CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
May 21, 2006
PRAY FOR THE FOLLOWING:
Our congregation Various friends, relatives and co-workers
James and Leon in the Army Our nation, military and leaders
CONGRATULATIONS to Coco and Ramon and the Stehlik’s at the birth of Isabella Hope on May 8th.
EVENTS: Summer Youth Series (7 pm)
June 5 - Memorial (Zambian Vocal Group) July 10 - West Houston (Harding)
June 12 - Sugar Grove (Pepperdine) July 17 - First Colony (LCU - Rob Duncan)
June 19 - Kingwood (OCU) July 24 - Bammel (Lipscomb)
June 26 - Huntsville July 31 - Southeast (ACU - Acappella)
Past bulletins: www.geocities.com/adon77373/cypresswoodbulletin.htm
THE DA VINCI CODE
“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander” (1 Peter 3:15-16).
The long awaited The Da Vinci Code movie has just been released. It is based on the book by Dan Brown with the same name. Considering that the book has sold forty million copies, the movie should be a block buster hit for Ron Howard and Tom Hanks. This book has stirred a controversy over the past few years because of the theology found in this novel. So what is the ruckus all about?
The story is a murder mystery with a conspiracy theory added to it. It centers around an American who is knowledgeable in symbols and designs of ancient Europe. He finds himself a suspect in a murder of a man who had a deep secret, what was to him the holy grail. The story itself is a good read with unexpected twists and turns but it is the theology that is the most controversial. As the story unfolds we find out that the holy grail is not the cup at the Last Supper but is Mary Magdalene and her children, the father being Jesus. The Roman Catholic church has hidden this secret and given a secret group, the Opus Dei, the responsibility of keeping it a secret. Along the way we are told that Jesus married Mary and moved to France, that the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were selected over other gospels. Those other gospels were rejected by a counsel in the days of Constantine because of the bias of males ruling the church, not wanting women, or the “sacred feminine” to be revealed. We fine that the “true” light is a inner light that man can discover through the mystery sects or secret teachings in those rejected gospels.
This isn’t the first time these ideas have been suggested. They go back to the second and third centuries of church history and were part of what is known as the Gnostic sects of the time. On and off through the years these ideas arise. Dan Brown has popularized it in his novel that has caught the attention of millions. Our postmodern age is open to this because Gnosticism often emphasized the human efforts in finding and understanding God. Recently we have had the supposedly unknown gospel of Judas released to the public. That gospel was known to the early church and a manuscript was found around 1970. Other books recently released include The Jesus Papers, Misquoting Jesus, and The Jesus Dynasty. Most of these all appeal in some way to Gnostic teachings.
What is Gnosticism? The word itself means knowledge. What developed was that only those who had been taught the secrets of light and dark were true followers of Jesus. They have been connected somewhat to the mystery cults of the ancient Greek world. John’s writings and Colossians address an early form of Gnosticism. It appears that it rose out of the influences of a variety of ideas including “Zoroastrianism, elements of speculative Judaism, material derived from Plato, and the whole ensemble was mixed up with myths, astrology and magic, which were seen as the best techniques for overcoming the dark powers of fate, and achieving salvation” (1). What it has is in common with John and Paul is that they were writing to churches in Asia Minor (modern day Turkey), which was an area that picked up all kinds of religions and beliefs. Gnostic beliefs varied in extremes because of their beliefs about the material world. They saw the world as created by an evil force and that the body was unredeemable. The spirit could be redeemed if properly taught. They saw the God of the Old Testament as evil and rejected it for that reason, though some anti-Semitism played a role in the rejection as well. In their view, the holy God could not come directly into the sinful world, so through a series of aeons, Jesus finally came. But a holy being could not be born or die so at some point Jesus enter a man, taught, and before the cross, left that man so that an innocent man died on the cross while this Jesus was laughing about it. They had a detailed angelology about various heavenly beings. Some saw the body as evil and as such, what the body did was its problem, which lead to all forms of immorality. It was the spirit that could be saved. This dualism was a major mark of the Gnostics. Others went to the other extreme, no marriage, no sex, no fellowship.
What we knew about the Gnostics came from the early church fathers who wrote against them. The early counsels were concerned with these groups and the decisions made on the deity of Jesus and the books included in scripture in the 300s only confirmed what had been taught from the first century. The use of scriptures in quotes and eyewitness accounts, their widespread circulation, and there acceptance from the first century were some of the reasons for the inclusion in scripture and the rejection of others. In 1945, some Bedouin in Egypt found in a jar some fifty two works of Gnostic in thirteen books written in Coptic. They became known as the Nag Hammadi Library because of where they were found. This discovery revealed many of the teachings of the Gnostics, and have helped us to better understand who these people were.
Those documents have led to further study by various scholars. Some however have written in favor of the views of the Gnostics and criticizing the early church for condemning these writings. Some of this Dan Brown has picked up. Elaine Pagels, who has written on the Gnostics extensively and a professor at Princeton, claims to be a Gnostic. So its influence is rising again and Dan Brown’s novel is encouraging this (4). What are the teachings that we need to be concerned with will be the subject of the next article.
While reading through this, I found interesting tidbits of information. The Koran has picked up some Gnostic teachings about Jesus and included it. At first, Mohammed was friendly toward both Judaism and Christianity, but in the coarse of events, he came in contact with a corrupted Christianity, which appears to be Gnosticism and Muslim scholars interpret this text as saying that Jesus wasn‘t really crucified, identifying it with Gnosticism (2). Another suggestion is that this modern day form of Gnosticism is more pagan than Christianity, as was the ancient form, and several writers make such claims (3).
What I want us to understand is the problems with The Da Vinci Code, and to be able to answer or deal with those problems. While we do not need to have a detail view of church history, we do need to know more than we do. I will be recommending some books that will help you discuss both the movie and the book in a loving way with those who make comments about them (5). I hope this will help.
George B. Mearns
(1) Michael Green, The Books The Church Suppressed, Monarch Books, 2005.
(2) ibid., p. 114.
(3) Peter Jones, Stolen Identity, The Conspiracy to Reinvent Jesus, Victor, 2006.
(4) for some background on Dan Brown and his wife see “So who is Dan Brown?” Terry Mattingly, http://tmatt.gospelcom.net/column/2006/05/10/?printable=1
(5) see Rubel Shelly, “Thanks for Helping, Mr. Brown” and “The Flap Over ‘The Code’” www.rubelshelly.com