Secret Bible Messages and Timothy James Lambert
I feel as though I should respond publicly to a recent article by Timothy James Lambert. In it he complains or laments that he is looking for a debating partner, an opponent who “tries to poke holes in my theory as I struggle to keep any holes patched up and buffed out”. He says that he has poked me, but that I have “no interest in matching wits”. I would therefore like to clarify and comment.
Lambert and I have exchanged some responses to articles in the past. Perhaps he has directly invited me to engage in a wider discussion, but I don’t remember this.
His main preoccupation is decoding the gospels and Christianity in general, and finding secret meanings there. His failure to date to find such a debating partner has led him to write this latest article ‘Why No One Cares about Secret Bible Messages’. Actually I do care, so I’ll make my position clear here.
I am happy to believe that such messages are in the gospels, and can be decoded. Jesus does say that he teaches in parables so that he will not be understood, but that he teaches his apostles privately about the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is quite possible therefore that the gospel writers, since we don’t know who they are, are secretly hiding such messages in their texts. Like Lambert, I am also deeply interested in the Nag Hammadi texts, the so-called Gnostic Gospels, especially the Gospel of Thomas.
My reason for not engaging more thoroughly with him on this theme is that I do not feel especially qualified to enter the debate. He is more knowledgeable, has done much more research than I have, and his ideas are always interesting. But at the end of the day, despite what I have just said, what he says remains speculation; there is no way of checking or confirming its truth. I do, however, highly recommend his writings, since uncovering the true meaning of Christianity is an important task for us all.
Lambert can find a clue for my lack of response in his own subtitle ‘Christians, Atheists, and Mystics have their own battles to fight’. I am indeed preoccupied with my own ‘battles’ (otherwise known as debates) on Medium — for example with Sender Spike, David Knott, Gerald R. Baron — and indeed my own interpretations of Christianity. I really don’t have enough time for debates where I have nothing significant to add. I wish him luck in his search for a worthy debating partner, however, and look forward to reading such an exchange of ideas.
