Jesus did not preach a salvation theology consider the Gospel of Thomas and Gnosis vs Salvation

Paulism or Paulanity is not the only Gospel teaching of Jesus.

Gospel of Thomas is very much different than the other Gospels. It is composed of 114 unvarnished sayings of Jesus. There is no narratives, no stories, no second party commentary, no Romans, no Pharisees. Rather than being presented through the the eyes of others, the reader encounters a more direct unfiltered experience of Jesus.

The idea is for each reader to deeply ponder each saying so that each reader discovers their own insights and revelations. The goal is to internalize the words so as to be transformed by them.

The Gospel of Thomas dated to have been written between 130 and 250 AD.

"The Gospel of Thomas (also known as the Coptic Gospel of Thomas) is a non-canonical sayings gospel. It was discovered near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in December 1945 among a group of books known as the Nag Hammadi library. Scholars speculate that the works were buried in response to a letter from Bishop Athanasius declaring a strict canon of Christian scripture.[1][2]

The Coptic-language text, the second of seven contained in what modern-day scholars have designated as Codex II, is composed of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus.[3] Almost half of these sayings resemble those found in the canonical gospels, while it is speculated that the other sayings were added from Gnostic tradition.[4] Its place of origin may have been Syria, where Thomasine traditions were strong.[5]"

en.wikipedia.org...

This short video titled, "Jesus did not preach salvation theology -- Gnosis vs Salvation". A nice quick introduction:



Here's a more detail video with commentary on different sayings:



And the greatness of the internet allows you to read it all for free in PDF format:

Gospel of Thomas (PDF)

What is a belief in God if it is not a belief under all the hatred is love. And underneath the individual is a oneness with everyone else and all of existence. And so one must strongly conclude that what we do to one another we do to ourselves. Here is Jesus saying #70:

#70 "If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you will destroy you."

In other words, we will be destroyed by our own hatreds from within if we do not cultivate a deep sense of love from within.

Interesting read thanks
I can honestly say I don't think I've ever heard those sayings before....kinda casts a different light on the whole Jesus thing!

a reply to: dfnj2015

You can spew out whatever 'worldly' knowledge you think you might be spot on about.

Facts are - Jesus told us to BELIEVE in Him. REPENT. And LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Jesus did not 'preach salvation'?

HE IS SALVATION!

And just as an added note? There are no atheists in hell.

a reply to: dfnj2015

The Gospel of Thomas is an incoherent mess compared to the 4 Biblical gospels. I could string together a bunch of fortune cookie sayings and claim it to be the Gospel of Szechuan Chicken, but it wouldn't make it anything more than a poorly forged document.

a reply to: dfnj2015

As for Jesus and salvation. Read John 3. The entire chapter is about salvation....

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

I wouldn't say that... in fact there are many parallels between the gospel of thomas and the 4 biblical texts

I started a series on that topic a few years back but i never finished it...

I'll link it after work

Gnostics is a mixture of different believes, while Jesus would serve as the poster boy. The whole Sophia an Demiurge is based on a early form of myth, like Plato Artisan, while that too is even based on an even earlier form of believe, which was the Elyrusians I think.

Some think it was attempt to merge Christainity an Hinduism, all the while I could say Christianity a merger of Hinduism an Judaism, with Hellenistic thought for a few reasons.

If it makes one feel any better, in the first book of the Pistis of Sophia, all he talks about is a vest...and I mean that all he actually really talks about. It like the universe spun around that vest.

originally posted by: silo13
a reply to: dfnj2015

You can spew out whatever 'worldly' knowledge you think you might be spot on about.

Facts are - Jesus told us to BELIEVE in Him. REPENT. And LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

Jesus did not 'preach salvation'?

HE IS SALVATION!

And just as an added note? There are no atheists in hell.

There is FAR more to Gnosis, than just "The Gospel of Thomas"... just as there is far more to faith, than just "religion"...

"Religion", is doctrine for the masses. "Gnosis", is a personal search for truth.

a reply to: Akragon

Jesus' words echoed a lot of philosophy, which is to be expected. Truth can be found everywhere in nature, but the Gospel of Thomas is far from coherent.

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

Well again i disagree... its very coherent...

Some sayings area little out there though... but perhaps we just don't have the understanding of the times and symbols when it was written... considering the gnostic writers were basically exterminated, we really don't know much about them aside from hostile witnesses... and what was dug up from the past

Here we go...

The First Synod of ATS: The Gospel of Thomas

And heres Part 2

www.abovetopsecret.com...

The gospel of Thomas has some great sayings and all it does is list sayings but
It has some really stupid sayings that make it look like a very childish commentary written by some very stupid people

Go study it if you are not sure what is says
Or just study why some people think it’s a stupid book with some stupid sayings

impiousdigest.com...

But then most people don’t understand the bible so what hope of Thomas?

a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

Jesus never once said that he would die for the sins of humanity. This whole being saved by jesus is by far thw dumbest teaching in all religion.

originally posted by: Joecanada11
a reply to: BELIEVERpriest

Jesus never once said that he would die for the sins of humanity. This whole being saved by jesus is by far thw dumbest teaching in all religion.

Christ is what is appearing in plain sight...... (the way the truth and the life) and if it is recognised that there isn't anything else then the sin (the mistake of believing that you are a separate thing) will be gone.

There is only what is happening..... there is no separate person doing or having a life.

There is just life (the one).
When the two become one the kingdom shall be revealed....... there never was two!

a reply to: Raggedyman

Don't ya hate when things are stupid...

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: Raggedyman

Don't ya hate when things are stupid...

Well..... things are not!!
There is just this happening

originally posted by: Akragon
a reply to: Raggedyman

Don't ya hate when things are stupid...

Triggered Ak?
There there, you hate my faith and I think yours is silly, do we want to do this again?

There are some very stupid saying in the book of Thomas
It was left out because Many scholars didn’t think it was valid
It’s also not a gospel, just a collection of quotes
That’s not just my opinion

Go have a cookie

a reply to: Joecanada11

He said it multiple times, which is more than once. He even accepted the title Lamb of God from John the Baptist.

The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of man. So if you think the idea of Jesus dying for your sins is dumb, well....

a reply to: dfnj2015

I've read and studied most of the Apocryphal texts, including the Gospel of Thomas. While I do feel these writings are invaluable for many reasons, don't forget that context is everything.... The Gospel gives us statements that were meaningfully collected by the writer(s) but we have no context in which Jesus actually said these things.