Well, how about for starters, I'll just mention some of the parts of the document Halcyon provided the link to that, when I read them, made me think, "Hmmm. That sounds familiar."
1. "Their vocabulary is unusual; their concepts defy the ideas of sin, the afterlife, and humanity's relatipnship with God which underlie most Western traditions."
Obviously, since I don't know next to nothing about Gnostic doctrines, I can't comment as to how similar they are to Mormon doctrine. But I do know that the LDS understanding of the afterlife and man's relationship to God is significantly different than that of mainstream Christianity.
2. "The Gnostics wrote of an ongoing relationship with Jesus, even years after his death, through revelation and vision.... They were brave enough and bold enough to lay claim to this birthright..."
I know of no Christian denomination today other than Mormonism that claims ongoing revelation from God to living prophets, personally authorized by God to receive His word.
3. "They... were destined to suffer mightily for their daring, for bit by bit their schools were condemned, their voices hushed to a bare whisper. Their sacred and treasured writings, the mystical words of the beloved Teacher, were destroyed with hardly a trace by a Christian orthodoxy that was wedded too irrevocably to the political power of the Roman State."
As you may know, we believe that a universal apostasy took place during the first couple of centuries following Christ's death. This statement seems to describe one way in which that apostasy may have taken place.
4. "Basilides claimed to have received 'secret words' of Jesus from the apostle Matthias."
"In approaching the Gnostic texts, one is immediately struck by the many concepts which have a root in esoteric tradition. Without this key, the writings are elusive, mysterious and sometimes incompresensible. That certain of their texts claim to be secret teachings, it is probably that there was an even more secret teaching shared by an inner circle, possibly contained in only one copy or transmitted by word of mouth.
I don't know if I'm reading too much into this, but the Latter-day Saints have a strong belief in esoteric teachings, unlike mainstream Christianity. Our temples are open only to worthy, commited members of the Church, and we do not speak of what takes place in the temple outside of its walls. We hold these things to be sacred and to be taught only to the spiritually mature.
5. "The latter-day religion of Jesus Christ has never really encouraged an inquiry into the nature of God. Its emphasis has always been on Jesus as the Son of God..."
LDS doctrine insists that God the Father wants us to know Him and that, while He is a mystery to our finite minds, He has actually revealed many important things about Himself to us. We also see Jesus Christ as subordinate to His Father, although probably not to the degree the Gnostics do.
6. "Because humanity has been endowed with a soul, fashioned by the higher order of creators, it belongs to an order of evolution beyond the physical, and can, therefore, aspire to the heights of the spiritual kingdom.... It is the attainment of the human stage of evolution that marks the transition from the lower world of the physical into a higher spiritual realm.... Instead of being at the whim of the Gods, they spoke of man himself as a potential god, with the capability of assuming power over the physical world."
This sounds a lot the the LDS doctrine of Eternal Progression and Deification to me, though I'm sure there are many differences.
7. "When Adam and Eve succumbed to temptation, they 'disobeyed' the lower law of physical creation in order to respond to a higher law of spiritual growth."
Wow! I know of no other Christian denomination today that, like the Latter-day Saints, sees the Fall of Adam as a blessing instead of a curse. While we recognize that there were negative consequences attached to Adam's and Eve's transgression, we believe that they disobeyed the commandment not to partake of the forbidden fruit in order to be able to progress into true mortality, being subject to death, but also having the ability to know good from evil. It would be entirely accurate to say that we honor them to a far greater extent than we condemn them.
8. "Its path of progress lies in finding the middle way between the opposites. The only way to do this is to embark on the long journey of human evolution, willingly to open itself to all of its trials -- the pain, sorrow and death of terrestrial life. It is a phase that every kingdom in creation must pass through, and is the only way to move into higher realms, because nothing is given without merit."
"When Adam and Eve, symbolizing humanity, left the Garden of Eden, they did so by choice, leaving the comforts of a known existence for an insecure and probably treacherous future.... It is anything but a shameful act. It is the journey of the Hero, pure and simple."
We're talking Mormonism here. "There must needs be opposition in all things."
9. "The Jewel of Uncommon Price, and The Hymn of the Pearl."
This one hit me right between the eyes. Mormons have four sacred texts: The Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and... The Pearl of Great Price! I was a little bit confused about who the your Price and his royal parents were in The Hymn of the Prince, but if they are who I think they are, the story is right along the lines of the LDS belief in God's Plan of Salvation. Could you explain this to me? Who is the Price and who were his parents?
Anyway, I'm always interested in finding parallels between my Church and ancient Christianity, and maybe I'm overdoing it in this brief analysis. But I'd be interested in hearing your comments on some of the teachings, etc. I've brought up.
