The Gospel of Judas was not accepted by the early Christian churches because it could not be without rearranging Christianity into an entirely different religion. It is completely incongruous with the narrative established in the accepted Gospels, and it manages to completely turn the rudimentary ideas of Christianity on their heads in a few short verses. Christianity hinges on the belief that Jesus’s crucifixion on the cross was somehow simultaneously the worst and greatest event in the history of existence, as both a horrible sin against God but also the means by which humanity is saved from death. This narrative is completely destroyed by the proposition that Judas was not a betrayer but a conspirator of sorts, understanding the secret told to him that characterized death in a different fashion that does not align with mainstream Christian doctrine. Rather than something to be defeated, death is represented as a release of the soul from near captivity in the flesh. Christianity also has the habit of viewing death with hope for a good afterlife, but only because of Jesus’s crucifixion, which is characterized as something suffered for humanity that ultimately changed humanity’s fate somehow. Rather, when Jesus tells Judas “You will sacrifice the man that clothes me,” he is, in alignment with gnostic tradition, characterizing death as less of an end, at least for the chosen of the correct “generation,” and more of a next step on a spiritual journey. Jesus’s crucifixion is no longer a sacrifice but a release. The act of sacrifice and love expressed by the understanding of the crucifixion of the other gospels is a cornerstone of Christianity’s characterization of God as forgiving and loving unto death. God Himself changes drastically when viewed through the lens of the Gospel of Judas. The self-sacrifice, love, and patience ascribed to him are no longer expressed and God is explained in a much more cerebral and factual manner. The God of the Gospel of Judas cannot be reconciled with the God of Christianity and thus it could not coexist with the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.