A Christian Response to The Da Vinci Code (2 Peter 2:1-3)

Written by Calvin Wittman

FREE Downloads to support this sermon:

• PowerPoint Presentation for this Sermon (400 kb)
• Sermon Notes Handout (75 kb PDF)

Download Instructions: You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the PDF file and you will need Microsoft PowerPoint^TM to use the PowerPoint Presentation. To download "right-click" the link and choose "Save Target As..." then save to a familiar place on your hard drive. If you have trouble accessing these files E-Mail Craig Webb.

Calvin has provided other articles and sermons on this topic. These are available on the following page: Responding to the Da Vinci Code - Resources for Pastors

Free PowerPointTM Background Image - click image to view full size (1024x768) image (186k)

Scripture: "But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep." 2 Peter 2:1-3 (NASB)

As I contemplated the message of Dan Brown’s DaVinci code, the Lord directed me to this passage of scripture, because it perfectly and specifically addresses the spirit behind this book.

• It is heretical, in that it denies the divinity of Christ. In fact, nearly every heresy starts at this point of redefining who Jesus is.
• Brown’s book is sensual in that it promotes sexual promiscuity through pagan goddess worship, and in fact the book is filled with sexual content.
• And it is destructive because it is, in fact, leading many people astray by offering a gospel that is no gospel, a false message which leads people down the broad road to destruction under the guise of offering them the truth. 

Nearly 40 years ago, in 1968, the Christian apologist Francis Schaeffer, in his timeless work, The God Who Is There, wrote what many consider to be a philosophically prophetic book. With a view towards helping the Church realize that society was changing around them Schaeffer wrote about how things like Philosophy, Art, Music, and Culture invariable are inexorably intertwined with theology. The way we express ourselves through the arts, demonstrates what we think of God.

Everyday we look around and see just how perceptive Schaeffer was.

• Secular music is filled with theological messages, most of them anti-Christian.
• Movies these days are often referred to as “message films” used by Hollywood to promote a secular, and often blatantly anti Christian agenda. Consider movies like “Broke back Mountain,” with its barefaced message that homosexual love is somehow mystically beautiful or “Million Dollar Baby,” which sought not only to condone but to normalize euthanasia and its clear to see that art is inseparable from our view of the world and of God.
• A walk through nearly any art museum will assure you that something other than beauty is driving modern artists. Permeating all of these art forms is a philosophy which denies the very existence of absolute truth, and in turn a philosophy which is set directly at odds with the claims of historic Christianity.

And make no mistake about it, all of these things are intentionally designed to send a clear message. A message which runs contrary to everything we as Christians hold near and dear.

Next month the latest artistic attack on our faith will hit the screen when Dan Brown’s Da Vinci code movie is released. With this one film Hollywood is marshalling all of its forces in an effort to undermine the very foundations of our Faith.

Of course this should come as no surprise to us. Peter (2 Peter 2:1-3) tells us that false prophets will arise, like this one, which denies the Master and seeks to malign the way of the truth.

My primary purpose today is to discuss how we as Christians can and should respond to this latest attack on our faith. Before we can formulate a response we must understand the nature of what we are dealing with.

I’d like to direct your attention to five things this evening; we’ll talk about the Phenomena of the DaVinci Code, its Plot, its Problems, the Philosophy behind this deception, and finally, the Possibilities presented to us by Brown’s book. The first thing to consider is the Phenomena of the DaVinci Code. 

1. The Phenomena of The DaVinci Code

The success of the DaVinci Code is nothing short of extraordinary. According to USA Today, in the last three years it has sold more than 40 million copies, being outsold only by the Bible. And along with it has come a host of other books, all designed to prop up the fabricated historical claims Brown makes.

Go to any bookstore and you’ll see what I mean. Visit online sights like amazon.com and you’ll find a host of books which have been thrust into the spotlight by the DaVinci code. Listen to some of the titles: "Forbidden Faith: The Gnostic Legacy from the Gospels to the DaVinci Code," or "The Templar Revelation: Secret Guardians of the True Identity of Christ." And listen, this heresy comes complete with its own music, you can buy a CD called, "Code of the Goddess: Songs inspired by the DaVinci Code."

Investigate the DaVinci Code further online and you’ll be amazed at the number of web sites offering alternative religious views which have connected themselves to Brown's book. The enemies of the cross are using this book as a rallying cry to try and rewrite history and in one fell swoop undermine the truth whereupon the Christian Faith is built.

There are those who say this book is mere fiction and does not necessitate a response. After all, they say, Dan Brown openly admits on his web site that this is novel and therefore a work of fiction, so why the big fuss? To buy into this line of reasoning would be naïve. Brown is duplicitous when he claims that his work is merely a novel and therefore fiction, because while he says that on one hand, in his book he has a “fact” page which says, and I quote, “all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”

Brown admits on his website that his characters are fictional, but confesses that he believes the theories they discuss may have merit. Read his material carefully and you will come to the conclusion that Brown really believes the theories he espouses, theories which deny the divinity of Christ. Read his book and you’ll be convinced that he uses it as a pulpit to preach his heresy.

With the DaVinci Code coming out as a movie, heresies which have been latent for centuries finally have a vehicle to take their message to the masses. The DaVinci code is a phenomena and not because it is anything new or because it offers truth or hope but because there are demonic spiritual forces behind it.

2. The Plot of the DaVinci Code

To begin with, Brown is no innovator; in fact he took most of his heretical theories about Jesus and church history from a book called Holy Blood, Holy Grail, written by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. It is generally presumed the authors knew these claims to be at best unable to be proven or false. In fact, Richard Leigh has stated on television that they only set out to offer a plausible hypothesis, but "never believed it to be true." (source: Answers.com) The problem is that Brown took a book that is obviously built on nothing more than conjecture and presented it as fact.

Normally, historical novels are fictitious stories, painted on the backdrop of real history. Knowing this, Brown has surreptitiously repainted the historical background with his own edited and false version.

The story begins with Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist, who receives an urgent summons to the Louvre, by French police. When he arrives he finds the museum’s curator has been murdered, but has left behind clues to a riddle, clues secretly hidden in the artwork of Leonardo DaVinci. Soon Langdon discovers he is the prime suspect in the murder. With the help of Spohie Neveu, a French police cryptologist, he goes on a harrowing 24 hour journey across France, and ultimately to London, as he seeks to unravel this mystery.

In the process of following Langdon, the reader learns of a secret society called the Priory of Scion, and of some secret documents which not only identify Leonardo DaVinci to its membership, but also include noted figures like Sir Isaac Newton and Victor Hugo. It turns out that the curator of the museum died protecting the most treasured secret of the Priory of Scion, the location of the Holy Grail.

The bad guys in this book, as in much of Brown’s writing, are Roman Catholics, particularly those who belong to Opus Dei, a group of Roman Catholics known for their zeal. Opus Dei is behind the murder at the Louvre and, according to Brown, have perpetrated all manner of evil in their attempts to keep the “truth” from being known.

The most disturbing part of Brown’s book is about halfway through when you get to the part where he introduces the character Leigh Teabing, who he presents as an English knight and Royal Historian. Teabing tells Sophie that everything she has ever heard about Jesus is a lie, a masterful cover-up perpetrated by the Roman Catholic Church, designed to keep people from the truth.

Teabing, goes on to explain that Jesus was not God, that His early followers never saw Him as being divine and that it was the Roman Emperor Constantine who, at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. had Jesus declared divine to stabilize the politics of the empire. He tells her that in reality Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and that they had children together. Teabing tells Sophie that Mary eventually moved to France where the bloodline of Jesus made its way into French Royalty.  In fact, says Teabing, Mary Magdalene was the Holy Grail for she carried within her the bloodline of Jesus.

This is the heart of the heresy of the DaVinci Code, where Brown, through his characters, seeks to undermine the historical truth about the person and work of Jesus Christ. Not only does he deny that Jesus was God but also denies there was ever a resurrection.

Another disturbing theme central to Brown’s book is what he calls the “Sacred Feminine,” or what we would call pagan goddess worship. In fact, Brown uses this book to preach a message which basically says Jesus and all His disciples were advocates of this kind of pagan goddess worship In fact he claims that Jesus intended for Mary Magdalene to be Chief disciple and lead His church but that the evil and insidious Roman Catholic Church, along with the Roman Emperor Constantine, hijacked Jesus from His original followers and has been working for centuries to keep this secret at any cost. The book gets it’s title from the theory that Leonardo DaVinci was a member of the Priory of Scion and has supposedly left clues about the true identity of Jesus in his art work. 

3. The Problems with The DaVinci Code

Numerous books have been written which deal with these problems individually and comprehensively, something time does not permit us to do this evening.

Calvin's note: I would recommend Darrell Bock’s book, "Breaking the Da Vinci Code;" James Garlow and Peter Jones wrote a good book called, Cracking Da Vinci's Code; and Carl Olson and Sandra Miesel, a couple of Roman Catholic scholars wrote one which I think deals with the historical errors rather well. It is called "The DaVinci Hoax."   If you go to our website, applewoodbaptist.com, you’ll find a bibliography of books I would recommend. For any rational person, each of these books will dispel any doubts about the dubious claims Brown makes in his book. They will demonstrate that Brown is not merely a poor scholar; he is no scholar at all.

For the sake of our study, allow me quickly to touch on a couple of the more glaring problems, which should give you some insight into how Brown has recreated his own version of history.

Prior of Scion:

For one let’s address the Priory of Scion, an organization which Brown claims to accurately represent. This supposedly ancient order, which Brown describes as valiantly guarding the secret of the Holy Grail, (ie. The marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene), is not as ancient as Brown would have us believe. In fact, it is nothing more than the invention of a French con-man named Pierre Plantard, who organized it originally in 1954 as a social club to demand lower cost public housing from the French government. During the 1960’s Plantard artistically created a series of false documents, which supposedly traced his linage back to the line of Christ and declared that he was the true king of France. These documents were planted in the National Library where they were later found. Eventually, through a series of events, Plantard was called upon to testify under oath as to the authenticity of these documents, whereupon he admitted that the entire Priory of Scion was a scam which he had invented to make people think he was the rightful king of France.

Brown tells us these “secret documents” are real; French court records from the early 1990s tell us they are fake. There is no Priory of Scion as Brown describes in his book.

The Gnostic Gospels:

Another glaring problem is that Brown claims that the Gnostic Gospels tell the truth about Jesus, the truth which he says the Catholic Church has been hiding. Brown claims that these Gnostic gospels were the earliest record of Christianity and that troublingly, they do not match up with the gospels in the Bible. He claims that Constantine, at the council of Nicea in 325 A.D. chose which books would be in the New Testament and which books would be excluded. The problem here is that this is simply not true.

You see, for the first couple of centuries of the church, there was no universally accepted written document which spoke authoritatively about which books would be included in the Canon and which books would be excluded. But, when the early church did sit down to decide what books were to be included in the New Testament Canon, or list, there were basically three criteria each book had to meet.

Three standards to which each book was held:

1. It had to have apostolic authority – that is, it had to have been written during the time of the apostles and had to accurately convey the lives and teachings of Jesus and the early apostles.
2. It had to be Orthodox – that is, the doctrines it taught had to be in line with all the doctrines about God and Christ set forth by Jesus Himself, the apostles and the Old Testament. Many books were rejected as being uninspired because they did not teach orthodox theology.
3. They had to be accepted by the early church – that is to say, there was an oral tradition of which books were accepted and which ones had been rejected. Those which had been rejected by the early church were ultimately excluded from the cannon

The councils of Hippo and Carthage, at the end of the forth century, ratified what the early church had long held in regard to the Canon. According to noted Biblical scholar F.F. Bruce these councils did, “not impose any innovation on the churches, they simply endorsed what had become the general consensus of the churches in the west and the greater part of the east.” (F.F. Bruce, The Canon of Scripture, Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1988, Pg. 97)

Dan Brown claims to base his theories about Jesus on the Gnostic writings, which he says were found in the 1950s, but which in reality were found in the mid 1940s in Nag Hammadi, in Upper Egypt. The problem with the Gnostic writings, which Brown claims tell the real story about Jesus, is that none of them meet even one of the three criteria necessary to be included in the Canon.

The claim’s Brown makes about the Gnostic gospels are false. Not only do they not tell the earliest story about Jesus, there is no possible way they could. That would be like someone today sitting down and writing a first hand account of what they heard and saw George Washington say and do. It would be impossible because they are more than two hundred years removed from when he lived. But he has to do this to support his theory that, “the bible is a product of man, not of God.” (Brown, Dan, The DaVinci Code, New York, Doubleday, 2003, Pg. 236.)

Furthermore, the claims he makes, as to what the Gnostic Gospels teach, are not even close to what they teach. In his typical fashion, Brown quotes things which have no authority and then he quotes them out of context.

As I said, the most disturbing part of Brown’s book comes on about page 240, where his character Tiebing is telling Sophie the supposed secret of the Holy Grail. It is here that the heresy about Jesus is set forth.

Who Is Jesus?

Speaking of the council of Nicea, Teabing says, “My dear, until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet…a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.”

”Not the Son of God?” asks Sophie. (Brown, p. 241)

Teabing goes on to tell her that the establishment of Jesus as the Son of God was proposed and voted upon by the council of Nicaea and that it was a relatively close vote at that.

What did Jesus say about His own divinity? Did His earliest followers really think He was merely human, as Brown claims? Did Constantine really hijack Christianity and force them to proclaim Jesus as Divine at the Council of Nicaea?

Everything we know from reliable historical records and from scripture tell us that from the very beginning, those who followed Jesus, those who were willing to lay down their lives for their faith in Him, all of them believed He was God in the flesh.

To find out what Jesus thought about Himself we merely have to turn to scripture, all of which was written before the end of the first century. More than 225 years before the Council of Nicaea.

In Luke 22:70 when Jesus is before the Sanhedrin the scripture says, “And they all said, Are you the Son of God then? And He said, Yes I am. And they said. What further need to we have of testimony? For we have heard it ourselves from His own mouth.”

In John 10:30 Jesus says, “I and the Father are one.”

In John 14:7 Jesus says, “If you had know Me, you would have known My Father; from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

Continue searching the scriptures and you’ll find out exactly what the earliest followers of Jesus, the apostles, thought about Him.

In Matthew 16:15-15 Jesus asks Peter, who do you say that I am, and  Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God.” I guess we know who Peter thought Jesus was.

John 1:1, In the beginning was the Word and the word was with God and the Word was God.

In John 1:14 says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.

Paul says in Romans 1:4, “Who was declared the Son of God with power by resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of Holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

In Colossians 2:9 Paul says of Jesus, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form.”

In John 20:28, when Thomas, the one who doubted, sees the resurrected Jesus, he says, “My Lord and my God.”

It is not merely deceptive to claim that Jesus’ earliest disciples thought Him merely a human; it is foolishness to make such a claim. Clearly the earliest Christians knew Jesus was God incarnate. That’s why they were willing do lay down their lives rather than deny Him.

And what about the early church leaders? What did they think of Jesus?

In 105 A.D. Ignatius wrote about Jesus saying He was, “God Himself manifested in Human form.” (Peter Jones & James L. Garlow, Cracking Da Vinci's Code, Victor; Colorado Springs, 2004, Pg. 94.)

In 150 Clement of Alexandria said, “It is fitting that you should think of Jesus Christ as of God.” (Jones, Pg. 94.)

In 200 A.D. Tertullian wrote boldly, “Christ our God.” (Jones, Pg. 94)

And in 235 Novatian said, “He is not only man, but God also…” (Jones, Pg. 94)

It is clear that the early church all saw Jesus as God.

But what of Brown’s claims about the Council of Nicaea?

In the years before Constantine was solidified as the sole Emperor of Rome, the power was divided among several rulers. One of whom was Diocletian. Diocletian was particular fond of the pagan god Jupiter and believed that uniting all Romans under the worship of Jupiter would bring back the glory of bygone days. So on February 24, 303, he issued the “Edict against the Christians,”one of the most vicious persecutions the church would ever endure. It was his intention not only to destroy Christianity but to destroy all copies of scripture. But upon his retirement, something very rare for a Roman emperor, Constantine, who ruled the west, and Licinius, his counterpart in the east, in 313 passed the Edict of Milan, which legalized Christianity.

Eventually Constantine became the sole emperor of Rome and in 325 called 318 of the leading Christian leaders together from around the empire to setting some quarrels which were causing problems. This was the Council of Nicaea. The main problem did not have to do with the divinity of Christ, but with how His divinity could be reconciled with His humanity. In the end they agreed that Jesus was of the same substance as God the Father. This was nothing new and certainly nothing forced on the council by Constantine. I mean, after all, these were men who had been willing to put their lives on the line for their faith in Jesus as God, they certainly weren’t going to cave in now.

Brown states that it was a close vote; in fact the vote was 316 in favor of the Nicaean Creed and 2 against. And the two that voted against it did so because they objected to a provision that put them under the control of the bishop of Alexandria. (Greg Jones, Beyond DaVinci, Seabury Books; New York, 2004, Pg.70.)

As you can see, Brown not only has a problem separating fact from fiction, He has a problem with duplicity: he speaks out both sides of his mouth. In fact, he is a master of taking a name or event from history and revising it to fit his own agenda. There is a Jesus, but not as Brown describes Him. There was a Council of Nicaea, but it was nothing like Brown claims.

Let me give you another example. On his official website, danbrown.com, he has a section entitled: Common Questions, where he conveniently asks himself the questions he wants to answer. One of the questions he asks himself is “Has anyone in organized religion come out in support of your novel?” He answers “Yes, many people in organized religion have come out in support of this novel.” But then, after a lengthy paragraph which says a whole lot of nothing, he quotes only one person in organized religion who supports his novel.

He quotes Father John Sewell of St. John’s Episcopal Church; right here in Memphis as saying, “This novel is not a threat. This is an opportunity….I think Dan Brown has done me a favor. He’s letting me talk about things that matter.” Given Brown’s penchant for inventing his own version of history, I decided to call Father Sewell myself. I spoke with him at length about his feelings on the DaVinci Code. Father Sewell told me that while Brown had quoted him accurately, he had taken his comments out of context.

Sewell said the potential for this book is really bad news, especially for those who are not well versed in Church history and doctrine. He told me it could really be damaging, and that it is not a wonderful thing that this book has been written, as Brown’s website infers, but that since it is out there, it is our responsibility to address it and teach our people. He told me that Brown has a way of seamlessly airbrushing fact and fiction. Not only does he not agree with the heresies espoused by Brown but repudiates them. The only positive he could find in this book was that it gives us the opportunity, like it or not, to address things like Church history and doctrine. Just for the record, Father Sewell was saved at age 8 and grew up a Southern Baptist and holds to the historic doctrines of the Christian faith. 

Browns book is fraught with problems, more than you can imagine.

But in order to really understand the DaVinci Code you have to understand something of the philosophy or worldview behind it.

4. The Philosophy of The DaVinci Code

The prevailing worldview behind the DaVinci Code is called Postmodernism. You’ve probably heard of it, but may have still have a difficult time understanding it, but don’t feel bad. Understanding postmodernism is sort of like trying to nail Jello to a tree. It is very illusive.

Basically postmodernism is a philosophy which either says there is no such thing as absolute truth or if absolute truths exist, there is no way we can know them, which means they might as well not exist.  They reject the notion of any universal truth that’s existed for every person in every culture for all of time. Everything you have ever been taught, say the postmodernists, is a construct of those who are in authority and has been created to keep you in submission to them. In order to free yourself from this oppression, you have to disregard everything you have ever been taught and find your own version of the truth. In other words, make up a story that seems to work for you.

This kind of thinking permeates Dan Brown’s book. Again on his website Brown asks himself a convenient question: “SOME OF THE HISTORY IN THIS NOVEL CONTRADICTS WHAT I LEARNED IN SCHOOL. WHAT SHOULD I BELIEVE?”

Listen to his answer:
Many historians now believe (as do I) that in gauging the historical accuracy of a given concept, we should first ask ourselves a far deeper question: How historically accurate is history itself? (Website, danbrown.com)

That’s a postmodernist if I ever heard one.

In order to swallow his revised version of history, Brown has to get you to question the accuracy of everything you have ever learned.

Folks, this is what our children are being taught in secular universities. That’s why a survey publicized by NavPress (Report by Jeremiah films) suggests that 75% of kids raised in Christian homes who attend secular universities reject their faith by their first year in college.

While the postmodernists tell us that there is no absolute truth that can be known and that all propositional truth is relative; it seems ironic to me that if Propositional truth rooted in historical fact is so unimportant that they would go to such lengths to try and replace it with their revisionist fantasy.

The fact of the matter is that truth is very important and since they have no answer to the truth they are trying to pretend it does not exist and create their own far-fetched version of truth. You see, all the while they are saying truth is not important and that there is no truth, they are trying to replace historical truth with their own version, proving to us that they know truth is important they just don’t like it.

• They don’t like the truth of scripture that tells them all of us are sinners in need of a Savior.
• They don’t like the truth which says the wages of sin is death and that there is no way to God except through Jesus Christ whose shed blood on Calvary’s cross provides the only way to forgiveness and eternal life, and that there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we might be saved.
• They don’t like the truth that Jesus rose from the grave defeating sin and death and will someday return in glory.
• They shudder at the truth which says every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Make no mistake about it, truth is important to them, they just don’t like it.

This is the underlying philosophy behind the DaVinci Code

5. The Possibilities of The DaVinci Code  -

Reality Check - It would be easy for us to dismiss Dan Brown and the rest of those who seek to rewrite history as heretics and move on, because they have always been with us and will be till Jesus returns. But the way this book has taken our culture by storm should cause the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ to ask itself some difficult questions. Questions like: Why are we in this mess? Why are so many people buying into this pack of lies without the slightest hesitation? Where have we gone wrong?

On his website, Tektonics.org, Christian apologist James Patrick Holding offers an insightful view of why this book is so popular.

“Brown is not the first to propose that Christianity is a vast conspiracy by the Vatican and/or others to hoodwink the world about the true Jesus. He will not be the last. That millions of people are not turned off by the lack of authenticity in The DaVinci Code is more than surprising—it is sad. That critics and even news media are so gullible is more than revealing about the state of our culture—it reveals the tragic truth that our culture is in need of rediscovering Truth.”

Which leads me to believe that we need a rational response; as Christians we need to be prepared to set the record straight.

Rational response:

A rational response means that we are prepared to demonstrate from historical research that the claims Brown and his ilk make are false.

This is easily done. A host of books and websites is now available to any Christian who will take the time to do a little reading and prepare themselves to respond to the falsehoods set forth in the DaVinci code.

And let me remind you that as Christians, as ambassadors for Christ, we have a responsibility to contend for the faith. 

Jude 3 & 4  says, “I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.”
 
The word translated “contend earnestly” literally means to struggle, as those who are fighting in a war. It means that we are to fight with all our strength to preserve the faith, once for all handed down. This phrase “once for all delivered” means that the apostolic message, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the corpus of doctrines which comprise our faith is fixed, and not to be revised in each era. God has given us the truth in His word and it’s not up for revision.

And as ambassadors for Christ, as those who have been entrusted with the word of reconciliation, we need to be prepared to answer the questions which the DaVinci code will cause in many hearts and minds.

1 Peter 3:15 says, “But sanctify Christ as the Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.”

As Christians you and I should be prepared to answer the questions which inevitably will come our way after this movie is released.

 But it is important to remember that we are dealing with a generation of people who, having been influenced by postmodernism, believe that all truth is subjective, and thus cannot be trusted. The current catch phrase is that all so called truth is contextual, or relative to its context. So we can answer their questions, we can show them the truth in a rational and logical manner, but for people who don’t believe in truth, what good will it do? I mean, how do you impact someone with factual evidence, who believes that facts are irrelevant?

Relational Response:

We are not facing a new heresy; we are not being challenged by anything which has not challenged the Church before.

How did the early church fight this heresy? How did a fledgling group of social outcasts, who had no formal canon of scripture, and no history to draw upon, how did they stand firm and fight these heresies?

Revelation 12:10-11
And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, “Now the salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”

There is nothing more powerful than the blood of the Lamb and the power of our testimony: The transforming power of the Blood and the evidence of how His blood has transformed us. You see, to a generation which is jaded and skeptical about truth, there is no greater evidence that Jesus is real and the gospel is true than a changed life.

We used to live in a world which truly believed, that if something was true, it would work, but now we are surrounded by people who no longer believe that we can know if something is really true or not. Our culture has been conditioned to question the entire concept of truth. So instead of believing that if it is true it will work, now they say if it works, it must be true.

But when they see that Jesus makes a difference in our lives, when they see the love of God flowing through us, when they see our ability to live supernaturally, as overcomers in this life, instead of victims, when they see the evidence of redemption in our lives, then and then alone will they begin to believe our report, then and then alone will they be receptive to hearing the message of our Redeemer. They will not believe in our Redeemer till they see the evidence of redemption in our lives.

The reason our culture is so ready to accept a pack of lies like the DaVinci Code which says Christianity is a hoax is because everybody knows somebody who claims to be a Christian but doesn’t live like it. I saw a t-shirt the other day which on the front said, “Dear Lord,” and on the back said, “Deliver me from your followers.”

Our Christian forefathers were materially impoverished but spiritually rich, today the church is materially rich but spiritually poor. They had nothing, but changed the world, we have everything, but the world is changing us.

Friends, the way we will win our world will not be with programs or buildings, it will not be with media campaigns and seeker sensitive services which soften the harsh demands of follower Jesus Christ.

The way we will win our world is the same way those first Christians won theirs. When we are willing to put our lives on the line, when we do not love our lives to the death but are willing to let Jesus live through us, when our lives lift Him up, He will use them to draw all men unto Him.

Pastor Calvin Wittman preached this sermon at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, TN as well as at the church he serves, Applewood Baptist Church. You may view Calvin's Sermon Online at Bellevue.org.

He preached this sermon at Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, TN as well as at the church he serves, Applewood Baptist Church. You may view Calvin's Sermon Online at Bellevue.org

Calvin has provided other articles and sermons on this topic. These are available on the following page: Responding to the Da Vinci Code - Resources for Pastors. If you would like to have Pastor Wittman speak to your group please e-mail me.

Dr. Calvin Wittman is pastor of Applewood Baptist Church in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. He is a former missionary to Spain, and holds degrees from Baylor University, Southwestern Seminary (MDiv), and Southern Seminary (DMin). He is also a veteran of the United States Navy and has worked as a news anchor on both television and radio stations in Texas.