WHAT DOES CHRISTIANITY REALLY MEAN?

Dr. Richard J. Henderson May 21, 2006

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Psalm 98
John 15: 9-17

Introduction

The DaVinci Code has been a huge phenomenon over the past three years. It came out in March, 2003 and since then has sold more than 43 million copies. At one point it was selling 15,000 copies a day! It is an action-adventure mystery. It isn't great literature, but I think it was intended to be a page-turner, and it is.

I started to read it about a year ago, and got about 75 pages into it and quit. It has 105 chapters and most of them are short - some as short as half of a page. At the end of most chapters the author teases you with some item of suspense or question to get you to read on. It was pretty clear manipulation. I just picked it up again recently and read it for this program.

I

For those of you who haven't read it or seen movie, here is the quickest of overviews. The highly respected curator of the Louvre is killed. Before he dies he leaves clues for how to find an important treasure. The police call in Robert Langdon, Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard - who is in Paris to give a lecture - for help. Also involved in trying to solve this murder is Sophie Neveu, a police cryptologist. Together they begin a long search for what turns out to be the Holy Grail. Soon they become the prime suspects in the murder.

They learn that a group called the Priory of Sion is trying to guard the Grail and what it means. The Roman Catholic Church and a zealous Catholic order called Opus Dei are trying to get the Grail to destroy the evidence it contains. Apparently the Catholic Church is willing to kill, bribe, and do whatever else might be necessary to make sure this information is not known. Langdon and Nevue search to understand and find the grail. We discover that the Grail is Mary Magdalene, who was Jesus' lover and wife, and with whom he had a daughter, Sarah. Mary Magdalene fled to France after Jesus' crucifixion.

The secret documents kept with the Grail tell of the bloodline of Christ, Mary Magdalene, and Sarah, and also have more than eighty secret gospels which celebrate the divine feminine in Christianity. These gospels were suppressed by the emperor Constantine, who silenced the tradition of Mary Magdalene and demonized the feminine in Christianity.

Langdon and Nevue, with the help of a wealthy aristocrat who is a knighted historian obsessed with the Holy Grail, are able to track through secret documents and complex symbolism and eventually find the truth of the Grail and where it is hidden.

Several people have said, "This is a novel, what's the big deal?" True, except that Dan Brown, the author, has a page in front of book that says in part, "FACT: ...All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." He claims that the information he is providing is accurate.

II

The main thesis of the book is that the documents with the Grail contain information about Mary Magdalene's marriage to Jesus and secret gospels, which offer scientific evidence that the New Testament is false and based on fabrications. On page 341 Robert Langdon informs Sophie Nevue of the New Testament fabrications:

"There's an enormous difference between hypothetically discussing an alternate history of Christ, and..." He paused.

"And what?"

"And presenting to the world thousands of ancient documents as scientific evidence that the New Testament is false testimony."

"But you told me the New Testament is based on fabrications."

Langdon smiled. "Sophie, every faith in the world is based on fabrication."

The premise is that if this information got out it would destroy Christianity. The author's basic premise is wrong.

First, even if it were discovered that Jesus was married, it would not destroy Christianity. Second, the documents he cites and says are accurate say nothing like what he claims. He says the secret documents are the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi library - actual ancient documents found in Israel and Egypt. According to Mr. Teabing, the knighted Royal historian, these secret documents tell of the Holy Grail, speak of Jesus in very human terms, and show the fabrications of the New Testament. He says the Vatican has tried to suppress them.

These are real documents discovered in the 1940's and they contain no such thing. First of all, they are not secret documents. I have a copy of them in my office. You can buy them at Border's this afternoon! Also, neither of these documents says one word about the Holy Grail. Finally, they have not been suppressed by the Vatican. The Vatican would have no need to suppress them. They are actually very interesting and helpful documents.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are Jewish documents which say nothing about Jesus at all and they don't uncover any fabrications in the New Testament.

The Nag Hammadi library was discovered in Egypt in 1945. It does contain gospels that were not included in the Bible, but these gospels portray Jesus as more divine, not more human. Constantine didn't eradicate any gospels. What is said by the author to be "accurate" is not, and even the smallest amount of research would have shown him that.

I laughed when I read that the Q document was believed to be in these secret documents and that even the Vatican admits it may exist. Every student who went to a half-decent seminary knows about Q. If you've taken my "Introduction to the New Testament" here at Faith Community you know about Q! And you know it is not Jesus' own diary, as the DaVinci Code suggests.

III

Another claim of the book is that Jesus was accepted as only human until Constantine called the Council of Nicea to have him voted in as divine. According to this novel, everybody understood Jesus to be only a good human being until the Council of Nicea where he was voted in as the Son of God - and it was a close vote.

Constantine did call the Council of Nicea, and they did discuss Jesus' divinity - but at the council, everyone believed Jesus was the Son of God; they only wanted to explain how Jesus was both human and divine. They did not vote him in as divine. The statement that until that moment in history his followers saw him as a mortal prophet is ridiculous. No credible historian would make such an inaccurate statement. Certainly a knighted Royal historian wouldn't say it.

We're using the Nicean Creed today in our worship to show the struggle people went through to try to explain how Jesus was human and divine. It involves some very convoluted language. Everyone there understood that Jesus was God and human. Dan Brown has it wrong, and again, a little research would have shown this.

IV

I wonder what it means that the biggest seller in recent history is based on the idea that the New Testament is a fabrication and that no one accepted Jesus as divine until 325 AD. Both the claims are clearly false and can be seen as such with very little research.

Some people are very upset by the book and movie and want to boycott it. Not me. I just think we should clarify the facts. Christianity is not threatened by this book. It is based on false statements.

The Christian faith is based on our relationship with Jesus Christ. Our faith is more than a philosophy or theology, more than set of dogmas or creeds, more than a way of life, Christianity is a relationship with God thru Jesus, his son. Fads like this have come and gone in the past (remember "The Last Temptation of Christ"?).

Our faith is solid because it is true - it isn't based on misleading information. People since the time of Jesus have known that he was the Son of God and trusted their lives in relationship with him.

Conclusion

Did you know that "truthiness" was named "word of the year" in 2005? Also, it was recognized by the New York Times as one of nine words which define the spirit of this age. Truthiness is the idea that what feels true should be treated as true.

The DaVinci Code strikes me as truthiness. Most people don't know much about the Council of Nicea or the gospels that didn't make it into the New Testament, so if someone writes about them, and says that the information is accurate, people are likely to believe them, even if the information is blatantly false.

We haven't scratched the surface this morning. We haven't even gotten into the really interesting question of whether Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and whether they had a child together. Dr. Bruce Rigdon will cover more information tonight and you'll have the chance to ask questions.

In a piece for USA Weekend, Dan Brown reassures readers that the new movie will contain the heart of the book. He says, "Let me assure you it's all there - the Louvre, Saint Sulpice, Chateau Villette, Westminster Abbey, Rosslyn Chapel, the codes, the secret feminine, and the quiet invitation to think about faith, religion and history with a fresh, open-minded perspective."

Let me say, I'd like you to think about faith, religion, and history with a fresh, open-minded perspective, but a perspective based on facts and the truth.

Amen.

©Richard J. Henderson 2006