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Better for Judas Not to have been born

10/8/2022

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by George Sidney Hurd
 
 “The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” (Matt 26:24)
 
Many understand this passage as though it said that it would have been good for Judas not to have ever existed, but what it actually says is that it would have been good for Judas not to have been born. In other words, it would have been better for him to have been aborted before birth. In Ecclesiastes 6:3 it says: “If a man begets a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with goodness, or indeed he has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better than he” (Eccl 6:3). A stillborn is a child who was conceived and therefore exists, but since he was aborted, he would go to heaven without having to face judgment. While it is certain that an aborted child loses the great opportunity of an earthly development, if one were to live and not fulfill his purpose in life and die without burial, Solomon says that it would have been good for him not to have even been born. Therefore, when it says that it would have been good for Judas not to have been born, it is saying that it would have been better for him to have died an aborted child than to live and face the consequences of betraying the Son of God. It is not saying that it would have been better for him to have never existed, as many suppose.
 
Jesus uses the same expression that Salomon uses elsewhere in Ecclesiastes 4:3. In this passage Salomon explains the reason why he considered it better for one not to have been born:
 
“But better off than either are those who have never been born (gínomai), who have never seen the injustice that goes on in this world.” (Eccl 4:3 TEV)
 
The reason Salomon gives as to why it would be better not to be born, is because of the evil one faces in this life on earth. He says nothing concerning the afterlife in this regard. Surely, Judas’ recognition that he had played into Satan’s hands, betraying the Savior and shedding innocent blood, made him wish he had never been born. When he realized how Satan had used him, he refused to receive the payment and threw the money at the feet of the chief priests and elders. Then, wishing he had never been born, he went out and hanged himself.  
 
According to the traditional view of eternal punishment for the vast majority, it would have been better for almost all rational beings to have never existed and not just Judas, since according to them the majority will be tormented throughout all eternity. Also, tradition says that all who commit suicide will go to hell forever, and since Judas committed suicide, they would say that, for that reason also, it would have been better if he had never existed. However, in the Scriptures there is total silence concerning the destiny of those who commit suicide. Therefore, to my way of reasoning, we should not presume to know that which God has not revealed. If we wish to make a pronouncement concerning suicide, I believe that we are safer to cite the words of Jesus when He said: “every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men” (Matt 12:31).
 
This article is an excerpt from my book The Triumph of Mercy


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    Index of Articles and Titles related to Universal Restoration
    “They will go away into Everlasting Punishment”
    The Fatherhood of God
    Does “All” simply mean “Jew and Gentile alike”?
    Distinguishing Biblical Universalism
    Spiritual Deconstruction
    Has Everyone already been Forgiven?
    Are the Gates of Hell Locked from Within?
    Is Sheol the Grave?
    The Testimonies of Near-Death Experiences
    Is One’s Destruction the End of all Existence?
    Shall not Perish
    What must I do to be Saved?
    Sulfur, Salt and the Refiner's Fire
    Shedding Light Upon the Roman Catholic Dogma of Purgatory
    Understanding the Wrath of God
    Who are the Elect of God?
    ​Does the Restoration of All include the Animal Kingdom?
    True Repentance
    Did Christ’s sacrifice on the cross change God’s attitude towards us?
    The Early Fathers and Penal Substitutionary Atonement
    Athanasius and the Universal Reversal
    Is Salvation Transactional?
    The Justice of God
    The Future Judgments of God
    Who Destroyed Sodom and Why?
    Rewards for Good Works
    Is Satan Real?
    Has Our New Testament Changed over the Years?
    What meaneth the phrase, “let the unjust be unjust still?”
    The Theosis or the Divinization of man
    The “Unpardonable” Sin
    Better for Judas Not to have been born
    The Faith of Jesus
    Seeing the Father through Jesus
    The Straight and Narrow Grace-Walk
    Is Universalism a Deterrent to Evangelism?
    The Blurring of Biblical Distinctions
    What does the word "Word" mean to Jesus?
    Upon Which Foundation?
    Are All Sins Equal?
    Not Forsaking the Assembling of Ourselves Together
    What should a New Testament Church look like?
    How Literal is the Concordant Literal Version?
    The Inerrency of Scripture
    Biblical Inerrancy throughout Church History (1 of 4)
    Why should we contend for the Inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures? (2 of 4)
    Understanding Biblical Inerrancy (3 of 4)
    ​How was our Bible formed? (4 of 4)
    The Love of God
    Is God’s Love Unconditional? (1 of 3)
    What is Conditional about God’s Unconditional Love? (2 of 3)
    The Love and Hatred of God? (3 of 3)
    The Fear of the Lord
    Understanding the Fear of the Lord (1 of 2)
    Fear Him who can Destroy both Body and Soul (2 of 2)
    The Question of Evil
    The What of Evil (1 of 3)
    The Where of Evil (2 of 3)
    The Why of Evil (3 of 3)
    Understanding the Atonement
    Defining Atonement 1 of 5
    The Sin bearing Servant I (2 of 5)
    The Sin Bearing Servant II (3 of 5)
    Homosexuality and the Bible
    Does the Bible affirm the Homosexual Lifestyle? (1 of 2)
    The Six So-called Gay Clobber Texts (2 of 2)
    Reincarnationism
    Resurrection or Reincarnation? 1 of 2
    Resurrection or Reincarnation 2 of 2
    Open Theism
    Open Theism - Does God know My Tomorrow? 1 of 2
    Open Theism - Does God know my Tomorrow 2 of 2

    Answers to Objections:

    1) The Restoration of All
    2) The Reconciliation of All
    3) The Universal Reversal
    4) The Salvation of All
    5) The Duration of Punishment
    6) Hope for the Dead
    7) The Testimony of the Fathers
    8) The Logic of Universal Reconciliation
    Has God Rejected Israel:
    1) ¿Has God rejected His People Israel?
    2) Has the Church Replaced Israel?
    3) God’s Irrevocable Promises to Israel
    4) Should we bless National Israel Today?
    God's Glorious Plan for the Ages
    God's Glorious Plan 1 of 2
    God's Glorious Plan 2 of 2
    The Manifest Sons of God
    The Man-Child Company (1 of 3)
    The Manifest Sons of God (2 of 3)
    The Identity of the 144,000 (3 of 3)
    The Trinity and the Deity of Christ
    ​The Importance of the Trinity and the Deity of Christ (1 of 5)
    Jesus is the Yahweh Elohim of the Old Testament (2 of 5)
    The Christophanies of the Old Testament (3 of 5
    Jesus Christ - the Eternal I AM (4 of 5)
    The Triunity of God (5 of 5)
    The Trinity and the Ante Nicene Fathers
    Eternal Preexistence of Christ
    The Eternal Preexistence of the Son of God (1 of 3)
    The Eternal Preexistence of the Son of God (2 of 3)
    The Eternal Preexistence of the Son of God (3 of 3)
    Preterism vs. Futurism
    Where is the promise of His coming? (1 of 2)
    Last Days – Past or Present? (2 of 2)
    Premillennial Futurism – The Belief of the Early Church
    The Objectiv​e Evidences for a Late Dating of John's Revelation (1 of 2)
    Examining the Interpretive Arguments for an Early Dating of John’s Revelation (2 of 2)
    The Two-Gospel Doctrine Examined
    Are there Two Different Gospels in the New Testament? (1 of 4)
    Are there Two Groups of Believers, or are We One Body?  (2 of4)
    Are there Two Separate Scriptures for Two Groups of Believers?  (3 of 4)
    Are Paul’s Epistles Incompatible with the rest of the New Testament?  (4 of 4)

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