Dealing With The 3 Major Claims of The Da Vinci Code
(This sermon uses ideas from the Grizzly Adams DVD, The DVC Deception, CH Spurgeon, Billy Sunday, & others. Precious few of these ideas, if any, are original to me.)
1 John 4:1-4
May 7, 2006 FBC, Chester Mike Fogerson, Pastor
I Introduction:
A Video clip "I Believe" from Sermonspice.com
1 Dan Brown has written a runaway best-seller call The Da Vinci Code
a Over 40 million copies sold
b Translated in over 40 languages
2 The story of intrigue, murder, & ecclesiastical conspiracy has many of the readers of The Da Vinci Code asking if the major claims of the novel are true.
a The Bible is unreliable, or incomplete at best
b Jesus wasn’t though to be divine until 325 AD
c Jesus was married & had a child
3 What do you believe?
B Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 1 John 4:1-4 (NASB)
1 The early church was instructed to test the spirits to see if they were from God (essence of the text in a sentence)
2 Believers are to be prepared to determine if a teacher (teaching) is from God (essence of the sermon in a sentence)
C I hope you’ll be prepared to talk about the fantastic claims of The Da Vinci Code from the standpoint of a believer (objective)
1 How ready are you to engage your culture when they call in to question the most basic tenants of your faith? (Probing question)
2 Let’s learn to deal with the 3 major claims that The Da Vinci Code makes about the Christian faith.
3 Pray
II Is The Da Vinci Code a reliable source of world & church history?
A The Da Vinci Code is a novel-a work of fiction.
1 To use The Da Vinci Code as a source book for your view of world & church history is tantamount to going to Metropolis & looking for Superman. (Hunting permit for a unicorn, gas under $2)
2 Fiction/conspiracy theories are not history!
a A church cover-up for 2,000 years? Not likely.
aa Jesus married with children
bb Mary Magdalene the head of the church
b I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. Matt 16:18 (NASB)
For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. Eph 5:23 (NASB)
B The history of the Christian church is rooted in recordable fact (not fiction) & history (not conspiracy).
III Can we trust the Bible as God’s Word?
A The Da Vinci Code elevates a set of ancient writings (Gnostic Gospels), that were dismissed by the early church as heretical, to the same level of authority as the Bible in your hands now.
1 These writings were written in the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th centuries after the life of Christ.
a They carry names that call for our attention (Gospel of Thomas, Peter, Mary Magdalene, Judas)
b Written by & for a group called Gnostics
aa Early heresy that combined Greek philosophy & Christian thought.
bb They hated the flesh/physical world, knowledge/insight was theirs alone & Jesus was a conduit to this knowledge, light within, no pastor, etc.
2 These Gnostic writings were secretive, mystical, wildly different than the New Testament books.
B The books we have in the New Testament were written within a generation after the life of Christ (30-60 years after the resurrection, not hundreds of years).
1 The 27 books in the New Testament were written by the disciples who witnessed Jesus personally, or by the students of these disciples.
a What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:1-3 (NASB)
b They heard Him with their own ears, had seen Him with their own eyes
2 The Word of God is God-inspired and man-perspired.
a All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness... 2 Tim 3:16 (NASB)
b God inspired & created all truth, & man wrote it down.
C Suppose a massive building was constructed & cut stone was brought in from various quarries around the country.
1 Rutland, Vermont; Berea, Ohio; Kasota, Minnesota; & Middletown, Connecticut.
a Each stone arrived cut to demanding precision & shape
b All various shapes, sizes, but when they arrived...every stone fit into place.
aa Absolutely perfect domes, side walls, buttresses, arches, transcepts...not a gap or a flaw anywhere.
bb How do you explain it?
cc You would say that somewhere in the head office, above the rock quarries, there was a mastermind of an architect who planned it all.
2 So it is with this massive building we call the Bible.
a The stones have been quarried at different places and different times, but every small part fit with each other part.
b We’re forced to say that above those human hands of perspiration was the Mastermind that brought the inspiration.
IV Was Jesus divine, married, & did He have a child?
A One of the accusations The Da Vinci Code makes is that the Church didn’t consider Jesus to be divine until AD 325 at the Council of Nicaea.
1 The first book written in our New Testament is in 1 Corinthians, which was written around AD 55. (Around 25 years after the life of Jesus)
a For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, 6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him. 1 Cor 8:5-6 (NASB)
b The early church embraced Christ’s divinity in all essence since it (the church) was conceived.
aa Jesus was fully human because He cried, slept, ate, & felt pain. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 (NASB)
bb He was also fully divine being one with God & having all power & authority. He said* to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Matt 16:15-16 (NASB)
2 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form ...Col 2:9 (NASB)
a Jesus died for men, & men died for Jesus
b Why would Jesus have died for us, or men for Jesus, if He were not God?
B Marriage & kids?
1 The supposed marriage between Jesus & Mary Magdalene is not found in any book in the New Testament or Gnostic writings.
a He’s not married, but He is engaged...
b Then he said* to me, "Write, ’Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ " And he said* to me, "These are true words of God." Rev 19:9 (NASB)
2 Jesus DOES have children
a See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 1 John 3:1 (NASB)
...and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. Romans 8:17 (NASB)
b Each one of us who admits that we’re a sinner, asks for forgiveness, calls upon the name of the Lord becomes a child of God!
V Conclusion
A The early church was instructed to test the spirits to see if they were from God (essence of the text in a sentence)
1 Believers are to be prepared to determine if a teacher (teaching) is from God (essence of the sermon in a sentence)
2 We’ve learn to deal with the 3 major clams that The Da Vinci Code makes about the Christian faith.
a Is The Da Vinci Code a reliable source of world & church history?
b Can we trust the Bible as God’s Word?
c Was Jesus divine, married, & did He have a child?
B I hope you’ll be prepared to talk about the fantastic claims of The Da Vinci Code from the standpoint of a believer (objective)
1 Choices? Tom Hanks, says it best.
"Tom Hanks says that the movie version of Dan Brown’s best selling book The Da Vinci Code will have people flocking to church.
"I think the movie may end up helping churches do their job," said Tom Hanks telling US magazine Entertainment Weekly.
"If they put up a sign saying: ’This Wednesday we’re discussing the gospel", 12 people show up. But if a sign says: ’This Wednesday we’re discussing The Da Vinci Code,’ 800 people show up," he added.
2 Either going to engage in a conversation about what you believe about Jesus, or your going to sit on your hands.
C How ready are you to engage your culture when they call in to question the most basic tenants of your faith? (Probing question)
1 CH Spurgeon said, "There is an essential difference between the word of man and the Word of God, it is fatal to mistake the one for the other."
(Hold up The Da Vinci Code in the left hand & the Bible in the right.)
2 I asked a pious older saint if she believed the word of God and she said, "Yes. Of course I do Pastor."
a I asked her, "Why?"
b She replied, "Because it has the words of my Father."
c " . . . and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. -John 10:4b (NASB)
aa I don’t understand in order to believe, I believe in order to understand.
bb If God is so big, how can put his whole word in such a small book?
cc God is so great he can put his whole word in a such a small book!
3 "The Bible has been banned, burned, scoffed, and ridiculed.
a Scholars have mocked it as foolish. Kings have branded it as illegal.
b A thousand times over, the grave has been dug and the dirge has begun, but somehow the Bible never stays in the grave.
c Not only has it survived, it has thrived. It’s the single most popular book in all of history. It has been the best-selling book in the world for years."
d 1 Peter 1:24,25 - "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever."
4 "I am a Christian because God’s Word says so, and I did what He told me to do, and I stand on God’s Word, and if the Book goes down, I’ll go with it." -Billy Sunday
a How ready are you to engage your culture when the they call in to question the most basic tenants of your faith? (Probing Question)
b Some of you have to spend some time with the author . . .
Some of you need to spend some time in the book . . .
Some of you need to give your life to the author of the book.
