Engaging the World with the Heart and Mind of Christ

1. Engaging the World with the Heart and Mind of Christ

2. “Will and Grace, WWE Smackdown, Eminem, and Madonna have more to do with the direction of our culture than all of Congress.”Bill Wichterman Policy advisor to Senate Majority leader Bill Frist

3. “More theology is conveyed in, and probably retained from one hour of popular television, than from all the sermons that are delivered on any given weekend in America’s synagogues, churches and mosques.” Phyllis Tickle Publisher’s Weekly “God-Talk in America”

4. Test everything. - 1 Thessalonians 5:21 Do not believe every spirit, but test the Spirits to see whether they are from God.-1 John 4:1

5. “The cinema is an arena for cultural discourse not a place for converting members of that culture.” Dr. William Romanowski USA Today, 2 March 2006

9. “Dan Brown has to be one of the best, smartest and most accomplished writers in the country. . . This is pure genius.” Nelson DeMille “His research is impeccable.” New York Daily News

10. “‘The Da Vinci Code’ has characters so thin they're practically transparent, ludicrous dialogue, and prose that's 100 percent cliché.” Laura Miller Salon.com “‘The Da Vinci Code’ is so bad it makes bad books look good.” Salmon Rushdie

12. May 19, 2006 “Seek the Truth”

14. What is the “Da Vinci Code?”

17. Priory of Sion Opus Dei A Catholic sect attempting to maintain the power of the Church by keeping the ‘truth” from being revealed by any means necessary – including assassination. Keepers of the “truth” about Jesus and the early church. Possess documents proving current beliefs about Jesus and Christian history are a lie.

20. Jesus Christ The Early Church The New Testament

21. Jesus Christ The Da Vinci Code “Jesus’ establishment as the ‘Son of God’ was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicea . . . [and it was] a relatively close vote at that” (p. 233).

22. Jesus Christ The Da Vinci Code “Until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet . . . A great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. By officially endorsing Jesus as the Son of God, Constantine turned Jesus into a deity” (p. 233). Truth

23. Jesus Christ The Truth +Scriptures call Jesus “God” Romans 9:5; Titus 2:13; etc. +Early Church Fathers taught that Jesus was God +The Council of Nicea A.D. 325

24. Jesus Christ The Da Vinci Code “The marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is part of the historical record” (p. 245). “The Last Supper practically shouts to the viewer that Jesus and Mary were a pair” (p. 244).

27. Jesus Christ The Truth +There is no mention in any historical writing that Jesus was ever married +The so-called ‘proof’ is in Gnostic writings +The Apostle Paul would no doubt have mentioned Jesus in 1 Corinthians 9:5: “Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?”

28. The Early Church The Da Vinci Code “Constantine and his male successors successfully converted the world from matriarchal paganism to patriarchal Christianity by waging a campaign of propaganda that demonized the sacred feminine, obliterating the goddess from modern religion forever” (p. 124).

29. Emperor Constantine AD 285 -337

30. The Early Church The Truth +No historical evidence exists for “Sacred Feminist” Early Church +Christianity raised the status of women in a particularly male-dominated Graeco-Roman culture +“Support” for this view of the Early Church comes from recent New Age Writers; for example, Margaret Starbird “The Goddess in The Gospels: Reclaiming the Sacred Feminine”

31. The New Testament The Da Vinci Code “The Bible is a product of man, my dear. Not of God . . . The Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine” (p. 231). “The Bible . . . has evolved through countless translations, additions and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book” (p. 231).

32. The New Testament The Truth +Many manuscripts of the Bible were around before Constantine and many still exist today +The Scriptures were translated early into languages throughout the world +Over 86,000 quotations of the New Testament exist from early Christian leaders +Early Christian leaders affirmed the authority of the Four Gospels

35. What Now? How do we engage the world with the heart and mind of Christ?

36. The Da Vinci Code appeals to . . . -Postmodern culture -Non-religious -Some Protestants -Conspiracy theorists -Feminists -Gay rights proponents -Transcendentalists -Occultists

37. What Now? • The Opportunities . . . • To make a presentation of the truth about Jesus Christ, the Bible and the Early Church (1 Peter 3:15) • To understand our culture (1 Corinthians 9:19-23) • To demonstrate the power of the Gospel (2 Corinthians 2:14-17)

38. What Now? But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task? Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, like men sent from God. 2 Corinthians 2:14-17

39. Resources Books Darrell L. Bock Breaking the Da Vinci Code: Answers to the Questions Everyone’s Asking Kenneth Boa and John A. Turner The Gospel According to the Da Vinci Code Bart D. Ehrman Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code: A Historian Reveals What We Really Know about Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Constantine

40. Resources Websites www.TheDaVinciChallenge.com www.leaderu.com www.catholic.com oak.conncoll.edu/rwbal

41. Engaging the World with the Heart and Mind of Christ