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Real Answers™
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Copyright: © ©2006 William E. Cripe, Sr.
650 words

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS

By: William E. Cripe, Sr.

Professor of the History of Religion, Elaine Pagels, of Princeton, writing for the New York Times, says this of the Gospel of Judas: “Many regarded these secret gospels not as radical alternatives to the New Testament Gospels, but as advanced-level teaching for those who had already received Jesus' basic message.”

Pagels cannot be referring to the authorities of the early church and their assessment of what are called the Gnostic Gospels, since Gnosticism was deemed a heresy--meaning false teaching--very early in church history. It posited the notion that true knowledge of God came only as a result of a personal, spiritual experience whereby God communicated secret information (Gnosis) to the individual.

This was rejected outright from the earliest days of the church due to the obvious problem that such “revelation” was utterly unverifiable. How do you affirm or refute something about which someone says, “This is what God told me?”

It was the express role of the church fathers to purge the early church of such distortions of the faith “once for all delivered to the Saints,” as the New Testament says. So the Gnostic gospels, based on someone’s own private experience, were rejected out of hand. But historical objectivity never dissuades scholars with an anti-Christian bias.

After ascribing weight and credibility to this “gospel” which varies greatly from many critical points in the traditional Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Pagels concludes, “What is clear is that the Gospel of Judas has joined the other spectacular discoveries that are exploding the myth of a monolithic Christianity and showing how diverse and fascinating the early Christian movement really was.”

Pagels is being intellectually dishonest. The Christian faith was never without “Christian” critics, nor was it monolithic, enjoying universal agreement on even the basic tenets of the faith. That is what the church father’s were constantly battling for, which is why Jude wrote, “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 1:3)

The challenges were incessant. The Apostle Paul, writing to both the Corinthian and Galatian churches warned them against such bogus counterfeits writing, “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you, and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”(Galatians 1:6-7)

Isn’t it peculiar that today’s budding scholars extend veracity and authority to a long discredited writing yet reflexively relegate centuries of traditional, verifiable and well documented gospels--gospels that contained eyewitness accounts, corroborative reports, etc.--to the dismissible heap of religious myth. That the Biblical documents, with a two thousand year history of scrutiny, analysis, and debate, would be jettisoned for late date gibberish of some unknown heretic contending he had some mystical experience with God is historically and academically disingenuous.

The Biblical Gospels are time worn, reliable, and true; on that you can bet your life.

"Real Answers™" furnished courtesy of The Amy Foundation Internet Syndicate. To contact the author or The Amy Foundation, write or E-mail to: P. O. Box 16091, Lansing, MI 48901-6091; amyfoundtn@aol.com

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