What do Emperor Constantine and King George have in common? Well, it takes a bit of twisting and turning and a bit of navel watching but let my weird mind take you on a “what if” journey of these two men. What IF Constantine didn’t have the Milvan Bridge experience and what if King George had been consulted on our U.S. Constitution? Need some clarification? I hoped you would.
Let me cut to the chase and simply ask this question.
What would America look like if our founders had sent a copy of our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to King George for his thoughts, comments, and revisions? If you have any sense of history, the American Revolution, or King George, you know there would be no America today, or at least nothing like what we have. Who would ask their enemy for ADVICE?
The early Christian founders did! 
We have the Bible we do today because a man has FREE WILL, not because of the providence of God! Very much like asking King George to comment on the Declaration of Independence, what few priests who had the guts to show up at the Council of Nicea in 325CE, asked Constantine what he thought our Bible should look like. While they diasgreed with his first pronouncements, under the threat of death, they gave in. How cowardly, but also how life-saving. There was nothing spiritual, heavenly, or godly about the Council of Nicea. It was a pagan emperor deciding what our Bible would look like.
What he did was throw out everything he didn’t like much like the Jefferson Bible. Have you seen that?
The earliest gospel (not Mark) was thrown out as was every other gospel or work that had any tinge of gnosticism or mysticism to it. Finally, in 391CE Emperor Theodosius officially canonized (not God) the Bible for you and I. But, truth does set us free and truth eventually comes to light. On a cold December day in Egypt in 1945, Mohammad Ali (not the boxer) of the al Samman clan found some earthware jars in a limestone cave. The genie that he hoped would be in the bottle turned out to be nothing but PAPER!
Well, special paper!
Thankfully, it was a not too cold that winter. Thus his mother didn’t burn too many of those papers that he found to keep warm because that PAPER turned out to be leather bound codices from more than 1,600 years ago. Of course it’s now known as the Nag Hammadi find. The earliest gospel (Thomas) dates back to 40CE, just a half dozen years or so after the resurrection of Jesus. and many of those “sayings” are now found in the later four “canonized” gospels.
Thomas didn’t make it (canonization) but those who quoted him did. Go figure! 
I don’t know about you, but while I see our current Christian Bible as sacred, I also see it for how it came about. It is not infallible nor inerrant. Furthermore, when we add to it, the lost books of the Bible that Constantine didn’t want, we truly have a treasure; however, the greatest treasure is the divine within each of us and the voice of the Spirit speaking to us daily.
Are you HEARING?
There is so much more to what we were made to believe, but it is a good starting point. I am having trouble expressing myself because I lack the words to do so properly. This journey is taking me to such wonderful places, inside and out. Let the transformation continue: LOVE says it all. It is amazing what message those four letters convey.
Love creation as you love yourself, and you are who you are in GOD. Lets dig deeper.
You’ve got it Andreas and you RADIATE LOVE! When all else fails, LOVE comes through. MERCY triumphs over JUDGMENT. God is LOVE- not God is love until love fails and then JUDGMENT-JUSTICE prevails. We’re getting it and you’ve got it!
I just love it when you speak HISTORY. Sometimes I think it is a lost art. There are so many of us who claim to follow Jesus, who became the Christ, who truly don’t know the historical story of how the material things that we hold dear, came to be. I feel it is a very important part of our learning process to build our spirtual beings on this plane. Thank you, thank you.
Your “slobbing lovefest” is appreciated!
Of course we “historians” must stick together.
We were scheduled to talk about the Gospel of Thomas on Tuesday in Rami’s class but he canceled because he came down with an awful flu. I’m half way through reading it to prepare for today’s class and I’ve found some of the sayings to be very interesting. I never heard of the Gospel of Thomas being dated before Mark which I ways always under the impression that scholars dated Mark to be the earliest of the 5. What source are you quoting that dates the Gospel of Thomas before the 4 gospels? Does your source claim that it is the ‘Q’ document or just a contemporary? You have definitely peaked my interest. Great post by the way. As always.
Peace and Blessings.
No source that I know of equates “Q” with the Gospel of Thomas, but there’s probably someone out there that does. Macus Borg and carbon dating (to the degree that it can be pin-pointed within a decade) are the sources that I recall putting Thomas around 40. Keep on truckin!
Believing the Bible was canonized according to the desire of God boils down to accepting the sovereignty of God. Do we believe God inspired writers like Moses, David and Paul to pen that which the Spirit of God impressed upon them? Can we accept the fact that the Lord has and will reign forever? (Ps. 146:10) Is is possible to exercise faith that says God knew billions of people would give credence to the Bible which shows the truth of Jesus (directly or indirectly) in each book? Or do we believe God left the throne long enough to allow some men (who are judged inferior by many) to slip in a fast one on the Almighty?
The God who is mighty enough to use an unknown girl (Esther) to stop the slaughter of His people is well able to choose foolish weak men that are despised to nullify the wisdom of me–that no man should boast before God. (I Cor. 1:27-29)
Linda,
“Believing the Bible was canonized according to the desire of God boils down to accepting the sovereignty of God.”
These don’t have to go hand in hand. One can believe in the sovereignty of God and while understanding that Mankind has tried his best to choose the books that we believed were inspired by God. There is room for error even with the best intentions. It may very well be that the Bible is EXACTLY how God meant it be and we got it right. But unless they knew without a doubt which books were inspired by God then there would be no reason to meet and argue this out. Do a little reading and you find out that several bishops had their own lists of inspired books. A few of them agreed with each other but not all of them agreed with the list we have today. Man is a fallible creature. We can argue for years as to which books were truly inspired but the bottom line is what do you draw from the scriptures? Is it pure Unconditional-Universal-Jump out of your seat tell the whole world Love? How do these scriptures (indeed ALL scripture) inspire you?
The Pen of Man might be fallible but the Spirit of Love that speaks through it melts all hatred, pride, and injustice until Love remains.
Geez! Can God create a rock too heavy for Him to pick up?? How can you get things so twisted? The sovereignty of God does not conflict with the free will of man!! (He doesn’t have to leave His throne every time someone exercises the free will He gave them! Are you joking?) Your sovereign God gave you free will, this is not a problem for Him. Your statements and questions are completely ludicris!
Speaking of history it was amazing that Esther saved her people by entering a contest to become apart of a harem get beauty pointers from a gay guy who told her how to stick it to the king so good that he had to call her name over and over again, Esther emerged from that room no longer a in his harem but a certified concubine. I’m sure when the king favored Esthers wishes to save her people It was because he remembered the nights when she tells him like Beyonce” Say my name say my name”
I need to read that Esther story again!! Hallelujah!!
“Believing the Bible was canonized according to the desire of God boils down to accepting the sovereignty of God.”
No it doesn’t!!!
I’m not aware of any statement in the Bible that tells us man has total free will. I do know God exhorts His people to choose Him and His ways many times. Deuteronomy says “choose life.” Isaiah 44:22 states, “Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.” So, there are obviously many choices God allows His people to make.
Several times God declares that His sovereignty only allows men to go so far and ultimately sets limits on man’s will. Daniel 4:35 proclaims, “All the inhabits of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand.” Acts 16:7 informs us Paul and Timothy were trying to go into Bithynia, AND THE SPIRIT OF JESUS DID NOT PERMIT THEM.
When I was a girl I had two older brothers. I loved challenging them but the truth was they were bigger and had soooo much more knowledgable than me. My brother was taller and had long arms that when he put his hand on my head and stood just out of reach as I would fight the air with my fists hoping to connect with him I was so angry with him. He would just laugh at me. This all sounds just like that.
Esther, “God”,? Isn’t this the one book in the Bible that doesn’t mention the word God?
it is interesting to read about the Q document and the Gospel of Thomas. I googled the Gospel of Thomas and got information on the Q document, and a lot more. It can take you on a rabbit trail figuring out who is who. Double Tradition, etc. Whew, but it is interesting to read. Who wrote what before whom and who wrote for whom. Some believe that the Beatitudes,The Golden Rule,The Lords Prayer and some of the Parables came from that document.
Esther is the one book that doesn’t mention God. His handprints are visible in each chapter, even as they are on every leaf, blade of grass and star. None of creation bears a tag that says, “Made by God”, but He fashioned all. It’s similar to something Ernie taught years ago. The book of Acts doesn’t contain the word “love”, but God’s love is very apparent throughout that book.
and that contained no scriptures and a very good analogy….:))