Gospel of Judas?
Recently the media has been publically hyping the publication
of the "Gospel of Judas," as well as promoting the new movie "DaVinci
Code". The DaVinci Code and the Gospel of Judas are both based on
the ancient gnostic religious cult which idolized not only Judas but
Cain, who murdered his brother Abel. In fact, many of the early
gnostics called themselves "Cainites" after Cain. According to
the Cainites, the God of the Hebrews is not the same God as that of
Jesus. They believed that the God of the Hebrews is a wicked God
and that Cain's disobedience was a act of rebellion against an injust
God.
Gnostic heresy has existed from the earliest days and has
been the basis for some of the most bizarre cults known to man,
including Luciferic cults which make God and Satan brothers. The
"Gospel of Judas" makes Judas the most faithful of Jesus'
disciples. What is interesting is how the media has tried to spin
the book. According to the Dallas Morning News "some religious
views became the accepted norm while others were declared
heresy." This is obviously a trivializing and misleading
statement designed to imply that the Bible handed down to us was merely
the product of politics, public opinion, and luck. In fact, the
science of textual criticism has demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt
that the gospels found in the Bible are the product of the actual
disciples and eye witnesses, whereas the "Gospel of Judas" is a
deliberate fraud which did not exist until a hundred years after Judas
had died!
As the allegation that gnosticism simply became declared a
heresy by some early bishops, any educated Bible scholar should be
acutely aware of the fact that the first condemnation of gnosticism
occurs in the book of Colossians by the apostle Paul himself. In
1:19-20 Paul declares, "For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all
the fulness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to
Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him,
I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven." This
statement is a direct challenge to the mystical views of the gnostics
who believed that no man can be "full" of God so long as he dwells in
the flesh. They spoke of hidden mysteries which only their sect
could reveal (a forerunner of many later mystery cults) to which Paul
declared that ALL mysteries have been revealed through Christ and
revealed to us in Him and no one else. Furthermore, in direct
contrast to the gnostic belief that all flesh is evil, including Jesus'
physical body (they denied that Jesus' death on the cross provided
redemption for man), Paul declared, "He has now reconciled you in His
fleshly body through death" (Colossians 1:22). Note the emphasis
on "fleshy." Gnostic heresy has no roots in the disciples or in
the followers of Jesus but was an attempt to merge Christianity with
the eastern mystery and magic cults of ancient Persia and
Babylon. Some even speculate that Simon the Magician of the book
of Acts may have been an early advocate, but he was condemned by the
apostle Peter!
The fact is that the gnostic rhetoric being pushed so hard by
the media today is little more than an occult sect which uses the name
of Jesus but rejects everything that the disciples taught.
However, one would never know this by reading the DaVinci Code.
The DaVinci Code mixes history with pure fiction and leaves the reader
with many false impressions. For example, the reader is led to
believe that the Bibles we have today come from the Roman emperor
Constantine the Great. It implies that Constantine altered the
Bibles to create his own Catholic Church. Although this sort of
rhetoric has been long promoted by cutls such as the Jehovah's
Witnesses, true Bible scholars know that there are nearly a hundred
Bible fragments which predate Constantine, many by more than a hundred
years. There is no complete copy older than Constantine's day,
but there does not need to be since we could compile a complete copy
from the existing fragments. The truth is that the early
Christians were careful to make sure that the Bible was not tampered
with and the early Church father Origen even compiled an early form of
"textual criticism" which compared all the copies which existed in his
day (and he had access to far more than we do today). His work
helps to substantiate that the copies handed down to us today are
faithful to the originals, as does the discovery of many ancient texts
including at least one text which some scholars (admittedly not many)
believe could date the time of the original manuscipt itself!
As the gospel is increasingly coming under attack the media
will increasingly use absrub conspiracy theories like those promoted in
the DaVinci Code to imply that we do not know what the disciples of
Christ really believed, but one only has to look to the frivolous
lawsuit filed against Dan Brown (the author of the DaVinci Code) to see
that his sources were themselves fraudulent. I refer to the
author of the "history" book "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" who filed a
suit against Dan Brown claiming plagerism. What is absurd is that
he claims his book is a history book, but if it is a history book then
its author cannot claim a copyright on history! I am a published
historian. Could I sue someone who made a movie out of
Charlemagne? Of course not! The only way that the author
could accuse Dan Brown of plagerism is if the book is a work of
fiction! In other words, the author is inadvertantly admitting
that "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" is more fiction than history!
Gnosticism is not only a cult, it is a dangerous cult that
has formed the basis for some of the bizarre cults in history.
Its resurgence today is disturbing, as is its dishonest promotion of
the liberal media. If you want to know what Jesus taught and
believed, then there is only one way to know. It is not through
mystery cults, or conspiracy theories, but through the writings of
those who lived and worked with Jesus and who stood by him for
years. Those who were taught by Jesus would be qualified to know
what he believed, and no one else. The writings of these apostles
exist in their original form. No evidence exist to show
deliberate tampering with the texts and much evidence exist to show
that we have faithful copies of the original manuscipts (see by
articles on textual criticism for more). It is to the Bible that
we must look; not the writings of conspiracy theorists who believe that
they know more about what happened two thousand years ago than those
who were there and eyewitnessed the events recorded in the Scriptures.
Copyright = David Criswell = 2006 = All rights reserved
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