[This sermon is contributed by Hal Seed of New Song Church in Oceanside, California and of www.PastorMentor.com. Hal is the author of numerous books including The God Questions and The Bible Questions. If you are interested in The Bible Questions Church-wide Campaign, please visit and watch Hal’s video at www.PastorMentor.com.]
Sometimes there are situations that rock our boat and make the whole world seem unstable and chaotic, maybe even uncertain. Aren’t there, friends?
Last weekend a movie came out that makes some seriously claims about the falsehood of the largest organization in the world. Author Dan Brown’s, The DaVinci Code claims that everything taught about Christianity for the last 1700 is wrong.
That may not be enough to rock your world, but for most of us, it’s enough to want to take a weekend to sincerely investigate the claims of the movie and the claims of Christianity to see what is really believable and worth believing.
So find a Bible for a minute, because I want to read with you three short passages by one of the eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus Christ.
Turn to p. 1049, John 1:14.
The N.T. contains 27 books, all written between 46 A.D. and 90 A.D. The last five books to be written were all written by the last living Apostle and eyewitness to the life of Jesus, a man named John. Towards the end of his life, 50 or 60 years after Jesus went to heaven, John saw some teachings creeping into certain sectors of the church that were a concern to him, because they were teachings that he knew to be false. And he knew them to be false because he was there, when the things they were talking about actually happened.
How many of you were alive during the Korean War? Anyone? Were any of you there in Korea? For John, it was like people were making up accounts about the Korean war that never happened.
One of the things that a few – not many – were beginning to teach at that time was that Jesus wasn’t really human.
John says to himself, “Not really human? I was with him. I watched him eat. I watched him cry, I watched him sleep, I watched him die. I touched him, before and after death. To say he was not really human was crazy talk.”
So John writes his account of the life of Jesus, called, “The Gospel of John.” And in the first chapter he says, “Let me tell you about Jesus. He was the “Living Word – the Logos” of God. In v. 14, he says…
John 1:14 –
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory...
Just want you to know, he was God and he became flesh, he became a human being.
Flip forward 25 pages to… just to make sure nobody misunderstood, at the end of the story of Jesus’ life, John says…
Turn to p. 1074.
John 19:34 –
One of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony and his testimony is true.
“Blood and water came out of him. This was no apparition, this was a man.”
The second book John wrote was a letter to some churches. I’d like you to turn to it as well. John wrote three letters to churches, and this was the first letter he wrote, so someone aptly titled it, “First John.”
Turn to p. 1209.
1 John 4:2 –
Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.
See what John is doing here? He’s drawing a line in the sand. He’s saying, “Church, here’s the truth about Jesus. He came in the flesh. He was the Word, God, who became a man for our sakes. This is a truth from God. Anyone who teaches something else does not have the truth of God.”
Why did I read those to you? Because those are the claims of Christianity, written, documented, and believed about Jesus from the first century on.
About the same time that Christianity was taking its place on the world scene, another religion, a dualistic religion called, “Gnosticism” was also on the rise. Gnosticism and Christianity had some clashes and some points of commonality, but to understand the DVC, and to understand where Dan Brown is coming from when he writes his novel, you must under Gnosticism.
“Gnosticism” takes its name from the Greek word, “Gnosis.”
“Gnosis” = “Knowledge”
The Gnostists taught that special knowledge about the nature of God and the universe could be known only by an elite class of people who had been initiated and let in on this knowledge.
Part of the knowledge of Gnosticism had to do with the spiritual world.
Many branches of Gnosticism developed, but the main branch believed what is known as the Ptolemaic theory (draw)
Of the universe, after the second century astronomer, Ptolemy.
At that time the “new learning,” taught that the universe was a series of concentric, encapsulated, hollow, invisible spheres. The earth was at the center of these spheres, with the first sphere being the one on which the planets moved. Beyond that was the sphere of the fixed stars, and beyond that was… who knows what. But each planetary body had a spirit-ruler, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, etc. And these lords of the planetary spheres were intermediaries between the supreme God, whose dwelling lay beyond the outer sphere of the fixed stars, and men on earth. This God could have no direct contact with the earth, because the earth was made up of matter, which is evil. So the Supreme God uses the intermediary gods as go-betweens so he can avoid contact and contamination with the material world. – Material girls like Madonna, would hate this religion, because everything material is inherently evil.
Gnosticism was a separate religion from Christianity, but when the two came into contact, some Gnostics tried to synthesize the two, and when they did, their chief problem was how to reconcile this supreme, untainted God, coming to material, tainted earth.
So, Christianized Gnostics needed to figure out just how Jesus could be a divine figure and not ruin this universe paradigm for them. Three different claims arose among Christianized Gnostics. One was:
Claims of Gnosticism:
1. The Christ-spirit came upon the man Jesus at his baptism and left him at the crucifixion. OR…
In this theory, Christ and Jesus were really two separate people. Christ sort of “possessed” Jesus during Jesus’ ministry, and then, because a God couldn’t be put to death, he left him at his crucifixion, which explains why Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”
A second option among some Gnostics was that Jesus wasn’t actually human. Rather,
2. Jesus was a phantom. OR…
So, as we said last week, no wonder he could walk on water, and walk through walls after the resurrection. He actually had no body, it just looked like he did.
Or, a third theory was that, because a god cannot be subject to death, through a quick slight of hand,
3. It was really Simon of Cyrene who was crucified while Jesus looked on from a safe distance.
Those are the broad claims of Gnostics who try to reconcile their worldview and Christianity.
Dan Brown happens to be a modern-day Gnostic. So he has some claims in his book as well. His first claim is that
Claims of the Da Vinci Code:
1. The Bible is a product of man, not God.
Let me quote from the book, Sir Leigh Teabing:
“…everything you need to know about the Bible can be summed up by the great canon doctor Martyn Percy…. ‘The Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven.’”
“…the Bible is a product of man, my dear. Not of God…. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions.
–DaVinci Code, p. 231
In fact, DVC claims that
2. History has never had a definitive version of the Bible.
Exact words from the book:
“History has never had a definitive version of the book.” p. 231
A third claim:
3. Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.
Exact words from the book: “Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.” p. 235.
Which raises all sorts of questions:
Where did the Bible come from?
How did the books that are in it get in it?
How come some books were selected and others were rejected?
And what’s the real truth? What did really happen in history? Did Constantine and the Council of Nicea rewrite Christianity, or is this the DVC just a fun adventure novel with so off base muses that aren’t really true?
You make the call.
And to make the call, it’s probably going to help you to know more about where the Bible came from. So flip to the front cover of a Bible and look at all the books in the table of contents.
OT/NT
OT = 26 books in Hebrew, because 1 and 2s are all one book. Christians gave them separate names because these books were so long they didn’t fit on one papyrus scroll, but needed 2, so they called them “first” and “second.” And, the 12 Minor Prophets all fit on one scroll, so they’re considered one book in the Jewish Bible, whereas, we make them into 12 separate ones.
Here’s what happened in history with the Jews.
One by one, books were written, and recognized, and added to the collection in the Temple.
586 B.C. Exile – Hebrew religion had to shift from a geographic base – where the Temple and sacrifices in it were central, to a decentralized system of teaching and worship places called, “Synagogues.” Syn = together, agein = to lead or drive. A place to meet together. This shift took place during the exile, and afterwards took root in Israel and all the other Jewish communities around the world.
BUT, the central force of Judaism was always Jerusalem, the holy city. Until 70 A.D., when the Jews revolted and so ticked off the Romans that they destroyed the Temple and crushed the Jewish ruling political bodies.
After that, Jews had no political center until the resurrection of their nation that was predicted in the book of Ezekiel, which took place after WW2 in 1946.
So, after 70 A.D., the Jews once again had to redefine what made them Jewish. The obvious answer was, “Their Bible.” Their sacred Scriptures. Every synagogue had copies of all the authoritative scrolls, but up to that time, no one had sat down and made a definitive list.
So, in 90 A.D., in a little coastal village in Israel, the elders of Israel held a Council and defined these books at their definitive, inspired Scriptures.
So, for the O.T., the test of whether a book is Scriptural comes from
Tests of Canonicity:
O.T. = The Council of Jamnia, A.D. 90.
The word, “Canon,” comes from the Greek word for “reed,” Which is what the Greeks used as measuring rods. So the tests of canonicity are the tests of how a book measures up as truth.
Biblical scholars agree that there are three tests of canonicity for books of the N.T.
N.T. =
1. Apostolicity: Written by, or connected to an apostle.
Go through authorship of each book.
2. Conformity: Consistent with the teachings of the O.T. prophets and the N.T. apostles.
Does it make sense, or does it contradict? Are there things in it that are untrue?
3. Acceptance: Had widespread and continuous acceptance by the churches.
To appreciate this one, it helps to have a cursory understanding of what happened in history:
What Really Happened: (draw map of Mediterranean world)
1. At Pentecost, the church is born, A.D. 33.
2. The church expands rapidly.
First to seacoast of Israel, then to Antioch, then to Asia Minor and Europe.
3. Churches are formed, pastors appointed, bishops elected.
4. Persecutions take place, some local, some regional.
Sum:
5. No central authority; lots of dialogue, sermons and letters. (and visits between leaders of the churches)
This went on for almost 300 years.
Here are some interesting statistics for you.
By 100 A.D., the church comprised .6% of the world’s population. 25,000 were martyred in that first century.
By 200 A.D., the church was 3.5% of the population. There were 80,000 martyrdoms in the 2nd century.
By 300 A.D. the church made up 10.4% of the world’s population. 410,000 were martyred in the third century. Considering that most of those Christians resided in the Roman Empire, that’s a significant number of Christians.
In 303, Emperor Diocletian instituted one of the bloodiest, and most wide-spread persecutions of all. In order to re-unify the empire, he required all pastors and bishops to make sacrifices to Roman gods. Scriptures were confiscated and burned. All Christians holding public office were removed. Tortures of all kinds were sanctioned.
6. In 305, empirical persecution under Diocletian.
This continued under Emperor Galerius, until 311 A.D., when he finally admitted that the Christians could not be beaten and signed an edict rescinding the persecution. He died 6 days later.
The next year,
7. In 312, Christianity is legalized under Constantine.
After all, if you can’t beat ‘em… join ‘em. Constantine doesn’t make Christianity the official religion of the empire, he just makes it a legitimate religion that is not against the law. But he purports to be a Christian himself, and 13 years later.
Here are some interesting statistics for you.
By 100 A.D., the church comprised .6% of the world’s population. 25,000 were martyred in that first century.
By 200 A.D., the church was 3.5% of the population. There were 80,000 martyrdoms in the 2nd century.
By 300 A.D. the church made up 10.4% of the world’s population. 410,000 were martyred in the third century.
8. In 325, first all-church Council called, by Constantine. Council clarifies/affirms the nature of the divinity of Christ.
We reviewed this Council a bit last weekend, so if you weren’t here, you might want to get the CD. It is this Council that Dan Brown claims changed Christianity. It’s the first all-church council. Over the next 150 years, a half dozen Emperors will call councils to make definitive statements on various doctrines of Christianity. In those 150 years, every major doctrine of Christianity is addressed and affirmed.
9. Over the next 150 years, further Councils clarify/affirm every major doctrine of Christianity.
In 381, The Council of Constantinople affirms again Jesus’ nature as Very God from Very God.
In 431, the Council of Ephesus affirms The Trinity.
In 451, the Council of Chalcedon affirms it again.
And so on.
Which raises the question: Why weren’t all these questions hammered out in the first century? Why did they wait so long to make official statements?
And the answer is… the church always believed these things, they were too busy helping people come into relationship with Christ to call any councils. And who would have called the councils, and what authority would they have had? There was just no central authority until Constantine, because the church was illegal. The church made the statements as soon as they were allowed. But they weren’t new statements, they were simply official statements of what the church had always believed.
As for Scripture, in 393, the Council of Hippo affirmed the books of the Bible as we have them today.
Here’s how the tests of canonicity came about, and how books of the NT were recognized. (Mediterranean Map)
Church starts here (Jerusalem)
Expands to here (seacoast) and here (Antioch).
Paul and Barnabas start churches. Churches need instruction. Letters written, shared by other churches. (Ex: Paul tells the Colossians to read the letter written to the Laodiceans, and to read the letter he wrote to them.)
Apostles start to die. Mark writes for Peter. Luke writes for Paul. Matthew writes his own account.
Years later, John writes. – Which is where we started today.
Churches copied each others’ letters. Recommended them to each other. “Good letter,” “great letter,” etc.
Over time, agreement was made, “This one we all agree is divinely inspired. This one isn’t.” “This one, we know was written by an apostle, this one, we’re not sure.” One good test for those of you who want to experience this for yourselves would be to read some of the books that were good, but didn’t make it into the Canon.
By 170, lists were being published. In 367, a little African bishop named Athanasius listed the 27 books we have in your bibles today. In 393, a whole council affirmed, “that’s the list.”
Fairly simplistic explanation. But the important point is, these books weren’t decided on arbitrarily, or rapidly, or by a few academicians or clerics in high towers. They were recognized by the masses of Christians who read them and experienced God through them.
Prayer
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