INTRODUCTION
By:
Moses Flores
I would like to welcome everybody here to Grace Presbyterian Church and I want to thank you. I want to thank you because you could have been doing something with no eternal value, but instead you chose to be here and seeking God. Our society doesn’t commend you but God rewards all those who diligently seek Him.
Well, How many of you have read “The Da Vinci Code”?
How many of you all have seen the movie?
The Da Vinci Code is the latest and hottest item of fictional work. It is authored by Dan Brown, who is said to have done years of research for The Da Vinci Code.
For those of you who haven’t read the book or seen the movie, let me encourage you to do so for one simple reason: credibility.
Make no mistake, The Da Vinci Code is a hot topic. It poses many threats to the Christian faith yet it is also a great opportunity to share some of the greatest Christian truths. However, we have to ask how much credibility would one have in the eyes of one who has fallen for the lies of The Da Vinci Code if, when asked if you have read it, simply said, “Oh, no! I have never read it,” or “Oh, no! I have never seen the movie, but I just know its all wrong.”
My friends, there is no way you are going to have any credibility to assert that Dan Brown is wrong and the Bible is right if you don’t’ even know what Dan Brown has said!
That being said, I would encourage everybody who is seriously interested in defending the Christian faith from the attacks of The Da Vinci Code to read the book and even see the movie. You can probably check the book out of a Library if you don’t want to buy it.
I have taken the opportunity of providing you here tonight with the movie trailer in order to help serve as a story synopsis. Now, if you haven’t read the book, be aware, a spoiler is going to follow the preview. Let’s watch:
{Movie trailer for The Da Vinci Code}\
Well there it is. Essentially, what is going on, is the main character, Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist, finds himself entangled in an elaborate scheme to have him framed for the death of the Louvre curator, Jacques Sauniere, who has left behind clues to the whereabouts of the Holy Grail which, as it turns out, is not a cup, but Mary Magdalene who has preserved a bloodline of Jesus Christ.
The work is a fast paced thriller and an excellent work, in that it keeps you turning page after page in anticipation of solving the next code, or riddle. In about the middle of the work, our main character, along with a French Agency cryptologist, and grand daughter of Sauniere, Sophie Neveu, find themselves in the mansion of a fanatic of the Holy Grail, Sir Leigh Teabing. It is through Sir Leigh Teabing that the dangerous doctrinal assertions against the Christian faith are made. His three main claims are as follows:
1) That
Jesus Christ was not divine at all.
Rather, He was a mere man and was believed to be so by all His followers
until
2) That Mary Magdalene was married to Jesus and had a daughter from Him by the name of Sarah
3) That the Bible was finally decided upon at the Council of Nicaea by an male agenda of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great.
Fact or Fiction?
The Da Vinci Code explicitly presents itself as a work of fiction[1]. However, it is through the vehicle and masquerade of fiction that Dan Brown attempts to blur the line between fact and fiction. Because of this attempt to debunk Christianity through a fictional work, many have been led to believe that there really was a conspiracy by the early Church to suppress many other Gospels besides the traditional New Testament Gospels. Dan Brown’s work would have us believe that misogynous men deceitfully choose the books that we have in the New Testament today, as well as invent the doctrine of the Deity of Jesus Christ; among other things especially that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and had a child with her, thus leaving a bloodline. The story is so fascinating, and makes such a misleading use of facts, that it has caused some to be shaken in their Christian faith, and some to look upon Christianity with disdain.
What does Dan Brown have to say about his own work? On page one of the novel, we come to a page that reads “Fact,” and makes several statements about the existence of the Priory of Sion, the Vatican prelature Opus Dei, and finally this statement, “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”
So the question must be asked: Who is telling the truth? Either Dan Brown is lying or the Christian Church has been lying for a very long time.
The purpose of this seminar then is to “speak the truth in love” as we are reminded of in Ephesians 4:14-15. In order to speak the truth, we must know the truth. Thus, there will be an impartation of the facts, or the truth, that has been shrouded by the fiction of The Da Vinci Code. In giving the truth, I Peter 3:15 exhorts us to also “always be ready to give defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you.” Thus, this seminar will give you an opportunity to learn with what to address, or give reason for believing the Bible and Christian history, over the claims of Dan Brown. And finally, Jude commands Christians everywhere “to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints”(v.3). He goes on to say, “For certain men have crept in unnoticed who long ago were marked out for the condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of God into lewdness and deny the Lord Jesus Christ.” Interestingly enough, the term “Lord” is used often in the New Testament to signify the Deity of Jesus Christ.
It is not common for Christians to defend any faith today, much less their own. Much of Christianity is caught up in the spirit of Ecumenicalism in that it believes the Church can live side by side with contradictory beliefs, even lies, in it and in the “spirit of peace” by not making distinctions of doctrine. But the Bible clearly speaks of a body of doctrines, “the faith” as Jude says, which was “once for all delivered to the saints”, which men have literally given their lives in belief and defense for. This is seminar is for the equipping of the saints, the Church, the body of Christ to fight the good fight of faith.
The order of the teachings will be as follows:
1) Jesus Christ: The God-man or just a man?
2) Mary Magdalene: Wife and Mother or follower of Christ?
3)
The New Testament Scriptures: