Lost Books of the Bible (187 page)

               The statement above is a direct attack against the Gnostic beliefs regarding Jesus and the Christ spirit. The Gnostic belief that spirit and matter could not co-exist makes it impossible for Christ  to inhabit a fleshly body. The belief by some was that Jesus was an illusion or specially prepared body and Christ  was somehow separate from Jesus. This made it impossible for the man Jesus to be the literal son of God.

               John drives home the differences and calls the differences heresies, proclaiming that those who do not hold to orthodox beliefs have the spirit of the antichrist.

               After the establishment of cannon, many incorrectly cited the following chapter to condemn Gnosticism and other religions that seemed to be gaining a notable following. Ironically, Protestants would later use the same verses to condemn Catholicism.

Revelation 17 (King James Version)

1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

 2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

 3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

 4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

 5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

 6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

 7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

 8 The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

 9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.

 10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.

 11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.

 12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

 13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

 14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

 15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

 16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

 17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

 18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

               Is the whore of Babylon Mary, as conservative Christians claim? If it is Mary, is it the representation of Mother Mary or that of Mary Magdalene? Is Gnosticism the great heresy that will bring about the downfall of the Christian church? 

               Let us begin with the writer’s concluding statement.

Revelation 17

15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

 16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

 17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

 18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

               “The woman you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.” (Rev 17:18)  The great whore is not a person at all, but a place – a city, which is a seat of power wherein kings and nations are ruled.

               It is not the purpose of this work to defend Gnosticism, but only to explain it. Within that explanation must be the  church’s defense against it. After all, until the discovery of the Gnostic gospels we knew nothing of the Gnostics but what the church fathers said about the sect as they defended the church against what they considered  to be a great heresy.  For  those who do not  take time to thoroughly research information regarding the sect, they will be confronted with the same biased and limited information as  was offered to the masses of the second century.

               What we can say about Gnosticism is that it does not fit the pattern to be considered the “great whore” of Revelation, as some have said.

               Are Gnostics Christian? Or, to ask the question in another way, is Gnosticism a sect or denomination of Christianity? The answer depends on what prerequisites must be fulfilled in one’s faith and doctrine to be considered “Christian.”

               If the mention or presence of a scared feminine force precludes acceptance, then all of Catholicism would be excluded. Holy Mary, Mother of God now sits sinless on the right hand of Christ as an ascended  co-redeemer with him. Having been impregnated by the Holy Spirit, she carried God in her womb and gave birth to God on earth. She lived as a virgin, gave birth, yet remained a virgin, and died as a virgin. She ascended to heaven and took her place, first as an intercessor between man and Christ, then was promoted by the church to the place of co-redeemer with Christ.  She is the sacred feminine within the Catholic church.

               Must one believe in original sin to be a Christian? The Eastern Orthodox Church does not hold to this doctrine. They believe we have a predisposition to sin, but they do not believe we are born into sin. Are those who follow one of the oldest Christian churches in the world Christians? 

               Must one believe in the doctrine of the trinity to be a Christian?  The Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints and Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe God and Christ are one and the same.

               Although these denominations did not exist at the time
the Council of Nicea met at Constantine’s behest, when Constantine legalized Christianity, the same problem existed. What constitutes Christianity? To answer this question church leaders came together and by majority consent, the Nicene Creed was developed. The creed, written below, became the measuring rod which decided admittance into Christendom. But before and after the great council there have been creeds, and they all have been different.

The Gospel of Philip is assumed to be one of the sources of Dan Brown's novel,
The Da Vinci Code
,
about Mary Magdalene, Jesus, and their children. The Gospel is one of the Gnostic texts found at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945 and
belongs to the same collection of Gnostic documents as the more famous Gospel of Thomas.

               It has been suggested that
the
Gospel of Philip
was written in the second century A.D. If so, it may be one of the earliest documents containing themes that would later be used in apocryphal literature.
  This is literature that describes the end of the world or the coming of the heavenly kingdom.

               A single manuscript of the
Gospel of Philip
, written in Coptic, was found in the Nag Hammadi library. The collection was a library of thirteen papyrus texts discovered near the town of Nag Hammadi in 1945 by a peasant boy. The writings in these codices comprised 52 documents, most of which are Gnostic in nature.

               The codices were probably hidden by monks from the nearby monastery of St. Pachomius when the official Christian Church banned all Gnostic literature around the year 390 A.D

               It is believed the original texts were written in Greek during the first or second centuries A.D. The copies contained in the discovered clay jar were written in Coptic in the third or fourth centuries A.D.

               From the time Gnosticism was labeled a heresy, the church began a policy of conversion or extermination. Beginning around 390 A.D. and continuing until the Cathar extermination, the church opposed Gnosticism and all movements, forms, and sects that proceeded from it.

              
In 1209 Pope Innocent III proclaimed a crusade against the last vestiges of “Gnostic-like” sects, the Cathars. For years the church discussed the Cathars, attempting to decide if they could be considered Christian or not. Eventually they would be labeled heretical and ordered to come into line with the orthodox beliefs of the Catholic Church. The Cathars held to their beliefs. Their doctrine included the belief that the world was split along lines of matter and spirit, good and evil. As with many Gnostic sects, they believed in abstaining from the world by purifying themselves, living a life of chastity and poverty. They believed in the equality of the sexes. The Pope saw the Cathars as a danger to the church since the members were admired for their modest lifestyle and the Cathar membership was growing.

               Even though the Cathars were an ascetic sect, leading lives of peace and abstinence, they were hunted down and killed.  Twenty years of carnage and warfare followed in which cities and provinces throughout the south of France were systematically eradicated. In an attempt to kill every Cathar, one of the worst episodes of the war ensued when the entire population of Toulouse, both Cathar and Catholic, were massacred. In 1243 the Cathar fortress of Montsegur in the Pyrenees was captured and destroyed. Those who refused to renounce their beliefs were tortured or put to death by fire. In spite of continued persecution, the Cathar movement continued through the 14th century, finally disappearing in the 15th century. Still, the church could not find or destroy all Gnostic literature. Books such as
The Gospel of Philip
remained.

               The
Gospel Of Philip
is a list of sayings focusing on man’s redemption and salvation as framed by Gnostic theology, and is
presented here based on a comparative study of translations from the Nag Hammadi Codex by Wesley W. Isenberg, Willis Barnstone, The
Ecumenical Coptic Project, Bart Ehrman, Marvin Meyer,
David Cartlidge, David Dungan, and other sources.

               Each verse was weighed against the theological and philosophical beliefs held by the Gnostic community at the time in which the document was penned. All attempts were made to render the most accurate meaning based on the available translations and information.