Kant is Wrong...But So Close

Christ didn't come just for people who could read textbooks, but also for the simple, the humble, and the willing. Gnosticism would have us believe that such people will never know the truth.

Gnostics were some of the earliest depth-psychologists. They saw at least 3 types of people: the Hylics or Sarkics (sarx=flesh), the Psychics (those who lived "by faith alone"), and Pneumatics (the spiritual). Psychics could be saved by faith, but Pneumatics' faith yielded to mystical experiences, gnosis, a knowing or certainty of those thing which were written of in various scriptures (before the canonical Bible). Experience came first, and then were corroborated by writings. Psychics could become Pneumatics if and when an experience of gnosis broke through to them. Such experiences were not visionary/auditory such as Paul's experience on the road to Damascus, or his out-of-the-body experience in 2 Corinthians 12:2, since these experiences were characterized by sensory modalities (i.e., hearing words, seeing light).

The gnostic mystical experience is closer to the Realization experience of Iesous as portrayed in the "I AM" sayings in John's gospel. Iesous is the archetype or prototype of all Christians who Realize their essential identity with the Logos. His Realization was made a unique specie by biblical theology and put on a pedestal as the exemplar (THE Incarnation), but from a Gnostic perspective, this is the God-Realization that is true for every human being, and which is salvific in itself. THIS is the Knowledge that characterizes Gnostic religion, NOT any of the complicated mythologies which characterize say, Valentinian Gnosticism. It is simple Realization of Transcendental Identity, the Transcendental Ego, which is the Logos itself. Paul may or may not have grasped this, depending upon whether a Psychic or a Pneumatic Christian is reading his words today. The Princeton scholar of Gnostic religion, Elaine Pagels wrote a telling book called The Gnostic Paul, wherein, "Elaine Pagels demonstrates how evidence from gnostic sources may challenge the assumption that Paul writes his letters to combat "gnostic opponents" and to repudiate their claims to secret wisdom." http://www.amazon.com/The-Gnostic-Paul-Exegesis-Pauline/dp/1563380390/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393956048&sr=8-1&keywords=elaine+pagels%2C+the+gnostic+paul

It is well known that transcendental experiences can result in dire consequences, not just ego-inflation 'knowledge that "puffeth up"). Paul addressed one consequence. He also did not reveal the system to which his "third heaven" belonged, which is simply to say that much has been left out of the Bible that can be found in the Pseudepigraphal and Apocryphal books that are sometimes added back to modern versions of the Bible (like Tobit).
But to understand the broader context of terse sayings (like, "there were giants in those days," or "Enoch walked with God and was no more, for God took him," then one would need to read the 3 Books of Enoch, which were excluded from the Bible because obviously, the compilers didn't think that the average believer could handle the material, but one does not need to be a Gnostic to read these books, contrary to your belief.

"Our Rabbis have taught, four entered into the Pardes. They were Ben Azai, Ben Zoma, Aher, and Rabbi Akiba. Ben Azai gazed and died. Of him it is written, "precious in the eyes of HaShem is the death of his pious ones"
(Tehilim 116, 15). Ben Zoma gazed, and went insane. Of him, it is written,"have you found honey, eat your share lest you become full, and vomit it up.” (Mishlei 25, 16). Aher became an apostate. Rabbi Akiba entered, and
exited in peace.” Hagigah 14B http://koshertorah.com/PDF/PardesLessons.pdf

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