Pastoral Care / Going Deeper / The DaVinci Code

The DaVinci Code

Is it a historical book? No!!!

This novel, based on facts, says that Constantine changed the scriptures to promote a chauvinistic and male oriented perspective. This accusation has no merit whatsoever and no historical basis.

The real culprit in this book is Gnosticism: a belief that even the disciples combated while they ministered the gospel. This belief system fits perfect with our post modern culture. Gnosticism says our real need is not for forgiveness but for self enlightenment. Jesus, claim the Gnostics, can help us, but he is not necessary to our quest for salvation.

John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me .

2 Timothy 4:3
For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

People want to do away with truth.

The Gnostics Bible is about 50 books. Some of the names are: The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Philip, The Gospel of Mary, The Gospel of Truth. This alternate bible gives us permission to make God, Christ, mankind and women into whatever we want. This Bible supposedly gives historical documentation for Jesus being married to Mary Magdalene in the Gospel of Philip. In the novel Sir Leigh Teabing quotes this marriage as fact. The Gospel of Mary says it was Jesus’ intention to make Mary leader of the Church.

The word Gnostic comes from the Greek gnosis which means knowledge, more precisely it refers to hidden knowledge. The Gnostics were pro-feminine. God is androgynous, both male and female. Some of the Gnostics writings speak of sexual rituals, others make convoluted references to teachings about Jesus and his disciples. These writings are used in feminist writings to attempt to redefine Christianity.

Here is the problem! Dozens of writings from that time period were considered Holy writ, then heresy, non-historical, then forgotten as they should have been. Why are we looking at them again? As a matter of fact, Time magazine asked in its cover story on the gospels ‘we are told these gospels “fill a perceived need for alternative views of the Christ story on the part of New Age seekers and of mainline believers uncomfortable with some of their faith’s theological restrictions.”

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The Gnostics fit better with the need for tolerance in our culture. The need for “do it yourself” religion.

Only the Bible as we know it has stood the test of time and the disciplines of history and Archeology “1500 years in the writing, 3 languages, 3 continents, 40 writers of which most never knew the other. One central theme and no contradictions. Over ¼ of the Bible is prophecy of which almost all has been fulfilled and verified. Only future eschatology awaits the fulfillment. This book has been burned, hidden, buried, and attacked from every type of enemy. Yet it is stronger today then ever! Our Christian Bible makes references to cities, rivers, valleys and specific events. All verified.

• The Gnostics Bible makes no pretense of being an actual record of events: rather, they are simply the musings of various teachers. As a matter of fact, the Gnostic authors did not actually believe that historical events (such as the life and mission of Jesus) were essential to the spiritual quest.

This Bible is frequently quoted in The Da Vinci Code. We realize in 1945 an Arab peasant in Egypt uncovered a red jar while digging for fertilizer. These writings were on papyrus and written in . They were burned and disfigured. And a number were in tact. They date back to 150 A.D. These are the Gnostic gospels.

• The Gnostics were a group of thinkers influenced by Plato. They didn’t disagree with each other on much. So it’s hard to nail down what they held as truth.
  
• They denied God becoming flesh.
  
• Man must find his own way to salvation.
  
• They accepted an Androgynous God – male and female.
  
• Said a substitute died for Christ on the cross.

These teachings were read by scholars dating clear back to the second century. In fact, Iraneus wrote the book Against Heresies in which he expounded the teachings of the Gnostics. Iraneus would agree with Marcus Borg, author of The Heart of Christianity, which states “There is a lot of interest in early Christian diversity because many people who have left the church – and some who are still in it – are looking for another way of being a Christian.

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Evaluation of Gnostics Bible

• Most liberal scholars do not believe the authors were who they say they were. – Thomas, Philip, even Mary. They were attributed to the Apostles to give them credibility. The Bible addresses these attacks.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-2
Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by some prophecy, report or letter supposed to have come from us, saying that the day of the Lord has already come.

• The Gnostic bible is not eyewitness accounts as the Bible is. The date of this is about 150 years after Christ. No eyewitness accounts.

The Gospel of Mary is believed to have been composed somewhere in the second century A.D.

The Holy Bible is written by eyewitnesses and completed before A.D. 70. Though John’s gospel may be as late as A.D. 95.

If you had a choice, whose description of Abraham Lincoln would you rather have? Those of his contemporaries or those people speculating about his private life or political philosophy 150 years after his death. Especially if they had a specific political agenda.

• The Gnostic gospels are non-historical, even anti-historical. They contain little narrative and have no sense of chronology. They show no interest in research, geography or historical contexts.
  
• Let me give you some flavor from the Gnostics. Read pg.28 in the Da Vinci Deception.

How about the Da Vinci Code’s claim that Leonardo Da Vinci was a member of the Priory of Sion? This is a small band of conspirators who know the truth about the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene. So to stay hidden from the wrath of the Vatican members of the Priory would encrypt their cherished knowledge in paintings, writings and architecture in a way only the learned could understand.

• In Da Vinci’s famous painting of The Last Supper, we find proof of Jesus being married to Mary because she is the Holy Grail. She is the effeminate John at the last supper.

Da Vinci had no interest in religion, only in art. He was an illegitimate child born in Vinci, a village 20 miles west of Florence . Hence, Da Vinci is not his last name.

• Robert Langdon, a primary character in the Da Vinci novel says that Mary’s presence in the painting represents “the sacred feminine and the goddess,” which of course has now been lost, virtually eliminated by the church.
  
• If you study The Last Supper you will find the focus being the shock over Judas’ betrayal. It is true John looks effeminate. Of course, most men in the Renaissance time period look like what we today would call “very effeminate.” I like what Bruce Bouchen of the Art Institute in Chicago says in reference to Dan Brown’s interpretation. He says it is “quite a stretch.” Bruce says this depiction of John is consistent with other such portraits of him in Florence . Plus the figure has not hint of breasts. Jack Wasserman, retired history professor at Temple University says “just about everything Dan Brown says about Leonardo is (dead) wrong.”
  
• The things Dan Brown refers to are Celtic superstitions found all the way back in Greek mythology about bowls and cups holding hidden knowledge. The Holy Grail is a legend. It wasn’t until the 15 th century that the idea that the Holy Grail was not a cup, but a bloodline of Jesus. Apparently Mary Magdalene continued this bloodlines. One of Jesus’ descendants created the Merovingian line of French royalty.
  
• The argument of Opus Dei, a bully group of the Catholic Church having anything to do with applying pressure to the Priory is complete foolishness since Opus Dei did not begin until 1928. In a novel it’s great reading as history, it’s a house of cards.
  
• Jesus does have a bride and he has saved himself for her.

Revelation 19:7-9
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.) 9 Then the angel said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!' " And he added, "These are the true words of God."

His bride is the church, every believer. The invitation to this wedding does not come from Gnostic bible, but from the Holy Bible.

Philippians 2:9-11
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

• In the Da Vinci Code Sir Leigh Teabing says the Bible is “not of God.” “The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as an historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the Book.”

Well, it is true the Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. It is also true that man wrote the Bible in given historical context. Often tumultuous times. But there is overwhelming proof that the Bible is more than a book written by men, that it is a book men wrote as they were inspired by God.

• The Council of Nicaea did not put together the bible in 367A.D. They simply accepted and ratified what had been the accepted Canon of scripture from the time of Christ.

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Old Testament Books

• When God authorized the writing of a manuscript and the people of God recognized it as such, it was preserved. For example, Moses wrote “All the Words of the Lord.”

Exodus 24:4
Moses then wrote down everything the L ord had said. He got up early the next morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and set up twelve stone pillars representing the twelve tribes of Israel .

These writings were carefully laid the Ark of the Covenant.

Deuteronomy 31:26
"Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the L ord your God. There it will remain as a witness against you.

As the books increased, people of God honored them as God’s word. Jesus put his stamp of approval on the 39 books of the Old Testament in Luke 24:44.

Luke 24:44
He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms."

• Jesus agreed on the Canon of the Old Testament about 400 B.C. with the prophecy of Malachi. Remember the Old Testament was selected by the people of God without the benefit of a council to debate the merits of each book. The Council of Jamnia in A.D. 90 did meet about the Old Testament, but only to ratify the books already accepted by Jesus for 5 centuries. The authentic books had been proven and stood the test of time. They were historically accurate, prophetically 100% accurate, no contradictions.

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The New Testament

• The books were written in the 1 st half of the first century. Most were written to local churches. Spread throughout Eastern Asia , Western Asia and even Europe . What is awesome is that as long as the Apostles were alive, everything could be checked out. Everything written could have been unveiled as a lie by those living during that time because they were there when Christ lived.
  
• Even Josephus, an unbelieving Jewish historian, writes about the Resurrection of Christ as an event that took place according to the followers of Christianity.
  
• Peter and Paul confirmed each other.

2 Peter 3:15-16
Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

As did others in the New Testament, Jude 1: 17 -18 quoted from Peter (2 Peter 3:3). I Timothy 5:18 Paul cited Luke’s gospel as scripture Luke 10:7,

Jude 1:17-18
But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18 They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires."

2 Peter 3:3
First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires.

1 Timothy 5:18
For the Scripture says, "Do not muzzle the ox while it is treading out the grain," and "The worker deserves his wages."

• It wasn’t until a heretic named Marcion, who opposed Christian writings, came out with his own version of the Bible in 135 A.D. that the church even found it necessary to define which books were authoritative. Up to that point it was obvious, to anyone who would take time to read it.
  
• Constantine did not decide the Canonization of scripture. In fact, it didn’t even come up at the Council of Nicaea. The church had affirmed the entire bible 200 years before this.

I can’t make this point too strongly: The various books were not accepted or rejected by a council or a committee. The process was not what The Da Vinci Code describes as a power grab. Councils only ratified what the Church had already done; no council or pope imposed upon the churches books that the people of God had not already accepted. (pg. 73 & 74 in The Da Vinci Deception).

Jesus is either Lord, Lunatic or Liar.

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