A look at sacred text that offer a glimpse of our divinity.
Those on a mystical path are working to reunite with the Divine. And while it is a worthy undertaking, some argue that there is no need to reunite because we are already divine. This, of course, is part of the message of the Christ. He speaks of it in the New Testament. He also speaks of it in the Gospel of Thomas, one of the many apocrypha discovered over the years.
The Gospel of Thomas, pieces of which were first discovered in 1900, was found to be more in tact at Nag Hammadi in 1945. It is said to be one of several gospels that were kept out of the New Testament based on the demands of Emperor Constantine and a couple of Bishops that he controlled at the Nicene Council.
In the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus offers hints to his vision of God and his new interpretation of God. When asked by his disciples when the new world would come and when the resurrection of the dead would happen, he said, “What you look forward to has already come, but you do not recognize it (Gospel of Thomas #51).”
At another point, the disciples ask Jesus when the kingdom would come. He replied, “It will not come by waiting for it. It will not be a matter of saying ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is.’ Rather, the kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and people do not see it (Gospel of Thomas # 113).” This is very similar to Luke 17:20-21, which reads,“. . . nor will they say, ‘Look here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ for the kingdom of God is within you.”
Again speaking about the“coming kingdom”, Jesus stated, “The kingdom is inside you, and outside you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will see that it is you who are the children of the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty, and it is you who are that poverty (Gospel of Thomas # 3).
Finally, Jesus told his disciples that we are all divine: “If they say to you, ‘Where did you come from?’ say to them ‘We came from the light, the place where the light came into being by itself and was revealed through their image.’ If they say to you, ‘Who are you?’ say, ‘We are its children, the chosen of the living father (Gospel of Thomas #50).’”
These statements by Jesus, are similar to statements found in other gospels kept out of the Bible, as well as found in it. And they point to the concept that we all are divine and that we must go within to touch our divinity as well as to reach God.
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