Transcription
A lot of people get spiritually played, played. Yeah, played like a violin. They leave one form of control and walk straight into another. And they reject religious manipulation only to embrace mythical manipulation. Okay? They reject the pulpit, but then they bow to the guru. You guys see this and you know it. All of you know it. They reject church tradition but any ancient text with a cool back story and that is not discernment, folks.
>> [music] [music] >> Broadcasting [music] seeds Broadcasting seeds [music] Planting truth in the minds of the people.
>> [sighs] >> What if someone handed you an ancient document and said this is the secret teachings of Jesus. Not the public sermons, not the cross, not the the not the empty tomb. Not the Great Commission. But the hidden words. The private sayings, the secret wisdom. The stuff they supposedly did not want you to see, right?
Now, if you are anything like me, but immediately uh that immediately gets your attention because anytime someone says they hid this from you, most of us lean forward just a little bit. And let's be honest in Broad Broadcasting Seeds World, we are used to asking hard questions.
>> [clears throat] >> We ask why certain stories get memory-holed. Um we ask why certain narratives are protected, right? We ask We ask why certain ancient texts are dismissed before most people even read them. Um but here is where discernment really matters because not everything hidden is holy. And not Not everything forbidden is true and that's That's something that we're running into right now, right? And not everything ancient is automatically authentic, okay? And tonight we're opening up today, not tonight, today we're opening up one of the most controversial texts connected to early Christianity. And that's the Gospel of Thomas.
>> [sighs] >> Some people claim it is one of the lost books of the Bible and some claim it gives us the real and the real Jesus before the church allegedly sanitized him, right? Some claim it reveals a mystical Christianity built around inner uh inner awakening and secret knowledge and discovering the divine spark within you. But others say it is Gnostic distortion. Um a spiritual counterfeit as I I guess is a really good way of putting it. A text that borrows the voice of Jesus while quietly removing the center of the Gospel. And um that is a question today. Is the the Gospel of Thomas a lost treasure or is it an [clears throat] ancient spiritual frankly trap dressed up in the language of Jesus? Does actual deception.
Because the strange part some [clears throat] of the Gospel of Thomas sounds familiar, right? Some of it sounds I biblical. Some sayings are similar to what we find in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And And then other parts feel totally different. I mean, very different. Instead of Jesus as a crucified and risen Son of God, Thomas often presents Jesus more like a a revealer of hidden knowledge. Instead of the salvation through Jesus Christ, it leans toward enlightenment through interpretation. Instead of the public gospel, it offers secret secret sayings. And And that matters because the Gospel of Thomas opens by saying, "These are the hidden sayings that the living Jesus spoke. And that whoever discovers their meaning will not taste death." PBS's presentation on the text preserves that opening idea. And Britannica, the Encyclopedia Britannica, summarizes Thomas as a non-canonical gospel containing 114 sayings attributed to Jesus, traditionally connected to Thomas, and likely written in the mid-2nd century.
So, today we are going to do what we always try to do here and we're not going to we're not going to be lazy. I That is something we try not to do and we are not going to say it was hidden, therefore it must be true. Cuz we don't do that either. Try not to. And we are not [snorts] going to say it was left out, therefore it is worthless.
>> [snorts] >> I can't. Uh we're going to put it on the table. Uh we're going to test it. Test the spirit, right? Test it. We are going to cross-reference it with the uh what Jesus actually says in the Bible. And by the end, I think we will see something very important. Uh the Gospel of Thomas may contain echoes of Jesus, but it does not carry the heart of the Gospel.
>> [snorts] >> And that difference is everything. Welcome back to Broadcasting Seeds. I'm your host, Ben E. Tantin.
>> [clears throat] >> Let's get into it. All right. What is the Gospel of Thomas? Before we get into the mystery, we need to start with the basics and the Gospel of Thomas is not a gospel in the same way that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are gospels. And that is important to understand, okay? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell the story the story of Jesus. They tell us about his ministry, about his miracles, his confrontations with religious leaders, um his compassion for sinners, his teaching of and on the kingdom. Right? His also [clears throat] his betrayal and his crucifixion, his burial, his resurrection, his appeal um appearing to the disciples, commanding them to go and make disciples. He His command to go and make disciples, right? The Gospel of Thomas does not do that. Thomas is a collection of sayings. That is it. No birth narrative, no walking on water, um no feeding the 5,000 in uh story form, no garden of uh Gethsemane, no trial before Pilate, no crown of thorns, no dripping blood from the cross, no empty tomb. No, he is risen. No resurrected Christ eating fish with his disciples. I I'm just saying. Okay? They're just sayings, one after another. Jesus said this, Jesus said that. The text contains 114 sayings that are attributed to Jesus and it is usually classified as a non-canonical sayings gospel. And Britannica, encyclopedia again, describes it as apocryphal and non-canonical and notes that it contains secret secret sayings attributed to Jesus, several of which parallel the New Testament Gospels.
Now, right away, >> [sighs and gasps] >> this should make you pause. Because Christianity is not simply built on isolated sayings of Jesus. Christianity is built on the person and the works the work of Jesus Christ. The gospel is not merely Jesus said wise things, guys. The gospel is Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He rose again. He defeated sin and death. He reconciles us, you, me, us, to the Father.
>> [snorts] >> That is the center. And if if that is if you remove that center, you may still have spiritual language, but you do not have the gospel. You have something else. Maybe philosophy or maybe mysticism. Maybe ancient self-help, right? Um maybe it's religious poetry or even deception. Hark, deception.
>> [sighs and gasps] >> But it's definitely not the gospel, okay? And this is where Thomas immediately becomes fascinating because it gives us Jesus language without the fall Jesus story. That is like giving someone the Constitution uh with no revolution. Speaking of America, okay? Or let's give you another analogy. Uh a wedding ring right? With no marriage. Or like a knife. A knife with no handle. Right? It just doesn't make sense. A map with no destination. How about that? It looks important, right? It might even contain something that's real. But something essential is missing. Period.
Why people are so drawn to Thomas. And let's be honest about why people are attracted to this text, okay? It's not hard to understand. The Gospel of Thomas has all the ingredients of a modern viral mystery. It is ancient. It is controversial. It was not included in the Bible. It uses the language of secrecy. It is tied um to the identity. Uh, it is tied to early Christianity. I guess we'll say it that way. It seems to offer hidden teachings of Jesus. Ooh, you know? And it is associated with the Nag Hammadi discoveries, which included a collection of ancient texts found in Egypt in the 20th, like the early 20th century. And PBS's Frontline uh describes Thomas as one of the most important discoveries connected to the Nag Hammadi and emphasizes that it is made up of the sayings of Jesus. So, of course, people are interested, right? You do not have to be a conspiracy theorist to look at that and say, "Wait a minute. What is this?"
But, in the modern world, Thomas is often marketed in a very specific way. It is presented as the suppressed gospel. Ooh, the suppressed gospel. The one the church did not want you to read. The church, okay? I'm not a fan of the church, either, folks, but discernment. Um it's the mystical Jesus and the cosmic Jesus, the Jesus of hidden knowledge and uh the Jesus that's beyond religion. See, you don't have to be religious to believe in Jesus. And that sounds attractive to a lot of people, especially people who have been hurt. Hm. Who have been hurt by religious institutions. I get it, guys. I get it. A lot of people are tired. I mean, if you've listened to me for more than 6 minutes, I am tired of systems. I am so exhausted by gatekeepers, okay? Um people are tired of being told what they are allowed to ask, too. I get it. They're tired of religious leaders saying, "Do not look over here and do as I say, not as I do." Uh
>> [sighs] >> so, when someone says, "Here is the secret Jesus they buried." People naturally, I mean, duh, even me, they lean in. But here is the broadcasting seeds of warning. Okay?
>> [gasps and sighs] >> Distrust of institutions does not automatically make alternative source a alternative source trustworthy. That is where a lot of people get spiritually played played. Yeah, played like a violin. They leave one form of control and walk straight into another, okay? And they reject religious manipulation only to embrace mythical manipulation, okay? Seriously. They reject the pulpit, but then they bow to the guru. You guys see this and you know it. All of you know it. They reject church tradition, but accept any ancient text with a cool backstory. And that is not discernment, folks. It is not. That is just rebellion wearing a linen robe and a crystal freaking necklace, okay?
>> [sighs] >> The question is not was this hidden? Was this text hidden? The real question is what spirit is behind it.
>> [gasps] >> What does it say about Jesus? What does it say about salvation? Again, something else. What does it say about sin? About the cross? About um What does it do with the resurrection? What fruit does it produce? Because Jesus himself gave us the test in Matthew 7. Jesus warns about false prophets and says they will be recognized by their fruit. That is a biblical test of spiritual claims. Matthew 7:15-20. So today that is what we are doing. We are checking the fruit. Okay?
>> [snorts and gasps] >> And it frankly this text has gnostic fingerprints all over it. So now we need to talk about the big word that follows the Gospel of Thomas around everywhere. Gnostic. All right? Gnosticism is a broad and complicated category so we need to be careful careful here. Not every scholar agrees on how gnostic the Gospel of Thomas is. Some argue that Thomas is fully gnostic and others argue that it is better described as gnostic-influenced. Some argue um that parts of it may preserve early Jesus sayings that were later shaped by mystical or gnostic communities. The The Gospel of Thomas is most likely a gnostic or gnostic-influenced text. Though some of its sayings may reflect earlier uh Jesus traditions. That gives us room to be honest.
Now what does gnostic mean? And at a simplest term uh simplest level gnosticism emphasized secret knowledge or gnosis. Not um just knowledge like facts. Not just learned learning Bible verses, right? But hidden spiritual insight. The idea that salvation comes through awakening. Through discovery. Who discovering who you really are. Um, through escaping ignorance and finding the divine spark within, okay? And this is where the Gospel of Thomas starts to feel very different from the New Testament because the New Testament does talk about mystery. Paul talks about mysteries revealed. Um, Jesus talks about the mysteries of the kingdom. But biblical [snorts] mystery is not hidden from everyone except a spiritual elite. Biblical mystery is revealed in Christ. It is fulfilled in Christ. It points to Christ.
>> [gasps] >> The mystery is not, um, to code the secret and save yourself. Guys, the mystery is God has revealed his redemptive plan through Jesus Christ. That is very different. And the Gospel of Thomas opens by putting massive weight on interpreting hidden sayings. Um, secret words or hidden sayings attributed to Jesus. And saying one connects discovering the meaning of those sayings with not tasting death. Now, compare that to the Jesus of John 14:6. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6, right? That is not salvation through decoding, that is salvation through a person. Jesus does not say the hidden interpretation is the way. He says, "I I am the way."
>> [sighs and gasps] >> Um he does not say secret knowledge is the truth. He says, "I am the truth." He does not say discovering the inner spark is the life. He says, "I am the life." That is the divide. That is the line in the sand, folks. Um Thomas may use Jesus' name. Thomas may include sayings that sound close to the Bible, but the center of gravity shifts.
>> [gasps] >> And whenever the center shifts away from Christ himself, we have a problem. And where Thomas sounds like Jesus, now to be fair, we need to acknowledge something. Okay, as some parts of Thomas really do sound familiar. That is why this text is so intriguing. And there are sayings in Thomas that resemble teachings found in the canonical Gospels when you compare them. For example, themes like seeking and finding, hidden things being revealed, right? The kingdom, light, poverty, wisdom, and spiritual discernment. Um PBS's translation includes sayings such as hidden things being revealed, which is similar in theme to sayings found in the New Testament. And that matters because this means we should we should not treat Thomas like it is just random nonsense cuz it is not. Um It is an ancient text using the language and memory of Jesus's traditions. Some scholars believe parts of Thomas may preserve independent traditions. Others believe it depends on on or reshapes materials from the canonical gospels that debate that debate is real, okay?
>> [gasps] >> Um but here is the key. The text can contain true statements and still lead you in the wrong direction, right? That is one of the oldest tricks in the book. Think about temptation in the garden. The serpent did not just walk in and say something completely ridiculous, right? He twisted, he questioned, and he totally refrained. He used enough truth to make the lie digestible. That's how deception works. And we see the same thing when Satan tempts Jesus in the wilderness, too, right? He He even uses scripture. He quotes it. And he quotes it wrongly, but he quotes it wrongly. He uses the Bible against the purpose of God. That is why spiritual discernment is not just asking. It's not just asking does this include something true? It is asking you have to see it as where does this lead and what does this produce? Right? What does the text do with Jesus? Because the Gospel of Thomas may contain fragments that sound like Jesus, but overall shape of the text does not bring us to the cross. It does not, and that is a not a small issue. That is an issue. That is the issue. The missing cross.
Here's the part that we just can't ignore. The Gospel of Thomas has no crucifixion narrative. No atonement. No blood of the covenant. No father forgive me. No thief on the cross. No darkness over the land, and no veil torn. No Roman centurion saying, "Truly, this was the son of God." No burial. No woman women coming to the tomb. No angel saying, "He is not here. He is risen." That is not a minor editing choice, folks. That is the removal of the beating heart of Christianity. Paul sends says in 1 Corinthians 15 that the gospel he preached was that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day according to the scriptures. That is the gospel. Not secret sayings. Not um hidden interpretation. Not mystical insight. Christ died. Christ was buried. Christ rose. That is the foundation.
So, when the text gives you Jesus without the cross, you should immediately ask, "What Jesus is this?" Because the New Testament does not present Jesus as merely a a a wisdom teacher, right? He is not just some rabbi with better parables, okay? He is not just mystic dropping spiritual breadcrumbs, right? He's not that that person. He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
>> [sighs] >> John the Baptist identifies him that way in John 1, right? John 1 29. So, if if a supposed gospel removes the lamb and removes the sacrifice, the blood, um the resurrection and replaces it with hidden interpretation, then we have to be honest, guys. That is not the same gospel. It may be ancient, right? And it may sound freaking great. It may be fascinating. It may even be useful for understanding early religious movements, but it is not the apostolic gospel. And this is where I think a a lot of modern people get confused. Frankly, they think, "Well, Thomas has Jesus sayings, and so maybe it is just another version of Christianity." But Christianity is not built on sayings alone, guys. It's It's built on an event, the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection, the ascension, the promised return. Take those away and you do [clears throat] not have Christianity.
>> [cough] >> You have Jesus-flavored mysticism. And that's a very different drink. So now let's do what we came here to do. Let's put the Thomas, the Gospel of Thomas, on the witness stand. And let's let the biblical Jesus cross examine it. Okay? Like in court. Test one.
>> [cough and clears throat] >> Is salvation found in hidden interpretation or in Christ? Thomas begins with the idea that whoever discovers the meaning of the hidden sayings will not taste death. Wow. That sounds spiritual, right? Sounds spiritual. It sounds mysterious. It sounds freaking deep. But biblical Jesus says eternal life is found in him. John 3:16 says, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life." John 5:24 says, "Whoever hears Jesus' word and believes him who sent him has everlasting life." Has everlasting life. That's not hidden decoding, right? That is what we would call faith. That is trust. And I you would call it receiving Christ. So the question becomes, why does Thomas' opening open by making interpretation the gateway? That does not automatically prove everything every saying is false, but it does show us the operating system and the operating operating system feels much different. Period.
Test two. Is the kingdom inside you, around you, or coming through the king? Thomas has sayings that emphasize the kingdom being within or spread out, but people do not see it. That overlaps loosely with Luke 17 where Jesus says the kingdom of God is not coming with observation and that the kingdom is in [clears throat] their midst or among them depending on translation, right? But in the New Testament, the kingdom is not just an inner state of awareness. It is the reign and rule of God. It comes through the king. It calls people to repentance. It confronts sin and breaks demonic power. It heals the sick. It announces the arrival of God's authority through Jesus. So, if someone takes the kingdom is within and turns it into you are divine, awaken yourself. Guys, that's not Jesus. Um that's like a freaking remix. It's not the song. It's a remix of the song. And not every remix should be have made uh made the album, right?
Test three. Does the text lead to repentance? Great question. When Jesus begins preaching in Mark, he says, "The time is fulfilled and [clears throat] the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." Mark 1:15. Repentance is central in that. Not just awareness awareness or interpretation, not just realizing your hidden identity, okay? Actual freaking repentance. Turning, surrendering, coming under the authority of God. Thomas does not carry that same weight. It has moral [clears throat] sayings, of course, yes, it does. It has wisdom as well. But the biblical call to repentance before a holy God is not the central drumbeat of Thomas.
>> [sighs and gasps] >> And when repentance dis- repentance disappears, the self usually takes the throne. You all know what I'm saying. Um
Test four, does the text confess Jesus as Lord? Now, the New Testament repeatedly presses us toward the identity of Jesus. "Who do you say that I am?" Uh Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ, the son of the living God. Matthew 16:15-16. Thomas in the Gospel of John gives one of the clearest confessions in the entire New Testament, right? Uh when he encounters the risen Christ and says, "My Lord and my God." That's biblical Thomas, not the Gospel of Thomas. Thomas in the Gospel of John, right? Confesses, "My Lord my God." John 20:28. That is not that is the biblical Thomas. The Thomas connected to the canonical Gospel of John um does not discover secret sayings and become enlightened. He encounters the resurrected Jesus and then worships. That is a massive difference. The biblical Thomas moves from doubt to worship. And the Gospel of Thomas, right, this that we're talking about, moves from hidden sayings to interpretation. What? One says, "My Lord and my God." The other says, "Whoever discovers the meaning of these sayings will not taste death."
>> [gasps] >> Those are not the same spiritual center, folks. They're just not. And then we move we move from there, right? We move from the tests, which frankly it passed none, right? The to the strange ending of Thomas. Um and we have to talk about one of the This is one of the strangest and most controversial parts of this whole book, this Gospel of Thomas. And that's the ending. Um saying 114. Um This saying includes a bizarre exchange involving Mary and the idea that a woman must become male to enter the kingdom. The Biblical Archaeology Society's published version of the the sayings includes this controversial final saying. Now, scholars debate what this means, and some say it's symbolic. Some say male male represents spiritual completeness in that ancient worldview. And some say it reflects [snorts] uh ascetic or um Gnostic ideas about transcending the physical body. But, let's cross-reference it with the Bible uh in the bi- the biblical Jesus. Um does that sound like the Jesus of the canonical gospels? Um Jesus speaks with the Samaritan woman um at the well in John 4. Jesus receives support from women during his ministry. Jesus defends Mary of uh Bethany sitting at the feet at his feet as a disciple in Luke 10. Women are the first witnesses to the empty tomb, and in the New Testament women are not treated as spiritually defective beings who need to become male to enter the kingdom. So, when Thomas ends with that kind of language, we should be very careful. Again, I am not saying every scholar interprets the saying the same way, but through the biblical lens, it is hard to make that final saying sound like the Jesus we encounter in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And this is why I say Thomas may contain echoes, but it is also it also contains absolute distortion. And distortion is often more dangerous than outright denial, right? Because outright denial is easy to spot. Distortion gets close enough to sound familiar. And you know, that's very dangerous. Uh
we move to Thomas being suppressed. And we're talking about I mean, this is a spicy question, right?
>> [snorts] >> Was the Gospel of Thomas suppressed? Because this is where people usually go. Uh they say the Christ or the church hid it. They buried the real Jesus. And the Bible was edited by powerful men, and Thomas was removed because it it uh threatened the system. And listen, we should we should not be naive about power, right? Religious institutions can and do and have absolutely protect themselves. Church history has plenty of politics, and human beings are human beings even when wearing robes and holding councils. But we also need to be honest. The early church did not accept every text with Jesus' name attached to it. And that's actually a good thing. Because we there uh were many texts floating around in the ancient world claiming a pa- a pa- uh um apostolic authority. Some were orthodox, some were strange, some were freaking late, some were forged, some blended Christianity with other spiritual systems. And this the question was not simply does this text mention Jesus? The question was is it connected to the apostolic witness, right? Does it align with the rule of faith? Was it received broadly by the churches and does does it preserve the true gospel? Thomas did not pass that test. It just didn't. And the reason is pretty clear. It does not give us the apostolic gospel centered on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It gives us secret sayings and hidden interpretation. So was Thomas suppressed? I mean here's the careful answer. Thomas was rejected by as scripture by the mainstream church, but that does not automatically mean it was rejected because it contained the real truth. It may have been rejected because it did not faithfully preserve the apostolic gospel. That's less sensational, of course, right? But it is probably closer to reality.
Now, broadcasting seed speculation. >> [gasps] >> Could there have been power politics involved in which texts were promoted and copied or preserved or condemned? Of course, absolutely. Human beings were involved, period. Institutions were involved in protecting themselves and the Roman world was involved. Religious authority was involved. But that does not mean every rejected text was a buried treasure of some sort, okay? Some rejected texts were rejected because they were spiritually dangerous and frankly guys, I'll say full of [ __ ] Sorry. And that is the uncomfortable part that modern people do not always want to admit. Sometimes the gatekeepers are freaking corrupt and they're trying to sell you something. Sometimes the gate exists for a reason. Both can be true.
The modern Thomas problem. Here is why this matters today. The Gospel of Thomas is not just an ancient text problem. It is a modern spiritual problem. Because the same move happens now. People love Jesus as a wisdom teacher. They love Jesus as a mystic and they love him as a revolutionary, right? They love Jesus as a um consciousness guide. And an ascended master. And they love the symbol of inner awakening. And but they do not want Jesus as Lord. They do not want Jesus as a judge or that they do not want Jesus as the only way to the Father. They do not want um Jesus crucified for sin, resurrected in power, right? Um they do not want Jesus saying, "Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me." That is the issue. The world is often fine with Jesus as long as he stays freaking inspirational. But the moment Jesus becomes authoritative, the room gets quiet. People you can hear crickets. The moment Jesus says, "Repent," people get uncomfortable because they're sinners. I'm a sinner. We all are. The moment Jesus says, "No one comes to the Father except through me," through him, people start looking for another gospel. And Thomas gives them one. And Jesus without the cross, without blood, without resurrection proclamations, and the Jesus who gives secret sayings instead of a public salvation, the Jesus who sounds spiritual, but does not demand the same surrender. That is why this text matters. Because it is not just about what people believe and believed in the 2nd century. It is about what people are still doing today. They are trying to separate the teachings of Jesus from the Lordship of Jesus. They want to to red letters. Um they want the red letters without the red blood. Okay?
>> [gasps] >> And they want the parables without the Passover lamb. They want kingdom without him being the king. And you can't have that. You can't have it. It's not biblical. Not biblically, period.
The Broadcasting Seeds theory, and I want to be clear. This is speculation. Not confirmed fact. But it is worth considering. Speculation, period. The Gospel of Thomas may represent an early attempt to reframe Jesus as a revealer of secret wisdom, rather than the crucified and risen Son of God. And if that is true, then Thomas is not just an ancient curiosity. It is part of a larger pattern. Take the central figure of God's redemption plan, remove the scandal of the cross, remove the bloody resurrection, remove sin and repentance, and substitute uh uh substitionary atonement. Right? Then repackage Jesus as a mystical teacher who helps you discover hidden truth within yourself. I'm sorry, folks, but that is not theology. That is spiritual rebranding, and we see this all over the place today. New Age Jesus, Gnostic Jesus, psychedelic Jesus, freaking alien Jesus, ascended master Jesus. Um political revolutionary, even therapist or influencer, self-help Jesus. Everybody wants a version of Jesus they can use, but the real Jesus does not come to be used. He comes to be followed. That is why Thomas should not be studied academically. It should be discerned spiritually. It It's because the enemy does not always attack Jesus uh by denying him. Sometimes he attacks Jesus by redefining him. That is the old trick. That is the deception. Do not remove the name, change [clears throat] the meaning. Change you you know, keep the vocabulary, but change the doctrine. Keep the spiritual vibe, bro. Keep the spiritual vibe, bro. Remove the cross. Keep Jesus said, but remove it is finished. And if you do, if you can do that, you can create a religion that sounds Christian, but cannot save freaking anyone. That is the danger. Period. Saying period a lot, sorry. Um
So, should Christians read Thomas? Now, this is a practical question, guys and gals. Should Christians read the Gospel of Thomas? The answer is yes, but carefully. Read it as an artifact. Read it as evidence of early religious conflict. Read it as a window into how the memory of Jesus was being used, reshaped, and contested. It's not just a memory. People do it now. Read it with your Bible open, okay? But do not read it as scripture. Do not read it devotionally. Do not let it become your lens for understanding Jesus because I let Jesus in the Bible be the lens for understanding Thomas. That is the That is the right order, okay? Because if you read Thomas first and then interpret the New Testament through Thomas, you'll drift off course. You're off course. But if you stand firmly in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, the Epistles, and the whole witness of scripture, then Thomas becomes something else. It frankly becomes a case study and a spiritual artifact and a warning label from the ancient world and a reminder that not every text with Jesus's name carries Jesus's truth. And honestly, that is a lesson we need badly right now because the internet has become um the Nag Hammadi with Wi-Fi. Every day someone finds a quote or a scroll, a theory, a supposed book, um a hidden teaching, prophecy, forbidden manuscript, or a real history thread that supposedly changes everything. I mean, think about what I do. Some of it I Of course I find some of it interesting. Um and a lot of it we're studying. Some of it may even expose real institutional blind spots, right? But so much of it is actually poison. And if you do not have discernment, I you do not have discernment, you will drink it because the bottle looks ancient. Okay?
So, where does that leave us? The Gospel Thomas is real. It is ancient. It is fascinating to many people. And it contains 114 sayings that are attributed to Jesus. Some of those sayings sound close to the New Testament. Some may even preserve echoes of early Jesus traditions, but overall um but the overall shape of the text points us somewhere different. It points us towards hidden interpretation and secret knowledge, mystical discovery, um a Jesus of sayings without saving, without the saving work. And that is where we have to draw the line because the gospel is not hidden in the secret code. It's just not. The gospel is revealed in a crucified and risen king. The gospel is not decode this and you will live. The gospel is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is not the discovery of your inner divine spark.
>> [sighs] >> The gospel is the rescue of sinners by the son of God. The gospel is not a ladder of secret freaking knowledge. It is the cross. And that cross is either the center of the story or we are not telling the Christian story at all anymore. So, the Gospel of Thomas, what they are telling you? No. It is not simply the secret Bible book that proves the church lied. But, it is also not something we should ignore. It is a reminder. Frankly, a warning. A spiritual fingerprint. It shows us how early and how easily the message of Jesus could be reshaped within something more mystical, more elite, more secretive, um and frankly more comfortable for people who want alignment without surrender. Okay? And that big maybe the real reason Thomas still matters because the same temptation is alive right now. People still want secret Jesus and mystical Jesus. They want the Jesus without repentance, right? Jesus without the cross and lordship and without the empty tomb because um but the Jesus of scripture still stands in the middle of history and says follow me. He doesn't say decode me or reinvent me or uh not use me. Follow me. And that is where the choice is. Secret knowledge or saving faith, freaking grace. Hidden sayings or a risen savior. Thomas or the gospel.
As always, this is Broadcasting Seeds. I'm Bennett Tanton. Keep asking questions. Keep testing the spirit. Keep your Bible open and remember sometimes the most dangerous counterfeit is not the thing that looks nothing like the truth. It is the thing that looks just close enough. In this episode, if this episode made you think, share it with someone who has heard about the Gospel of Thomas but does not know what to make of it. Let me know in the comments. Do you think Thomas preserves fragments of authentic Jesus tradition or do you think it is mainly a Gnostic distortion? Either way, keep it respectful, folks. We are here to seek truth, not win um
>> [clears throat] >> comment section cage fights, okay? That's it. Like, subscribe, review the podcast and visit broadcastingseeds.com uh and bennettstantonbooks.com for more episodes, articles, deep dives into the strange, the [music] ancient, the biblical, and the buried. Have a great Sunday.
>> [music] >> You came wrapped in sacred [music] pages dustening from buried graves >> [music] >> whispered like a revelation, calling fools [music] to hidden ways. You spoke with fragments of the teacher, but something underneath [music] was wrong. No blood, no cross, no empty tomb, just shadows wearing borrowed songs.
>> [music] >> I can hear it twisting. I can feel it crawl. But without surrender, >> [music] >> it's not truth at all. No, I'm not the Christ I know. You left the cross out in [music] the cold. Secret words in hollow light cannot raise the dead to life. You can wear his name. You [music] can sound the part, but you cannot save with A COUNTERFEIT HEART. WITH A COUNTERFEIT [music] HEART. OH, YOU promised sparks [music] inside the darkness. A kingdom buried in my veins.
>> [music] >> But I have seen what pride can worship when the soul becomes [music] the flame. No crown of thorns, NO BODY BROKEN, NO STONE NO [music] BACK NO VICTORY, just ancient echoes dressed as wisdom trying to redefine the king. But >> [music] >> I can hear it twisting. I can feel it crawl. A gospel without Jesus is the >> [music] >> oldest lie of all. OH, I'M NOT THE CHRIST I know. YOU LEFT THE CROSS OUT IN THE COLD. Secret words [music] in hollow light cannot raise the dead to life. You can wear his name. >> [music] >> You can sound the part, but you cannot SAVE WITH COUNTERFEIT >> [music] [music] >> HE SHOWED ME THE way shun become your own salvation. Feed me >> [music] >> the secret. Believe our crucifixion. No blood, no mercy, [music] NO RESURRECTION MORNING, NO LORD, NO SAVIOR, JUST ANOTHER NATION WIDE >> [music] >> NOT EVERY HIDDEN thing is holy. Not every ancient voice true. Not every angel brings [music] the message. Not every light is breaking through. Test the spirit. Test the flame. Test the book [music] that bears his name. If there's no cross, if there's no grave, if there's no Christ, THEN IT CANNOT SAVE. YOU LOVE THE CHRIST I KNOW. >> [music] >> YOU LEFT THE CROSS OUT IN THE COLD. Secret words in hollow light cannot raise the dead to >> [music] >> life. You can wear his name. You can sound the part, but you [music] cannot save with a counterfeit >> [music] >> the counterfeit heart. >> [music] >> No secret key. No verse [music] one. You came wrapped in sacred [music] pages. Dust standing from buried graves. Whispered like a revelation. [music] Calling fools to hidden ways. You spoke with [music] fragments of the teacher, but something underneath was wrong. No blood, no cross, no empty [music] tomb, just shadows wearing borrowed songs. I can hear it twisting. I can feel it crawl. >> [music] >> Truth without surrender is no truth at all. >> [music] >> Oh, you are not the Christ I know. You left the cross OUT IN [music] THE COLD. SECRET words in hollow light cannot raise the dead to >> [music] >> life. You can wear his name. You can sound the part, but you [music] cannot save with a counterfeit heart. All your promise MARKS INSIDE [music] THE DARKNESS. KINGDOM buried in my veins. BUT I HAVE SEEN WHAT I CAN WORSHIP. WHEN THE self becomes the plague. No crown, [music] no thorns, nobody broken. No stone rolled back. No victory. Just ancient [music] echoes dressed as wisdom. Trying to redefine the king. I can hear it twisting. [music] I can feel it crawl. A gospel without Jesus is the oldest LIE OF ALL. [music] OH, YOU ARE NOT [music] THE CHRIST I KNOW. YOU HAVE LEFT THE cross out in the cold. Secret words in hollow light [music] cannot raise the dead to life. You can wear his name. You can sound the part, >> [music] >> but you cannot save with a counterfeit heart. >> [music] >> No secret key. No hidden spark. No false [music] light INSIDE THE DARK. GIVE ME the lamb. Give me the scars. Give me the king [music] who conquered the grave. >> [sighs]