Don't you realize that each of us, who has been immersed into
Jesus Christ, has been immersed into his death? 4When we are buried
under the waters of immersion, we are being placed in the tomb with
Jesus, so that we can start a new life when we are raised up from
the water, just as Christ came alive again through the Light of the
Father and Mother entering him. 5If we have been buried in the
similitude of his death, we will also be lifted up to a new life in
the similitude of his resurrection, 6for when we are immersed, the
person we were is crucified with Jesus, so that our fallen
nature is destroyed, and we cease to be slaves of
darkness. (Epistle of St. Paul the Apostle to the Branch
of the Body of Christ in Rome 6:3-6)
http://www.thepearl.org/What_is_Gnosticism.htm
Lost Christianities
"Paul was originally a Jewish Pharisee from outside Palestine, who
had heard the Christian proclamation of Jesus, found it
blasphemous, and worked to oppose it with all his heart and
strength, one of the first the most forceful persecutors of
the new faith (Gal. 1:13; cf. Acts 8:3). But Paul himself
then had some kind of visionary experience of Jesus (Gal. 1:15-16;
1 Cor. 15:8-11) and changed from being the Christian movement's
chief adversary to being its chief advocate, transformed from
persecutor to proclaimer."
Bart Ehrman, "Lost Christianities", p96
http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/paul.html