HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2006-05-04, Page 27MELVILLE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
BRUSSELS
Sunday, May 7
11:00 a.m. - Sunday Morning Worship
- Sunday School
9:30 a.m. - Sunday Belgrave Service
Wheelchair accessible
Nursery care available
Rev. Cathrine Campbell - 887-9831
BRUSSELS - ETHEL PASTORAL CHARGE
UNITED CHURCH OF CANADA
Sandra Cable, Worship Leader
Church Office 887-6259 E-mail - bepc@wightman.ca
Sunday, May 7
3 Ethel United Church
9:30 a.m.
Brussels United Church
11:00 a.m.
Celebrating our Christian Faith together in worship
peetwe ioio ad Oft utendift
Sunday, May 7
Morning Worship Service - 10 a.m.
Evening Worship Service - 7:30 p.m.
BLYTH CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
Pastor John Kuperus
Hwy. 4, Blyth 523-9233
Wheelchair accessible couanunity Church of
C od
op, ANDE% "The Church is not a
•Z•
Building,
It is People Touching
People"
Sunday 9:45 a.m. - Power Hour Circus
(Ring of Relationships)
11:00 a.m. - Worship Service
Mid-week Bible Studies
Phone 440-8379 308 Blyth Rd. E. - Pastor Les Cook 523-4590
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Blyth United Church
Corner of Dinsley & Mill Street
Sunday, May 7
Worship Service, Sunday School & Nursery
11:00 a.m.
Minister: Rev. Robin McGauley
'Re 2t/eleauxe
Office: 523-4224
bji. Sanctuary
HURON CHAPEL EVANGELICAL
MISSIONARY CHURCH
SING A SONtl OF
MSC
(04•10•9
Sunday 9:30 a.m.
10:30 a.m.
7:30 p.m.
Tuesday 7:15 p.m.
Wednesday 6:30 p.m.
7:00 p.m.
- Family Bible Hour
- Morning Worship Service
- Evening Worship Service
- Jr. & Sr. Youth Bible Study
- Olympians
- Adult Bible Study
Auburn - 526-1131
PASTOR DAVE WOOD
THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA
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SUNDAY, MAY 7
Trinity, Blyth
9:30 a.m.
St. John's, Brussels
11:15 a.m.
The Rev. Tom Wilson, B.A., MDiv. 887-9273
THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 4, 2006. PAGE 27.
From the Minister's Study
Pastor debunks the Da Vinci 'deception'
By Pastor Ernest Dow, Living
Water Christian Fellowship
(EMC), Blyth
"You can't believe everything you
hear."
The success of The. Da Vinci Code
took even its author Dan Brown by
surprise. Since its release in March
2003, it has sold more than 36 million
copies and been translated into 44
languages, a bestseller in 100
countries; its publisher Doubleday
has called it "the all-time bestselling
adult novel."
Brown said„ "I never imagined so
many people would be enjoying it this
much."
Well, not everyone's enjoying it.
Some people find it undermines their
faith. The author claims to have
written a fictional, fact-based
conspiracy theory alleging "scientific
evidence that the New Testament is
false testimony" (p.341).
One person wrote in desperation to
RBC Ministries, "Is the last 25-plus
years I've been a Christian all a lie?
Was Jesus just a man? Did it all really
happen? Was He married to Mary
Magdalene? Is everything I was
raised to believe just made up for the
sake of money? I have to
know...Please, in God's name, help
in I'm brokenhearted, confused, and
still crying."
Unfortunately, The Da Vihci Code
is largely fiction masquerading as
fact. In some ways it's a diabolical
and fraudulent attempt to derail the
gospel and sow confusion in people's
lives. Part of the deceptiveness of The
Da Vinci Code is that, while it's a
fiction novel, it purports to be based
on truth. Its opening page states, in
part, "FACT: The Priory of Sion - a
European secret society founded in
1099 - is a real organization. In 1975
Paris's Bibliotheque Nationale
discovered parchments known as Les
Dossiers Secrets, identifying
numerous members of the Priory of
Sion, including Sir Isaac Newton,
Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Leonardo
da Vinci...All descriptions of artwork,
architecture, documents, and secret
rituals in this novel are accurate."
However in many areas the reader
is hoodwinked because what seems to
be factual is actually fictional. Let's
look at a few historical elements
before considering the claims which
are more threatening to traditional
Christian belief.
According to Brown, the Priory of
Sion was started by a French king in
1099 after he conquered Jerusalem, to
Protect the secret of the Holy Grail
and pass it on; this involved
protecting special blood-line
documents. Papers were discovered in
Paris's Bibliotheque Nationale which
supposedly proved the Priory's
existence.
In fact though, the Priory was first a
monastic order founded in Jerusalem
in 1100 that was absorbed into the
Liu* TiVotter--:\
Clirithan MI04
May 7: Acts 4:1-22
"Standing in the
Name"
Holy Communion
Evangelical Missionary
Church of Canada
10:30 a.m. - Worship & Sunday School
at Blyth Public School,
corner of King & Mill
Mondays 6:45 pm Junior Girls
Mondays & Tuesdays 7:00 pm Small Group
Fridays Too pm Youth Group
Pastor: Ernest Dow - 523-4848j
getlivingwater.org
Jesuits in 1617. The second and third
Priory of Sion were each under the
leadership of Pierre Plantard, an anti-
Semitic Frenchman who went to jail
in 1953 for fraud.
In the 1960s/70s Plantard created a
series of forged documents to "prove"
the existence of a bloodline
descending from Jesus and Mary
through the kings of France to himself
(claiming to be the rightful heir to the
throne). He and his associates called
themselves the Priory of Sion and
stealthily deposited these documents
in libraries all over France, including
the National Library.
In 1993, however, Plantard
admitted under oath phe had
fabricated all the documents relating
to the Priory of Sion.
Brown states in the opening pages
as fact: "The Vatican prelature known
_ as Opus Dei is a deeply devout
Catholic sect that has been the topic
of recent controversy due to reports of
brainwashing, coercion, and a
dangerous practice known as
'corporal mortification.— The truth is
that the real Opus Dei ("work of
God") is a Roman Catholic lay
organization that emphasizes piety
and good. works. It was created to
empower lay people, instead of
focusing'on the spirituality of clergy.
The characteristics of Opus Dei are
self denial and sacrificial good works
within the Roman Catholic Church.
The book states that all descriptions
of artwork in the novel are accurate.
But Josh McDowell points out that
although the book says a famous glass
pyramid was constructed of exactly
666 panes of glass at President
Mitterand's explicit demand, there are
actually 673. The book says the title
of Leonardo's painting Mona Lisa
refers to two Egyptian gods; but in
fact Leonardo never called it 'Mona
Lisa'.
Also in the book, the heroine uses
one of Leonardo's paintings,
described as a "five-foot tall canvas".
as a shield, "pressing it so close to her
body that it bends". But a curator of
the Art Institute of Chicago notes that
the piece in question is painted on
wood, not canvas, and is unlikely to
be so supple; also, it's more than six
feet tall. And though the book
suggests Leonardo left clues in his
artwork about secret religious beliefs,
art critics who have no interest in
defending the church have rejected
the notion.
Thus far we have looked at factors
which are not directly related to
Biblical truths. Brown's "facts" in
these non-doctrinal areas seem not
only inaccurate but in some cases,
careless and just downright sloppy.
How credible does this make him
when it comes to more important
questions of faith and spirituality?
Brown places much emphasis on
the 'Gnostic gospels'. But these were
written about 100 to 200 years after
the life of Jesus. Lacking connection
to those who knew Christ, they reflect
Gnostic doctrines of the second and
third centuries rather than a first-
century record of witnesses.
By contrast, the New Testament
gives us eyewitness accounts, with
more copies, closer to the event than
any other document from the first
century. Papyrus fragments bring
scholars back to within 40 years of
the writing of the gospel of John. Dr.
F.F.Bruce shows how historians have
used other early documents to
confirm the reliability of New
Testament accounts.
Extrapolating loosely from the later
gnostic . writing, Brown portrays a
romantic relationship between Jesus.
and Mary Magdalene that leads to
marriage and a child. But according to
the more reliable New Testanient,
Mary was a follower of Jesus and
nothing more.
New Testament researcher Darryl
Bock -says, "Most scholars have long
believed that Jesus was single...No
early Christian text we possess, either
biblical or extrabiblical, indicates the
presence of a wife during His
ministry, His crucifixion, or after His
resurrection."
Brown's supposed 'expert' claims,
"The Bible, as we know it today, was
collated by the pagan Roman emperor
Constantine...To rewrite the history
books:'..Constantine commissioned
and financed a new Bible, which
omitted those gospels that spoke of
Christ's human traits and embellished
those gospels that made Him godlike.
The earlier [Gnostic] gospels were
outlawed, gathered up, and burned."
In actual fact, what the Council of
Nicea burned were papers relating to
the Arian heresy. The Old Testament
books had been collected and
translated into Greek more than 100
years before Jesus was born. As for
the gospels, Irenaeus was an early
church father writing a century and a
half before Constantine; the four
gospels were already so universally
recognized that Irenaeus referred to
them as four 'pillars'. Dr. F.F. Bruce
says that by AD 180 the idea of the
fourfold gospel had become
"axiomatic throughout Christendom".
Regarding the New Testament, a
broad consensus about which writings
were trustworthy had developed long
before . the first Council of Nicea in
AD 325.
Satan will always be trying to
induce people to edit out parts of
scripture they don't like. That was his
temptation in the Garden. of Eden,
sidling up to Eve and asking, "Did
God really say...?" then contradicting
divine instruction and suggesting
"you will be like God" when people
decide to do their own thing and
disobey (Gen 3:1,5).
Brown's book makes false and
deceptive statements to persuade the
public the church and the Bible aren't
trustworthy or authoritative. When
mortals fabricate our own framework
of meaning and values, that's idolatry.
References: Dennis Fisher, The Da
Vinci Code: Separating Fact from
Fiction, RBC Ministries,
www.discoveryseries.org
Josh McDowell, The Da Vinci Code:
A Quest for Answers, Green Key
Books, www.davinciquest.org
Erwin Lutzer, The Da Vinci
Deception, Tyndale House
Publishers,
www.davincideception:com