Growing up in Northeast Tennessee, which is Southern Baptist dominated, I had always heard that "Jesus Died for My Sins " or Jesus is the only Son of God, or there is only one true road to salvation - through Jesus. Truth is, I never bought it.
That left a feeling of guilt buried deep within as friends tried to get me to go to their church or join their religious organization. It wasn't until I stumbled across the Gospel of Thomas that I began to see another side of Jesus that no one, until recently, has spoken about.
There's one main reason no one spoke of Jesus and the Gnostic Gospels (Gnosis is Greek for "to know" and is not "agnostic"). The Roman Catholic Church, during the years of formation and development of the Canon of the New Testament, under the orders of Archbishop Irenaeus, ordered any Gospels which were not "orthodox" according to their standards, destroyed. The Greek versions were destroyed. However, in 1945, in Egypt, buried in a jar near a monastery were found Aramaic translations of the lost Gospels.
The Nag Hammadi Library, as they have come to be known, include the Gospel of Thomas and The Gospel of Mary, among others. The Gospel of Thomas, probably the most famous of these books today, consists of approximately 120 sayings from Jesus; some of which are also in the New Testament. It quickly becomes apparent why these books were ordered destroyed. They speak of salvation not coming from obeying the scriptures or from the Church, but rather as an internal process. To know yourself is to know God. No longer is Jesus the only Son of God, but rather he's saying everyone can become like him, just by knowing oneself. Naturally speak like this has the potential to undermine the control and authority of the new Church.
Not only are the Gnostic Gospels closer to mystical and Eastern thought than anything else written about Jesus, they also have some striking similarities to the Aboriginal beliefs. Again, the theme of Oneness comes up, as does listening. The first step though, to understanding Gnosis, is to forget what you've been told and to open your mind . . .
