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May 20, 2006

Why Christianity is Threatened by Da Vinci Code

No doubt about it, Christians everywhere are upset about "The Da Vinci Code." And while it's being over-discussed on blogs and news sites everywhere, I simply cannot resist doing a bit of blogging about it myself.

As I read the commentary, it seems to me that many people are confused as to why the big uproar in the Christian world over a work of fiction. Vatican officials have been "unusually outspoken and aggressive" about the film and all around the world Christians are boycotting, warning, proselytizing, and more.

The book has upset many Christians by suggesting that Jesus fathered a child by Mary Magdalene, the first in a line of Christly descendants still extant today, and that the Catholic church has covered this up for 2,000 years. Mixing fact and fiction in a way that religious leaders say might confuse readers, the book also suggests that Christ's divinity was an idea that the Emperor Constantine imposed on the Council of Nicea in 325 AD for political reasons.

This Christian site offers the best explanation I have found for the fits the film is causing in the fundamentalist Christian community.

1) If Jesus never died, then He never rose again and, therefore, the Christian faith is vain! If this story is true, then all Christians depending upon Jesus ALONE for salvation are deceived and cannot look forward to Heaven for eternity with our risen Lord!

2) If Jesus was just a human prior to His baptism, then He could not have been sinless. Without Jesus being sinless, His sacrifice on the cross is meaningless, because God the Father could only accept a blood sacrifice from a sinless One.

3) If Jesus married and had a family, then the Gnostics were right all along in saying that Jesus was just a human who never had any thought that He was the Jewish Messiah until the "Christ Consciousness" spirit descended upon Him at His baptism. At that point, Jesus knew He was the Messiah to the Jewish people. This "Christ Consciousness" spirit left Jesus at the cross. Thus, Jesus is not unique, because this "Christ Consciousness" spirit came in times past to Buddha and to Krishna, and later, to Mohammed. People who believe this lie will consign the uniqueness of Christianity to history's "dustbin".

4) If Jesus is not God as He claimed and proved by His miracles, the New Testament is not inspired, and neither are Paul's Epistles; then the Christian Church has no real foundation.

Whether many people will change their views on the humanity of Jesus as a result of this film is hard to say. As I have mentioned before, the book was a part of my own research on the story of Jesus and did launch me into further study, which eventually led me to conclude Jesus, if he existed, was a human being and not God.

Posted by Becky at May 20, 2006 09:33 AM

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