2006. 4. 30 김영봉 목사

Third of Four Series Sermon: 'A Proper Perspective on Da Vinci Code' (2)
"Godless and Silly Stories"

--Timothy I 4:6-10

1.

Recently, they released “the gospel of Judas” to the public. It caught attention of many people. It was collecting much attention from people because it has a totally different perspective on Judas, who betrayed Jesus. In the Christian tradition, Judas has been considered as if having committed the greatest sin in human history.

Dante’s Devine Comedy has Judas Iscariot in the most painful place in all of hell. Judas, who sold Jesus, the savior of the world, is known as ‘the unforgivable sinner’. But in the newly released “Gospel of Judas,” Judas Iscariot is portrayed as the disciple who understood Jesus the most. In the Gospels of our Bible, Peter is the one who understood who Jesus was and confessed his faith. But, in “the Gospel of Judas” Judas, not Peter, realizes who Jesus is. Judas said to Jesus:

I know who you are and where you have come from. You are from the eternal realm of Barbelo. And I am not worthy to utter the name of the one who has sent you”

Jesus said to Judas;

But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.

In another verse, He also said:
You will become the thirteenth, and you will be cursed by the other generations-and you will come to rule over them. In the last days, they will curse your ascent to the holy generation.

This is quite interesting. Judas Iscariot did not betray his teacher, but he helped set the teacher’s spirit free from the bondage of his human body. Jesus prophesized that Judas will be cursed by the coming generations but promises that, in the last days, Judas will exceed and rule over them,

There has been a sympathy talk for Judas Iscariot for a long time. It seems inevitable to ask, “If Jesus had to die on the cross, should Judas Iscariot who made it possible be merited for what he did rather than being called a sinner?” The Gospel of Judas is the evidence there were people who had that question even in 2nd century. Maybe that’s why finding of the new Gospel is interesting and attention arousing event for many people. I am sure some have said, “See? I was right!” On the other hand, some were probably very confused and said, “What is this? Then, what is all that talk about Judas in the Bible?” With those questions, some are wondering, “Why are they publicizing that kind of document now?”

2.

About the release of the Gospel of Judas, I am sure some are imagining that Churches have been hiding something all this time and now someone has revealed that secret to the public. This, in fact, is the serious accusation the novel “Da Vinch Code” throws against the church and the Gospels in the Bible. One of the characters in the novel, Sir Leigh Teabing?a former member of the Royal Historical Academy and an authority on historical matters?says this about the Gospels.

The twist is this. Because Constantine upgraded Jesus’ status almost four centuries after Jesus’ death, thousands of documents already existed chronicling His life as a mortal man. To rewrite the history books, Constantine knew he would need a bold stroke. From this sprang the most profound moment in Christina history. Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.

Fortunately for historians, some of the gospels that Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950s hidden in the cave near Qumran in the Judean desert. And of course, the Coptic Scrolls in 1945 at Nag Hammadi. In addition to telling the true Grail story, these documents speak of Christ’s ministry in very human terms. Of course, the Vatican, in keeping with their tradition of misinformation, tried very hard to suppress the release of these scrolls. And why wouldn’t they? 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- to promote the divinity of the man Jesus Christ and use His influence to solidify their own power base.

It sounds as if Leigh Teabing is disclosing secrets of the Gospels to the world. If I summarize it, it goes like this:

1. Before the First Council of Nicea, there were thousands of Gospels.

2..In 325 AD, Constantine reconstructed 4 Gospels in the Bible to emphasize Jesus' divinity. He outlawed the existing Gospels and burned them.

3. The Catholic church has since kept this matter in secret.

4. With the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1950 and the coptic scrolls in Nag Hammadi in 1945, they found the Gospels the Church had been trying to hide forever. These Gospels are historically more credible.

5. These new Gospels contain the secrets of the Holy Grail.

6. The Catholic Church has been fighting against the release of these Gospels.

7. 7. But these Gospels have been made public, and now the truth is bound to come out.

The newly released “Gospel of Judas” is a part of the Coptic Scrolls of Nag Hammadi found in 1945. According to what Leigh Teabing said, the reason why “the Gospel of Judas” has not been publicized is because the church has been against it. But, if you are interested, please look up The Gospel of Judas in the National Geographic’s homepage on the internet. The reason why the new gospel has not been released till now is that it has been making rounds through different antique markets for a long time.

The second reason is when it finally made it to the hands of historians, it was torn in pieces like a puzzle. It took them many years to put it together to its original form. The church has never been against the releasing of this new Gospel. Neither Catholic, nor Protestant churches has any power to stop researches of these scholars. Therefore, the church did not have any conspiracy regarding the Gospel of Judas.

3.

Let us think about what Leigh Teabing said one more time. This will sound like a lecture but I would like you to pay attention. Some of you may think, “Do I need to know these things?” Yes, you need to know. When there were no such documents, you didn’t have to know. But now these documents have been released and you can find them in the bookstores in many different languages. As we are Christians living the modern era, we need to know how the newly released Gospel is different from the Gospels in the Bible. If we don’t, we can be easily confused and stumble. You should at least know enough basic knowledge about it to answer questions if anyone asks or challenges about this issue.

First, he said; “There were thousands of Gospels before the Council of Necea in 325. This is an exaggeration. Evidences do suggest that there were a good number of gospels. Besides the four Gospels in the New Testament (Mathew, Mark, Luke, John) there were several others.

Second, he said; “In 325 AD, Constantine ordered people to rewrite the four Gospels that are now in our Bible to emphasize Jesus’ divinity. Also, he outlawed and burned all existing Gospels.” This is a clear perversion of history. There are two serious issues here. One is that Constantine had nothing to do with canonizing books of Bible. He ordered and financed for 50 Bibles to be copied for churches in Constantinople. The other is the theory that the four gospels in the Bible was fabricated later and the initially written Gospels were all burned. There is no serious historian?I mean, none?who would agree with this theory. It is undeniable historical fact that the four gospels in the Bible are historically older and more authentic than any other gospels that were discovered.

Third, “The Catholic church has been hiding this fact.” It is true that The Catholic church has been against making the new Gospels public. But it is because, since the early churches, the theology in these Gospels was regarded as heretical. They had extremely dangerous ideologies. The church was merely against the ideologies of those Gospels; they never tried to hide or suppressed them.

Fourth, Teabing says, “When they recovered the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1950 and Coptic Scrolls in Nag Hammadi in 1945, they recovered all the Gospels that the church wanted to hide forever. These Gospels are historically more authentic than the gospels in the Bible.” History is again perverted here. There is no gospel among the Dead Sea Scrolls recovered in 1950. They were Old Testament books and apocrypha. They had nothing to do with the New Testament. If Dan Brown knew about this fact and still wrote what he wrote, it’s clearly a fabrication of evidence. If he didn’t know those facts and wrote this novel, then he didn’t have enough research to write a historical novel.

The Coptic Scrolls of Nag Hammadi found in 1945 had gospels and letters that are not included in our New Testament. These documents were written by those of Gnostic (and heretical) thought in the early church. The time they were written is approximately no earlier than 150 AD. But the gospels in the New Testament were written in between 50-90 AD. There is no comparison in historical authenticity.

4.

Fifth, “In the newly found Gospels, there is a secret of Holy Grail.” When they mean by the ‘secret of Holy Grail’ is that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were married. To prove this, Dan Brawn used ‘the Gospel of Phillip’ and ‘the Gospel of Mary’. Both of these Gospels were written after 150 AD. In the Gospel of Phillip which was created by someone using the name Phillip of Jesus’ disciples, it says;

There were three who always walked with the Lord: Mary, his mother, and her sister, and Magdalene, the one who was called his lover.

Here, they translated ‘the one Lord loved’ as his lover. In this expression, it sounds as if Mary Magdalene is Jesus’ lover. But, if you read the Gospel of John, one of the 12 Disciples, John, the son of Zebedee was called ‘the one loved by the Lord’. If we think the same way as Dan Brown does, we can exaggerate that Jesus had homosexual love towards John. How ludicrous is it? Let’s look at another phrase.

“What they call dried up knowledge is mother of angels. And the companion of the [...] Mary Magdalene. [...] more than [...] the disciples, [...] kiss her [...] on her [...]. The rest of the disciples [...]. They said to him "Why do you love her more than all of us?" The Savior answered and said to them, "Why do I not love you like her?

Here, there are several parentheses. Words in the parentheses can not be read. Jesus kissed Mary Magdalene, but it’s not clear where He kissed her. It does not specify in the original text. He could have kissed her on her cheeks, forehead, of on her lips. Wherever it was, kissing was a casual way of greeting in the early churches as it is for Middle Easterners now. When Dan Brown quotes this phrase in his book, he added ‘kiss her often on her mouth. He fabricated facts to express what he wanted to say.

What’s more, when he was quoting this phrase, he deleted the last verse. When disciples complained to him for loving Mary Magdalene more than them, Lord said to them; "Why do I not love you like her? Why do you think Dan Brown deleted this sentence? This sentence clearly tells us that Jesus didn’t love Mary Magdalene any more specially than he loved others. This sentence didn’t serve the purpose of Dan Brown.

Another historical evidence Dan Brown quotes is the Gospel of Mary. It was written by someone using Mary Magdalene’s name. Also in this Gospel, in two places, it says Jesus loves Mary Magdalene more than anyone else. At one verse, Peter tells Mary Magdalene;

Peter said to Mary, "Sister, we know that the Savior loved you more than other women. Tell us the words of the Savior which you have in mind since you know them; and we do not, nor have we heard of them."

In another verse, when Peter opposed Mary Magdalene, Levi scolds Peter and said;

Peter, you are always irate. Now I see that you are contending against the woman like the adversaries. But if the Savior made her worthy, who are you to reject her? Surely the Savior knew her very well. For this reason he loved her more than us

Now, all these are the evidences for the core theme of this novel telling ‘Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a daughter named Sarah’. Without speculation, exaggeration and fabrication, you could not come to that kind of conclusion. When you think about the fact that the Gospels of Phillip and Mary are tinted with ideologies of heresies and are not based on any historical truth, you cannot believe this conclusion. It is absurd to say these two gospels are more authentic and credible than the four gospels in the New Testaments.

There are two more allegations Da Vinci Code levels against the Gospels. The sixth is this; “The Catholic church has been opposing the release of these Gospels.” It never happened and it is not even possible. Seventh is: “But these gospels are now released and the truth is out.” Only thing that’s clarified by release of these Gospels is the truth about Gnosticism. There is no truth about Jesus in these Gospels.

5.

Now, we can tell how ‘Da Vinci Code’ has a wrong approach about the the New Testaments and the newly recovered Gospels. Author, Dan Brown, turned the gospels that have no historical value into the most factual data. Then he charges the four most authentic gospels with being fabrication. Furthermore, he exaggerated and changed a few vague phrases to lead readers to think that Jesus married Mary Magdalene.

Now, let us turn our attention from ‘Da Vinci Code’ to the newly released Gospels. For these Gospels, I have a question. “Why did they come up with these Gospels later? How are the newly released Gospels different from the 4 Gospels in the Bible?”

There are so many things to say about this question, but I will just focus on one point today as the conclusion of today’s sermon. The four Gospels in the New Testament consist of words and acts revealing that Jesus Christ is our savior. On the other hand, recently released Gospels are written to feed the curiosity people have about Jesus Christ. You can find these newly released Gospels very easily. You don’t need to buy them, just sit for an hour in a bookstore and read them. You will easily be able to tell there is a big difference in quality and contents compared to the Gospels in the New Testaments.

While I was teaching the New Testaments in a seminary for past 10 years, the question I heard the most was; ‘Why doesn’t the Gospels mention anything about Jesus’ childhood?’ I am also very curious about it. In the Gospels of Mathews and Luke, the story jumps from His birth to His public ministry. In the Gospels of Mark and John, they don’t even mention His birth.

How can we not be curious about the first 30 years of His life before He went into the public life? There are some people who are spending their whole life tracking it. Some speculate that Jesus went to India to train and practice. Since we do not have any evidence, you can speculate in any way you want.

I can not answer your question about what Jesus did in his first 30 years. But, I can tell you how and why all the information about it disappeared. The reason is, in the early churches, people were not interested in Jesus’ private life. Even if they were interested, they did not preserve any information. It is because the stories about Jesus were not a topic of casual conversations in private gatherings. They were relayed and spread around by early Christians in much persecution and oppression to evangelize and train people.

They only had time to talk about most important and pivotal issues. What Jesus did in his first 30 years was not of any interest for them for the purpose of their faith. That’s why it was not talked about and recorded. It wasn’t important to them at all.

But, as time went by, their tension loosened up. Some of the Christians became rich and powerful. They started to have time, money and leisure time. At the same time, they lost some of the passion and eagerness for their faith. This is probably when their curiosity about Jesus’ private life started to sprout. When they should be busy studying what He did and what He said during His public ministry, when they should have devoted their time to learn His truth and practice His teachings as true disciples, they started to get busy and spent more time on feeding their curiosity.

Some even tried to pursue this curiosity as means of personal gain. People started to write Gospels using names of Jesus’ disciples 100 years after they died. Of course some of the Gospels written this way are somewhat genuine. For example, ‘the Gospel of Thomas’ was clearly written by someone with genuine intentions, even though it is influenced with ideologies of heresy. But most of the apocrypha gospels were created much later with similar intentions as that of Dan Brown’s.

6.

In here, we find an important lesson. This ‘Da Vinci Code Syndrome’ is so dangerous that it can lead peoples’ minds to empty curiosity and jeopardize their faith. Faith of the people who wrote the newly released Gospels is influenced by heresies and it lacks passion and devotion for the truth. They were more interested in rumors rather than truth. Solving their curiosity for Jesus was more important to them than living as the disciples of Jesus.

‘Da Vinci Code Syndrome’ has the same danger to degrade our faith. If we look at it from another point of view, if we are lured by that kind of empty curiosity, it also means our life is too comfortable and trouble free. In fact, America is so comfortable and abundant. Therefore, we always need some kind of excitement or stimulation, otherwise, we become bored. That’s why we watch movies, read books, and go to plays, to fill our desires.

When Dan Brown was asked, ‘Did you expect your novel to be this popular?’ he answered; ‘No, it is totally out of my expectation.’ My question is this. “Why did this become a record selling novel?”

There is no right answer for this question, but I can think of two things. First reason is; there are increasing numbers of anti-Christians because churches and Christians have not been setting examples. There are many who find pleasure criticizing and slandering Christianity. We put ourselves in this situation. We, as Christians and Churches, have to repent about it. Second reason is; since life is too comfortable, we have lost interest in trying to find truth and live by it. We are just pursuing empty curiosities.

To this series of sermons, I am sure some of you may say; “What’s the big deal about Da Vinci Code? It’s hard enough to deal with day by day problems.” If you are feeling that way, I sincerely apologize. That’s right. We do not have time to waste to talk about feeding empty curiosities, as what it says in today’s scripture, first Timothy 4:7-8.

Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

If I prepared this series of sermons to enjoy this fruitless story, I must be corrupted also and I would be leading you to a wrong direction.

Fortunately, my intentions of doing this sermon series are not in enjoying it but to uncover what it’s doing to Christianity and clarify the truth. This is very important at this time.

As written in today’s scripture, let us not lose our minds to low and fabricated myths. Like early Christians who wrote the Gospels in the New Testaments, let us learn Jesus’ words, live by them, and try hard to be his true disciples. And, in season and out of season, we shall be diligent to spread the truth. We need all our time doing this. We do not have time to waste on this kind of harmful stories, even if it’s absorbingly interesting. What’s good and useful for the present and the time to come is learning the words of truth and practice by them.

Dear everyone please let us guard our hearts. Let us not lose our minds on evil things, untruthful things, ugly things, gaudy things, and dark things. Let us put our minds on truthful things, clean things, kind things, sincere things, beautiful things, bright things, and things that help our souls. The most truthful, clean, kind, sincere, beautiful, helpful, and bright thing is Jesus Christ and His words. Let us brace our hearts to them, so that our heart will become like them. Let us train ourselves so that our whole life will change and our expressions, our speech, and our actions will change like them. That is our calling.

Oh Lord,
We give our hearts to our true master, Lord.
Enslave us.
Bind us.
Control our minds so that we will not lose our minds to worthless things. Amen.