Home Page: www.ProphecyWatch.biz

Sabbath, April 29, 2006 Newark Seventh-Day Adventist Church
Pastor Tom Hughes

The Da Vinci Code – Part One
“Was the Resurrection Real?”

Father in heaven, be with us as we have our sermon today that eyes might be opened and that you might do for our people what I cannot do. May the Holy Spirit come in today and convict each one here of the truth of your resurrection and the power of Christ’s Spirit in our heart we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

I have a special warning for you. In the last several elections it has become abundantly clear to the powers that be that running down God and the Bible and making fun of people who are people of faith does not pay for them. They cannot win if they mock people who are religious people of faith. They can’t win elections; they can’t get what they want because without the support of Christians they will lose. Christians are a powerful political lobby and so now, you’re going to see people trying to use the Bible and religion to get support for their agenda.

It used to be years ago you could pretty much tell who was on God’s side and who wasn’t but now something interesting has been taking place. Now you’re seeing The Discovery Channel, The Science Channel have program after program on religion. Now at first when I noticed this trend, I thought Oh, good, they’re going to start really talking about God and about the Bible. But then as I listened to program after program the entire underlying purpose of that program was to undermine faith in the Bible and to water down the Bible that God has given us to where it’s a myth not even something worth believing in. And I heard theologian after theologian from ivy-league schools talking about how the Bible was just a myth, you couldn’t take it literally, God is really dead, it’s up to man; Jesus was merely a man, and they tried to make him sound like a god.

And these people have Ph.D’s behind their name and they work at a Methodist or a Presbyterian or whatever Christian Church. It was a Methodist minister that taught us “God is dead.” They did survey’s of the theological seminaries and ivy-league schools. They found that 85 percent of them did not believe in the Bible as the word of God. Eighty-five (85%) percent did not believe in the virgin birth. Some 60 percent did not believe that Jesus was the way of salvation; that he was just one way – that there were many ways that a person could find God, and that Christ was not the only one through whom you should be saved. And I found these surveys appalling.

Well, on May 19, 2006, a blockbuster movie, The Da Vinci Code will open in theatres. The book has sold over 40,000,000 copies. Tom Hanks is in it. I am not one of those who have read the book. I would not waste twenty-five ($25) dollars on this rag. And if you wait just a minute, I’ll tell you how I really feel about it. I believe it is filled with heresy and it is a waste of my precious dollars. I’d rather put my money in the “CPR Fund” for carpet. It would be much better to spend your money on the carpet than on a book like this.

However, many Christian scholars have read it and they have published excerpts from it in newspaper and magazine articles, so without buying it, like the very cheap person I am, I have found a way to get quotes from it. You can find lots of rebuttals out there. It has been my experience that any time spent studying heresy is a waste of time. Some people say, Well, pastor, you have to know your enemy. I say, “…know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”

When people are trained to work in the Treasury Department of the United States, they take a $20 bill and they study that $20 bill so they know everything about it. Then when they put a fake $20 bill in front of them they can spot it immediately. They can dump a thousand fake ones and they could go through and they could pick the true $20 bill out because they know the real thing. If you know God’s word and you know Jesus Christ you will not be fooled by heretics. You will know the real thing and the minute somebody says something that isn’t in God’s word you will know it if you study the word of God. Now if you never study you can be deceived very easily if you don’t read the Bible. Jesus said the wise man builds his house on the solid rock of my words but the fool builds his house on the knowledge of the world, and when the floods come, his house is washed away. Which kind of person are you? “Know your enemy”? I don’t think so. Know your Savior! Know the Bible and then you’ll spot the phonies and the heretics.

So spend your time reading God’s word every day. How often are we to read God’s word: every day. So today, we will spend a few minutes on what Dan Brown the author of the Da Vinci Code has written but we’re going to spend a lot more talking about the Resurrection.

Now the book and the movie both have made many false claims. First, they claim that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were man and wife. This claim is so patently false and ridiculous it’s almost laughable. Jesus was both God and man and he accepted the worship from other human beings like Thomas. Mary worshiped Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Nowhere in the Bible does it indicate anything but absolute respect on the part of Jesus with Mary. He loved her as one of his disciples and there was no carnal contact. To suggest otherwise is unbiblical and blasphemous. That’s the best word I can use for The Da Vinci Code—blasphemous! When you say my Jesus had carnal knowledge and even had children by a woman, you are a blasphemer and a liar, and I’ll pray for your soul because you are really testing God’s patience when you say stuff like that.

Now the New Testament according to The Da Vinci Code is false testimony. There is no book in antiquity more documented and authenticated than the New Testament. In his book, The Case For Christ, Lee Strobel does an excellent job depicting the absolute integrity of the Scriptures.

The Case For Christ is a wonderful book proving the intellectual honesty of the case for Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world. I think it’s the first or second chapter it talks about the integrity of the Scripture and how there are thousands of pieces of manuscript and that the New Testament is one of the most well documented books in antiquity. So you can have absolute confidence in the New Testament. The writers of the New Testament were included because they were eyewitnesses to the ministry of Jesus Christ.

The third thing they say is that there were eighty gospel accounts of Christ’s life and when you learn of these other false gospels then you’ll really know the true story. I say no. When you read the gospels, you know the true story. These other books are liars and heretics; and don’t waste five minutes reading their books!

There are many writings that were considered by the church of for inclusion: the gospel of Thomas, the gospel of Philip, the gospel of Judas. Now they just had a big thing about the gospel of Judas. Did you see all that on TV and everybody was talking about the gospel of Judas!

In Acts chapter one, Peter says that Judas lied, betrayed Christ, went out and hung himself in a field called the field of blood. And when he fell, his body broke open and his intestines were spilled out on the ground and tradition says dogs actually ate his body. I don’t know it that’s true or not but what I do know is this: the only thing you can learn from Judas is what not to do.

Let me just say this about the gospel of Judas. They’re trying to portray Judas as Jesus’ best friend who was trying to help Jesus and (that) he’s really a hero; he’s not really a betrayer, a traitor, and someone who is to be looked down upon. Well, you may not want to look down upon him and judge him harshly but I say that Judas shows you what not to do. He tried to change Jesus instead of letting Jesus change him. Instead of repenting of his sin like Peter he hardened his heart and refused to listen to Christ and then felt sorry for himself and then killed himself instead of going to his God for forgiveness. The only thing you can learn from the gospel of Judas is what not to do and I would say there is nothing that you need to read that gospel for.

The Da Vinci Code uses the Gnostic gospel of Thomas and the Council of Nicea to prove his point. The gospel of Thomas was a Gnostic book. As you know, the Gnostics believed that Christ was totally divine and had a spiritual body not a literal body. They believed that Jesus was a spirit and they don’t agree with The Da Vinci Code’s claim that Christ was only a man. The Gnostics taught that Christ was a spiritual man and only appeared to have a spiritual body but did not in fact have one. They were rejected for good reason. They did not pass the tests for credibility and authenticity. Base your faith on the eyewitnesses of God’s word: those who are included in the New Testament. Stand on Jesus and his words and you will be building your house on a solid rock.

The fourth thing that the book and the movie claim is that the Emperor Constantine gave us the New Testament. He just makes these claims without any evidence and expects Christians just to throw out their Bible and accept Dan Brown’s views. However, it is a sad fact that many people are buying into this deception! The canon was put together following very strict guidelines. The books that were included had nothing to do with Constantine. They were put into the canon because of their authenticity and credibility. The church fathers made the decisions not the emperor!

Fifth, they say that the divinity of Jesus is an invention of the fourth century church leaders in the Council of Nicea. The divinity of Jesus is all through the New Testament. Jesus said, “Before Abraham was I AM” claiming the name of the divine God. He took upon himself the name of God Almighty. He allowed Thomas to exclaim “My Lord, and my God.” He accepted Thomas’ worship of his divinity. Jesus was God. This book, The Da Vinci Code says that Jesus was just a human being and tries to undermine the divinity of Jesus. Therefore, according to the apostle John if anyone denies that Jesus is the Christ he is antichrist. So this book is a lie signed in red ink by the devil from hell. Now do you know how I really feel?

Also this heresy being debated now was not the heresy debated at the Council of Nicea. At the Council of Nicea, they were debating whether or not Jesus was the first created thing. So even those who doubted the eternal divinity asserted that Jesus Christ was above human and they believed that he was created divine at some point in time. They were teaching the same thing as the Jehovah’s Witnesses do today about Christ’s divinity but they were not teaching that he was just a man. So neither the first heresy of the Gnostics or the second heresy of the Aryans taught that Christ was just a man as Dan Brown claims in The Da Vinci Code. Dan Brown needs to get his heresies straight! You can’t claim that the Gnostics and the Council of Nicea support your book when both of them teach the exact opposite! He uses the gospel of Thomas and the Council of Nicea as proof and both of them contradict the thesis he puts forth! Isn’t it funny that The Da Vinci Code disproves The Da Vinci Code? He says look at Thomas and the Council of Nicea as proof of what I’m saying. So when you look at Thomas and the Council of Nicea, they contradict Dan Brown and they say Jesus is God. Both the Gnostics and the Aryans believe that Jesus was God. They were wrong, they were heretics, but at least that had that right. Dan Brown can’t even get that right!

Sixth he says the Resurrection wasn’t real – that is was a cover up – that both the friends and the enemies of Jesus all conspired and covered up the fact that he was just a man who died and he didn’t rise from the dead. Well, in 1 Corinthians, did you read the verse that said all twelve apostles, plus Paul, plus 500 people – over 500 people – were eyewitnesses to his resurrection? Did you read that? And Paul said, “many of them are alive” when he wrote that. Now when you go to court, you need only one or two, or three witnesses. If you have three eyewitnesses, you usually have an airtight case. How about me, I have 513 witnesses that the Resurrection is real. I can either believe them or I can believe this guy. Which one do you think I’m going to believe?

Here we will find the answers. In 1Corinthians to Dan Brown’s assertions that the enemies and friends alike of Jesus covered up his death, I don’t believe that cover up is true. It is a lie from the devil from hell and this book is not only blasphemous but anyone who reads it, and buys into it, is greatly deceived.

Their thesis is that this person (in the Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper) is not John the apostle, this person is actually Mary (Magdalene) that Da Vinci painted Mary into that painting. Not! If that’s Mary, she is one of the ugliest women that has ever lived. Not a bad lookin’ man, but not much of a woman, okay? That is John the apostle so don’t buy into this baloney!

Washington Post, July 20, 2003: “ ‘I was skeptical, but after a year and a half of research, I became a believer,’ says Brown, ‘As soon as people understand that the few Gospels included in the Bible are not the only versions of the Christ story, they begin to sense contradictions. Magdalene is most obvious. Her role,’ he says, ‘was deliberately distorted, a smear campaign by the early church fathers.’”

And many in the Christian community are buying into this theory that the early church fathers did a smear campaign on Mary. When I read the Bible in a time when women were treated as second-class citizens, Mary is honored and exalted by Jesus to a position of equality with the apostles, seated in the council of elders in Christ’s circle as a rabbi. No rabbi let anyone into the circle of elders unless they were a disciple; and Mary sat at the feet of Jesus with the other disciples. Jesus treated her with equality and respect never with any kind of a carnal intention. So we can tell already that this guy’s theories are out to lunch a bit.

The Da Vinci Code pp. 235, 231: “Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false. The Bible is a product of man…not of God.”

Do you agree with that, Church? Is he a liar? He’s a liar. That book is not worth the paper it is printed on.

The Bible is not the product of man. You have the words of men but the thoughts of man contained in this book. This book is divine in its origin. “Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” Eighty-five percent (85%) of apostate Protestant clergy do not believe that the Bible is the literal word of God. They believe it is mythologies and stories to help guide us – 85%! I am a hundred percent sure that this book is of divine origin. This is the word of God and I will not join with Roman Catholics or apostate Protestants who are formed in their image to denigrate God’s word. This is where it’s at, right here. Get in it every day. Memorize it. Make it the foundation upon which you build your house.

The Da Vinci Code pp. 232, 233: “Christianity honored the Jewish Sabbath of Saturday but Constantine shifted it to coincide with pagan’s veneration day of the sun. To this day most churchgoers attend services on Sunday morning with no idea that they are there on account of the pagan sun god’s weekly tribute—Sunday.”

Now if I took that clock in the back of the church and smashed it on the ground twice a day it would be right. Congratulations, Dan, this is one of your right quotes. That is true.

1 Corinthians 4:4-5—“It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide. Be careful not to jump to conclusions before the Lord returns as to whether or not someone is faithful.” (NLT)

I cannot judge Dan Brown; neither can you. I don’t know whether he’s going to be saved or lost – that’s between him and his God. I do know this: I need to look at myself and make sure I’m not deceived. I need to be careful before the Lord comes because “many false prophets will arise teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”

1 Corinthians 15:14, 18—“If Christ was not raised then all our preaching is useless and your trust in God is useless. In that case all who have died believing in Christ have perished.”

So if what he is saying is true – that Jesus is just a man – then all your faith is useless and we might as well just close this church and go home – because there’s no reason to continue being a Christian if what they’re saying is true.

Luke 1:1-4—“Many people have written accounts about the events that took place among us. They used as their source material the reports circulating among us from the early disciples and other eyewitnesses of what God has done in fulfillment of his promises. Having carefully investigated all these accounts from the beginning I have decided to write a careful summary for you to reassure you of the truth of all you were taught.”

Now this is what he says…

“Common sense demands:
That cover-ups maintain a unified front.
That women would not be used as credible witnesses.
That soldiers not wake up when a huge stone is rolled away.
That soldiers could not identify thieves while they were sleeping.
That timid disciples could not become fearless evangelists.”

These are his theories. Let’s take a look at each one of them.

“That cover ups maintain a unified front.” – Do you mean to tell me that the enemies like Caiaphas and all those false leaders, and the apostles all got together to make this cover up and they all lied just to cover up the fact that Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead, and they all believed that Christ just was a big phony story that somebody invented but they all covered it up together? I believe that if the priests and the Pharisees could proved that Jesus didn’t rise from the dead they would have exulted in that fact and published that fact everywhere. But no, there were a hundred Roman soldiers who put their ropes across that stone and put a Roman seal on those 100 ropes that kept that stone in place. And when those ropes were broken off a hundred Roman soldiers were eyewitnesses to the Resurrection of Jesus. Don’t you think even though the priests put money in their hands and a lie in their mouths – don’t you think when they got home to their home province they told everybody that they saw Jesus rise from the dead? That’s how you can account for the rapid spread of the Gospel in the first century – because the Roman soldiers were Christ’s ambassadors carrying the word of his Resurrection to all the world.

I’ll tell you what if I saw a man that I saw killed the day before come out of a tomb in glory, I would definitely tell somebody! I might take the money they offer me but I can guarantee you I’d go tell about it. When I got home with my wife and kids around the table, I guarantee you I’d be telling them about it.

“That women would not be used as credible witnesses.” – Now the women were used as witnesses. Mary was one of the disciples of Jesus. And we’re told that she was one of the first evangelists that Christ sent out to preach his Resurrection. Jesus did give women credibility. He treated women as equals. He exalted women, and respected them, and treated them with great respect. So to just say because they were women no one would accept their witness, that’s ridiculous.

“That soldiers not wake up when a huge stone is rolled away.” – The third point is almost laughable. Soldiers not wake up when a huge stone is rolled way; that took twelve men to move it. Yeah, twelve guys came and moved the stone and not one Roman soldier heard a thing! They just lay there and slept like babies. Come on! You’d have to be a total moron to believe something like that, wouldn’t you? I mean how ridiculous would that be to buy that story.

“That soldiers could not identify thieves while they were sleeping.” – And then that the Roman soldiers identified the disciples as the one who came and stole the body while they slept. If you were sleeping, how do you know it was the disciples that stole the body? Duh! The soldiers could not identify the thieves while they were sleeping. So how did they know that it was the disciples: they didn’t. They were just paid to lie by the Pharisees and they did so.

“That timid disciples could not become fearless evangelists.” – That’s true if they weren’t converted. That’s true if the Holy Spirit didn’t fill them and put words in their mouth and a fire burning in their hearts. But they did get converted. It’s an historical fact that the saint Peter who ran as a coward came back later and was crucified upside down because he so respected his Savior he did not want to be crucified like Jesus. So God did transform these men into powerful witnesses.

Now the way this guy looks at Christianity is a worldly way:

The Jesus I Never Knew, 219-220—“There are two ways to look at human history. One is to focus on the wars and violence, the squalor, the pain and tragedy and death. From such a point of view, the resurrection seems a fairy tale exception, a stunning contradiction in the name of God.”

What this guy in The Da Vinci Code is saying is it doesn’t make any sense. It’s just a lie. They just made it up. It’s not like anything in history. And that’s true if you look at it that way.

The Jesus I Never Knew, 219-220—“But there is another way to look at the world. If I take the resurrection as the starting point as the one incontrovertible fact about how God treats those whom he loves, then human history becomes the contradiction and the resurrection the preview of ultimate reality. Hope then flows like lava beneath the crust of daily life.”

The ultimate reality show is not American “Idolatry,” or Survivor. The ultimate reality is that Jesus is going to resurrect anyone who believes in him and they will never die in the sense of having to suffer a second death. They will live for all eternity. And that is the ultimate reality. “Hope then flows like lava beneath the crust of daily life.”

1 Corinthians 15:20, 22, 58—“The fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead…”

That’s a fact! That is a Bible fact that has been witnessed to by 513 people—at least. There were many more than that

“…and all who are related to Christ will be given new life. So my dear brothers and sisters be strong and steady always enthusiastic about the Lord’s work. For you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.”

Was the resurrection real? Absolutely. It was real.

How many of you believe that Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, that he sits at the right hand of God, and that he’s coming back to take us home!

Father in heaven as we pray there may be someone here today who has the stone still rolled over the tomb so that Jesus cannot get into their heart. You have said I stand at the door of the heart and knock, and if anyone will open the door I will come in. If you would like to roll away the stone of your heart and acknowledge that the Resurrection is real, that Jesus is alive in heaven and that you need your sins forgiven this morning; if you’d like to say “Jesus, please wash away my sins. Please come into my heart. I want to roll away that hard heart that stony heart that I’ve had. Roll that stone away from the tomb so that Jesus can be risen in my heart, in my life.” If you want to confess your sins and accept him as your Savior, would you just raise your hand today?



All Scriptural References: New King James Version / New American Standard Bible

Transcription: Wendy J. Riebel

This sermon is also available on cassette tape.

Visit our church website: www.LivingWord.biz

Free Sermon