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Welcome to Gnostic or Not. For this episode we have a special guest
our own intrepid researcher, Thomas White. It's great to be back.
Thomas has been busy researching this phenomenon known as Gnosticism
which some suggest may very well be the greatest threat facing christianity
today.
That's right.
So what can you tell our viewers about these Gnostics
and the dangers they represent? I've studied the Gnostic texts,
especially those of the Nag Hammadi library. Now these texts are ancient, but
the threat they represent is a new one since before these texts were discovered
in 1945,
there was a little information about gnosticism available.
Now, apparently these texts present some rather radical views of Jesus Christ,
God and the church.
Absolutely! I'd like to give a demonstration of how one group of the
Gnostics,
known as the school of Thomas, presented their alternative understanding.
Excellent. Is this school of Thomas the one that was supposedly founded by the
Apostle Thomas?
That's right, the apostle is known to us as doubting Thomas
thanks to his depiction within the Gospel of John. He is supposed to have
written the Gospel of Thomas,
one of the most famous of the Gnostic texts found at Nag Hammadi.
So, about your demonstration
well Jonathan
I'm going to need a little help. Sure, what can I do?
I need you to give us a reading at one of the most powerful of the parables,
that of the prodigal son. So you want me to read from Luke chapter 15?
Yes, just let the gospel speak for itself
Alright I'll just begin. Then all the tax collectors and sinners drew near to Him
to hear him and the Pharisees and scribes complained
saying, this man receives sinners and eats with them,
so he spoke this parable to them saying,
what man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them,
does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one which is
lost, until he finds it,
when he has founded he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
When he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors,
saying to them, rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost.
Just so I tell you,
there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
Or what woman, having Ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not
light the lamp,
sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?
And when she has found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together,
saying, rejoice with me for I have found the piece which I lost.
Just so, I tell you there will be more joy in heaven
over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need
no repentance.
Then he said, a certain man had two sons
and the younger one of them said to his father,
Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.
So he divided to them his livelihood and not many days after
the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far off country
and there wasted his positions with recklessly living.
But when he had spent everything, there arose a severe famine in that land,
and he began to be it want.
Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country
and he sent him into his fields to feed swine,
and he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods that the swine ate
and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself,
he said,
how many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare
and I perish with hunger? I will arise and go to my father
and will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven
and before you and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
Make me like one of your hired servants
and he arose and came to his father, but when he was still a great way off,
his father saw him and had compassion and ran
and fell on his neck and kissed him and his son said to him,
I have sinned against heaven and in your sight and I'm no longer worthy to be
called your son.
but the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe
and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet.
and bring the fatted calf and kill it
and let us eat and be merry for this my son was dead
and is alive again he was lost and is found,
and they began to be merry.
Now his eldest son was in the field
as he came and drew close to the house he heard music and dancing,
and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant
and he said to him, your brother has come and your father has killed the fatted
calf
because he has received him safe and sound
and he was angry and would not go in. Therefore came his father out
and entreated him and he answering said to his father,
lo these many years do I serve you, neither transgressed I,
at any time, your commandment, and yet you never gave me a kid
that I might make merry with my friends but as soon as this,
your son, has come who has devoured your living with harlots,
you have killed for him the fatted calf.
And he said to him, Son, you are ever with me,
and all that I have is yours, it was necessary that we make merry
and be glad, for this your brother was dead and is alive again,
he was lost and is found. Thank you for the dramatic reading of Luke
chapter 15. As always it is an honor to read the Lord's word aloud
to on our viewers. However, I have a question.
Do the Gnostics mean to claim the section I have just finished reading
somehow has something to do with Gnosticism? That is exactly what they claim,
they say that your understanding of the chapter, that it all has to do with
illustrating how pleasing to God
the conversion of sinners is, is but the surface reading.
While the Gnostics interpret the chapter in a much different manner.
Why that is absolutely absurd. What sort of justification
could they possibly offer for making such an outrageous claim?
There is a saying from the Gospel of Thomas, saying number sixty
They saw a Samaritan carrying a lamb, going to Judea.
He said to his disciples, what will this man do with the lamb?
They said to him, kill it and eat it.
He said to them, while it is alive, he will not eat it,
but only when he kills it and it becomes a corpse?
They said to him, otherwise he cannot do it.
He said to them, you also, seek a place for yourself to rest,
that you not become a corpse and be consumed.
I don't see what relevance
that has.
the Gnostics explain that this man and his lamb are identical to those in Luke.
In fact, this saying highlights an aspect of the story
which doesn't exactly agree with the surface reading.
Here is a shepherd who lost his lamb and searched until he found it.
Then after he found it, he called his friends and neighbors together to
rejoice.
Have you ever question why his friends and neighbors would come together to
celebrate the finding of his lost lamb.
Of course, they would be happy for him, but if you were going to call your
friends and neighbors together,
you need to offer them something. Why should they share in his happiness
unless they also can share in the lamb? After all,
he had lost it. It was gone but then he found it.
Why not share the lamb with others when he had already considered it as gone?
And how to share lamb among his friends and neighbors?
What better way than to share its flesh?
The same issue exists with the woman who lost her coin,
and then found it. She also called her friends and neighbors together to
rejoice,
but what is there for the others to celebrate unless the woman also decides
to share the coin that she had already considered as lost?
And how better to share the coin than to spend it on supplies for a party?
Fine, but such an explanation fails in the case of the prodigal son.
In that instance, the text clearly speaks of the fattened calf that will be
slaughtered for the celebration.
You make an excellent point. Let's review the words of the father:
Bring forth the best robe and put it on him,
and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet,
and bring the fatted calf and kill it.
and let us eat and be merry, for this my son was dead
and is alive again, he was lost and is found.
Notice the ritual nature of the proceedings, the younger son is to be
adorned in the finest robe,
and a special ring is to be put on his hand and shoes on his feet.
Then notice the ambiguity inherent in the next sentence:
And bring the fatted calf and kill it. There are two possible readings
there is the one we're all familiar with, where,
in order to celebrate the return of his younger son,
the father calls for the fatted calf to be killed. The other possible reading is
that the younger son is being dressed in the ceremonial robes of a sacrificial
victim,
that he is the fatted calf about to be slaughtered.
That is simply absurd!
The Gnostics argue otherwise. They point to the words of the servant
after the older son asks what is happening.
Your brother has come and your father has killed the fatted calf,
because he has received him safe and sound.
Again the ambiguity of the sentence makes two equally valid readings.
Either the father has had the fatted calf killed because his son came home
safe,
or the
father has had his son killed because he, the fatted calf
came home safe. So the Gnostics suggest
that the younger son is somehow the fatted calf? Exactly.
The fatted calf is fed grain instead of grass
and purposely fattened and the younger son was given half of his father's wealth
and allowed to experience the world.
He was made fat with experience rather than grain,
which makes the power gained from his being sacrificed,
much greater.
Moreover, the Gnostics claim, the logic of the parable itself,
and the ambiguity of the terms used, indicate that this parable was
originally constructed as a Gnostic device
to give two very distinct readings,
the surface reading that tells of God's forgiving nature,
and the hidden reading that demonstrates just what actually awaits the Gnostic
who wishes to return to the traditional Christian community.
Here's the thing. Once one is exposed to Gnostic thought
one becomes a danger to the traditional Christian community
in fact, you, Jonathan, along with the crew
and anyone watching this program, have essentially been exposed to
and contaminated with Gnostic knowledge. Once one perceives Luke,
chapter 15,
from the Gnostic perspective, one has become a carrier of a highly
contagious form of understanding.
this is outrageous! Cut the feed, shut it down!
It is too late now, we have all become
Gnostics.