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SENTENCE SERMONS:

• Don't wait for 6 strong men to take you to church.
• Forbidden fruits create many jams.
• Be fishers of men. You catch them - He'll clean them.
• God grades on the cross, not the curve.. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THE DA VINCI CODE REVIEWED

By Jonathan Caldwell

Men write many speculations about religious truth. Anything we read from men is subject to the exclusive authority of the Bible. Jesus said, "Your word is truth" (Jn 17:17). If some book or theory does not harmonize with Scripture, then it cannot be true. We should "test all things" in light of Scripture (1 Thess 5:21), as well as "test the spirits for many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). Mature Christians must be able to analyze the difference between truth and error (Heb 4:13).

Dan Brown's best-selling The Da Vinci Code is the latest religious fiction to cause a stir among many people. Its presentation of events surrounding Jesus as factual history has caused many to become enveloped by it. It is now being translated into over 40 different languages and Ron Howard has begun work on a movie that should be out by next year. What is The Da Vinci Code?

Why has it caused such a stir? Why has it made people question their faith? We must be able to distinguish divine truth from human speculation (Col 2:5,8). The book is a non-stop thriller; very well written and suspenseful from a human literary viewpoint. But the other scriptural questions will take longer to answer, so we will continue our discussion next week.

The Plot of the Book

The general concept of the book is as follows: There is a secret society known as the "Priory of Sion", this society holds the secrets to the truth and the location of the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is not simply the cup that allegedly caught the blood of Christ on the cross, its literal meaning (from the word sangreal) is royal blood. The main section of the book is about a the leader of this society being killed and his leaving clues for his granddaughter and a historian named Robert Langdon to find the Grail so that they can protect it.

Their clues are hidden in paintings of Da Vinci and in old buildings and other truths that can be seen in Wagner's Operas, Disney films and ancient architecture. They are on a race to get the clues and make sure the grail is protected before the antagonistic Catholic Church destroys the "truth". The Catholic Church supposedly knows the truth of the Holy Grail and want it destroyed because that hidden knowledge destroys everything the church stands for. (If you are in the process of reading the book you might want to skip to the last couple of paragraphs.) The Holy Grail allegedly documents the lineage of Jesus Christ purports that Jesus and Mary were married, which were with Mary's sarcophagus. They allegedly had a daughter named Sarah. And to this day, descendents of Jesus are on the earth.

So how is the Holy Grail a thing? They "prove" this fact by looking to Gnostic Gospels and ancient paintings. If you look at Da Vinci's The Last Supper, the person sitting next to Jesus is very feminine and therefore is Mary. If you look harder, another supposed clue is they also seem to be joined at the hip with their upper bodies making the shape of a V, which isome think is the sign of sacred feminine

The Catholic Church is then alleged to want this information destroyed because it challenges their practice of female submission in the church. Mary was asserted to be from the tribe of Benjamin and her purported union to Christ made their child 100% royal (Judah & Benjamin).

If that is the case, and the idea of Mary having a position of authority over the Apostles as the "Gnostic Gospels" seem to suggest, then the information in the four canonical Gospels must consequently be wrong. And the author's idea of a woman being submissive is ludicrous because ancient history is filled with the praise of the sacred femininity. Is any of it true?

Next week will look at some individual things in the book and show that it is fiction by refuting it from the Scriptures. Some may ask, "Is it ok to read this book?" My answer is "YES!" This book is fiction and can be discerningly read for fun. Remember our discussion of Harry Potter last summer. If we are not reading it for truth, if we do not let it bring sin into our lives or lessen our opposition to false teaching, then there should be no problem. It may be useful to read the book to know how to counter the popular, unscriptural ideas of this a growing belief of the exaltation of Mary Magdalene.

It would do us good to know how to answer questions brought forth, but to be able to do that we to know what is there. The book is an interesting literary read. What should we think about this? We should resist its defiance of the Bible. "Through your precepts I gain understanding, therefore I hate every false way" (Psa 119:104). We know that the Bible is truth (Jn 17:17, Psa 119:89).

The Bible's harmony throughout the its 66 books, confirming archeological evidence, and internal evidence about the inspiration of the writers all prove that we can rely on the Bible to guide our life. The idea of "God's word is truth" exclusively is throughout the Bible: "the sum of your word is truth" (Psa 119:160). You may this human book and test it.

Hopefully it will test, strengthen your knowledge, and build your confidence in the Bible."Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" - Psalm 119:105.

THE DA VINCI CODE REVIEWED (2)

The Da Vinci Code presents a tale as fact in stark contrast to what the Bible says about the life of Jesus. It is necessary for us to analyze the difference between truth and error (Heb 4:13). We are going to discuss some specific things in the book and how the are not in harmony with the scriptures and how, therefore, they cannot be true. God's word is complete and perfect (Psa 119:160) and gives us "all things that pertain to life and godliness" (2 Pet 1:3).

1. The Gnostic Gospels. The book proposes that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene were married. The book looks to "the lost gospels" to try to present this as truth, pointing to the "Gnostic Gospels." The Gospel of Mary Magdalene and the Gospel of Philip are mentioned. The book also says that over 80 gospels were considered for inclusion in the Bible but only four were chosen (p 231).

One reading this book with the assumption of historical truth would simply accept this. The problem is that these Apocryphal books were not written until the 2nd or 3rd century. This is long after the time that the inspired Apostles and Prophets of Jesus' day wrote their works. There are some other problems with the Gnostic Gospels. The Gnostic movement started about the end of the 1st century and said, in summary, that matter is evil and that spirit is good.

One conclusion they reached is the denial of God becoming flesh. Therefore, Jesus was not a God nor the Christ. The Gnostics, also, did not accept the authority of the Jewish scriptures; something the New Testament does repeatedly. John told his readers to "not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (1 John 4:1). Paul talked about "sound doctrine" and having "one mind…" (2 Tim 1:13-14, Eph 4:3-6). What John and Paul wrote in his epistles are for defense against the early stages of Gnostic errors (2 Jn 7-9, 1 Jn 4:2-3, Col 2:8-10).

The Gnostic Gospels were not written by inspired men, they were never accepted as inspired scripture in the Churches, and they are not harmonious with the Bible. They also teach false doctrines of pantheism (God is nature) and the inferiority of women to men. There is no credible evidence for what this book espouses from these false sources.

2. The Sacred Feminine. The main theme through the book is the "Sacred Feminine." This is what the Priory of Sion is trying to protect. One of the scholars in the book proclaims "The early Jewish tradition involved ritualistic sex. In the temple, no less. Early Jews believed that the Holy of Holies in Solomon's temple housed not only God but also his powerful female equal, Shekinah" (p 309).

Any serious student of the OT should be amazed at this because the word "Shekinah" in the Hebrew OT describes the glory of God; not his divine wife. Monotheism was the backbone of Jewish worship. Pagan idol worship, adultery, and temple prostitution were forbidden over and over by the Law and Prophets. In the book the female cop has a recurring memory of a Sexual ritual she witnessed as a college student and, in the book, this was praised as healthy and spiritual.

The reverent Bible student should cringe at this. "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral" (Heb 13:4). With have enough problems with sexual immorality in this world without having a book say that it is okay because it is spiritual. It is a bit ironic that the book says that the Catholic church was the one to suppress the sacred feminine. Though they do not promote Mary Magdalene, think about their praise and worship of Mary the mother of Jesus.

That in itself has become idolatry as people pray to her and kneel before her as if she is the savior of the world. The book says that the Bible puts women down and that it suppresses the beauty of women. Though God is always referred to in the masculine, think about the descriptions of him as loving us like a mother and comforting us (Isa 66:13, 51:3; 2 Cor 1:2-3). In the beginning, man was incomplete without the woman (Gen 1:27).

The Bible does a lot to praise women, not suppress them. Proverbs 31 talks about the price of a virtuous woman being above the price of rubies. 3. Conclusion. This book is fictitious! I do not care what the author says; if it is not in harmony with the Bible it is not truth for "Your word is truth" (John 17:17).

Be aware that it is fiction and should be read as such. Let this test your strength and knowledge of the Bible. We must be "set for the defense of the gospel" (Phil 1:8). Hopefully it will be your confidence in the Bible as the word of God. "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" - Psalm 119:105.