About Jay
Dr. Jay N. Forrest
Jay Forrest is the host of the Gnostic Podcast. Jay began the Gnostic Podcast on January 17, 2010 as a weekly podcast for the purpose of proclaiming and explaining a modern Gnostic Christianity that is true to Scripture, true to experience, true to reason, and true to science. Jay’s teaching is based upon the Gnostic Christian Scriptures and ancient Gnostic Christian teaching, Gnostic Mystical experience, Modern Science, and Reason. The four great teachers of Gnostic Christian truth as revealed by Jesus Christ are Thomas, Paul, John, and Valentinus. Gnostic Christianity is centered in the gospel of Jesus Christ as proclaimed primarily by these four great Gnostics.
Jay became a “born-again Christian” in 1983 through Pat Robertson’s TV show the 700 Club. Later he was baptized in the Holy Spirit and felt the call to ministry. Jay earned his Associates Degree in Bible from Central Bible College, he earned his Bachelors Degree in Ministry from Berean University, he earned his Master’s Degree in Spiritual Direction form the Institute for Biblical Spiritual Direction, and he earned his Doctorate of Ministry from Trinity Institute of Christian Counseling. Jay has also received three honorary Doctorates, two in Divinity and one in Metaphysics. Jay has been an ordained minister for over 22 years and has served with several denominations including the International Pentecostal Holiness Church. In over 20 years of ministry Jay has pastored Churches in Wisconsin, Missouri, Tennessee, Arizona, and New Mexico. Jay has written hundreds of articles, poems, and several books.
Jay began his transition to Gnostic Christianity back in 2005 when he left the Protestant Church and began exploring the Old Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. It was through his study of church history and the Nag Hammadi Scriptures that he came to the conclusion that Christianity was originally Gnostic, and that the Catholic/Orthodox Church suppressed and persecuted the Gnostics to extinction. One of his major influences was Walter Bauer’s book Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity. Next was Elaine Pagels’ The Gnostic Gospels. And the third most influential book was Bart Ehrman’ book Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew.
The focus of Jay’s continuing research and study has been early Christianity and mysticism. He has also studied the mysticism of other religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Taoism. Since 2005, Jay has devoted himself to the study of Gnostic Christianity, finally openly calling himself a Gnostic Christian in 2009. Jay is an active evangelist for Gnostic ideas and values, trying to bring these into the social arena. Jay serves as the expert on Gnosticism for AllExperts.com, which is ran by About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.
Memberships
The Society of Biblical Literature
Theosophical Society of America
North American Patristic Society
Institute of Noetic Sciences
