Sunday Sermons
The DaVinci Code
“The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown has sold more than 7 million copies in a little over a year. That sets a record for sales within a one-year period, so that its publisher can claim that the book is the biggest-selling adult novel of all time. This work of fiction puts forward certain ideas as true, and a good number of readers are accepting them as true: Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, and their bloodline continues to this day. His true teachings had to do with the worship of ‘the sacred feminine’. The church (Catholic Church) suppressed His message with its patriarchal institutions and dogmatic theology, twisting the teachings of Jesus into an oppressive, life-denying system of harsh moral rules, the subjugation of women, and repression of sexual freedom, and sinister conspiracies to control society. Traces of true Christian goddess worship can be found throughout history of Western art, literature, and architecture, because the true faith has been preserved by an elite secret society” (World Magazine, July 3, 2004, p. 50). The book also contends that Jesus’ and Mary’s bloodline became the Merovingian royalty in France, and that Mary Magdalene is the actual "Holy Grail", for she was the vessel that held the blood of Jesus Christ in her womb while bearing His children. Over the centuries, the Grail-keepers have been guarding the true (and continuing) bloodline of Christ and the relics of Mary. The church, the story claims, kept this information under wraps to secure its position on celibacy and the superiority of men. While Brown claims to be using the best scholarship behind his novel, the principles sources are The Gnostic Gospels, written by feminist Elaine Pagels, and popular esoteric histories: Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Michael Baigent, The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ, by Lynn Picknett; The Goddess in the Gospels: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine and The Woman with the Alabaster Jar: Mary Magdalene and the Holy Grail, by Margaret Starbird. We should note that the Bible does not consider such accusations to be innocent or simply the human right to speculate, “The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son” (1 John 5:10).
Claims and responses
“Before Constantine, thousands of documents chronicled the life of Jesus as a mortal man; more than eighty gospels were considered for inclusion in the NT, but only the four that presented him as a divinity were included (pp. 231, 234)”
Actually, before Constantine (325 A.D.), the entire New Testament had been written. The gospel of John, of which we have portions that date from the early second century, frequently claims that Jesus is God (John 1:1,14; 5:18-19,23; 8:24; 14:9; 20:28). Long before Constantine or the Nicean Council in the 4th century A.D., the New Testament taught that Jesus was God(Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 1:8; 1:3). The claim that thousands of documents chronicled the life of Jesus as a mortal man is simply not true. Even Gnostic documents, like the Gospel of Thomas present Jesus as working miracles as a child. In addition, such documents were never considered for inclusion in the New Testament, and they do not exist in the thousands, for most of these works are not “gospels”, that is, they do not describe the life of Christ, and most of them were written in the second century (after the four gospels in the New Testament) or later.
“Indeed, Constantine collated the Bible as we know it today” (p. 231).
Long before Constantine was even born, New Testament letters were circulating, and Paul’s writings were even viewed as a collection (2 Peter 3:16ff). By the middle of the second century every book of the New Testament was referred to or quoted by those who lived after the apostles. Even the Gnostic Marcion (A.D. 140), in the list known as the Muratorian Canon began with Mark, and refers to Luke as the third gospel and follows with John, Acts, and so on. The Old Latin translation, which was translated prior to 200 A.D. and served as the Bible for Western Christians, contained all the New Testament books except Hebrews, James, and 1 and 2 Peter. The Codex Barococcio (A.D. 206), mentions 64 of the 66 books of the Bible, and only Esther and Revelation are omitted. The above accusation is the same old worn out accusation that many cults have used in the past, that is, that the Catholic Church removed and added teachings or books from the Bible. Any teaching or theory that depends upon the Bible being corrupted for its lifeblood should be suspect (Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 1:23-25), because it makes God not omnipotent. In addition, the claim that the Catholic Church tinkered with the Bible and altered the nature of Christianity as revealed in the Bible is obviously false: The Bible that we possess today is translated from manuscripts that are far older than the Catholic Church! The New Testament does not contain any of the doctrines that make the Catholic Church different from other churches, such as the worship of Mary, celibate bishops, the pope, and so on. Finally, the New Testament actually teaches doctrines that are contrary to the Catholic church (1 Timothy 3:1-2; 1 Timothy 2:6; 1 Peter 2:9-10), and it predicts the condemns the arrival of Catholicism (1 Timothy 4:1-3)—as well as Gnosticism (1 John).
"Jesus' establishment as 'the Son of God' was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea. . . . until “that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal man" (p. 233).
Such a claim first must ignore the historical fact that all the New Testament was in existence and viewed as Scripture before the above-mentioned Council, and that the early Christians were Christians for no other reason than they believed that Jesus was the Son of God (Matthew 16:16). In fact, such a belief was a requirement for salvation (John 20:30-31; Romans 10:9-10; John 8:24). Throughout the ages people that argued that Jesus was not God, but the testimony of men is worthless. The only thing that matters is, “what has God said?” The Father clearly testified that Jesus is His Son (1 John 5:9).
"It's a matter of historical record" that "Jesus and Magdalene were a pair" (p. 244).
Actually, the most trustworthy and best-authenticated information from that time period, denies this claim. The New Testament, which is the best authenticated collection of writings from the first century says nothing about Jesus being married or that He and Mary were a pair. Someone needs to point out to Brown that such an accusation is slander, and God not only hates such(Proverbs 6:16-19), but how much more when such gossip is perpetuated against His own Son!
“The passage in the Gospel of Philip that speaks of Jesus kissing Mary Magdalene often, and loving her more than the rest of the disciples as his ‘companion’ is evidence of ‘a romantic relationship’ (p. 246).
Here is the passage as it reads in the Gnostic gospel of Philip. “There were three Mariams who walked with the Lord at all times: his mother and [his] sister and (the) Magdalene— she who is called his mate. Thus his (true) Mother, Sister and Mate is (also) called ‘Mariam’”. Of course, the problem with uninspired writings is that they also mention other things, like the claim that Jesus was a created being, “The Father creates a Son, but it is not possible for the Son himself to create a Son. For it is impossible for him who is begotten himself to beget. But rather the Son begets for himself Brothers instead of Sons”. People need to be very careful about placing their faith in such writings or thinking that such writings are telling them what they want to hear (2 Timothy 4:3), for the Gnostic gospel of Thomas has this passage, Gospel of Thomas 114: Simon Peter said to him, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life." Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven." Oops! Too much information!
Goddess worship and the oppression of women
It is intellectually dishonest to claim that the New Testament writers sought to vilify Mary Magdalene and suppress the truth that she was married to Jesus. On the contrary, the New Testament presents her in a positive light, as one of those who supported Jesus (Luke 8:1-3), and as one of the first witnesses of the resurrected Christ (an event that confirmed the fact that He was God) (John 20:18). In addition, the New Testament elevates women, it does not treat them as second-class citizens or mere objects (Galatians 3:26-28; 1 Peter 3:7; Ephesians 5:25ff). Gene Edward Veith observed, “Feminists too are constructing their own histories and their own mythologies. According to feminist cosmology, the most ancient people lived in matriarchal societies, with women ruling, living in harmony and worshipping a goddess. Later, patriarchal tribes invaded, subjecting women, bringing violence and oppression, all at the behest of their male gods. Never mind that there is no evidence for this feminist Eden. Never mind that matriarchal tribes in which the lineage is calculated through the line of the mother rather than the father—do not treat women particularly well. Nor do tribes that worship goddesses—their worship of fertility generally means that women are valued for their childbearing capacity and not much else. Ancient paganism was polytheistic, with a plethora of gods and goddesses. Improvement in the treatment of women came with Christianity, not any of the pagan religions. Nevertheless, feminist theologians persist in attacking Christianity and promoting goddess worship as a way to recover an ‘ancient female spirituality’ that they themselves made up”.
Gnosticism
“Gnostic myths reject the objective, created order in favor of an inner-directed secret knowledge. Since the creation is evil, so is the Creator, so the Gnostics turn the Old Testament upside down: God is attacked as a cruel, oppressive deity, while the serpent in the garden and Satan himself are seen as the good guys. Christ is not God in the flesh who died on the cross but a mystical avatar who gives knowledge to the spiritual elite. Since the physical body doesn’t matter, sexual immorality is not problematic, and gender distinctions are illusions. The current postmodernist worldview, which rejects objective truth in favor of the notion that truth is nothing more than a construction of the mind, is itself intrinsically Gnostic” (World Magazine, July 3, 2004, p. 50,51). This really explains why Mr. Brown and others feel so free to make things up. “If you are a Gnostic who does not believe the objective world really exists and that all truths are mere constructions, you can construct ‘truths’ of your own to advance your power agenda. There really is no difference between fact and fiction. It is all fiction” (p. 51).
