Posted on 05/04/2006 10:20:30 AM PDT by churchillbuff
the idea of a sacred Judas always seemed rational to me, at least in Christian terms. The New Testament tells us firmly that Jesus went to Jerusalem at Passover to die and to fulfill certain ancient prophecies by doing so. How could any agent of this process, witting or unwitting, be acting other than according to the divine will? ...[snip]
Now we have, recovered from the desert of Egypt, a 26-page "Gospel of Judas," . ...[snip]
The Judas gospel puts legend's most notorious traitor in a new lightas the man who enjoyed his master's most intimate confidence, and who was given the crucial task of helping him shed his fleshly mortality. And you can see why the early Christian fathers were leery of such texts. This book has the same cast but a very arcane interpretation. Right before Passover, as the disciples are praying, Jesus sneers at their innocence. Only Judas has guessed the master arightand has discerned that he comes from the heavenly realm of the god "Barbelo." In the realm of Barbelo, it seems, earthly pains are unknown and the fortunate inhabitants are free from the attentions of the God of the Old Testament. The Judas gospel would make one huge difference if it was accepted. It would dispel the centuries of anti-Semitic paranoia that were among the chief accompaniments of the Easter celebration until approximately 30 years after 1945, when the Vatican finally acquitted the Jews of the charge of Christ-killing. ...[snip]let us all therefore give thanks for our deliverance from religion, and raise high the wafer that summons us to the wonders and bliss of the faraway realm of Barbelo and brings us the joyous and long-awaited news that Judas saves.*
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Also, the idea that containment can't keep a dictator in check is belied by Reagan's policy toward the Soviets. He defeated them by containing them, not by invading them.
Moses is just overseeing that the terms of Abraham's contract continue to be met. ;)
Judas as saint makes sense if that's the worldview you wish to justify. If you choose to adhere to the most authentic and reliable documents, though, Judas is no saint. Funny how there is a continual effort to justify and rationalize the actions of Judas as being a good thing. It was certainly part of the plan, but that doesn't make Judas any more forgiveable. We could claim any crime was ultimately part of some plan to justify that crime.
Hitchens' mastery of the written word, coupled with his stentorial, though often slurred, oratory gives the lie to the cliche, "God-given talent."
One of the basic tenets of Christianity is that Jesus had to go to the cross to atone for our sins. Doesn't that make all of us Christ-killers?
Died he for me? Who caused his pain!
For me? Who him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Charles Wesley, 1739
What do you mean 'bring back'? It's been here all along.
Because windmills are scarce in this sotted age.
Yes, Catholicism is Christian, but Christianity is bigger than just Catholicism, and Hitchens seems to hate both the larger body of Christianity as a whole, and the Catholic Church within that body.
He defeated them by putting Pershings in Europe and launching the SDI program. The Reagan Doctrine was a direct rejection of containment and the Brezhnev Doctrine.
That's exactly what it sounds like.
If you think the moon and star banner was Islamic, You'd be wrong. Muhammad adopted many local pagan rituals and symbols into his new cult. The moon God was worshipped long before Muhammad showed up. In fact that's where the name "allah" comes from. It's a contraction of "al-ilah `ta ala" which means "The god most high". Contrary to journalistic error, "allah" is not a word for God. it''s the NAME of the Islamic ilah(god) As you can see, and is repeated over 54 times in the Kran, "ilah" is the arabic word for god.
Yes, a military buildup. No invasion, however. They lost without us firing a shot. (Unless you count Grenada, which was basically a weekend-long rescue operation)
Only for people you disagree with. There are way too many people of all political and philosophical pursuasions that write what they don't know about, but how do you know they don't know about it if you don't know about it either? And how do you know you know about something; maybe you just *think* you know. It all comes down to whether you agree with it or not.
Oh, puh-leeze. The Gnostic doctrine that the Old Testament "Jehovah" was, at best, a "sorceror's apprentice" demi-god or, at worst, a demon, is as anti-Semetic as the worst elements of orthodox Christendom.
Hitchens does have amazing talent as a writer. Eloquence such as Milton gives Satan, in Paradise Lost.
However, Dan Rather and Mary Mapes still vouch for its authenticity.
BTW, Hitchens' brother, Peter, is a conservative Christian (Anglican or Roman Catholic, I can't remember which)
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