Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Galatians chapter 1 as we look at Paul’s warning to the churches in Galatia who were being swayed, seduced into believing a different gospel, another Jesus! It was happening in Paul’s day and it continues to happen even today. Over the past few weeks I have felt the Lord speaking to me about a study that I previously did not believe was that important, I was unaware of the impact it was having on people, the questions it was raising, the confusion it was causing.
How many of you have heard of the book called The Da Vinci Code? It is a book by Dan Brown that has now sold over 6 million copies; it is being translated into 40 different languages! This book comes against the deity of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, and in reality, Christianity as a whole! It is trying to re-write history without the facts being accurate! Yes, it is written as a fictional story but Dan Brown starts out on the very first page with the heading of “FACT” and it is these opening statements that he basis his novel on, which he believes are based in truth, they are the truth or so he says!
We will deal more with the story line and refute the claims that he makes in a few minutes. First of all I want to show you how dangerous this is to our faith if we let it. Also, I would like to give you information regarding this book so when people ask you about it, you can give them the reasons why Dan Brown is wrong in what he says, that his book is nothing more than a Da Vinci myth or fable!
In Hank Hanegraaff’s book, The Da Vinci Code Fact or Fiction? he tell us:
During one of my early morning treks to Starbucks, a young woman pulled me aside and, fighting tears, asked me to reassure her that the Christian faith was valid. She, along with a group of her friends, had read The Da Vinci Code and was seriously shaken by its assertions. That same morning Ron Beers, Senior Vice President at Tyndale House Publishers, called to tell me about an avalanche of inquiries his office had received regarding The Da Vinci Code – and to urge me to provide a response. Further solidifying my resolve to debunk this novel and defend the faith was my final conversation with my friend Bob Passantino. In his view this project was necessary not only because The Da Vinci Code is a runaway bestseller (as of this writing the book has sold more than 6 million copies, and film director Ron Howard is working in collaboration with Columbia Pictures to turn it into a major movie) but because the novel is on the vanguard of a growing movement seeking to reconstruct Christ, reinvent Christianity, and reject the canon of Scripture.
- Hank Hanegraaff & Paul L. Maier, The Da Vinci Code Fact or Fiction?, pp X, Xi
The movie by Ron Howard is to be released in the summer of 2005 and I am sure it will be a blockbuster that will confuse many people about who Christ is and the Bible. I went to the web site of this movie and this is how they described the plot of this movie. When I read this it only solidified my desire to make the truth known. This is what is said: “A murder in the Louvre and clues in Da Vinci paintings lead to the discovery of a religious mystery protected by a secret society for two thousand years – which could shake the foundations of Christianity.”
Thus, I think this is an important subject for us to know and understand so we may defend our faith as Peter admonishes us to do, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.” I Peter 3:15-16. With that said, let’s begin reading in Galatians chapter 1, staring in verse 6 and see what the Lord has for us this morning regarding these things.
As Paul came to a city or region he would preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, one that was given to Him by the Lord Himself. Then the Judaizers would come in after Paul and speak of Jesus being the Messiah, the Savior but you must also keep the Law of Moses to be saved. They were mixing Law and Grace and folks they don’t mix. When you add anything to the Grace of God it not only cheapens it, it destroys it! That is what Paul is coming against here and very strongly. He is saying that those that mix Law and Grace will face the judgment of God. Why is that? Like I said, Law and Grace don’t mix!
How did the Galatians succumb to these false teachings? Some of these false teachers were good speakers, charismatic, had the credentials, but they spoke a different Gospel, another Jesus which leads people to Hell and not to Heaven! John Stott warns, “We are not to be dazzled, as many people are, by the person, gifts or office of teachers in the church. They may come to us with great dignity, authority and scholarship. They may be bishops or archbishops, university professors or even the pope himself. But if they bring a gospel other than the gospel preached by the apostles and recorded in the New Testament, they are to be rejected. We judge them by the gospel; we do not judge the gospel by them. As Dr. Alan Cole expresses it, ‘The outward person of the messenger does not validate his message rather, the nature of the message validates the messenger.’”
People may be offended by that, but tough! We are to please God, not man. If you try to be a man-pleaser you will compromise your faith because the Gospel message is offensive to people! People don’t like to hear that they are sinners separated from God and they need a Savior, they need Jesus. But that is the reality, we are all in need of Jesus, He died for all our sins if we would only receive Him into our lives as Lord and Savior!
Now there are many who come against Jesus from the book The Passion Plot that says that Jesus never died, it was all faked, and thus, He is not the Savior. Then there is The Last Temptation of Christ that portrays Jesus as someone who didn’t know what his mission in life was about. Then there is The Secret Gospel showing that Jesus did not do miracles but was a magician. In the Jesus Scroll it again says that Jesus never died but lived to the old age of 80! In the Holy Blood, Holy Grail we see Jesus married to Mary Magdalene and that their offspring brought forth the Merovingian dynasty of medieval France. And the list goes on but I think you see that attacks against true Christianity, even The Jesus Seminar which is a group of scholars, and I use that term loosely, who vote on the things that Jesus said and didn’t say. Thus, they state that Jesus was not virgin born, He is not God, He did not rise from the dead, they portray a social Jesus that deals with how we are to treat our neighbors but nothing to do with the reality of who Jesus is! Thus, the Da Vinci Code is just another assault on Christianity and it won’t be the last but I do believe we need to understand what we believe as Christians so we can defend our faith because this book and I am sure the movie will confuse many people!
To set the stage for this study, let me introduce to you the plot. Chuck Missler tells us:
“It is easy to see why this book made all the ‘Best Seller’ lists. It’s an engaging, fast-paced thriller with an exotic mix of secret societies, mysterious assassins, intrigues involving famous historical figures and controversial institutions, all linked together with a delicious series of secret codes and riddles to figure out. And behind it all emerges the most astonishing (and outrageous) ‘conspiracy theory’ anyone could possibly imagine.
The story opens with the murder of the curator of Paris’ most famous museum, during which he leaves enigmatic clues in the form of codes that our hero, Robert Langdon, an expert on occult symbology, and Sofie Neveu, a professional cryptologist who joins him, must solve.
Several clues involve hidden messages among the sketches and paintings of Leonardo da Vinci, from which the novel gets its name.
As it develops, our hero Langdon is being viewed as the prime suspect himself, and the urgency of solving the increasingly complex sequence of subsequent codes, riddles, and clues intensifies. The hidden agenda of a secret order behind the Knights Templar and the sinister intentions of committed operatives of Opus Dei, an official arm of the Roman Catholic Church, all weave a tapestry of intrigue and rapidly developing dangers.
It is quite a challenging ride. Short, engaging chapters – each unfolding a new mystery or plot twist – make this book virtually impossible to put down. (However, even after 105 chapters, the principal plot elements are not really resolved.)
Entertaining fiction has captured our imagination ever since Homer’s epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, so many centuries ago. In addition to challenging entertainment, a well-written historical novel is often an enjoyable sugarcoated way to experience a glimpse of history. However, that presumes that the thread of the fictional story is entwined within a tapestry of competent historical research.
What makes any critique of Dan Brown’s book particularly disturbing is his deliberate attempt to pass on the view that it is based on fact. The reader is immediately confronted with a preliminary page declaring certain parts of the book to be factual.”
And so with the remainder of our time this morning we are going to look at three areas that Dan Brown tells us is gospel truth and then look at not only what the Scriptures say, but also the historical evidence. Now we could spend a lot of time on the various lies in the book, but these three areas I think are important for our Christian faith and that is why I chose them. They are: Is The Bible Reliable? Who Is Jesus? And Was Jesus Married?
1. IS THE BIBLE RELIABLE?
Obviously this is an important subject for us because what we believe comes from the Bible. According to Dan Brown in his book:
“The Bible is a product of man, my dear. Not of God,” says Sir Leigh Teabing in The Da Vinci Code. “The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book.” (Page 231)
“But you told me the New Testament is based on fabrications.” Langdon smiled. “Sophie, every faith in the world is based on fabrication. That is the definition of faith – acceptance of that which we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove.” (Page 341).
“Those who truly understand their faiths understand the stories are metaphorical . . . Religious allegory has become a part of the fabric of reality. And living in that reality helps millions of people cope and be better people.” (Page 342). [In other words, the story of Jesus isn’t true, it is a lie, but it is helpful for living in the world to believe a lie. How foolish is that?]
Now the Bible tells us something completely different than what Dan Brown is telling us even though he tells us his words are true. In II Timothy 3:16-17 we are told, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” In II Peter 1:19-21 we are told, “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” The Bible is the Word of God and man was only the instrument, the pen you might say, that God used to write His Words down for us and Peter tells us that God’s Word is even more sure than the things we can see with our own eyes! He should know, he was an eyewitness of the risen Lord and he is so confident in the Word of God that he places it above what he can see with his eyes!
But is the Bible really reliable, can we trust what is said from Genesis through Revelation? You bet we can! The Old Testament or Tenach was canonized in 400 BC and listed as The Law, The Prophets and The Writings or The Psalms, which was the largest of books of this section and sometimes called The Psalms instead of The Writings. In fact Jesus endorses the Tenach in Luke 24:44-45 as He tells us, “Then He said to them, ‘These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.’ And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.”
But are the Old Testament Scriptures, the Tenach accurate? You bet they are! In the Dead Sea Scrolls was a text of Isaiah, a 24-foot leather scroll intact that dates back to about 100 BC. The next complete text of Isaiah that we have comes from 916 AD. Now in that 1000-year time frame you would expect many errors and according to Dan Brown, “History has never had a definitive version of the book.”
But, according to Norman Geisler and William Nix, in their book A General Introduction To The Bible, they said, “Of the 166 words in Isaiah 53, there are only seventeen letters in question. Ten of those letters are simply a matter of spelling, which does not affect the sense. Four more letters are minor stylistic changes, such as conjunctions. The remaining three letters comprise the word ‘light’ which is added in verse 11, and does not affect the meaning greatly . . . Thus, in one chapter of 166 words, there is only one word (three letters) in question after a thousand years of transmission –and this word does not significantly change the meaning of the passage.”
After comparing the entire Isaiah manuscript from the Dead Sea Scrolls with the present Hebrew text of Isaiah, Old Testament scholar Gleason L. Archer concluded that the Dead Sea Scrolls “Prove to be word for word identical with our standard Hebrew Bible in more than 95 percent of the text. The 5 percent variation consisted chiefly of obvious slips of the pen and variations in spelling.” Not bad when you consider they did not have computers, spell checking, whiteout and-so-on as we have today!
Then we have John Elder, an archaeologist, who offers this fitting conclusion to the issue of the Old Testament’s reliability. He said, “It is not too much to say that it was the rise of the science of archeology that broke the deadlock between historians and the orthodox Christian. Little by little, one city after another, one civilization after another, one culture after another, whose memories were enshrined only in the Bible, were restored to their proper places in ancient history by the studies of archaeologists . . . The over-all result is indisputable. Forgotten cites have been found, the handiwork of vanished peoples has reappeared, contemporary records of Biblical events have been unearthed and the uniqueness of Biblical revelation has been emphasized by contrast and comparison to the newly understood religions of ancient peoples. Nowhere has archaeological discovery refuted the Bible as history.”
I think we can clearly see that the Old Testament Scriptures are accurate, but what about the New Testament Scriptures! The New Testament was canonized (canon = a standard of measure) in the 1st century when the Apostles were still around and the facts could be checked out. Regarding the Gospels Dan Brown tells us in his book, “More than eighty Gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John among them . . . The Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great.” (Page 231). His claim is that Constantine choose which Gospels he wanted to suit his own purposes. Garbage! Again in his book, Langdon says, “The Priory believes that Constantine and his male successors successfully converted the world from matriarchal paganism to patriarchal Christianity by waging a campaign of propaganda that demonized the sacred feminine, obliterated the goddess from modern religion forever.” (Page 124). Again, GARBAGE!
The Council of Nicaea, where this all supposedly took place, occurred in 325 AD. The problem with that is that the New Testament canon was already established in the first century AD. In fact, the eminent archaeologist, William F. Albright, concluded in an interview with Christianity today, from January 18, 1963: “In my opinion, every book of the New Testament was written by a baptized Jew between the forties and the eighties of the first century A.D.” It just took time for the copies of these letters to circulate through the various regions.
How good are the New Testament manuscripts? Very good! Listen to the words of Sir Frederic Kenyon, the former director and principal librarian of the British Museum. He said, “In no other case is the interval of time between the composition of the book and date of the earliest extant [existing] manuscripts so short as in that of the New Testament . . . We believe that we have in all essentials an accurate text of the seven extant [existing] plays of Sophocles; yet the earliest substantial manuscript upon which it is based was written more than 1,400 years after the poet’s death. Aeschylus, Aristophanes and Thucydides are in the same state; while with Euripides the interval is increased to 1,600 years. For Plato it may be put at 1,300 years, for Demosthenes as low as 1,200.”
He goes on to say, “The interval, then, between the dates of the original composition and the earliest extant [existing] evidence becomes so small as to be in fact negligible, and the last foundation for any doubt that the Scriptures have come down to us substantially as they were written has now been removed. Both the authenticity and the general integrity of the books of the New Testament may be regarded as finally established.”
Let me put this into perspective for you regarding the New Testament manuscripts that we have. There are over 24,000 manuscript copies of the New Testament in existence today. We have 5,300 Greek manuscripts. We have over 10,000 Latin Vulgate manuscripts. And there are over 9,300 other early versions of manuscripts of the New Testament. No other document of antiquity even comes close! Caesar, who lived 100-44 BC, we have only 10 manuscripts of his writings with the earliest copy from 900 AD. A time span of 1,000 years! The Iliad, by Homer, which is the closest number of manuscripts, was written around 900 BC, and we have 643 manuscripts in which the earliest copy is from 400 BC, a 500 year time difference.
The New Testament has about 20,000 lines of text, of that only 40 lines (or 400 words) of the New Testament are in doubt. Of that, only about one-sixtieth can be called “substantial variations.” Think about that for a minute. That would give us a text that is approximately 98% perfect, pure! Yes we do not have the original manuscripts but what we do have are copies that are very accurate!
In fact, New Testament scholar F. F. Bruce said, “The variant readings about which any doubt remains . . . affect no material question of historical fact or of Christian faith and practice.” Sir Frederic Kenyon, one of the great authorities in the field of New Testament textual criticism, had this to say regarding the New Testament manuscripts, “One warning already referred to, must be emphasized in conclusion. No fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith rests on a disputed reading . . . It cannot be to strongly asserted that in substance the text of the Bible is certain: especially is the case with the New Testament. The number of manuscripts of the New Testament, of early translations from it, and of quotations from it in the oldest writing of the church, is so large that it is practically certain that the true reading of every doubtful passage is preserved in some one or other of these ancient authorities. This can be said of no other book.”
But how did the Scriptures come together? How did they choose the books of the Bible? Who said which ones would be in and which ones would be out? Chuck Missler tells us, “Letters were received and circulated, and a growing group developed and was recognized as authoritative (Apostolic) and in harmony with accepted doctrine. All 27 books were accepted by the end of the 1st century; every NT book cited as authoritative by a church father within one generation.” He goes on to tell us regarding the criteria that was used, “Apostolicity; Conformity; Consistency with Old Testament prophets and New Testament apostles; Continuous and widespread acceptance (Councils subsequently only ratified what the churches had already accepted).”
Geisler and Nix tell us, “Every book in the New Testament contains some claim to divine authority. The New Testament church read, circulated, collected, and quoted the New Testament books right along with the inspired Scriptures of the Old Testament.” In fact, J. Harold Greenlee said this regarding the early church writers and their quotations of Scripture, they “Are so extensive that the New Testament could virtually be reconstructed from them without the use of New Testament manuscripts.” You see, you can destroy every Bible, every manuscript, and you could still reconstruct all but 11 verses of the New Testament. We have over 36,000 quotations from the early church writers. In fact, there is more evidence for the reliability of the New Testament than any 10 pieces of classical literature put together. If anyone would like to say that the New Testament is not reliable, then we might as well toss out ALL literature of antiquity!
Let me put this into perspective, as J. I. Packer notes, “The Church no more gave us the New Testament canon than Sir Isaac Newton gave us the force of gravity. God gave us gravity, by His work of creation, and similarly He gave us the New Testament canon, by inspiring the individual books that make it up.”
Can we trust what the Scriptures tell us? You bet we can because they are the Words of God. Peter, quoting out of Isaiah 40:8 tells us in I Peter 1:22-25, “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because ‘All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, But the word of the LORD endures forever.’ Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.”
Please don’t listen to Dan Brown and the other angles of light that are promoting these doctrines of demons, listen to what God is saying. It is amazing how many people get caught up in these conspiracy theories and negate the truth, the historical records, the evidence that is before them. Those that believe what Dan Brown is saying are doing just that! May we not be seduced into believing those lies but be like the Psalmist who said in Psalm 119:18, “Open my eyes, that I may see Wondrous things from Your law.”
As I was typing this study up I knew I was in trouble when I was on page 10 and only had copied 2 pages of my notes. Thus, we are in no way going to be able to finish this morning dealing with the other two important topics, Who Is Jesus? And Was Jesus Married? So next week we will look at those and sum this all up.
As I close this morning I hope you have the assurance that the Bible you have in you lap is the Word of God, not the original manuscript, but a very close and accurate copy as we have seen. Let me leave you with this to think about. Listen to this quote from the religious publication Time magazine! Of course I am joking it is not a religious magazine but listen to what it had to say in an article dated, December 30, 1974. We are told, “After more than two centuries of facing the heaviest scientific guns that could be brought to bear, the Bible has survived – and is perhaps better for the siege. Even on the critics’ own terms – historical fact – Scriptures seem more acceptable now than they did when the rationalists began the attack.”
As Paul told Timothy, may we believe and apply to our lives, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” The Amplified Bible puts it this way, “Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose, and action), So that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.” And The Living Bible says, “The whole Bible was given to us by inspiration from God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives; it straightens us out and helps us do what is right. It is God's way of making us well prepared at every point, fully equipped to do good to everyone.” May we believe it and not fall prey to a different Gospel another Jesus!