Judas & Jesus

In Episode 20, I’m going to be getting back into my book, New: Wineskins and the Simple Words of Christ. As with chapters 1-4, I’ll be giving you an audio version of Chapter 5, which is called Judas & Jesus. And here in chapter 5, I discuss how if it was prophesied that Judas would betray Jesus, did he really have a shot at having faith in Jesus and receiving eternal life? If not, what does that say about God, who supposedly so loves the world? You will discover that the early Christians’ view on the issues of God’s sovereignty and mankind’s free will are neither Calvinistic nor Arminian, yet they are absolutely biblical.

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I’m blessed to be a part of Justen Faull’s 4^thWatch Radio Networkalong with BDK of Omega Frequency, who I do a monthly Q&A show with called Ready with an answer. In addition to our own channels, you can find each of our podcasts at http://www.fourthwatchradio.comor on the 4^thwatch radio podcast.

Finally, the early Christian quotes I use can be found on the CD-ROM version of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. You can purchase your copy for $5 on the Scroll Publishing website.

Chapter 5 Bibliography

This is a modified version of an illustration given by David Bercot in “What the Early Christians Believed About Predestination and Free Will,” Scroll Publishing, accessed May 25, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXbXadet10k.

Ignatius, cited in Maxwell Staniforth, Early Christian Writings (New York: Dorset Press, 1986), p. 103.

Irenaeus, cited in David Bercot, ed., A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1998), p. 629.

Clement of Alexandria, Ibid., p. 629.

Origen, Ibid., p. 631.

Cyprian, Ibid., p. 631.

Ignatius, Ibid., p. 295.

Justin Martyr, Ibid., p. 285.

Irenaeus, Ibid., p. 286.

Hippolytus, Ibid., p. 288.

Origen, Ibid., p. 290.

Methodius, Ibid., p. 292.

Perhaps the best example of a non-Christian being able to perform good works by God’s grace is found in the story of Cornelius in Acts 10, particularly in verses 1-4 where unregenerate Cornelius is told by an angel from God that his prayers and gifts to the poor have ascended as a memorial before God. These good deeds were clearly pleasing to God, yet Cornelius’s righteous acts could not save him.

Randy L. Maddox, Responsible Grace: John Wesley’s Practical Theology (Nashville, TN: Kingswood Books, 1994), p. 74. Maddox describes the Eastern view of the effects of the Fall: “The true significance of the Fall was our loss of the Spirit’s immediate Presence, resulting in the introduction of mortality into human life. This mortality weakened our human faculties and effaced our moral Likeness of God. Thus, the Fall did render us prone to sin, but not incapable of co-operating with God’s offer of healing. As a result, we only become guilty when we reject the offered grace of God, like Adam and Eve did.”

Bible Hub, δουλεύοντες, accessed March 2, 2015, http://biblehub.com/greek/douleuontes_1398.htm.

Bible Hub, douleuó, accessed March 2, 2015, http://biblehub.com/greek/1398.htm.

David Bercot, “What the Early Christians Believed About Imputed Righteousness,” Scroll Publishing, accessed May 25, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58p0iLmUrDE.

To see what I believe is Paul’s own testimony of this processes taking place in his life as a child, read Romans 7:7-12.

C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (New York: Collier Books, 1970).

Bercot, A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, p. 295.

Origen, cited in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2, 756-757 [CD ROM (Henderson, TX: Scroll Publishing).

The Epistle of Barnabas, cited in Staniforth, Early Christian Writings, p. 220.