The Bible is Holy Truth inspired by God: The DaVinci Code
Henry Edward Cardinal Manning who lived from 1808-1892 began his ministry in the Anglican Church, but after his conversion to Rome, he became Archbishop of Westminster, and a popular writer. During a period of great depression and a darkening of his faith, he went into a well-known bookstore for a copy of one of his own books, entitled Faith in God. As he waited for the book to be sent up from the storeroom, he heard a man¡¯s voice call up saying,
In our pop culture today we think we have figured out just about everything. We are surrounded by the beacons of the world that try to point us to some self-fulfilling better than everyone else indulgence in modernistic materialism that seeks to satisfy our every desire. But, isn¡¯t that what we want? Something to give us a sense of well being, something to fulfill us completely. Right. Yeah, that¡¯s what our human minds want. So then at some point in our lives most of us embark on a journey to find ourselves. When we have found our selves we gain a sense of being. You can find your sense of being in Christianity or you can find your sense of being in the other things found on our planet. As Christians we know that the only thing that really gives us a sense of being is a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Amen. One of the ways we grow and nurture our relationship with God is through studying the Bible and applying the principles of Jesus¡¯ teaching to our everyday lives. We do this believing that the Bible is Holy and inspired by God. Amen. This brings us to one of the questions posed by the DaVinci Code.
A human being writes a book, puts it on sale and it soon becomes the best seller. A few thousand copies are sold and before long this book is forgotten and another takes its place. That is probably what will happen to the DaVinci Code. The Bible was written by God Himself. It is the best seller of every year and it is never forgotten. It remains always the one standing Book. Every effort to destroy the Bible has failed.
The DaVinci Code brings into question the Holiness of the Bible. Dan Brown the author of The DaVinci Code says we can¡¯t trust the Bible. Dan Brown says on page 237 ¡°The Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven¡.The Bible is a product of man, my dear. Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definite version of the book.(Brown 231).¡± Dan Brown tries to say that Constantine created his own version of the Bible for political purposes. In 325 AD Various Bishops met at Nicea, it is called the Council of Nicea. Dan Brown tries to say that at this council Dan Brown financed the writing of the Bible and that at this council Jesus¡¯ Divinity was voted on. Brown claims that the four gospels in the Bible were picked at this time. The truth is those gospels were put together years before the Council of Nicea even met. Brown claims that the four gospels were canonized at Nicea when in fact they were in use and accepted as true teachings before 325 AD. Origen who lived 185-254 AD said ¡°Nevertheless, among all these we have approved solely what the church has recognized, which is that only the four gospels should be accepted.¡± That¡¯s around a hundred years before the Council of Nicea took place in 325 AD.
Brown claims that we are only given a partial picture of Jesus in the Gospels. There are other ¡°gospels¡± that claim to be about Jesus, but they are unreliable at best. They have familiar names in their titles, like the gospel of Philip, gospel of Thomas, gospel of Peter, gospel of Mary Magdalene, the gospel of Judas and there is one even called the gospel of Truth. But these writings are unreliable they were written 2,3 and 400 years after the death of Christ. The Gospels we have in our Bible were written by eyewitnesses or those who heard eyewitness accounts. These other gospels are called the Gnostic gospels, and brown claims they have the same level of authority as the gospels in our Bible, this is not true. They are unreliable. They say things that do not match with the ideals set forth in the New Testament Gospels. The Gospel of Philip claims that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married. The gospel of Mary claims that Jesus wanted Mary to be the leader of the church as the divine feminine. These Gnostic gospels make some outlandish statements. ¡°The DaVinci Code would have us believe that the Gnostic Gospels affirmed women, where the New Testament put women down. One of the passages from the Gospel of Thomas says ¡°Simon Peter said to them: ¡°Let Mary (probably Magdalene) 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 your males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven¡± (Gospel of Thomas, saying 114) (71 Garlow).¡± This doesn¡¯t make any sense. And it isn¡¯t very feminist.
Listen, There are two glasses of liquid, One water and one bleach. Choose one to drink. Pinch your nose and take a long drink. Come choose. If you get the wrong one, your sincerity will not be of much help. It does matter what you put your faith in. Just like those other books you see in the religion section, some of the writers make some fascinating claims, as does Dan Brown. But their faith is mislaid. Just because they are serious about what they say and just because Dan Brown can write a good mystery/suspense novel doesn¡¯t mean they are speaking the truth
One of John Wesley¡¯s principles for understanding God was the authority of Scripture; but experience also was held high in determining his faith. What this means is that when you read and test and comprehend the Scripture it will talk to you and will do all the persuading you need.
The Bible contains the only truth for me. I am convinced without a doubt that the Bible is the Holy inspiration of God. No Doubt!! The Truth of God will overcome all things. There was a sign on a Principal¡¯s door that said ¡°In case of nuclear war, fire, or earthquake, the ban on prayer will be temporarily lifted.¡± Now come on¡¡ That is the way a lot of people think. They deny God and the Truth of the Bible until they find themselves in need of something that is greater and more powerful than the other resources around them! Until they need the power of the Truth we read about in our Holy and God inspired Bible!!
I do not need to test the Bible because I have experienced the power of the Gospel in my life. But lets give our human minds some sense of satisfaction. Lets put the writings of the Bible to the tests that are applied to ancient writings to see if they are accurate. We will use the External Evidence Test, Internal Evidence Test and the Archaeological Test.
The External Test.
Josephus a Jew who became an official historian of Rome born in around AD 37 and wrote most of his works by 100AD. He wrote the history of the Jews and says in one passage ¡°About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats and was a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Christ. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing among us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared to them restored to life, for the prophets of God had prophesied these and countless other marvelous things about him. And the tribe of Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared.
Eusibius who is said to have lived in the early 4th century preserved the writings of Papius, who was taught by John the apostle directly. In these writings, he records how John told that Mark wrote his Gospel account by following Peter in his journeys.
The Internal Test.
If you like forensic science then you will enjoy digging through the findings of modern archeology. When a forensic scientist/detective is looking for the truth they try to pick out little details to confirm the larger story. If someone told you that they flew United to Austin, Texas rented a car at Enterprise and stayed at the Holiday Inn Austin and visited Fredericksburg(an old German town in Texas), went sight seeing and bought some souvenirs at the Yankee Workshop, stopped at Wal-Mart to develop some pictures, and ate at Olive Garden. You could confirm all these things. Right? You could call United and confirm that there was a flight to Austin, Texas and even get a passenger list to find out who was on the plane that went to Austin. You could check with Holiday Inn to make sure there was a Holiday Inn in Austin. You could look on your map, find Fredericksburg to make sure there was such a town. You could check with Olive Garden to find out if there was an Olive Garden in Austin, Texas. The more details you can confirm the more truthful we believe the story to be. Right? The same is true for the New Testament. Archeology is how we can check the details found in the New Testament. Luke¡¯s gospel has been confirmed by archeology. Sir William Ramsey did some research and excavated a number of sites and proved that Luke¡¯s Gospel was trustworthy. Modern archeology has determined that there was a census taken at the time of Christ¡¯s birth and that everyone did in fact return to their ancestral home and that Quirinius was indeed the governor of Syria. Johns Gospel has also been proven to be trustworthy. John claims that Jesus healed a lame man in by the pool of Bethesda. John 5:1-15 says ¡°Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One was there had been invalid for thirty eight years¡¡Then Jesus said to him, ¡°Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.¡± At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.¡± The pool of Bethesda was found 40 feet below ground. And there were exactly five covered colonnades just as John described them. In all Luke names thirty two countries, fifty four cities, and nine islands without error. Archeology is a good friend to the Gospels. Amen. The Dead Sea Scrolls are one of the most famous archaelogical discoveries to prove the Bible. Every one of the Old Testament books is found in these scrolls. Before they were found the earliest manuscripts we had of the Bible were from 900 AD almost a thousand years later than when these scrolls were made. Amazingly, when the Dead Sea scrolls were compared with the later manuscripts, practically no differences were found. The differences, about 5 percent, are most in word spellings. That¡¯s almost no changes in 1,000 years. That is amazing and that proves the reliability of the books of the Bible. Amen.
The Bible is the best selling book of all time. Constantine didn¡¯t pick the books of the New Testament. The Gospels are totally reliable accounts of the work of God in this world.
Resources Used
Ladd, George Eldon. A Theology of the New Testament. Eerdmans publishing
company, Grand Rapids, Michigan;
Garlow, James L.-Jones, Peter. Cracking DaVincis Code. Cool Communications,
Colorado Springs, CO;
Sermon by Jonathan McLeod, Sermoncentral.com
Sermon by Russell Brownsworth, Sermoncentral.com
Sermon by Scott Weber, Sermoncentral.com
Lutzer, Erwin W. The DaVinci Deception. Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton Illinois
¡°Nelson¡¯s complete book of Stories, Illustrations & Quotes¡±, Robert Morgan, Thomas
Nelson; 2000
¡°The DiVinci Intrique¡± in Outreach magazine, March/April 2006-05-27
Life Application Study Bible, Zondervan¡ªNew International Version
