Error #3: The Gnostic Gospels present a positive view of the feminine

The Gnostic tests are said to picture a human sexualised Jesus who embraced the sacred feminine. Actually the Jesus presented in the Gnostic materials is often simply weird, and the underlying ideology tends to be radically anti-feminine. Consider this bizarre passage from the Gospel of Thomas:

"Simon Peter said to them, 'Make Mary leave us, for females don't deserve life'. Jesus said, 'Look, I will gide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.'"

In today's context, it would seem that the Gnostic texts, which some modern historians and theologians take to be authoritative Christian texts, are similar to the internet's blogs; they cannot be taken too seriously. Hence the early church fathers and elders have taken pains not to include them in the canon.

God's Book of Life and the World's Kings List

Taking a short break on posting about factual errors in the Da Vinci Code novel, I found an interesting post on Russel Smith's blog about The Book of Elites vs. The Book of Life. Arousing my curiosity, I actually did some very quick research myself on how the ancients kept lists of kings. There's this internet article on Lists of Kings or Pharaohs or other monarchs which indicate that many ancient civilisations such as those of Egypt, Rome, Assyria and so on meticulously kept lists of kings.

But what struck me most is that our King, Jesus, meticulously keeps a list of His subjects ... US ! And that list is the book of life. What a constrast. Indeed we have a King who knows us all by names and loves us. Quoting Russel Smith:

While ancient pagan religions honored the elite – the powerful and clever and strong, Christianity honors the humble and the faithful. While pagan religions had imperatives to goodness based mainly upon philosophical notions, Christianity based its imperatives upon right relationship with the living God.

Error #2: The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gnostic Gospels were the "earliest Christian records"

Dan Bown's novel mentioned that the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gnostic Gospels were the "earliest Christian records". Bible historians say that this is not the case. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947 and were dated from 250 BC to AD 100. However, these documents have virtually nothing to do with Christianity but with various Jewish groups, rituals and ideas before and during the time of Christ.

The Gnostic gospels offer a twisted and heretical version of the Christian faith, but they didn't come into existence until about a century or more later after the death of Christ. The earliest Christian records are the writings of the New Testament.

Error #1: The Bible was invented by Roman Emperor Constantine

The Bible consists of 66 books which were written over a period of around 1,500 years by 40 different authors in three languages; Hebrew, Aramic and Koine Greek (Reference: Bible facts). The Old and New Testaments consist of 39 books and 27 books respectively (Reference: Summary of the Books of the Bible). The 66 books of the Bible vary in size from one page to almost a hundred pages. The English word "Bible" comes from the Greek term which means "book." The Bible is the divinely inspired record of God's revelation, and as such it is the final authority for both Christian faith and practice. The Bible teaches its own completeness (Revelation 22:18,19) and sufficiency (II Timothy 3:16,17). (Reference: Origin of the Bible).

The Da Vinci Code mentions that "Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible", one that left out the Gnostic texts and included the four traditional Gospels. In fact, Constantine had nothing to do with the making of the Christian Canon. The traditional gospels were recognised by virtually all Christians 150 years before Constantine. The canonicity of a book (that is, its right to be part of the canon) is dependent upon its recognized authority. This is important to understanding the canon of Scripture:

• Many people think the books are considered authoritative because they are included in the Bible; the historical truth is the opposite; they are included in the Bible because they are considered authoritative.

The canon of Scripture is the result of the collecting together of the various writings which Christians of previous times recognized as authoritative. The Biblical canon is thus an exclusive list of books written during the formative period of the Jewish or Christian faiths; the leaders of these communities believed these books to be inspired by God or to express the authoritative history of the relationship between God and his people (although there may have been secondary considerations as well).

20 inaccuracies in the Da Vinci Code novel

Over the next few posts, I will be putting out some more thoughts about the Da Vinci Code. This time, I will comment on and take some excerpts from an article entitled "20 Big Lies in the Da Vinci Code" by James A. Beverly, who writes from the evangelical Christian perspective.

Within a short timeframe of three years, Dan Brown's novel became one of the best sellers of all time. It has also come under fire by many people within Christiandom because of some of its radical claims. "But its just a work of fiction right?" is the refrain from many who have read the book. The only problem with that statement lies in page 1 of the novel where the author asserts that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate."

Many critics, however, have noted its inaccuracy and mistakes in many areas or subjects it addressed in the story. Thus, it would be important that people get to hear another perspective of the ongoing argument; that of the critics of the novel's historical inaccuracy. We will examine these inaccuracies over the next 20 articles.

Stay tuned !

The Holy Alphabet

Just to take a little break from the more serious topics of the Da Vinci Code and other stuff that were featured recently, someone sent me the link to an interesting little website called the Holy Alphabet. The person who did this must have had some divine inspiration to come up with such a beautiful poem. Read it and enjoy !

The character and choices of Moses

Excerpts from the Walking in the Word series by Trinity Christian Centre, Singapore.

Sunday, 05 Mar 2006. Preacher: Ed Pousson of Trinity Christian Centre, Singapore

Title:

The Heartbeat of God - The character and choices of Moses

Verses:

Heb 11:24-27

Lesson:

1. The book of Hebrews is a call to commitment in a time of crisis. Some people in the early church were wavering, but this was written to encourage the church during difficult times. Chapter 11 tells several stories about faith and the definition of faith. It tells of God's message of missions for his people.

2. Moses was faced with several difficult choices. But by faith, he turned from royalty to suffering servanthood in order to serve God. In vs 24, we see that:

Mission of Man - status
Mission of God - servanthood

3. It came into his heart to come to see his brethen, the Jews who were Egypt's migrant workers. He turned from royalty to servanthood, faith requires self downgrading. In vs 25, we see that:

Mission of man - pleasure
Mission of God - pain

4. Moses also turned from affluence to abuse, this is seen in vs 26:

Mission of man - affluence
Mission of God - abuse

5. What do we truly value? The world's wealth or Jesus' sacrifice? Things of the spirit far outweigh the things of the world. We must also choose because we cannot serve both God and mammon. We cannot make affluence our ambition in life.

6. The throne of phaaroh was designed to be so intimidating that it created fear in all who approached it. But Moses feared God instead. He went there and demanded phaaroh to release the Jews, the entire migrant workforce of Egypt. In vs 27, we see that:

Mission of man - fear of man
Mission of God - fear of God

Most Meaningful Statement:

Things of the spirit far outweigh the things of the world.

Thoughts:

1. The mission of God is contrasted with that of man as follows:

Mission of Man: status, pleasure, affluence, fear of man.

Mission of God: servanthood, pain, abuse, fear of God.

2. I think most of us would not mind the servanthood and fear of God bit. But I am sure all of us would be a bit more concerned about the pain and abuse part. Yet character is built only when we go through difficult times. And in order to accomplish a mission from God, a large dose of character would be in order !

3. What is important is not the mission per se but our relationship with God as we walk the journey. Remember that the mission itself is still subservient to the giver of the mission, God Himself.

Peeking Light

Lord let me commune with You so that I can thrive in You

Peeking Light, originally uploaded by Ozone71.

What should Christians do about the Da Vinci Code movie?

Excerpts from "Debugging the Da Vinci Code" by Dr. Mark D. Roberts.

Given that the book and the movie are supposedly or purportedly fictional, what should Christians do? Should Christians "back off" and stand back without some response to the movie? Inaction will multiply misperceptions of Jesus. Yet, we are all concerned about the potential from some well-meaning Christians to over-react to the film, thus losing an opportunity to speak clearly about Jesus in the larger world. If we believers focus our efforts negatively, conduct protests, or worse take part in riots, damaging people and property, then we will end up looking foolish because of how we act in public.

Though we all strongly disagree with the portrayal of Jesus in the Da Vinci Code, I think we must take the release of the film as an opportunity to get people talking about the real Jesus. Of course we prefer if the film did justice to the real Jesus, but eventhough it doesn't, we should not be so strident in our criticisms that we lose the chnace to talk about Jesus to those who aren't believers yet.

Rathan than public protests, riots and impassioned denunciations, I hope Christians will take the opportunity to speak clearly, sanely and persuasively about who Jesus really is.

Have a nice day.

Develop Opportunities to Reach People for Jesus

Excerpts from "Debugging the Da Vinci Code" by Dr. Mark D. Roberts

We need to look for and develop opportunities to talk with people about Jesus during this time when Dan Brown's book and Ron Howard's movie are all the rage. There will be lots of conversations about Jesus around the time the movie is launched. Christians need to be ready both to respond and to initiate discussions about Jesus. Plus, churches can seize this opportunity by sponsoring public lectures or discussion groups. Careful planning will give birth to events that are helpful to both believers and seekers. Just as there are some whose faith is challenged to the core by the concepts put forth by the book and the movie. Yet there will be some that are drawn to Jesus because of the book and the movie.

Individually and together, let's pray that:

"Lord, may You use the release of the book and Da Vinci Code movie to open a door of opportunity for us to tell others of the truth of Jesus Christ. As this happens, what might have caused harm, may You turn it around and use for Good. Amen".