Here at Forgiven Temple Ministries, we follow the teachings of Yehoshua in the traditions of Melchizedek, Seth, David, and Solomon. We honor and celebrate the Divine Spark of Life within each of us, in cooperative and spiritually lifting harmony through the teachings of Yehoshua Ha’Moshiach, Joshua, the Anointed One, Jesus Christo.
The Hidden Gospels and the Revealer of Gnosis
The Nag Hammadi Library, discovered in 1945 near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, consists of thirteen codices with about fifty-two mostly Gnostic texts from the second to fourth centuries CE, written in Coptic. These include gospels, revelations, and dialogues attributed to Yehoshua, today known as Jesus Christ, the Savior, and his followers, especially the twelve Tamim, students of the inner circle.
They do not describe a biographical ministry as defined through the narratives of empire and the Church of Rome or Eastern Orthodox churches. They do not deliver a public timeline of miracles, preaching tours, crucifixion, and resurrection quoted from the canonical Gospels.
A more complete and deeper understanding is found among the desert codices of the Gnostic Gospels within the Nag Hammadi Library and the books of the Ethiopian Bible considered by the West inspired, though not canonical. In the long-called hidden or secret Gospels, these scriptures emphasize Yehoshua as a divine revealer of gnosis, knowledge, for spiritual awakening and true salvation and restoration from the material world of Yaldabaoth, the Demiurge.
The Teacher of Mysteries
Yehoshua delivers the message that reveals Gnostic wisdom: esoteric insights of the divine realm, the soul’s origin, and how to escape ignorance and archonic control. His role in Gnostic faith is primarily that of a teacher of mysteries, not primarily a suffering savior whose death atones for sins.
Many texts present post-resurrection dialogues in which the risen Yehoshua instructs disciples on cosmology and on the true Father, the one true Source from which all else is possible, even an illusory material world which distracts from true salvation and restoration.
Teaching Spiritual Over Material
The material world is flawed or a prison. Salvation and restoration come through self-knowledge, realizing one’s divine spark, and transcending the duality of the material world while raising your vibration and awareness above the shadowy influence of the material realm and living entirely in Ruach Ha’Chodesh, the Holy Spirit, both inside and out.
Texts such as the Gospel of Thomas gather first-hand narratives in a mystical context. The Apocryphon of John and Sophia of Jesus Christ, also known as The Wisdom of Yehoshua, frame revelation as secret teachings to specific disciples, including John, Philip, and others.
The Cosmology of Gnostic Wisdom
The text blends cosmology with soteriology, teachings on salvation. The Ineffable Father is described as infinite, incomprehensible, imperishable, unchanging good, without likeness or form: the unknowable ultimate Source beyond all.
Emanations and aeons are hierarchical divine beings emanating from the Father. Highlights include androgynous figures: Immortal Man, El or Self-Father, the Demiurge, his consort Great Sophia, and their son, the first-begotten androgynous Son, the Anointed One in male aspect, with Sophia as Mother of the Universe in female aspect.
Sophia, Wisdom, is a central divine feminine figure: consort, mother, and begettress. She desires to create independently, contributing to the fall into materiality, the realm of the Demiurge, Yaldabaoth. Yehoshua as Savior and Revealer comes to awaken the divine spark trapped in matter.
Creation, Salvation, and Restoration
The Gospels explain the origins of gods, angels, the universe, and the lower realms ruled by archons, rulers. The material world is a flawed imitation. True reality is in the divine Pleroma, fullness. With regard to salvation, through knowing the truths beyond the dogmas of religion, Yehoshua reveals the light of truth. Themes emphasize unity, awakening the drop sent from Sophia, and returning to the light. Yehoshua explained that he came to perfect what was defective.
In these texts, Yehoshua’s public ministry is secondary. The focus is on reawakening through Gnostic wisdom, post-resurrection teachings for the elect. He is the Great Savior from Infinite Light who imparts wisdom to overcome ignorance and the archonic powers. This is spelled out more clearly within the thirteen codices: revelation of our truest nature over historical narrative, inner gnosis over external atonement.
Pistis Sophia and the Askew Codex
We take caution not to conflate the Pistis Sophia, Faith-Wisdom, a longer later Gnostic text from the third to fourth century, with the Nag Hammadi Library. It is not in Nag Hammadi, but comes from the Askew Codex.
That work features extensive post-resurrection dialogues and first-hand interaction with Yehoshua himself, over more than eleven years, about Sophia’s fall, repentance, and complex heavenly hierarchies, with the heavy involvement of Miriam of Magdala and other women within Yehoshua’s orbit. This sacred text delves more deeply into ritual and cosmological narrative than the Nag Hammadi Library.
Explore Even Deeper
Discover the Nag Hammadi Codices on our Ministry site and browse Pastor’s Gnostic Library, all in one convenient place here in our Ministry. Peace and blessings be with you always.
Pastor Mark