Reply #1: Hi leftyladyfrommo! Good discussion....and I have a lengthy response! [View All]

[WiseButAngrySara]

I've read both the Gospels that you mentioned, (Thomas and Phillip), but I'll have to refresh my memories on them both, and I know nothing about the new Gospel of Judas, other than what was printed or reported in the news. If the Judas interpretation of Christ's life is correct, then Jesus becomes like a Socrates who willingly drank the hemlock, because he believed that it was his political duty to do so. (Have you read Plato's The Apology of Socrates? It is very moving, and is supposedly the closest to Socrates' true beliefs than any other Platonic Dialogue.) That is, Jesus committed suicide, and according to Judas, did so willingly in order to return to God faster.

This is so against the mainstream teachings that "Jesus died on the Cross for our sins" that I'm sure it would not only be discarded and disregarded as 'truth,' it would also be vigorously opposed. I have a few 'fundie' friends (who are now anti-B*, BTW) who absolutely believe that "Jesus died on the Cross for our sins!" When I point out the obvious, that, 'No, he died because of our sins; we killled him and he didn't want to die,' I am viewed as a blasphemer. Also, given all religious teachings' opposition to suicide, I don't see how they could ever accept this Judas version as "gospel."

IMHO, I don't believe that Jesus had any part in the planning of his own death, but maybe Judas thought that he desired death. Who knows? The problem with all religions is that the Truth has to be represented as myth, in part, and then the Truth becomes the 'truth' as represented by symbols and myth. The vast majority of mankind believes these myths and symbols as truth, with their more educated portion seeing the fallacies of the myth, with the resultant denial of the existence of God. The enlightened ones throughout history are those who know both myth and Truth, and if they so choose, they start new religions, not by intent, but because the only manner in which they can express the inexpressible is by language, which merely points to, and is a shadow of, the Truth. For this reason, I have studied the 'mystics' and 'enlightened' philosophers of all religions, because they are the only ones who speak the same language at the core, in spite of the myths.

Many wars have been fought in the name of religion, because people have so strongly believed in myth as 'truth.' If they could just get back to their own definitions of God, they would see that an Infinite, Eternal Being is the same for Everyone, Everywhere, and in all time periods, because that which is Eternal has always been. I think that the vast majority of teachers of religion (ministers, pastors, priests, and even popes) are ignorant with respect to the Truth, so the myths are just perpetuated and not corrected. I think it is in the Gospel of Thomas where reincarnation is alluded to. This is a feature of all major religions except Christianity and Judaism, and I am very curious as to why this was frowned upon and rejected in the early days of Christianity. Look at the hubbub over the fictional book The Da Vinci Code recently! People are so afraid that if one iota of their 'truth', myth is questioned, their entire deck of cards come tumbling down, and their tapestries completely unwoven!