Dissecting The Gnostic Gospels

During the third century, the Christian church cast out the writings of a heretic sect of “Christians” who claimed to be the keepers of knowledge, the Gnostics. These Gnostics claimed that they had found God within themselves and that they held the truth about God. The Gnostics wrote their own version of accounts regarding Jesus and his followers. They eventually had to bury their papyrus books to keep the Christian church from destroying them for being blasphemous.

Those documents, discovered in 1946 at Nag Hammadi in Egypt, disclose a kind of Christianity that is different from the Catholic/Protestant religion based upon the "orthodox" New Testament. They reveal a rather curious insight into the thought processes of these Gnostic believers.

In modern times we call them mediums and psychics. A Gnostic claimed to have a sixth sense that allowed them to get in touch with the God within their bodies. It’s during these times of spiritual communications that they arrived at what they wrote to be TRUTH.

Like Buddhists, Gnostics believed earthly life is filled with suffering. Many religions advocate that humans are to be blamed for the imperfections of the world. Gnostics said that was a misinterpreted myth and so they offered a myth of their own. Gnostics declared that there is a True God and then a False Creator God who made the world, but his creation was bad since it was a reflection of him.

They claimed the false creator god is the god of the Old Testament. Gnostics declared that the serpent within the story of Genesis was a good entity that did not usher in sin, but rather enlightenment to humanity. This enlightenment is what Gnosticism is based on- that humans must attain this inner knowledge of who the true creator is.

Gnostics claim that there exist several evil gods that keep humans trapped within an evil body and that Jesus Christ came to redirect us from the False creator to the True God.

In his book, The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown writes, "Every faith in the world is based on fabrication. That is the definition of faith—acceptance of that which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove." … Those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories are metaphorical.... Religious allegory has become a part of the fabric of reality. And living in that reality helps millions of people cope and be better people."

Based on this idea that people want and need a fabrication to rest their faith on, Dan Brown has offered a story that contradicts the Bible in stating that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, they had children and a secret society has kept these offspring a secret.

Brown’s story is less than original and hardly factual. It is based on: 1. The Gnostic writings that claimed Mary Magdalene was the Messiah and her womb was the Holy Grail. She Jesus' wife and the mother of his children and 2.The parchments that were found in France in 1975 said to be written by "The Priory of Sion—a European secret society founded in 1099. It is a real organization. But the parchments are fake and were proven to be so during the trial of Pierre Plantard who claimed to be a descendant of Mary Magdalene and Jesus. Under oath, Plantard admitted that he has written the parchments. So the foundation of Brown’s fictional novel are bogus documents and the ancient psychic readings of a cult that has been found uncredible for centuries.

This week, National Geographic broadcast “The Gospel Of Judas”. This is another of the Gnostic documents found in 1946. This ancient document had been stolen time and again and was finally purchased in 2000 by a woman named Frieda Tchacos, who claims to have been sent on a mission by Judas Iscariot, himself to rehabilitate his reputation after history had labeled him the traitor of the Messiah.

However, much like Judas, Frieda Tchacos as been on the mission for the money. As soon as she got her hands on the Gnostic document, she turned around and sold it and made a cool $1.5 million dollars.

In the Gnostic telling of the story of Judas, 1.Jesus appears to the disciples as a child below the age of 13. 2.Judas is Jesus’ confidant 3.Jesus tells Judas and Judas alone of the master plan 4.Jesus asked Judas to set up his death. Judas went to the Roman soldiers as an act of obedience and not treachery 5.Judas hung himself

Again, the Gnostics were not recounting stories passed down by eye witnesses. They were writing their own version of things based on their psychic abilities to connect with the god within themselves.

But, it is interesting that both accounts end with Judas hanging himself. To this day, the historical spot where he did hang himself lies as a garbage landfill. If Judas had been an obedient servant, why would he have hung himself? Why would he have been consumed with guilt? Why does he have to redeem himself now through this Frieda woman? Why didn’t God redeem him?

Are the books written by Dan Brown and the Gnostics “real”? Of course. Are these books Biblical truth? No, they are not. They should be sold in the Fiction section of a bookstore.

A book qualified to be in the Bible if it was written or backed by a prophet or apostle of God. This is the single most important test. The reasoning here is that the Word of God which is inspired by the Spirit of God for the people of God must be communicated through a man of God. Deuteronomy 18:18 informs us that only a prophet of God will speak the Word of God. Second Peter 1:20-21 assures us that Scripture is only written by men of God. In Galatians 1:1-24 the apostle Paul argued support for the Book of Galatians by appealing to the fact that he was an authorized messenger of God, an apostle.

I assert that the DaVinci Code and The Gospel Of Judas both seek to serve the same purpose— to undermine Christianity. If either are true then the Bible has lies in it. Jesus was not God in the flesh. God is a woman. And maybe, just maybe the whole thing has been this grandly orchestrated hoax, a fabricated story that millions of people have fallen for because life if tough and we need some breaks away from reality.

I’m Jenni Vinson Trejo. Dissecting the Gnostic Gospels is my Opinion. Thank you for listening.

These Gnostics claimed that they had found God within themselves

Well, yes, where else would one find God? If you want to have a personal relationship with God, you're going to have to look inside yourself.

In modern times we call them mediums and psychics.

No, not necessarily. There are amny people who are engaged in spirtual practices that do not include psychic phenomena and would accept at least certain Gnostic beliefs.

I woudln't call it "fabrication." I'd call it a governing myth. Every religion has its governing myth. Every worldview has its governing myth. The use of myth doesn't necessaril;y mean it's false, but that it is the foundational legend, the mythology that forms the basis of the worldview but whaich, as Brown notes, isn't proven. That is true of mainstream Christianity, Gnosticism, Judiasm, Islam, atheism, the doctrines on which America was founded, and every other such worldview.

A book qualified to be in the Bible if it was written or backed by a prophet or apostle of God. This is the single most important test.

Many books that meet this test at least as well as some Biblical books were excluded.

If either are true then the Bible has lies in it.

I wouldn't say that it contains lies, but textual analysis shows that there are many alteraitons, some inadvertent (a word either looks or sounds like the word that was originally there) or in many cases, deliberate alteration to prove a point.

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