Telegraph | News: "UN inspectors in Iraq spent their working hours drinking vodka while ignoring a shadowy nocturnal fleet believed to be smuggling goods for Saddam Hussein, a former senior inspector told the US Senate yesterday."
=========
Good! Good! Good! Don't trust God. Don't trust your own power of self-defense. Trust these guys.
Facebook Badge
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
A few years ago, Student Lee Johnson, who is now an intern in Herried, SD, wrote a short piece on the Da Vinci Code which I intended to post on the web. Now that the Da Vinci Code is back in the news I thought I would reproduce it here.
Da Vinci Code Critique
The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, is a novel about which Christians should be aware. This is not on account of the suspense-laden chapters or the who-dun-it mystery that enfolds, but because the false information about Christianity inside has taken hold of many minds and could lead people astray.
The plot of the book is simple enough. The four leading members of a secret society are killed, but before dying, the society’s grandmaster leaves a message and a series of clues to his granddaughter in the hope that the “secret” of the secret society does not pass out of existence. The secret is the location of the Holy Grail, however, it is not the Holy Grail as in the Cup of Christ, instead, it is documents and other assorted items that prove the secret nature of Christianity.
The author explains as the book goes along that the Holy Grail is a recovery of the “sacred feminine” within Christianity. The embodiment of the “sacred feminine” is Mary Magdelene, who was not only the wife of Christ, but also the mother of his baby and the rallying point for Christianity after his death. Furthermore, the author asserts that Jesus Christ was only a man who never claimed to be God. According to the book, this was all common knowledge until the council of Nicaea, when Constantine persuaded the church to elevate Christ to the level of God. Then Constantine supposedly created the modern Bible by removing some 80 gospels, which included references to Christ’s manhood and marriage, and leaving only the 4 that we have today, which included references to Jesus as God and Mary Magdelene as a prostitute. The author claims that the knowledge of the true nature of Christianity, including the identity of Christ’s descendents, was guarded and protected by this secret society. Leonardo Da Vinci had been a grandmaster of this society, and he included clues to the secret in his paintings. The clues that lead our two “heroes” to the “truth” are hidden in Da Vinci’s work. What Da Vinci really believed, I cannot say. For the sake of his soul, I hope it was not what is portrayed in this novel.
The idea that the true religion is passed down through secrecy is a Gnostic idea. The author even quotes heavily from the Gnostic Gospels, which he claims contain the truth about Christianity. The Bible, then, is a man-made document written purposefully to repress women and promote the idea that Jesus is God. The author merges Christianity with paganism, even implying that sex rituals lead to a greater understanding of truth. These are just a few of the disturbing falsehoods that Brown advocates in his novel. His historical accounts are easily repudiated with the writings of church fathers such as Eusebius or Tertullian. However, the church should be prepared for continuing assaults on the historicity of the Bible and the divinity of Christ in coming years.
This book is written in a very convincing manner, and for that reason is a danger to the uninstructed. The book even begins with a “Fact” page where it’s stated that, “All description of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate”, which contributes to the notion that the Christian cover-up about the “sacred feminine” is real. It is not. This book has been a bestseller for months, and people are believing these lies. May God be glorified, and may his truth bring to light this latest stream of lies.
Da Vinci Code Critique
The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, is a novel about which Christians should be aware. This is not on account of the suspense-laden chapters or the who-dun-it mystery that enfolds, but because the false information about Christianity inside has taken hold of many minds and could lead people astray.
The plot of the book is simple enough. The four leading members of a secret society are killed, but before dying, the society’s grandmaster leaves a message and a series of clues to his granddaughter in the hope that the “secret” of the secret society does not pass out of existence. The secret is the location of the Holy Grail, however, it is not the Holy Grail as in the Cup of Christ, instead, it is documents and other assorted items that prove the secret nature of Christianity.
The author explains as the book goes along that the Holy Grail is a recovery of the “sacred feminine” within Christianity. The embodiment of the “sacred feminine” is Mary Magdelene, who was not only the wife of Christ, but also the mother of his baby and the rallying point for Christianity after his death. Furthermore, the author asserts that Jesus Christ was only a man who never claimed to be God. According to the book, this was all common knowledge until the council of Nicaea, when Constantine persuaded the church to elevate Christ to the level of God. Then Constantine supposedly created the modern Bible by removing some 80 gospels, which included references to Christ’s manhood and marriage, and leaving only the 4 that we have today, which included references to Jesus as God and Mary Magdelene as a prostitute. The author claims that the knowledge of the true nature of Christianity, including the identity of Christ’s descendents, was guarded and protected by this secret society. Leonardo Da Vinci had been a grandmaster of this society, and he included clues to the secret in his paintings. The clues that lead our two “heroes” to the “truth” are hidden in Da Vinci’s work. What Da Vinci really believed, I cannot say. For the sake of his soul, I hope it was not what is portrayed in this novel.
The idea that the true religion is passed down through secrecy is a Gnostic idea. The author even quotes heavily from the Gnostic Gospels, which he claims contain the truth about Christianity. The Bible, then, is a man-made document written purposefully to repress women and promote the idea that Jesus is God. The author merges Christianity with paganism, even implying that sex rituals lead to a greater understanding of truth. These are just a few of the disturbing falsehoods that Brown advocates in his novel. His historical accounts are easily repudiated with the writings of church fathers such as Eusebius or Tertullian. However, the church should be prepared for continuing assaults on the historicity of the Bible and the divinity of Christ in coming years.
This book is written in a very convincing manner, and for that reason is a danger to the uninstructed. The book even begins with a “Fact” page where it’s stated that, “All description of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate”, which contributes to the notion that the Christian cover-up about the “sacred feminine” is real. It is not. This book has been a bestseller for months, and people are believing these lies. May God be glorified, and may his truth bring to light this latest stream of lies.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Tsunami victims to sue French hotel chain Accor, Thai govt, US authorities Messenger | Yahoo! Finance-: "Tsunami victims to sue French hotel chain Accor, Thai govt, US authorities"
==================
Ain't that ducky? We have now come to the complete circle of free-will theism. God doesn't control anything or bring anything to pass, and therefore man has complete free will to make his choices, right? He is therefore responsible for himself, right?
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong! This writer has maintained for many years that the true human responsibility cannot be maintained in a chance environment. If man has absolute freedom, then he is on his own. He is responsible for nothing, for things are always happening to him that somebody else should have taken care of. If he gets cancer from smoking, it just isn't his fault, it is the mean tobacco companies, and politicians, and the gov'ment and probably his mother and father who should have taken better care of his education. Do you wander that those who maintain the greatest lattitude to free will are always trying to tell you what to do, or trying to get the church to tell you what to do, or trying to get the gov'ment to tell you what to do? A pox on the whole bunch of them.
If he gets fat and sloppy from living on Big Macs, same story. If the tsunami comes and washes him away, same story. The United States--for if there is no God in your world, you look to the biggest and richest thing you can see--should have done something about it. Just sue the devil out of everyone in sight.
Do you still doubt that the Senate did a good thing last week by passing tort reform?
The elephant in the room that depraved men [that's all of us] refuse to see and will not see apart from the grace of God is a big one: God is the Creator, sustainer, upholder, and causes all things to come to pass for His glory. Every man is therefore responsible before the God who made him--not for the events that take place, but for his reaction to them. All things work together for good, but not for every men--only for those who love God and who are the called according to His purpose.
For good reading on this subject, click the Trinity Reformed Church link at the right and go to Creeds and Confessions and read the Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession, and look up the Scripture references. You might learn something.
==================
Ain't that ducky? We have now come to the complete circle of free-will theism. God doesn't control anything or bring anything to pass, and therefore man has complete free will to make his choices, right? He is therefore responsible for himself, right?
Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong! This writer has maintained for many years that the true human responsibility cannot be maintained in a chance environment. If man has absolute freedom, then he is on his own. He is responsible for nothing, for things are always happening to him that somebody else should have taken care of. If he gets cancer from smoking, it just isn't his fault, it is the mean tobacco companies, and politicians, and the gov'ment and probably his mother and father who should have taken better care of his education. Do you wander that those who maintain the greatest lattitude to free will are always trying to tell you what to do, or trying to get the church to tell you what to do, or trying to get the gov'ment to tell you what to do? A pox on the whole bunch of them.
If he gets fat and sloppy from living on Big Macs, same story. If the tsunami comes and washes him away, same story. The United States--for if there is no God in your world, you look to the biggest and richest thing you can see--should have done something about it. Just sue the devil out of everyone in sight.
Do you still doubt that the Senate did a good thing last week by passing tort reform?
The elephant in the room that depraved men [that's all of us] refuse to see and will not see apart from the grace of God is a big one: God is the Creator, sustainer, upholder, and causes all things to come to pass for His glory. Every man is therefore responsible before the God who made him--not for the events that take place, but for his reaction to them. All things work together for good, but not for every men--only for those who love God and who are the called according to His purpose.
For good reading on this subject, click the Trinity Reformed Church link at the right and go to Creeds and Confessions and read the Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession, and look up the Scripture references. You might learn something.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)