I've wondered about this for awhile...... is there a particular theological movement (theory, whatever) that focuses almost exclusively on the Words of Jesus (y'know, the red ones)? My practice these days is to not accept anything from the Old Testament or post-gospel teachings (Paul, etc.) without looking up what Jesus said on the matter...

Thoughts?

I believe the the ENTIRE word of God is infallible. If there are parts of the Bible that I deem 'unacceptable', then I don't see how I can place ANY faith in the Bible at all.

Fortunately, I haven't found anything in the Bible that contradicts itself, and it wouldn't make sense for God to speak in one way in the OT and then contradict Himself through Christ in the NT.

Of course, others might view things differently.....

What are your thoughts on the gospel of Thomas?

Personally, I have concerns with things like: God told Joshua to kill his neighbours but Jesus tells us to love our neighbours. An over-simplification perhaps - but it's what confuses me about the Old Testament.

Just in the time since I made the first post I've come across (with Mr. Google's help) something called 'New Covenant Theology' a rather concise description is found here: http://www.ids.org/ids/wnct.html . Anyone ever come across this before?

EDIT: I just came across this list of articles about New Covenant Theology...

I'm not sure if we can just selectively pick the parts of the Bible we choose to believe and discard those bits we don't agree with. It leaves you with a faith that's not really really based on something absolute. This leads to a situation where if you feel uncomfortable about what the Bible is telling you, just ignore it! But then if you can ignore some parts of it, why not another, and another, etc.

I know some of the wars that the Israelites were in practically amounted to genocide, but when the Israelites did not totally eradicate their enemies and allowed them to co-exist and even intermarry with them, then they would start to lose their faith in God and worship idols. I see it as an analogy of the consequences of allowing sin to continue in my life. If I don't eradicate it totally, it waters down, weakens and eventually consumes my faith in Christ.

Look at this way. The OT is quoted through out the NT. Most of what Jesus taught on can be found in the OT. Grace is an OT concept. By the time Jesus came around animal sacrifice had been done away with. Jesus crucified and all that initials with the new covenant is what has change. Jesus' teaching of love the Lord God, and Love your Neighbor as yourself is actually an OT concept (Le 19:18). Their is so much we can learn from the OT. We can learn form the mistakes and success of people such as Moses, David, Saul, ect.... Don't narrow the bible down.

We ether believe the entire bible or none of it. Their should be no in between.

de_aceman is correct about the infallibility of the word of God.

As for the gospel of Thomas. It is really out their. Saying that Jesus spoke from his crib. When the church fathers were putting the bible together the had a criteria for what books should be in the cannon. One was that it had to be inspired by God. They felt that Thomas was not. We have to believe that God had his hand upon that process. I believe that it has stood the test of time for almost 2000 years because he did.

Teddy

But surely there are many direct parallels in the Gospels with what Thomas wrote. Did Thomas paraphrase them, or vice versa? One could argue that Thomas was selectively edited out because it made the other writers "uncomfortable" ...

I've never read the book of Thomas, so I don't really have an opinion on it. In fact, I've never heard of it until this post! I'll have to google it and find out a little more about it - just so I don't seem so ignorant the next time...

I'd have to agree with TF on this though. I believe that God has ensured the integrity of his Word and that it is the accurate and complete Word of God.