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They were not closer to the teachings of Christ...
You dont know that, you only know what the councils let pass.
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"Some scholars have theorized that Gnosticism has its roots in pre-Christian religions, instead of being merely an offshoot of Christianity."
Key word: "theorized"
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"A one-sentence description of Gnosticism: a religion that differentiates the evil god of this world (who is identified with the god of the Old Testament) from a higher more abstract God revealed by Jesus Christ, a religion that regards this world as the creation of a series of evil archons/powers who wish to keep the human soul trapped in an evil physical body, a religion that preaches a hidden wisdom or knowledge only to a select group as necessary for salvation or escape from this world."
Gnosticism isnt so much a religon, as it is a way of thinking. There is much variation among gnostics keep that in mind. I see no reson for the above statment to be valid.
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"The Gnostic Christians, if they can truly be described as Christians, held a distinctly different view of the Bible, of Jesus Christ, of salvation - and virtually every other major Christian doctrine. However, they did not have any writings by the apostles to give legitimacy to their beliefs.
Quite true, for the first part. Some scholars say that some of the apostles were actually gnostics.
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That is why and how the Gnostic gospels were created. The Gnostics fraudulently attached the names of famous Christians to their writings, such as the gospel of Thomas, the gospel of Philip, the gospel of Mary, etc. The discovery of the Nag Hammadi library in northern Egypt in 1945 represented a major discovery of Gnostic gospels. These Gnostic gospels are often pointed to as supposed "lost books of the Bible."
The exact same thing can be said aobut the NT books. Alot of scholars believe the names of the books at least the first 4 in the NT are misnomers.
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So, what are we to make of the Gnostic gospels? Should some or all of them be in the Bible? No, they should not. First, as we pointed out above, the Gnostic gospels are forgeries. The Gnostic gospels were fraudulently written in their names in order to give them a legitimacy in the early church. Thankfully, the early church fathers were nearly unanimous in recognize the Gnostic gospels as promoting false doctrines about virtually every key Christian doctrine. There are countless contradictions between the Gnostic gospels and the true Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Gnostic gospels can be a good source to study early Christian heresies, but they should be rejected outright as not belonging in the Bible and not representing the genuine Christian faith."
This statment coming from one of those thouroughly entrenched in the formulation of the council's. Again you really think you can trust all those councils? You would be wise to look into the lives of the people leading those councils. Not kind, christian like people by any means.
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"The Nag Hammadi library is frequently pointed to as an example of "lost books of the Bible." According to the conspiracy theory, the early Christians tried to destroy these Gnostic writings because they contained secret teachings about Jesus and Christianity. The Nag Hammadi library was supposedly the faithful efforts of Gnostic monks to save the truth about Jesus Christ from the persecution of non-Gnostic Christians. The Nag Hammadi scrolls include works known as the gospel of Truth, the gospel of Philip, the apocryphon of John, the apocalypse of Adam, and the acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles. The most famous Nag Hammadi scroll is the only known complete copy of the gospel of Thomas.
Yes quite true, indeed.
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"There are no lost books of the Bible or books that were taken out of the Bible. There are many legends and rumors of “lost books” but there is no truth whatsoever to these stories. Every book that God intended and inspired to be in the Bible is in the Bible. There are literally hundreds of religious books that were written in the same time period as the books of the Bible. Some of these books contain true accounts of things that genuinely occurred (1 Maccabees for example). Some of them contain good spiritual teaching (the wisdom of Solomon for example). However, these books are not inspired by God. If we read any of these books, the Apocrypha as an example, we have to treat them as fallible historical books, not as the inspired, inerrant Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
This makes me laugh. Now WHO decides what books are inspired word of God and which ones arent???? The fundamentalist leaders of the councils??? Those greedy guys, who use fear to manipulate and control people???? your treading on shaky ground here.......
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The gospel of Thomas, for example, was a book written in the 3rd or 4th century A.D. as a forgery, claiming to have been written by the Apostle Thomas. It was not written by Thomas. The early church fathers almost universally rejected the gospel of Thomas as being heretical. It contains many false and heretical things that Jesus supposedly said and did. None of it (or at best very little of it) is true. The Epistle of Barnabas was not written by the Biblical Barnabas, but by an imposter. The same can be said of the gospel of Philip, the apocalypse of Peter, the book of Enoch, etc. The Bible is the complete Word of God. Why would God allow a book that He inspired to not be included in the Bible for 2000+ years?
Ah, your source is WRONG!
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There is currently much debate about when the text was composed, with scholars generally falling into two main camps: an early camp favoring a date in the 50s before the canonical gospels and a late camp favoring a time after the last of the canonical gospels in the 100s. Among critical scholars, the early camp is dominant in North America, while the late camp is more popular in Europe (especially in the U.K. and Germany)."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_ThomasHmm, these sources your quoting are extremely fundamentalist and if you would do more PROPER research you would see they are way out to lunch. The book of Enoch for example existed long before any of the NT books, and can be dated reliably back quite far. As for why would God not allow abook he inspired to be in the bible for 2000+ years, the answer is quite simple. God dosent take away man's free-will and force upon them the bible. Just like the mormons and Jehova Witness's are free to edit their bibles, so where the early councils. And such they did, and they documented their process's well to..... Poor logic, again coming from christian fundamentalists.
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The site you posted above believes in reincarnation which is no where mentioned in scripture in which the site claims taht Jesus Himself taught it which is not found anywhere in the Gospels. It is an unscriptural belief and only twisting of texts will allow you to achieve your own desires. The teachings of Christian churches are based upon the Bible and not some "secret" books.
Ah yes the bible does mention reincarnation.
http://reluctant-messenger.com/reincarnati...ible-verses.htmSo yes it is a scriptural belief. But remember alot of it was edited so that reincarnation would not be included by the councils. The "books" are only secret because the councils banned them because they were in conflict with their politcal agendas! They wanted to control people, the roman empire was falling apart, and waht better way to control people than through their beliefs. You must understand the mindset of these powerful rulers, and their councils that decided what was in the bible and what wasnt.
Majority of christians know VERY little about the formation of the bible and its underlying theologies. Only by studying history and especially the councils and their prominent members/leaders can you grasp a good understanding of waht was going on. And believe me its UGLY. There is an enormous amount of controversy surrounding these fields and for good reason. People are beginning to question the very foundation of christianity and with good reason. It would be
ignorant not too!!
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One thing I can quote Jesus on...Matthew 10:26- Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.
In refrence and CONTEXT to the earlier passage of
"17 - Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues."
Please dont take the bible out of context to give you comfort against something that may seem threatning at first. Its good your lookign into this, for it is no until you challenge your own beliefs that you can truly grow spiritually. May you seek 'gnosis' (knowledge) and let it free you!
(aka. gnostics - seekers of knowledge - for the truth shall set you free)
of some very core ideologies in christianity at these councils that forever changed the course of western civilizations. And I must remind you that these councils didnt always have THE TRUTH or the general well being of the christian populace in mind. As such can be seen with the the ousting of the belif of reincarnation at the council in 545 AD.