The Da Vinci Code Deception: Fact or Fiction?
Dear Friends
Sorry it has been a while since I have blogged. I have been wrapped up in my sermon for this week and family obligations. So don't loose heart. Come back and check out the blog. But this week, I have an extra special treat for you. I just preached a sermon on the book by Dan Brown called The Da Vinci Code. It is soon to be released as a Movie by Ron Howard (Opie from Andy Griffith), starring Tom Hanks. Brown claims the novel to be a fiction piece, but declares many aspects of his book to be factual. The book really relates half truths and lies concerning the Scriptures, Jesus and early church history. I have copied my sermon over to the blog to show where the book goes wrong. The ( ) with a page number relates to Brown's hardback edition of the book. Of course, my sermon is not exaustive and the footnotes are not complete. There were a few issues in copying from the program I use to the blog word processor.
Thanks goes to the Christian authors I have used to prepare this sermon. Without their tedious research and fact finding, it would have taken me longer than a week to prepare for this weeks sermon. If you are creating a library for sermon research or just Christian history and knowledge, I highly recommend the Christian books to you for purchase. Check out the works cited portion of the document. These books have each served me well, not only for this sermon, but other projects as well. Kerusso Logos
Bro. Robin
2 Tim 3:1-5, 4:2-4
Sorry it has been a while since I have blogged. I have been wrapped up in my sermon for this week and family obligations. So don't loose heart. Come back and check out the blog. But this week, I have an extra special treat for you. I just preached a sermon on the book by Dan Brown called The Da Vinci Code. It is soon to be released as a Movie by Ron Howard (Opie from Andy Griffith), starring Tom Hanks. Brown claims the novel to be a fiction piece, but declares many aspects of his book to be factual. The book really relates half truths and lies concerning the Scriptures, Jesus and early church history. I have copied my sermon over to the blog to show where the book goes wrong. The ( ) with a page number relates to Brown's hardback edition of the book. Of course, my sermon is not exaustive and the footnotes are not complete. There were a few issues in copying from the program I use to the blog word processor.
Thanks goes to the Christian authors I have used to prepare this sermon. Without their tedious research and fact finding, it would have taken me longer than a week to prepare for this weeks sermon. If you are creating a library for sermon research or just Christian history and knowledge, I highly recommend the Christian books to you for purchase. Check out the works cited portion of the document. These books have each served me well, not only for this sermon, but other projects as well. Kerusso Logos
Bro. Robin
2 Tim 3:1-5, 4:2-4
INTRODUCTION
I. The Da Vinci Code
A. A Novel that will be released as a movie in May of 2006
1. One review by the Rocky Mountain News
That rare book that manages to both entertain and educate simultaneously. Dan Brown has managed to outdo the best of Robert Ludlum in this byzantine . . . and engrossing story. There is enough medieval history to please any historian and enough action to satisfy a hardcore thrill-seeker.[1]
2. Lays false claims about early Christianity
a. Jesus became God by a close church vote.
b. There were eighty other gospels about Jesus. They were destroyed by
the church to protect its doctrine.
c. The early church practiced ritualistic sex in its worship
d. Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and had a child.
e. The four gospels we have today were edited by Emperor Constantine to
make Jesus appear devine and to solidify Constantine’s kingdom.
B. Dan Brown’s claim to accuracy.
1. First page of book.
Fact: All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.[2]
2. Interview with the Today Show.
LAUER: How much of this is based on reality in terms of things that actually occurred? I know you did a lot of research for the book.
Mr. BROWN: Absolutely all of it. Obviously, there are--Robert Langdon is fictional, but all of the art, architecture, secret rituals, secret societies, all of that is historical fact.(http://www.danbrown.com/media/todayshow.htm)
II. How Shocking Should These Claims Be To The Church Today? One analagy:
While doing research at Mount Vernon into the life of the father of our country, a veteran scholar is murdered. While dying, he leaves a long trail of intricate clues for his granddaughter and a friend so that they might avenge his death. After solving the clues despite their Byzantine complexity, the two finally learn an awful truth: George Washington was really a member of a secret society that worshiped King Geourge III of England and his queen Charlotte Sophia. In fact, the reason for the Amernican reverses early in the revolutionary War was that Washington, a true but clandestine tory, was secretly communicating Colonial war plans to the British via Benedict Arnold, Washington’s secret illegitimate son. At Yorktown, while awaiting a British support fleet, Washington was preparing to surrender to Cornwallis, but when De Grasse arrived with his fleet of French ships to aid the American side, Washington had to accept Cornwallis’s surrender instead.
At the end of his life, Washington’s conscience got the better of him, and he wrote a confession that was buried with him in his tomb at Mount Vernon. The scholar who discovered it was then murdered by the CIA who feared that his find would destroy the patriotic mystique of America’s founding father and demoralize the country. When the FBI and CIA learn that the granddaughter and her friend know tha awful truth, an all points bulletin is issued for the pair. After a harrowing series misadventures, the two escape capture. But no, they will not reveal the “truth” about Washington either.[3]
A. Hogwash and Rubbish.
III. Living in a time of spirituality
A. But it is not a spirituality that submits to an authority greater than ourselves.
B. It is a spirituality that focused on ourselves and making us feel good.
1. This is the spirituality of “The Da Vinci Code”
Christians need to awake from our spiritual slumber of ignorance and defend God’s Word and Christian history against the slanderous accusations against our cherished doctrines and traditions.
2 Tim 3:1-5
1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
2 Tim 4:2-5
2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
C. We live in a time when this is being done.
1. I am not suprised by the world and its frenzy over this book.
2. I am suprised by Christians who embrace the false teachings of this book and
doubt their faith.
Prayer
BODY
I. The Attack On Jesus’ Divinity
A. Fiction: Jesus Became God By A Vote, “A relatively close vote at that.” (pg. 233)
1. Fact: Jesus’ Divinity is attested by many witnesses.
a. Jesus’ Divinity attested to the Bible and even before the Bible was written.
- Many Scholars attest that Philippians 2:6-11 is a pre-Pauline hymn that professes
belief in a real Jesus who was both human and divine.[4]
Phil 2:6-11
6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth,
11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
- Only God was worthy of worship as stated in verses 10-11
- It declares in verse 6 that Jesus was in the form of God.
b. The Early Church Father’s saw Jesus as God.
- Ignatius (Early 100’s) from Antioch called Jesus “Christ the God”[5]
- Irenaeus (180) Who, “Had the preaching of the Apostles still echoing in his ears and their
doctrine in front of His eyes,”[6] wrote “We must think of Jesus Christ as we do of
God.”[7]
c. The book claims that the Council of Nicea (325 A. D.) was a council to determine whether Jesus is God (233).
- The main issue was to determine if Jesus was co-eternal with the
Father or a created being by the Father[8]
- The vote was not close being 300 to 2 in favor of Jesus being co-
eternal with the Father.
B. Fiction: Jesus Was Just A Man. Fact: “If Jesus wasn’t God He deserves an Oscar.”[9]
1. Fact: Jesus declared himself to be God and the Jews wanted to stone Him for
doing so.
John 10:30
30 "I and My Father are one."
31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him.
33 The Jews answered Him, saying, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God."
2. Fact:Even the earliest enemies of Christianity knew that the church believed
Jesus was divine.
a. Celsus 178 A. D. said that Jesus had “declared himself divine.”[10]
b. Govenor Pliny the Younger 112 A.D. in a letter to Emperor Trajan,
“They were in in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god,”[11]
C. Fiction: Emperor Constantine (Milvian Bridge 312 A. D./[ xr] first two letters of Christ
in Greek/Maxentius[12]) Made Jesus God to Solidify His Power (pg 232)
1. Fact: Why would an emperor use a minority religion made up of slaves and
lower class people to solidify any power?
2. Constantine’s conversion would come later, but it came.[13]
THE ATTACK ON JESUS’ DIVINITY IS UNSUBSTANTIATED AND A JOKE
II. Attack On Scripture
A. Fiction: Bible is Solely A Product Of Man (pg 232)
1. Fact: The Bible is a product of man.
2. Fact: But it’s authority and origin is from God
2 Pet 1:21
21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
2 Tim 3:16
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
a. Fact: Men wrote down the words
b. Fact: God inspired it.
c. Fact: God kept it from error
B. Fiction: Never Has Been A Definite Version Of The Bible Before Constantine (pg 232)
1. Fiction: Nag Hammadi and Dead Sea Scrolls “The earliest Christian
Records” (pg 245)
a. Fact: Dead Sea scrolls - Found in 1947
- Contain all books of the Old Testament except Esther. Dates from
the third century B. C.
- Does not contain New Testament Writings.
b. Fact: Nag Hammadi - Founded in 1945 near the village of Nag Hammadi[14]
(Gospel of Philip and Gospel of Mary Magdalene)
c. None of the documents date before 150 A. D. and most were written in the 200
and 300’s[15] (Style of writing)
d. Most liberal scholars consent to the fact that the N. T. was written before 100
A. D.[16]
2. Fact: Most of the Bible was considered authentic before Constantine
a. Irenaeus (180 A.D.) Writings
- Fourfold Gospel(popular term used to describe the true gospels), Acts,
Romans,1 and 2 Corinthians,Galatians, Ephesiand Philippiand, Colossians,
1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, 1 Peter, 1 John,
Revelation.[17]
3. Fiction: There were more than 80 gospels considered for inclusion in the New
Testament (232)
a. Fact: The four gospels had universal approval among the early church
fathers.
b. Fact: there were only 5 writings that could be labeled as Gospels found in the
Nag Hammadi manuscripts.[18]
C. Fiction:Emperor Constantine editied the New Testament Writings and made Jesus
God in order to Solidify His Power. (pg 232)
1. Fact: “Constatine did, around 330 A. D. finance the copying and binding of fifty
copies of the Christian scriptures. This was not, however, a”new bible,” nor did
it omit or embellish and aspect of the gospels.”[19]
III. Attack On Jesus’ Celebacy
A. Fiction: Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married and had a child which started the
Merovingian Kingship in France.(245)
1. Fiction: Cup of Christ not a literal cup, but Mary M. who carried the Royal
Bloodline of Christ.
2. Fiction: Daughter named Sarah who was taken by Joseph of Arimathea (Jesus’
uncle) to Lyons France for safety.
a. Fact: Nothing in History books to prove or show this happened.
- Brown Claims Mary M. to be a direct descendent of the Tribe of
Benjamin.
b. Fact: Nothing in the Biblical or non Biblical records show this.
3. Fiction: Gospel of Philip Prove that Jesus and Mary were Married.( 245-248)
a. Found in the Nag Hammadi discovery. Egypt 1945
- Brown lumps the NH and the Dead Sea Scrolls together as the
“earliest Christian records.”
- Fact: Wrong. Dead sea scrolls Did not contain Christian documents
but dated to 200 B. C.
b. Fact: Because of style and content it is most likely that the “Gospel of
Philip” was written around the late 200’s to early 300’a A.D.
c. Fiction: Claims that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene because of the “Aramiac”
term for companion is spouse in the Gospel of Philip.(pg 246)
“It says noting of marriage. ‘Au Contraire’. Teabing smiled, pointing to the first line. As any Aramaic scholar will tell you, the word ‘companion,’ in those days, literally meant spouse.”
- Fact: It is written in Coptic and uses a loan word (koinonos) from
the greek to mean “wife” or “sister” in the spiritual sense. The
common word for wife in the Greek is “Gyne” There is no
evidence that an Aramaic version of this book ever existed.[20]
d. Fact: Problem: Missing parts of the text
“And the companion of the [...] Mary Magdalene. [... loved] her more than [all] the disciples [and used to] kiss her [often] on her [...][21]
B. Davinci’s Painting of the Last Supper.
1. Painted from 1495 to 1497 on the wall of the Convent of Sta Marie della Grazie
in Milan Italy.
a. Used water base tempera technique which caused the painting to quickly
deteriorate.
b. Painting is Approximately 29 feet long and 15 feet high.
2. Fiction: Brown’s book claims that the figure seated to the right of Jesus was not
the apostle John, but Mary Magdalene herself.
a. Depicts the part of the supper where Jesus states that he will be
betrayed.
- You can see that many of the figures are pointing fingers and
arguing.
b. Fact: So deteriorated that one can’t really make what the features are,
but the depiction of John does seem effeminate.
b. Fact: Many times younger men in paintings during Da Vinci’s time were
depicted with effeminate qualities.
c. Fact: If that is Mary M. they where is the missing apostle?
C. Priory of Sion is charged with keeping this secret.
1. Fact: Priory of Sion[22]
a. Fiction: Supposedly Formed in 1099 to preserve the great secret of
Jesus’ and Mary’s Marriage until the perfect time to reveal it to the
world.
- Fact: true date is 1956 by Pierre Plantard who forge documents to
gain kingship over France.
- Fiction: Documents called the Les Dossiers Secrets, identified Sir
Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Leonardo Da Vinci as
members of the Priory of Sion.
- Fact: These documents proved to be forged and in 1993 Plantard
under oath admitted that his claims were completely false.[23]
- Fact: Later it was discovered that he was a anti-semite with a
criminal record for fraud.
- Fact: 1996 BBC did a documentary exposing the fraud.
Unfortunately Dan Brown failed to watch the documentary.
- Fact: The Priory of Sion never dated back to the crusades.
- Fact: The Priory of Sion never dated back to the crusades.
CONCLUSION
I. Today we are dealing with people who see things differently than fifty years ago. (post-moderns)
Ed Hindson Quote: Heard Francis Schaeffer whil in college 35 years ago.
“When people come to the end of their rationalism, they will come to the end of their rationality.”
Then, Schaeffer suggested, they will fall for anything! They’ll lose their rationality. They’ll go intellectually crazy. Shaeffer predicted the time would come when we would see a return to the very roots of ancient paganism. People will mark and deface the body with tattoos, he suggested. People will worship feminine deities, People will stare into a crystal ball. They will try to talk to those who are dead and on the other side.[24]
A. Biblically Illiterate
B. Historically Illiterate
C. Morally Fallen: What if Jesus really did marry?
1. That would make him a mere human.
2. He could not atone for our sins
3. We would not have to seek forgiveness for our sins.
4. We then become God deciding what is true and not true for our lives.
5. Humanity has had a problem with submission to God
a. We have systematically lowered God and raised ourselves to god like
status.
FACT: Jesus Christ, God incarnate, went to the cross to die for our sins and rose on the third day to witness to us His victory over sin and death. If anyone shall confess Him as Lord and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead, they will be saved.(Romans 10:9)
WORKS CITED
Bock, Darrell L. Breaking The Da Vinci Code Answers to the Questions Everyone’s Asking. Nashville: Nelson Books, 2004.
Brown, Dan. The Da Vinci Code a Novel. New York: Doubleday, 2003.
González, Justo L. The Story of Christianity, the Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1984.
Hanegraaff, Hank and Paul L. Maier. The da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction. Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2004.
Jones, Timothy Paul. Answers to the da Vinci Code. Torrence: Rose Publishing Inc, 2004.
McDowell, Josh. The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict. Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1999.
ENDNOTES
[1]. Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code a Novel (New York: Doubleday, 2003), Inside Cover.
[2]. Brown, The Da Vinci Code a Novel, 1.
[3]. Hank and Paul L. Maier Hanegraaff, The da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction (Carol Stream: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2004), 38–39.
[4]. Josh. McDowell, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1999), 129.
[5]. Timothy Paul Jones, Answers to the da Vinci Code (Torrence: Rose Publishing Inc, 2004), 3.
[6]. McDowell, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, 44.
[7]. Jones, Answers to the da Vinci Code, 3.
[8]. Justo L. González, The Story of Christianity, the Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1984), 161.
[9]. McDowell, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, 137–54.
[10]. Jones, Answers to the da Vinci Code, 3.
[11]. Josh. McDowell, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1999), 58.
[12]. González, The Story of Christianity, the Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation, 107.
[13]. González, The Story of Christianity, the Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation, 107.
[14]. Jones, Answers to the da Vinci Code, 6.
[15]. Jones, Answers to the da Vinci Code, 6.
[16]. Jones, Answers to the da Vinci Code, 6.
[17]. Josh. McDowell, The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1999), 24.
[18]. Jones, Answers to the da Vinci Code, 6.
[19]. Jones, Answers to the da Vinci Code, 7.
[20]. Jones, Answers to the da Vinci Code, 4.
[21]. Darrell L. Bock, Breaking The Da Vinci Code Answers to the Questions Everyone’s Asking (Nashville: Nelson Books, 2004), 261.
[22]. Hanegraaff, The da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction, 10–12.
[23]. Jones, Answers to the da Vinci Code, 8.
[24]. Hindson Edward, The Da Vinci Code Deception (Lynchburg: Jerry Falwell Ministries, 2006), 21.
posted by Bro. Robin @ 12:48 PM
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