Joseph Smith - Hermetic Prophet

I recommend everyone read this article. It's been around for a LONG time now.

Joseph Smith: America's Hermetic Prophet

To be sure, Gnosticism was always at core an independent product of primary, creative vision; by definition, devoid of this experiential ingredient there was no Gnosis.
Lance S. Owens

On the Status of Others

Having a unique outlook on the Gospel (at least for this era in History) may lead to the question of what people of the "gnostic" mindframe consider of others with differing ideas.

As I understand, it is a calling, not like a church calling, but a calling to one's heart, which leads one to enter into the way, the quest for Truth, and to study the doctrines and the words of the Prophets of the Restoration. If you are called in such a manner, and you fail to respond, you may have a judgment upon you for it, but if you do not feel the call that is OK. As long as you live up to the best light you have, and live with faith, real intent, and acting no hypocrisy, you will stand blameless before God at the last day because of the atonement of Jesus Christ. That isn't to say that you won't be put through some mind-benders in the Spirit World before you arrive at the Great White Throne -- We all should expect a few shocks in the Spirit World, as Brigham said there is an eternity of cats that have not yet been let out of the bag.

This also applies to non-Mormons who are trying their best, and have a pure heart. I have often simplified it such: If you have the right heart and are willing to obey God's Word as it is made known to you (not a mental knowledge, but a deep testimony gained inside) then you have nothing to fear, and you are on the pathway to the Celestial Kingdom, whether you are Jew, Gentile, Christian, Mormon, Baptist, Pagan... If a Mormon does not have that heart, they are on the path to bondage (or, a lesser glory). This doesn't mean that Baptists receive Exaltation, for it is all a matter of heart, and if you follow the Spirit and act according to God's will you will end up converted into the correct "Church" either here, or in the hereafter, and only members of that true Church, the Church of the Lamb, will gain exaltation. I don't know how many Mormons today belong to the Church of the Lamb. Maybe a few, maybe a great multitude. Only God knows.

Gaining Knowledge

Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.

And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.

D&C 130:18-19

Wikipedia has this to say about Gnosticism:

Gnosticism is a historical term for various mystical initiatory religions, sects and knowledge schools that were most active in the first few centuries A.D. around the Mediterranean and extending into central Asia.

These systems typically recommend the pursuit of mysticism or "special knowledge" (gnosis) as the central goal of life. They also commonly depict creation as a mythological struggle between competing forces of light and dark, and posit a marked division between the material realm, typically depicted as under the governance of malevolent forces (such as the demiurge), and the higher spiritual realm from which it is divided, governed by God (the Monad) and the Aeons.

A face-value interpretation of Mormonism's roots would seem to support that its natural state is that of a Gnostic order, where acquiring certain information conveyed by symbols will allow us admittance into the highest order of the Celestial Kingdom. (This is of course, possible because of Jesus Christ) I think most "lofty" Latter-day Saints recognize that the symbols themselves are not the keys to admittance, but that we must puzzle out through diligent faith and prayer the true keys for which they are only a type, in order to gain our eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell, and that any one exercising faith and honestly striving with real intent is guaranteed to arrive at the correct answer before judgment. This makes puzzle-solving, to us, the most important facet of our Gospel, for if we cease to seek the answer, we have gone off of the path, and our exaltation is not sure.