Gnostic Studies

It is written, The natural man receives not the things of the spirit, nor the Mystery of the kingdom of God, they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them: therefore I admonish and exhort the Christian lover of Mysteries, if he will study these high writings, and read, search, and understand them, that he does not read them outwardly only, with sharp speculation and meditation; for in so doing, he shall remain in the outward imaginary ground only, and obtain no more than a counterfeit color of them.

HOW sad an Account have they to give, whose Throats, like open Sepulchres, blast with their Breath (as far as their Venom reaches) the most eminent Gifts of God in Men that bear his Image? Of which did they know the Danger, it could not but make them tremble, to consider how their poisoned Arrows will return and stick in their own Souls : Yet some have not feared maliciously to defame this deep illuminated Man of God. A Man, whose Writings manifestly appear to have been the Dictates of God's Spirit. And the Will of God was made the Rule of his Life, resigning himself to the divine Will, to will and work nothing but according to the Will of God.

It takes only a short read into the opening paragraphs of this book to realize this author was well educated in the Hebrew language, immediately dispelling the myth of a 6 day creation. Regardless of whether one agrees with the author's theology, his knowledge of Biblical sources and foundations of its language is hard to dispute.

Brought forth in the 1600's by a humble German shoemaker; translated into English over 100 years later; suppressed and hidden away until recently in theological archives around the world... a worthy personal study not just for academics but for all those who are spiritually grounded in the WORD, who are learning to hear the Lord, and who hunger for more.

Man knows that there is such a thing as love, but he does not know what love is. He knows that there is such a thing as love from common speech, as when it is said, he loves me, a king loves his subjects, and subjects love their king, a husband loves his wife, a mother her children, and conversely; also, this or that one loves his country, his fellow citizens, his neighbor; and likewise of things abstracted from person, as when it is said, one loves this or that thing. Large print 15 point font.

The Lord, speaking in the presence of His disciples of the consummation of the age, which is the final period of the church, says, near the end of what He foretells about its successive states in respect to love and faith: Large print 13 point font.

This translation of the ancient Gnostic work, called by Schmidt, the Untitled Apocalypse, is based chiefly on Amelineau's French version of the superior MS. of the Codex Brucianus, now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.