The Wisdom of Jesus Christ from the Nag Hammadi Scriptures | Is a Kingless Generation Better Than One With a King?

The Nag Hammadi Scriptures are a group of gnostic, apocryphal works, some said to be written prior to the canonical gospels. These gnostic texts were either hidden, buried with the dead or trashed after Catholic Elders dictated that those who ascribed to them were heretics. These books were later found or rediscovered in Egypt starting in 1945; were translated; and are now sold to the general public, basically as rubbish, however there are certain concepts within them that should be explored. 

The following post is simply musings after having read and pondered The Wisdom of Jesus Christ from The Nag Hammadi Scriptures. I challenge all Christians to read these works, some of which were scripted [per Harvard University professor Helmut Koester] prior to the original gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. 

There is nothing to fear for the earnest seeker will always return to Truth...

What Prevents Another Kingless One from Appearing?

In the Nag Hammadi scriptures, when the disciples asked Jesus how humanity was revealed and about the Imperishable Ones, Jesus explained to them how the Original One [or Father] came from the Light, but was not as powerful as the Light, indicating that the Light held ultimate seniority and power and that there was a multitude of Beings just as old and powerful as the First Manifested Father, and these Beings are also self-conceived and reflective. Therefore, if this same Original and Most Powerful Light exists today, what would prevent another self-conceived and reflective One from appearing out of it, even here on this planet you call earth?

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And if another Kingless One reveals Itself out of the Light, will spirituality as you know it cease to exist? Will the prophecies of old need to be reconfigured? Will the new Kingless One[s] be the same as what Jesus considered to be the First due to the influence of the Light or by the influence of this particular Universe's location as in the case of stem cells acting out, dependant upon where they are in the body? Would there be a War of the Gods unlike any you've ever seen or heard of before?

Again, what stops another Kingless One from appearing, in this realm, except for the Light Itself and Its Laws, which most do not fathom?

Does the Idea of Kingdom Lead to Perpetual Servitude?

Have we all made a conscious decision to not think?

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When I was a little girl, I first heard the gospel and promise of a Land of Perpetual Joy where eventually the King would come down and rule over us, and we would serve him forever. I must admit this news made me both happy and concerned. I was happy that evil, or what I considered to be evil, would be obliterated forever. I was saddened because sometimes I tired of church and of praise and worship and just wanted peace and quiet -- to be appreciated myself. Was the preacher telling me I'd be in a church service that would last forever? Also, it did not make sense that such a remote and powerful God would now want to reside with humans. And if this was the same God that Moses spoke to, and he was jealous and known for genocide, who would check Him if he became King Forever? Because to me, the God of Moses and the God of Jesus were two completely different Beings.

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In this book of the Nag Hammadi Scriptures, Jesus explained to his disciples that He had come to free the immortal Human, the Kingless One [the Father], from robbers and to correct Sophia's mistake in trying to reproduce without Her male counterpart. He then said, to experience the Father in a defective way, would lead mortals to the eighth realm, which is a realm where there are numerous gods, lords, angels, kingdoms, temples and such for their own majesty -- a place like earth. However, anyone who knows the Father in pure knowledge will be at rest in the unconceived Father and the wealth of their rest brings no kingdom.

In the gnostic gospels, Jesus said he came to expose the false gods and reveal the true Father so that mankind would NOT be subject to kingdoms, which impose rule [many times unjustly], temples, firmaments, all for their own majesty. Even in the canonical gospels, Jesus was found criticizing the priests and told them in John 8, they did not know his Father and their Father was the devil and a murderer from the beginning. 

Whether or not there are flaws with the entire thought of this gnostic Sophia of Jesus Christ, this particular piece strikes a cord of truth in me, which is a definition of pure Freedom.

Kingdoms exact tribute, whether citizens want to pay or not. Kingdoms and Empires are never satiated as there is one ruler after the other, each exacting their own tribute. Kingdoms invest a lot of resources into training armies to be the 'arm' of the lords in order that they can command the kingdom's subjects with force. Kingdoms use media, culture and schools to train and program subjects to go along with the king's plan.

This is not eternal freedom, thereby the gnostic gospels offer a different kind of eternal life. One where the spirits of humanity are freed from the yokes of bondage of kings, lesser gods, lords, slavemasters, colonizers, robbers, etc. Freedom from the entire idea of kingdom; it is a fragment worthy of being a sentence.

Why would the official Church not explore this concept of eternal life without a king, but command all of the books to be burned, which include this concept? One reason could be that the king at that time would have destroyed the church for inciting people to oppose him.

Which eternity would you chose? If there was a choice of joining with the original Kingless One, the Father of All and being freed from the idea of kingdom altogether or one where you would be forced to bring tributes and perpetual worship?

To be fair, you must keep in mind that any writer of her/his time speaks out of their cultural experience and desires. What we do know is all gospels, whether gnostic, aprocryphal or canonical, were written by humans, which makes them subject to error. Perhaps the human writer of this gnostic gospel rebelled against his own leaders, thereby daring to envision a heavenly eternity without a king.

However, to be fair, even in the canonical gospels, Jesus urged his followers to see themselves as doing greater works than even he did and he chose to leave in his place, a Comforter vs a Controller for the benefit of those he called friends and not followers.

In the Sophia or Wisdom of Jesus Christ, Jesus urges his disciples to do the following;

I have come [from the first] who was sent to reveal to you the one who is from the beginning, because of the arrogance of the chief creator and his angels, for they claim to be gods. I have come to eradicate their blindness, that I might tell everyone about the God who is above all.

So trample on their graves, humiliate their wicked intentions, break their yoke, and raise up those who are mine. I have given you authority over everything as children of light, to trample on their power with your feet.

I challenge you all to allow your minds to consider why human priests would promote kingdom within a new empire and the benefit and freedom of the kingless.