@Edward Gordon ... I thought I would pull this out of the General Discussion area to address.
So, are the writings of the apostle Paul not included in the Veridicans canon? And if not,
why, since he is the only one in the Christian Bible that claimed of himself, "
for me to live is Christ", a major tenet of Veridicans?
I can basically answer this for you, giving you the likely answer without any intent to deliberately disparage the man:
While rejecting the teachings of the apostles, he nevertheless honored the Gnostic
Gospel of Thomas. This means that he was essentially readapting (some might say highjacking) the teachings of Paul while rejecting his moral standards. The early Gnostics were staunchly against any moral laws of conduct and still are to this day, in particular anything associated with Jewish law, and this is what Paul referenced in his teachings. And what you also have to keep in mind is that the Gnostics worshipped a different "Christ," one who did not have the same problems with sexual sin as the One preached by the apostle Paul.
This is why very early on I questioned Edward about how he felt about David Koresh's polygamy and adultery, to which he replied, "As long as the man wasn't trying to have sex with me, I have no opinion in the matter." That's a typical Gnostic take on sexual morality. He was saying "Based on what we believe about human sexuality, I don't judge the man, because we reject Pauline/ apostolic codes of conduct on sexual matters."
This is a habit with most Gnostics, btw. They take what they can manipulate into having occultic and sinful connotations and honor it as "scripture" when interpreted in light of their teachings, while flatly rejecting any scripture as unauthoritative that can't be manipulated in the same way.
