john 3:16 is the basis for the expression "born again christian" or the term "saved" ie if i just say i accept Jesus as my personnal savior i am done with any other religous work and i can go directly heaven...but since this isnt seen as originating from "the historical Jesus" (meaning the actual human Jesus who walked among us) then there are some trouble with it..thomas is a gospel with no narrative so it is just a sayings gospel which has parrallels in mathew luke and mark note that matthew and luke borrow information from mark but interpert them differently but also have similar material not found in mark suggesting another source hence the creation of the Q gospel theory (q being short for quelle german for source) also there is secondary threads between thomas and mathew and luke suggesting a Q2 gospel .you have to remeber the literacy rate amony the ancient population of judea was less than 10% so it is unlikely that any of the lower classes would be literate (that means all of the apostles at least from the most likely historical perspective) some of you may think none of this is important but it is because Jesus clearly said some important things that have been passed down to us to this day but like that parlour game broken telephone some of it has been garbled on the way down to us . i think it is worth finding out what the original message was to the extent that we can find it out.Jesus was not put to death because he was kind to strangers and healed the sick on the sabbath he was killed for staging an eloborate protest against roman occupation at passover ..all of this is worth learning to get to the true message of Jesus ..it just isnt enough to say i am born again and have done with it..john freeman i just want you to read a couple of books and get responsible in your faith i recommend "jesus a revolutionary biography " by prof john dominic crossan (its excellent and will renew not diminish your faith in the Lord) and the Five gospels (by the jesus seminar) i am not trying to tell anyone how to think just encourage them to think further , sorry if that sounds pretentious its not my intention at all