gospelofthomas.nazirene.orgThe Gospel of Thomas

“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.” (Winston S. Churchill) is arguably the most important writing known to man today. Why? Important spiritual teachings were removed from the traditional Gospels by the Church. I n the words of Prof. Bart D. Ehrman in his book, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture , where he warns us that: "...theological disputes, specifically disputes over Christology, prompted Christian scribes to alter the words of scripture in order to make them more serviceable for the polemical task. Scribes modified their manuscripts to make them more patently ‘orthodox’ and less susceptible to ‘abuse’ by the opponents of orthodoxy" -- which orthodoxy was to bring the text of the Bible into conformity with the doctrines and tenets of the Church of the Roman Emperor Constantine. In his book The Text of the New Testament , Dr. Vincent Taylor writes that "The manuscripts of the New Testament preserve traces of two kinds of dogmatic alterations: those which involve the elimination or alteration of what was regarded as doctrinally unacceptable or inconvenient, and those which introduce into the Scriptures proof for a favorite theological tenet or practice". (see http://BibleCorruption.com ). Many of these higher spiritual teachings that were removed from the canonical Gospels and suppressed by the Church, were preserved in the Gospel of Thomas. In the Epistle of Peter To James it is stated that if this body of higher Truths should become lost or thrown away, that "...it will remain even for those who really seek the truth, always to wander in error" And the modern Church has proven this statement true beyond even the imagination of the body of faithful believers. And while some of this higher spiritual knowledge is contained in the enigmatic teachings of the Gospel of Thomas, because the Christian world has virtually nothing in common with the Original Gospel Teachings and Objectives, they can neither utilize the knowledge and reality that these teachings suggest, because the dogmatic framework of the Church has been built upon a gravely flawed spiritual foundation that has shackled the vast majority of the Christian to a state of abject ignorance. What is not at all realized today is the great importance of the Gospel of Thomas to both the Church, and the world today. Why? Because it exclusively focuses on the great void that has anchored our modern world in an intellectual and spiritual Dark Ages that it has not even begun to emerge from. While we imagine ourselves to be the most technologically advanced and enlightened society that has ever existed, we remain blind to the chains that shackle modern man which can be portrayed in the reality of a simple Gospel proclamation in the words: " (3) Jesus said ... But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty" . While it is true that we have split and harnessed the atom -- overcome the forces of gravity and traveled to the moon -- and we have made countless technological advances -- it remains true that because we know virtually nothing about our True Self and our Higher Soul-Reality, we remain prisoners in our own self-imposed cocoon of ignorance from which we have yet to emerge. And if we pose the question as to why this statement of dwelling in abject poverty is applicable to what many would say is the great body of knowledge that is taught in our institutions of learning today? The answer is in the enigma of the statement: " (39) Jesus said, The Pharisees and the scribes have taken the keys of knowledge and hidden them. They themselves have not entered, nor have they allowed to enter those who wish to" (see The Key Of Knowledge ). "All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." (Arthur Schopenhauer) Do we dwell in a world of shadows? Man's search for truth and the answers to the virtually countless dilemmas of life can be defined from the perspective of two very opposite schools of thought -- i.e., (1) that man must study and learn the theories and opinions of other men who are accepted as teachers, authorities and experts; and (2) that each individual person possesses an innate connection to an Inner Source of Knowledge and Truth that he must learn from and acquire the ability to tap into. The first paradigm of thinking is based upon what the scriptures portray as the wisdom of this world that the Apostle Paul warns will always come to naught -- and is based upon the foundational paradigm that the child's mind is empty, and this emptiness must be filled through the acquisition of knowledge and truth from others perceived to be knowledgeable teachers. While to the detriment of modern man, the second paradigm of foundational thinking remains an enigma that is not readily understood. "The truth that makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear." (Herbert Agar) Most people are bound and shackled to their belief -- to the degree that whatever is not in accord with their beliefs, they reject. In the following I will demonstrate that the knowledge and understanding of the first-century Christians -- many of whom personally knew and were directly taught by the historical man Jesus -- was totally different and even in conflict with the thinking and beliefs of modern Christians. But, the vast majority of people will demonstrate the wisdom of Winston Churchill when he emphatically stated: “Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.” In his famed work De Principiis, the pre-Nicene Church Father Origen wrote in reference to the proper application of the Key of Knowledge that few men even “ imagine that they possess knowledge before they really learn” -- and then adds that “ the consequence is that they never begin to have knowledge” . Why? And in the enigma of these words that few possess the insight to understand the ramifications of, perhaps even more important is the reality presented in Origen's words that men somehow "...possess knowledge before they really learn” . What this means is that even before a child or person begins to learn, they possess a Source of Knowledge that they are consciously unaware of -- and that because they attempt to acquire knowledge from outward sources, they inhibit the process of taping into the inner source of Knowledge that they are unaware of the existence within them. And the answer to the dilemma is seen in the (above) statement with respect to the second reality that "each person possesses an innate connection to an Inner Source of Knowledge and Truth that he must learn from and acquire the ability to tap into" . Which gives new meaning to the words of Jean Piaget who stated: “When you teach a child something you take away forever his chance of discovering it for himself.” That all of mankind possess an Inner Source of Knowledge was known to the ancient wise men and women who understood the adage to Know Thyself . According to Socrates and Plato, the most important forms of knowledge come not from formal instruction, but by a re-awakening of already existing dormant or latent knowledge. This is called anamnesis. Under the heading of Anamnesis (Philosophy), the Wikipedia states: It is the idea that humans possess knowledge from past incarnations and that learning consists of rediscovering that knowledge within us. The article then goes on to say: Socrates' response is to develop his theory of anamnesis. He suggests that the soul is immortal, and repeatedly incarnated; knowledge is actually in the soul from eternity... What one perceives to be learning, then, is actually the recovery of what one has forgotten. (Once it has been brought back it is true belief, to be turned into genuine knowledge by understanding.) And thus Socrates (and Plato) s...