JESUS CHRIST, REALITY UNCODED --

JESUS CHRIST, REALITY UNCODED --

THE SUPREMACY OF CHRIST SERIES, PART 8

Isaiah 6:1-5, 45:18-19, Selected Texts (NASB)

David Bruce Linn, Pastor-Teacher

7 May, 2006

Dan Brown, the author of the fabulously successful novel, The DaVinci Code, has now released the film version which has also turned out to be a blockbuster. The star power of actor Tom Hanks has increased the impact of the film.

Mr. Brown's story is that Jesus Christ is not who the Bible and centuries of historic Christianity say he is, he was just a wise man who ended up marrying Mary Magdalene, thus giving rise to the French aristocratic line known as the Merovingians. The bloodline of Mary is actually the Holy Grail for which everyone has been seeking, since Jesus really appointed Mary to head up the church after his death.

The reason no one knows this, says Brown, is that a cabal of male church leaders, under the color of Constantine, Emperor of Rome, invented the Jesus of the canonical Bible out of whole cloth in order to oust Mary as head of the church and to serve their own lust for power. These men have also violently persecuted the original true believers for centuries, destroyed their documents, and murdered anyone who knew the alleged truth that Jesus is not really God, not really holy, did not really die for the sins of the world, and does not really save anyone. This conspiratorial group, of which I am said to be a part, invented the idea of sin and judgment in order to dominate the world, and we wrote the Bible which we now have to promote our theology, which is simply our will to power.

This view of reality as Dan Brown represents it is supposedly hidden in a cache of secret documents which would destroy Christianity as we know it if they were ever to become known. Once in a while, Brown says, the truth leaks out, such as through the discovery in the last century of the so-called gnostic gospels at Nag Hammadi in Egypt. These documents teach that you are god, along with all other people who share godhood together. You are an immortal, eternal spirit who always existed, you put on an evil human body in order to grow spiritually, and you long to put off this evil human body and return to the great collective eternal mind. This enlightenment is your only hope. You do not need to be saved, since you are not a sinner and there is no judgment awaiting you. If only, Dan Brown writes, these precious truths could be disseminated people would finally be delivered from the real oppressor which is the Church which has heartlessly abused millions of people for centuries.

1. A SLAP AT THE SUPREMACY OF FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT

At the core of the gnostic myth upon which Dan Brown bases the view of reality promoted by The DaVinci Code is a flat denial of the supremacy of Jesus Christ. The Jewish people of the ages have also had a belief in the supremacy of God as seen in the following vision of God found in Isaiah 6:1-5: "In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, /The whole earth is full of His glory. And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, 'Woe is me, for I am ruined! /Because I am a man of unclean lips, /And I live among a people of unclean lips; /For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.'"

This God simply does not exist, according to Dan Brown, and so no one ever needs to face him in the glory of his holiness and cry out: "I am ruined!" like Isaiah. If Isaiah could have known the secrets Dan Brown says he knows he would have responded to this vision very differently.

Dan Brown seems to know for certain that there cannot be an all-powerful, all-holy, omnipresent God, and therefore that there cannot have been any real revelation of that God as represented in the Bible. That means that Mr. Brown can do something no one else on earth can do, which is prove a negative. Logically, anyone who believes Mr. Brown does not have to bow before anyone or anything. Of course, if Brown is not omniscient, and the God who devastated Isaiah does exist, then he and millions of his supporters are in a dire state from which they need to be rescued.

Make no mistake. The main purpose of The DaVinci Code is to launch the most destructive attack possible against the supremacy of Christ.

2. SURPRISE ATTACK?

Some Christians may be surprised at the deviousness and power of this attack. Others are surprised at the positive reception the work is receiving. People seem to want to believe it in spite of a long list of obvious historical errors and deliberate misrepresentations of fact. Why is the Western world so vulnerable to this kind of attack on Christ and his church at this moment in history? What can explain the popularity of this multi-million dollar book and film?

I discovered as I studied this question that C. S. Lewis had uncovered a list of weaknesses in Western society which powerfully impact both the world and the church. We should not find it remarkable that a man of discernment who lived in the first half of the last century would be able to read the signs of the times and predict where they would take us. I found the following insights scattered among the pages of a book entitled C. S. Lewis: Essay Collection -- Faith, Christianity and the Church (HarperCollins, London, 2000).

First, Lewis wrote that most Christians he met were unable to explain sound doctrine or give a defense for their faith ("God in the Dock," pp. 33-34). The exceptions he found were among what he called sects (Baptists and the like) and well-catechized Roman Catholics and Anglican Catholics. I think that as Western civilization deteriorates this problem has gotten worse rather than better. When Dan Brown writes a book full of propaganda against the cardinal doctrines of the historic church, people hardly notice because they do not know what those cardinal doctrines are.

By contrast, the Lord commands us to be diligent students of the word of God: "In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness..." (1 Timothy 4:6-7). This is a definition worth remembering! From God's point of view, good servants of Jesus Christ constantly feed their inner persons with the word of God and sound teaching about the Lord. Good servants point out these truths to their brothers and sisters in Christ, and refuse to swamp their minds with what Paul calls "worldly fables." The ESV translates this as "irreverent, silly myths." Nothing could be more irreverent or silly than looking at all creation and world history and concluding that we are all actually gods.

And while it is easy to fault others, have we done our job of bearing down on the word of truth? If God is really an all-powerful Creator, then he can also speak to us, and we had better be listening. The decline of Bible knowledge in the West is giving people like Dan Brown an open door and they are sailing a battleship through it.

Secondly, Lewis reflected that most people seem to be both ignorant of and skeptical about history. In his experience, people live in the present in a way almost completely detached from how we all got here. Furthermore, the study of human origins in evolutionary theory has made Westerners fascinated with primitive man, but the entire space of history between cave man and the present remains a hole in our knowledge where shadowy and indistinct figures roam ("God in the Dock," p. 34). This is more true than ever in the postmodern era with its view that history is written by the victors, so it is all a pack of lies. So Dan Brown can be confident that his many erroneous and deliberately twisted references to history will go unnoticed by the millions. There are good articles on the internet documenting these.

In stark contrast, the Bible presents itself as an historical record where the greatest effort was made to ensure accuracy. For example, the good doctor Luke wrote: "Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught" (Luke 1:1-4). Does this sound like someone who is trying to invent a different Jesus than the one who actually was? How would Luke or someone pretending to be Luke be able to simply erase the memories and historical records the world had of Jesus of Nazareth and replace him with a deified Christ? Do people today really not know that the ancient world resonated with independent accounts of Jesus, such as those by Eusebius and Roman historians Cornelius Tacitus, Flavius Josephus, and Seutonius? Most do not, and the West is vulnerable to whatever we are told about history because we do not know it well ourselves.

Thirdly, Lewis observed that most people are very skeptical about ancient texts ("Christian Apologetics," p. 152). They've been taught to distrust everything historical, so even the ancient documents are considered no evidence of anything concrete. So when Dan Brown writes that all religions are merely fabrications, then their documents are fabrications, too. Brown does not seem to realize that his blanket statement means that his perspective on religion must then be considered a fabrication as well.

Jesus Christ was not like our modern actors who invent their identities. The reliable documents of the Jewish Scriptures have over three hundred references to their coming Messiah which were fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth. The probability that any one person could fulfill even eight of these was calculated by Moody science writer Peter Stoner to be 1 in 10 to the seventeenth power. That would be like a blind-folded person trying to pick just the right silver dollar from a field the size of Texas filled with silver dollars two feet deep (from Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Josh McDowell).

So when the ancient documents of Christianity record Jesus of Nazareth fulfilling over three hundred of these, they were recording the otherwise impossible fulfillment of things prophesied centuries before. Jesus explicitly said that he knew this was happening, as he said in the Garden of Gethsemane to his disciples when they tried to prevent his arrest: "'How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?' At that time Jesus said to the crowds, 'Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest Me as you would against a robber? Every day I used to sit in the temple teaching and you did not seize Me. But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the prophets.' Then all the disciples left Him and fled" (Matthew 26:54-56).

Fourthly, Lewis thought that most people would take the opinion of experts very seriously ("Christian Apologetics," p. 152). This is good if the experts are people of character and actually understand the thing upon which they are pronouncing. But when people are willing to accept expert opinions charlatans always arise to exploit them. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: "But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully" (2 Corinthians 11:3-4).

Instead of screaming "Heresy!" and throwing the bums out, the Corinthians were swallowing the elephant. Dan Brown knows that the West is ready to swallow the ancient heresy of gnosticism once again, the throats of millions of people are wide open, and the elephant is sliding right down. Have you not seen this uncritical acceptance of expert opinion in our culture? Medical science in the last century told mothers not to breast feed their children because it was bad for them, and told parents not to discipline their children because they would be traumatized. Now those children are sickly adults who are traumatizing us, and all this on the word of experts.

Fifthly, Lewis wrote on more than one occasion that he thought a sense of sin was almost totally lacking among the people of the West ("Christian Apologetics," p. 152). So if The DaVinci Code or anything else presents people with an alternate theory of Christianity which removes the sin issue, it is most welcome among us. Lewis famously remarked that for most people in the West God is the one who is on trial, not us ("God in the Dock," passim). So Dan Brown portrays the historic Church as the biggest focus of evil in our culture. In his scenario salvation can only be found by fleeing the Church! Christ said that the words of God found in the ancient documents of the people of God are sufficient to bring people to a knowledge of sin and salvation, and even the greatest miracle would not make those words any more convincing: "'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead'" (Luke 16:31).

Sixthly and lastly, Lewis had a better understanding than most that people experience things presented in story form as more real than propositional statements of truth ("Myth Became Fact," p. 140). Jesus Christ was no stranger to this concept as he explained to his disciples: "With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples" (Mark 4:33-34). What Jesus knew about us that C. S. Lewis could not have foreseen is how unbalanced our culture has become in the direction of experience. Modern culture said: "I'll believe it when I understand it." Postmodern culture says: "I'll believe it when I experience it."

So Dan Brown has designed the perfect vehicle to feed an elephant to an ill-educated, lackadaisical, and experiential culture in a well-written book and film. If Mr. Brown wants people to believe his experts, he does not even need real ones. He can invent Sir Leigh Teabing out of thin air and have him pronounce that Christianity is a horrid, abusive joke. And millions in Western audiences shake their heads knowingly and agree: "You know, he's right!"

3. THE STRAIGHTFORWARD GOD

If we wish we can all accept the teaching of millionaire Hollywood moguls about the nature of reality. We can choose to have a vicarious experience in the movie theater and then stake our eternal lives upon it. Or we can look to Someone more reliable who cannot, by his holy character, be anything but straight with us. The real God has not hidden himself from us, as Isaiah wrote: "For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), 'I am the LORD, and there is none else. /I have not spoken in secret, /In some dark land; /I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, /'Seek Me in a waste place'; /I, the LORD, speak righteousness, /Declaring things that are upright'" (Isaiah 45:18-19).

Dan Brown says that the version of Jesus Christ found in the Bible was invented to prevent us from coming to a knowledge of the truth, and that he and his fellow-travelers are the ones in possession of reality. The real Jesus Christ says that we are all born with a veil over our eyes preventing us from seeing spiritual reality, and that he is the only one who can remove it. Speaking of the veil over Israel's eyes Paul wrote: "But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away" (2 Corinthians 3:14-16).

In fact, faith in Jesus Christ is God's way of removing the veil and allowing us to see reality uncoded, as Paul wrote to the Colossians: " He is the image of the invisible God..." (Colossians 1:15). God the Father sent his Son to reveal himself to us, and to die for our sins so that we might possess reality eternally. The person of Jesus Christ, as he walked through history and was recorded in the canonical Bible, is himself the uncoding of reality for anyone who is willing to receive it.

You can take his word for it, or you believe Dan Brown. It's up to you.