10 Comments

WOW!

WHOA!

Beautiful.

Expand full comment

Oh Mark thank you! That’s quite a response!

Expand full comment

Katie,

This article is POWERFUL! What a read to “see” Judas from another perspective. What he did was “according “ to the Scriptures and someone had to do the deed. In my opinion from your perspective about his actions, there seemed no malice to betray a loved one but a desire to spur Jesus to bring about the anticipated army that would defeat the Romans. Thank you for a brilliantly written perspective. 💕🙏🏼

Expand full comment

Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful comment. I guess there is evidence Judas might have been a zealot.

Expand full comment

Is there a hell where "the son of perdition" and the rich man in Jesus' parable of the poor man Lazarus and those "without Christ" are tormented for all eternity? What if we never know because in Heaven every tear is wiped away?

Expand full comment

I think we experience hell here. The rich man and Lazarus is a parable. I believe Jesus when he says from the cross father forgive them, the cross the worse thing we could do. I think God’s love is relentless. His mercy endures forever. Brad Jersak’s Her Gates Will Never be Shut is a good explanation of this view. All that is not loves kind will be cleansed away in us. That’s from George MacDonald.

Expand full comment

Respectfully, I disagree, Katie. I think that Jesus was describing two actual souls in the Poor Man Lazarus story which I don't think was a parable, otherwise Jesus could have just had a Rich Man & an unnamed Poor Man. I think the fact that the Rich Man is not named is the kindness of Our Father who didn't want to name a human being in Hell . . . other than Judas Iscariot, perhaps, who is named by Jesus the "Son of Perdition."

But, hell . . . I dunno for sure, of course. However, whether a person believes in Hell or not is not what decides the fate of a soul but, rather, whether or not one believes in the Son of God and His Work on His Cross for us, as well as the fact that Our Father raised Jesus from the dead to eternally defeat Death, the Devil, and the Devil's Hell for us. That's the wager on which I've bet my own eternal soul . . . and I know no better or surer bet in all Creation.

Expand full comment

Oh I believe in hell. A lot of what is translated as hell is Sheol or Gehenna. The rich man and Lazarus speaks as a vivid warning to those of us who are wealthy in this life, especially being clueless to the poor. The rich man was still seeing Lazarus as lower than him.

I believe the effects of the cross are universal, that when he says when he was lifted up he would draw all men to himself. But Gods love is relentless, as I said before , he will cleanse from all of us all that is not of loves kind.

Expand full comment

Beautifully written. I wish you had been on site and had run around doing all you said. We want to right the wrongs. However Jesus is the only one who can do it. Amen.

Expand full comment

Thank you for reading this. I hear you that Jesus is the only one who can right the wrongs. I think through the Holy Spirit we can participate in that is some small way.

Expand full comment