Go to School, Scientists
All right... I guess I'll chime in on this whole "gospel of Judas thing". Obviously someone didn't want me writing it because the session timed out on my blog entry script, and I lost everything. I'll rewrite it anyway! Trusty notepad and cut & paste for sake of sanity :)
I won't bore people too much, and I don't address this story simply because I'm trendy and only write what others have already written. Such is not the case. In fact, I haven't read up much on the details. So this is pretty much a gut personal reaction to the ridiculous distortion of truth - with a little bit of basic logic mixed in.
First of all, this Judas thing is nothing new. For several years (say, 2000), Satan has been trying to prove that Jesus was just a man, a teacher. Satan would say that certainly Jesus was no "God", "Son of God", "Divine One", "Prophet" or the like. Well, let me tell you, Lucipher-dope: You aint got nothing on Jesus. Before you were, Jesus IS. Jesus is in His very nature, God - and worthy of all worship and praise. Not to mention that He defeated the grave, and Satan is absolutely powerless.
I've always held a deep fascination of the infinite. God, as I understand and believe, is the only real source of infinity. He has always been and always will be. Perhaps He can create something that is also infinite (infinitely big, infinitely small), but in comparison to He, they are all the same size. Such is the mystery of the infinite, and perhaps where creation ends and God starts. All that God has created can be described, while no description can hold Him. Words are a container He does not fit inside, and thoughts as well. Even higher levels of creation, such as angels are specks to Him. In fact, as angels hold far more lasting power than humans, God has the same superiority over the highest of them. Let's say God created a hierarchy of one trillion powerful beings, each level being one million times more powerful than the previous level's leader, the strongest member of the highest power would still be a speck to Him - for He is infinite. Infinity cannot be defined as a number with a large number of zeroes at the end. Nor can God's power or love or grace or truth or justice be defined by words or measurements. Let's draw a bar graph on a monitor screen where the vertical axis represents a combination of power, holiness, goodness, and whatever other attributes we want to include that are good and of God... The two members for analysis in figure 1 are a typical angel and a natural born man. Let's ignore the fact that some angels are fallen and that man is completely born of sin nature and utterly bad from birth. Let's assume angels have eighty times the everlasting power/influence and good attributes of an average man. So here's our graph:
Okay, that's all well and good. So angels are on a higher level than man - perhaps. Just speculating and throwing out random numbers, but probably true. It seems God created angels higher than men... though we have the potential of becoming Sons of God! Craziness that He would stoop so seemingly low and love us... but that another issue! Let's see another graph that compares God, men and angels together. I'm not absolutely certain, but I believe this graph is pretty theologically and mathematically accurate. The first one was just speculation, of course.
In this case, the top of the scale is infinity, and the bottom is zero. God obviously has all his perfect, holiness and other "attributes" to the full, because He is God. He is equal to Himself. He is One (yet infinitely so). Therefore He fills the charts. However, man and angel are alike - nothing. Because the graph must represent an infinite "value", there can be no lines on the side representing some sort of breakup or measurement. Not only that, but any values that can be measured cannot even appear on the graph. Literally men and angels are the same on the graph because even a pixel of height on their graphs would mean God is not infinite. Something or someone is either infinite or it isn't. The childish saying, "infinity times infinity" bears no meaning, nor does it impose an increase. According to this model, the numbers 80 and 1 have the exact same value from God's eyes. They are less than He, and equally so. Perhaps that is why His ways and thoughts are so higher than ours. We must measure and size things up. Perhaps He has no need to do so (2 Peter 3:8,9).
It is quite possible that these recent attempts to discredit Jesus Christ are a concentration of what has been taking place since He rose from the grave (and yes, He did - don't try to explain the infinite God with finite science). This concentration includes junk like "Jesus married Mary Magdalene and has descendants", "Jesus told Judas to betray Him so that He could complete His checklist of fulfilling prophecies and deceive the world into believing in Him", and "Jesus walked on ice, not water". Such jewels these are. Let's shatter them with a dose of easy, 1st grade logic.
Judas' Word is Junk: I'm sorry, but all that needs to be said is this: "The word of Judas cannot be trusted". Judas was possessed by Satan, so even if he wrote something that hints that Jesus told Judas to betray Him with a kiss, it's just something Judas wrote. Perhaps he wrote it in guilt, or perhaps he wrote it under Satan's influence - planning for such a future deception as we see now. Either way, by God's divine providence, the gospel of Judas didn't make it into the canon of scripture, and it is ridiculous to consider anything written in it as authoritative. Satan is the father of lies, and Judas literally kept him company, or vice versa. No need for further logical or physical evidence. That's all that is really needed. Simple. Sweet. Jesus is Lord!
Jesus is a Kung Fu Master: Jesus walked on water as an amazing miraculous feat ("feet" - no pun intended - okay, so it was!). Just as Jet Li is able to bounce on water by piercing it with a sword in Hero, Jesus can do amazing things. Besides, um, duh... why would it be cold enough for ice there, and why would those pieces float so fast and nicely, directly to the boat where the disciples were... did Jesus have an oar? How could He navigate on ice without using miraculous power anyway? Clearly there was no sheet of ice vastly covering the lake because the disciples were in a boat, crossing the lake without obstruction. Clearly no significant ice could exist because the waves were tossing and turning, and the wind was blowing. It probably wasn't even cold there because this event follows the feeding of the 5000. Imagine, 5000 plus people sitting on snowy buffs instead of in their warm homes (not even the 12 would be that dedicated!). Yeah, right. Next, Peter would have also needed a magical icey shadow under him (like the boat that you can't jump off of in Super Ghouls and Ghosts just before the squid boss) because Jesus called to Peter, and he too walked on the water until his faith and eyes failed him. I guess he must have slipped on the slippery ice. Good thing Jesus was wearing his gold shoes! He is a masterful surfer with amazing self-propelling properties to boot! He must have actually been wind-ice-surfing because the Bible mentions wind in the passage. Good grief! Read the passage, scientists! If you want to discredit Jesus, just claim He didn't even enter the water, that He never existed to begin with, etc. Don't try to explain to me "from the text" that He found a frozen skiff. You may as well "read into it" and say He walked on a rare reef of super-buoyant, bloated tropical bananas. That is just as likely.
Honestly, I believe these stupid stories are a disgrace to science. God created science. Honestly, there should be another step added to the scientific method. If any hypothesis or theory seems to say God doesn't exist (Psalm 14) or isn't as great, magical, powerful and awesome as He says He is, trash that theory or idea. It's just a waste of time.
Now, these little news tidbits are most likely marketing schemes. Since the original, DaVinci Code did so well, people might be trying to cash in, selling their souls, so to speak. On the other hand, sadly, Satan might use these grand deceptions to build an environment ripe for his arrival as the anti-Christ. If he is able to make mankind doubt (even the elect, if that were possible) Jesus' divinity, purity or word, he can step in and claim the role of Messiah quite easily - and all will forget the significance of Jesus' death and resurrection. In fact, he might even claim Jesus was a false Messiah, even the anti-Christ! Then he could further claim to be ushering in and fulfilling the prophecies of the old testament. Sick, but I can totally see that happening. But it will be short-lived. That, we know. Don't fall for his stupid schemes, people. Use your minds. I know, I'm a fool too and often fall for his tricks. But this one is just dumb! It sounds like a joke, but if 10,000,000 copies of The DaVinci Code sell in a short amount of time, this grand deception might be easier than one might think. On that issue, I have no idea if Jesus had any marital relationship while on earth. I tend to think not, since it was never mentioned, and He was so transient and "other-wordly", but it wouldn't break my faith to find out He had been with a woman. All I can say about that is Jesus is without sin, so whatever He did on earth couldn't have broken His relationship and union with God the Father. It seems to me that it is more likely He considered the short time He had on earth and kept "on task" and away from time-consuming distractions. And if He married, why (and how) would He keep it such a "dark" secret for thousands of years? It would have leaked early on and spilled down throuh the centuries as a known occurrence.
There's my bit on the subject. Save the details for apologists. I prefer to live and face my own struggles. Closeness to God is struggle enough. Jesus is God. He is my only hope. And it is all by faith, not scientific evidence. I believe.