Post by Rob W. Case on May 18, 2006 13:27:04 GMT -6
The DaVinci Code Controversy: Cracking the Code of Dan Brown, the Media, and Moral Relativism
By Rob W. Case
For the past few weeks, the Da Vinci Code movie has resurrected controversy within the Christian community. Major Christian groups have assembled their facts, history, and have factually shattered the novel by Dan Brown.
Dr. D. James Kennedy PhD has assembled ancient historians for a production that aired on Sunday May 14th, 2006. Ed Hindson of “The King Is Coming” broadcast a lecture that he assembled at Liberty University, replete with Da Vinci paintings that, even in art, contradict the Bible’s descriptions of certain events. But why is the Da Vinci Code so popular?
Why is The DaVinci Code so Popular?
Dan Brown’s fictional story is so popular because you don’t really know whether or not the material within the story is fictional or non-fictional. This strategy has made Dan Brown extremely wealthy. While most Americans identify themselves as Christians, there is a thirst for knowledge about Jesus Christ. It is amazing what type of popularity that adding conspiracy and creating deception brings to the one that does it. Anything claimed to be Historical over the son of God arouses suspicion in everyone, but deception attracts those who are spiritually lost, but do not realize that they are being deceived. Many lost souls think of Christianity as merely a religion, thus disregarding any knowledge or thought to the fact that Christianity is a living relationship between the Holy Spirit of Christ and the person who receives Christ as their personal savior. Those who see God as merely a concept and not the real son of God will be drawn to The DaVinci code like mosquitoes to wet human flesh.
Here are some of the many claims that Dan Brown Makes.
Brown: "The Bible was stitched together by Emperor Constantine".
Fact: But it was already together before Constantine came along.
Brown: Says that Constantine was a Pagan.
Fact: Constantine, through his writings, identified himself as a Christian.
Brown: "There were many other accounts of Jesus' life that were left out of the Bible".
Fact: The truth is that we only know of a cluster of bits and pieces of other documents about Jesus. The best material is in the Bible itself.
Brown: "Jesus was declared divine by a narrow vote at the Council of Nicea."
Fact: No, he was considered divine from the earliest days and declared divine at the council by 298 votes to 2!
When the Christian community fights back over such nonsense, their facts are the only weapons they need. Here are some web links that will assist those searching for the real truth, and not giving in to conspiracy.
www.davincidelusion.tv/
www.challengingdavinci.com/
www.truthnet.org/Christianity/cults/davincicode/13Answeringthedavincicode.pdf
www.westmont.edu/~fisk/Articles/TheDaVinciCodeMusings.pdf
What it’s really about:
The entire strategy of The DaVinci Code spiritually, is to raise doubt about the divinity of Jesus Christ. If God and his son were hoaxes, then we as human beings would not be held to any form of accountability. If Jesus was not the son of God and just a figure head of religion, then lawlessness would be acceptable. After all, if Jesus was said to be God, and he wasn’t, then the entire credibility of the Bible would be null. But Jesus Christ is the Son Of God, and there is much evidence to prove it.
Some may argue “well, Jesus can be the son of God, and still have gotten married and have children.” In The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown makes a claim that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children, who of which became French monarchs.
There is absolutely no evidence that Jesus married Mary Magdalene. After all, Jesus came to die for our sins (as recorded by the OLD TESTAMENT) so that we could have eternal life. There would be absolutely NO PURPOSE to marry Mary Magdelene and have children. Another MAJOR factor to consider is the sex, sin, and being born of sin factor.
David acknowledged this in the Old Testament:
Psalms 51:5 (NIV)
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
James 1:15 (NIV)
Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
If Jesus had relations with Mary Magdalene, then the concept of the Virgin Mary being pregnant as a Virgin would serve no purpose. People have sex with sinful thoughts. If Mary Magdalene were to have had relations with Jesus, then her thoughts would have been sinful (as is human nature). Also, how could someone so perfect and so sinless (In him is no sin I John 3:5, II Corinthians 5:21) pleasure someone with urges that according to the law of God would be sinful? Only we fallible human beings have sex in sin. God would have no reason to have sex in sin and reproduce in sin.
An Interesting Historical Fact:
During the early days of the Catholic Church, anything regarded as blasphemy by the Catholic Church would and had resulted in death. Leonardo DaVinci’s “codes” were merely artistic expressions that, if aired in public, would result in execution by the Church. Leonardo’s effeminate depiction of John the Baptist in painting after painting would translate that John the Baptist was a homosexual.
The Media and the DaVinci Code:
According to his website, Dan Brown has been in TIME Magazine, has made appearances on CNN, The Today Show, National Public Radio, Voice of America, as well as in the pages of Newsweek, Forbes, People, GQ, The New Yorker, and other more liberal leaning media outlets. The publicity that Dan Brown has received has been outstanding. When factual artifacts, news events, and archeological breakthroughs are revealed, there is little to no coverage from the media sources listed above. To prove this theory, here is a test.
Have you heard about Joseph’s (yes, the man with the Technicolor dream coat) tomb being vandalized by the Palestinians?
Have you heard about the Dead Sea Scroll that was accidentally found in a cave by Geologists who was conducting a survey for the Israeli Government?
What did the scroll describe about the Rapture?
If you are unaware of any of the information that I have just described then you have proven my point. You see, in this world, when something supports the deity of Christ, or evidence arises, it is ignored. When fallible man comes up with something that is fictitious, but tries to discredit the deity of God, or seems to lean towards the favor of evolution, then it is widely covered and respected. But if and when an evolutionary claim is debunked, or proven to be false, the people who reported the fable marches on, without so much as an apology or a follow-up story regarding the matter.
Moral Relativism is a person’s perception of what is right and wrong. Here is what moral relativism is as described by a moral relativist.
“I believe that everything you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that's bad, I'm going to suffer for it. But in my heart, I believe what I'm doing is right. So I feel like I'm going to heaven.”
--Tupac Shakur
Mark 7:21-23
For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’”
If God’s word (and thus his deity) was null, then moral relativism would prevail and all of the above traits from Mark 7:21-23 would be morally acceptable. Nobody would fall victim to heartache because those traits would not be wrong. We would have no reason to be angry at our bosses, used car salesmen, gossips, and so forth. But we are bothered by these traits when they happen to us by other people. Since we are made within the image of God, we also possess certain god-like concerns one way or another. If you adopt the misdirection of the DaVinci Code, then it would be logical to assume that the above characteristics that a Christian would deem as “evil” would be indeed “good” to a person who adopts and lives by those characteristics.
Da Vinci Code & The End Times:
The most amazing thing about the DaVinci Code is not necessarily the content of the book/film. The most amazing thing about the book/film is that the deception and the adoption of the deception is one of the signs that would occur before Christ returns.
II Timothy 4:3-4 (NIV)
3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
On May 16th, 2006 ABC’s Nightline did an excellent story on this phenomenon.
Anchor/Reporter Martin Bashir shockingly made this comment.
Bashir: “There appears to be a greater preparedness to believe certain conspiracies about the life of Christ than there is to believe the New Testament History of the life of Christ.”
Darrell Bock, an evangelical Christian who was interviewed by Martin Bashir on Nightline said this.
"Between 20 and 33 percent of the population say they believe the book or feel they benefited from the book," Bock said. "That's the combined populations of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston. Take everybody in those cities, they all believe it. Now what's the church's responsibility to that group ... of people who believe that? You can't say, 'Oh, sorry, you shouldn't believe it'. You better engage them."
Is this not a proof that people are engaged to believe fables than real History, so long as it benefits them and their lifestyle?
The Coming Anti-Christ will add to this.
Revelation 13:6-7 (NIV)
He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.
A Message to Christians
I Timothy 4:5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
There are two intents of the DaVinci Code. One is to make money off of people’s ignorance. Since it is safe to assume that most people are not familiar with the History of the first century, it is easy to indoctrinate people into believing what the book/movie states. But there is one thing that the book/movie cannot stand up against. FACT.
Whenever Christianity in its full form competes against anti-Christian charges, Christianity always prevails. God always prevails. Anti-Christians know this, so they try and cheat. They try to rewrite History, suppress actual history, and embrace anything that remotely appears to challenge the deity of Jesus Christ. I hear that 15 more books are on their way to attempting to shatter the deity of Jesus Christ. The recently released “Gospel of Judas,” and “The Jesus Papers” are just a couple of more. Throughout human history, no man has captured more attention than Jesus Christ. If you sit in a widely populated area, and you read The DaVinci Code, most people will not even bother you. If you sit in a widely populater area and you read The Bible, you will be amazed at how much attention you receive. The world loves its own (John 15:19), and adopts its own characteristics (as I mentioned before). The world and its characteristics do not like competition (like love, peace, wisdom, and genuine understanding), so it is unsurprising that the prince of peace would constantly be attacked. The nature of these people is to always attack those that are at peace, and leave those who are evil alone. Typical.
Note: There are also extremely informative specials addressing the DaVinci Code. If you would like to acquire any of these specials on DVD (for $20 shipping included) then please e-mail me at Making_Sense_Publications@yahoo.com.
By Rob W. Case
For the past few weeks, the Da Vinci Code movie has resurrected controversy within the Christian community. Major Christian groups have assembled their facts, history, and have factually shattered the novel by Dan Brown.
Dr. D. James Kennedy PhD has assembled ancient historians for a production that aired on Sunday May 14th, 2006. Ed Hindson of “The King Is Coming” broadcast a lecture that he assembled at Liberty University, replete with Da Vinci paintings that, even in art, contradict the Bible’s descriptions of certain events. But why is the Da Vinci Code so popular?
Why is The DaVinci Code so Popular?
Dan Brown’s fictional story is so popular because you don’t really know whether or not the material within the story is fictional or non-fictional. This strategy has made Dan Brown extremely wealthy. While most Americans identify themselves as Christians, there is a thirst for knowledge about Jesus Christ. It is amazing what type of popularity that adding conspiracy and creating deception brings to the one that does it. Anything claimed to be Historical over the son of God arouses suspicion in everyone, but deception attracts those who are spiritually lost, but do not realize that they are being deceived. Many lost souls think of Christianity as merely a religion, thus disregarding any knowledge or thought to the fact that Christianity is a living relationship between the Holy Spirit of Christ and the person who receives Christ as their personal savior. Those who see God as merely a concept and not the real son of God will be drawn to The DaVinci code like mosquitoes to wet human flesh.
Here are some of the many claims that Dan Brown Makes.
Brown: "The Bible was stitched together by Emperor Constantine".
Fact: But it was already together before Constantine came along.
Brown: Says that Constantine was a Pagan.
Fact: Constantine, through his writings, identified himself as a Christian.
Brown: "There were many other accounts of Jesus' life that were left out of the Bible".
Fact: The truth is that we only know of a cluster of bits and pieces of other documents about Jesus. The best material is in the Bible itself.
Brown: "Jesus was declared divine by a narrow vote at the Council of Nicea."
Fact: No, he was considered divine from the earliest days and declared divine at the council by 298 votes to 2!
When the Christian community fights back over such nonsense, their facts are the only weapons they need. Here are some web links that will assist those searching for the real truth, and not giving in to conspiracy.
www.davincidelusion.tv/
www.challengingdavinci.com/
www.truthnet.org/Christianity/cults/davincicode/13Answeringthedavincicode.pdf
www.westmont.edu/~fisk/Articles/TheDaVinciCodeMusings.pdf
What it’s really about:
The entire strategy of The DaVinci Code spiritually, is to raise doubt about the divinity of Jesus Christ. If God and his son were hoaxes, then we as human beings would not be held to any form of accountability. If Jesus was not the son of God and just a figure head of religion, then lawlessness would be acceptable. After all, if Jesus was said to be God, and he wasn’t, then the entire credibility of the Bible would be null. But Jesus Christ is the Son Of God, and there is much evidence to prove it.
Some may argue “well, Jesus can be the son of God, and still have gotten married and have children.” In The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown makes a claim that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children, who of which became French monarchs.
There is absolutely no evidence that Jesus married Mary Magdalene. After all, Jesus came to die for our sins (as recorded by the OLD TESTAMENT) so that we could have eternal life. There would be absolutely NO PURPOSE to marry Mary Magdelene and have children. Another MAJOR factor to consider is the sex, sin, and being born of sin factor.
David acknowledged this in the Old Testament:
Psalms 51:5 (NIV)
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
James 1:15 (NIV)
Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
If Jesus had relations with Mary Magdalene, then the concept of the Virgin Mary being pregnant as a Virgin would serve no purpose. People have sex with sinful thoughts. If Mary Magdalene were to have had relations with Jesus, then her thoughts would have been sinful (as is human nature). Also, how could someone so perfect and so sinless (In him is no sin I John 3:5, II Corinthians 5:21) pleasure someone with urges that according to the law of God would be sinful? Only we fallible human beings have sex in sin. God would have no reason to have sex in sin and reproduce in sin.
An Interesting Historical Fact:
During the early days of the Catholic Church, anything regarded as blasphemy by the Catholic Church would and had resulted in death. Leonardo DaVinci’s “codes” were merely artistic expressions that, if aired in public, would result in execution by the Church. Leonardo’s effeminate depiction of John the Baptist in painting after painting would translate that John the Baptist was a homosexual.
The Media and the DaVinci Code:
According to his website, Dan Brown has been in TIME Magazine, has made appearances on CNN, The Today Show, National Public Radio, Voice of America, as well as in the pages of Newsweek, Forbes, People, GQ, The New Yorker, and other more liberal leaning media outlets. The publicity that Dan Brown has received has been outstanding. When factual artifacts, news events, and archeological breakthroughs are revealed, there is little to no coverage from the media sources listed above. To prove this theory, here is a test.
Have you heard about Joseph’s (yes, the man with the Technicolor dream coat) tomb being vandalized by the Palestinians?
Have you heard about the Dead Sea Scroll that was accidentally found in a cave by Geologists who was conducting a survey for the Israeli Government?
What did the scroll describe about the Rapture?
If you are unaware of any of the information that I have just described then you have proven my point. You see, in this world, when something supports the deity of Christ, or evidence arises, it is ignored. When fallible man comes up with something that is fictitious, but tries to discredit the deity of God, or seems to lean towards the favor of evolution, then it is widely covered and respected. But if and when an evolutionary claim is debunked, or proven to be false, the people who reported the fable marches on, without so much as an apology or a follow-up story regarding the matter.
Moral Relativism is a person’s perception of what is right and wrong. Here is what moral relativism is as described by a moral relativist.
“I believe that everything you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that's bad, I'm going to suffer for it. But in my heart, I believe what I'm doing is right. So I feel like I'm going to heaven.”
--Tupac Shakur
Mark 7:21-23
For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’”
If God’s word (and thus his deity) was null, then moral relativism would prevail and all of the above traits from Mark 7:21-23 would be morally acceptable. Nobody would fall victim to heartache because those traits would not be wrong. We would have no reason to be angry at our bosses, used car salesmen, gossips, and so forth. But we are bothered by these traits when they happen to us by other people. Since we are made within the image of God, we also possess certain god-like concerns one way or another. If you adopt the misdirection of the DaVinci Code, then it would be logical to assume that the above characteristics that a Christian would deem as “evil” would be indeed “good” to a person who adopts and lives by those characteristics.
Da Vinci Code & The End Times:
The most amazing thing about the DaVinci Code is not necessarily the content of the book/film. The most amazing thing about the book/film is that the deception and the adoption of the deception is one of the signs that would occur before Christ returns.
II Timothy 4:3-4 (NIV)
3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
On May 16th, 2006 ABC’s Nightline did an excellent story on this phenomenon.
Anchor/Reporter Martin Bashir shockingly made this comment.
Bashir: “There appears to be a greater preparedness to believe certain conspiracies about the life of Christ than there is to believe the New Testament History of the life of Christ.”
Darrell Bock, an evangelical Christian who was interviewed by Martin Bashir on Nightline said this.
"Between 20 and 33 percent of the population say they believe the book or feel they benefited from the book," Bock said. "That's the combined populations of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston. Take everybody in those cities, they all believe it. Now what's the church's responsibility to that group ... of people who believe that? You can't say, 'Oh, sorry, you shouldn't believe it'. You better engage them."
Is this not a proof that people are engaged to believe fables than real History, so long as it benefits them and their lifestyle?
The Coming Anti-Christ will add to this.
Revelation 13:6-7 (NIV)
He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them. And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.
A Message to Christians
I Timothy 4:5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
There are two intents of the DaVinci Code. One is to make money off of people’s ignorance. Since it is safe to assume that most people are not familiar with the History of the first century, it is easy to indoctrinate people into believing what the book/movie states. But there is one thing that the book/movie cannot stand up against. FACT.
Whenever Christianity in its full form competes against anti-Christian charges, Christianity always prevails. God always prevails. Anti-Christians know this, so they try and cheat. They try to rewrite History, suppress actual history, and embrace anything that remotely appears to challenge the deity of Jesus Christ. I hear that 15 more books are on their way to attempting to shatter the deity of Jesus Christ. The recently released “Gospel of Judas,” and “The Jesus Papers” are just a couple of more. Throughout human history, no man has captured more attention than Jesus Christ. If you sit in a widely populated area, and you read The DaVinci Code, most people will not even bother you. If you sit in a widely populater area and you read The Bible, you will be amazed at how much attention you receive. The world loves its own (John 15:19), and adopts its own characteristics (as I mentioned before). The world and its characteristics do not like competition (like love, peace, wisdom, and genuine understanding), so it is unsurprising that the prince of peace would constantly be attacked. The nature of these people is to always attack those that are at peace, and leave those who are evil alone. Typical.
Note: There are also extremely informative specials addressing the DaVinci Code. If you would like to acquire any of these specials on DVD (for $20 shipping included) then please e-mail me at Making_Sense_Publications@yahoo.com.