- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
I'm impressed that you are familiar with the Gnostic gospels. However, I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to inform you that those writings were penned long after the apostles had fallen asleep and entered into the eternal bliss of God the Father. The reason that only the four canonical gospels are such is because they met the criteria of having been used from earlier on in ecumenical church worship. Also, the true gospels had been validated as having been influenced by apostolic teaching (some composed by apostles themselves), and the reason that the gospels of Thomas, Peter, etc. were not canonized was because of their lofty claims to having been written by apostles, which tended to raise red flags, as well as the fact that they did not agree with the testimonies of Paul and others which had been accepted by the ecumenical church before 90 AD. The Gnostic gospels were not composed until after approximately 200 AD!!!
Now, about the council of Nicaea, the only reason it met in the first place was to cement unity of doctrine within the orthodox church for combating Arianism and Gnosticism. The Arians said that Jesus was just a man, and the Gnostics said that Jesus was only God. Neither of these solves the problem of sin!!!!!!!!! The gap is simply not bridge by either of these between a lost humanity, and the loving God who wishes to be reconciled with them. If Jesus be only a man, then he could not truly reconcile us to God who is transcendent and holy because Jesus would have been tainted by sin if he were only a man (the Old Testament sacrificial system had not been sufficient to wash sin away, it only covered it until the work of Christ). If Jesus be only God, then he would not have been imminently human!!! The Old Testament prophecies of God's ultimate prophet/Messiah coming and suffering among us would never have come to fruition in the realm of human history!
You are gravely mistaken!!!