Dan Brown: his word against His Word

Of late, books by Dan Brown, including the infamous Da Vinci Code (and you must be a hermit to not have heard of it), have been ubiquitous. Just take a look around and you will find heaps of brown and blue paperbacks spilling over in the bookstores, and working adults and teenagers alike burying their noses into them on the MRT. On more than one occasion, I have even spotted them making their rounds in church on Sundays! Amidst all the controversy that he has stirred up, one thing is for sure, Dan Brown must surely be laughing all the way to the bank…

But jokes aside, why should we Christians have a bone to pick with Dan Brown and his thriller which claims that a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene produced a royal bloodline in France? After all, it is but a work of fiction…which typically does not claim truth; just that in his opening page there is a line which reads: “…all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals are accurate.” And when believers and non-believers alike actually are influenced, and even convinced of Brown’s claims in his fiction, there is a pressing need to examine the personal defence of our faith that we have built up to respond to such allegations.

Sure, of course us Christians will vehemently oppose anything that is contrary to the Bible (Da Vinci Code or not) because it is the absolute Truth to us and what we believe to be the divinely inspired Word of God. So the question at the heart of it all is, why should anyone believe the Bible over Dan Brown or any other author or academic that comes along the way in future to challenge its teachings or authenticity?

The Bible claims inerrancy and endurance, down to the “jot” and “tittle” (Matt 5:18). Meaning to say, if we can find one, just one error in the Bible, why should we be convinced the rest of it to be true as well? That is a huge, lofty claim. Just like the claim Jesus made of being God. It is either extremely foolish, or undeniably true.

But since we are looking at the Da Vinci Code, let us pose the same challenge to Brown’s bestseller. For starters, we find that there is not even a need to challenge the religious claims Brown put forth. All we have to do is find one provable error for him to lose credibility, and make the basis of all his claims crumble.

• Error #1: There are 666 panes of glass in the pyramid of the Louvre in Paris.


• Fact: There are 675 diamond-shaped panes and 118 triangular panes


• Error #2: The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950’s.


• Fact: The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in 1947.


• Error #3: The female protagonist, Sophie Neveu, used Leonardo Da Vinci’s canvas painting of “Madonna on the Rocks” to shield herself.


• Fact: “Madonna on the Rocks” is painted on wood.


• Error #4: The Merovingians founded Paris.


• Fact: Paris was originally a village called Lutetia that was expanded into a city by the Romans.

I really could go on and on. As you know, entire books have been written debunking various ‘facts’ and claims on the Da Vinci Code. But you get the picture. This guy has failed to live up to his bold assertion of being accurate.

Similarly, our belief in the Bible has to be holistic. We either believe all of it, or none of it. Not just the bits about Jesus, but also all the facts and data recorded. Besides simply being a manual for religious teaching, the Bible is also very much a historical artefact treasured by scholars through the years because of its overwhelming evidence of a myriad of fulfilled prophecy, its amazing historical, geographical and archaeological accuracy and not forgetting, its supernatural ability to change lives... Were it secular piece of writing and not a religious one, its authenticity would generally be regarded as beyond all doubt!

What is one author from a single cultural background, against over forty different authors whose occupations ranged from military general (Joshua) to fisherman (Peter)? Not only that, the Bible was written over a span of approximately 1,500 years in three different languages: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and composed on the three different continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. Yet, everything was written on the single, unified topic of God’s remarkable salvation plan for mankind through the person of Jesus Christ! Now THAT my friend, is a tough act to follow if you ask me… And most understandably so, if it has to live up to its claim of being the Word of God.

With historical, religious and, artistic errors found in Brown’s book that makes claims that “main aspects are all true”, it is his word against His Word. There is really no need for a big fuss when the hard evidence is laid out.

Probably next to Mel Gibson’s production of the ‘Passion of Christ’, the Da Vinci Code offers us a valuable educational opportunity to clear up misconceptions of unbelievers, and present the Truth as it is stated in the infallible Word of God. Beyond condemning the contents of this blasphemous piece of fiction, we should not give the watching world any excuse to catch us off guard in our ignorance of what we place our belief in. Additionally, we should also grasp these occasions to fan the flames of interest in the person and work of Christ in others.

In response to Brown’s book, there have been no less than ten books that have sprouted out to debunk its claims. On the other hand, avowed atheists who had originally set out to objectively investigate Christ’s claims and the truth of the Bible, end up being utterly convinced of their legitimacy. They include great minds like C.S. Lewis and more recently, the author of “The Case for Christ”, Lee Strobel – former legal editor of the Chicago Tribune. History is littered with examples of such sceptics whose hearts and minds have been won over in their quest for the Truth.

So at the end of the day, should we then in that case give the Da Vinci Code a read? I personally feel that it is ok so long as we do it with the correct mindset, which is to keep ourselves up to date with popular culture so that in being aware of the errors, we can engage friends in meaningful conversation. But my suggestion is, if you do feel the need to read the book for yourself, borrow it and do not further contribute to Dan Brown’s cash cow of inaccuracies on our Redeemer by purchasing his book.

I have given them Your word;
and the world has hated them
because they are not of the world,
just as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them by Your truth.
Your word is truth.
John 17:14, 17

Our Response to Trouble and Troubling Times

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed,
and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled,
though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.
Psalm 46:1-3

I had originally started out with the deliberate intention of not writing yet another piece about the tsunami disaster, as I am sure we have read our fair share of bad news in the papers on a daily basis over the past weeks. However (and I am sure you could see this coming), this was not meant to be as the Lord led me to a Psalm that some of us might be familiar with – Psalm 46 (otherwise known as the “Be Still and Know” Psalm), which became so very real in light of the circumstances surrounding us. In addition, this beautiful Psalm also revealed rich insights as to what our appropriate response should be, to trouble and troubling times…

Response #1: Do Not Fear (v.2)
Do not fear, in spite of…threats from nature (v.2-3) and warring nations (v.8-9).
Devastating earthquakes, floods, and fires will continue to plague our groaning earth. We are not to fear. Brutal genocides and unimaginable atrocities will continue to be committed by the “progressive” human race. We are not to fear.

Do not fear, because of…God’s promise that He is our refuge and strength, and a very present help in trouble (v.1).
God’s promises are faithful and true. What He has promised in His Word, He will see to. He has promised to be our refuge. He has promised to be our strength. He has promised to be a very present help in trouble. We have nothing to fear.

Do not fear, in light of…the glorious hope of the new Jerusalem in which God will dwell with His people once again (v.4-5).
In this Psalm, David contrasted the roaring, troubled waters with the river of life that flows through the city of God as a reminder that there will come a day when God will restore His creation to its original perfection as a true reflection of all that He is.

Response #2: Behold the Works of the Lord (v.8)
The earthquake and subsequent tsunami has sparked views on “God’s wrath” and judgment unleashed upon man from various religions throughout the region. Indeed just as our God is a God of love and peace, He is also a God of justice and holy vengeance. Behold the works of the Lord and recognize in all awe that He is the One whom “even the wind and waves obey”. Sometimes it takes calamities of such scale to remind us how truly almighty our God is and how we depend on Him for just about everything.

Response #3: Be Still (v.10)
Humans are forgetful creatures. Time and again crises strike us but in a flash, life goes on as usual. The 911 tragedy, the SARS epidemic, and soon enough this Tsunami disaster will also be a thing of the past, especially for those of us who did not have a personal stake in it. Let us take this time to linger a little longer in the moment. Let us tear ourselves away momentarily from our daily routine of busyness to reflect and journal items of thanksgiving; to recollect what God has taught us in the year past; to question if we have lost precious time for Him; to take action-steps on habits we have been wanting to change; to surrender areas of our lives we have been refusing to let go; to make right a wrong…

Be still. For it is only when we are quiet that we can hear what God is saying.

Response #4: Know that God is God (v.10)
Earthquakes and tsunamis. God is God. Changed landscapes, changed lives. God is God. Confirmed death toll of more than 165,000. God is still God. He is sovereign amidst wringing hands and cries of desperation. AND…He will be exalted. “I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”

This is the time, cleared from the clutter of everyday living, when the hearts of many will crave the spiritual things we were made for. In the face of crisis, man, regardless of their station in life, will be confronted with the fundamental questions of life. But as we know, humans are forgetful creatures. For us whose eyes have been illumined to see the light, will we help point the way while the doors are open?

Consider Christ

Last month, the youths had a combined meeting with several other B-P churches with the theme – Consider Christ, and I am sure many of you can recall the dramatic presentation on the death and resurrection of Christ that they reproduced at Communion Sunday two weeks ago. During the combined meeting, each group was taken back in time and transformed into the group of disciples who followed Jesus and were closest to Him during His earthly ministry. Each game station was organised to walk them through the life of Jesus as it might have been had they lived in His midst, witnessing His miracles, His teachings, His triumphal entry, and finally His humiliation and crucifixion. The aim of this whole theme was to help remind the youths afresh of the person who was Christ – God Himself walking on earth as a man, and the incomprehensible work that He accomplished when He obeyed the will of the Father by being made willing to suffer and die undeservingly on the cross. Oftentimes when meditating on Christ and what He has done for us, especially in preparation to partake of the Holy Communion, what is the picture that comes to mind?

Christ the Contradiction
If you were to have met and interacted with Jesus in person while He was on earth, have you ever wondered what aspect of Him would strike you the hardest? What would it have been really like to follow multitudes upon multitudes to hear Him speak words of faith and conviction, and witness miracles performed before your very eyes? Or how it might have felt if perhaps you were one of the despised of society with whom He bothered to sit down to have a meal with, or one of the disciples whose dusty feet our Lord knelt over to wash and make clean? Jesus was able to identify with those He came into contact with, with such penetrating intimacy. Yet He was also radically different from the rest of the religious teachers of His day with His authoritative claims to be God, and words and actions to back His assertions. Would it have been Christ’s meekness or majesty that drew crowds to Him? His manhood or deity? Or the explosive fusion of the “perfect harmony the Man who is God”, as the familiar song goes… Such is the apparent contradiction of Christ because there is no other, and never will be any like Him who is fully God and fully man in essence and being. In Philippians 2, this is the Christ “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”

Christ the Covenant
Not only was Christ an enigma when He entered this world in the form of a human, but He also had a larger purpose to accomplish through His suffering, death and resurrection that even Peter, one of His disciples who were closest to Him and were probably His most trusted, could not understand and tried to oppose unwittingly, earning His harsh admonishment of “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me” (Matthew 16:23). Christ Jesus came, not only to reach out to His creation and demonstrate His power, but more importantly to accomplish and fulfil the Old Covenant of ritual and sacrifice by becoming the Mediator of a better covenant – the New Covenant of grace. What does that mean to us as Christians today? It means that our status before God has changed completely, and we now stand worthy to claim the awesome privilege of a direct, intimate relationship with Him. The insatiable wrath of God that threatened to consume us has been appeased once and for all, and we no longer have to contend with meeting the unattainable, absolute standard of the Mosaic Law…

Cost of Christ Crucified
The penalty has been taken. We crucified Jesus with our sins – for such was the heavy price to be paid so that a beautiful new chapter could be written in God’s salvation plan for you and me. However the question is, are we short-changing ourselves by still choosing to go down the old road that the Pharisees continued to blindly and stubbornly follow instead of seeing the new path the Christ has laid down for us with His precious blood? We often picture the Pharisees as the obvious “bad guys” in opposition to Jesus. But actually, their good intentions of desiring to please God and obey Him are often overlooked. Their intended end point was the same, but they were totally wrong and misguided in their method of getting there. They were sincere, no doubt about it. But they were sincerely wrong. Now how does that relate to us? Simply this: God will not fault us for our sincere desire to please and honour Him, but the crucial point that Jesus tried to bring across time and again in His encounters with the Pharisees was that the means of reaching God is just as important as the end, or Christ’s death would be for naught. Service and sacrifice are part of Christian living, but that should follow a living, breathing relationship with Christ or we would stand just as guilty as the Pharisees before God when we meet Him face to face one day; guilty of rejecting Christ as the Mediator of the New Covenant. So, let us resolve like Mary to, “choose that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42), and choose to sit and listen at our Master’s feet.

Free with a Cost

Just think for a second…what does it really mean to be free? A quick check on the internet throws up a common definition: “not being controlled by obligation or the will of another”, and terms such as “freedom of choice” and “free act of the will”. We often label ourselves as having freedom in Christ but is this the definition that often dictates our perception of this freedom? Does true freedom constitute being able to do things our own way without obligation to anything? Without being controlled by the will of God?

Free, not to do what we want. We think to be free means the ability to choose what we want for ourselves. But God says with true freedom, we are free to do what God wants. Isn’t that an inherent contradiction, you ask? No. Freedom, as with other elements such as love, jealousy, and anger, is perfectly embodied in God, but has been marred and distorted by the sinful nature of man. Freedom to do whatever we want would ultimately lead us back into slavery to our selfish, depraved desires. This false freedom leads to death, both physically and spiritually. However, by the amazing grace of God, we are now truly free to be able to do what was impossible before – living lives in obedience and surrender to God. Freedom is not independence from God but rather dependence on Him. The wonderful fruit that is produced by living in harmony with God is all the things that pertain to life abundant!

God’s laws free us. “Free” would probably be one of the last words we would use to describe laws and regulations. “Restrictive”, “limited” and “constrained” are but some of the words that would come to mind more easily! However in Psalms 119:45, David says this, “I will walk at liberty: for I seek Thy precepts [laws].” In a talk that he gave last Thursday, Ravi Zacharias illustrated this using a game of tennis – rules are there to protect the game so that we can derive true enjoyment and fulfillment in playing the game. Similarly only when we live by God’s rules, will we then be able to experience the true wonder of life for all its worth!

Free with a Cost. Yes, we can be truly free in Christ, but let us bear in mind the heavy price that was paid so that this freedom can be made available to us. The Son of God, God Himself, came down to earth, emptied and humbled Himself to bleed and die on the cross for you and me! Can there possibly be any thought that is more overwhelming than this? Jesus Himself is the truth that sets us free – “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free…if the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” (John 8:32, 36). He is the source of truth, the perfect standard of what is right.

Because Christ came to set us free, we are now free to obey out of love, not necessity through power that is not our own, but that of the Holy Spirit.

Because Christ came to set us free, we are now free to follow God. Freed to be all that God intended for us to be when He created us in His image. Freed to fulfill our true purpose in life.

Because Christ came to set us free, we are free to choose life; not death.

C.S. Lewis puts it this way in The Great Divorce: “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’”

Now would you rather be free to choose or choose to be free?

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Galatians 5:1

Why Study Doctrine?

Why bother studying about doctrine?

The CEII Doctrine Class that we are currently having may seem to some, challenging at best, and intimidating at worst. Instead of trying to grapple with teachings that appear to fly by the top of our heads, wouldn’t it just be easier to not have to learn about difficult, “cheem” issues, and just be content with living life with simple faith? Don’t get me wrong, not that simple faith is not something desirable, but the question here is that is developing our theology, or the study of our beliefs about God, a total necessity for us as Christians? Or is it an option, perhaps for those at a “higher level”, or those who are “more intellectual” or “more spiritual”?

I believe we all agree that we are living in the last days; in perilous times where men are “lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God” (II Timothy 3:2-4). The picture that Paul paints in his letter to Timothy is a pretty accurate depiction of the times we are living in. However, contrast this with what God has made to stand firm even to the end of time in verse 15 of that same chapter. It is His Word – “the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

In a post-modern world where everything is deemed to be relative and everyone is entitled to their own opinions about issues such as religion and moral standards, it is the Word of God that will give us as Christians, the surety of our values and beliefs. We need more than ever, to go back to the Word of God, to study it, to understand and draw our beliefs and convictions from it. Whether we like it or not, this is the universal standard that all man are bound by – the standard which we appeal to when we deal with our own lives, our fellow human beings, and just about everything else! We need to honestly examine and find out for ourselves if the world, the media, our environment, or the Word of God, has a greater influence on our notion of right and wrong...

This brings us back to the question raised in the first paragraph: is it necessary for us to study and understand our beliefs about our God – the Creator of all things in whose image we were made in? Given the privilege of opportunity and the privilege of resource, I believe the study of doctrine is not reserved solely for scholars and pastors, but it is also our responsibility as true believers. Just as Paul exhorts Timothy to “continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them” (II Timothy 3:14), we too are to do likewise.

However, that being said, we must not fall to the other extreme of being preoccupied with gaining mere head knowledge about God. Paul says of “having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away” (II Timothy 3:5) and similarly James exhorts us in James 1:22 to “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.”

Our study of the Word must ultimately lead to reverential worship – worship of the most High, with our bodies, our service, our lives, our all; to the glory of God in whom we breathe and move, and have our being.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God,

and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,

for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be

perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

II Timothy 3:16-17