 Last week on our episode that was aired on the Dark Outpost, which we covered here on this channel, we began our discussion about the Gnostics and the Cathars, which were presumably some of the early Christians. Of course, the early church quickly labeled these two groups of people as heretics. And as they started to put together what would become the official Holy Bible, they left out a bunch of books that tell a little bit of a different story. Of course, these books have also been labeled heretical. Thought to have been lost forever, they turned up again in 1945 in the Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi. And the banned book of the Bible that we are going to review today is probably one of the most controversial. But before we go any further, you know what to do. Please hit that subscribe button and give us a like. Also huge thank you again to all of our patrons who make this show possible. Shout out to Tiffany Monroe, our awesome Reiki master here in Atlanta. If you would like to get into contact with Tiffany again, her email address is listed down below. Welcome to Esoteric Atlanta. My name is Bryce and today we are going to be talking about the Gospel of Thomas. Many people, especially if you grew up in a Christian home, will recognize Thomas. Thomas is the notorious doubting Thomas. He had to actually see the wounds of Jesus to understand the resurrection. Upon seeing Jesus's wounds, Thomas very famously said in John 2028, my Lord and my God. Thomas was one of Jesus's 12 apostles. And even though there is no book of Thomas that is canonized in our Bible, he did have his own gospel and he was very important when it came to the spreading of Jesus's message after Jesus's death and resurrection. After Jesus was executed or crucified, the 12 apostles or any person having ties to Jesus was at risk. One could definitely say that these apostles were fugitives from the law. Now because they were fugitives, they had to get the heck out of dodge. We talked about this last week. They all dispersed and went to different places. For example, we know that Mark went to Egypt and he spoke and taught in Alexandria. We know that Paul went to the Roman Empire. We know Mary Magdalene went to France. Well, Thomas, he went to India. Now the Gospel of Thomas is not the only work that's attributed to the apostle Thomas. There's also the Acts of Thomas. And in the Acts of Thomas, it describes Thomas's journey through what we now call Saudi Arabia to the tip of Saudi Arabia on a boat with a merchant where he then landed in the southwestern tip of India. This is the area of modern day Kerala. This was around the year AD 52. Now Thomas is now the patron saint of India. And in fact, it seems today that a lot of Eastern Orthodox Christian church still refer back to a lot of Thomas's work. It seemed once he was in India, he was responsible for performing many, many miracles. And he opened up what was about seven different churches or schools along the western coast. Thomas was killed on December 21st of 72 AD. It seems that he had hid for a while in a mound or cave in India. And you can still go there today and see where he stayed. Apparently, there's also places and marks on the rocks within the cave where you can see Thomas's handprints from being in prayer. You can even bop over to Chennai, which is on the other side of southern India, to see Thomas's burial place. It is now Saint Thomas's Basilica. And there's still a statue that apparently marks the spot where he was laid to rest. Now, as many people who watch this channel know, I spend a good part of my year every year in India. My teacher is in India. I'm in the state of Karnataka, which is just north of Kerala. Now it's ironic to me because as an avid student of yoga and someone who spent most of my life studying God and studying spirituality, a lot of the Gospel of Thomas mirrors teachings of yoga. But before we get into the themes of the Gospel of Thomas, many people will ask, well, if Thomas was in India and his students were the ones recording this Gospel, then how did it end up in Egypt? Well, that's simple. The Silk Road. This route people took, these commerce merchants people took back and forth all over this area, brought copies of the Gospel of Thomas back to the Middle East and then again eventually to Egypt, where a copy was found at the Nag Hamadi Library. Now, the original Gospel of Thomas was recorded to potentially have been written in 60 AD. This makes the Gospel of Thomas one of the earliest Gospels ever written, something that really pisses off a lot of people that want to call this Gospel heresy. Now, one of the striking differences between the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospels we're familiar with like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is that Thomas follows no narrative. There's no birth story. There's no story of the resurrection. There's no storyline. The Gospel of Thomas is really just a notebook full of things that Jesus said. And when you first start to read the Gospel of Thomas, this can be a little bit confusing. You have to understand that each section was probably taken at a different moment in time, although there are parts of the Gospel of Thomas where many Christians who have who've accepted the Gospel of Thomas as a legitimate Gospel that think it was written after Jesus's resurrection, meaning that some of these things were taken down by Thomas or memorized by Thomas when he saw Jesus post Jesus's death. One of the claims for heresy of this book is that people believe that Thomas or whoever wrote the Gospel of Thomas was claiming that Thomas was Jesus's twin. However, I don't think that's the case at all. We know that the name Thomas is actually an Aramaic name for a twin or a lookalike or a leader. We also know that the Greek word didimus is also a word for twin. The very first line of the book of Thomas or the Gospel of Thomas says these are the secret sayings that the living Jesus spoke in didimus, Judas, Thomas recorded. So for starters, yes, this is telling us that this book is basically just a bunch of sayings. Secondly, this is telling us that Thomas's real name was Judas or Jude. So didimus and Thomas were nicknames given to Thomas. So what does this mean? This might mean that Thomas had a twin. And so therefore he was a nicknamed twin. This could also mean that Thomas presumably might have looked like Jesus. And so in jest or in teasing, they called him the twin. He could have also potentially acted as a body double for Jesus if he looked like Jesus. But this also could have a deeper meaning. And this is what I tend to believe after studying the Gospel of Thomas intensely. I believe that when they call Thomas the twin, they're referring to a lesson that Jesus gave his disciples and gives the world. Jesus is saying that I am the light. I am the child of God. And you are also the child of God. You are the children of a living God, just like I am. Therefore, inside of you, you are my twin. Now with the sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas, we can definitely see this as an ancient power of now. It is very evident that the Jesus really spoke about heaven being inside of you, that it's all here now. And this theme is very common in a lot of other religions and spiritual practices. Now it makes sense to me why the original church would call this heresy. Again, if people have the power themselves to find salvation, to find validity, to find their own divinity through Jesus, through God, then the church doesn't have power. It can't control people. The Gospel of Thomas has been described to be the most like the book of Proverbs. It's really a book of knowing thyself, to their own self be true. And it's not a very long book. There's only 114 sayings. Now, one of the most important sayings in my opinion to signify that this book is called the twin book because of Jesus telling us that we are also like him as children of a living God is from saying 108. And it goes as follows, whoever will drink from my mouth will become like me, I myself will become he and what is hidden will be revealed to him. In the book of Thomas, we also get a version of Jesus that is a little bit frustrated, but in like a good way. And this all comes back to the book of Q, our Quewell Force. Now, if you follow us on the dark outpost, we went into more detail about this yesterday than I can do on my channel. However, in this original Gospel of Quewell, they believed that that Gospel was almost like the Rosetta Stone. It was the hard copy of the story of Jesus in which students would reference back to this book when they were jotting down their teacher stories to make sure they had things accurate. Now, in this original Gospel, they are talks of two different Jesuses. And I don't believe that there were two different Jesuses. I think that we're talking about a perspective Jesus took in a more complicated view on enlightenment and the kingdom of heaven. In a lot of the Gospels available to us, we see one version of Jesus where he talks about the signs of the kingdom of heaven coming. We also see this in the book of Revelation and other prophecies throughout the Bible, as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls in the War Scroll. But then there's this other side of Jesus where even though he's telling you the prophecy of what's going to happen when the kingdom of heaven comes, he's saying that that doesn't matter, though. You, you hold the kingdom of heaven here and now. Because the kingdom of heaven will come one day, doesn't excuse you from doing the work yourself on your own behavior. In a lot of the verses in the Gospel of Thomas, we kind of see Jesus saying like, forget about the prophecy, just forget about the end times and worry about yourself, worry about your own development. There's one verse in the Gospel of Thomas where he talks about where is heaven? If heaven is in the skies, then the birds are going to get there first. If heaven is in the water, then the fish are going to get there first. If heaven is on land, then your neighbor might get there first. No, the kingdom of heaven is inside of you. Don't worry about when I'm coming back. That is for my business and my business only. Your job is to work on you to find your own light. In my opinion, the second saying in the book of Thomas really sums up the spiritual journey. When we're starting to awaken and we're moving from the three, third dimensional world into the fifth dimensional world, sometimes that red pilling can be painful. We go through an ego death. When we realize our own mortality and attachments to our own mortality are just obstacles in our way. Jesus says, and one who seeks should not cease seeking until he finds. And when he finds, he will be dismayed. And when he is dismayed, he will be astonished and he will be king over all. Again, this is talking about the journey of the soul and the work one does. At first, you start to do the work. And then once you start to work the work, sometimes depression comes with that. You see everything for what it is. There's a morning process that goes with giving up mortality, giving up the attachment to mortality. But once you move through that morning process, you start to become amazed with wonder at how mighty God is and how easy it is to connect to God. And once you have that connection to God, you can rule over all. I don't think this means ruling over people. I think this means that you have control over your own emotions. On a global scale, with this great awakening that's happening, we can also see this with the journey we've taken to understand the matrix. At first, we start to realize something isn't right. And then when we learn the truth, which I can't really talk about on YouTube, it becomes very depressing. Then once you get over that depressing moment, you start to fight for that truth. You start to understand it. And you start to have a deeper connection to God. We also see this referenced in the canonized Bible through Paul. Paul talks about messages from the Gospel of Thomas in 1 Corinthians in his first letter to the Corinthians. Paul said in 1 Corinthians chapter two, it is written, I will give you what no eye has seen and what no ear has heard and what no hand has touched and what has not occurred to the human mind. The only thing is Paul doesn't say where it is written. And up until now, I don't know if anybody's ever really asked, where was it written? Well, it was written in the book of Thomas. And it was the book of Thomas's saying number 17. Now, realistically, almost every saying in the Gospel of Thomas is something of great importance because it's all about your own relationship to the divine. Again, my opinion, this is why the original church said it was completely heresy. They did not want people to follow this nostical point of perception where you can do it yourself. If you have no fear of authority, if you know that your afterlife and your pieces is in your control, then the cabal can't rule the world. And again, one of the greatest teachings I think that Jesus gives us through the Gospel of Thomas for today is we all sit here patiently waiting for the powers that be to take out the powers that be, if you know what I mean, and for Nisara to be put into action and for the age of Aquarius, which we're now technically in to fully unfold as we all sit here and patiently waiting for stuff like that to happen. Jesus is reminding us, don't worry about it. Focus on yourself. Work on your own self. Find your connection to God through you, through your heart center. Everything else, everything outside of you, I will take care of. It's funny, my late grandfather used to say something like that, and this is my grandfather for those who follow along on the dark outpost. I know I've told this story on the dark outpost. My dad's dad, my paternal grandfather had a near-death experience in his 40s. He saw heaven. Now he's no longer with us, but he used to tell us all the time, there's nothing in this world that you can control. You really can't control anything. Your job can be, we've seen that this year in 2020. Your job can be taken away from you. Your home can be taken away from you. Your health can be taken away from you. The only thing, absolute only thing that's in your control is your character, is what you do, your reaction. And that is part of what Jesus is saying in the Gospel of Thomas. Heaven is not just a place you can go to, but it's also a place here on earth. And it comes from inside of you. It comes from your own thoughts. It comes from your own consciousness. And remember, your consciousness was anointed on you by God when you were born. Your consciousness was not given to you by a human being or by the state or by the church. The anointing of your consciousness was a sacred moment between you and your creator because you are a child of the living God. Now again, I could probably sit here and read you the whole book of Thomas and be totally content because everything is very powerful, but that's not really for me to do. Covered some verses, but I really encourage all of you to sit down and read it for yourself to contemplate on it. At first, some of these sayings might be confusing and that's okay. If they confuse you now, just move on to the next saying. I've found that through my yoga studies. When I study the yoga sutras or the Upanishads, there are places in the past where I've read things and they confused me, but then years later, all of a sudden they made sense. So down below, I will put some links to some translations of the book of Thomas. There's two that are particularly good, which is Bentley Layton's translation. Again, a link to his translation is down below and there's also a book called Wisdom of the Twin by Lynn Bowman and I will put a link down to her translation as well. Now, if you don't join us on The Dark Outpost on Tuesday nights and you would like to start joining us, there's also a link in the description box below to The Dark Outpost. Again, what I do on Wednesdays is just a brief summary of what we talk about with David on Tuesdays. Our episodes with David are typically a lot longer and we typically go into more historical detail and more detail on the subject matter. That details I can't really go over on YouTube because of, well, censorship. On David's channel, we will be going more into the gospel of Q, our quell, the source, because that's going to play into a lot of the gospels that have been missing from the Bible all these years. Again, of course, that's very interesting because it kind of parallels something else that's happening in the world today that I definitely cannot mention on YouTube. So again, if you have not joined and you would like to join those conversations, a link below. If you live in a country that you can't get The Dark Outpost TV that you've tried, if you email David at AmericaTalks, I believe at Hotmail.com, I'll put a link to that email address down below as well and maybe ask David if there's a way to kind of get around some of that in different countries. He would have that information to give you. Otherwise, I'll see you guys tomorrow. Yes, this week of Christmas, we were doing a video every single day. You got two bonus videos for Tuesday and for Thursday and you'll have a video on Christmas as well. Just a heads up, we are going to go dark the 26th of the day. Obviously, we usually don't do Saturday and Sunday, but we're going to go dark that Monday as well because I'm going to be with family and just not going to really have a chance to film. So after this week, the next video to be uploaded will be next Wednesday, which will be going over Mary Magdalene, the book of Mary Magdalene. Thank you guys so much for everything. I hope you guys are having a wonderful week. Welcome to the age of Aquarius. This is the 1000 years of peace of the golden age that's been prophesized in the Bible as well as other spiritual scriptures. Super excited. Here we go. Buckle up. It's going to be an amazing time. All right, friends. Thank you again to Josh McKay for doing our music. Link to his song down below and many thanks as always to Todd Roderick for helping me get this video on the interwebs and on the computer for you to watch. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Bye.