The Burr in the Burgh

You may have heard - and certainly will be hearing more - about this alleged "Gospel of Judas." This is really much ado about doo doo. From what I understand, the "Gospel of Judas" is just another old gnostic pseudapigraphic text. Judas didn't write it any more than Thomas wrote the gospel of Thomas. Gnostics were people who held to a varied set of heretical teachings. There were numerous such sects in the early centuries of Christianity.

Common themes in gnostic texts include:

• The Highest God did not create the world, some lower deity or emanation of God did.
  
• The material world is evil
• Only spirit is good
• Thus, gnostics tended to promote celibacy because the body doesn't matter.
• Some went the opposite direction and lived licentiously because the body doesn't matter.
• Women were often denigrated. The "Gospel of Thomas" states that a woman (Mary Magdalene) must become a man in order to be saved.
• The Logos (eternal only-begotten Son of God) was not incarnated. The true God could not become a man because the material world is evil.
• One theory was that Jesus was not truly human, he only appeared to be flesh and blood.
• Another theory suggested that Jesus wasn't any more divine than you or I.
• Because the material world is intrinsically evil, Jesus did not rise bodily from the grave.
• Because the material world is evil, Christians do not receive His body and blood in the Eucharist.
• Because the material world is evil, salvation means being set free from the body.
• Because the material world is intrinsically evil, you will not rise bodily on the Last Day.
• The word Gnosticism comes from the Greek word for knowledge (gnosis). Gnostics held that Jesus passed on certain teachings only to a few. And these secret teachings are passed along only to the worthy. So only those ascended masters, the enlightened ones, who posseses this secret knowledge gain the highest salvation.

And so forth. Does that sound anything at all like Christianity? If you believe ANY of the above statements, you cannot in good conscience speak the Nicene Creed. And if you cannot honestly confess the Nicene Creed, you are not a Christian.

Soon, I will be preparing a series of lectures on the Da Vinci Code, so you will be reading more from me on these matters.

Christianity Today has a nice write up on this which I recommend you read.

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I was reading LCMS news maven, Miss Mollie Ziegler, at Get Religion and discovered a very helpful website called Quack Watch. I'm not a doctor and so I'm not qualified to evaluate all of the information on Quack Watch. But I do believe people need to do a bit of level-headed research before embracing so-called alternative medicines and therapies. It's amazing how much quasi-voodoo superstitious nonsense people will accept. Such things as Reiki, therapeutic touch, chakras, aromatherapy, reflexology, past lives therapy and so forth are bewitching legions of otherwise reasonable Americans.

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