Hey all, first of all, I didn't think Thomas was in the Apocrypha, so I posted here. Sorry if it's not supposed to be here.
I completely lost my faith years ago, but I started studying the 'red' words of Christ out of curiosity. I started trying to follow his teachings when no one was looking. I started reading the bible in a way I hadn't read it before.
Christ led me to Daniel, and from then I started seeing things differently--quite differently from what I had been taught. I started forming my own thoughts on what Christ meant, and then I found Thomas, and things made much more sense to me. I found out G__, whatever he is, I think is real now.
It also scared me. I've only had one person since 2009 ever really talk about my Christian beliefs---no real Christian even thinks I'm a Christian. I found blue letter bible, and I found awk/grep handy tools to study the word. I found early Christian writings like the gospel of Philip describing my world.
I thought I was alone in my beliefs. Christians=> Jews and Jews=>Christians, and I'm some where in the middle I guess.
I got all that from Thomas really, or it verified what I already had learned from just following the sermon on the mount.
So I'm wondering where Thomas fits in with your views here?
I'm always just looking for where I am wrong, and I have no interested in leading others anywhere. I'm just trying to find my way.
I think the kingdom of Heaven might be just a dream, and here are a couple examples of what G_ wants:
Jeremiah 7:5: For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings;
if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;
Jeremiah 7:6: if you don’t oppress the foreigner, the fatherless,
and the widow, and don’t shed innocent blood in this place, neither
walk after other gods to your own hurt: Jeremiah 7:7: then will I
cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your
fathers, from of old even forevermore.
Zechariah 8:16: These are the things that you shall do: speak
every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of
truth and peace in your gates, Zechariah 8:17: and let none of
you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love
no false oath: for all these are things that I hate,” says
Yahweh.
When I started to follow Jesus, seen through Thomas, that's pretty much what I see in front of me as a good direction. I'm not sure how much more there is to it for me. I think the 7th day might be quite important, but I haven't made that leap yet.
Just curious how others feel about him?
Thanks!
PG.
I need to read Thomas
If you truly embrace the earliest words of Christ that we have, you might get a new label put on you...
Imho, back in the day, anything that didn't support the church, yet claimed to be Christian got a new name---gnostic. Kind of like 'racism', all you had to do was label someone 'gnostic' and they were done and their docs were burnt. I'm not sure what 'gnostic' really meant--and no one seems to agree on it today. Thomas just contains the oldest words of Christ that we have. Sad that they should need to be hidden.
Here's one translation of Thomas for you.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/thomas-lambdin.html
As you can see, most of those thoughts are straight from the 4 Gospels, but when read in this light, only the words of Christ seem to have meaning, and the 'stories' maybe just distract from what is there for me.
Be blessed!!
Oo. Thx. I have never grasp a title christian..but a natsareem we are 😀
natsareem?! Yup, sometimes I wish I took the blue pill... You ever notice what the watchman do to the lover searching for her visitor in Songs of Solomon? Imagine doing that to yourself. It almost seems like an inside job :)
Im note sure of terpitation. What is yours?
Of the post right above you, or GoT?
I think this is a good interpretation of GoT imho:
John 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye
continue in my word, [then] are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall
know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
So I started really 'watching' back in 2009 when things started matching up with the Word and the World outside. I started praying a lot---like hours and hours---day after day---a lot. When I watched, I started by reading Proverbs, and learning some of the lingo.
Then when I read Christ's words (in the 4 traditional gospels), they were saying something new that I had never considered when viewed through his double/triple speak teachings: wine, new wine, bread, oil, virgins, etc... Now those terms started to have meaning to me.
ie., Did Christ actually just 'really' say that?!?!
That's what Christ's words seemed to do my new eye(s?). He appears to have been able to describe their evil while talking right to those doing the evil, and they didn't even know it. I'm convinced some of those things were sealed until computers became the norm. I see GoT as kind of like the 'Proverbs' for the Gospels. Clears things up. No specific interpretation of GoT from me, it's just what the world seems to look like if you follow the steps apparently. Maybe not.
I sure got a lot of traction from GoT, but it just confirmed things I had pretty much found in Christ's words that had been hidden in plain sight for so long.
All Thomas did was confirm what I had learned. After I lost my faith in any God,
I decided to try doing what Christ said from a practical point. I realized that I had never just 'done' the sermon on the mount---even when no one was looking---especially. So, I started trying to act on the outside the same as I was on the inside. I started washing the cup from the inside. I started praying for people that mad me angry. I started listening, and only trying to help--never hurt. I started holding my tongue. I tried to act like Christ described. (work in progress) When I found the GoT, it seemed to describe what a person will experience if they just follow Jesus's sermon on the mount. ie., you realize why Christ said those things. If I rid the darkness from myself, my light seems to burn brighter. In a very short time, everyone I knew just acted differently than I had ever seen. People I didn't even talk to, but was just around. I stopped lying, and suddenly, I could hear everyone I love, and knew, apparently lie anytime and feel no guilt. It was the same with angry words, unforgiveness--anything opposite of the fruit. I knew I was on to something, because the world didn't make sense, but Christ's words started becoming very real. I started reading warnings of yeast of Pharisees and of Herod as warnings to me. I started questioning why Christ said one thing, and then Paul said another. I started trying to find all the words of Christ that I could. I started looking into blue letter bible, and cross referencing things that no one had shown me before. Why did the first pope hate GoT?! Why did the 'church' end up killing and destroying the specific libraries of early followers of Christ? See, I can't really seem to grasp how a violent entity can claim to have the goods (the goods being the spirit I seek)---while telling me not to seek where people seem to actually have the 'goods'.
Why did they just call ANYONE who didn't follow the church 'gnostic'? There are vast differences in people with that label. Many early church father's were labelled that after a time. I'm starting to wonder if 'gnostic' just means anyone who follow's Christ and thinks you don't need to follow someone else to do it right. Who would 'gnostics' make mad?
To me it seems to be anyone that is capitalizing on Christ and becoming a middleman.
I'm starting to wonder if the gnostics were the ones who got their own oil, and when the bridegroom came, they could see. Those that couldn't, killed those that could.
That would explain the violence. I don't think the people that put the bible together wanted a real follower of Christ in their midst. Cause then they are clearly standing naked. Follow the lamb wherever he goes... So I ended up here. You all seemed like you are trying to tune in too. I'm not sold on what you all believe, but many of your beliefs I have been on to for quite a while---I just didn't know there were others willing to follow his words at the cost of their family or 'christian' friends and/or church. Imho, the fruit of the spirit is might seem like the carrot, and on some days, it's the stick.
I think if we are honest, we'll all end up in the same place. Be blessed!
Above
I agree. NT Paul bubblegum was just that. I hear Yahushas word clearly out side of 66 book compilation. Enoch. Jubilee. Jashee. 2 Baruk. 4 Esra. Etc.
That's a scary statement for me to agree with, yet I pretty much do. Being raised to believe one thing and then completely tossing it is not something I would look forward to.
I feel it must seem very arrogant if I say I don't think Paul was in agreement with Jesus, but certainly something doesn't add up.
That all being said, I'm not opposed to the idea of G__, whatever, whoever he is, grafting in Paul (and many suspicious 'so called' lettters of Paul).
What if the owner of this place decided to adopt and grow to receive any that sought him with a humble spirit?
What if Paul hadn't written the letters he did write? We might not be even meeting here, and it might be a living hell outside. Same with the Roman Church. Would we be here without all that? I want to be slow to judge, but yup, something smells. I'm okay with G__ allowing the 66 to become his Word, if it's doing what he designed it to do. It certainly helped a lot of people live in peace together for a very long time.
I think there are goods in those 66, and they are certainly why I am here now. There were many years, where I would only read the words in red, and the OT, but now I find lots of interesting things in Paul's letters---sometimes they give me hope too. Maybe G__ is bigger than we imagine--maybe he's not so easy to figure out.
I'll keep looking too.
:)
I try to read it with a new perspective