As I have stated in previous blogs, "faith is the substance of the the things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen", but their is so much more to say about faith and the importance that the role of faith plays in our lives that recently circumstances and conversations with loved ones who have been steeped in dogma and teachings from the word of God or passed down through family members or teachers without the closest detail paid to the Word of God, have led me to pray about it and to try to put down into words of encouragement and education and comfort to those who may have misinterpreted things I have said.
As a born again, blood bought child of God we have been given many gifts. The Word of God as we know it, as the Bible was not written as one book with one author although we as Christians accept that the word of God was written by those inspired by God Himself and that every word we read is the truth.When in fact we have no proof of who wrote these sacred texts, nor when, nor how many of these sacred texts could exist without having been included in the canon of scriptures that we call the Holy Bible. There are in fact many other "gospels" that have been discovered over the 2000 years since the death of our Lord that were in fact left out of our Bible by Constantine and the Council of Nicea the 5th century. We do know however that God has promised us that He will" keep a watch over his word".
We do know however that there were many texts that were used and studied by early Christian churches that are not in the canon and have been labeled "apochrophyal" or "gnostic" gospels even though there is no more proof that they were not as authentically inspired by God as the rest of what we study in our Bibles, such as the dead sea scrolls and the Nag Hamadi texts. When hungering and thirsting after the things of God and finding these texts one must decide whether to read and decide for themselves as to the validity of their claims. However, many do not take into account that God has promised us that firstly He has not given us a Spirit of fear, but a spirit of love, and power and a sound mind, and that secondly that when he left us he promised us the gift of the Holy Spirit who would lead us into the knowledge of all truth. God also said that we are His sheep and that we will not come to the voice of any other. It is also important to realize that fear is a spirit, and not of God, and that it is the actual opposite or antithesis of faith and that God has stated that without faith it is impossible to please God. So I put it to those who have not read these other texts with no fear and an open mind that they are allowing themselves to be robbed of faith, and possibly missing out on important things that God has spoken for our benefit. There are several places in our own scriptures that our Lord says "as it is written" or something similar and yet I have never been able to find those writings in our Bibles but have in fact found them in these "lost gospels".
What I found even more peculiar was that these dogmatic Christian people actually were beyond fearful, but became aggitated and even accusatory stating that I was an heretic for merely suggesting that they should be studied for oneself based on the facts I have already mentioned. I felt sorry for these people as they seemed to be so involved in the church and to have so much knowledge of the word, and yet could not even hear or see the truth when it was in front of their faces, printed in the very words they did accept.
Paul even admonished us to "be as the Bereans were" not blindly accepting anything taught to them but searching out the scriptures for themselves. That was because he knew as we should all know that we are not bound by a spirit of fear but of love and power and a sound mind, and that the Holy Spirit would interpret for us and lead us into the knowledge of all truth. What was even more confusing to me was that some of these lost books explained or augmented what our meager scriptures have given us concerning some subjects. I would in no way accept that something that in anyway countered what I believe to be the true Word of God, but as all of these books were written many many years after the facts of Jesus and His ministry does it not make sense that there would be many that told the story with more and less information than others depending on the teller?
In point of fact the very book of Daniel which contains the very keys to unlocking the mysteries of the Revelation was very nearly left out of our Bible altogether! Can you imagine how lost we would be in the interpretation of one of the most enigmatic and puzzling books in all of the Bible? We are to have faith, but we are not to put all of our faith in man, as man is fallible, and God put all these gifts in our life and in His word to guide us to find all that He has for us. Don't ever be fearful to read these words and judge for yourself whether or not they are the words of God or not as He has built fail safes into the souls of His elect that will keep you safe from heresies so long as you remember who you are and who your Father is and how He has provided you with a spirit of love, power and a sound mind, and that He has given you His Holy Spirit to guide you into the knowledge of all truth.
Having faith in God and His word does not in any way mean that you are not allowed to search for the deeper things of God so long as you remember these promises God has given us and use the tools that He has given us to keep us on the correct path. Read these ancient writings and find for yourself what is in alignment with God's word and what is not. Do not allow a spirit of fear to keep you from knowing all that God has intended for you to know. After all, these writings on paper that could have been burned, or destroyed by God's own hand so many times in the thousands of years that have passed have survived, earthquakes floods, storms and other natural and man made disasters only to have been discovered in a legible form for us to read for some reason. So once again I say to you all, have faith and avoid fear like the plague that it is.
