The Gospel of Judas--a new understanding of Jesus??

Every once in a while, we get brash headlines, declaring the finding of a "new" gospel, one that throws out our traditional understanding of Jesus as seen in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Not too long ago, it was the Gospel of Judas. Here's Chuck Colson's take on the uproar over this document. By the way, I highly recommend anything by Colson, one of the clearest, most challenging Christian writers today.

Just last weekend I was in an airport bookstore and saw the new book counter filled with numerous editions of The Da Vinci Code. Then I picked up the New York Times, and there I was greeted with the headline on the front page that read, “In Ancient Document, Judas, Minus the Betrayal.”
You probably have seen the hype, including a one-hour National Geographic TV spectacular: After seventeen hundred years, the story goes, the long-lost text of the so-called “Gospel of Judas” has re-surfaced. It claims that Jesus secretly told Judas to betray Him; so Judas is really a good disciple.

Well, it’s not a new discovery. This “new gospel” and the heresy it espouses—Gnosticism—were rejected as fiction by Christian leaders and the Church as early as 180 A.D.

Gnosticism was an attempt to add to Christianity an essentially Eastern worldview dressed up with Christian language. It was presented to the Roman world as the true Gospel—complete with endless mysteries that only those with secret knowledge could unravel. Many unsuspecting people were enthralled with Gnostic writings, particularly their sometimes gory and salacious initiation ceremonies. Christian pastors and theologians repeatedly rejected all forms of Gnosticism, until, by the middle of the third century, it had all but disappeared.

But now it is back with a vengeance, with supposed discoveries and works like Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. It provides the means for Christianity’s detractors to debunk the historical Jesus, and it certainly sells books. Seven million copies of The Da Vinci Code is testimony to that. Gnosticism has particular appeal today because of the postmodern age, which has rejected historical truth. So you can find God any way you wish, through your own group. This, of course, is the belief that is at the root of the spreading New Age movement.

The danger is that we have a biblically illiterate population. People today don’t know—maybe don’t care—whether there is a difference between the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of John. They are unfamiliar with the work of the ancient canonical councils of the Church (which rejected the Gnostic “gospels” time and again) or even of the basic creeds or confessions of the Christian Church. Sadly, people are as gullible today as ever.

Now it is tempting to get angry at National Geographic and the liberal press for unleashing this fraudulent “gospel” at the beginning of the holiest week of the year. But don’t. Instead, let’s use the media attention to debunk the debunkers, to point out to friends that this regurgitated Gnosticism—the Da Vinci Code and the “gospel” of Judas included—is nothing more than historically unsupportable fantasy.

Then we can point them to the knowledge that is accessible to all people that has been accessible to Christians for two thousand years and proven historically accurate. It’s called the Bible.

But whatever you do, get informed first. Come to our website (see further reading below) or call us here at “BreakPoint” (1-877-322-5527) and find some of the resources that we are offering. And get busy because millions can be suckered in—unless you and I set the record straight.

For Further Reading and Information

Please help support the Christian worldview ministries of BreakPoint and the Wilberforce Forum. Donate online today! Or call 1-877-322-5527.

Ted Olsen, “Weblog: Kisses for Judas,” Christianity Today, 11 April 2006.

John Noble Wilford and Laurie Goodstein, “In Ancient Document, Judas, Minus the Betrayal,” New York Times, 7 April 2006.

Larry Hurtado, “The Gospel of Judas,” Slate, 10 April 2006.

James Martin, “No Revelations in Gospel of Judas,” Boston Globe, 11 April 2006.

BreakPoint Commentary No. 020329, “An Unholy Hoax?: The Authenticity of Christ.” (Free registration required.)

BreakPoint Commentary No. 040527, “False Advertising: Da Vinci Doesn’t Even Get Heresy Right.” (Free registration required.)

BreakPoint Commentary No. 060308, “The Da Vinci Hoax: A Tour de Distortion.”

Visit the “Da Vinci Challenge” website.

Also see the “Da Vinci Deception” website.

Cal Thomas, “The Gospel of Unbelief,” Townhall.com, 11 April 2006.

John Leo, “A Dud of a Gospel,” U. S. News and World Report, 10 April 2006.

Ben Witherington III, The Gospel Code: Novel Claims about Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Da Vinci (InterVarsity, 2004).

Luke Timothy Johnson, The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters (Doubleday, 2003).