THE DA VINCI CODE EVANGELISM

THE DA VINCI CODE EVANGELISM Philippians 1:17-18 May 21, 2006 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction The Da Vinci Code is a blockbuster novel that has been selling at the phenomenal rate of 85,000 copies a week, and that after more than a year at or near the top of the bestseller list. In its 56th printing, there are now over 7 million copies in print. As of Friday it is now in theaters and promising record-breaking sales. Unless you’ve been on a deserted island somewhere you know that author Dan Brown is being attacked by Christian groups and historians alike that it is based on historical inaccuracies and bogus claims about the Christian faith. An estimated one in five Americans have read the book and according to polls by the Barna Group, over 2 million say they have changed their religious beliefs as a result of reading it. Church leaders are concerned that the film will go even farther in misleading viewers, causing them to doubt the historical foundation of Christianity. I join them—not because there is good reason for such doubt, but because I am confident that most people, sadly including many Christians, don’t know enough about the faith to withstand the insidious appeal of such pseudo- religious quackery, especially when portrayed in novels and on the big screen. Preliminary thoughts and Philippians 1 Thus I’ve chosen to dedicate a teaching to the subject. My point is not to bash the book, the film or the author, even though Brown is smart enough to make a hopelessly ridiculous conspiracy theory somehow believable to millions. My point is to reassert the fundamental bases of the Christian faith that are questioned in The Da Vinci Code so that we are equipped to speak intelligently to those who ask questions. And they will. Let me begin by reminding you that this is a work of fiction. That means at least that its contents are not based on fact, even though readers are hoodwinked by some comments by the author and publisher that the book is based on factual information. Please note, the disclaimers never mention it is based on factual data concerning the church or the New Testament—only data concerning some secret societies and other peripherals. In fact the actual quote says, “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” Noticeably absent in this short list is mention of accuracy in terms of biblical interpretation or history. The author says, “The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown says that, though the book is fiction, “much of its history is factual.” This is crafty wording by someone trying to sell a book and hawk a movie, but it can be terribly misleading because of this sad reality: people are spiritually ignorant, and therefore vulnerable (if not gullible) to hype, especially from the media. Paul wrote the letter to the Philippians from prison, where he had been preaching the gospel to his captors. Among those guards and others who heard Paul, many who did not believe the message were making fun of it and spreading jokes and exaggerations about it. Some believers were concerned about this and how the message was being mocked and distorted. Paul responded with these words in Philippians 1:15-18: It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of good will. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. I want to encourage us to take confidence in the gospel this morning—it is the power of God for salvation. (Romans 1:18) Rather than our getting all bent out of shape about the potential negative effects of this movie’s distortion of the gospel and its slander of the church, let’s be like Paul and rejoice in the fact that at least Christianity is being discussed in the marketplace! We can envision unsaved people actually coming to Paul with questions and accusations about the gospel precisely because of what they heard from derisive detractors! In some of the most optimistic language in the New Testament, the apostle shares his enthusiasm for the opportunity to share the gospel, even though it has been distorted. At least people are talking about Christ! So he says he rejoices for the opportunity. We ought to likewise rejoice that our neighbors and coworkers are at least talking about Christianity. But that’s not to say there is nothing to say or do—after all, there is erroneous information about the Christian faith being spread. What did Paul do? Exactly what we should do—take advantage of the opportunity to bring a correct interpretation of the gospel. We should be prepared to answer questions and defend truth in the face of error. 1 Peter 3:15 – In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect… It is fascinating to me how the Bible almost never tells us to debate the wrong philosophies and attack those who teach error, but rather we are called to present a reasonable defense for what we believe—an “explanation, answer”—really, a testimony. We should use the interest in the movie to tell the straight story. When you do address the issues, don’t fight or argue on a carnal level. If you stop to fight with every dog you never get the mail delivered—and the “mail” is the gospel. Also, beware of debating if you are out of your league. If you don’t know much about the topic, don’t prove it by getting in over your head. That’s my teaching this morning—The Da Vinci Code Evangelism. So, with that in mind, let’s get equipped. Some of you have read the book and some of you might even have braved the crowds to see the film this weekend. We obviously will not cover all the subject matter, but I do want to deal with at least three issues raised by the movie that create distortions in the Christian message and will definitely be points of discussion at the water cooler or coffee shop or over lunch. 1. The divine nature of Christ As any beginning student of Christianity knows, the central doctrine of the faith concerns Christ—who He is in His nature as the God man. The Bible’s clear message about Jesus is that He is the divine Son of God. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. (John 1:1) Here is a representative quote from the author: "Until 325 AD, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet; a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless—a mortal." 325 was the year of the Council of Nicea when church leaders finally put an end to the multiple heresies that had arisen, claiming that Jesus was only a man and not divine. The Council formulated an official statement based on the scriptures to clearly confirm the Bible’s teaching over against other spurious writings that Jesus was and is the divine Son of God. What The Da Vinci Code delivers in its fictional story line is the idea that everyone believed Jesus was a mere mortal man until 325 a.d. when the church suddenly announced He was God, as if for 300 years nobody believed He was He was divine! But that simply didn’t happen. The clarion message of the New Testament and the testimony of the church from the Day of Pentecost forward was unmistakably that Jesus is the divine Son of God, coexistent with the Father and the Spirit. It wasn’t suddenly made up three centuries later. Jesus Himself, while He walked the earth, said He was the Son of God—and said He was God. Speaking of Himself, He said, Before Abraham was born, I am (John 8:58), deliberately using the words God spoke to Moses about Himself—“I am.” And the Jewish leaders understood precisely what He meant, because they immediately tried to stone Him for blasphemy. Thomas addressed Jesus with the words, My Lord and My God. (John 20:28) Jesus is clearly presented in the pages of scripture as the divine Son of God, who was incarnated as a man, according to God’s gracious decree. The first century believers knew this without doubt. Yet, a character in the book makes this statement without a shred of evidence: "Until 325 AD, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet; a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless—a mortal." Again, the book is fiction, I understand, but this kind of comment is quite attractive to those who would just as soon not have Jesus Christ as Lord, holding them accountable for what they believe and do. Now don’t forget—every cult, heresy or specious philosophical movement that ever diverged from or came against the historic, biblical faith has this in common. None of them will admit to Christ’s divine nature. Catch that, no matter in what ways they can agree with some of the doctrines of orthodox Christianity, they are consistently unable to admit to the divine nature of Jesus. It’s like Satan just can’t trick us on this one. But it’s just as the Bible teaches: no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:3) And 1 John 4:1-3 is crystal clear: …test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. Brothers and sisters, just as soon as you hear someone on the radio or read their stuff in a book having a hard time admitting Jesus as the divine Son of God, you know you are dealing with a false teacher, a demonic philosophy, a heretical idea. And that is precisely what is idealized in this book and movie. But the Bible says Jesus Christ is God, the very Son of God. By the way, the Council of Nicea did, in fact, codify that truth in order to help the church stand against the heresies. Also incidentally, the heresies of that era had more to do with teaching that Jesus was not a man that whether or not He was God. Brown gets it all wrong. The Da Vinci Code brings ancient, demonic heresy to the New York Times best seller list and to the silver screen, glamorizes it, makes it sound so scientific and so intellectual, and those who’ve already decided to dismiss faith find yet another reason to do so. 2. The authority and reliability of the scriptures And speaking of bringing intellectual-sounding arguments against Christianity, not only is the divine nature of Christ called into question in the book, but so is the authority and reliability of the scriptures. One of the characters in The Da Vinci Code says: “The Bible is a product of man, my dear [note the condescending tone], not of God. History has never had a definitive version of the Book. The Bible as we know it today was collated by the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine the Great in 325 A.D..” Here we have a 21st century author’s fictional character (who seems like a scientist and an intellectual) challenging the veracity of the Word of God. The Bible, incidentally, has weathered the attacks of cynics for thousands of years, standing up as valid under the scrutiny of highly motivated skeptics. The books of the New Testament were all written within 60 years of the resurrection of Christ by the apostles and other eyewitnesses of Jesus. Soon after that, other writings appeared—spurious books claiming to be written by such characters as Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Barnabas, Judas, and a host of others. Church leaders were forced to develop qualifying criteria to distinguish between authentic and bogus records of the life and teaching of Christ. One criterion was that the document had to have roots connected to one of the apostles—it either had to be written by one of the apostles or by a first generation associate of the apostle. Such writings had to have appeared soon enough after Jesus that there were still eyewitnesses around who could challenge any inaccuracies. The Da Vinci Code mentions “many other books about Jesus’ life,” but fails to mention that they were written much later than the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament, most of them not until centuries after Christ’s earthly ministry. Secondly, for a book about Christ to have been accepted as authentic, it had to be consistent with the teaching of Jesus it was passed on to the next generation by the apostles. One of the books that did not make muster was the Gospel of Thomas. Let me read to you the last part of this text: Simon Peter said, “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.” The third qualifier for a book to be included in the “canon” or accepted list of biblical books was this: it had to have widespread influence in churches in the widest geographic span. That is, the church at large must have accepted it as the Word of God. One historian puts it this way: “None of the non-canonical gospels comes close in date of composition, breadth of distribution or proportion of acceptance.” Our Bible is not the result of Constantine’s whimsical choice in 325 A.D. More than a hundred years before Constantine a church leader named Origin said, “The four gospels, Matthew Mark, Luke and John, are the only undisputed ones in the whole church of God throughout the whole world.” The great New Testament scholar, William Barclay wrote: It is the simple truth to say that the New Testament books became canonical because no one could stop them from doing so. They had that power to them.” The bottom line is this—when the author Dan Brown uses such tired old ideas like “the Bible didn’t even come to be until the fourth century,” he is drawing on pseudo-science, inaccurate history and very poor logic. Besides that, it’s all been tried before, and the Bible is still the bestseller of all, with nearly 3 billion copies sold. Dan Brown’ historical research is as inferior as his logic. From the book: Fortunately for historians, some of the gospels Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950’s hidden in a cave near Qumran in the Judean desert. First, the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947, not in the 50’s. And secondly, far from discrediting Christianity the Dead Sea Scrolls discovery actually confirmed the extraordinary accuracy of the scriptures. Author John Ortberg says, It would be hard to pack more misinformation about something in a shorter space than “The Da Vinci Code” does in this quote. Another academician quipped, It’s the only book I know that after you’ve read it, you’re dumber than you were when you started. 3. The alleged cover-up of the “holy grail” The plot of The Da Vinci Code identifies the “holy grail” as the idea that Jesus chose Mary Magdalene to be not only the head of the church after He was dead (no resurrection asserted), but also to be His secret wife. That’s right, Jesus was married to Mary, according to this story line, but it was all kept a secret by the church so that everyone would still believe Jesus was divine, even though those closest to Him knew He was not. No one ever gives a hint of evidence that it was true, but it is the center of the plot. Hang on to your hat. The whole thing is, according to this conspiracy, that Christianity and the Church as presented by the New Testament, was only an attempt by men to gain control over women. But every reliable source of 1st century history agrees that women were already terribly subjugated to men in the culture, and men were already in control. And the church most decidedly did not perpetuate that sort of thing. In fact, the church led the way in freeing women from being considered nothing but property. If any of Dan Brown’s researchers read the New Testament gospels at all they could not have missed how Jesus honored and respected women. And if they studied early church history they would have seen how women flocked to the church because they were taught, There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28) The plot builds out of this idea of the cover-up of the marriage of Christ to Mary and His plans to install her as the head of His church. Murder and intrigue follow because the church has kept the secret from the world and a secret catholic society, Opus Dei, is determined to expose the truth. There are a lot of reasons to disbelieve such a preposterous plot, but many are hungry for a tantalizing conspiracy theory. And such is the mission of good fiction—to lead the unsuspecting reader to temporarily suspend reason and enter into the story as a participant. But there’s less here than meets the eye, and the reader and movie-goer must be careful to not be influenced by heretical notions. The Da Vinci Code is short on history, long on fiction. It has a lot of people paying top dollar for movie tickets; it has a lot of people reading; it has a lot of people talking about God and faith (good!). But it still distorts Christianity. And it does so in two ways. First it maligns the church. Of course, it is only fiction, but it is hard for most not to cheer when the big, institutional, cold, austere church is made the bad guy. And I am convinced that many will come away from this film at least mildly perturbed at the church. But the greatest tragedy is that the church and the faith are at the center of a fictional plot and, once again, the most important thing about the church is overlooked. The primary message of the church is completely left out. According to this book, it’s almost as if the whole purpose of the church is to keep things from people. But the opposite is true. We are bringing good news to people. We’re not withholding, but giving; not hiding, but proclaiming, not selfish but openhearted with the gospel. Our mission is to bring the message of hope and salvation through Jesus Christ, the Son of God who became incarnate, died in our behalf and rose again. It’s a shame that key message was missed in this blockbuster. But it won’t be missed here this morning. John 3:16; 1 Peter 2:24   [Back to Top]