Posted on 03/08/2006 6:14:03 AM PST by Mr. Silverback
G. K. Chesterton famously said something to this effect: When people stop believing in God, they dont believe in nothingthey believe in anything. A good example of this is Umberto Ecos novel Foucaults Pendulum, in which a group of friends program a computer to write a book about secret hidden knowledge. Titled The Plan, the book is the result of random links between things like Kabbalah, Rosicrucianism, the Knights Templar, and other crackpot ideas. While The Plan was intended as a prank, other people take it seriously, with tragic results.
Well, Foucaults Pendulum shows us how gullible unbelieving people are. And this is particularly so in our postmodern age when truth doesnt matter. This phenomenon partly explains the remarkable success of The Da Vinci Code. Like Ecos novel, its about a heretofore hidden knowledge that promises to let us in on the true history of Christianity.
Author Dan Brown gives us a Jesus who neither died on the cross nor rose from the dead. Instead, He married Mary Magdalene and had children by her. This sacred blood line is the treasure safeguarded by groups like the Knights Templar and the Masons. And the Catholic Church, in a desperate attempt to cover up this secret, murders those who threaten to expose it.
Devotees of The Da Vinci Codelike the fictional fans in Foucaults Pendulumhave trouble distinguishing fact from fiction. They visit places mentioned in the novel, and Da Vinci Tours are a booming business. With the upcoming film, interest in The Da Vinci Code will explode. Christians need to seize this teaching opportunity, preparing ourselves to answer questions readers are asking.
The first is: Are the historical events portrayed in Browns story true? Brown claims to have done extensive historical research and gives his readers no reason to doubt the novels accuracy. Since the average person knows almost nothing about Christian history, theyre vulnerable. For example, when Brown says that Knights Templar were put to death by the Catholic Church because they knew the true story about Jesus, people have no basis to question it, never having heard of the Knights Templar. Or when Brown says that at the Council of Nicea, the Vatican consolidated its power, most people are unaware that the Vatican didnt even exist in A.D. 325.
It is our job to expose the falsehoods. We can learn to answer Browns lies with the truth by reading books like Darrell Bocks Breaking the Da Vinci Code and Erwin Lutzers The Da Vinci Deception.
People flock to stories like The Da Vinci Code in part because all humans are searching for the secret knowledge that answers the mysteries of life. And when The Da Vinci Code debuts in May, millions more Americans will get a condensed tour de distortion. Knowing our neighbors will see this film, churches ought to begin to get ready nowpreparing to answer questions about it and to tell our neighbors that there is no secret knowledge about God. Its all in the Bible and all true.
The good news is that The Da Vinci Code readers and viewers are seeking answers to the central questions of life. The challenge is for us to supply the true answers.
It seems Chuck is getting a little off focus. Last week, he was taking aim at MySpace, implying that the only people over 30 on there are pedophiles, and now he is wasting time worrying about a story that is just bunk.
Will he next week claim that Snickerdoodles are killing our kids? Or, will he claim that the reason we do not see angels in the Hubbel telescope pictures is because NASA deliberately did not put an ectoplasm detector in the satellite?
There are worse things to focus on, like churches losing their building through Eminent Domain actions by city councils.
Hollywood will fall in love with any nonsense that mocks Christianity. They loved producing "The Last Temptation of Christ" and nurtured it like a baby, but Mel Gibson had to produce "The Passion of the Christ" with his own private money because no one in Hollywood would touch such a pro-Christian film.
Dan Brown's apparently plagiarized anti-Christian schlock was a natural for Hollywood.
The main problem is that it's pushed as being the truth. I've had a co-worker and a student assistant both tell me that the story is technically fiction but it's "based on the truth". They insist that Brown conducted years of research and "proved" that Christ didn't die on the cross, married Mary Magdalene, and that Christianity has been fake from the very beginning. But instead of writing a "boring" non-fiction book about his findings, he decided to produce a more "exciting" story that's fictional but based on the true story he uncovered. The book is promoted in a manner that lures people into believing that it's based on the truth, and I'm sure the film will be pushed in the same way.
Needless to say, a film "exposing" Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, or any other religion as being a "fraud" wouldn't be touched by Hollywood with a ten foot pole.
I would have to read it to be sure of the context, but two things were going on at that time.
One was that the geneology of the Jews was most important to follow the blood lines from David to the Messiah. This became worthless since the Messiah, Jesus had come.
THe second was that some were doing spiritual geneologies...I was saved under Paul's teaching, I was saved under Peter's teaching, I was saved under Apollos' teaching. That is also of no value since it did not matter who was preachig. The Bible is the authority, not the apostles and teachers. This stuff goes on today in how some postulate that they went to a certain college for spiritual education.
I watched Cry Wolf twice, the second time to enjoy the red head actress once I knew the end. Have you seen Book Of Shadows? There's a twist ending, but unlike Cry Wolf, when the surprise is revealed, the story goes on longer than Cry Wolf, the actors really work out their strange characters. Book Of Shadows is one of my favorite bad films that's still fun to watch. |
That's because when I challenge your reasons you simply restate them.
Frankly, I think you would be better off feeding some hungry, teaching the Bible to some kids, or visiting someone in the hospital rather than wasting time protesting a pop-fiction book with momentary appeal.
There is time in my life for both.
But its counterproductive.
I disagree. Telling the truth is never counterproductive.
Shalom.
Actually, I do not expect believers to be misled. But the people on the sidelines, with a sort of quasi-belief; people who are "not quite sure" what they believe, will swallow it. I know, because I hear them talking about it, and defending Dan Brown to nth degree.
If you start hearing people in your church yakking on about how eye-opening The Da Vinci Code is, then the book will have turned out to be a way to tell sheep from goats, because there is no way the book is compatible with traditional Christianity.
I think it's amazing that people who criticize the Bible and say it is irrelevant will take this 5 year old book and accept it, quote it, make it gospel...try to use it to debunk a 2000 year old book.
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