No thanks, I’ll take the Savior that I have. Go away.
Check this out. I quote from the ad published in Biblical Archaeology Review.
“The Gospel of Judas is the most important discovery in history.” Ya think? “From gnostic texts that have just recently arisen–phoenix-like–from the desert sands of Egypt, is the true original mastership succession story of first-century savior James the Just, whose every detail is inverted to hide his coming in the “Betrayal of Christ” narrative of the New Testament Gospels. All biblical scholars–” What? All of them?–“missed that Judas–not Jesus!–is the spiritual self-sacrifice ‘of the man that bears me,’ and an inverted stand-in for successor James…” blah-blah. And there’s more if you have nothing better to do than visit their website (https://judaswasjames.com/).
There you will be told that “‘Jesus’ didn’t die to save anyone, and that he was in truth preceded and succeeded by other Masters of equal stature.”
And at the bottom of the ad, this notice: “Seeking assistance/publisher/producer”. It seems somebody’s too cheap to self-publish.
Is it me, or is there a lot of this pseudo-biblical buffoonery going around these days? Last I heard, gnosticism was a heresy, emphatically rejected by the early Church. Obviously with good reason.
Where can I go to buy stock in false prophecy–clearly a growth industry?
These people are going to have to do an awful lot of fast talking, come Judgment Day.
This is both astounding and frightening. I have heard that in Islamic quarters, Ishmael is considered to be the one Abraham was willing to sacrifice to God, not Isaac. Jesus said that also prophets would mark the time leading up to his return.
There are a lot of people playing fast and loose with Scripture.
Autocorrect strikes again. Instead of “also prophets” I had intended to say “false prophets”.
C.S. Lewis said “Islam is only the greatest of the Christian heresies”.
To this day, Egyptian Christians (trust me on this) believe Mohammed was a breakaway cardinal who wanted to be Pope, failed to win that prize, and became a heretic instead.
That’s a new one on me. What little I know of Coptic Christians, they seem to be heavily influenced by Roman Catholicism.
Egyptian Christianity is very old, and when Egypt was invaded by the Muslims, the Christians were cut off, for centuries, from the rest of the Christian world. Their Coptic liturgy is all that remains of the original ancient Egyptian language.
I worked with an Egyptian Christian for several years, I still see him now and then, we’re friends–and I learned a lot from him that I never would’ve known about if I hadn’t met him.
I’ve always wondered about Coptic Christians. I know little about them. I’ve heard the opinion that they are quite similar to the earliest Christians, because of having been cut off from the mainstream of the church, but I make no claim as to the veracity of this statement.
There are no new heresies. They are just the same old refuted yarns with fresh lipstick. If discernment or logic or even if basic rules of thinking were taught, the problem would crawl back into the pit of its origin.
I read through the Bible constantly and no way could you come up with this bizarre stuff. It is always backed up by extra-Biblical texts. The Roman Catholic Church has done it, the Mormons have done it, the Christian Scientists have done it, and in a way the Jehovah Witnesses have done it by using their own faulty translation of the Bible.
This stuff was going on very early in Church history. This is gnostic mischief. It’s why the Church rejected them as heretics.