Originally posted by CosmicSurfer
debbiejo, you actually believe everything in that link?I have a problem with two gods being male and female. I believe that an omnipotent supreme universal being should be beyond gender.
No, I do not believe everything in that link...I was just showing the different views and different religions that have some form of Gnosticism in them.
I do not believe that God/Spirit or what ever you want to call it has a Has a gender at all..
I am not a Gnostic.
Originally posted by debbiejoPaul was actually teaching us to stay away from promiscuity and to be faithful to our husbands/wives. Sexuality with ones partner were never condemned but even there we are warned about perverted acts. He also taught that the focus of our lives should be to become holy before God and not to focus on fleshly pleasures as it can very easily take priority in your life which would be wrong.
Well, I've heard that both the book of Revelation and many things Paul taught are Gnostic..Especially Paul on his teachings to deny the body...that's to be clean is to be free of fleshly desires....going against Gods teachings to be fruitful and multiply.
The Book of John and Revelation are both Gnostic in origin. Gnosticism is a pagan, dualistic system (God verses Satan, etc. from Zoroastrianism and other Eastern religions) that heavily influenced the Apostle Paul and via the Manichees Saint Augustine. The Gnostics were declared heretics after Nicaea in 325 CE and butchered. The Zoroastrians in Persia would be butchered by Islam. While Gnosticism and Zoroastrianism are not really monotheistic, their infiltration of the church is very great and still haunts us today.
And crept into other beliefs also.http://www.rotten.com/library/religion/gnosticism/
Originally posted by sonnet
Paul was actually teaching us to stay away from promiscuity and to be faithful to our husbands/wives. Sexuality with ones partner were never condemned but even there we are warned about perverted acts. He also taught that the focus of our lives should be to become holy before God and not to focus on fleshly pleasures as it can very easily take priority in your life which would be wrong.
Paul taught that you should ONLY marry, if you are afraid that you might commit fornication....Otherwise, better to NEVER get married...That's more of a Gnostic teaching...Gnostics taught that you should keep from all fleshly or bodily desires including sex or marriage..It's a more pure life......Paul has some Gnostic and some Mithric teachings mixed in. He lived when Mithra was big in his area...
That explicitly goes against what the OT said about being fruitful and multiply....Is he exerting his authority over the OT God?
Originally posted by debbiejo
Paul taught that you should ONLY marry, if you are afraid that you might commit fornication....Otherwise, better to NEVER get married...That's more of a Gnostic teaching...Gnostics taught that you should keep from all fleshly or bodily desires including sex or marriage..It's a more pure life......Paul has some Gnostic and some Mithric teachings mixed in. He lived when Mithra was big in his area...That explicitly goes against what the OT said about being fruitful and multiply....Is he exerting his authority over the OT God?
I think that if you want to devote your life to God then not being married means that you would have less distractions and can devote all your time to God, prayer etc. Most of the dissiples were not married because devoting your life to spreading the Gospel is a full time occupation which need all of your time and effort. the distractions and activities of married life and children, needless to say would have complicated life and taken more of their time. They travelled constantly, relied on the help of God and other believers for providing shelter and food and preached the word weherever they came, hardly the life for a wife and kids. This also meant that they could spent time in prayer and meditation without being disturbed by every day things like taking out the garbage, etc. I believe this is the message that Paul was trying to bring across and nothing gnostic.
Paul didn't specify that...he didn't say wife and kids....He said fleshly desires...And not to marry unless for fornication's sake....That's a Gnostic teaching, if you study the Gnostic's.....deny self...all flesh and body is impure.
Besides, Peter was Married...Jesus didn't say the things Paul taught.
Originally posted by debbiejo
Paul didn't specify that...he didn't say wife and kids....He said fleshly desires...And not to marry unless for fornication's sake....That's a Gnostic teaching, if you study the Gnostic's.....deny self...all flesh and body is impure.Besides, Peter was Married...Jesus didn't say the things Paul taught.
Originally posted by debbiejo
The way I see it, is that Paul's teachings are totally gnostic sounding and contradicts the OT.....He over rides gods statements of be fruitful and multiply....Jesus never taught what Paul taught.
I've heard that Paul was the massager to the gentiles....Peter to the Jews.....Still Paul and Jesus messages have conflicting teachings....They should all be in one accord...At the time Paul lived, Mithra was a big influence in the areas...as was other pagan practices...also gnostic....I've read that all the books assumed to be Pauls are not for sure....only assumed......Also, there are other writings from Paul that the Gnostic's hold in high esteem....they weren't included in the cannon...The Gnostic's consider him a great teacher....And when you read the cannon scriptures along with his other writings, you can see the influence of it.
The problem I have with the Gnostic 's is that they were written about 100 to 300 years after the Gospels of Luke, Matthew, Mark and John.the problem with the 4 gospels are they aint the original scriptures they are copies.
The Gnostic's borrow some elements of Christianity including the names of Jesus and his apostles but these writings are not Christian at allnot all gnostic scripture was written all that time after the 4 "accepted" pieces. The point is that they portray jesus in a different way than the Synoptics , and the followers of the Syntopics were the strongest part by far so they got to deceide which were ok to acknowledge and which werent..............very similare to the process the Nazi`s used to get rid of writings they consider to be a threat to their ways