but you read black where I read white.”
William Blake.

Regards
DL

 

[Greatest I am]

Now I know why the logic in your God bashing threads looked so strange.
You merely accept literal interpretation from a different source.
While there is a gulf between yourself and fundamentalists, the process is the same just different source material. Both result in rigid belief systems, however, very conflicting and lacking the logic of reality.


Heh!

Huh?

What literal interpretation is that?
What book or source?

I admit to being quite fundamental about my beliefs but would readily accept new thinking if I agreed with them.
My beliefs are based on apotheosis which is personal and undeniable FMPOV.

I showed that I was to discard what I found, lest it become idol worship, raise the bar of my morality and continue to seek so flexibility has to be my middle name. So to speak.

Regards
DL

 

[Stone]

Huh?

What literal interpretation is that?
What book or source?

I admit to being quite fundamental about my beliefs but would readily accept new thinking if I agreed with them.
My beliefs are based on apotheosis which is personal and undeniable FMPOV.

I showed that I was to discard what I found, lest it become idol worship, raise the bar of my morality and continue to seek so flexibility has to be my middle name. So to speak.

Regards
DL

What literal interpretation is that?
What book or source?

Do you remember the title of this thread which you wrote?
Let me refresh your memory>

Found. The third and Final Testament.

I admit to being quite fundamental about my beliefs but would readily accept new thinking if I agreed with them.

If you agreed with them?
That's a stretch considering the debate you and I have had over decriminalizing drug abuse.

My beliefs are based on apotheosis which is personal and undeniable FMPOV.

Pray tell ( ) how in the world does that not conflict with with your previous statement
All I read from that is your arrogance is infinite.
But as shown elsewhere, flawed.
You are neither a god nor a model of perfection nor your thoughts on such a plane.
Sorry to deflate you, but reality can be a bitch.

....flexibility has to be my middle name....

Good one :thumbup