Save the Perishing Blog

Last September I witnessed at the Blue Springs Festival which is held every year.  A fall festival of food, carnival rides and lots of opportunities to speak with people about eternity.  While I was there I had a long conversation with a young man named Chris.  He worked at one of the booths.  He seemed open about talking about the things of God so we had a long conversation.

One thing he kept bringing up was the Gospel of Judas.  He wanted to know why it wasn’t included in the bible.  His opinion was it was not included because the church was trying to control the masses.  The church didn’t want certain books in the bible so they could manipulate their followers.

I responded, “Thats an interesting conclusion, and from what I have heard there is no evidence for it.  While it is true in history people have used manipulation to control others this didn’t happen with the books of the bible.  The Gospel of Judas was written well after Judas died which means it wasn’t written by Judas!  There are many books written that were not included because they weren’t written by God, or had first-hand experiences with Jesus or the Apostles, and this is one of them.  The Gospel of Mary is another one…it wasn’t written by Mary…it was in fact written 250 years later!”

“Early Christians passed around letters of the Apostles and they already knew these were Scripture.  The councils who collected the books were not DECIDING which books were authoritative, they already KNEW which ones were authoritative because they were using them.”

“The books that were thrown out contradict the writings of the Apostles and what Jesus said, so of course they were thrown out!  Including books that are contradictory to what they knew was true would be stupid.  The only conclusion is the people who wrote the excluded books are liars, plain and simple.”

“If you believe early Christians excluded these books to control the masses then you would have to show me this was their intention.  Were these early Christians writing letters to each other saying ‘Lets throw this gospel book out because we can’t control the people’?   We don’t see letters like this.  What you are saying is theoretical not factual.”

I continued, “Besides, what does this have to do with your sins?  When you face God in judgement are you going to give Him a history lesson?  You know there is a God because of Creation and you know you are guilty before this God because of your conscience.”

I asked him how many lies has he told in his life.  He said “So many I can’t count.”

I asked him how many times has he used God’s name in vain?  He said, “I have done that, but not all the time.”

I asked him how many times has he lusted?  He said, “ALot!”

We talked about how God is Holy and as a Holy God He cannot let sin go unpunished.  I asked him “What should God do with you?  Send you to heaven or hell?”  He said, “Heaven because God is forgiving, all I have to do is say I’m sorry.”

“Being sorry for your sins is a good thing but that alone won’t save you from God’s judgement.  God cannot set you free when you say your sorry for one simple reason… the fine for your sin must be paid FIRST and you must believe that.  Its like telling a human judge, “Judge I’m sorry for robbing that bank.”  Will the judge let you go because your sorry?  No, he won’t.  The penalty for doing wrong must be paid FIRST and you must believe it.”

Jesus loves you and He died on the cross to “pay your fine” by taking the punishment FOR YOU, then He rose from the grave.  If you believe you deserve hell, that no amount of good works you do will earn you heaven, and you believe Christ took the punishment you deserve, THEN you are forgiven, not because of what you do, but because of what Christ did FOR YOU and you believe it.  I would urge you to do that today, you don’t know how long you will live.”

Here is more information on the Gospel of Judas.