Archive for May 2006
Apologies
Posted on Monday, May 01, 2006 at 10:39 AM by David Zavadil
To all who have been waiting on the next in my Psalm 119 series, I apologize. I do not see how the daily bloggers can do it, I can't even maintain a weekly site. I hope to finish WAW this Wednesday. Since I will be preaching and teaching the weekend of the 12th, I will post the study I will be doing on the Da Vinci Code next week. Again, I am sorry for all of the delays. See you all on Wednesday.
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Psalm 119 WAW continued
Posted on Tuesday, May 02, 2006 at 11:50 AM by David Zavadil
41 ¶ <WAW> Let your steadfast love come to me, O LORD, your salvation according to your promise; 42 then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your word.
43 ¶ And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your rules. 44 I will keep your law continually, forever and ever,
45 ¶ and I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts. 46 I will also speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame, 47 for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. 48 I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.
The last time we looked at this passage we focused on verse one, today I intend to complete our study of the passage. In verse 1 the Psalmist cries out for the promised salvation. In verse 2 you read, 42 then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your word.
What does the salvation of God do for us as we live here on earth. Aside from our redemption from sin, death and hell, the Psalmist tells us that through that salvation we can find clear answers for our enemies, taunters, in the Scripture. Faith makes salvation ours and this faith enables us, through the illuminating power of the Spirit, to understand the Word of God. This same faith gives us the confidence we need to trust and know the truths of Scripture In an age of epidemic Biblical illiteracy, we need a renewed call to return to the Word of God by faith, studying it to find ourselves approved and encouraged. I would submit that one reason we see so little evangelical fervor and effectiveness today is that God's people do not know His Word and thus, have no answer for those who taunt them. Your faith not only brought salvation to your soul, but the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit. Trust in God's Word to guide you as you share of His marvelous deeds. If you are not already involved in personal Bible Study, begin today. Take the time to allow God, by faith, to speak to you through his Holy Scripture.
43 ¶ And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for my hope is in your rules. 44 I will keep your law continually, forever and ever,
The very same Word that by faith gives us the message to sinners, is also our continued hope for our lives. It provides comfort and assurance. Charles Bridges writes, "The want of personal assurance is not only a loss in our own souls, but a hindrance to our Christian usefulness." The Word of God is the place we go to seek the assurance and once found to proclaim His salvation message. We should never fear what we can or should say, God will give us the words to say. Bridges continues, " A stammering confession is better than silence. If we cannot say all we want of, or for our Savior, let us say what we can... a word spoken in weakness may be a word of the Almighty power, and a present help to some fainting spirit." The prayer here is that God's Word will not be utterly, or totally, taken from us, but that through faith we would keep His law, word, forever.
45 ¶ and I shall walk in a wide place, for I have sought your precepts. 46 I will also speak of your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame, 47 for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love. 48 I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes.
Verse 45 is an interesting verse. The KJV renders it, 45 ¶ And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts. Augustine writes in his Confessions, "I am bound, not with another man's iron, but with my own iron will. I gave my will to mine enemy, and he made a chain, and bound me with it." Sin and our sinful nature are binding. Much of the time we are so immune and desensitized that we fail to see how bound to sin we are. The psalmist has come to understand that the only way to liberty, the only way to walk freely is by faith in God as he is taught in His Word. The same promised salvation that opens the Word to us, also enables us to live freely for God. This freedom is not a freedom or liberty to sin, but a freedom or liberty to obey God. We are no longer held to the standards of the world. The power of salvation has over come and now frees us to live. We study the Scripture to learn the extent and the means to live in this new found liberty.
The liberty and freedom we now have in God enables us to speak with boldness. God has called us to faithfulness, Christ has commissioned us to proclaim His Word and make disciples. If we, in our godly liberty, are faithful to proclaim Him, we have nothing to be ashamed of for He will be magnified. What a freeing thought this should be, God will speak through us as we speak the Word of God. We do not need to be ashamed, God is the one speaking, not us. Just this thought should lead us to praise and lift our hands high.
My friends, find delight in God's Word. It is his intimate love letter to us. Take delight in recognizing that God desires to speak to you, to teach you, to increase your faith and to use you. This thought should encourage your worship, it is what he desires. Get into the Word of God. See what a delight it is to worship Him through the Scriptures. Meditate on the Word day and night, that you might have an attitude of continual worship.
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Looking at the "Da Vinci Code"
Posted on Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 11:39 AM by David Zavadil
On May 19, 2006 Sony Pictures will release its newest blockbuster “The Da Vinci Code.” Produced by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, the names alone will garner much initial support for the film. The book has sold over 40 million copies. If you consider that that each copy was read by a conservative average of two readers, 80 million people have read the book. Let me see if I can make the numbers more real. The last time I heard, there were approximately 4 million people living in Atlanta, Georgia. This book has been the equivalent of twenty Atlantas. Now that is a lot of people.
Now you might be asking, “What's the big deal? It is just a work of fiction.” While that is true, Dan Brown makes a definitive statement in is forward and the bases the entire story around a pagan world view. In his forward he states:
“FACT:...
All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”
This statement alone would lead the reader to surmise that the author would have done his homework and would be honest to those very same elements he claims are accurate. You may still be wondering what the big deal is, you are a sophisticated reader, and after all it is just a murder mystery, a novel, pure fiction. My friends, there is very little today that is pure fiction. By his own admission, he wove his story around real places, documents and rituals. The plot may be made up, but much of the setting and background elements are not, and this is concerning. Remember, tens of millions have read the book and many more will see the movie. What influence will this have on us and those around us. As a Christian, I am concerned for the lost, this book raises questions of faith that are confusing. However, the lost are just that, lost, what concerns me more are the members of God's visible church who will be wrongly influenced by the teaching, yes they are teachings, found in this “fictional novel.”
“Americans already possess an unorthodox profile of religious beliefs, indiscriminately blending biblical and cultural views. Among adults who are aligned with a Christian church, 59% do not believe that Satan exists, 42% contend that Jesus Christ committed sins during His earthly tenure, and just 11% believe that the Bible is the source of absolute moral truth. In fact, millions of Americans are confused about the Bible. On the one hand, six out of ten (61%) believe that "every word in the Bible is true and can be trusted." On the other hand, only half as many affirm that the Bible is "totally accurate in all of the principles it teaches." Americans admit that they are more likely to seek theological clarity from friends, family, experiences and even media input than from diving into biblical texts. “ (George Barna, “Christian Response to the Da Vinci Code,” http://www.TheTruthAboutDaVinci.com)
Sadly, the statements Barna makes are not limited to non-Christians alone, people in the Church struggle in the same way. This struggle within God's body, the Church, concerns me. In the short time I have I want to address the two main doctrinal errors purported in The Da Vinci Code; the doctrines of the Bible and the divinity of Christ. Let's get started.
“The Bible is a product of man, my dear, not God...History has never had a difinative version of the book.” - Sir Leigh Teabing, TDVC pg. 231
“The fundamental irony of Christianity! The Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great.” - Sir Leigh Teabing pg. 231
“'Fortunately for historians,' Teabing said, 'some of the gospels Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950's hidden in a cave near Qumran in the Judean desert. And of course the Coptic Scrolls in 1945 at Nag Hammadi... The scrolls highlight glaring historical discrepancies and fabrications, clearly confirming that the modern Bible was compiled and edited by men who possessed a political agenda...” - Sir Leigh Teabing, pg 234
If Teabing is right, then the foundational teaching of Christianity are all lies. But is Teabing correct? Let me first address the easiest of the lunacies found in this book. The Dead Sea Scrolls, found in the Qumran, included some writings of the Essenes, and Biblical documents. These Biblical texts, which included at least fragments from all of the Old Testament books except Esther, did not include a single New Testament period text. The Coptic Scrolls included fragments of what have now become known as the Gnostic Gospels. The, for the most part, have a date later than those of the four gospels found in the New Testament. Since, Brown has raised the question of the reliability and validity of the Scriptures, lets look at some interesting facts.
The Old Testament canon was finalized by two councils held at the city of Jamnia, one in AD 90 and the other in AD 118. The actual books which compose our Old Testament were in wide use for centuries before, and in fact had been translated into Greek 200 years before these councils met. They in no sense "created" the Old Testament. And they completed their work two centuries before Constantine. (James Dennison, “Missing Books of the Bible– where are they?” http://www.TheTruthAboutDaVinci.com)
|
Author |
When Written |
Earliest Copy |
Time Span |
Number of Copies |
|
Homer (Iliad) |
900 BC |
400 BC |
500 years |
643 |
|
Caesar (The Gallic Wars) |
100-44 BC |
900 AD |
1000 years |
10 |
|
Plato (Tetralogies) |
427-347 BC |
900 AD |
1200 years |
7 |
|
Aristotle |
384-322 BC |
1100 AD |
1400 years |
49 |
|
Herodotus (History) |
480-425 BC |
900 AD |
1300 years |
8 |
|
Euripides |
480-406 BC |
1100 AD |
1500 years |
9 |
|
New Testament |
50-90 AD |
130 AD |
30-90 years |
24,000 |
This chart was adapted from charts in Evidence that Demands a Verdict, by Josh McDowell, 1979, pages 42 and 43.
The great majority of scholars believe the Gnostic-Jesus texts to have been written 100-200 years after the Biblical gospels, which all were written within the first 30-60 years after Jesus' death. (Tim Keller, “The Gnostics and Jesus,”)
There are over 86,000 quotations of the New Testament in the early church fathers. There are also New Testament quotations in thousands of early church Lectionaries (worship books).
There are enough quotations from the early church fathers that even if we did not have a single copy of the Bible, scholars could still reconstruct all but 11 verses of the entire New Testament from material written within 150 to 200 years from the time of Christ. (Ron Rhodes, “Manuscript Evidence for the Bible,” http://home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/Manuscript.html)
So how was the canon determined? Was it by a close vote of the Council of Nicaea? Did a bunch of angry men, in a desire to rid the Church of women, decide what books to include? If you believe the characters in The Da Vinci Code, you would have to answer yes. As we saw earlier, by the time of Jesus the Old Testament Canon was pretty much set, the formalities occurring at least 125 years before Nicaea. The New Testament took a while longer but, with the exception of a few books, a list was accepted before Nicaea based upon four accepted Criteria. Each of the books had to be written by an Apostle or based upon his eye witness testimony. Second, the book had to possess merit and authority in its use. Third, the book had to be accepted by the whole church, not just individual congregations. Finally, the book had to be accepted by a decision of the larger Church, not a few preacher or teachers here and there. (taken from James Denison, “Missing Books of the Bible– where are they?”)
Perhaps the most important witness for the reliability of the Scriptures are the Scriptures themselves. In this marvelous compilation you have sixty-six books written over the course of 4000 years without contradiction. The books quote from other books within the Bible, attesting to acceptance of many of the books even before the canon was officially set. Jesus, Peter and Paul all quoted liberally from the Old Testament. Not only did Jesus quote from Scripture, he stated he was the fulfillment of it.
Matt 5: 17 ¶ “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Paul writing to Timothy writes:
II Timothy 3: 16* All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17* that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.
Some other passages that point to the Apostolic acceptance of Scripture are:
Rev. 1: 3 ¶ Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near.
2 Peter 3:15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.
2Timothy 5:18 quotes from Luke's gospel, 18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer deserves his wages.”
I have no desire to spend another three pages detailing the lack of support for the Gnostic Gospels. There are plenty of credible papers, websites and books doing just that. I do want to conclude this section by asking, if the Bible as we know it was and is a farce, how do you explain to all of the martyrs through the years that they died in vain? We as a people must know God's Word, we must be able to recognize it and repudiate all those that try to pervert it. I am reminded of Paul's harsh words in Galatians 1:6* ¶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- 7* not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 8* But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 9* As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
“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 nevertheless. 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.”
The Da Vinci Code p. 233
“It was all about power,” Teabing continued. “Christ as Messiah was critical to the functioning of the Church and state. Many scholars claim that the early Church literally stole Jesus from his original followers, hijacking His human message, shrouding it in an impenetrable cloak off divinity, and using it to expand their own power... p.233
“Because Constantine upgraded Jesus' status almost four centuries after Jesus' death, thousands of documents already existed chronicling His life as a mortal man.”
pg 234
“What I mean,” Teabing continued, “is that almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.” pg. 235
Did I just read that right? Do you see why the underlying teaching of this book and movie are frightening? If what Brown writes is true, the entire fabric of our faith is pulled a part and destroyed. The natural question is this, is Brown right? The best source to answer this question is the primary source, so let's look at what Jesus says about himself.
Joh 10:30 I and the Father are one.”
Joh 17:11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.
Joh 17:22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,
Joh 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Look at the dialog between Jesus and Peter.
Matthew 16: 13 ¶ Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Then there is the testimony of Paul.
Philippians 2: 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Romans 1: 3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
Seems Jesus himself contradicts all that Brown writes and believes. Jesus not only claims to be divine, he was proclaimed divine by his disciples (Matt 16:15-20; 26:63-64). He forgave sin (Matt 9:2-6; Luke 7:47-48). Jesus is divine! It didn't take a close vote in Nicaea, Nicaea just confirmed his divinity, not created his divinity. While the council of Nicea did debate the Nature of Godhead, the divinity of Christ as the second person of the Godhead was affirmed by a near 300-2 vote. Not quite as close as Sir Teabing proclaims. The power struggle referred to in the book was not an effort to establish Christ's divinity, but to deny it. The struggle continues today. My friends, don't fall victim to this lie.
I concede that this brief paper does not answer all of the questions raised in the book or movie. I contend that the major issue to address is the Doctrine of Scripture. All of the teachings in Da Vinci are based upon the premise that Scripture is unreliable and thus invalid. Learn the Scriptures, know the Scriptures and you can discuss this movie/book with anyone.
Edited on: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 11:53 AMPosted in Bible Study (RSS)