The Gospel of Deception

Being initially informed of the current "gospel of Judas" quagmire while at Liberty, I decided I should write a post regarding the issue. I did some research, and found it to be more beneficial to the reader to just post exactly what I found. Got Questions has the best explanation that I have thus far found. Here is the entire article about the false book.

"Sometime in the 1970's, in a cave in Egypt, a copy of the 'gospel of Judas' was discovered. The circumstances of the discovery have been described as shady, with those who possessed the copy asking for exorbitant amounts of money for the codex. For decades, no institution was willing to pay for the purchase due to its dubious origins. Eventually the codex of the gospel of Judas was purchased by a foundation in Switzerland. The existence of the gospel of Judas codex was made public in 2004, but the actual release of the content of the codex has been repeatedly delayed, with the now expected release date of April, 2006. The dating of the gospel of Judas codex is likely the 5th century A.D. Up to one-third of the codex is missing or illegible.

Prior to this discovery, the only reference to the gospel of Judas was in the writings of a 2nd century Christian named Irenaeus. Irenaeus essentially wrote that the gospel of Judas was the 'invented history' of a long line of heretics and rebels against God. The essential message of the gospel of Judas is that Jesus wanted Judas to betray Him because it was necessary to fulfill Jesus' plan. If it was Jesus' plan for Judas to betray Him, why would Jesus label Judas the 'son of perdition' (John 17:12), and state that it would have been better if Judas had never been born (Matthew 26:24). If Judas was simply following Jesus' instructions, why would he commit suicide once he saw that Jesus was condemned (Matthew 27:5)?

The gospel of Judas is a Gnostic gospel, espousing a Gnostic viewpoint of Christianity. The gospel of Judas is simply a heretical forgery, much the same as the gospel of Thomas, the gospel of Mary, and the gospel of Philip. Just as Judas Iscariot rejected Jesus and betrayed Him with a kiss, the gospel of Judas rejects the true Gospel and truth of God with a fraudulent appearance of validity."

Honestly, would God really allow His church to continue on for two thousand years with an incomplete instruction book? A respectable manufacturer would include the entire manual with his product -- at least everything that a consumer would need to operate that product. Certainly God is more than a "respectable manufacturer" when it comes to creating humans, so would it not follow that a truly loving God would not lead us astray by allowing a book of the Bible to be excluded from the cannon of scripture for so long? The gospel of Judas is a lie, and Christians need to keep a closed enough mind that our brains don't fall out in matters of such importance.

~Tribal~