Was Paul (Saul) a Gnostic Christian?

Answer 1

Yes he was. People of the modern Church are incapable of understanding the very gnostic principles Paul put forth. Paul called the scriptures allegory, he called them the letter that kills, because people view them as literal and make traditions. Paul called for us to allegory this things internally not externally, since the work of transformation of our earthly nature is a inner work of living consecrated and true to what you know to gain further light and that this is living spiritually not after the flesh but after the spirit. He spoke about the God of this world, which is a highly spoke about thing in gnosticism, they call the God of this world a demiurge. Paul hasd a distain for jewish customs and the OT he practicaly rejected as useless.

He said in acts this, "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'" (Acts 17: 24-28).

Was actually a CHRISTIAN movement back which can be called Valentinian traditions. How this came to past was through a man named Valentinus, who was a christian mystic in the 2nd century. He became a disciple of a man named Theudas who was an apostle of St. Paul. By reason of Valentinian's level of spiritual discernment, Theudas was able to tell him the more esoteric/spiritual hidden wisdom that Paul would only speak to the elect that could understand him, that is to his inner circle. This cofirmed what Paul had said, that he could only give the elementary seekers milk but not meat, because they were too carnal and would not be able to discern. They were like at the baby level in spirtuality so they could by no means preceive him. This type of withholding from spiritual concepts by reason of the seekers understand is a well kept tradition that was held it even goes back to Jesus, as Jesus said he would only speak in parables to those without, but to his disciples, those who are "in the house" he will tell them the mysteries of God. The only reason they call Valentinius gnosticism is because it's emphasis on spiritual knowledge, gnosis being the main focus - your capacity to know is what would make you whole in the end. Paul actualy taught similar in many of his Epistles however people are blind to seeing it, because it's so elementary, but is is about esoteric realities at times, just takes a trained eye to see it.

All signs point to it.

Answer 2

Only in the Gnostic texts. We know a lot about what we know about the Gnostics by the attacks that Paul and others made on them in the New Testament. So it would appear that the answer is a clear no.

Answer 3

The Romans were well known for assimilating anything that they could not beat militarily. They recognized that Christianity had grown so large that they could not possibly stamp it out.

So they did the same thing that they always did when they found themselves in this position. Paul was roman, one of the first roman undercover agents if you will to gain prominence in the Christian hierarchy. His job was to subvert the faith correct the teachings so they were more palatable to roman tastes and take over and control as much of the leadership as possible. His cover story about being blinded and thrown from his horse was designed to play right into the Christian idea of a forceful Jesus that was the defender of the faith.

He was accepted by most of the Christian world and eventually trumped Peters wishes on many issues. Apparently everyone thought that Jesus had made a mistake in selecting Peter to take care of running the faith because Paul was and is still taken quite seriously.

Christianity is barely recognizable today if you compare it to what Jesus actually taught. If you read closely you can still see occasional glimpses of Jesus’ teaching in and among the nonsense that was overlaid on it by Paul and others. The roman conquest of Christianity took quite some time, but was completed in the 4th century around the time of the council of Nicea when the current bible was compiled.

Constantine also had one of these miraculous encounters with Jesus that lead to his conversion, but oddly continued to worship roman gods in private right up to his death. In public of course he was a true Christian.

The new faith that replaced the one Jesus entrusted peter with was called the universal, or Catholic Church. It is better known as the Roman Catholic Church. I guess you could call that a hint.

A truly brilliant plan actually. Made possible by the efforts of a roman double agent named Paul who called himself an apostle, but never actually met Jesus. For his loyalty and meritorious service he was later killed to cover up the truth.

Love and blessings Don

Answer 4

Oh gosh no.
Paul was a true as they come.
Gnosticism is basically a belief that in the beginning there was the goddess Sophia was the first deity and that she created by herself the God of the Bible, Jehovah, who came from her deformed and evil. He in turn created everything, including humans and because he is evil, everything he created is evil. And in gnosticism, the Devil is worshiped as the being of light worthy of praise.

Answer 5

No. In fact, if you read his letters, he speaks out vehemently against Gnosticism in all it's forms.