How could the Church have removed it...
if it was never part of the Bible in the
first place?

The "Gospel of Thomas" was a Gnostic text
discovered with the rest of the Nag
Hammadi "library" in Egypt in 1945.
Generally dated about AD 140-170, this
particular text purports to record 114
"secret sayings" of Jesus. As the scholar
Raymond E. Brown said, "we learn not a
single verifiable new fact about Jesus'
ministry and only a few new sayings
that might plausibly have been His."

Like much of the Gnostic Gospels, the
Gospel of Thomas often cites or borrows
from the canonical New Testament books.
However, and more importantly, Gnosticism
in general teaches much that is inconsistent
with that believed and taught by the early
Christians. The early Church fathers con-
demned it as heretical.

So,... the Gospel of Thomas was at best
practically useless and at worst heresy.
And it was *never* part of the Biblical canon.

Chris