Is Jesus Threatened By The "Da Vinci Code?"
Last night, I watched a program about The Da Vinci Code on the Discovery Channel. Can you believe all the hype? Fabrications and lies which were denied, confessed, or disproved ten years ago are now back on the table and being dealt with as if they were fact. It reminds me of a line in an old high school play, "If you tell someone the truth, they'll think you are telling them a lie; but, if you tell them a lie, they will believe you!"
I confess that all the present controversy tends to upset me. I guess I am prone to get into the flesh and feel more like fighting than loving! Then, I am pulled back to reality when I'm reminded that there is nothing new about those attacks. Assaults on the credibility of Jesus as God and Messiah were being circulated even before the New Testament was written, and the Scriptures do not deny them. In John 8:41, the Jews said to Jesus, "...We were not born of fornication; we have one Father--God." Some think that is a vague reference to a rumor which was being circulated among Jesus' enemies that He was of illegitimate birth. The Jewish Talmud, an early record of Jewish teachings, records that rumor in an attempt to discredit Jesus.
Another attack is seen in Matthew 28. When the soldiers who had been guarding Jesus' tomb came to report the events surrounding His resurrection, the Bible records that the Jewish leaders bribed them to report to their superiors, "...'His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.' And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him and make you secure. So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day." (Matthew 28:13-15) Notice, the rumor was already being circulated. But, Jesus was not threatened by either of those accusations, and He is not endangered by the present ones.
The point is this: The Bible and especially the New Testament have been under attack for millennia. As a child I heard my teacher use the illustration of the anvil and the hammers. You remember it! In the blacksmith's shop was a pile of worn out hammers. The visitor asks the blacksmith, "How many anvils did it take to ware out all those hammers?" And, the blacksmith replies, "O, just one anvil!"
The Bible can take the heat! Jesus prayed to His Father, "Your word is truth," and truth does not change. It is ignored, and it is denied, but it does not change! Like the Author, it is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
We must not be distracted by the many claims and accusations that are presently being leveled at the Bible. There is really only one thing the adversaries want to bring into question, "Is Jesus Who He claimed to be?" That's the issue. Everything else is smokescreen. But, at the very heart of our faith is this clear, unmistakable, and gloriously comforting promise that Jesus made, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him." (John 14:23) Christ in us is our hope of glory, and Christ in us is the proof we cannot deny. Martyrs through the centuries have gone to the fiery stake with this certain knowledge that they knew personally the One in Whom they had believed, and as the fires lapped at their mortal bodies, their eyes were fixed on heaven where a loving Father waited to receive them home! O, the enemies of Christ were always horrified by the way Christians lived, but they were never able to ignore how they died.
The Da Vinci Code! It's not a book or a movie I fear. It's not even an author who will spout fantasy as if it were fact. What concerns me is that the present attacks are only filling a vacuum that the church has created. We have failed to be the salt and light that is our destiny to be. We have become like the landowner in Jesus' parable whom while he slept, the enemy came in and sowed weeds in his field.
We know that nothing happens apart from the knowledge and attention of God Who "works all things according to the council of His will." Could it be that this present attack is a wakeup call for the church? Paul wrote in Romans 13:11, "...it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed."
We must preach and teach the truth in every venue. It must be heralded from pulpit and lectern, in worship and small group meetings to ensure that every member is fully grounded in what they believe and why they believe it. And, we must be real in a world of fakes! Our lights must shine into the darkness so that a culture which has been blinded by the devil might be drawn to the truth that Jesus really is God in the flesh and that He desires to be God in us. The strategy has worked for the past 2000 years, and it will still work today.
Be love, be real, be ready, be!
I confess that all the present controversy tends to upset me. I guess I am prone to get into the flesh and feel more like fighting than loving! Then, I am pulled back to reality when I'm reminded that there is nothing new about those attacks. Assaults on the credibility of Jesus as God and Messiah were being circulated even before the New Testament was written, and the Scriptures do not deny them. In John 8:41, the Jews said to Jesus, "...We were not born of fornication; we have one Father--God." Some think that is a vague reference to a rumor which was being circulated among Jesus' enemies that He was of illegitimate birth. The Jewish Talmud, an early record of Jewish teachings, records that rumor in an attempt to discredit Jesus.
Another attack is seen in Matthew 28. When the soldiers who had been guarding Jesus' tomb came to report the events surrounding His resurrection, the Bible records that the Jewish leaders bribed them to report to their superiors, "...'His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.' And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will appease him and make you secure. So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day." (Matthew 28:13-15) Notice, the rumor was already being circulated. But, Jesus was not threatened by either of those accusations, and He is not endangered by the present ones.
The point is this: The Bible and especially the New Testament have been under attack for millennia. As a child I heard my teacher use the illustration of the anvil and the hammers. You remember it! In the blacksmith's shop was a pile of worn out hammers. The visitor asks the blacksmith, "How many anvils did it take to ware out all those hammers?" And, the blacksmith replies, "O, just one anvil!"
The Bible can take the heat! Jesus prayed to His Father, "Your word is truth," and truth does not change. It is ignored, and it is denied, but it does not change! Like the Author, it is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
We must not be distracted by the many claims and accusations that are presently being leveled at the Bible. There is really only one thing the adversaries want to bring into question, "Is Jesus Who He claimed to be?" That's the issue. Everything else is smokescreen. But, at the very heart of our faith is this clear, unmistakable, and gloriously comforting promise that Jesus made, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him." (John 14:23) Christ in us is our hope of glory, and Christ in us is the proof we cannot deny. Martyrs through the centuries have gone to the fiery stake with this certain knowledge that they knew personally the One in Whom they had believed, and as the fires lapped at their mortal bodies, their eyes were fixed on heaven where a loving Father waited to receive them home! O, the enemies of Christ were always horrified by the way Christians lived, but they were never able to ignore how they died.
The Da Vinci Code! It's not a book or a movie I fear. It's not even an author who will spout fantasy as if it were fact. What concerns me is that the present attacks are only filling a vacuum that the church has created. We have failed to be the salt and light that is our destiny to be. We have become like the landowner in Jesus' parable whom while he slept, the enemy came in and sowed weeds in his field.
We know that nothing happens apart from the knowledge and attention of God Who "works all things according to the council of His will." Could it be that this present attack is a wakeup call for the church? Paul wrote in Romans 13:11, "...it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed."
We must preach and teach the truth in every venue. It must be heralded from pulpit and lectern, in worship and small group meetings to ensure that every member is fully grounded in what they believe and why they believe it. And, we must be real in a world of fakes! Our lights must shine into the darkness so that a culture which has been blinded by the devil might be drawn to the truth that Jesus really is God in the flesh and that He desires to be God in us. The strategy has worked for the past 2000 years, and it will still work today.
Be love, be real, be ready, be!
1 Comments:
Pastor Tim,
I share your thoughts. As christians we first need to get out from our own burdensome circumstances and a good start for any christian would be to understand John 15 - the vine life.
Second, in this culture which is much like the 1st century culture we need to see the fallacy in living for the short run and therefore live for the long run yieldin gourselves to satsify God's purposes.
We must learn to treasure the eternal life and lay our treasures up in Heaven.
We need godly men and women and youth in every venue to cast off the worldly desires and temporary pleasures and surrender to the Lorship of Jesus Christ.
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