Was Jesus Christ The Divine Son Of God? III
May 7, 2006
By: Sellers S. Crain, Jr.
Some of the supposed scholars on the National Geographic special on The Gospel of Judas showed a total lack of understanding about what the four authorized gospels are and of inspiration. One of them said that all four of these gospels were probably not written by the person whose names they bear, and she insinuated that they were written much later than the dates generally accepted by reputable Bible scholars.
One of these "scholars" made the assertion that the four gospels contained in our Bibles actually contradict the teaching of Christ. Upon hearing that statement, I realized how unknowledgeable this so-called scholar was. How can these four gospels contradict the teachings of Christ when it is from them that we get His teaching? Unless, of course, this "scholar" is giving more credibility to the Gnostic Gospels and other such works than he is to the four recognized and accepted gospels.
Several of these "scholars" put forward the idea that the character of Judas evolved in the four authorized gospel accounts. They say that in Mark, which they believe to be the first gospel written, Judas begins as a rather benign figure to an almost demonic one in John. They add that these four gospels become more anti-Semitic as they progressed from one to another. Imagine that! Books written by Jewish authors about a Jewish Messiah, and they are called Anti-Semitic. In making this claim these "scholars" theorize that Judas becomes a symbol of the Jews whom mostly Gentile Christians blamed for the death of Christ. One of these "scholars", completely ignoring what the scriptures say, added that this was wrong to do because Jesus died at the hands of the Romans on a Roman cross. If the Jewish leaders had not condemned Jesus to death and brought him to Pilate, then insisted that He be crucified (Matthew 27:1,2,12-26), He would not have been, were it not for the fact that this was according to God's "determined purpose and foreknowledge" (Acts 2:23).
The scholars on the National Geographic special seem to have no understanding of what the four authorized gospels really are. They appear to think they are only the works of mere men who each wrote from their own heads the story of Christ. In fact, we do not have four gospels, we actually have only four accounts of the same gospel. It takes all of them together to get the whole picture.
These "scholars" have no understanding of inspiration. Paul wrote that "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The Greek words of inspiration mean "God breathed" His message into the writers of scripture through the agency of the Holy Spirit. Peter wrote, "no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation, for our prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:20,21). While these men were allowed to use their own backgrounds, vocabularies, educations, and experiences, the words were God's. They did not write what they wanted to, but they wrote what the Holy Spirit directed them to.
Brotherly,
Sellers
