Jym Shorts

Jym Shorts - January 3, 2019

by Jym Gregory on January 03, 2019

In 2003 Dan Brown’s mystery novel The Da Vinci Code became a best seller and spawned a controversial yet well-received movie by the same title three years later, with a star-studded cast led by Tom Hanks. The controversy centered on Brown’s contention that certain “lost gospels” that told the story of Jesus in greater detail had been suppressed by powerful church authorities for over 1,700 years, keeping people from knowing the truth about Christ and remaining saddled with a New Testament that was not only inaccurate, but also intentionally created to keep people in line and to present only one side of the story of Christianity.

Those “lost gospels,” it turns out, were never really lost. Scholars have known for over a 1,600 years of the existence of other writings purporting to be written by the apostles or close associates of Jesus. It is true that in 1945 in Nag Hammadi, Egypt, a collection of thirteen ancient books were found (called “codices”) containing over 50 texts consisting of portions of the “Gnostic Gospels.” These gospel stories (or stories from the life of Jesus) come from books that were long ago rejected by the church as being spurious. In the past forty-years or so, some have claimed that these books were suppressed because they told the true story of Jesus that did not line up with church teaching. That history is simply hogwash. These writings were known and considered as early as the 4th century and were rightfully rejected by the church. It seems that some today would argue that, if it was written down, and if it does not jibe with the New Testament, there must be a conspiracy at work and we must get at the truth. The problem lies, however, in the reality that these books do not teach the truth, and the early church knew that. They then rejected them, as they should have done, and as anyone today would do if someone was writing false history, or writing a book claiming to be someone in authority when in fact the author is not. Would we accept a recently discovered book on quantum physics purported to have been written by Albert Einstein, which taught a different theory of relativity that was known to be false? We clearly would not, even if some in the minority cried “foul” and “conspiracy!”

I tell you this because starting this Sunday, we will begin a preaching series through 1 John that we have entitled “That You May Know.” The apostle John wrote this epistle (letter) for a few reasons, but one of the most prominent among them was to refute a growing heresy (belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious doctrine) that was causing great dissention in the local churches. It appears, from the context of John’s letter, that an early form of Gnosticism was gaining a foothold in the church. 

Gnosticism has been around almost as long as orthodox Christianity, and although it is a complex false religion, it is in a nutshell what Paul called “another gospel” (Gal. 1:6). Gnostics taught a duality in our nature as humans.  We have a body of flesh, which is evil, and a spirit, which is good. We must suppress the flesh in order to set free the spirit. We can do that in three primary ways: 1) treat the flesh very harshly—deny ourselves pleasure and by doing so set free the spirit, 2) do whatever we want with the flesh, since it is evil and will be destroyed, and feel no shame or regret, we are only doing what we should do—only the spirit matters, and/or 3) gain secret knowledge that only great masters of Gnosticism have gained, which supplants and supersedes that taught by the apostles, and with that secret wisdom gain mastery over the flesh and be set free. John rightfully sees this as an aberration of the teachings of Jesus, and a teaching that cannot be held by those who genuinely profess the name of Jesus. He attacks it strongly in his letter, calling on true followers of Christ to repudiate this so called “freedom” and submit to the authority of Christ in their lives.

The lost gospels that Dan Brown feels have been suppressed and must now be brought to light were written by the Gnostics. The early church and its leaders read them, considered them, and then rejected them. As they did many other types of writings which claimed authority without the backing of the apostles of Jesus or their close associates. They make for interesting reading, but so does Moby Dick – just don’t bank on Captain Ahab saving your soul.

We will start our study in 1 John this Sunday near the end of the letter instead of at the beginning, where John tells us his primary reason for writing the letter: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). We will learn many things in the study of this great letter, but nothing more important than this – if we know Jesus, the Son of God, we may have confidence that we will inherit eternal life. Now that’s something worth knowing!

Grace and peace,

Pastor Jym

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