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Edited on Sat Feb-25-06 04:36 PM by Piscis Austrinus
Judas was, to my understanding, one of the most radical of the original twelve disciples. It appears to have been his idea that Jesus would be an earthly king, who would shake off the Romans from Judea and Israel and set up a new Jewish kingdom.
Judas also, to my understanding, was more or less the purser for the twelve.
These two roles, if correct, yield insight into the differences that Judas had with Jesus; certainly Judas, as a radical Hebrew, would have thought it wrong to pay tribute to Rome (as opposed to "give unto Caesar what it Caesar's, and give unto God what is God's") and would not have understood - or at least have seen much earthly use for - the idea of Jesus as an eternal king.
Now, according to prophecy, Jesus was to be betrayed, and such a betrayal would have been an inside job. Note also that the actual betrayal wasn't exactly to the Romans, but to the governing council under the Romans at the time, the Sanhedrin. Judas betrayed Jesus to the Sanhedrin, from my view, in the interest of forcing Jesus' hand and making him summon divine power in order to overwhelm the government of Rome and its vassal Sanhedrin.
It is relatively well accepted now that this was never Jesus' intent, as the Kingdom was to be founded in the hearts of men and built on their positive and loving actions toward one another. Under the doctrine of original sin, man was and is sinful in nature. Under the Law, sacrifices were regularly made for the atonement of sin, but could not permanently free man from his burden; the sacrifice required was divine, through the Son of God (referred to as the Lamb of God, signifying the animal sacrificed for the atonement of sin).
In effect, Judas did actually set in motion the events that resulted in the establishment of the Christian faith, through the redemptive sacrifice of Christ. However, Judas did this not for others, but for himself, and for his own ideas of what the Kingdom of God would be. In effect, he tried to force God to conform His plans to Judas' actions. That was the great sin of Judas - in putting his own interests before that of God, he broke the first and most important of the Commandments.
I am relating this because I see a tremendous parallel between the actions of Judas and the aims of certain movements today which seek to establish, or prepare, an earthly kingdom of Christ based on the promise of His return. If you are not familiar with these, I suggest you research the Christian Reconstructionist and the Dominionist movements. Both of these are centered on the idea of establishing a theocentric system of society, if not an actual theocratic government.
These are dangerous movements, make no mistake about it. In view of the story of the betrayal, I have to view their ultimate aims as virtually equivalent to that of Judas. In particular I suggest researching the sermons of Mike Bickle, leader of the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. While I do not question the sincerity of Mr. Bickle's heart (and in fact, I have met several IHOP associates in years past and am reasonably certain that they are - to their own hearts - both well-intentioned and actually more welcoming than one might expect), I do question his interpretations of Scripture, and in particular, I question the logical fallacy that what the saints will be doing in the eternal kingdom is what they should be doing now. There is a vast difference, Biblically speaking, between the pre- and post-apocalyptic worlds, and while we reside in the former, Christians are to act as they have been instructed to act until that time. In a nutshell, these Christians are doing their laundry before they've worn their clothes - clean, yes, but exceedingly foolish, and probably a waste of time - plus they still have to wash the clothes they've got on now.
This is the heart of the matter for the evangelicals, and for all who seek to prepare a kingdom of God on earth. The lesson of Judas is a very, very powerful one for those who would seek to create or enforce a kingdom in God's name. Clearly, a small but vocal group of Christians in this country and abroad support the idea of war in the Middle East, because - according to Scripture, again - the destruction of the nation of Israel is one of the key events leading to the establishment of the New Jerusalem. I do not doubt that, whether through outside lobbying or internal design of policy, some of the actions taken in the Middle East by our current government are either aimed at that end, or intended to carry the appearance of that aim for the benefit of the perceptions of these evangelicals. I doubt very much that this administration would have the support of conservative evangelicals, were the latter to comprehend that their participation in the actions of the administration might disqualify themselves from the very kingdom they seek to establish. It is comparable to trying to stack the deck before a card game. Most people who try to do this wind up being excluded from the game (often suffering serious abuse in the process), and even if they get away with it, what then is the point of bothering to play the game?
It should be noted here that, in that light, the part of the Creation myth that deals with the fall of Adam carries a kind of parallel to the story of Judas, with Satan as the unintentional catalyst.
I would therefore warn anyone in this movement of what is my belief: that to attempt to set in motion the events that might lead to biblical apocalypse is to repeat the sin of Judas. From what I've seen, only a minority of believers would suspect that Judas shared - or will share - in the kingdom of God (though, from reading here, there are definitely some who do, and I can't say they're wrong without falling into this same trap myself). This is thought to be the case for any of a number of reasons besides those stated above.
The attempt to set God's Kingdom in place is thus not merely a dangerous thing in many ways earthly; in the larger arena, such an action might well place such persons in opposition to God Himself (as they did Judas). In my gut, I believe that this is the eventual fate awaiting a number of people who have been at the forefront of this type of policy, whether by design or through the intent of deceiving supporters (which is pretty clearly warned about in Scripture). I do not myself wish this fate to befall anyone, because the implications are so horrifying that as a human being on this earth, I could not bear by my own actions or approval to condemn any person to such a fate, even those guilty of the most heinous crimes. Eternity is a long, long, long time to suffer even a little, let alone to suffer as much as is possible for every long, slow second.
I understand that many if not most folks here don't agree with this, and that's ok. This is just where I come from, having been in one of these movements in the past, and this interpretation of the story of Judas seemed to me to be relevant both to the topic and to the times in which we now live. I would ask only that you understand that I am not asking you to share in any way with my own faith. Most of you have brains that are probably more operational than my own.
:)
Peace
PsA
(PS: yes, people who post the Commandments on signs in their yards drive me right up the wall!)
on edit - spelling correction and forgot to retitle post - sorry! :O
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