Beware of False Prophets!
In the 2nd letter of St. Peter, the 2nd chapter, beginning at verse 1, we read, "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction."
This afternoon, I attended a lecture at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, OH. It was the third in a series given by Dr. Elaine Pagels. Dr. Pagels is a professor at Princeton University. She has written many books, some of which include The Gnostic Gospels and Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas.
As I sat and listened to Dr. Pagels, the above passage came to mind. What I am about to say next, I do not say lightly, but I am compelled to by the Word of God: I was listening to a false prophet. In our society, we hate to condemn anyone. Our world feels as if no one has an exclusive right to the truth, and everyone is right and no one is wrong. That attitude is dead wrong!
Here is what I mean. It is Dr. Pagels' view that the 27 New Testament books were brought into one unit, what we would call the Canon, for the purpose of having something to read in Church. But, she also feels that God may have wanted other "spiritual" or "divine" books to be read, marked and inwardly digested as you would study the Bible. She informed her audience that she believes that the Bible and the New Testament were written for new converts to Christianity; while the gnostic gospels, that is, the gospels that were found in Nag Hammadi in 1945, were written for those already well established in the Christian faith. So, in essence, the gnostic gospels are superior to the Gospels found in the Bible. Unbelievable!
I wanted to ask her, but I didn't have the opportunity, a couple of questions. 1) Does not the New Testament itself condemn false teaching? 2) If it does, does it also not condemn Gnosticism? 3) Then, if it condemns Gnosticism, what right do we have to read The Gospel of Thomas or The Gospel of Philip or any of the other gospels that have been found as the Word of God? It absolutely dumbfounded me that she was analyzing the Gospel of Thomas as you would any other New Testament book and implying that they might contain the Word of God.
Bottom line then is this: Paul says in Galatians, chapter 1, verses 8 and 9. "But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed."
Again, what I say I do not say lightly: What Elaine Pagels teaches is heresy, pure and simple. The Bible specifically condemns what she teaches. She is a false teacher and it is my prayer that she repents of her sin and turns to Christ. And, even more importantly, may God have mercy on anyone, who after hearing these lectures, may believe her and be lead into false belief and despair.
In Christ,
Pastor Haugen
7 Comments:
Well, my friend, it seems you love christianism as you understand it, and Elaine Pagels does the same as she understands christianism. I think either you or her can be OK or can be completely wrong. But you are assuming that SHE IS WRONG and YOU ARE RIGHT in your appreciation and understanding of christianity.
I do not know WHO is right or WHO is wrong. But I find both interpretations of CHRIST (the Gnostic and the Orthodox interprestations) very interesting, and both of them can be wrong. I tend myself to believe more in the gnostic cosmovision, because it is absolutely more beautiful and it makes more sense that the christ of the catholics or protestans. The CHRIST of the GNOSTICS does not fit in simple minds or lazy minds. The signature of a Gnostic is the mind of THOMAS, the doubter! He doubts even in CHRIST himself, and I find that act of doubting as beautiful and healthy for the soul. We must doubt in the GOODNESS of GOD. We must resurrect ourselves from our ignorance, because we are dead! And the GOSPEL of CHRIST is for those DEAD SOULS who desire to be resurrected. There is a CHRIST in every soul in every human heart! I find that IDEAD beautiful!
I love JESUS! YEAH!
Thank you for your response. Here is mine. Elaine Pagels is entitled to her view of the Christian faith. But, her view and my view can not both be right. I would urge you to continue to study the Bible, not other "gospels" that have very little attestation in the history of the church and are inherently false. God bless.
Thank you for your comment, my friend!
I love the BIBLE, specially the new testament. I find the Old Testament too harsh and bitter for my taste. But I do love everything concerning JESUS. I read my new testament in Greek, Latin and Castilian languages, which I love!
I even lernt hebrew and read a lot of the Old Testament, but it still to harsh and brutal for my taste. I prefer the gentleness and strenghth of Jesus as we know from Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. All these three gospels are beautiful, NO DOUBT. But I find also beauty in the the Gospel of Truth, Philip, Thomas and so many gnostic writings. I LOVE BOTH VERSIONS OF JESUS, the Orthodox (catholic, protestant, greek orthodox, etc...) and the Anorthodox (the Gnostic version). I can not hate one JESUS and love the OTHER ONE. For me, BOTH JESUSES are beautiful and fill me with joy equally. I love the JESUS of JOHN (although it is very very anti-semitic!!!!) and I love the JESUS of THOMAS GOSPEL.
Jesus is and shall ever be the most beautiful star, or man, or god, or child in the universe! Whatever JESUS be, beauty and LIGHT will be always HIS.
May the Light of JESUS be with you always!
Chao Amigo!
"Well, my friend", lest ye not forget that the new testament in and of itself has been altered, revised, edited and Re-edited to the likings of the church and men who took those liberties. So I will ask you one simple question... which prophet is the false prophet? Or, respectively, which Jesus is the "false" Jesus?
Viva Individuality, for it is the way to true Gnosis!
May "your" Jesus help guide you back to the True God!
^^I will pray for you for you do not understand the meaning of God. You will tell me of this God, and i can show you the works of mine. You can tell me of this God all other Gods, and i can tell you of angels that pretended to be God amongst men for a very long time. You can tell me about sophia and the 8th heaven, and i can tell you of the foundations of the highest to the bottemless pit. Read books of enoch, jasher, books of adam and eve. the gnostic was the earliest design to counterfeit the whole plan of christ true coming. Then the plan seemed to failed and was move on to the next (islam, mormans, etc.) teachings from suppose angels, gospel of angels. Your God did not create all of this for i have proof of the word of God. May God have mercy upon all of you who beleives in gospel of angels.
Wow some of these comments are hilarious, no offense. OK, whether you believe in the validity of the Bible or not, or you just choose not to, you need to seriously check the facts.
http://debate.org.uk/topics/history/bib-qur/bibmanu.htm
Yeah, New Testament = over 24,000 manuscripts written between 40 years and 350.
No other freakin' written doctrine has ever held that time frame, date, or even validity. The Bible is like 99.8% accurate except for 11 versus, and I highly doubt within those versus contains text in which disputes the rest of the whole friggin book.
Alright, comparing the Gnostics, have a quick read over this.
http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0088a.html
Wait what's this? From the Librarian himself?
Robinson comments further on the integrity of the texts: "There is the same kind of hazard in the transmission of the texts by a series of scribes who copied them, generation after generation, from increasingly corrupt copies, first in Greek and then in Coptic. The number of unintentional errors is hard to estimate, since such a thing as a clean control copy does not exist; nor does one have, as in the case of the Bible, a quantity of manuscripts of the same text that tend to correct each other when compared.
Hmm quite an interesting case I see. Not even the founders from 1945 are too sure about it either. I mean come on people if you honestly believe in the Gnostic Jesus you can't possibly believe in the New Testament Jesus considering they contradict themselves 100%. Let me show you.
First, the final saying in The Gospel of Thomas is decidedly misogynistic:
Simon Peter said to them, "Mary should leave us, for females are not worthy of life."
Jesus said, "Look, I shall guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter heaven's kingdom."
(Ok if Jesus honestly said this, He isn't God, and he is obviously a pig if this is all true. To even think why women would endorse the Gnostics completely eludes me considering it's sexist remark right there..duh. These Gnostics are a little more fitting for the insanely sex-crazed womanizing self-righteous jerks disgracing the name "Man". Just had to throw that all in there before we continue.)
Compare this with Jesus' frequent and respectful interactions with women of his time, such as the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:6-26), and it is clear that this is an irreconcilable different in teaching. Similarly bizarre teachings are found in The Gospel of Philip, in which Jesus is said to have "[loved] her more than [all] the disciples, and used to kiss her [often] on her [mouth]." This Gnostic gospel dates to a time much later than even the latest estimates for the canonical gospels, and simply does not match up with the picture of Jesus found in the latter-ample reason to reject Philip as spurious.
Notice all the brackets around the words like "often" and "mouth", yeah those are actually put in there by regular dudes who THINK they go in that place. The original manuscripts actually don't even have those words in there, it's all scattered and beaten to death so yeah I guess they should just guess them and slant the doctrine towards their own views on Jesus, how unbiased of them wouldn't you say?
In all seriousness, nobody will ever gain victory over disproving the Word of God. It was written too quickly after the events, and was distributed into the world into other languages too quickly to be brought back for "re-evaluation and editing". The REAL Jesus DOES love you, and is knocking at the door of your heart patiently awaiting your answer. All you gotta do is believe with a humble heart, just chill out with the pride and ultimatums. Life ain't easy goin it alone, that's where God takes control, let him do the driving man, just enjoy the ride and wherever he takes you.
Peace, love, and Jesus.
With Hebrew Greetings SHALOM ALIKUM
Arab greeting Asalaam Alikum
Thats how Jesus (EISUA pbuh) greets. Meaning Peace un to you.
1. There is no place in any bible on Earth where Jesus (pbuh) says I am god worship me. Check it out and give reference on line.
2. JOHN 16 verse 12 to 14 :
Jesus (pbuh) ays :
16:12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
16:14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
I ask you all who is this spirit of truth? Who will guide you ALL TRUTH.(more than one)since Jesus (pbuh) left the earth for over 2000 years which church received the ALL TRUTH.
This spirit of truth will glorify Jesus (pbuh). Now we have over 1.5 billion Muslims(growing...), there is not a single Muslim (in the world) I know of who does not glorify Jesus (Peace be upon Him). Every Muslim on the planet glorify him. Why Muslims glorify Jesus (pbuh) because Mohammed (PBUH) taught us to glorify him. There are several prophicies in the bibles about Mohammed (PBUH), just like there were several prophicies about Jesus (PBUH) in the Old Testaments. Jews did not believe then and Christians donot believe now.
Mohammed (PBUH) brought the guide for ALL TRUTH. Very hard to swallow by the western culture but thats the truth.
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