Jude 3-4
The Faith once for all delivered and The
Da Vinci Code
Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our
common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend
earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who
long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace
of our God into lewdness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
The book of Jude is among the smallest in the New Testament, being just behind II and III John. It’s a short work composed of only 25 verses. Don’t lets its size fool you into thinking it doesn’t have much to say. There is much theology and exhortations about Christian living that are as much the Word of God as any other book in the Bible that need to be heeded to. While the letter was directed to a particular audience known to Jude, it has an application to all Christians as they were “those who have been called who are loved by God the Father and kept by Jesus Christ” (v2) even as we who are Christian are as well.
Jude’s intentions in writing was originally to “write to them concerning the common salvation” (v3) – which we can probably understand as him wanting to write some sort of systematic exposition of the Christian faith, much like Paul’s letters to the Roman’s is. However, there was a more pressing matter it seemed that commanded Jude’s attention; an emergency, as it were. Presupposing that they already know the faith, Jude says that it is a more pressing matter that they “contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”
Jude’s exhortation can still speak to us today, for the Christian faith is still under the assault of the world and Satan. The Bible clearly speaks of our spiritual warfare that is constantly taking place in the heavenly realms. One way this battle manifests itself in the world is through the intellectual realm and ideologies. I Corinthians 10:3-5 reminds us:
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.”
Thoughts and ideas are very powerful, even if they are not true. We recall that Eve was deceived by the thought that she and her husband would “be like god” (cf. Gen. 3:5). The world is often ruled by ideas and philosophies that emerge through various times. Modern atheism is not some ancient idea, but rather is rooted in modern philosophy and the 19th century thinking of existential philosophy, especially that of Friedrich Nietzsche. The current trend of relativism – the ideology that allows one to determine their own truth – is not an accident. It rules so mightily in our current thought, as have other anti-Christian ideas because the Church has not been willing to make a stand against them.
Currently, the Church is being attacked through the medium of a fictional work called “The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown. The Da Vinci Code is the hottest item on the shelves. And while the story is a fast paced and exciting one, it is not the story that makes it so great; it’s the ideas that are in it.
The purpose of this sermon is to show that certain doctrines that have been once for all delivered to the saints have indeed come under attack through the Da Vinci Code and what we Christians need to do in response to such attacks.
First, we begin with “the faith”. It should be well noted that in the Greek text, the word “faith” here is a noun and not a verb. The significance of this is that the “faith” that Jude is talking about here is not our active and personal faith that we must each have in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, it is not our act of belief that we are called to defend, but rather WHAT we believe. When Jude says, “the faith”, he means to say those composite body of doctrines that make up the Christian faith. We note the definite article – “the” – as well. Not defend “a faith” – as if you were called to defend merely your own personal beliefs, but rather a specific set of beliefs handed down to us.
For instance, take the doctrine of the substitutionary atonement of Christ. This is a doctrine that is unique to Christianity, even to a point of defining Christianity. Without this doctrine, there is no salvation, for there exists no perfect creature, apart from that which God has united himself to in the person of Jesus Christ, that is able to actually take the place of sinners in order to give to sinners His very own righteousness, indeed the very righteousness of God, as well as bear the full penalty of their sins in their place for them. Doctrines like these, are the sine qua non (without which) of Christianity. They are essential doctrines, that have been handed down to us by the apostles. To Jude’s audience, they had them delivered by word of mouth by the apostles themselves and through the Scriptures. For us, these doctrines come to us from the apostles through Scripture alone.
Another essential doctrine of the Christian faith centers on the person of Jesus Christ, for if we are wrong about Jesus, we are wrong altogether about our faith. The earliest records of the apostles testify that Jesus Christ was both God and man; two natures in the one person of Jesus Christ. The Da Vinci Code, however, would have us believe that Jesus Christ was not god at all. Through a deceptive use of the Gnostic Scriptures and old theories about Christ, Dan Brown has attempted to give the idea to the world that Jesus Christ was a mere man. Listen to some of his words through the character of Sir Leigh Teabing:
“…until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet…a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal….Jesus’ establishment as ‘the Son of God; was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea…many scholars claim that the early Church literally stole Jesus from His original followers, hijacking His human message, shrouding it in an impenetrable cloak of divinity, and using it to expand their own power….almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false[1].”
Included in
those assertions about Christ is the central claim of the work that Jesus
Christ was married to Mary Magdalene, who was his ritual partner for
experiencing God through a ritual known as the hieros gamos, which resulted in Jesus Christ fathering a child by
the name of Sarah. This bloodline of
Christ eventually united with the Merovingian bloodline in
Now, the attitude of most Christians has been this: “well its fiction. I haven’t read it nor seen the movie, nor do I plan to. Its fiction, so I’ll just leave it alone and it will leave us alone.” While the work certainly does claim to be fiction, but we have to ask what does Dan Brown think of his own work? For starters, we should note that page 1 of the Da Vinci Code claims that “all descriptions of artworks, architecture and ancient documents are accurate.” Secondly, we should note that when asked about the truthfulness of the work in an interview posted on his own website, he says,
“While the book’s characters and their actions are obviously not real, the artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals depicted in this novel all exist…These real elements are interpreted and debated by fictional characters. While it is my belief that some of the theories discussed by these characters may have merit, each individual reader must explore these characters’ viewpoints and come to his or her own interpretations…[2]”
Thus, while The Da Vinci Code is certainly fiction, Dan Brown is trying to tell the world that there are facts in his work that have been with held from the world about Jesus Christ so that he can say, “almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.”
Among Dan Brown’s other claims in the Da Vinci Code is that the Bible is a product of men. By that, he intends to say that the Bible was finally decided upon by the emperor Constantine in a political and social attempt to suppress “the sacred feminine”. As a result, many works that were proposed to be part of the New Testament were left out. Works such as “the Gospel of Mary”, “the Gospel of Phillip”, “The Gospel of Thomas.” As of late, the “Gospel of Judas” has also surfaced and the question of why it was left out of the New Testament is also being thrown around today as well.
One can walk into a local Barnes and Nobles bookstore and find in the Christian section many books by the titles, “the Lost books of the Bible” or “Lost Scriptures” or “the Gnostic Bible.” It is the intentions of Dan Brown, by bringing to light that these works do exist, to destroy the credibility of the New Testament as we know it and allow for works that aren’t so exclusive to the unique claims of orthodox Christianity.
In short, the faith in under attack! Over 40 million copies of this work have been sold around the world. And people like this work because it attacks the Christian faith. It gives them one more reason why not to be Christian and why to hate and persecute Christians. We should note that we don’t see works against Islam. I’ll bet if Dan Brown wrote a work criticizing Muhammed or the Koran like he did the Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown would not be a rich man like the world has made him for attacking the Christian faith. Truth be told, Dan Brown would probably be a dead man! Make no mistake, there is a spiritual war going and The Da Vinci Code has come out swinging.
What should we as Christians do? Is the proper response to just sit there at take it? Or should we just ignore the claims of the book corporately and just know in our own hearts that it is not true? Jude exhorts us to “contend” for the faith.
The word “contend”, in the Greek is epagonizomai. We note the root word agonia, which is where we get the English word “agonize”. The word, therefore, means “to agonize for”. One commentator notes that this particular word – found nowhere else in the New Testament - “was the word for military or athletic hand-to-hand wrestling with an opponent.[3]” It implies an “intense effort” in a struggle. To contend EARNESTLY; not half-heartedly, but using all your strength, all of your might and all of your skill in battle.
Thus, the Christian response to the attacks on the faith – and not only from the Da Vinci Code, but however they may come – is to engage them. We must confront them. We cannot let them go unchecked. It is my belief that because the Church has allowed “crazy ideas” to go unchecked, that we have to deal with so much cultic foolishness and distortions of the Gospel and the Christian faith. We are dealing with the Jehovah’s Witnesses today because the Church was unwilling to combat Arianism all over again. We are dealing with philosophical foolishness and atheism because the Church has not defended the true nature of God, but has rather let the world believe in a God who is not sovereign and is thus, “dead”. CONTEND FOR THE FAITH. It is important to note that the verb “to contend” here is in the present tense infinitive, showing that the Christian ought to always be involved in the struggle of contending for, or struggling for the faith. We do this, as was read earlier from II Cor. 10:3-5 , not through physical warfare, but through ideological and spiritual warfare; namely, by proclaiming the truths of the faith through the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit. It is the word of God that is “alive and sharper than a two-edged sword” and able to cut to the deepest parts of our being with its truth (cf. Hebrews 4:12). II Timothy 3:16-17 reminds us that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for doctrine, reproof, correction and training in righteousness that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” which includes the good work of contending for the faith.
Now, this letter was not written to pastors, or teachers, or the theologians of the Church. It was written to the ordinary lay people. It was written for every believers – for all alike are under the exhortations of Scripture. But we ask, how can I defend the faith? What is it that “little ole me” can do? Allow me to offer one path that can help you to defend the faith that was once for all delivered.
First, one must KNOW the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. There is no point in defending what we do not even know. We come to know the faith by reading Scripture and studying the Word of God. Take note of the word “study”. Scripture is one of the primary means of grace by which God imparts knowledge of Himself and Jesus Christ to us. God does not speak to us redemptively apart from the Scriptures. To know God, we must know His word. But it is not merely what it says, that is, scripture memorization, but also what it teaches. There are many who can quote scripture but have no idea what some of the Scriptures mean that they quote. There are some who can quote texts, but cannot explain or understand doctrines like Election, or substitionary atonement, or the Trinity in the very texts that they quote!
Apart from
Scripture, there are secondary sources, with a derivative authority insofar as
they are inline with Scripture, that can help us learn our faith. These are creeds or confessions, even
catechisms. As Presbyterians, we hold to
the Westminster Confession of faith, I have personally found it to be a
Biblically accurate and systematic presentation of the Christian faith. Taking time to read Scripture, and even go
through the Christian faith through
But apart from learning and knowing the faith, one must come to LOVE the faith. Indeed, this our faith is nothing ordinary. It is a “most holy faith”. It is a faith given by God Himself. It is not something man has, nor could in all their wisdom, come up with. God alone has given us this faith. As one comes to understand it, and see how salvation is truly by grace alone and not based on our fruitless and corrupt efforts for salvation, one cannot help but love the faith. As one comes to understand grace and its significance in salvation, one cannot help but fall down and worship God! I remember when I first came to know the Doctrines of Grace, called Calvinism, in December of 1999. I loved them because through them, the glory of God was clearly seen in salvation. That leads to the last thing.
It is through
loving the faith that one finds the urge to FIGHT for the faith. Upon my
conversion and new found love for God through the doctrines of grace, I found
myself wanting to proclaim that truth.
Now, at that time I was the president of a United Methodist student
ministry at the
Christianity today suffers from ecumenicalism, or an attempt to be tolerant of other faiths within Christianity. And thus, we have Christians uniting themselves with non-Christians for the sake of peace and unity and in the name of toleration. We allow their ideas into the Church and they corrupt and change “the faith once for all delivered.” It is important that we see that the faith Jude has in mind even at this point, is unchangeable. It was delivered (aorist/past tense). It is not being continuously delivered and “added to.” It was delivered. Nothing more is needed. If we as Christians are willing to sit and watch false doctrine and assertions come into the church unchecked, and then want to complain about people not being saved, and the Gospel being corrupted, Beloved, I can only say, “you deserve what you tolerate!”
CONTEND FOR THE FAITH! It is not out of Christian character to say something is wrong! It is not out of Christian character to say, “you don’t belong to the faith once for all delivered.” We have to make the distinctions. There is such a thing as Wolves and sheep, and the wolves are the ones who try to be the sheep! But how can you tell the sheep from the wolves if you don’t know the faith? And what motive will you have to fight if you don’t love the faith which you are asked to defend?
Dan Brown has lots to say about Christianity and what he thinks Christianity needs to be like. He think Christianity needs a Jesus who is just a man. He thinks Christianity needs a Jesus who had and gave into fallen human passions. Even in the movie it is asked, “what is wrong with believing that Jesus was a father?” But we know through the Scriptures, that such is not and could not be the case. We need a Jesus who is God and man, and thus able to associate with us fallen creature and yet able to perfectly fulfill the law that we could not and to endure the full punishment of our sins, which no fallen creature could do and still live. Dan Brown is lying and the world believes Him.
My friends, what will you do to contend for the faith? What will you do to make sure that people really know the truth about Jesus? It is clear from Scripture that we cannot idly sit by and watch Dan Brown get away with his lies. We must stand up and stand firm and proclaim the truth. We must know the truth. We must know our faith and come to love our faith for, as Jude says, “certain men …have secretly slipped in among you.” CONTEND FOR THE FAITH. In Christ’s name. Amen.