Last week I began this sermon series called Counterfeit Christianity because of my concerns over how easily people across this country and around world have been led astray by believing some of the claims made about the Christian faith by a fictional book called The Da Vinci Code. My hope is that during this series your faith will be built up as you know the truth, and that you will be equipped to share this truth with others if conversation arises.
Normally a murder mystery novel even with such outrageous accusations as this book wouldn’t cause such a stir. However this book has sparked a controversy around the country because of a simple statement made at the beginning of the book:
“Fact: All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”
This implies that the information it presents on the Bible (a document) and other gospels (also documents) is a fact not fiction, which is misleading people to doubt the Christian faith because the information it presents about the Bible and Christian history is not fact.
Last week I shared the results of a poll surveying people who have read the book from cover to cover, 53% said the book had been helpful in their “personal spiritual growth and understanding.” What that means is people believe there is helpful spiritual content in the book, perhaps including the lies about the Christian faith.
Last week we explored the book’s attack on the reliability of the Bible. The DaVinci Code claims our Bible is incomplete and therefore unreliable. It claims that the other gospels about Jesus we have discovered (like the gospel of Thomas, Philip, and Mary) were once included in the Bible but purposefully left out of the Bible. Our Bible gives an inaccurate picture of Jesus, and a one-sided view of the Christian faith. Last week we shattered that myth by showing that these other gospels and other Christian viewpoints were a later corruption of Jesus’ teachings, most of them written almost a century after the books of our Bible. The truth is our gospel accounts of Jesus’ life and the letters in the NT are the earliest and most accurate representation of Jesus’ life and teaching, and Christian beliefs. If you missed last week, I encourage you to get a taped copy of the service.
The reason I started with the Bible’s accuracy is because if we cannot believe the Bible is reliable and accurate everything else falls apart for us, including our understanding of Jesus. This is why people are trying to attack the Bible’s reliability. If they can demonstrate the Bible is unreliable they can make Jesus and the Christian faith mean whatever they want it to be.
Jesus not Divine?
This week we are looking at a second accusation The DaVinci Code levels at the Christian faith. Let me read for you a few quotes from the character Leigh Teabing in The DaVinci Code:
“Constantine…held a famous ecumenical gathering known as the Council of Nicaea…At this gathering,” Teabing said, “many aspects of Christianity were debated and voted upon – the date of Easter, the role of the bishops, the administration of the sacraments, and of course, the divinity of Jesus.”
“I don’t follow, his divinity?”
“My dear” Teabing declared, “until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet…a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.”
“Not the Son of God?”
“Right,” Teabing said. “Jesus’ establishment as ‘the Son of God’ was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea.”
“Hold on. You’re saying Jesus’ divinity was the result of a vote?”
“A relatively close vote at that,” Teabing added.
According to the character Leigh Teabing, Jesus’ divinity, by that I mean Jesus was the Son of God, was never believed until the council of Nicea voted on it in 325 AD, that’s 300 years after Christ’s death. Up until that vote, Christians thought Jesus was merely a human prophet. That is the claim of this book. This is why the book has caused such a stir because it challenges the basic belief of our Christian faith by presenting inaccurate historical information.
Could you imagine that for 300 years people believed one thing about Jesus and then based upon a vote believed something entirely differently? I hope I’m not the only one who sees how ridiculous this sounds.
Imagine all the United Methodist bishops were to get together to discuss Jesus’ divinity, and they decided to take a vote, and the narrow majority decide Jesus was merely a human prophet anointed by God. How many people in the United Methodist churches would go, “okay I guess I’ll change everything I have believed my whole life about Jesus because the bishops said so?” Of course no one would change their belief doing a sudden flip flop. People do not change their minds on something as big as the divinity of Jesus based on a vote. Why wouldn’t people change? Because it is not what the Bible says.
The Council at Nicaea
So let me tell you the truth, what really did happen at the Council of Nicea. There was a council of Nicea which was assembled by the Emperor Constantine in 325 AD, and they did discuss and vote on the divinity of Jesus, that part is true.
The Council of Nicea was the first time since the Christian church came into being that all the Christian leaders, called bishops, gathered from around the Roman Empire to meet together in the same location to discuss issues related to the Christian church. The reason this council was conveyed was because of a rising controversy in the church about Jesus. Some Christians led by a pastor named Arius were claiming Jesus was not divine, that he was not God. They all agreed Jesus was the Son of God, but this small group of Arius and his followers did not believe Jesus was/is God. They believed Jesus was created by God before he created the world, and then through Jesus he created the world (these same beliefs are carried on by the Jehovah’s Witnesses today).
At the Council of Nicea they debated the issue of Jesus’ divinity, is Jesus God the Son come in the flesh, the second person of the trinity, or was Jesus merely created by God, a lesser “god” somewhere above the angels, but below God. They did not present very long because the bishop presenting Arius’ case was shouted out when they heard what he had to say. The bishops decided to create a creed (statement of belief), which we call the Nicene Creed (UM Hymnal #880). In this creed they clearly indicated Jesus was and is the Son of God, who is God, and yet who also became human being born of the Virgin Mary. They put this creed to a vote, and contrary to the DaVinci Code, the vote to approve this creed was not close at all, it was approximately 298 in favor and 2 against. Today, the Nicene Creed is affirmed by all Christian denominations around the world.
It is true that the divinity of Jesus was voted on and approved by the Council of Nicea (although not by a close vote), however the deception of The DaVinci Code is to say it was the first time anyone considered Jesus as the Divine Son of God. In fact Christians have believed in Jesus’ divinity right from the time Jesus asked his disciples who do you say that I am, and his disciple Peter responded “you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Just because they had not taken a vote earlier doesn’t mean they didn’t believe it. They didn’t have to take a vote because everyone believed Jesus was the divine Son of God. It wasn’t until some Christians came along with a different belief that they had to confront the issue, create a creed, and set it in stone.
I’m drawn back to the words of John in his first letter, “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist – he denies the Father and the Son.”
Am I saying Dan Brown is the antichrist? No I am saying Dan Brown is an antichrist. Anyone who promotes the denial of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God is an antichrist, and I wouldn’t want to be him on the Day of Judgment.
Early Christians Belief About Jesus
Why do we believe Jesus is the divine Son of God, and why does it even matter what we believe about Jesus? We believe Jesus is the divine Son of God because we believe the Bible is the accurate Word of God, which tells us Jesus is the divine Son of God. The earliest recorded documents we have of Christian beliefs about Jesus come not from the gospels (50-70AD) but from Paul’s letters. Paul wrote his letters between 51 and 66 AD. Does Paul have anything to say about the divinity of Jesus? Several times Paul mentions Jesus is God’s Son, but the clearest illustration Paul gives us is in Philippians 2:6-11 where Paul writes this:
NRS Philippians 2:5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form,
Paul didn’t believe Jesus was created by God, he believed Jesus had always existed and was in the form of God and equal to God. Yet Paul firmly believed there was only one God. Which is why early Christians developed the term trinity to describe one God in three persons (Father, Son , Holy Spirit).
In Mark’s gospel, thought to be the first of all the gospels, written possibly as early as 50-55 AD begins with the words, “the beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” At Jesus’ baptism God’s voice spoke from heaven, “you are my Son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11), Satan and the demons believed Jesus is the Son of God (Mt. 3:11; Lk. 4:41; Mark 5:7),
When Jesus was arrested by the high priest, he point blank asked Jesus, “are you the Christ, the Son of the blessed one (Mk. 14:61)?” To which Jesus responded, “I am,” "And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven (14:62)."
Later, around 90 AD, John wrote his gospel as an eye witness to Jesus’ ministry and the first words of his gospel are:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
A few verses later he says that even though he was God, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” In other words Jesus as God became human, like one of us.
You might be thinking what difference does it make? So what if someone believes Jesus is the divine Son of God, or if Jesus was the first created being, aren’t we just splitting hairs? What difference does it make as long as we believe in Jesus, and follow his teachings?
Jesus seemed to think it was very important what we believed about him.
Open your Bibles to John 8:24, “I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am (he) the one I claim to be, you will indeed die in your sins." What is Jesus saying here? Unless we believe Jesus is who?
In the book of Exodus when God appeared to Moses at the burning bush 1400 years before Jesus’ time. Listen to what God said to Moses when Moses asked God what his name was so he could tell the Israelite people. NRS Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ’I AM has sent me to you.’" God told Moses to tell the Israelites, “I AM has sent me to you.” God spoke of himself as “I AM.”
About 700 years later God spoke to the prophet Isaiah, NIV Isaiah 43:10 "You are my witnesses," declares the LORD, "and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.
When Jesus said “unless you believe that I am he,” Jesus was claiming he was equal with God and that we must believe Jesus is the I AM. He is the eternal God. What did Jesus say is the consequence of someone not believing Jesus is the “I AM?” Jesus said anyone who does not believe will die in their sins. In other words they will not be forgiven for their sins, and they will experience eternal separation from God. What we believe about Jesus is important. We need to have faith in Jesus Christ to experience God’s forgiveness, but which Jesus are you putting your faith in? Jesus the prophet, who taught a new philosophy of life for us to live by? Jesus the teacher who taught how to follow God’s commands? Or Jesus the divine Son of God who came to earth and died to take your sins upon himself so that you might be forgiven and have fellowship with God? As John wrote in his letter, “No one who denies the Son has the Father, whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.” We cannot be in a relationship with a holy and righteous God without being forgiven of our sins. God cannot have anything to do with the stain of our sin, which is why God the Son came as one of us to take the punishment for our sin, by dying on a cross, so we might be presented to God the Father as pure and holy.
Conclusion:
Jesus asks us, ‘do you believe that I am he?’ Do you believe I am the Christ, the divine Son of God who came to take your sins upon himself?
