Was Judas Iscariot ever 'saved'?

[sisterchristian]

I have come to believe that we can indeed become lost. I think that we have turned "saved by faith" into "saved by one-time agreement to proposition that Jesus died for my sins and in Lord". Faith without works is dead - it cannot save. I think we need to be aware of the possibility that we use the word "faith" as if it is equivalent to "belief". I do not think they are the same.

There are just too many texts that suggest that lack of works can indeed put you outside the kingdom.

Romans 2: 6-8

God "will give to each person according to what he has done." To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.

Matthew 25:

Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.

This is, in my opinion, a complicated issue. However, I see too many warnings in the Scriptures about the possibility of "falling away" to allow me to believe that a one-time act of assent to the proposition that I am a sinner and Jesus is Lord is really constitutive of saving faith.

Nothing we can ever do as far as our works would be good enough to get our behinds into heaven! If you are truly saved and have true faith well than your works (fruits) should be evident it should follow your faith! (Galatians 2:16) "Knowing that a man is not justified by the WORKS of the Law but by Faith in Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the WORKS of the Law. For by the WORKS of the Law, no flesh shall be justified". (Galatians 2:19-21) "For I through the Law died to the Law that I might live to God. "I have been crucified through Christ: It is no llonger I who live, but Christ lives in me; And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me". "I do not set aside the Grace of God; for if RIGHTEOUSNESS comes through the Law, then Christ died in Vain".

 

[Packrat]

Because in Matthew 27:3-5, when Judas hanged himself, Jesus had not yet died to pay for our sins. So again, no one could have been saved before Jesus died for our sins. Jesus also verifies Judas's fate in John 17:12, "None of them has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that scripture would be fulfilled." And Jesus knows who's lost and who isn't.

Christ himself says that God is a God of the living and not the dead, and if it was necessary for Christ to die first before anyone in the world would be saved, then why is God called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Christ used this point when speaking to the Sadducees. If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are destined for hell, then how are they still living. Wouldn't they be considered the dead?

Of course you could argue that some will be resurrected to death and some to life, but I believe that those who looked forward to the coming of the Messiah would be saved because they believed what God told them. If Abraham was made righteous because of his faith, then why would God not allow him to be saved? The righteous will be saved, won't they? I believe attaining righteousness in God's eyes is a matter of faith in him. In this case it happens to be faith in the Good News that Christ preached and fulfilled. But even before Christ fulfilled it, it was still preached to a certain extent. The Jewish community knew about the coming of the Messiah.

 

[Packrat]

He was a disciple, one of the 12. He was called 'apostle' by Jesus Himself. Luke 6:12-16

But was he ever a born-again believer?

I believe that he was a tare among the wheat, always the 'son of perdition' and never born-again.

What do others think? And why?

If he was born-again, did he lose his salvation?

Why I tend to think not is for the fact that I think Christ said that the twelve apostles would be sitting on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. At the time Judas was an apostle, but he died, and a new apostle was elected to replace him. Therefore if there were thirteen apostles in the end, where is either Judas or his replacement during their judging?

I also tend not to think that he was saved at least before he betrayed Christ because of the sort of character he has all throughout Jesus' ministry. He purportedly thieves money from the apostles' financial pool, and he betrays Jesus. Whether or not he had a heart change after he betrayed Jesus is unknown to me. He seemed to be upset that he had done it. So he may have become saved, assuming that he wasn't blind enough to miss the point of salvation. Everything about him just points to no, but it's all really uncertain in the end for me. Perhaps further reading will reveal this though.

Christ, I think, did state that it would have been better for his betrayer to not have been born.

 

[thessalonian]

Christ, I think, did state that it would have been better for his betrayer to not have been born.

The punishment for the one who comes to Christ and then turns away is worse than if he had never known Christ. Thus the statement that it would have been better if he had never been born is not a proof that he was never a believer. The passage below is early on in Jesus ministery. I don't see where it says his disciples believed "except Judas".

John 2:11
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

The very word apostle itself indicates belief in Jesus. Those who say OSAS are the ones who deny that Judas ever believed because it presents a problem for their theology. Judas may not have ever believed but my theology does not force me in that box. It is a strech to think that one cannot fall away from the truth with all the temptation there is in the world. We must be dilegent and by God's grace reamin in him, following him.

 

[Guest]

The punishment for the one who comes to Christ and then turns away is worse than if he had never known Christ. Thus the statement that it would have been better if he had never been born is not a proof that he was never a believer. The passage below is early on in Jesus ministery. I don't see where it says his disciples believed "except Judas".

John 2:11
This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory; and his disciples believed in him.

The very word apostle itself indicates belief in Jesus. Those who say OSAS are the ones who deny that Judas ever believed because it presents a problem for their theology. Judas may not have ever believed but my theology does not force me in that box. It is a strech to think that one cannot fall away from the truth with all the temptation there is in the world. We must be dilegent and by God's grace reamin in him, following him.

Was Judas a disciple at that time in John 2:11?