Judging or whole truth

[cj]

Unless you do a large amount of praying and fasting, do not expect to appreciate the Gnostics texts found in the Nag Hammadi Library.

If I fast and pray I know without a doubt that God will reveal the deep things of Holy Scripture within me and show me how utterly false Gnosticism is. There are few things that I am absolutely certain of, but this is one of them.

Actually,...

Hebrews 10:6, "In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You did not delight."

Mark 12:33, "And to love Him from the whole heart and from the whole understanding and from the whole strength and to love one's neighbor as himself is much more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices."



Truth be told, one needs to be very careful how prayer and fasting are approached (motive), as God's hand is not moved by corrupt efforts.

Loving Him though, and your neighbor, with the right heart, this will always get God's attention.


In love,
cj

 

[PDoug]

Unless you do a large amount of praying and fasting, do not expect to appreciate the Gnostics texts found in the Nag Hammadi Library.

If I fast and pray I know without a doubt that God will reveal the deep things of Holy Scripture within me and show me how utterly false Gnosticism is. There are few things that I am absolutely certain of, but this is one of them.

Actually,...

Hebrews 10:6, "In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You did not delight."

Mark 12:33, "And to love Him from the whole heart and from the whole understanding and from the whole strength and to love one's neighbor as himself is much more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices."



Truth be told, one needs to be very careful how prayer and fasting are approached (motive), as God's hand is not moved by corrupt efforts.

Loving Him though, and your neighbor, with the right heart, this will always get God's attention.


In love,
cj

Praying and fasting is not the same as making offerings and sacrifices. Making offerings and sacrifices is for all intents and purposes, the same as engaging in rituals. When I say that I pray and fast a lot, I mean that I have faith a lot consistent with Christ's instructions on how to do so in Mark 11:22-24, and consistent with Christ's encouragement in Matthew 17:19-21 on how to increase my spiritual abilities, by increasing my (capacity to do things by) faith in a highly concentrated fashion.

Finally, remember that it is the practice of having faith which causes a person to be righteous, and hence it is the practice of having faith which purifies a person's motives. Therefore someone who does not have faith, but engages in rituals in order to achieve righteousness, is inherently unrighteous, and carries around motives that are unacceptable to God.

 

[PDoug]

Wow, PDoug, it is difficult to know where to start. You clearly are very ignorant of Gnostic beliefs and what the early Church thought of them. You seem to fail to understand that the very essence of Gnosticism is very anti-Christ. It is no wonder why so many "New Agers" so readily accept Gnosticism. It has no place in the life of someone who claims to be a believer.

I don't know what to tell you. I am unable to find an issue with early Gnosticism. More than that, I am unable to find a significant issue with the early Gnostic writings I have read so far, such as those found in the Nag Hammadi Library, in addition to Pistis Sophia. I will not go so far as to endorse modern day Gnosticism, but I'm very much convinced about the authenticity of the early Gnostic texts - in much the same way I'm convinced about the current day Church's Holy text (the Bible). I will say flat out that there is no way anyone can reasonably characterize early Gnostic writings as anti-Christ. In fact, early Gnostic writings elevate Christ far more than the Bible does - for real!

If you mean that the Gospel of Tomas is Gnostic in the sense that it contains sayings by Christ not meant for the world in general at around the time of the early church, but only for mature christians: then you are correct.

That is not even a sense of Gnosticism. Gnosticism has nothing to do with Christianity other than it is heresy. The writers of the NT speak out against Gnosticism and the early Church vehemently fought against its false teachings.

Merely saying that something is so, doesn't make it so. It is true that Paul warned against false teachings in his epistles, but given the fact that I've submerged myself deep in the Holy Spirit through a great deal of praying (consistent with Mark 11:22-24 and Matthew 17:19-21) and hence am under the control of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9), it is unreasonable to believe that Paul was talking about Gnostic texts, when you consider my level of confidence in them.

Unless you do a large amount of praying and fasting, do not expect to appreciate the Gnostics texts found in the Nag Hammadi Library.

And what do you say of the thousands throughout the centuries who have fasted and prayed and found them to be utterly false? Are you above they? How about John, are you above him? Perhaps you should read 1 John a little closer.

If I fast and pray I know without a doubt that God will reveal the deep things of Holy Scripture within me and show me how utterly false Gnosticism is. There are few things that I am absolutely certain of, but this is one of them.

A person must pray / have faith consistent with the way Christ specified in Mark 11:22-24 in order for it to be legitimate. Therefore 'the thousands throughout the centuries who' supposedly 'fasted and prayed' and found Gnostic texts to be false, had no legitimate faith to begin with (which was attested to by the fruits they bore and the Book of Enoch 93:9), and hence could not have properly determined that Gnostic texts were false.

If you pray and fast legitimately, you will come to the same conclusion I have.

Also, be careful about disparaging these texts. Because they are far richer than the texts found in the Bible, they are significantly greater works by the Holy Spirit. If you disparage these works, you will run into the real danger of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit, and this can cause your heart to harden to the word of God in general - by being less inclined to have legitimate faith.

In disparaging these texts I run zero risk of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Pay attention: in accepting the Gnostic texts and believing they are the work of the Holy Spirit, you risk any salvation you did have as you have diluted and convoluted the Truth. You are in grave error.

The fact that you think Gnostic texts "are far richer than the texts found in the Bible," shows how convoluted your thinking has become. You have put them above the Bible when they are works of Satan.

No one can determine the truth unless he has faith the way prescribed by God - in Mark 11:22-24. It is an absolute must that someone has faith this way, in order for that person to recognize what is true, from what is false!