Please turn in your Bibles this morning to Galatians chapter 1 as we continue to look at Paul’s warning to the churches in Galatia who were being swayed, they were being seduced into believing a different Gospel, another Jesus! This morning we are going to finish up our study on The Da Vinci Myth! Last week we looked at Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code and specifically how he comes against the Bible being the Word of God.
In his book he tells us, “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.”
Last week we looked at IS THE BIBLE RELIABLE? And we saw that Dan Brown is wrong, for as we looked at what God has said in His Word, as we looked at the historical evidence for the Scriptures, and there is, without a doubt, no evidence to support his claim. But there is plenty of evidence showing that the Bible, both the Old Testament and the New Testament, from Genesis through the book of Revelation is reliable, it is accurate!
This morning we are going to be looking at two other important aspects to our Christian faith, that being, WHO IS JESUS? And WAS JESUS MARRIED? But before we get to our text this morning in Galatians and dig into these issues, listen to what C. S. Lewis has to say regarding the deity of Jesus Christ. We are told:
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would be either a lunatic – on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.
- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Folks, as we are going to see here this morning, Jesus is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity and that He is engaged at this very moment, and will one day be married! Shocked! I hope so, and you will see what that is all about in a few minutes. Right now please turn in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 1 and let’s begin reading in verse 6 and see what the Lord has for us this morning.
Paul is amazed; he is astounded that the Galatians are turning so quickly to a different Gospel, to another Jesus. In fact, in Galatians 3:1-3 and this is from The Amplified Bible as Paul tells us, “Oh, foolish Galatians! What magician has hypnotized you and cast an evil spell upon you? For you used to see the meaning of Jesus Christ's death as clearly as though I had waved a placard before you with a picture on it of Christ dying on the cross. Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by trying to keep the Jewish laws? Of course not, for the Holy Spirit came upon you only after you heard about Christ and trusted him to save you. Then have you gone completely crazy? For if trying to obey the Jewish laws never gave you spiritual life in the first place, why do you think that trying to obey them now will make you stronger Christians?” I think you clearly see Paul’s point.
These Judaizers were coming in and trying to mix Law and Grace and it doesn’t work, they don’t mix. Adding anything to Grace destroys Grace it doesn’t improve upon it! So they were going after a different Gospel and the reality, another Jesus!
To kind of summarize what the book is about and the vicious attack it is perpetrating against Christianity, listen to what Erwin Lutzer has to say:
Dan Brown’s agenda is not so thinly veiled: This book is a direct attack against Jesus Christ, the church, and those of us who are his followers and call him Savior and Lord. Christianity, according to Dan Brown’s novel, was invented to suppress women and to turn people away from the “divine feminine.” Understandably, the book appeals to feminists, who see a return to goddess worship as a necessity to combat male supremacy.
The upshot of this theory is that Christianity is based on a big lie, or rather, several big lies. For one thing, Jesus was not God, but his followers attributed deity to him in order to consolidate male rule and to suppress those who worshipped the divine feminine. Indeed, according to Dan Brown, at the Council of Nicaea Constantine invented the idea of the deity of Christ so that he could eliminate all opposition, declaring those who disagreed to be heretics. Further, Constantine also chose Matthew, Mark, Luke and John as the only Gospels because they fit his agenda of male power. Eighty other viable Gospels were rejected because they taught that Jesus wanted Mary Magdalene to be the real leader of the church. “It was all about power,” we’re told.
Incredibly, we learn that in the Old Testament, Israel worshipped both the male God Jehovah and his feminine counterpart, the Shekinah. Centuries later, the official church – the sex-hating, woman-hating church – suppressed this goddess worship and eliminated the divine feminine.
. . . “Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false,” laments Teabing. The New Testament is simply the result of a male-dominated leadership that invented Christianity in order to control the Roman Empire and to oppress women. The real Jesus was the original feminist, but his wishes were ignored to foster the male agenda.
- Erwin W. Lutzer, The Da Vinci Deception, pp. XVii, XViii
This kind of garbage just gets my blood boiling for it is nothing more than lies with no truth to back it up. The Jews did not worship a female goddess; the Shekinah was the glory of God! Do you really think Christianity was formed to destroy the Roman Empire? Think about it, how many Christians lost their lives for their faith in Christ! And so, with the remainder of our time, before I get too hot over this, let’s look at Who Jesus Is? And then we will look at Was Jesus Married? Two important areas as you will see.
2. WHO IS JESUS?
According to Dan Brown in his book, he asserts that Constantine, at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD changed who Jesus was. He says, “It was the Council of Nicaea in 325 that church leaders decided by vote to make Jesus divine. 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.”
Think about that for a minute. If Jesus is not God then He is a man. If He is a man, then He is a sinner like all of us. If He is a sinner like all of us then He in no way could die for our sins, He couldn’t even die for His own sins! Thus, we are still lost in our trespasses and sins. But Dan Brown did not do his homework, the historical evidence he states so emphatically is false! When they voted on the deity of Jesus at the Council of Nicaea Brown tells us it was a “close vote”! I am not sure what his definition of a close vote is but out of the 318 that voted, only 5 rejected the deity of Jesus and then only two refused to sign the document reaffirming the deity of Jesus Christ! This was not a new concept as we are going to see in a few minutes, thus, what was taught was now just reaffirmed as some tried to come in and deny the deity of Jesus Christ. Now, in saying that, listen to the Nicene Creed. It reads:
“We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of the Father, that is, of the substance [ousias] of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one substance [homoousion] with the father, through whom all things came to be, those things that are in heaven and those things that are on earth, who for us men and for our salvation came down and was made flesh, and was made man, suffered, rose the third day, ascended into the heavens, and will come to judge the living and the dead.”
The designation homoousion for our English word “substance” stressed that Christ is not merely like the Father but He is of the identical substance as the Father. The terms “God from God” and “true God from true God” further stressed the deity of Christ. At the same time “begotten, not made” and “came down,” stressed His eternality!
If that is not good enough for you, then let’s go back in time even farther and listen to what some of the church fathers claimed about Jesus over 100 years before the Council of Nicaea.
Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch (A.D. 110): “There is one God who manifests himself through Jesus Chrsit his son”; “Son of Mary and Son of God . . . Jesus Christ our Lord . . . God Incarnate . . . Christ God,” etc.
Polycarp the Bishop of Smyrna (A.D. 112-118), in his letter to the church at Philippi, assumes the divinity of Jesus, His glorification, etc.
Justin Martyr (~ A.D. 150): “being the first-begotten Word of God, is even God”; “. . . both God and Lord of hosts.”
Irenaeus (~ A.D. 185): “our Lord, and God, and Saviour, and King.”
Clement of Alexandria (~ A.D. 200): “truly most manifest Deity, He that is made equal to the Lord of the universe; because he was His Son.”
Not only that, but think about this. Who was Rome persecuting, putting to death, feeding to the lions? Christians who refused to bow the knee to Caesar and bowed their knew to their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ instead. Their martyrdom was a result of their exclusive commitment to Christ as God!
Now if that is not enough, listen to what the Scriptures teach:
Matthew 1:22-23 tells us, “So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which is translated, ‘God with us.’” Notice what the prophecy is about, God becoming man, God with us!
Luke 5:20-24 shows us that Jesus Himself showed He is God by forgiving the sins and healing this paralyzed man, “When He saw their faith, He said to him, ‘Man, your sins are forgiven you.’ And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, ‘Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, ‘Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, “Your sins are forgiven you,” or to say, “Rise up and walk”? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins’ — He said to the man who was paralyzed, ‘I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.’” The Jewish religious leaders recognized that only God can forgive sins and Jesus showed that He is God to them!
In John 20:28 we see Thomas speak of the resurrected Christ, “And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” Jesus never rebuked Thomas for calling Him God; He never told Thomas that he was wrong for doing that, why? Because Jesus is God and what Thomas said was right!
In John 1:1-3, 14, 18 we are told, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth . . . No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”
We are told by Paul in Romans 9:5, “of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.” Not “a” God, but God, the second person of the Holy Trinity!
In Titus 2:13-14we are told, “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” Again, Paul tells us that Jesus is God and He is coming back for us, we should be looking for His return! And in Isaiah 44:6 we are told, “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First and I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.’” Notice, Yahweh, King of Israel and Yahweh His Redeemer! Jesus is God!
And there are more but let me just end with this from Hebrews 1:8-12 where God the Father calls Jesus God. We are told, “But to the Son He says: ‘Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions.’ And: ‘You, LORD, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain; And they will all grow old like a garment; Like a cloak You will fold them up, And they will be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not fail.’” I think that is clear, if the Father calls Jesus God, then I will not let Dan Brown or the Jehovah Witnesses or anyone else tell me otherwise!
Now here is the thing, and this is important. If you deny Jesus being God you will die in you sins. Doubt that? Then listen to what Jesus said in John 8:24, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” Please note that in your Bibles “He” is in italics and it was added for clarity but I think it just makes it a little more confusing. This verse should read, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” If you do not believe that He is the voice from the burning bush, the Great I Am, Almighty God, then you have a bigger problem than Dan Brown’s book, you will die in your sins!
Thus, this is obviously an important issue and one the enemy is trying to confuse people on because it is a matter of life and death. But you have seen that the Council of Nicaea reaffirmed the deity of Jesus. The early church fathers taught that Jesus is God. People were put to death by Rome for not renouncing that Jesus is God in the early church. And the prophets spoke of the Messiah being God, the New Testament shows that Jesus is God by His own words, by the words of the apostles and by God the Father Himself! I think the evidence is clear, Jesus is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity and the Savior of the World. Dan Brown is completely in error when he says otherwise, he did not do his homework or he is lying! Case closed!
3. WAS JESUS MARRIED?
Dan Brown tells us that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and that they had a child who was born after Jesus died, was crucified, and their daughters name was Sarah! Of this relationship Erwin Lutzer tells us in his book The Da Vinci Deception:
The Da Vinci Code is so named because of the claim that Leonardo da Vinci was a member of the Priory of Sion. The Priory was a small band of conspirators who knew the truth about the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, but because of opposition from the church, this explosive secret had to be hidden. To escape the wrath of the Vatican, members of the Priory would encrypt their cherished knowledge in paintings, writings, and architecture in such a way that only the learned could decipher their meanings. Of course, in the novel the powerful Catholic organization Opus Dei is committed to intimidating the Priory in an effort to suppress the facts that would destroy Christianity as we know it.
And so in Da Vinci’s paintings, the argument goes, we find hidden messages. In fact, encoded into his paintings is proof that Da Vinci knew that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and that she, and not a cup, was the Holy Grail. In the novel we read that, “the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is part of the historical record.” [This is found on page 245 of The Da Vinci Code].
- Erwin W. Lutzer, The Da Vinci Deception, pp. 39-40
First of all, what about this secret organization called the Priory of Sion? Chuck Missler tells us: “It turns out that ‘the Priory of Sion’ was organized in 1956, with Pierre Plantard as its Grand Master, an anti-Semite with a criminal record for fraud. Its background was, indeed, ‘proven’ by a cache of documents that were ‘discovered’ in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.”
“However, they were planted there by Pierre Plantard himself! One of his henchmen admitted to assisting him in the fabrication of these materials, including the genealogical tables and lists of the Priory’s grand masters. This hoax was exposed in a series of French books and a BBC documentary in 1996.” And yet Dan Brown tells us this is all true, these secret societies and those that were involved with them. False!
In his 1495 mural “The Last Supper” which was commissioned for the refectory of a Dominican monastery in Santa Maria delle Grazie, Dan Brown tells us that the person to the right of Jesus is not the apostle John but Mary Magdalene. Also, because there is not chalice on the table, he tells us that Mary is the Holy Grail, the cup, for it is her blood line which was passed on through her daughter Sarah and the daughter of Jesus. And then, through the linage of Sarah, one of Jesus’ descendants created the Merovingian line of French royalty! What a fish story!
Of this, this is what Dan Brown has to say in his book:
“Jesus was the original feminist. He intended for the future of His Church to be in the hands of Mary Magdalene . . . She was the House of Benjamin . . . of royal descent.” (Page 248).
“And the companion of the Saviour is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth. The rest of the disciples were offended by it and expressed disapproval. They said to him, “Why do you love her more than all of us?” (Page 246).
Again, there is nothing to support this claim made by Dan Brown, no historical evidence at all! But that does not matter to Brown for his out is this; the church has suppressed this evidence in a great conspiracy of silence! You have to love those conspiracy theories for they are hard to refute many times because the evidence has been hidden, or so they say. And thus, for Dan Brown, he can say with confidence that the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene and their child Sarah is “a matter of historical record.” No it is not!
Paul, in I Corinthians 9:5 tells us, “Do we have no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles, the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?” If Jesus was married don’t you think Paul would have mentioned it here? Of course he would have for he speaks of the other apostles having wives and even the Lords brothers and Peter! Paul was not a member of some secrete society, he spoke the truth and not like Dan Brown who speaks these lies like they are the truth and they are not! What Brown is trying to do is make goddess worship something that Jesus encouraged since Mary was to head the church and Peter usurped that role, or so he says. But again, the evidence does not support his claims.
As I close this section, let me give this to think about. If Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene He then committed adultery! Shocked? Think about it, we, as the body of Christ are engaged to Him, we are the bride of Christ. In fact, Jesus has given to us an engagement ring you might say in the form of the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 1:13-14 we are told, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” That word “guarantee” can be spoken of as earnest money that was paid or an engagement ring that was given.
Thus, Jesus is engaged to us, the bride of Christ and one day He will return for His Bride, we call it the Rapture and we will be caught up in the clouds with Him and then comes the Marriage supper of the Lamb spoken of in Revelation 19:7-9 where we are told, “‘Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.’ And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, ‘Write: “Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!”’ And he said to me, ‘“These are the true sayings of God.’” This is true, not what Dan Brown is telling us!
Let me put this into perspective. President Lincoln was dealing with someone who was disputing with him and was just plain stubborn. And Lincoln said to him, “Well, let’s see how many legs has a cow?” “Four, of course,” came the reply disgustedly. “That’s right,” agreed Lincoln. “Now suppose you call the cow’s tail a leg; how many legs would the cow have?” “Why, five, of course,” was the confident reply. “Now, that’s where you’re wrong,” said Lincoln. “Calling a cow’s tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.”
Folks, just because Dan Brown or anyone else says it is the gospel truth, doesn’t make it the gospel truth. It must be in accordance with the Word of God, it is what God has said and not man. And there should be historical evidence for what is being said also, and there is much historical evidence for the Bible! It is what God has said and not what man says!
As I close this morning we have only scratched the surface of this book but hopefully I have given you the basics to defend your faith and show others how ridiculous this book really is, it truly is fiction! If you would like to study it further there are several books out there that are very good. I will share with you two of them. The first book is The Da Vinci Deception by Erwin Lutzer. Then there is The Da Vinci Code Fact or Fiction? by Hank Hanegraaff and Paul L. Maier. Also, Chuck Missler has some information on his web site: www.khouse.org.
Let me leave you this morning with these words from Hank Hanegraaff. He tells us:
Perhaps there may even be a benefit in all of this. Strange as it may seem, heresy has always been good for the church, since it forces a renewed attention to the central doctrines of Christianity in order to counteract error. Without heresy, we would not have the great creeds of Christendom. If, then, this latest attempt to subvert history forces more widespread study of Jesus, the Gospels, the origins of Christianity, and how the church developed across the centuries, so much the better. And if people are talking again about holy Scripture, better still.
The frontrunner is always the most set upon by rivals, and this likely explains the deplorable double-standard cited at the start of this book, namely: You dare not attack any of the world’s religious systems – unless it’s Christianity. But attacks against Christianity always fail in the long run. This faith is the single most successful phenomenon, statistically considered, in the history of humanity. No other religion, teaching, philosophy, way of life, enterprise – whatever – commands the loyalties of over two billion people, in the present generation alone. The church has suffered far worse than The Da Vinci Code – including outright persecutions past and present – and it has not only survived but thrived. Never under estimate the providence of God or the power of truth!
- Hank Hanegraaff & Paul L. Maier, The Da Vinci Code Fact or Fiction?, pp. 88-89
My prayer is that I have caused you to dig deeper in the Word of God, to know what you believe so that you can defend your faith as many will try to come against it and cause you to doubt it. Remember the words of Peter, “But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you are blessed. ‘And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.’ 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 3:13-16. May we always be ready to give a defense of what we believe! Let us not be deceived into believing a different Gospel, another Jesus!