Sympathy for the Judas

By Lane Palmer, Christian Post Guest Columnist Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Say it ain’t so Judas. No really—please say it ain’t so. Say you weren’t really Jesus’ best friend, and instead of taking your life out of guilt, you met the resurrected Jesus in the desert and threw a 1st Century “Burning Man” New Age party where releasing our divine spark was the topic d’jour.

At least that’s the story that some ancient text scholars are sticking with anyway—thanks to the discovery of the new and improved “Gospel of Judas”! Actually—it wasn’t really discovered—it was purchased from an antiquities dealer…now that spells credibility for me—how about you?

Here’s the real telling part. This “discovery” has been around for more than a year, but the story got its 15 minutes of fame in a National Geographic special and various book releases. Question time kids…why would the Gospel of Judas fans wait until this month to trot out yet another “historical Christianity is just a big conspiracy” theory? Hmmmm … maybe because in just a few weeks the biggest “historical Christianity is just a big conspiracy” theory movie is hitting the big screen??? (Insert Church Lady voice) Well…isn’t that CONVENIENT!

Personally, I feel very betrayed by the Gospel of Judas. If Christians don’t do their homework on this one, we’ll be intellectually trapped and turned over to the ruling intellectual class like Jesus to the Roman soldiers. Make no mistake—there is a powerful agenda behind this one—one that would love to shake and bake the faith of Christians and embolden the claims of liberal theologians who love to parrot the Gnostic claims of the first century.

What claims? See if any of these sound familiar:

God didn’t really create the world.
Jesus was just an enlightened man.
The key to redemption lies within yourself, not in the Person and work of Jesus.

Why is it that people are so ready to believe yet another conspiracy theory built on half-truths and full-on lies and yet doubt the truth when its right in their face?

“Oh yeah—I bet that Gospel of Judas is true, because no way could someone 200 years after Jesus’ resurrection make up a story and stick Judas’ name on it!”

“Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? I’m not sure those are accurate. I mean, just because they were eyewitnesses or spoke to eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life and we have thousands of manuscripts that date back to within a generation of the originals doesn’t mean they’re true!”

The truth is that the Gospel of Judas isn’t true, which is why it was rejected as a serious contender for making the canon of Scripture. It was refused then and we should refuse to be threatened by it now. In fact, rather than feeling defenseless as a result of this “discovery”, the better tactic might be to use this topic as a springboard to the claims of the real gospels. You know, how Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, died a horrible death for our sins, then came back from the dead after three days proving His claims. I guess that story isn’t as charismatic or captivating as a kooky conspiracy theory, but I’ll stick with those “boring” but historically reliable gospels any day.
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Lane Palmer is the Youth Ministries Specialist for Dare 2 Share Ministries in Arvada, Colo., where he works with youth leaders and students, equipping them to be effective in sharing the gospel. For more information on Dare 2 Share Ministries, please visit www.dare2share.org. Find out how Dare 2 Share Ministries and Focus on the Family® are working together to capture the hearts of this generation of teenagers, visit www.capturetheirhearts.com. Send feedback to lane@dare2share.org.
Besides, would you really trust any document with the name Judas on it? Say it isn’t so!