Two years ago, September 11 caused us to think a lot about the purpose of our lives...

Michael,

Wow! You make some provocative comments & raise
several issues in your last couple posts on this topic.
I'll get to them in a follow-up post, but in the meantime...

The link at the bottom of your Sept. 12 post had
referred to the Gospel of Thomas as "The Gospel
The Church Removed From The Bible". The point of
my post was merely to explain, in a nutshell, what
the manuscript was (for those who hadn't followed
your link) and why it was misleading to claim that it
had been "removed from the Bible." The same goes
for any other "lost book" of the Bible.

Let's see if I can break it down to the basics.
Say Group A believes a certain bunch of things,
both historical events and theological doctrines.
They decide to compile the most important info
into one official set of documents. Using various
guidelines, they determine what are the most
reliable sources for teaching those things that
they hold to be true.

Meanwhile, Group B has also formed. They also hold
certain things to be true and some of their leaders
have written these things down. When leaders from
Group A talk to and read stuff from Group B, they
see that they have certain things in common. However,
Group B believes that Event X -- something central
to Group A's beliefs -- happened very differently.
They also teach other things that are incompatible
with what Group A believes & teaches.

Now, why in the world would Group A consider including
Group B's teachings in their official set if there is
such conflict, particularly on foundational doctrines?
Whether Group A has the truth or Group B is right
(or neither) is beside the point.

OK, hopefully that made some sense. I'll try to address
more of your comments in the next couple days.

Chris