1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,420 Welcome to the NECF Podcast, where we share our weekly sermons and faithfully interpret 2 00:00:05,420 --> 00:00:09,260 the Bible to encourage and direct you on your spiritual path. 3 00:00:09,260 --> 00:00:14,720 We are devoted pastors and special guests, devout to the depths of the Bible, exploring 4 00:00:14,720 --> 00:00:18,920 its profound lessons and useful applications for your daily life. 5 00:00:18,920 --> 00:00:24,600 Join us as we explore the timeless truth that have the power to change people's hearts 6 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:31,600 and minds, promoting a closer relationship with God and a firm belief in his promises. 7 00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:37,480 First we touch on the truth. 8 00:00:37,480 --> 00:00:40,520 I'll be reading from verse 15. 9 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:53,440 But sanctify the Lord God, that is, hallowed, sanctify, hallowed the Lord God in your heart 10 00:00:53,440 --> 00:01:01,680 and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is 11 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:13,360 in you, with meekness and fear, having a good conscience that when they defend you as evildoers, 12 00:01:13,360 --> 00:01:27,800 those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. 13 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:36,880 Now as we have started, one key important reason why we must understand the Bible very 14 00:01:36,880 --> 00:01:49,840 importantly, carefully, soundly is that we will need to give a defense of the gospel. 15 00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:56,520 We see a number of things, but one of them is that we must need, or there will be a need 16 00:01:56,520 --> 00:01:58,880 for us to give a defense of the gospel. 17 00:01:58,880 --> 00:02:01,200 Because we have different kinds of people. 18 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:07,520 There are people who are those who attack, whether they attack you or they attack the 19 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:08,520 faith you have. 20 00:02:08,520 --> 00:02:16,240 And that's why I say, you understand, you are always ready to give a defense to everyone 21 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:21,760 who asks you a reason for the hope. 22 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:24,840 Some of them, that word ask doesn't mean that you just come and say, okay, what did you 23 00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:25,840 believe? 24 00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:26,840 No. 25 00:02:26,840 --> 00:02:36,280 When they are trying to question, they hope that it's in you. 26 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:40,760 So that's the reason why we are taking time to study. 27 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:45,680 And I want to encourage you because I also heard when we are praying, that's why this 28 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:53,280 online system is not really good, so to say, for this kind of spiritual meeting. 29 00:02:53,280 --> 00:03:00,720 You know, we are praying and some people are just talking. 30 00:03:00,720 --> 00:03:01,720 Is a height of dishonor. 31 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:05,600 I mean, you are just doing anything you like. 32 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:09,640 So please know that this is very important. 33 00:03:09,640 --> 00:03:16,240 Pay attention to what we are doing today, because there's no how you'll be able to 34 00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:20,480 defend what you don't know. 35 00:03:20,480 --> 00:03:24,280 We don't want you in the process to be even more confused because there are many other 36 00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:26,280 people when they confront them. 37 00:03:26,280 --> 00:03:30,440 We saw some few and that's why many people when they just, I mean, especially in Africa, 38 00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:34,840 because of the kind of the gospels in which we have been taught, immediately you come 39 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:38,080 abroad, you just see some good things. 40 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:43,320 Things just that are humanly, you understand, because they have been telling you those things 41 00:03:43,320 --> 00:03:44,320 are spiritual. 42 00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:46,120 Then you come here and see them. 43 00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:53,200 Then you just not see anything, I mean, any benefit of God or any benefit in following 44 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:55,080 the law. 45 00:03:55,080 --> 00:03:58,440 So it's important to pay attention. 46 00:03:58,440 --> 00:04:03,440 And that's why we will always encourage that the only way to do that is to ensure that 47 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:08,560 you accept you have a child that normally distorts, understand and all that, or you 48 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:14,440 are in a very, very noisy environment. 49 00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:18,760 For example, maybe if you are staying in a house where you are sharing with someone and 50 00:04:18,760 --> 00:04:22,560 then some of those kind of things like that. 51 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:27,240 But if you are there, you're supposed to be concentrating here and you're supposed to 52 00:04:27,240 --> 00:04:28,240 be writing. 53 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:31,240 This is church. 54 00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:33,200 Amen. 55 00:04:33,200 --> 00:04:35,240 Okay. 56 00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:45,920 Last time we discussed on the issue of, we ended our discussion looking at how each of 57 00:04:45,920 --> 00:04:53,320 the books of the New Testament, each of the book were actually written and when, and we 58 00:04:53,320 --> 00:04:55,600 look at a lot of number of things. 59 00:04:55,600 --> 00:05:02,040 And we noted lastly that there are other writings. 60 00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:08,040 There are other writings during the time of the apostles, even after they left during 61 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:11,360 the time of the early church. 62 00:05:11,360 --> 00:05:18,560 After the apostles left or they died, there were still other writings. 63 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:24,560 Some writings are writings by what we call the church fathers. 64 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:27,800 Many of their writings, they are more or less like a commentary. 65 00:05:27,800 --> 00:05:32,800 They are commentary on many passages of the Bible, just the same way like we have today. 66 00:05:32,800 --> 00:05:38,800 We have many pastors writing books, you understand, just to help believers in this time and many 67 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:39,800 other things. 68 00:05:39,800 --> 00:05:45,400 That is not to replace the Bible, but to help believers learn more about the Bible. 69 00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:53,360 And then secondly, we have other writings that seems to challenge the thoughts, the 70 00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:58,920 belief of the church. 71 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:03,280 And here we want to continue in that direction. 72 00:06:03,280 --> 00:06:07,480 And one of them we are going to look at is what we call the Gnostic gospel. 73 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:11,360 But I'm going to go into that later as we proceed. 74 00:06:11,360 --> 00:06:12,640 I want you to know something. 75 00:06:12,640 --> 00:06:14,400 Let me revise something we have done. 76 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:20,760 I mean, probably at the early, the beginning of our message. 77 00:06:20,760 --> 00:06:23,080 I mean, this series. 78 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:31,880 We noted first, before I get to that, just last week, we noted that the end or week before 79 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:38,760 last, we noted that the New Testament, what the section of the Bible we call New Testament 80 00:06:38,760 --> 00:06:47,160 today, I've been reading, it was completed in between AD 40 and AD 100. 81 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:53,080 This is a time whereby every writing from Matthew to Revelation. 82 00:06:53,080 --> 00:06:58,280 So I want you to note that very importantly. 83 00:06:58,280 --> 00:07:09,440 Now secondly, we also noted that at the beginning of our message, that during the early church, 84 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:13,640 when the apostles were writing, they will write, they will pass it to the next church, 85 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:19,280 so the recipient church, that is the primary recipient church. 86 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:23,000 And then the apostles sometimes will ask that when you read, pass it to the other neighboring 87 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:25,200 church. 88 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:28,120 And we saw that way. 89 00:07:28,120 --> 00:07:32,280 But to pass it, of course, definitely, they won't just carry the entire original manuscript 90 00:07:32,280 --> 00:07:33,280 and pass it. 91 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:37,120 They will have to copy their own and then pass it to the next. 92 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:46,880 And we also noted that as even the original one, because it's liable to damage, because 93 00:07:46,880 --> 00:07:54,640 the material they use as a dent to write actually are also prone to damage. 94 00:07:54,640 --> 00:08:03,440 We saw the issue of they use different reeds, they use animal skins. 95 00:08:03,440 --> 00:08:08,840 So they will also copy the original into another one. 96 00:08:08,840 --> 00:08:16,520 And we saw through that many manuscripts were passed from one church to another, from one 97 00:08:16,520 --> 00:08:18,880 church to another. 98 00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:27,220 So to us today, we have about almost 6,000 Greek manuscripts. 99 00:08:27,220 --> 00:08:30,680 So that means because when I mention Greek, I'm talking about that means it's also about 100 00:08:30,680 --> 00:08:40,240 the New Testament alone, meaning from different times that were copied from one place to another. 101 00:08:40,240 --> 00:08:45,920 About 5,800, there are about 6,000 just in Greek alone. 102 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:52,680 Then we have other manuscripts of the New Testament also in Latin, because we saw that 103 00:08:52,680 --> 00:08:57,000 when we are dealing with Bible translation, we saw even how the Bible was translated into 104 00:08:57,000 --> 00:09:00,000 what we call the Latin Vulgate. 105 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:05,760 Now about 10,000 Latin manuscripts we have today. 106 00:09:05,760 --> 00:09:13,400 And other languages we have about 9,000, more than 9,000, let's say 9,300 or thereabouts 107 00:09:13,400 --> 00:09:14,880 manuscripts. 108 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:19,680 In other languages, because we have plenty of languages also, which means that there's 109 00:09:19,680 --> 00:09:25,200 a proliferation of this manuscript from one place to another. 110 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:30,280 Now that's beside other writings which I've mentioned, the writings of the Church Fathers, 111 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:35,600 what we call the Church Fathers, and then of course, other writings in that day or in 112 00:09:35,600 --> 00:09:38,160 that time. 113 00:09:38,160 --> 00:09:42,800 So the New Testament was not a single book. 114 00:09:42,800 --> 00:09:44,520 That's just what I'm trying to communicate. 115 00:09:44,520 --> 00:09:50,320 How we have it today in a Bible in a particular place, it wasn't like that. 116 00:09:50,320 --> 00:09:56,520 This manuscript, maybe John is in one place, Pili Mo is in another place, and so on and 117 00:09:56,520 --> 00:09:57,720 so forth. 118 00:09:57,720 --> 00:10:00,680 So we have them all scattered. 119 00:10:00,680 --> 00:10:07,040 But again, with the number of the writings in circulation at that time, it became also 120 00:10:07,040 --> 00:10:13,940 necessary that these sacred writings by the apostles, you understand, or their associates 121 00:10:13,940 --> 00:10:19,760 must be put together, because they can be with the same authority as others. 122 00:10:19,760 --> 00:10:21,200 There was a need in the Church. 123 00:10:21,200 --> 00:10:23,480 So we have to put all those things together. 124 00:10:23,480 --> 00:10:29,160 Remember, by that moment, before even Jesus arrived, already what we call the Old Testament 125 00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:30,160 has been put together. 126 00:10:30,160 --> 00:10:38,080 And that was why Jesus said, beginning at Moses and in all the prophets, he expounded 127 00:10:38,080 --> 00:10:41,160 onto them the things concerning himself. 128 00:10:41,160 --> 00:10:54,520 As Luke chapter 24 says, the law of Moses, the prophet, and the Psalms. 129 00:10:54,520 --> 00:11:00,120 So at that time already, the Old Testament has been completed. 130 00:11:00,120 --> 00:11:02,080 It's already in one place. 131 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:07,320 But now we have now the part we call the New Testament, which we have been able to prove 132 00:11:07,320 --> 00:11:09,600 why we call it also the New Testament. 133 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:15,800 I mean, what we call it scriptures, or why we can consider it scripture. 134 00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:26,440 Now one thing I wanted to note, very important here, is that this mixture of the sacred writings, 135 00:11:26,440 --> 00:11:31,520 and of course, and other writings that are in circulation, was not the early thought 136 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:32,760 that it wasn't a good thing. 137 00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:35,960 We need to put all those things together. 138 00:11:35,960 --> 00:11:44,680 So the first time, and of course, the process by which the New Testament texts came together 139 00:11:44,680 --> 00:11:47,200 as one, has been a problem. 140 00:11:47,200 --> 00:11:52,920 Initially, it wasn't like 27 texts. 141 00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:58,480 They were added again and again over time. 142 00:11:58,480 --> 00:12:02,520 First, maybe you say, OK, we recognize this one. 143 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:07,680 Then another manuscript will pop up, then they will add the other one. 144 00:12:07,680 --> 00:12:14,720 But I think we did this teaching sometimes in, I think, at Artismos 20, is it 2022? 145 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:16,720 Something like that. 146 00:12:16,720 --> 00:12:18,720 Or 2021, I forgot. 147 00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:20,760 2022, I guess. 148 00:12:20,760 --> 00:12:25,440 So you might likely get the other ones. 149 00:12:25,440 --> 00:12:28,760 But I don't want to go back there again. 150 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:36,080 I want us to note at the beginning when the 27 books were first acknowledged that they 151 00:12:36,080 --> 00:12:42,040 were the authority, the sacred writings, which the apostles left. 152 00:12:42,040 --> 00:12:51,200 Now the 27 books were first acknowledged at 367 AD. 153 00:12:51,200 --> 00:12:55,200 That is in the fourth century. 154 00:12:55,200 --> 00:12:59,440 367 AD. 155 00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:04,640 Now it was first acknowledged by an African bishop. 156 00:13:04,640 --> 00:13:09,080 That 27 books is called Athenitios. 157 00:13:09,080 --> 00:13:27,440 Athenitios, that is A-T-H-A-N-A-S-I-U-S. A-T-H-A-N-A-S-I-U-S. 158 00:13:27,440 --> 00:13:30,280 Is a bishop of Alexandria. 159 00:13:30,280 --> 00:13:34,040 So Athenitios is a bishop of Alexandria. 160 00:13:34,040 --> 00:13:41,080 And in the letter, in a very critical letter he wrote, because of course it was evident 161 00:13:41,080 --> 00:13:48,760 that there were a lot of proliferation of some texts that are anti the gospel. 162 00:13:48,760 --> 00:13:56,440 So he wrote a letter to all the churches throughout Egypt under his jurisdiction. 163 00:13:56,440 --> 00:13:57,440 Throughout Egypt. 164 00:13:57,440 --> 00:13:59,720 And said, these are the sacred writings. 165 00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:04,680 And they are the only sacred writings we will accept. 166 00:14:04,680 --> 00:14:11,120 So as far as we're concerned in nature, up until that time, there are many texts of the 167 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:12,480 scripture that have been accepted. 168 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:16,640 But this 27, this was a time they were first accepted. 169 00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:25,120 And from then, every other person around the world accepted the 27. 170 00:14:25,120 --> 00:14:26,120 Every other person. 171 00:14:26,120 --> 00:14:27,120 Every believer. 172 00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:31,600 As I'm talking now, there is no contention on the 27. 173 00:14:31,600 --> 00:14:34,520 Every believer in the world. 174 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:35,520 Whatever sect. 175 00:14:35,520 --> 00:14:41,520 Catholic, the orthodox, Coptic, whatever, Protestant, everything. 176 00:14:41,520 --> 00:14:51,040 There is a great consensus that it is the 27 books that can be considered with authority 177 00:14:51,040 --> 00:14:53,560 that they are also scriptures. 178 00:14:53,560 --> 00:14:56,240 Now what were the criteria? 179 00:14:56,240 --> 00:14:58,800 With something we call canonicity of scripture. 180 00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:05,440 What were the criteria they used to be able to put these 27 books together? 181 00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:12,040 Now as we have already noted, that was a criteria when we are dealing with the issue of why should 182 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:22,000 we consider the section now, the section of the Bible we call the New Testament also scriptures. 183 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:23,520 We noted two important things. 184 00:15:23,520 --> 00:15:29,760 But that was the major thing they looked at as the major criteria. 185 00:15:29,760 --> 00:15:40,960 That if any writings, any writing that must be considered sacred must pass these two. 186 00:15:40,960 --> 00:15:42,560 The top two. 187 00:15:42,560 --> 00:15:47,600 One, that it has a singularity of message. 188 00:15:47,600 --> 00:15:56,640 And that it is consistent with the prophecies of the prophets, the teachings of Jesus and 189 00:15:56,640 --> 00:15:59,800 of the apostles. 190 00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:03,400 Because of course it cannot deviate. 191 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:07,240 Because the teachings of Jesus and of the apostles are actually based on the prophecy 192 00:16:07,240 --> 00:16:10,680 of the prophets. 193 00:16:10,680 --> 00:16:14,360 So that means it must have singularity of message. 194 00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:17,800 It must be about Christ and Christ alone. 195 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:21,760 Or it must be about salvation through faith in Christ alone. 196 00:16:21,760 --> 00:16:23,560 That is the first criteria. 197 00:16:23,560 --> 00:16:36,040 So any book that is being suggested that it could be sacred, it has to pass that that 198 00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:45,080 book in question, does it have a singularity of message or does it contradict the message 199 00:16:45,080 --> 00:16:47,200 of the gospel? 200 00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:55,480 The second thing is that it must have been written by an apostle or at least a companion 201 00:16:55,480 --> 00:17:01,600 of an apostle, which means that not a third generation, for example, if let's say Pasochidi 202 00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:12,640 is an apostle, the early apostle, and then Pastor Custin was his companion. 203 00:17:12,640 --> 00:17:18,080 And Pastor Custin is the only person which is the first. 204 00:17:18,080 --> 00:17:29,880 If Pasochidi did not write anything, now Pastor Custin, if he writes anything, it can be accepted. 205 00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:38,160 But not the disciple of Pastor Custin, because that is a second generation. 206 00:17:38,160 --> 00:17:39,280 No, no, no. 207 00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:44,120 So that means is either you are an apostle or you are an associate, which means that 208 00:17:44,120 --> 00:17:52,360 you were together in ministry together, which means that whatever you write definitely is 209 00:17:52,360 --> 00:17:57,360 the gospel taught by the apostle, because everything as at that moment, it was the apostles 210 00:17:57,360 --> 00:17:59,320 who taught it. 211 00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:06,920 So anyone that is an associate, you understand, or a companion, so to say. 212 00:18:06,920 --> 00:18:12,280 Now, remember, I'm not even talking about I'm using the word very carefully. 213 00:18:12,280 --> 00:18:17,680 Companion or associate is different from a disciple, so to say, you understand. 214 00:18:17,680 --> 00:18:23,400 So the associate is not really like someone whom, yes, he definitely was obtained his 215 00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:31,120 message from the apostle, but he's not more or less like someone who was just trained, 216 00:18:31,120 --> 00:18:33,120 so to say, from the scratch. 217 00:18:33,120 --> 00:18:34,120 You understand. 218 00:18:34,120 --> 00:18:39,560 He must be someone who worked together as partners with the apostles. 219 00:18:39,560 --> 00:18:44,640 And then, of course, the message definitely must have come from the apostles. 220 00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:46,040 So these are things. 221 00:18:46,040 --> 00:18:53,120 So you can find out, for example, Luke writing, because he was a companion of Apostle Paul. 222 00:18:53,120 --> 00:18:54,120 Mark. 223 00:18:54,120 --> 00:19:01,120 Yes, he worked with them also. 224 00:19:01,120 --> 00:19:07,960 Hebrews, remember we read last week in Hebrews chapter two, verse two, particularly verse 225 00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:15,120 three, he said, which was confirmed to us by those who saw him, meaning that the writer 226 00:19:15,120 --> 00:19:20,640 must have been an associate who had, just like Luke, who received his message from them, 227 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:21,640 who were with him. 228 00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:23,280 Good, OK. 229 00:19:23,280 --> 00:19:30,240 Now, having understood this, the question is that what are Gnostic's gospel? 230 00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:35,360 Just the same way we treated Apocrypha in the Old Testament. 231 00:19:35,360 --> 00:19:39,920 Let me just take some time to just run some few things so that we get to understand. 232 00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:47,440 Now Gnostic's gospel, let me just put some thought here. 233 00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:50,200 The Gnostic gospel are ancient religious writing. 234 00:19:50,200 --> 00:19:58,320 Now it was just a term used now to just categorize ancient writings, the ancient religious, their 235 00:19:58,320 --> 00:20:05,920 religious writing actually, that falsely claim, please note that word, they are majority of 236 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:06,920 them. 237 00:20:06,920 --> 00:20:07,920 I'm coming, I will note some things. 238 00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:15,080 But majority of all the writings as in classical as Gnostic gospel are actually ancient religious 239 00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:22,440 writing that falsely claim to be written by famous biblical figures. 240 00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:30,920 So that means they just put the names of either apostles or some prominent biblical figures 241 00:20:30,920 --> 00:20:36,860 on those writings so that they could gain acceptance. 242 00:20:36,860 --> 00:20:40,440 But they falsely claim that they were written by those people. 243 00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:45,960 For example, Peter, Thomas, Mary, you understand. 244 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:50,360 So that's the first thing you have to know about the Gnostic gospel. 245 00:20:50,360 --> 00:20:55,720 That is up to today, we don't know and we don't have an idea who wrote them. 246 00:20:55,720 --> 00:21:03,680 But many of them carry the title of prominent biblical characters. 247 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:09,520 So which means that they are trying to assert that those biblical characters were the one 248 00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:12,600 who wrote it. 249 00:21:12,600 --> 00:21:14,560 That's one thing I wanted to know about that. 250 00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:24,200 The second thing I wanted to note is that, of course, before the discovery of these writings, 251 00:21:24,200 --> 00:21:34,160 there are some already, I mean, before the majority of the Gnostic gospel were found, 252 00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:42,640 there were a few that have been here and there discovered by different scholars. 253 00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:49,880 But in 1945, what we know today as the Gnostic gospel so much gained clarity by the discovery 254 00:21:49,880 --> 00:21:53,880 of some documents in 1945. 255 00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:58,320 They are called the Nakamandi Library. 256 00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:15,720 Nakamandi is H-A-G, H-A-G, then H-A-M-M-A-D-I, Nak, then Hamandi. 257 00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:19,200 They call it Nakamandi Library. 258 00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:23,880 There are collections of materials that have been discovered in Egypt. 259 00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:33,800 Why they call it there, because that is a town, Nakamandi is a town just near the place 260 00:22:33,800 --> 00:22:37,480 where they were discovered, the documents. 261 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:43,560 So these documents, they are a collection of about 13 books. 262 00:22:43,560 --> 00:22:53,440 And these books contain about 53 Noxist texts, 52, 52, there are about 52 particularly. 263 00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:56,480 So you can see that they are much. 264 00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:59,240 They are really much. 265 00:22:59,240 --> 00:23:07,160 So now, however, although they are called the word gospel, Gnostic gospel, actually 266 00:23:07,160 --> 00:23:17,360 there is nothing gospel there, because the evidence in them already shows significant 267 00:23:17,360 --> 00:23:25,880 deviations and theology and even contradict events completely. 268 00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:31,760 So all their evidence, so we don't even need to look elsewhere to know that these actually 269 00:23:31,760 --> 00:23:35,320 material are actually Gnostic. 270 00:23:35,320 --> 00:23:40,920 We don't need to look elsewhere, because in the material themselves, there are evidence 271 00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:50,240 that they can show to us that these materials are not written by the name that they carry, 272 00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:53,840 and they cannot be inspired by God. 273 00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:57,320 They cannot be inspired by God. 274 00:23:57,320 --> 00:24:01,080 So what is Gnostic or Gnosticism? 275 00:24:01,080 --> 00:24:02,080 From the word Gnosticism. 276 00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:07,960 Gnosticism is spelled G-N-O-S-T-I-C. 277 00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:19,880 G-N-O-S-T-I-C means Gnostic, or if it is a religion, it's called Gnosticism. 278 00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:27,200 Now Gnostic is a term that is synonymous to ambiguity in the sense. 279 00:24:27,200 --> 00:24:34,160 It's like an ambiguous religious sect, very difficult to know what is their stance. 280 00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:44,120 In fact, until 1945, when we had those documents so much, it was very difficult to really grab 281 00:24:44,120 --> 00:24:48,560 what is actually their belief. 282 00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:52,400 Most of the religion in the world, you can clearly say, this is what they believe, this 283 00:24:52,400 --> 00:24:54,440 is what they believe, this is what they believe. 284 00:24:54,440 --> 00:25:06,480 But the Gnosticism or the Gnostic religion has more than 50 sects. 285 00:25:06,480 --> 00:25:13,400 So the emanate is a combination of different ideas from different religions, many different 286 00:25:13,400 --> 00:25:23,000 religions put together. 287 00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:38,560 This religion, if you use the word, in fact, let's just clarify the term Gnosticism or 288 00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:39,560 Gnostic. 289 00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:52,120 Actually, Gnosticism comes from the word Gnosis, that is G-N-O-S-I-S. 290 00:25:52,120 --> 00:25:54,400 It's a Greek word, Gnosis. 291 00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:58,200 I believe that those of us who have heard Buster Custin and other things, and I think 292 00:25:58,200 --> 00:26:02,560 Basochidi also talked about it, Epignosis. 293 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:04,520 You know about Epignosis. 294 00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:05,880 Yes. 295 00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:12,640 So Gnosis in Greek means knowledge. 296 00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:25,800 If you look at it just broadly, Gnosticism has to do with attaining salvation. 297 00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:26,800 That's what they believe. 298 00:26:26,800 --> 00:26:33,160 Attaining salvation through esoteric knowledge. 299 00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:37,520 So it's not just only just knowledge, but the knowledge is esoteric. 300 00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:38,840 What is esoteric? 301 00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:46,000 They believe in a special kind of knowledge or a secret or hidden knowledge that is not 302 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:47,000 given to everyone. 303 00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:48,000 That's all we mean. 304 00:26:48,000 --> 00:27:00,240 When you say something is esoteric, E-S-O-R-T-E-R-I-C, you are talking about something that is not 305 00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:05,960 common, that is something that is only given to special people. 306 00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:13,200 So when you said Gnosticism, you are talking about people who believe that salvation can 307 00:27:13,200 --> 00:27:19,280 be earned through that kind of special knowledge, but the knowledge is given just for some special 308 00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:20,280 people. 309 00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:22,360 You understand? 310 00:27:22,360 --> 00:27:28,360 So they can add all kinds of things here and there. 311 00:27:28,360 --> 00:27:35,200 So I want to remind you also that we have not yet finished with this problem because 312 00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:44,640 today we still have people who believe that God can still reveal something to them specially 313 00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:47,920 about himself that has not been revealed in scripture. 314 00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:53,120 So already when you hear a person saying something like that, you know that he is also a practicing 315 00:27:53,120 --> 00:27:58,640 Gnostic or is in Gnosticism. 316 00:27:58,640 --> 00:28:07,920 Meaning that he is a person who wants to accord to himself a special class in Christianity, 317 00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:11,040 meaning that everybody is not the same now. 318 00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:14,560 Are we together? 319 00:28:14,560 --> 00:28:17,400 So don't think that we have finished with the problem. 320 00:28:17,400 --> 00:28:24,720 No, Gnosticism is still here up to today and I'm going to show you as we continue. 321 00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:28,800 Also it's important to pay attention. 322 00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:38,800 So remember what I said that it promotes or emphasizes the idea that salvation can be 323 00:28:38,800 --> 00:28:43,000 obtained through that special knowledge. 324 00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:44,000 So they promote it. 325 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:51,360 So they believe in everything spiritual because they are talking about this special knowledge. 326 00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:52,360 Of course, it cannot be physical. 327 00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:53,360 It cannot be common. 328 00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:57,040 It cannot be what you can just get anyhow. 329 00:28:57,040 --> 00:28:59,640 No, no. 330 00:28:59,640 --> 00:29:09,040 So you can see these people or those in practicing Gnosticism in this way. 331 00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:18,640 So they teach that all material things including body, your body, this one, every material 332 00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:23,440 thing that you see today, they are bad. 333 00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:27,320 That's what they believe. 334 00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:33,360 And all spiritual things are considered good. 335 00:29:33,360 --> 00:29:35,060 All spiritual things. 336 00:29:35,060 --> 00:29:41,600 So anything that is, again, I want to know today, if you are a type that just believe 337 00:29:41,600 --> 00:29:46,840 that some things are just evil because they are physical, then you see you are also a 338 00:29:46,840 --> 00:29:53,960 practicing Gnostic or one who is practicing Gnosticism because that's what they believe 339 00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:57,880 that everything that is physical is bad. 340 00:29:57,880 --> 00:30:07,640 So they see this body, listen to this one, they see this body as an enemy. 341 00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:12,480 That is, they are like a prison that trapped your spirit. 342 00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:19,040 And the only way you can be freed from it is only by having this special knowledge because 343 00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:27,240 you can be freed from your body when you continue to engage this special knowledge. 344 00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:29,440 I hope you are getting me. 345 00:30:29,440 --> 00:30:32,840 I want to show you where Apostle Paul was dealing with that problem also. 346 00:30:32,840 --> 00:30:35,720 Are we together? 347 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:39,520 So glory to Jesus. 348 00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:41,520 Amen. 349 00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:44,720 So they believe that we are trapped. 350 00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:52,080 Like some people are confused also that they are a male trapped in a woman's body. 351 00:30:52,080 --> 00:31:04,080 That's a special Gnostic demonstration. 352 00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:05,760 Are we together? 353 00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:08,820 So what am I trying to say? 354 00:31:08,820 --> 00:31:17,720 So the knowledge that you acquire, that special knowledge that you acquire was the key to 355 00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:26,720 freeing your body, sorry to freeing your spirit from this bondage you call body. 356 00:31:26,720 --> 00:31:33,120 So because everything material is evil. 357 00:31:33,120 --> 00:31:41,200 That is a complete divergence or is an anti-message of scripture. 358 00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:47,820 Now let me show you some places where Paul was addressing some of these problems. 359 00:31:47,820 --> 00:31:51,720 So remember, this does not emanate now. 360 00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:59,240 In fact, Gnosticism started even before the time of Jesus. 361 00:31:59,240 --> 00:32:07,000 It only became rooted during the early church, became prominent. 362 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:08,000 Are we together? 363 00:32:08,000 --> 00:32:09,000 Good. 364 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:16,800 Now I will show you later on how it became prominent. 365 00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:28,120 Now look with me Colossians chapter 2 verse 9. 366 00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:34,520 Let's read verse 8 then I'll read 9. 367 00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:35,520 Beware! 368 00:32:35,520 --> 00:32:40,120 Lest anyone cheat you through what? 369 00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:41,120 Philosophies. 370 00:32:41,120 --> 00:32:45,560 So please note that word philosophy. 371 00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:56,240 An empty deceit according to the basic principle of the world and not according to Christ. 372 00:32:56,240 --> 00:33:03,820 So there were some philosophical ideas at that moment and they are deceptive. 373 00:33:03,820 --> 00:33:07,800 So Paul noted it, he said be careful. 374 00:33:07,800 --> 00:33:13,080 They sound very good to the ear. 375 00:33:13,080 --> 00:33:16,440 He said be careful. 376 00:33:16,440 --> 00:33:22,080 He said they are based according to the tradition of men. 377 00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:28,800 According to the basic principle of the world and not according to Christ. 378 00:33:28,800 --> 00:33:29,800 Verse 9. 379 00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:35,280 For in him dwell all the fullness of the Godhead. 380 00:33:35,280 --> 00:33:39,880 Now when you see four, they are together. 381 00:33:39,880 --> 00:33:41,760 That means, can you see some relation? 382 00:33:41,760 --> 00:33:50,240 That means that philosophical idea or ideology that Paul was warning the Colossians. 383 00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:52,440 Are we together? 384 00:33:52,440 --> 00:33:54,320 He was warning the Colossians. 385 00:33:54,320 --> 00:34:00,640 It has to do that there is some special revelation that is beyond the incarnation. 386 00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:07,200 Because when you say four, in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. 387 00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:15,400 Meaning that that idea is trying to dis or play or downplay the incarnation of Christ. 388 00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:18,680 Seeking for a higher revelation, a higher meaning. 389 00:34:18,680 --> 00:34:24,480 Now we said they are all concerned about some esoteric knowledge. 390 00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:28,020 Are we together? 391 00:34:28,020 --> 00:34:30,020 So Paul was warning. 392 00:34:30,020 --> 00:34:35,480 Now look at me, go to verse 20. 393 00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:44,560 Therefore if you die with Christ from the basic principle of the world, why as though 394 00:34:44,560 --> 00:34:51,880 living in the world do you subject yourself to regulations? 395 00:34:51,880 --> 00:35:04,360 Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concerning things which perish with 396 00:35:04,360 --> 00:35:16,840 the using, according to the commandment and doctrine of men. 397 00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:20,560 These things indeed have an appearance of what? 398 00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:21,560 You see that? 399 00:35:21,560 --> 00:35:23,640 You see why Paul is warning them? 400 00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:32,200 He says these things have indeed or indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed 401 00:35:32,200 --> 00:35:33,200 religion. 402 00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:34,800 You see that thing? 403 00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:40,640 Self-imposed religion, false humility and what? 404 00:35:40,640 --> 00:35:52,920 A neglect of the body, but of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. 405 00:35:52,920 --> 00:35:57,560 See this is an idea here. 406 00:35:57,560 --> 00:36:05,120 Because the body had to be neglected, need to be tormented because the body is termed 407 00:36:05,120 --> 00:36:08,960 as the enemy. 408 00:36:08,960 --> 00:36:16,000 Actually this is a twist on Paul's teaching concerning the flesh in Galatians. 409 00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:19,680 You remember Galatians? 410 00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:28,200 So you see most of this religion are actually a twist from the real thing. 411 00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:32,800 Remember in Galatians Paul was talking about, maybe let's read that please, Galatians chapter 412 00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:36,280 5 in the same. 413 00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:44,680 Look at verse 17, for the flesh lost against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh 414 00:36:44,680 --> 00:36:52,200 and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish. 415 00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:57,040 But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. 416 00:36:57,040 --> 00:37:03,920 This seems to be that is a twist of this message that okay since the flesh is contrary to the 417 00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:07,040 spirit, let's deal with this flesh. 418 00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:09,600 But which flesh is Paul talking about? 419 00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:13,000 Remember, come with me. 420 00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:17,400 Look at Peter, 2 Peter chapter 3. 421 00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:24,920 Peter actually talked about these people who twist Paul's message. 422 00:37:24,920 --> 00:37:34,360 In 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 15, 2 Peter chapter 3 verse 15, he said, and consider that the 423 00:37:34,360 --> 00:37:43,800 longsuffering of our Lord is salvation as also our beloved brother Paul according to 424 00:37:43,800 --> 00:37:48,040 the wisdom given to him as written to you. 425 00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:58,040 Verse 16, as also in all his epistles, in all his epistles, speaking in them of the 426 00:37:58,040 --> 00:38:07,720 things in which are some things are hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people 427 00:38:07,720 --> 00:38:14,520 twist to their own destruction as they do also the rest of the scripture. 428 00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:16,840 Now please read this place very carefully. 429 00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:23,680 Paul did not say that his letters are hard to understand, but they are hard to understand 430 00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:24,680 to some people. 431 00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:27,280 Who are these people? 432 00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:34,080 They are people who are unstable, untaught. 433 00:38:34,080 --> 00:38:42,560 Speaking in them of the things in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught 434 00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:49,800 and unstable people twist to their own destruction as they do also the rest of the scripture. 435 00:38:49,800 --> 00:39:00,640 So I feel that this Gnosticism, Gerut, remember they say as other scriptures, as of this time, 436 00:39:00,640 --> 00:39:06,360 they are describing other scriptures as the Genesis to Malachi. 437 00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:16,600 So these people now have seen Paul's letters and say, aha, this one, that what he's teaching 438 00:39:16,600 --> 00:39:17,600 is not correct. 439 00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:20,760 And then they twist it. 440 00:39:20,760 --> 00:39:25,500 Then they keep twisting it as they do other scripture. 441 00:39:25,500 --> 00:39:31,560 So we can see Paul was warning that be careful. 442 00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:38,920 Look at, let me read maybe two scriptures again, where he was in this time around warning 443 00:39:38,920 --> 00:39:39,920 Timothy. 444 00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:41,920 Look at Timothy. 445 00:39:41,920 --> 00:39:52,920 First Timothy chapter six, verse 20, first Timothy chapter six, verse 20. 446 00:39:52,920 --> 00:40:02,240 Oh Timothy, God what was committed to your trust, avoiding profane and idle babbling 447 00:40:02,240 --> 00:40:07,200 and contradiction of what is falsely called knowledge. 448 00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:09,040 I want you to know that. 449 00:40:09,040 --> 00:40:14,360 So Paul identified there is something, a knowledge that was prevalent at that time. 450 00:40:14,360 --> 00:40:25,200 And Paul regarded that that is a false knowledge by professing it, some have strayed concerning 451 00:40:25,200 --> 00:40:26,200 the faith. 452 00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:29,200 Grace be with you, amen. 453 00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:30,680 Let me read the last one. 454 00:40:30,680 --> 00:40:33,920 But let me read in Corinthians. 455 00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:43,720 Corinthians, first Corinthians one, verse 20, first Corinthians one. 456 00:40:43,720 --> 00:40:51,520 Where is a wise, where is a scribe, where is the disputer of this age? 457 00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:55,280 Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 458 00:40:55,280 --> 00:41:02,920 For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleases 459 00:41:02,920 --> 00:41:09,400 God through the foolishness of the message, preached to save those who believe. 460 00:41:09,400 --> 00:41:14,320 For Jews request a sign and the Greeks after what? 461 00:41:14,320 --> 00:41:18,560 Now I want you to know the word Greeks after wisdom. 462 00:41:18,560 --> 00:41:23,240 The Jew require a sign, but the Greek seek after wisdom. 463 00:41:23,240 --> 00:41:29,440 And remember what we have been discussing is more of philosophies, knowledge, wisdom, 464 00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:30,680 all that. 465 00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:42,000 Because narcissism, you will see that it is actually an injection of Greek philosophy. 466 00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:46,440 So the Greek seeks after wisdom. 467 00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:49,440 But we preach Christ crucified, you see that? 468 00:41:49,440 --> 00:41:54,200 Because he was talking about where are those who talk about wisdom? 469 00:41:54,200 --> 00:42:00,760 Understand, has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world for sins? 470 00:42:00,760 --> 00:42:08,840 Verse 21, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God. 471 00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:13,600 It pleases God through the foolishness of the message of message, preach to save those 472 00:42:13,600 --> 00:42:14,820 who believe. 473 00:42:14,820 --> 00:42:20,520 For the Jews request a sign and Greek seek after wisdom. 474 00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:28,840 And we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greek foolishness. 475 00:42:28,840 --> 00:42:34,260 But to those who are called both Jews and Greek, Christ the power of God and the wisdom 476 00:42:34,260 --> 00:42:37,320 of God. 477 00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:43,040 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than 478 00:42:43,040 --> 00:42:45,380 men. 479 00:42:45,380 --> 00:42:51,080 So heresy did not start today. 480 00:42:51,080 --> 00:42:52,440 Culture did not start today. 481 00:42:52,440 --> 00:42:58,560 You can see how culture can contaminate the gospel. 482 00:42:58,560 --> 00:43:07,040 So although the early church didn't even use the term narcissism, the idea were actually 483 00:43:07,040 --> 00:43:11,600 all that idea blossom during their time. 484 00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:16,400 That word, narcissism or Gnostic is a modern coinage. 485 00:43:16,400 --> 00:43:22,240 In fact, credited to one 17th century philosopher called Henry Moore. 486 00:43:22,240 --> 00:43:31,200 He was the one who coined that word Gnostic or Gnosticism to describe heretic writings. 487 00:43:31,200 --> 00:43:39,840 So the discovery of this MacHarmandy library in 1945, gave more light to these Gnostic 488 00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:45,440 idea because we now have a lot to read about those writings. 489 00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:55,160 It should be noted, as I said earlier on, that not all those scriptures categorize or 490 00:43:55,160 --> 00:44:05,560 writings, not scriptures, writings categorize as Gnostic are explicitly, I mean, like clearly 491 00:44:05,560 --> 00:44:07,760 or very vividly Gnostic. 492 00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:08,760 You understand? 493 00:44:08,760 --> 00:44:18,880 There were about three, particularly, particularly three that were Egyptian wisdom texts. 494 00:44:18,880 --> 00:44:25,280 So some of them were just three, but majority are actually against the message of Christ 495 00:44:25,280 --> 00:44:29,720 directly. 496 00:44:29,720 --> 00:44:40,480 And so each of the book that has been found to be called the Gnostic text have been found 497 00:44:40,480 --> 00:44:45,000 to be in Coptic language. 498 00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:47,360 That is, they were written in Coptic. 499 00:44:47,360 --> 00:44:51,400 Some of them actually few are Greek. 500 00:44:51,400 --> 00:44:56,800 But however, there is a reason to believe that they were all translated to Coptic because 501 00:44:56,800 --> 00:45:07,600 Coptic is actually a language that is related to Greek and ancient Egyptian, but because 502 00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:12,800 Coptic is an Egyptian language, so to say. 503 00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:20,120 So you could find out that some of these texts that were found, you see them actually translated 504 00:45:20,120 --> 00:45:28,040 in Coptic, but they are heading is actually Greek. 505 00:45:28,040 --> 00:45:34,640 Of course, there is one particular, they call it the secret book of James. 506 00:45:34,640 --> 00:45:40,320 The author acknowledged that it has been written in Hebrew. 507 00:45:40,320 --> 00:45:44,160 So that means it was written in Hebrew. 508 00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:51,920 That's also show an idea that this idea of the Gnosticism started even probably before 509 00:45:51,920 --> 00:45:56,240 the church. 510 00:45:56,240 --> 00:46:03,720 So that means that the secret book of James, I don't know why they titled it that way. 511 00:46:03,720 --> 00:46:10,200 The secret book of James, you understand, it was written because the author in described 512 00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:11,800 that he wrote it in Hebrew. 513 00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:17,920 So it must have been translated to Greek and then to Coptic. 514 00:46:17,920 --> 00:46:22,120 So as we all talked about it. 515 00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:28,480 Now you could see that clearly where we read last here in first Corinthians, when Paul 516 00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:33,880 was talking about wisdom, where are those, you understand, where are those? 517 00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:38,560 I wanted to see it please quickly. 518 00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:43,280 Look at what Paul was talking about here. 519 00:46:43,280 --> 00:46:49,800 Verse 20, he said, where is the wise? 520 00:46:49,800 --> 00:46:53,000 Where is the scribe? 521 00:46:53,000 --> 00:46:55,640 Where is the disputer? 522 00:46:55,640 --> 00:47:01,800 He said of this age has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 523 00:47:01,800 --> 00:47:08,720 Now that means he's capitalizing on philosophies and wisdom of men brought about, which we've 524 00:47:08,720 --> 00:47:09,960 seen many things. 525 00:47:09,960 --> 00:47:12,880 He warned Timothy about it. 526 00:47:12,880 --> 00:47:19,720 He said falsely knowledge or falsely called knowledge. 527 00:47:19,720 --> 00:47:25,360 And then later on he was talking about, he said, for Jew requested a sign and the Greeks 528 00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:26,840 after wisdom. 529 00:47:26,840 --> 00:47:39,360 So this idea of was made more profound by the injection of the Greek philosophies, understand, 530 00:47:39,360 --> 00:47:43,680 which now began to seek because they are the one who seek for higher knowledge. 531 00:47:43,680 --> 00:47:48,440 In fact, that is the origin of what we call class in society. 532 00:47:48,440 --> 00:47:52,000 All these, all these, all these class we are talking about. 533 00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:56,960 In fact, that's the idea if you study many, I do that, that's the idea of slavery. 534 00:47:56,960 --> 00:48:01,880 Where it came that some people are believed to have higher wisdom above others. 535 00:48:01,880 --> 00:48:08,240 That is naturally the, when they were created, they were created as nobles to the aristocrats, 536 00:48:08,240 --> 00:48:12,760 you understand, to rule generally, never actually to walk. 537 00:48:12,760 --> 00:48:15,840 They are just to sit down and be thinking. 538 00:48:15,840 --> 00:48:19,560 Then other ones that are from Africa, they are the one that should be working for those 539 00:48:19,560 --> 00:48:23,520 ones who are meant to be thinking, who are meant to be noble. 540 00:48:23,520 --> 00:48:29,680 That is where the idea of slavery came from, that the Western world now grabbed it and 541 00:48:29,680 --> 00:48:33,020 then continue to implement. 542 00:48:33,020 --> 00:48:35,080 So what am I trying to see? 543 00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:43,520 I'm trying to know that in fact, there's one German theologians, his name is Adolf von 544 00:48:43,520 --> 00:48:44,520 Hammack. 545 00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:55,000 In fact, he called Gnosticism an acute Hellenization of Christianity from the word Hellenist. 546 00:48:55,000 --> 00:49:02,560 You know, remember we talked about Hellenistic Jews, those people who left their land scattered 547 00:49:02,560 --> 00:49:10,440 around that area, you understand, because the word Hellenism or Hellenization is talking 548 00:49:10,440 --> 00:49:14,240 about the spread of the Greek culture. 549 00:49:14,240 --> 00:49:20,480 So he was talking about that this issue of the Coptic, I'm sorry, the issue of the Gnostic 550 00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:29,000 or Gnosticism is actually the infusion or the contamination of Christianity with the 551 00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:34,280 culture of the Greek or the Greek culture. 552 00:49:34,280 --> 00:49:42,920 And that is what we have whereby some special kind of knowledge, you understand, is promoted 553 00:49:42,920 --> 00:49:52,040 that is based on philosophies promoted that is a way out of to give a man salvation or 554 00:49:52,040 --> 00:49:58,160 to give a man salvation from the miseries of the physical life because the physical, 555 00:49:58,160 --> 00:50:02,800 anything physical is looked about as bad. 556 00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:10,820 So as I conclude for today, you understand, why did the Gnostic gospel carry the name 557 00:50:10,820 --> 00:50:12,440 of biblical figures? 558 00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:21,040 As I have noted earlier on, they do that for validation, for credibility, you understand, 559 00:50:21,040 --> 00:50:29,400 but in the material themselves contains evidence that contradicts the stance of even the biblical 560 00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:37,200 figures in which or whose names have been used to actually name those writings. 561 00:50:37,200 --> 00:50:48,880 However, just to note to you again, all Christians, Catholic, Orthodox Christians, Protestants, 562 00:50:48,880 --> 00:50:56,200 all of them consider the Gnostic gospel that they are not inspired, they are not divinely 563 00:50:56,200 --> 00:51:05,640 inspired and should or cannot be among the canon and not be among the canon. 564 00:51:05,640 --> 00:51:13,160 Thus, all the different Bible translation we have to be all of them. 565 00:51:13,160 --> 00:51:20,840 None at anything they have a they have an consensus and an agreement that the 27 books 566 00:51:20,840 --> 00:51:25,320 are the inspired Word of God. 567 00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:28,440 They are the inspired Word of God. 568 00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:35,840 Now I want to just read before we just conclude, I want to read something. 569 00:51:35,840 --> 00:51:42,760 Let me project it for you just to have a test of really how some of these Gnostic gospel 570 00:51:42,760 --> 00:51:43,760 are actually bizarre. 571 00:51:43,760 --> 00:51:50,200 Oh, like I said, they are actually out of term, you understand. 572 00:51:50,200 --> 00:51:54,200 You can find them online, you know, as I did during the apocrypha, I just read some few 573 00:51:54,200 --> 00:51:58,640 things in the sand that you can answer this by giving arms. 574 00:51:58,640 --> 00:52:00,840 Let me show you another one. 575 00:52:00,840 --> 00:52:08,600 Yeah, but in the case, okay, I'll leave the secret book of James. 576 00:52:08,600 --> 00:52:11,400 Maybe I'll just let me let's let's go to Peter. 577 00:52:11,400 --> 00:52:14,840 They say the gospel of Peter. 578 00:52:14,840 --> 00:52:18,840 Yes, gospel of Peter. 579 00:52:18,840 --> 00:52:22,400 Oh, can you see my screen? 580 00:52:22,400 --> 00:52:24,400 Or is it okay? 581 00:52:24,400 --> 00:52:25,400 He has gone again. 582 00:52:25,400 --> 00:52:27,000 No, I have to read this one. 583 00:52:27,000 --> 00:52:29,520 He doesn't want me to read this Gnostic gospel. 584 00:52:29,520 --> 00:52:37,360 Yes, so I was telling us here if you see all the various ones that have apocrypha, for 585 00:52:37,360 --> 00:52:43,600 example, the Catholic, the Eastern Orthodox, and all that remember, see under here, we 586 00:52:43,600 --> 00:52:50,400 have 27 books, 27 books of the New Testament, 27 books of the New Testament. 587 00:52:50,400 --> 00:52:55,560 So this was they are not even the protestant the protestants, of course, as we noted, have 588 00:52:55,560 --> 00:52:57,560 36 books of the Old Testament. 589 00:52:57,560 --> 00:52:58,560 That's nice. 590 00:52:58,560 --> 00:53:06,000 Sorry, that nine and then 27 of the Old Testament. 591 00:53:06,000 --> 00:53:10,160 But then you can see that even though this one's have apocrypha, but when it comes to 592 00:53:10,160 --> 00:53:15,600 the New Testament, they actually agree that it is 27. 593 00:53:15,600 --> 00:53:25,800 Then let me show us the. 594 00:53:25,800 --> 00:53:37,160 So this is the this is a first 11 the Gnostics text before before the Normandy Library discovery 595 00:53:37,160 --> 00:53:40,360 in 1945. 596 00:53:40,360 --> 00:53:44,320 You will see the Act of Thomas, the Act of John. 597 00:53:44,320 --> 00:53:49,680 We have other ones up down to what we call the Amatica. 598 00:53:49,680 --> 00:53:51,520 In the sun, they are by 11. 599 00:53:51,520 --> 00:53:56,240 So this were actually known we have in the Gospel of Mary. 600 00:53:56,240 --> 00:54:00,720 In the sun, we have the wisdom of Jesus Christ is on the O's yet. 601 00:54:00,720 --> 00:54:03,840 Yes, saying that it was Jesus that wrote it. 602 00:54:03,840 --> 00:54:07,720 I don't know that Jesus wrote anything. 603 00:54:07,720 --> 00:54:10,320 But we now know that Jesus didn't write anything. 604 00:54:10,320 --> 00:54:14,720 Anything that we do, we are written by some people concerning. 605 00:54:14,720 --> 00:54:15,720 Amen. 606 00:54:15,720 --> 00:54:17,920 OK, let me. 607 00:54:17,920 --> 00:54:21,280 So these are the they are divided based according to the Codex. 608 00:54:21,280 --> 00:54:23,520 By now, you know what Codex means. 609 00:54:23,520 --> 00:54:25,440 So you can see the prayer of Apostle Paul. 610 00:54:25,440 --> 00:54:28,880 We even have another one, the prayer of Apostle Paul. 611 00:54:28,880 --> 00:54:32,800 Then we have the Gospel of Truth. 612 00:54:32,800 --> 00:54:38,080 Of course, we have the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Philip. 613 00:54:38,080 --> 00:54:43,200 And we have Exegesis of the Soul. 614 00:54:43,200 --> 00:54:50,360 And all that Codex three, we have also some of them you can see that is a petition. 615 00:54:50,360 --> 00:54:54,680 The reason because different codex, I think there has been some copying also just the 616 00:54:54,680 --> 00:54:59,320 same way you note in this this this one will copy from this. 617 00:54:59,320 --> 00:55:04,680 This one will copy from the so the Codex that we have found some of them carries the other 618 00:55:04,680 --> 00:55:05,680 ones. 619 00:55:05,680 --> 00:55:07,720 That's why you're seeing a petition. 620 00:55:07,720 --> 00:55:11,400 This is according to Codex. 621 00:55:11,400 --> 00:55:13,800 Let me show you the last part. 622 00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:20,720 Yes, this one they are also so they are about as I said, they are about 52. 623 00:55:20,720 --> 00:55:24,280 You have to understand different. 624 00:55:24,280 --> 00:55:27,160 I mean, 52 writings. 625 00:55:27,160 --> 00:55:30,960 So let me just. 626 00:55:30,960 --> 00:55:35,520 As I said, lastly, let's let me read this in a time. 627 00:55:35,520 --> 00:55:42,840 This is the Gospel of Peter versus starting to 42. 628 00:55:42,840 --> 00:55:43,840 The Gospel of Peter. 629 00:55:43,840 --> 00:55:51,760 Now, I want you to when I read just just just feel whether it is because I was writing this 630 00:55:51,760 --> 00:55:52,760 in a time. 631 00:55:52,760 --> 00:55:56,400 But study was a noun. 632 00:55:56,400 --> 00:56:04,760 When the morning of the Sabbath down a crowd from Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside 633 00:56:04,760 --> 00:56:12,720 went that they might see the grave that had been seen, that is, they are talking about 634 00:56:12,720 --> 00:56:14,680 the great grief of Jesus. 635 00:56:14,680 --> 00:56:20,440 So before Jesus resurrected according to Peter, not Peter, the Gospel of Peter, that the crowd 636 00:56:20,440 --> 00:56:25,240 when they had to see in the sun, but 35. 637 00:56:25,240 --> 00:56:32,520 But during the night before the last day down, while the soldiers we are standing or we are 638 00:56:32,520 --> 00:56:40,040 watching two by two as guards, there was a great voice in heaven. 639 00:56:40,040 --> 00:56:41,440 First 36. 640 00:56:41,440 --> 00:56:51,040 And they saw the heavens being open and two men descended from there, having much radiance 641 00:56:51,040 --> 00:56:54,120 and they approached the tomb. 642 00:56:54,120 --> 00:57:04,440 But the stone, which had been placed at the mouth, rolled away by itself and made a way 643 00:57:04,440 --> 00:57:12,720 made way in parts and the tomb was open and both the young men went in. 644 00:57:12,720 --> 00:57:13,720 You see that? 645 00:57:13,720 --> 00:57:15,240 So the young men went in. 646 00:57:15,240 --> 00:57:18,240 I hope you are following me. 647 00:57:18,240 --> 00:57:19,240 Yes. 648 00:57:19,240 --> 00:57:21,400 Was that it? 649 00:57:21,400 --> 00:57:30,960 Then those soldiers seeing it woke up the centurion and the elders because they were 650 00:57:30,960 --> 00:57:33,920 there to keeping guard. 651 00:57:33,920 --> 00:57:43,960 And while they were explaining to them what they saw, again, they saw three men. 652 00:57:43,960 --> 00:57:47,160 Remember how many men went in? 653 00:57:47,160 --> 00:57:48,400 Remember how many when they say went in? 654 00:57:48,400 --> 00:57:49,400 Look at here. 655 00:57:49,400 --> 00:57:56,600 They said two men went in and suddenly now three men. 656 00:57:56,600 --> 00:58:03,320 You see that three men coming out of the tomb with the two supporting the one. 657 00:58:03,320 --> 00:58:05,920 So presumably the third one is Jesus. 658 00:58:05,920 --> 00:58:09,320 So they are supporting Jesus. 659 00:58:09,320 --> 00:58:14,800 And a cross following them behind. 660 00:58:14,800 --> 00:58:22,080 So they were supporting and so the cross was walking, following them behind. 661 00:58:22,080 --> 00:58:29,200 And the head of the two, that's the two men who came in, reaches as far as heaven. 662 00:58:29,200 --> 00:58:36,800 But that of the one being led by them reaches beyond the heavens. 663 00:58:36,800 --> 00:58:39,080 That's the third person. 664 00:58:39,080 --> 00:58:48,120 And they heard a voice from heaven saying, have you proclaimed to those who sleep? 665 00:58:48,120 --> 00:58:50,120 And the response was heard from the cross. 666 00:58:50,120 --> 00:58:51,120 So the cross say yes. 667 00:58:51,120 --> 00:58:58,040 You know, the cross that was following the cross, I was only behind that answer and say 668 00:58:58,040 --> 00:58:59,040 yes. 669 00:58:59,040 --> 00:59:00,720 That's 43. 670 00:59:00,720 --> 00:59:07,880 Then those men decided to go with each other and report these things to Pilate. 671 00:59:07,880 --> 00:59:09,160 That's 44. 672 00:59:09,160 --> 00:59:16,640 And while they were still considering, again the heavens were seen being opened and a certain 673 00:59:16,640 --> 00:59:19,760 man descended and went into the grave. 674 00:59:19,760 --> 00:59:23,440 Did Jesus return to the grave again? 675 00:59:23,440 --> 00:59:24,440 That's 45. 676 00:59:24,440 --> 00:59:33,760 Having seen these things, those with the centurion poured by night to Pilate, having left the 677 00:59:33,760 --> 00:59:44,680 tomb, they were watching and described all that they saw being greatly distressed and 678 00:59:44,680 --> 00:59:55,160 saying, truly he was the son of God. 679 00:59:55,160 --> 00:59:56,160 That's interesting. 680 00:59:56,160 --> 01:00:06,680 You can imagine there by just titling it the Gospel of Peter, presumably that was Peter 681 01:00:06,680 --> 01:00:09,680 who wrote this. 682 01:00:09,680 --> 01:00:10,880 Hallelujah. 683 01:00:10,880 --> 01:00:15,920 So you can see how confused some of these things can be. 684 01:00:15,920 --> 01:00:26,000 Now what are we trying to say in general as we, because my time is up, you can know that 685 01:00:26,000 --> 01:00:31,640 you can give it a title, maybe you give it a subheading, you know the Bible that gives 686 01:00:31,640 --> 01:00:32,640 subheading. 687 01:00:32,640 --> 01:00:34,480 Maybe you give subheading to this one. 688 01:00:34,480 --> 01:00:37,400 I don't know what you give it. 689 01:00:37,400 --> 01:00:44,760 Whether you say it's a walking, talking cross, or you say the man that descended and ascended 690 01:00:44,760 --> 01:00:49,000 into the tomb, whichever one you give or quote. 691 01:00:49,000 --> 01:00:50,640 Now what are we trying to see? 692 01:00:50,640 --> 01:00:57,240 I'm trying to make you to appreciate that the idea of writing bizarre things didn't 693 01:00:57,240 --> 01:01:00,760 start today and it will end. 694 01:01:00,760 --> 01:01:06,280 This is what the apostles have to stand against, the early church facing. 695 01:01:06,280 --> 01:01:09,800 Today we are facing it. 696 01:01:09,800 --> 01:01:16,680 When people come with all kinds of ideas, unfortunately, this is why sometimes we have 697 01:01:16,680 --> 01:01:18,920 to scrutinize what we believe. 698 01:01:18,920 --> 01:01:21,360 We have to scrutinize what we are teaching. 699 01:01:21,360 --> 01:01:23,920 We have to scrutinize where is it coming from? 700 01:01:23,920 --> 01:01:25,000 Who taught it? 701 01:01:25,000 --> 01:01:26,000 By who? 702 01:01:26,000 --> 01:01:29,000 Where is the idea coming? 703 01:01:29,000 --> 01:01:34,360 These days you hear some people say, especially sometimes our music ministers, it was given 704 01:01:34,360 --> 01:01:36,000 to me from heaven. 705 01:01:36,000 --> 01:01:38,440 I mean you just wonder what is the meaning of that? 706 01:01:38,440 --> 01:01:45,640 Just to sound special, just to sound that it was a revelation uniquely given to them. 707 01:01:45,640 --> 01:01:53,320 And then you are wondering that is a Gnostic practice. 708 01:01:53,320 --> 01:01:58,640 It is a common faith, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. 709 01:01:58,640 --> 01:02:02,440 It is there's nothing unique to you. 710 01:02:02,440 --> 01:02:06,840 You cannot privatize revelation. 711 01:02:06,840 --> 01:02:07,840 You can't. 712 01:02:07,840 --> 01:02:10,800 You cannot privatize revelation. 713 01:02:10,800 --> 01:02:12,400 Not at all. 714 01:02:12,400 --> 01:02:18,000 That is another religion coming into. 715 01:02:18,000 --> 01:02:20,960 So even now we have to be careful. 716 01:02:20,960 --> 01:02:26,040 Our music ministers, sometimes in the world they know how to chant, rap and do all those 717 01:02:26,040 --> 01:02:27,360 kinds of things. 718 01:02:27,360 --> 01:02:28,360 We have tongues. 719 01:02:28,360 --> 01:02:35,000 If you speak in tongues, you don't need to do one incantation, incantation, incantation 720 01:02:35,000 --> 01:02:36,000 again. 721 01:02:36,000 --> 01:02:40,120 So today we are even, it is a very thin line. 722 01:02:40,120 --> 01:02:44,520 You don't even know whether the music minister is singing incantation or he's actually praying 723 01:02:44,520 --> 01:02:45,520 in tongues. 724 01:02:45,520 --> 01:02:46,520 So you don't even understand. 725 01:02:46,520 --> 01:02:50,840 We are gradually bringing all those things into the church. 726 01:02:50,840 --> 01:02:56,400 So we have to be careful what we teach while it is being done in church. 727 01:02:56,400 --> 01:03:00,480 Our practice must be founded on the scripture. 728 01:03:00,480 --> 01:03:02,960 Every revelation has been revealed. 729 01:03:02,960 --> 01:03:05,880 We just need to read. 730 01:03:05,880 --> 01:03:06,880 Amen. 731 01:03:06,880 --> 01:03:15,360 So when we come next time, we will ask because there are some arguments that the, because 732 01:03:15,360 --> 01:03:23,040 there are some arguments in the Bible, there are some books that are, that even the apostles 733 01:03:23,040 --> 01:03:26,520 make mention and they are not weird to be found. 734 01:03:26,520 --> 01:03:27,520 You understand? 735 01:03:27,520 --> 01:03:31,480 For example, he told the Laoduchians, you understand? 736 01:03:31,480 --> 01:03:37,960 He said he was telling the Corinthians, take this letter to the Laoduchians and also collect 737 01:03:37,960 --> 01:03:41,240 the one from the Laoduchians and bring it to lit. 738 01:03:41,240 --> 01:03:45,200 But today we don't have any letter to the Laoduchians. 739 01:03:45,200 --> 01:03:46,320 So where is it? 740 01:03:46,320 --> 01:03:52,040 So some of some unscrupulous element entered the church creepily, I mean, without knowing 741 01:03:52,040 --> 01:04:00,360 and they are arguing that some of these lost writings, part of them is the north. 742 01:04:00,360 --> 01:04:02,800 Thank you for listening to our sermon today. 743 01:04:02,800 --> 01:04:05,480 We hope you were blessed by this teaching. 744 01:04:05,480 --> 01:04:10,040 If you want to learn more about our church, please visit our website or follow us on social 745 01:04:10,040 --> 01:04:11,040 media. 746 01:04:11,040 --> 01:04:13,920 We would love to connect with you and hear your feedback. 747 01:04:13,920 --> 01:04:18,680 Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast channel and share it with your friends and family. 748 01:04:18,680 --> 01:04:31,560 We never know who might need a word of encouragement.