What is your opinion abot the Gnostic Christians?
492424
Gnostic comes from the latin meaning knolage.  A true Gnostic is one who "knows" God.  Knowlage of God goes beyond faith.  Faith requires belief without proof, knowlage requires belief without faith.  Contrary to popular oppinion it is true to "know" God without the forced faith of the church.  Such knowlage comes after questioning every aspect of reality and learning the truth for yourself.
717312
Yes it is!!!!!!!!!!!\nIf they are Christian because of Jesus the Christ, they must be all sinners, because Jesus preached and talked about non violence (among many other things), and lived according to that as well...\nOf course , what do we know about it?, since ever since Constantine "embraced" Catholic Religion, they´ve been chopping off the Bible to make it more "convenient" to their interests.....\nThey don´t even care about what they call the "Gnostic Gospels" that have so much info about the real thing instead.\nJesus teachings were about Love, forgiveness, understanding, loving your neigbors as you love yourself.If you loved your neigbors just as you love yourself,you wouldn´t wish dead penalty for them, because that would make absolutely no sense.\n(Would you wish death penalty for yourself or your family?)\nPeople should remember every day which one is the True Jesus , take a look inside and listen to their own hearts and sould isntead of letting Governments and huge Multinational Corporations brainwash their brains.\nUnconditional Love, folks! Practise some more!\n(Gosh, what a great discussion/ conversation we would have if you were here!)
824078
it is an older form of pure Christianity that is more like what jesus taught than the prechristian jewish bible. It is based upon knowledge and experience more than faith. it was superceded by the present day verison of christianity when Constantine, as new emporer of Rome, declared the council of Nicea meet and then they obliterated all other forms of Christianity they did not approve. The later Christians called these older christians Gnostic, because they claimed to KNOW rather than believe. regular Christians are called Pistic, being based upon faith. the so-called gnostic christians just called themselves christians, not gnostic christians. that name was made up for them by their enemies who destroyed them. some of their old writings have survived and there is a lot of interest in their teachings now as being better form of true christianity. They have a different tale than the adam and eve tale, which is actually a jewish tale.\n look up NAG HAMADI library on net and you will get a boatload of info.
385667
To the Mainstream Christians, Jesus the Christ sacrificed Himself for the sake of removing the Original Sin off humanity, and in so doing Jesus the Christ opened a pathway to Eternal Life by His Salvation for humanity.  This is, of course, the view point of the Christians in general.\n\nTo the Gnositic Christians, such as the Cainites and Sethians, the Death of Jesus is viewed in ways very different from the Mainstream Christians; many of these gnostical views are termed as heretical and blasphemous even as far as to consider them satanic by many Mainstream Christians.\n\nThe view of the Gnostic Christians on the Crucifixion of Jesus is that, Jesus of Nazareth chose Death in order to release the Spirit within; in other words, he died for the sake of showing there is an Eternal Life by following his methods (of spiritual practices, not in the attempt on death), and not as an offering to the Eternal Life: "Pick up YOUR cross, and Follow me."\n\nOf these two very different, and might even opposing, views; each individual is entitled to select which to believe by his or her own choice.  The Scriptures, after all, can be read in more than one way -- let the Holy Spirit guide you or let the Divine Grace bestow you, the choice is always a personal one.\n\nPax et Amore Christi vobiscum,\nLux Mithrai ex Tenebras Crucis.
1115563
This controversy has existed from the very beginning, and\nthe writings of the "Church Fathers" themselves reveal\nthat they were constantly forced by the pagan\nintelligentsia to defend what the non-Christians and other\nChristians ("heretics")4 alike saw as a preposterous and\nfabricated yarn with absolutely no evidence of it ever\nhaving taken place in history. As Rev. Robert Taylor says,\n"And from the apostolic age downwards, in a never\ninterrupted succession, but never so strongly and\nemphatically as in the most primitive times, was the\nexistence of Christ as a man most strenuously denied."5\nEmperor Julian, who, coming after the reign of the\nfanatical and murderous "good Christian" Constantine,\nreturned rights to pagan worshippers, stated, "If anyone\nshould wish to know the truth with respect to you\nChristians, he will find your impiety to be made up partly\nof the Jewish audacity, and partly of the indifference and\nconfusion of the Gentiles, and that you have put together\nnot the best, but the worst characteristics of them both."
413424
The terms come from Greek.\nGnosticism is a historical term for various mystical initiatory religions, sects and knowledge schools which were most active in the first few centuries. These systems typically recommend the pursuit of mysticism or "special knowledge" (gnosis) as the central goal of life. \n\nthe "a-" prefix in Greek means the negative/un-/not \n\nA-gnostics were opposed to this...as such that includes Christianity.\n\nTheists, believers in a god (not necessarily the Christian God), have only this in common.  \n\nA-theists, only reject the one proposition, ie that God exists.  Atheists aren't all necessarily rational, ethical, logical, or anything else. \n\nGeneralizations and assumptions about all theists are just as invalid and unwarranted as generalizations and assumptions about all atheists.
499871
Whatever you do they will have so many answer to hit you back.\n\nJesus is not a god, He said that to all christians but this people have reach the limit of controlling the religion by their opinion of trinity that was created by the man of chaos.
352646
The term "gnostic" derives from "gnosis," which means "knowledge" in Greek. The Gnostics believed that they were privy to a secret knowledge about the divine, hence the name. \n\nThere are numerous references to the Gnostics in second century proto-orthodox literature. Most of what we know about them is from the polemic thrown at them by the early Church Fathers. They are alluded to in the Bible in the pastorals (spurious Paulines of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus), for example 1 Tm 1:4 and 1 Tm 6:20, and possibly the entirety of Jude. Ignatius of Antioch writes against them as well as Docetism, a doctrine closely related to Gnosticism that stated that Christ was pure spirit and had only a phantom body. Second Clement is a document aimed at refuting early second century Gnosticism. Marcion was the most famous of the Gnostics, and he established a "canon" of the Pauline epistles (minus the pastorals) and a "mutilated" Luke (presumably considered so because it lacked proof-texts such as Lk 22:43-44). Justin Martyr mentioned him c. 150 CE, and Irenaeus and Tertullian wrote against him extensively in the late second century. \n\nBesides Marcion, other important Gnostics were Basilides and Valentinus. Some Gnostic documents are the Gospel of Truth, the Letter to Rheginus, Treatise on the Three Natures, Apocalypse of Adam, the Gospel of Matthias, Gospel of Philip, Acts of Peter, and Acts of Thomas. Although the Gnostics were prolific writers, most of their works have been burnt or lost in favor of proto-orthodox writings (and known only through patristic references). \n\nSome scholars have theorized that Gnosticism has its roots in pre-Christian religions, instead of being merely an offshoot of Christianity.
674285
The Koran is an excellent guide, as are some Hindu texts, American Indian legends, and many others, and upon those things which all agree is most likely the most firm truth.\n\nI personally only credit the gospel of Thomas as being at least on par with the other four gospels, the rest of the gnostic texts seems to be inconplete, or contrary to wisdom.\n\nOnce again I agree with "lit the light up" (first answerer), whom I respect in my heart, except I believe Christ has already come again, and much of the truth has been firmly laid out. God's truth can never been entirely related in books, hence I say much of the truth, not all.\n\nSee sources for more.
168223
How do you do? I'm an agnostic.
422745
Being a devote Christian myself, this source comes from a friend of mine.  I believe this is along the lines of what you are looking for and if not, it is something that may interest you.  My friend was explaining the Gnostic beliefs/ideas to me and let me this web address (see sources)
727901
The gospel of Thomas contains material that supports a gnostic view of Christianity, where each believer is to meditate and pray and come to know God by himself rather than trust into mama church and let the priest tell him what is correct.\n\nUnderstandably, organized religion has taken a dim view of this.
249399
As I've pointed out time and time again, the lizard-people of Beta Centauri could land on the White House lawn tomorrow with the entire script of human history, letting us know that "Earth" was one of the highest rated TV shows in the universe. They could show us early drafts they had written of the Bible and even introduce us to the lizard-man actor who played Jesus.\n\nDespite this, the majority of Christians would cling to their beliefs. Their faith cannot be touched by the truth, so your questions of this nature will always fall on deaf ears. \n\nWe can confront them time and time again with evidence that there are failings in their worldviews (and I'm not talking about the Beta Centaurians), and they will steadfastly refuse to even look at it, or consider things in a different light.\n\nThe difference between faith and reason is that when a reasonable person is revealed to be wrong, we say, "Okay, let's try something else. I was wrong, but there must be a right answer." The faithful, on the other hand, say, "It's god's will," or "Some things cannot be known." \n\nArguing with this mindset will cause you to thrust your fists against the posts and still insist they don't see ghosts, but you will never convince them.\n\nDespite all that, keep up the good work.
366345
Probably not.  I say this because Christian Gnosticism is a blend of Christian theology and Greek philosophy.  It is an attempt to change Christianity is such a way that is becomes acceptable to followers of Greek philosphers such as Plato. As a result, it cannot be the earliest form.  It is certainly one of several very early forms, however.  Early Christianity was not homogenous as many Christians believe.  They were asking all the same questions we do, and, just like we do, they came up with different answers.
525096
I dont really know their names, but there are a couple agnostic/atheists who I respect. I dont agree but at least they answer intelligently and in a respectful manner. No one has to agree with me but Ill show the same respect to anyone that they show me regardless of their faith.
304699
Rosemary's links are good, and THIS is the best one:\n\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnosticism
440978
If the Gospel of Judas was a proper Gospel then it would still not corrabote - as Jesus WAS crucified - but the difference was that Judas is made out to be the hero - as it frees Jesus' spirit from his body - which apparently was the mission.\n\nHowever, this just is not consistent with the fact that Jesus healed people - if the purpose is to free spirits from the flesh then while heal the flesh (and He still does today - see my question on miracles).\n\nBut given that it was written by the Gnostics 200 years later then no.  But it does provide an interesting insight into the Gnostics beliefs.