Do you think Judas ever repented for betraying Jesus?
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Judas Iscariot
39 posts · 5 participants · started Oct 12, 2026, 2:23 PM
No. His name is besmirched in a whole universe.
I doubt if disloyalty and betrayal by any mortal in our material life is sufficient to prevent or preclude the mansion worlds experience. Such an awakening has triggered great changes in the perspectives of many I am sure.
Mercy and patience are almost endless and inexhaustible in God’s friendly universe. I have no doubts regarding the Master’s hopes for Judas. Michael’s kindness and forgiveness of all sinners surely includes his hopes for poor Judas.
I pray he finds a way to accept the mercy extended.
"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
Yes he did repent. See 186:1.4
Yes he did repent. See 186:1.4
Touché Mark! Spot on. Here’s the paragraph:
186:1.4 From a distance Judas saw them raise the cross piece with Jesus nailed thereon, and upon sight of this he rushed back to the temple and, forcing his way past the doorkeeper, found himself standing in the presence of the Sanhedrin, which was still in session. The betrayer was well-nigh breathless and highly distraught, but he managed to stammer out these words: “I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood. You have insulted me. You have offered me as a reward for my service, money — the price of a slave. I repent that I have done this; here is your money. I want to escape the guilt of this deed.”
Did he escape the guilt of his deed?
No. His name is besmirched in a whole universe.
I am grateful you jumped in on this topic! His name is a stain (I think) in Nebadon. At least in parts of Nebadon. I am horrified to see/read/hear the retelling of the last days of Jesus. It’s hard to get over. Hard to think of Judas in a positive way. Intellectually I think I have to get over it, give up the profound emotional parts. What do you think?
You’re right. Since reading about the last hours of Jesus as a human from the point of celestial personalities hit different. Consider how media and the Church have idealised, romantized and hailed his last hours. It was terrible. It was horrendous, and it was traumatizing. Even Lucifer had to turn away. If Judas saw the outcome of his actions and never did he seek out the rest of the disciples for guidance, then he’s gone. He never survived. And his name? Cursed throughout Nebadon.
No, I sense he could not escape the guilt of his deed, similarly as Adam and Eve did not escape the guilt and subsequent troubles after their default.
A few years ago I experienced a new thought: We will be offered what we need to progress! A sincere person will be granted teachings and experiences to move forward toward Paradise, the Ascension Plan in the Father’s mind. Same for Judas and as Bradly so nicely reminds us, Michael is also mercifully interested in Judas. Likely Michael will watch Judas’s progress through Nebadon and afterward also.
Judas was set up for failure by his erring parents. We need to set up ourselves in merciful understanding for Judas.
Even Lucifer had to turn away.
183:1.2 The Father in heaven desired the bestowal Son to finish his earth career naturally, just as all mortals must finish up their lives on earth and in the flesh. Ordinary men and women cannot expect to have their last hours on earth and the supervening episode of death made easy by a special dispensation. Accordingly, Jesus elected to lay down his life in the flesh in the manner which was in keeping with the outworking of natural events, and he steadfastly refused to extricate himself from the cruel clutches of a wicked conspiracy of inhuman events which swept on with horrible certainty toward his unbelievable humiliation and ignominious death. And every bit of all this astounding manifestation of hatred and this unprecedented demonstration of cruelty was the work of evil men and wicked mortals. God in heaven did not will it, neither did the archenemies of Jesus dictate it, though they did much to insure that unthinking and evil mortals would thus reject the bestowal Son. Even the father of sin turned his face away from the excruciating horror of the scene of the crucifixion.Do you think the reaction of Lucifer to the horror of the crucifixion scene might be a clue to his spiritual status as regards the adjudication of his case?I think Lucifer turned away in shame. His Creator Father had embraced the whole mortal experience, from birth to death. In that moment of death, Lucifer must have realized that something greater than usurping powers was afoot. However, his pride and the fact that he had pulled so many others into his schemes prevented him from outright repentance. Possibly though, he could or he might have already regretted some of his actions, seeing that Michael completed his bestowal careers and now sits the Sovereign of a universe.
the fact that he had pulled so many others
He was angry it seem to me. He rejected Michael’s mercy ministry with increasing contempt.
53:2.5 It is very difficult to point out the exact cause or causes which finally culminated in the Lucifer rebellion. We are certain of only one thing, and that is: Whatever these first beginnings were, they had their origin in Lucifer’s mind. There must have been a pride of self that nourished itself to the point of self-deception, so that Lucifer for a time really persuaded himself that his contemplation of rebellion was actually for the good of the system, if not of the universe. By the time his plans had developed to the point of disillusionment, no doubt he had gone too far for his original and mischief-making pride to permit him to stop. At some point in this experience he became insincere, and evil evolved into deliberate and willful sin. That this happened is proved by the subsequent conduct of this brilliant executive. He was long offered opportunity for repentance, but only some of his subordinates ever accepted the proffered mercy. The Faithful of Days of Edentia, on the request of the Constellation Fathers, in person presented the plan of Michael for the saving of these flagrant rebels, but always was the mercy of the Creator Son rejected and rejected with increasing contempt and disdain.I doubt that Lucifer and Judas are in the same league of choosing selfish gain and personal glorification over the doing of God’s will.Paper 53 – The Lucifer Rebellion
53:8.7 (610.3) Before the bestowal of Michael these rulers of darkness sought to main tain their authority on Urantia, and they persistently withstood the minor and subordinate celestial personalities. But since the day of Pentecost this traitorous Caligastia and his equally contemptible associate, Daligastia, are servile before the divine majesty of the Paradise Thought Adjusters and the protective Spirit of Truth, the spirit of Michael, which has been poured out upon all flesh.
I always thought it really interesting (in the above context) to use the word “servile” which means:
“having or showing an excessive willingness to serve or please others” or being: “overly submissive, fawning, or too eager to please someone else in a way that shows a lack of self-respect or dignity”
Are they telling us they’re on their knees?
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Meriam Webster dictionary defines servile as:
1<strong class=”mw_t_bc”>: of or befitting a menial positionIn other words, he was cast down; thrown out of office.Meriam Webster dictionary defines servile as:
1: of or befitting a menial positionIn other words, he was cast down; thrown out of office.Interesting.I found the following listed on that website too.2: meanly or cravenly submissiveLatin served us servile with the help of servilis, itself from servus, the Latin word for “slave.” Servus is also an ancestor of serve, service, and servitude. Synonyms of servile in English include subservient, slavish, and obsequious. Subservient implies the cringing manner of someone who is very conscious of having a subordinate position. Slavish suggests abject or debased servitude. Obsequious implies fawning or sycophantic compliance and exaggerated deference of manner. Servile suggests the fawning behavior of one in forced servitude.And this:Obsequious is a formal, disapproving adjective that describes someone who is excessively eager to please, obey, or flatter a person in authority or of higher status..Are they telling us they’re on their knees?
I think you are using the phrase “on their knees” figuratively.
But since the day of Pentecost this traitorous Caligastia and his equally contemptible associate, Daligastia. . . .
. . . are still here on Urantia.
53:8.9 In general, when weak and dissolute mortals are supposed to be under the influence of devils and demons, they are merely being dominated by their own inherent and debased tendencies, being led away by their own natural propensities. The devil has been given a great deal of credit for evil which does not belong to him. Caligastia has been comparatively impotent since the cross of Christ.In the case of Judas, though abhorrent, would he not be given the opportunity to choose rehabilitation?139:12.13 When the sordid and sinful business was all over, this renegade mortal, who thought lightly of selling his friend for thirty pieces of silver to satisfy his long-nursed craving for revenge, rushed out and committed the final act in the drama of fleeing from the realities of mortal existence — suicide.Do you think Judas ever repented for betraying Jesus?
Let’s start with the definition of repentance. Here’s one version of the definition of repentance I found on the net:
Repentance is the sincere act of regretting a past misdeed and making a firm personal resolve to change your behavior and character for the better.
So he said the words but then he killed himself.
If repentance includes “making a firm personal resolve to change your behavior and character for the better” by killing himself, wasn’t the opportunity for doing that foregone? At least in this world?
By your efforts to make amends for past sins you acquire strength to resist future tendencies thereto. Restraint is born of repentance. (131:3.3)
No, I sense he could not escape the guilt of his deed, similarly as Adam and Eve did not escape the guilt and subsequent troubles after their default.
Perhaps I misunderstood? Certainly did Adam and Eve “escape” their “guilt”.
Regret, remorse, and repentance are precisely how one “escapes” all “guilt”.
Suicide is no form of soul or personal annihilation either. There are noble and selfless forms of suicide as well as despair or depression, neither of which is a mortal sin…being as there simply is no such thing.
All receive mercy, grace, and patient rehabilitation by loving ministry who will seek it or accept it. Or so I understand the Papers to teach.
God loves the sinner. All of them. All of us. Judge not l’est we be so judged. I heard somewhere.
146:2.6 (1639.1) 5. “They who would receive mercy must show mercy; judge not that you be judged. With the spirit with which you judge others you also shall be judged….”
76:5.1 (851.7)Not long after the establishment of the second Eden, Adam and Eve were duly informed that their repentance was acceptable, and that, while they were doomed to suffer the fate of the mortals of their world, they should certainly become eligible for admission to the ranks of the sleeping survivors of Urantia…
76:6.1 (853.2)Adam and Eve went to their mortal rest with strong faith in the promises made to them by the Melchizedeks that they would sometime awake from the sleep of death to resume life on the mansion worlds, worlds all so familiar to them in the days preceding their mission in the material flesh of the violet race on Urantia.
"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
We need to set up ourselves in merciful understanding for Judas.
Judas carried out his assignment as treasurer honestly and true to its requirements. But it seems to me almost everything else regarding apostolic relationships he took personally. He was critical and reactive.
139:12.9 Judas became increasingly a brooder over personal disappointment, and finally he became a victim of resentment. His feelings had been many times hurt, and he grew abnormally suspicious of his best friends, even of the Master. Presently he became obsessed with the idea of getting even, anything to avenge himself, yes, even betrayal of his associates and his Master..139:12.11 The Master many times, both privately and publicly, had warned Judas that he was slipping, but divine warnings are usually useless in dealing with embittered human nature. Jesus did everything possible, consistent with man’s moral freedom, to prevent Judas’s choosing to go the wrong way. The great test finally came. The son of resentment failed; he yielded to the sour and sordid dictates of a proud and vengeful mind of exaggerated self-importance and swiftly plunged on down into confusion, despair, and depravity.Each apostle had less than perfect character traits, as every person does. I think each knew he had flaws. Always was Jesus trying to correct their thinking, to get them to really hear him.174:0.2 This morning he greeted each of the twelve with a personal salutation. To Andrew he said: “Be not dismayed by the events just ahead. Keep a firm hold on your brethren and see that they do not find you downcast.” To Peter he said: “Put not your trust in the arm of flesh nor in weapons of steel. Establish yourself on the spiritual foundations of the eternal rocks.” To James he said: “Falter not because of outward appearances. Remain firm in your faith, and you shall soon know of the reality of that which you believe.” To John he said: “Be gentle; love even your enemies; be tolerant. And remember that I have trusted you with many things.” To Nathaniel he said: “Judge not by appearances; remain firm in your faith when all appears to vanish; be true to your commission as an ambassador of the kingdom.” To Philip he said: “Be unmoved by the events now impending. Remain unshaken, even when you cannot see the way. Be loyal to your oath of consecration.” To Matthew he said: “Forget not the mercy that received you into the kingdom. Let no man cheat you of your eternal reward. As you have withstood the inclinations of the mortal nature, be willing to be steadfast.” To Thomas he said: “No matter how difficult it may be, just now you must walk by faith and not by sight. Doubt not that I am able to finish the work I have begun, and that I shall eventually see all of my faithful ambassadors in the kingdom beyond.” To the Alpheus twins he said: “Do not allow the things which you cannot understand to crush you. Be true to the affections of your hearts and put not your trust in either great men or the changing attitude of the people. Stand by your brethren.” And to Simon Zelotes he said: “Simon, you may be crushed by disappointment, but your spirit shall rise above all that may come upon you. What you have failed to learn from me, my spirit will teach you. Seek the true realities of the spirit and cease to be attracted by unreal and material shadows.” And to Judas Iscariot he said: “Judas, I have loved you and have prayed that you would love your brethren. Be not weary in well doing; and I would warn you to beware the slippery paths of flattery and the poison darts of ridicule.”More about Judas.
139:12.2 When Nathaniel met Judas at Tarichea, he was seeking employment with a fish-drying enterprise at the lower end of the Sea of Galilee. He was thirty years of age and unmarried when he joined the apostles. He was probably the best-educated man among the twelve and the only Judean in the Master’s apostolic family. Judas had no outstanding trait of personal strength, though he had many outwardly appearing traits of culture and habits of training. He was a good thinker but not always a truly honest thinker. Judas did not really understand himself; he was not really sincere in dealing with himself.
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There was no special trait about Jesus which Judas admired above the generally attractive and exquisitely charming personality of the Master. Judas was never able to rise above his Judean prejudices against his Galilean associates; he would even criticize in his mind many things about Jesus. Him whom eleven of the apostles looked upon as the perfect man, as the “one altogether lovely and the chiefest among ten thousand,” this self-satisfied Judean often dared to criticize in his own heart. He really entertained the notion that Jesus was timid and somewhat afraid to assert his own power and authority.
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Judas was a good business man. It required tact, ability, and patience, as well as painstaking devotion, to manage the financial affairs of such an idealist as Jesus, to say nothing of wrestling with the helter-skelter business methods of some of his apostles. Judas really was a great executive, a farseeing and able financier. And he was a stickler for organization. None of the twelve ever criticized Judas. As far as they could see, Judas Iscariot was a matchless treasurer, a learned man, a loyal (though sometimes critical) apostle, and in every sense of the word a great success. The apostles loved Judas; he was really one of them. He must have believed in Jesus, but we doubt whether he really loved the Master with a whole heart. The case of Judas illustrates the truthfulness of that saying: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death.” It is altogether possible to fall victim to the peaceful deception of pleasant adjustment to the paths of sin and death. Be assured that Judas was always financially loyal to his Master and his fellow apostles. Money could never have been the motive for his betrayal of the Master.
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Judas was an only son of unwise parents. When very young, he was pampered and petted; he was a spoiled child. As he grew up, he had exaggerated ideas about his self-importance. He was a poor loser. He had loose and distorted ideas about fairness; he was given to the indulgence of hate and suspicion. He was an expert at misinterpretation of the words and acts of his friends. All through his life Judas had cultivated the habit of getting even with those whom he fancied had mistreated him. His sense of values and loyalties was defective.
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To Jesus, Judas was a faith adventure. From the beginning the Master fully understood the weakness of this apostle and well knew the dangers of admitting him to fellowship. But it is the nature of the Sons of God to give every created being a full and equal chance for salvation and survival. Jesus wanted not only the mortals of this world but the onlookers of innumerable other worlds to know that, when doubts exist as to the sincerity and wholeheartedness of a creature’s devotion to the kingdom, it is the invariable practice of the Judges of men fully to receive the doubtful candidate. The door of eternal life is wide open to all; “whosoever will may come”; there are no restrictions or qualifications save the faith of the one who comes.
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This is just the reason why Jesus permitted Judas to go on to the very end, always doing everything possible to transform and save this weak and confused apostle. But when light is not honestly received and lived up to, it tends to become darkness within the soul. Judas grew intellectually regarding Jesus’ teachings about the kingdom, but he did not make progress in the acquirement of spiritual character as did the other apostles. He failed to make satisfactory personal progress in spiritual experience.
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139:12.10 But these wicked and dangerous ideas did not take definite shape until the day when a grateful woman broke an expensive box of incense at Jesus’ feet. This seemed wasteful to Judas, and when his public protest was so sweepingly disallowed by Jesus right there in the hearing of all, it was too much. That event determined the mobilization of all the accumulated hate, hurt, malice, prejudice, jealousy, and revenge of a lifetime, and he made up his mind to get even with he knew not whom; but he crystallized all the evil of his nature upon the one innocent person in all the sordid drama of his unfortunate life just because Jesus happened to be the chief actor in the episode which marked his passing from the progressive kingdom of light into that self-chosen domain of darkness.
Do you think Judas ever repented for betraying Jesus?
What do you think?
Did Judas repent for betraying Jesus?
