Judas Iscariot

Was Judas free to do otherwise?

Genuine disagreement

Common ground. All traditions hold that Judas genuinely betrayed Jesus, that the act was his own and culpable, and that scripture speaks of it as foretold. None holds that God is the author of the sin.

The traditions divide along the same line they divide on providence generally: whether the betrayal was foreordained and Judas acted freely within it, or whether the prophecy describes what God foreknew rather than what he determined.

Roman Catholic

The betrayal was foreknown and foretold, and Judas acted freely and culpably; the church has never declared any individual to be damned.

Eastern Orthodox

Judas acted freely; his fall is read in the liturgy of Holy Week as a warning rather than as a decree.

Lutheran

God foreknew the betrayal but did not ordain the sin; the cause of Judas's fall is his own will. Formula of Concord XI

Reformed / Presbyterian

Judas's act falls under God's eternal decree, which ordains what comes to pass without being the author of sin nor doing violence to the will of the creature. Westminster Confession III.1

Baptist

Positions follow the wider division over providence; both readings are held.

Traditions not listed have no position recorded here. That is a gap in what we have written down, not a statement that they are silent.