Debunking the Da Vinci Code Hoax - Life of Paul Part 77

Now you know here at McLean Bible church. It's time for the truth to get her boots on.

I mean, enough is enough and so were to talk today about this book.

This grows out of a series that were doing entitled modern theological myths were challenged to do this in acts chapter 20 were Paul said to the leaders of the church of Ephesus. He said keep watch over God's sheep and protect them from theological error and so even though were in a message on the life series on the life of Paul did a tiny little digression to talk to you about some of the most insidious theological errors that are around today that are being shoved down the throat of the American public. Two weeks ago we talked about the Jewish people really need Jesus.

And we said the New Testament is clear. Absolutely they do get the tape of the CD. Last week we talked about the agenda of the homosexual activist community whereby they say homosexuality is a genetic predisposition that people can help and therefore we in America must accept homosexual behavior as normal sexual practice and what we saw last week is that there premises on biblical. Their behavior is offensive to God, and they are caught up in a bondage from which only Jesus Christ can set them for you if you missed last week get the tape proceeding today we want to go on and do the last part of this little series talking about debunking the da Vinci hoax because that's exactly what it is now. I was out with my son John was 19 of this week for dinner and I told him I was going be talking about this and John said what what exactly you going to talk about like what exact issues are you going to cover and I said John you know the truth is, this book is so full error. I don't hardly know where to start but I think 33 of the most significant ones to talk to you about in their these we want to talk about the formation of the New Testament, we want to talk about the person of Jesus Christ and we want to talk about the esteem or the lack of esteem is down Brown would say, given to women by Christianity, and I think that that'll pretty well fill our plates for this morning.

Now let's look and see what's going on here. First of all, the formation of the New Testament. Here is what Dan Brown said in his book and I quote the Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven.

The Bible is a product of man, not God.

The Bible as we know it today was collated by the payee, a pagan Roman Emperor Constantine. He was a lifelong pagan who was baptized on his deathbed to week to protest Constantine was a very good businessman. He could see that Christianity was on the rise, and he simply backed the winning horse."

Now is this true was Emperor Constantine just a cheap opportunist to use Christianity for his own political agenda and his own political purposes for the answer is absolutely not, let me tell you the truth about Constantine Constantine in 312 A.D. was away with his army and gall modern-day France when there was a riot. There was a mutiny enrolled and abandoning the accent. She is took over enrolled mutiny. Constantine turned his army around and marched back to Rome to face this mutineer and yet he was overwhelmed. He was outnumbered. He knew the chances of victory were small and the night before the battle, he was so scared about losing the battle that he spent the whole night in prayer to his pagan gods, but something interesting happened while he was praying he suddenly saw in the cabins across shining in the clouds and under the cross. The two Latin words, Hawk vintage, which means by this by the cross conquer. Later that evening he had a dream in which Jesus appeared to him and told him to put across on the Roman standard of war and to follow the cross held high in front of the Army in the battle and Jesus would give them victory. Constantine did this. Anyone this battle against overwhelming odds. It's interesting, let me just say that this was 312 A.D. Constantine was not on his bed.deathbed. He was not too weak to protest. He gave his life to Christ. Immediately after this enrolled for 25 more years now because he gave his life to Christ he did a bunch of other things. For example, he took the Roman Eagle off the top of the military standard of the armies of Rome. There you see a picture of the standard he removed the Eagle and put the cross on the top of every military standard in the Roman army. He also erected a statue of himself in Rome holding across hi and having the inscription under it by this sacred sign.

I delivered the city he abolished all persecution against Christians in the Roman Empire.

He became a friend of all the Christian bishops and would often call them together two councils were he would personally preside erase all the pagan symbols in Rome. The statues of Zeus and Apollo and Mars got rid of mall he paid for churches to be built all over the Roman Empire out of his own personal funds. He declared Sunday to be a day of worship for the entire Roman Empire. He attended church every week and out of respect. He had this curious habit out of respect. He would stand for the entire time the sermon was being preached.

He held a Bible study in the palace that he taught himself on a weekly basis and he made sure that his sons were raised and given a Christian education.

The point is that Constantine embrace Christianity not because of political expedience.

He embraced it because he had had a true spiritual experience with Jesus and the next 25 years worth of his actions prove this was not a political thing.

It was a true spiritual experience. Now Dan Brown goes on he says Constantine needed to strengthen this new Christian tradition.

And so we held a famous ecumenical gathering known as the Council of Nicaea.

Let me stop and say this was a real counsel, it really did happen in 325 A.D. and Constantine was really there, that's true. Dan Brown continues until that moment in history. Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet, Jesus is establishment establishment as the son of God was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea because Constantine upgraded Jesus's status almost 4 centuries after Jesus is there thousands of documents already existed chronicling Jesus's life is just a mortal man, Constantine commissioned and financed. A new Bible decommissioned in finance a new Bible that omitted those Gospels the modern Bible was compiled and edited by men who possess a political agenda to promote the divinity of the man Jesus Christ so they could use his influence to solidify their own power base, Constantine's Bible has been the church is true for ages. Therefore almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false." Now is this true. I mean, did the Council of Nicaea a decide on the makeup of the Bible to the Council of Nicaea radically define which books were in the Bible friends, absolutely not. Let me tell you the truth. The formation of the New Testament had taken place long before the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. in fact a sense of which writings were inspired by God and belong in the New Testament goes all the way back into the first century, even Peter second Peter 316 writing in his letter, about 61 or 62 A.D. refers to Paul's writings as Scripture. This is in the 60s, A.D., and is calling Paul's letter Scripture in the writings of the earliest church fathers from 100 to 250 A.D. These include the writings of Pauly Carpathians irony is Tertullian, Eusebius, we find listings in all of these church fathers writings of the books that they considered inspired in part of the New Testament and for all practical purposes, it's the exact same New Testament that you have sitting on your lap this morning.

In fact, usually in the same order of the books that you have sitting on your lap one more example to mirror Taurean counted which was written in 170 A.D. it was a list of all the books that were recognized as inspired by the church and it is almost identical with the list of the books in your New Testament today are Laird Harris, in his monumental work.

The inspiration and canonicity of the Bible says and I quote in the mirror.

Taurean counted. We have a history of the New Testament books as an authoritative collection almost exactly like our New Testament and they were written by someone who wrote less than 70 years after the death of the last apostle John, and by someone who may well have talked with many others who knew the apostles personally. So by the time the Council of Nicaea came around folks in 325 A.D. it's important you understand that the makeup of the New Testament was already a foregone conclusion. Dan Brown's assertion that the Bible as we know it today was collated by the pagan emperor Constantine and the Constantine commissioned it finance the new Bible. Those assertions are simply bogus goes on use. I will wait a long way to foregone women. What about all that stuff you said about thousands of other gospels a talk about Jesus as a mortal man that that he deliberately left out what he talking about what friends he's talking about the Gnostic Gospels the Gnostic Gospels were discovered in Egypt 1946 in a little town called nog Hammadi in central Egypt they were all written Coptic there, dated 250 to 350 BC and they belong to a group of heretics that lived in central Egypt called the Gnostics will show you a map. Here's were nog Hammadi is the red star you see on the map and you can see where they were found. These Gnostics, their name comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge.

They believed that they had secret knowledge that Jesus had given just of them and to the initiated. They were, like the Masons, very secret set, who passed on the secret information only to the initiated and hear some of the things that they believe they believe that the true God originally may to divine beings, a male and a female. They had sex that an offspring and evil offspring and evils on who became the God of the Old Testament gives Gold's evil son of theirs, the God of the Old Testament was to see to it that the divine spark in man never got back to heaven again and that's why Jesus had to come to bring the secret Gnostic information so that the initiated people in the Gnostic order could get there divine spark back to heaven. In these Gnostic Gospels. These Gospels have Jesus saying things and doing things that are the wildest most phantasmagoric openings you ever saw or heard of in your life. Crazy things and listen. It's not that the early church fathers didn't know about these Gnostic Gospels. They knew about all of and they rejected them all as heresy centuries before the Council of Nicaea ever met. In fact, Ira Naess, the famous church father wrote a treatise called against heresies in 180 A.D. a century and 1/2 before the Council of Nicaea and he outlined in his treatise. All of the teachings of the Gnostics and said and I quote. Such are the falsehoods that deluded people have invented" are Laird Harris. Once again the inspiration canonicity.

The Bible says and I quote, we have no evidence what ever that there were true writings of the trial apostles, which the early church refused rejected or lost."

So let's summarize neither emperor, Constantine, nor the Council of Nicaea nor a bunch of bishops with a political agenda really wrote the Bible.

At the Council of Nicaea for their own political gain. In fact, the Council of Nicaea had absolutely nothing to do with which books were in the Bible.

I'll tell you in a minute what I did have to do with but also I want you to remember that these bishops who came to the Council of Nicaea were not cheap political hucksters.

The way that Dan Brown presents them.

These were men who had suffered for their faith in Jesus Christ.

These are men would been beaten and tortured for their faith in Jesus Christ and would watch comrades of them go to their death rather than deny Jesus Christ. These were godly men who came to the Council of Nicaea for godly purposes.

You say will like what will that leads us to our second issue, the person of Christ.

Here's what Dan Brown says and I quote, until the Council of Nicaea, Jesus was viewed by his followers as a mortal prophet, a great and powerful man but a man nonetheless.

Jesus's divinity was the result of a vote. The Council at a relatively close vote at that establishing Jesus's divinity was critical to the further unification of the Roman Empire and to the new Vatican power base, thus almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false."

Now, is this really true. I mean, did the Council of Nicaea change the Church's understanding of who Jesus Christ is the Council of Nicaea radically alter their understanding of the deity of Christ friends absolutely not, let me tell you the truth about the Council of Nicaea. The Council of Nicaea 325 A.D. met to deal with the heresy that had arisen in the church at the beginning of the fourth century. Remember the deity of Jesus Christ was never a fluid issue was never an issue that was unsettled and open for discussion in the first three centuries of the church. Thousands upon thousands of followers of Christ went to their death. They were burned at the stake.

They were crucified they were thrown to animals in the Coliseum and torn into bits rather than deny the deity of Jesus Christ, they were killed over the very issue.

Who is God, the Emperor or Jesus and they refused to recant the Jesus was God.

There was no confusion at all about this in the early church, but in the early 300s a guy named Arius was a church leader in the city of Alexandria, Egypt, began teaching that Jesus wasn't really God 100%.

A lot of people began following. He was opposed by Athanasius, the bishop of the church of Alexandria and the.the. The fight became so acrimonious that Emperor Constantine called the bishops from the entire Roman Empire together to Nicaea to settle this once and for all.

At this conference. These bishops along with the full support of the Emperor reaffirmed the historic position of the church and that is namely that the essence of Jesus Christ is identical with the essence of God the father that Jesus Christ is an uncreated being on the exact same level as God and reading part of what they approved to you and I quote, we believe in one God the father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, begotten, not made, who is of the same exact substance. The Greek word is Homo Lucius the same exact essence as the father."

And by the way, vote was 302 two so was not close as Dan Brown implies is a will on. Where did they get this historic position on the person of Christ from friends. I got up Jesus from from the mouth of Jesus.

John chapter 5 why ask you to turn Jesus said to them. John 517, my father works on the Sabbath day and I too am working for this reason, the Jewish leaders tried all the more killing because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. John chapter 10 verse 30 Jesus said I am the father of one. Therefore, the Jewish leaders once again picked up stones to stone him. Jesus said to them, I have showed you many good works, for which one of them. Are you stoning me and they said for good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy because you a mere man are claiming to be God. Friends don't you ever let anybody tell you the Jesus Christ never claimed to be God. He claimed to be God. Every time talk about the subject in these Jewish leaders were standing there listening to him who, unlike the so-called scholars of the day heard the very words come right out of his mouth.

They knew exactly what he was claiming to be, which is why every time the subject came up.

They picked up rocks to throw at they knew exactly what he was claiming to be. Let's summarize the Council of Nicaea did not redefine who Jesus Christ is, up until the Council of Nicaea was Jesus viewed by his followers as nothing more than a mortal man, absolutely not. That's not true. Did the Council of Nicaea votes the deity of Christ into existence. Preposterous friends. The church's position on the deity of Christ has never changed from the first day Jesus opened his mouth in John five and John did and told him that he was in fact Paul in Colossians chapter 2 verse nine writing about, 60 A.D., said foreign Jesus Christ all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form that was almost 300 years before the Council of Nicaea so Dan Brown says everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.

Is that so well it depends what your father taught you to be taught to the Jesus Christ is God in the flesh.

Jehovah God himself in the pleasure father taught you run now what about this third issue, the esteem or lack thereof given to women by Christianity but me tell you what.Dan Brown says hold on the seats are. He says and I quote there was a smear campaign launched by the early church.

The church needed to defame Mary Magdalene and called her a prostitute to cover up her dangerous secret her role as the holy Grail. The threat that Mary Magdalene posed to the men of the early church was ruinous, namely that she was the woman to whom Jesus had assigned the task of founding the church… That was Peter. He said that to maybe a mistake that's going. He goes on to say, early Jewish tradition involve ritualistic sex in the temple, no less. Early Jews believed that the holy of holies in Solomon's temple howls.

The not only God but also his powerful female equal Shekinah men seeking spiritual wholeness came to the temple to visit priestesses with whom they made love and experience the divine through physical union for the early church. This sacred female presence bowl posed a serious threat to the church's power base friends that is so nonsensical and preposterous that it's hardly even worth dignifying with a response is no evidence ever let that happen.

Finally, it was man, not God who created the concept of original sin whereby Eve tasted of the Apple and cause the downfall of the human race. The power of the female posed such a threat to the rise of the predominantly male church and so as to the probably male church, and so the sacred feminine was demonized and called unclean Christian philosophy decided to embezzle the female's creative power and make man, the creator and the church use this to subjugate women." Say what in the heck is going on here. What is he talking about will print what he's talking about is the fact that there is a crusading feminist agenda that runs through the entire book of the da Vinci code from the first page to the last page, there is the underlying implication that a bunch of devious power-hungry men commandeered the Christian faith that they took it away from their roots.

Its roots in secular feminism, sexual feminism, and they institutionalize the church as a male dominated female subjugating religion now.

I wish I had more truth to deal with this why the devil but I don't more time rather but let me just say a couple things in the time that I've got. Let me remind you ladies that Christianity.

The Christian faith in the truth of the New Testament is the best friend women on this planet have ever had. And if you don't believe me you just look and see how women are treated in every culture in the world where the Bible has not been dominant in that culture.

You look in the Islamic cultures of our world today and see how women are treated, barely more than barely as good as dirt in those cultures.

I'll tell you why, because the truth of the Bible is not been to those cultures.

Look at the tribal cultures of Africa where women are mutilated by female circumcision.

Look at the Chinese culture.

Women's feet are tied in female slavery is rampant in the ancient Hindu culture. Women could own no property. If the wife left her house without her husband's permission he had the right to call both peers and her nose at it. If the woman was as though her dowry was too small. He could burn her at the stake. And if a woman was accused of adultery in the ancient Hindu culture.

She was made to walk through real fire.

A real fire pit of any part of her closer. Her body showed the slightest traces of burn she was assumed to be guilty until now.

Can you walk through a real fire not have some indications of getting burned, which means you get accused of adultery as a woman in the ancient Hindu culture you're gone. That's it neurotic that you're here here soon guilty. In the Roman world before the time of Christianity taking over the Roman world women were disenfranchised lot.

Cicero, the great Roman poet wrote and I quote, our fathers and their wisdom. Consider that all women because of their innate weakness should be under the control of a male guardian." Essentially, women were slaves in their own homes in the Roman Empire. They couldn't vote.

They couldn't own property. They had no legal rights, their husband could divorce them at the whim of his elbow.

Just the word. There was what was called paterfamilias in the Roman Empire before the time of Christianity taking over the Roman Empire and what this meant is that we not winnow a man the head of the home had a daughter, brand-new daughter, they would bring the daughter to him that you couldn't do this with a male child, but they would bring the female child is brand-new daughter to admit he could give a thumbs up or thumbs down if he gave a thumbs down indicating he just didn't feel like raising another girl they took her down the river.

They drowned her. No charges pressed that you did that to a male child to be accused of murder female children.

I don't feel like raising her just drown her to watch pretty bad yell but listen to what the illustrated history of the Roman Empire says and I quote women in the Roman world were the most liberated in the world at that time you think it was bad of Rome. You should've seen the way it was interesting the world and then along comes the Christian faith, and then along comes the New Testament truth declaring Galatians 328 in Christ there is neither male nor female, for we are all one in Jesus Christ. Ephesians chapter 5 husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her husbands are to love their wives as they love their own bodies. First Peter three men are to grant women, honor, because they are equal heirs of the grace of life and then if you don't, your prayers will be hindered for Linda this world where women were treated so abjectly comes the truth of God saying women are to be honored. Women are to be dignified. Women are to be treasured.

Women are to be treated as equals and, as were the individuals in our world and any tell you all the societies today were women are treated with dignity and where women are allowed to be all that they can be.

You will find every single one of those societies has been molded by the worldview of Christianity and the Bible on the subject.

They may not be walking those cultures with God today, but you look back and you will find the warp and the wolf of that culture was formed by biblical truth and in those cultures were biblical truth has not had that level of formation defined women are not treated well. I think just the right fact that the feminist movement exists in America today is proof that the Bible and Christianity is a woman's best friend that you try taking the American feminist movement to Saudi Arabia and you watch what happened. You take the American feminist movement to Iran or you take it to India. Are you taking the tribal Africa and you watch what happens. It won't be pretty. But it exists here in this country because we have a view of women that says women are worthy and women are honored and women are dignified in that position came right out of the word of God. The feminist attack on Christianity in the da Vinci code that Dan Brown mounts friends. It it it it it it is historically ignorant, and it is sociologically ill-informed. This book makes me so mad I only know what to do. This book makes me so irritated. Let me just say in closing, Dan Brown may be an excellent writer, but he is a in my opinion a bad historian, a miserable theologian and an ill-informed sociologist cannot repeat that because just makes me feel better to say he is a bad historian. He is a miserable theologian renovated and he is an ill-informed sociologist impacted the end of the book the hero and of the book Sophie says and I quote my friends who are devout Christian, definitely believe that Christ literally walked on water literally turn water into wine and was born of a literal virgin and Dan Brown has the character in his book say will bear reality is false. I'm sorry Dan God says those people.

Reality is true because the Bible is true and the da Vinci code isn't in less than five minutes. If you're here and you you haven't read this book don't go by it. Don't waste your money and don't give him any more money if you've read the book.

My suggestion is it's wonderful to start a fire with on a cold evening, but don't you dare let this book shake your faith friends. Jesus said that the people who build their lives on the rock of the word of God, the wins, the rains fall.

The floods beat against the house and the house stands because it's built on the rock you build your house on the rock of the word of God. None of the stuff he says undermining the word of God in Jesus Christ is true you build your life on the word of God. And I promise you when all the dust clears in heaven.

I don't know where Dan Brown will be but I guarantee you'll be there with Jesus. If you build your life on the word of God is the word of God is true in the da Vinci code is. Let's pray heavenly father.

Thanks for talking to us today about this book and we pray that you would help us today to really understand what truth is and what it isn't, and if there would be a real sense in our hearts and lives that the word of God stands the test, even of the historical evaluation of this book. Help us to give this tape to our friends whose faith may have been shaken so that they might not have the slide of the enemy undercut their faith in Jesus Christ or their willingness to consider him so thanks for telling us truth today for thank you for let the truth your boots on here today and we pray this in Jesus name, amen