Jesus Christ...

Originally posted by jaywill
Where did I cut and paste that from? Cut only by way of paraphrased quoting. No pasting took place.

I am happy to let you know that I selected sections of a discussion in Norman Geisler and Frank Turek's book [b] "I Don't Have Enough Faith to be An Athiest"

You may find the full discussion from which I referenced (not strictly quoted) on pag ...[text shortened]... d to demote Jesus to a coincidental also ran in the establishment of the Christian church.[/b]

jaywill: Now, Christ is not a major figure in Christianity

Unless you're totally retarded, you know I never claimed such a thing. So the only other conclusion is that you are totally pathetic and unwilling to engage in a debate with someone's real points. That is hardly an original position of the sad sack Christian Fundamentalists on this site.

Originally posted by jaywill
I don't believe that Nemesio posted this post. I think someone by the name of Sweeney McFugal came in to the room while Nemesio was out and typed that post on the same terminal under Nemesio's ID.

Therefore the post is incorrectly attributed to Nemesio and is not at all reflective of his true thoughts.

Your attempt at humor notwithstanding, you didn't address the content of my post.

Either you believe the Gospel of Saint Thomas was actually written by Saint Thomas
or you don't.

If you don't believe it, then you must agree with the critical apparatus which
is used to make such a determination. If you agree with the same, then you must
also reject the attribution of Saint Paul to the so-called 'Pastoral Epistles.'

Nemesio

Originally posted by Nemesio
Your attempt at humor notwithstanding, you didn't address the content of my post.

Either you believe the Gospel of Saint Thomas was actually written by Saint Thomas
or you don't.

If you don't believe it, then you must agree with the critical apparatus which
is used to make such a determination. If you agree with the same, then you must
also reject the attribution of Saint Paul to the so-called 'Pastoral Epistles.'

Nemesio

Which are the 'Pastoral Epistles' again?

Originally posted by Nemesio
Your attempt at humor notwithstanding, you didn't address the content of my post.

Either you believe the Gospel of Saint Thomas was actually written by Saint Thomas
or you don't.

If you don't believe it, then you must agree with the critical apparatus which
is used to make such a determination. If you agree with the same, then you must
also reject the attribution of Saint Paul to the so-called 'Pastoral Epistles.'

Nemesio

No I did not address the content of your post as I remember.

I don't know the gospel of Thomas. Did I say that? I never read it. I sense no need to read it. Perhaps one day I will read it. But now I hardly have enough time to explore all of the unsearchable gold mine of revelation in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Do you think that you have exhausted all the riches of teaching in these four gospels? I don't think I have explored enough these gospels which the ancient brothers regarded as authoritative, life changing, inspired by God, and part of the canon.

I feel that these brothers went before me and did this sifting work on my behalf, led by the Spirit of God. I feel that I do not need to repeat the prayer, and fellowship, and coordination that they did in Spirit to recognize the divinely inspired books.


I am told that there are very interesting things in the book of Enoch. Probably there are. Others tell me that there are interesting things in the gospel of Thomas. Probably there are.

But I do know that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the word of God. I hardly have enough time to dig out the unsearchable riches of Christ revealed in these books.

Often times people with basic problems with the New Testament will be distracted with some other religious writings of the period and advertize them. It seems that they hope to find legitimacy for thier doubts about Jesus Christ in the plethora religious writings which came out in the early days of the Christian church.

If there is a spiritual warfare taking place it should be expected that to drowned out the true speaking of God to man, His enemy would move to imitate that speaking with a flood of similiar products to confuse. I think God led the early Jews and the early Christians to recognize the books inspired by God.

This does not mean that the other books have "evil" teachings. It means that many of them are just expressions of religious opinions. Perhaps even some positive concepts are to be found there.

But the New Testament did not consist of 1,000 documents all clamoring to be regarded as God's word. I admit that I did not do the work of recognition of the canon of the Bible, which was long. I recognize that Catholics include some books not included in the Protestant Bible.

But what I have as a New Testament is more than adaquate to convey God's mind to us. Our whole lifetimes can be occupied just in enjoying the truth and grace conveyed here. We don't need to run after the gospel of Thomas to find another way to follow the Lord Jesus.

If you don't believe it, then you must agree with the critical apparatus which
is used to make such a determination. If you agree with the same, then you must
also reject the attribution of Saint Paul to the so-called 'Pastoral Epistles.'



Nemesio,

I doubt that the rejection of the gospel of Thomas from the authoritative canon of the New Testament was based on only one test.

It was probably rejected for more than one reason.

Nemesio,

You refer to "Saint Paul" and "Saint Thomas." This kind of expression causes me to question how clear you are on basic New Testament truth.

Why do you need to adopt the practice of designating Paul and Thomas as capital S Saints? All believers sanctified by being in Christ are saints.

I am a saint. And everyone who receives Jesus into their heart is a saint.

Since you seem unclear about this basic New Testament truth I am not encouraged that you are an adaquate guide for me to find more truth in the apochaphal gospel of Thomas.

Perhaps you could first be persuaded that to believe in Jesus is to cause one to be a saint.

"Paul, a called apostle of Christ Jesus ... to the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, the called saints, with all those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, who is theirs and ours." (See 1 Cor. 1:1-3).

All the believers who call upon the Lord Jesus Christ are saints.