The Gospel of Judas

So, I've had 2 people at work already throw the "Gospel of Judas" in my face saying that my Bible is wrong. So I thought I'd write about Judas today.

The first thing that aggravates me about this "gospel" is that they have known about this for a while, even had time to do a National Geographic documentary on it, and yet they didn't put it into the headlines or news until a couple weeks before Easter. If it isn't a tv sitcom making a blatant mockery of Christ, the cross, or Christianity in general right before Easter, it's got to be something else. Mainstream media hates Christianity and has to do anything it can to try to "disprove" it and turn people away from it. Judas is just another example. And yet they don't try to mock Islam or Hinduism, or any other religion right before one of their holy days. And when Islam gets mocked by a cartoon, they talk about banning the cartoon from the papers. Christianity gets mocked by political cartoons and sitcoms several times a week, and there is no public outcry about banning these things. The only time Christians cry out about it is around Easter. And I'm getting off the subject now.

The "Gospel of Judas" is not a true gospel. It is a gnostic gospel written in the second century - probably around 150 or a little earlier. But people are trying to make it sound like it is the accurate writing even though it contradicts the Bible so much. Why should this be the "accurate" one, when the 4 canonical gospels all agree with each other? Because the world hates Christianity. Even in the early writings of Irenaeus (around 182-188), this "gospel" was known of and it was considered heretical gnostic fiction. I had already responded to one of the people at work about how this "gospel" is so different from Biblical Christianity that it shouldn't even be considered relevant to the Bible, when I checked out my favorite website http://www.aomin.org and found what James White had to say about this. I close with the following quote from James that would be a good response to anybody that tries to throw Judas in your face:

So should someone come up to you at work going, "Hey, Bob, I know you are a Christian, but how about that Gospel of Judas! Sure throws your Bible into a tailspin, doesn't it?" just smile and respond, "Hey, I heard about that. I've been wondering all morning how a work of fiction written more than a century after the fact by a writer seeking to promote a completely different religion than that of Christ and the Apostles that doesn't have a shred of historical foundation to stand on could possibly get so much major air time. You think they'd give the same amount of attention to something that reflected badly on Mohammed? Nah, probably not. So, did you hear anyone actually talking about the vast differences between the real gospels and this work of fiction this morning?"