John the Baptizer and Jesus
“There was a man sent from God. His name was Yohanan. He came as a witness in testimony of the light so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify about the light. The light was the true light, which illuminates every person who comes into the world. He was in the world and through him the world was born, and the world did not know him. He went to his own and his own did not receive him. To all who received him he gave power to become the children of God, to those who believed in his name, who were born not from blood or from the will of the flesh or from the will of a man, but were born of God.
“Yohanan testified about him and cried out, saying, ‘He is the one of whom I said, “One who will come after me was before me,’”because before me he was. From his bounty we have all received grace upon grace, and as the law was given through Moshe, grace and truth have come through Yeshua the Galilean. No one has ever seen God. Only the one born of God, who is in the heart of his father, he has made him known.’
“And this is the testimony of Yohanan the Baptizer when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Yerushalayim to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ And he confessed and made no denial, but confessed, ‘I am not the Galilean.’ They asked him, ‘What then? Are you Elijah?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ ‘Are you the prophet?’ He answered, ‘No.’ ‘Who are you? Give us an answer for those who sent us here. What do you say about yourself?’ He said, ‘I am the voice of one crying in the desert. “Make straight the way of the lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.’” ~Gospel of Thomas
A Man from God
Thomas says Yohanan (John in English) was a man sent from God. This is certainly true, but in a way, we are all sent from God and by God and we all have an obligation to serve God and help in his Great Plan.
Thomas adds that John the Baptizer came as a witness, but he “ was not the light, but came to testify about the light.” That line tells us two things. John is saying that he is not the Messiah. It also tells us that the Messiah is a bearer of light. “What light?” you might ask. Not the light of a torch or a fire, but the Light of God. This is the Light that comes to us from God and through the intermediary of the Spiritual Sun. John the Baptizer was not the Light or the bearer of the Light, but the one who preceded that Light-bearer, Yeshua, who we call Jesus.
Through Him the World was Born
So John the Baptizer says that “Through Him, the world was born, yet the world did not know Him.” The world could not have been born through Jesus, it existed long before Jesus was born. But it could be born through Christ, the eternal spirit of creation, that was in Jesus. Jesus did not exist before the world, but Christ did. This means that although Jesus was Christ for a period of time, we cannot say that Jesus and Christ are one and the same. Jesus was Christ for one lifetime, but the spirit Christ is eternal. And it is through the spirit Christ that creation happened. Christ is the first begotten of God and the creative power of God. But only the realm of God, the realm of spirit, is created by Christ as the Hand of God. The physical world is the creation of the fallen angels, called the Demiurge in Gnostic literature. So when Thomas says “through Him the world was born,” he means the world of spirit, not the world of matter.
The World Did Not Know Him
This was not only true in the time of St. Thomas, it is still true. Most people today either think that the Man Jesus and the spirit Christ are the same thing. Others think that Jesus was just an ordinary prophet, or possibly, a complete fiction. Very few understand that Christ was an eternal spirit that dwelt for a limited time in the man called Jesus.
Grace and Truth
John the Baptizer says that “Grace and truth” come from Jesus (Yeshua). This doesn’t mean that he is saying that Jesus Himself is grace and truth, but that Jesus is one who has found grace and truth. It also doesn’t mean that Jesus was the only one capable of knowing the truth and having grace. The most important point John the Baptizer wished to make was that any of us can awaken the Christ Spirit within us and then know grace and Truth (Gnosis) just as Jesus did.
The Voice of One
When asked who he was, John the Baptizer said, ‘I am the voice of one crying in the desert. “Make straight the way of the lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.’ The idea of being a voice crying out in the desert might have a literal meaning, but its allegorical meaning is the important one, as with most tales in the Bible and other scripture. In this case, “the desert” means a place where people have lost their way, become materialist, and don’t follow the true spiritual teachings of Moses and other earlier prophets. So John has come to let them know that a new teacher, Jesus, is coming to awaken them and teach them the truth. Unfortunately for us, much of what Jesus taught in private to his true Apostles and Disciples has been lost as they were never written down. Only the simplified public teachings are generally known. The good news is that much of the true teaching can be found in some modern spiritual schools such as the school of Cosolargy. John the Baptizer would be pleased to know that.
