Dan recommends the Heartsell technique to ward off apostasy

[Shulem]

The Gospel of Thomas

Gospel of Thomas

Dinner is served, boys:

The Hidden Teachings Of The Bible For Manifestation & Consciousness

[huckelberry]

The Gospel of Thomas

Gospel of Thomas

Dinner is served, boys:

The Hidden Teachings Of The Bible For Manifestation & Consciousness

I rather like the gospel of Thomas but I don't think I read it in the manner being presented in this link. I hear a rather modern recreation of gnosticism sounding close to some name it and claim it teachings. Well gnosticism had a good bit of variety so I cannot be sure this reading is just modern. The ancients loved magic and learning special keys to it. so know how.....

[tagriffy]

My favorite religious texts in the Judeo-Christian tradition are:

Genesis
The Gospel of John
Hymn of the Pearl
The Gospel of Thomas
Ecclesiastes

In the Mormon canon:
First Nephi
Book of Abraham
Book of Moses

No book makes me feel obliged to join or stick with a church.

My favorites are:

Genesis
Job
Ecclesiastes
Jonah (the most subversive book in the Bible)
Tobit
Ecclesiasticus or Sirach, depending on the tradition
3 Maccabees
Jubilees
Luke/Acts
Romans
The Gospel of Thomas
Enos
Moses
Abraham

[Kishkumen]

My favorites are:

Genesis
Job
Ecclesiastes
Jonah (the most subversive book in the Bible)
Tobit
Ecclesiasticus or Sirach, depending on the tradition
3 Maccabees
Jubilees
Luke/Acts
Romans
The Gospel of Thomas
Enos
Moses
Abraham

Jonah especially is a great choice. It should have been on my list too.

[Physics Guy]

Jonah is cool but suffers from everyone remembering the darn fish, when in fact the story is all about what happens after that. A sermon that has stuck with me for decades was about Jesus's reference to Jonah.

As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also will the Son of Man be to this generation.

[Jesus] answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.

That sermon I heard argued that Matt. 12:40, bringing in the fish, was a confused gloss by a later writer and not actually part of what Jesus said, which would have skipped straight from 39 to 41, as in the same passage in Luke. Indeed it would have made no sense in this context for Jesus to refer to Jonah for the miraculous fish ride, let alone as a far-fetched analogy to Jesus's death and resurrection. Jesus's rest in the tomb hadn't happened yet at that point, and even if Jesus somehow had been trying to foretell it, comparing it to Jonah's fish story would have been a weird and silly way to frame the great Christian miracle.

More importantly, if Jesus had meant to refer to Jonah's miraculous fish ride and his own resurrection, that would have made his whole statement about signs ridiculous: "Only a wicked generation asks for a sign, and it won't get a sign, except for a really big sign." That's telling them, Jesus.

In fact if you just read the story of Jonah and get past that old fish, Jesus's mention of Jonah here makes a lot of sense. The whole point of the book of Jonah is that Nineveh repents even though there is no sign. The people of the great wicked city simply hear God's rebuke from the reluctant prophet and say, Whoa, this guy's right—we've got changes to make. The "sign of Jonah" wasn't the fish at all. It was the bare words of Jonah, that convinced people on their own merit, without any miraculous backup.

Whether or not it still works, that kind of sign is still here. We can still read the old words. They still make some people repent.

[Kishkumen]

Great stuff, PG. I agree that 40 is an interpolation. Oh, and I forgot to praise Tim’s choice of Job, another great classic.

[Gadianton]

The OP certainly was enlightening. I wonder which of his friends he has in mind? I think he has it backwards. I think he first learned the principles of Mpologetics and these core principles infected the rest of his life. First you get the church off the hook and then you get all your friends off the hook who are fellow apologists.

The report of a friend is out of character. hmmm. Take Will for instance. He's often mentioned reports about Will's behavior being inconsistent with the person he has personally known for years. And when the behavior was happening in real time, on the very board he is posting on, his answer is that he hasn't read every thread on the board, and doesn't have to be interested in every topic that those reporting the behavior are interested in, essentially claiming not to have seen the behavior right in front of him, unwilling to click the button required to see the behavior if he really hadn't seen it, and unwilling to take reports of the behavior seriously at all due to correctly already-formed beliefs about the person in question.

This is nuts, because if the reported behavior instantly deflects in every case where the behavior is actually happening in real time right in front of him, then there is no chance of being convinced something was amiss with a person from history where the report isn't firsthand. Another example would be Lou's harassment of Gina Colvin on her own blog that is still standing for all to see. That didn't happen, right? And anyone who says otherwise and talks about it is instantly banned.

[Bret Ripley]

My favorite religious texts in the Judeo-Christian tradition are:

... Ecclesiastes

I love Ecclesiastes. I've long felt that the overall literary quality of the Christian canon could be improved by moving Ecclesiastes to the end and renaming it 'Epilogue' -- all is vanity.

[Kishkumen]

I love Ecclesiastes. I've long felt that the overall literary quality of the Christian canon could be improved by moving Ecclesiastes to the end and renaming it 'Epilogue' -- all is vanity.

I think that is pretty darn funny and at the same time
worth thinking about.

[Physics Guy]

In college I attended a weekly morning Bible study at the Reformed campus chaplaincy, and at one point we did Ecclesiastes. At the end we discussed whether the book had any upbeat message, and concluded that No, it did not. Any way we could think of to spin something positive out of it was just going to make the Preacher say, "Vanity."

Calvinists can face things like that.