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What's Wrong With THE DAVINCI CODE? by Greg Williamson (c) 2006
UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED, ALL SCRIPTURE QUOTATIONS ARE FROM THE New American Standard Bible.
"The only thing that matters is what you believe." "History shows us Jesus was an extraordinary man, a human inspiration. That's it. That's all the evidence has ever proved." "Why does it have to be human or divine? Maybe human is divine." "Why couldn't Jesus have been a father and still been capable of all those miracles?" So says the character played by Tom Hanks toward the very end of the The DaVinci Code, the motion picture based on Dan Brown's best-selling novel of the same name. Those lines serve as an apt summary of the movie's philosophy regarding Jesus Christ. Let's take a brief look at each one. "The only thing that matters is what you believe." This could be the official slogan of 21st century American religiosity. Hidden just beneath the surface of this statement and all others like it are two very common yet very flawed assertions: 1) All roads lead to Heaven. Just as every individual path leading up the mountain eventually takes us to the summit, so all belief systems eventually take us to God. 2) All truth is relative. What is true for you may not be true for me. Your truth is not my truth. The most obvious problem with such a view is that Jesus Christ never taught such a thing. In fact, he clearly taught the exact opposite: "'I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me'" (JOHN 14:6). Jesus "embodies what men ought to know and believe of God; what they should do as children of God, and what they should be" (Vincent's Word Studies). Of course what we believe is important. In particular, genuine, life-changing belief in God's revealed truth is of monumental importance:
"History shows us Jesus was an extraordinary man, a human inspiration. That's it. That's all the evidence has ever proved." As trustworthy historical documents, the New Testament gospels provide us with the most information regarding Jesus, and they clearly demonstrate that he was much more than "an extraordinary man, a human inspiration." Not to be overlooked, however, are the secular writers of the same time period who confirm several key facts, including: that Jesus was a real person who lived a wise and morally upright life despite which he was put to death by way of crucifixion under Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem on the charge of being "the king of the Jews"; that he performed extraordinary acts and was worshipped as divine by followers who rejected polytheism; and that his small group of followers multiplied rapidly, including establishing a presence in the the very heart of the empire, the city of Rome. (Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics) As has often been pointed out, a close examination of Jesus' own claims about himself leaves us with only one of three possibilities: 1) Jesus was a liar, 2) Jesus was a lunatic, or 3) Jesus was (and is) the Lord. In addition, only Jesus Christ said and did what we would fully expect God-in-the-flesh to say and do, including the following (here summarized/paraphrased from The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict, pg. 287):
"Why does it have to be human or divine? Maybe human is divine." This could be the official slogan of the New Age movement. This statement reflects the same attitude that landed the human race in so much trouble to begin with, when Adam and Eve aspired to be equal with God. And we their offspring have been paying the price in immeasurable pain and suffering ever since. The great truth regarding Jesus is not that man became God, but rather than God became man. How did he do it? Not by adding divinity to humanity but, rather, by adding humanity to divinity. "Why couldn't Jesus have been a father and still been capable of all those miracles?" While God regularly substantiated the testimony of his spokesmen (including the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles) through miracles, Jesus performed miracles of a type and on a scale never witnessed before or since. To truly believe in Jesus' miracles is to truly believe Jesus' message that he was (and is) the divine Son of God. Of course the Bible does use marriage imagery when speaking of Jesus and his betrothed bride, the Church. Rather than wasting time in endless speculation over what Jesus' earthly/human descendants would have been like, we would do much better to examine ourselves with a view toward being a bride Jesus can be proud of. In one respect, it's true that Jesus is indeed the head of a royal bloodline: "But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." (1 PETER 2:9) For info regarding the Bible, including how it was formed and why it can be trusted, please see An Introduction to the Bible. |
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