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Showing posts with label intellectual dishonesty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label intellectual dishonesty. Show all posts

Thursday, January 30, 2020

Truths About The Da Vinci Code

 THE TRUTH ABOUT THE DA VINCI CODE



By Francis Fawkes, Th.D.


Recently, I have heard a lot about the movie The Da Vinci Code based on the novel by Dan Brown.  In this writing - which is fiction, and based upon distorted history - the author purports that Jesus had a romantic relationship with Mary Magdalene - or was in fact married to her.  So absurd and so laughable was this assertion that a number of people told me that they were not going to see the movie.  Their reason being, they did not want to support a lie.

However, there are those who think that the arguments for The Da Vinci Code are plausible.  My purpose in writing this article is to expose this satanic hoax.  I also want to show you that the real purpose in writing this book is to undermine your faith and destroy your soul.

Your Saviour and master, Jesus Christ was not only sinless, but he had no physical offspring.  In 1 Peter 2:22, Jesus’ sinless nature is confirmed in an eye-witness account: Jesus did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.  At the foot of the cross, of all the people mentioned, no wife or sweetheart was named (John 19: 25-27).  Mary Magdalene did not flee with any offspring to France to perpetuate a royal French line of kings.  She died in Ephesus.

How did the author come to such a ridiculous conclusion that Jesus was married?  He inferred it from an imperfectly preserved passage in The Gnostic Gospel by Philip.  This passage was so fragmentary that no one could make complete sense from it, but he deduced marriage from it.  This is the height of intellectual dishonesty.

What are The Gnostic Gospels?  They belonged to a number of false gospels in circulation at the time of the disciples.  In them, the deity of Christ is denied and salvation is attained through secret knowledge.  St. Paul, at the time he was writing the epistle to the Colossians fought hard against dangerous cults of this type.  They threatened the Colossian church.  In verses 15 and 16 of Colossians chapter 1, Paul countered their arguments by revealing that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” and the creator of all things.  This was his defense.

However, it is still a tragedy that we have inherited some of these false gospels today.  Among The Gnostic Gospels are The Gospel of Judas, The Gospel of Mary and The Gospel of Thomas.  These gospels were written 150 and sometimes 200 years after the historical events occurred.  Whereas, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts and the Epistles of St. Paul were eyewitness accounts and were written during the lives of the apostles.

It is insightful to observe that most scholars doubt that the purported authors wrote these false gospels.  You must be aware that a number of them are inconsistent with what the disciples thought and diametrically opposed to established Christian doctrine.

Case-in-point, The Gnostic Gospel of Philip could not have been written by the disciple because he believed that Jesus Christ was God incarnate.  One day Jesus was asked by Philip to show him the Father, God.  Jesus replied, “He that hath me has seen the Father; and how sayeth thou then, show us the Father?”  Thomas also believed that Jesus was God in the flesh, when he addressed Him as: “my Lord and my God.”

Bahamians must also continue to defend their Christian heritage.  It is totally irresponsible to expose the population to this kind of work at the risk of destroying their Christian ethic and faith.  Already, The Bahamas has problems with a very high murder rate; a record number of AIDS infections per capita, drug problems and other ills too numerous to mention.  Does any sensible person want to create further complications by attacking a belief system that gives its adherents a certain measure of protection and eternal salvation?

God has Already given us warnings.  In spite of hurricanes and economic challenges, we have not had a holocaust that has taken hundreds or even thousands of lives yet.  This is by the grace of God.  Take into consideration Hurricane Katrina and the deaths of 9000 people in New Orleans.  Prior to that was the “911” incident in New York.  What about the earthquakes in India occurring in the midst of their celebrations of false gods?  The Bible states that the nation that forgets God is turned into hell.

THE LAST SUPPER


Almost everybody is familiar with the painting - The Last Supper, by Leonardo Da Vinci.  Dan Brown claims that the person on the right of Jesus is Mary Magdalene.  As a matter of fact, it is supposed to be John.  This picture is not a true representation of The Last Supper.  In the Middle Eastern culture at that time, there were no tables and chairs as we know them today.  Jesus and his disciples ate in a reclining position each taking turns in dipping their bread in one pot in common!  Another mistake in Da Vinci’s painting is that there are a number of cups.  In reality, there was only one cup that was passed around.

Since the Bible has the reputation of being the most documented book of all antiquity, let it address the situation of false gospels and the erroneous teaching of this age:

“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who secretly shall bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring themselves swift destruction.  And Many shall follow their pernicious ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.  And through covetousness shall they, with feigned words, make merchandise of you; whose judgement now for a long time lingereth not, and their destruction  slumbereth not” (2 Peter 2: 1-3).