When reading Mathew 27:3-5, some Christians must ask the questions, “Did Judas repent of sin, or did he indeed go to hell?
Bill Wiese, author of “23 Minutes in Hell,” says to the latter, “Most certainly.”
Matthew 27:3-4 (MEV) reads, “When Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood.”
“Yes, he (Judas) most certainly did go to hell, and yes, he most certainly could have been saved,” Wiese says in this recent video. “If Judas would have simply repented and turned to God, the Bible tells us that every person, regardless of what they’ve done, can repent and be saved. Great people of the Bible have committed murder, adultery, idolatry, lied, stole, acted cowardly and more.
Wiese says Judas did not experience true repentance, however.
“If he would have turned to God and repented, then he would have been saved,” he says. “But regarding Judas in Matthew 27:3, he repented only to himself. He knew he had sinned, as it says in verse 4, but he didn’t confess his sin or repent to God. A person can feel remorse to themselves, but not actually repent for their sin against God.
“Second Corinthians 7:10 says ‘For godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation, but the sorrow of the work works death,'” Wiese explains. “The sorrow Judas experienced was a worldly sorrow that only brings death.”
For more on this teaching, watch this short video from Bill Wiese.{eoa}
Shawn A. Akers is the online editor at Charisma Media.