Utah Free Press

Originally published – April 11th, 2006 by Rich Okelberry

The other night, I saw the National Geographic special, “The Gospel of Judas,” a program where NGS brought a group of scientists together to prove that the Bible being both incomplete and inaccurate has deceived millions of Christians around the world. Oh, and I don’t want to forget that the Weekly World News has declared on its pages that “IT’S TRUE – AUTOPSY PROVES IT! ADOLF HITLER WAS A WOMAN!” and “ALIENS TRAVEL TO EARTH FOR CHINESE TAKEOUT!” I truly believe that all good Christians should constantly strengthen their faith by question it.

 Unfortunately, the National Geographic Society has shown in this case that they are more interested in sensationalize something to ensure getting the broadest viewer ship than trying to put on a considerate, well rounded presentation. Christianity has been assaulted for several thousand years by many unbelievers and has yet to fall apart. In fact the message given to us by Christ is so powerful that it has swept around the world and is now accepted by peoples from every nation.

I believe that watching this program will have little effect on the faithful and will more likely strengthen the faith of many. Especially when you hold this new “gospel” to the very scrutiny that we all should hold the Bible too every time we open it. The “Gospel of Judas” is an accounting of the betrayal of Christ from the point of view of Judas Iscariot. It tells us that Judas didn’t betray Christ but was asked by Christ to turn him over to the authorities. It insists that Judas was the only one faithful enough to perform this task. Unfortunately, the National Geographic special fails in many ways.

It attempts to hold up this gospel as true simply because it is carbon dated to around 300AD. By bringing in a series of scientists to support the documents authenticity, they want the viewer to draw the conclusion that this gospel should be part of the Bible simply because of its age and origin. While it is true that the show does explain that there where many small off shoots or sects of Christianity in the years following the death and resurrection of Christ, it does a terrible job of explaining why this gospel was omitted from the New Testament. The main reason is purely logical. There is no verifiable link between the author and Judas himself. Unlike the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, whose depictions would have been easily verifiable at the time, the gospel of Judas could have never been authored by Judas himself.

The “lost” gospel its self tells us that Jesus pulled Judas aside from the last supper and spoke to him privately. From that point on, Judas proceed to act on his wishes and abruptly ends as Judas turns Christ over to the authorities. We know from the other Gospels that Judas then proceeds to kill himself. If you follow the logical course you will find that Judas not only had no time to convey what Jesus said to another so that it may be recorded but he also would not have had the motivation to do so. Imagine for a moment that your Lord and God takes you apart from the group to tell you something in confidence, how motivated are you going to be to spill the beans immediately afterward. The only argument that could be made is that this account was delivered as divine inspiration.

The concept that God directly inspired human authors in the creation of the Bible is at the very center of Christian belief. Unfortunately, if this were true of the Gnostic Gospel of Judas, it would have also made it into our current Bible because God would have willed it so. Now I’m not one to suppose God’s will, but it makes absolutely no sense that God would take the trouble to create this Gospel just simply to have it buried in Egypt for 1700 years then stored in a safety deposit box where a full 15% would fall to dust. It is only logical that God would not have allowed us to be deceived for so long without correcting the problem. I know that some will argue that he is correcting it now. Unfortunately, applying an obvious contradiction that destroys the credibility of the four other Gospels does not “correct” anything. By accepting this single, mostly improbable account of Judas as true, also means that we must throw out the four probable truths.

Remember, that Satan is a very crafty creature that seeks to destroy God’s church and message not just from the outside but from within as well. Fortunately, God has given us the tools to see his truth and has maintained it for us through a long lasting series of events. For those of you that want to gleam some unknown mystical truth from the Gnostic gospels, I invite you to try. There were originally over 30 such gospels that never stood the test of time. Each was so mired in the ideas and convictions of the various sects that wrote them, that it is impossible to gleam a consistent message from them. For those of you that would like to learn more about Gnostic beliefs I invite you to do so by reading from several of the links below.

Stained Glass of Judas' Suicide

Ultimately, what the producers at National Geographic fail to understand is the fact that Christians form their belief in the Bible by the gift of faith. This is a gift that until now they have rejected throughout their lives. This faith instills in us the belief that the Bible is the true Word of God, written by God and given to us as believers as a guide. This guide is so powerful that it has allowed us to fend off multiple attempts by man and Satan to distort God’s truth. National Geographic may have discovered the basic logical flaws in the argument if they would have taken a few moments to allow a few top Christian theological experts from some of the larger churches, rather than just throwing in a few one liners by a TV evangelist. Ultimately, to accept the “Gospel of Judas” as true, you must first accept the concept of divine inspiration. If you accept divine inspiration then you believe God also maintains his Word contained in the Bible. Something that God must have failed to do with the “Gospel of Judas.” If he failed there then his Word is not infallible and none of the Bible can be trusted; which is very probably the argument that the NGS is trying to make. These Gnostic Gospels do however provide Christians a look into our early history. They also serve as further anthropological evidence that Christ did and does exist. For that we should be grateful.