Posted on 05/19/2006 4:33:54 AM PDT by bornacatholic
`Jesus is the subject of both The Da Vinci Code and the New Testament.
The book and the movie, scheduled for release today, are fiction, whereas Christians claim the New Testament is the Word of God.
The book is filled with tantalizing ideas about Jesus. The New Testament is a document written exclusively to promote Jesus as the Messiah. That narrow scope helped assure the novel's success and the church's ire.
`
Much of the church is aghast at the audacity of author Dan Brown's treatment of Jesus. Brown tells readers more than the church wants them to think about Jesus. The church — responsible for selecting the New Testament books — tells us less than we want to know about him.
That's the primary reason for the popularity of the book that has sold more than 40 million copies. Ever curious, some of the faithful will entertain any idea to fill in knowledge gaps in the life of Jesus.
The Da Vinci Code rummages about in ancient texts repudiated by the church, stirs a dose of speculation and a dollop of romance with mystery, murder and mayhem to create a potboiler for the ages.
Jesus is married. Mary Magdalene is the bride. Brown reworks the Arthurian myth of the Holy Grail, does a hatchet job on a clandestine Roman Catholic organization called Opus Dei and reveals Da Vinci's secret.
The New Testament itself could be responsible for the wild success of the mystery genre novel because it doesn't tell us enough about Jesus.
The four gospel accounts about Jesus are essentially silent regarding his private life, ignore much of his personality, all of his sex life and are selective about the disciples and women who followed him.
In short, all the juicy parts are missing. Brown, only too willing to capitalize on the omissions, provides them with an entertaining if astonishing imagination. There is no evidence to prove his claims.
The church knew that a full "life of Jesus" would distract from the sole purpose of the Gospels, which is to promote Jesus as Lord. John tells us that he wrote a bare bones story with but one intent, "so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah.... " (John 20:31)
Dozens of would-be gospel writers tried to expand on the life of Jesus. The church discarded those works as inaccurate or inappropriate.
Brown is merely the latest to cash in on the void in the New Testament. He gives Jesus a more rounded life and the public a good read — and, today, a good movie.
This Episcopalian Minister can be emailed at
steve_gushee@pbpost.com
Why not drop him a line and let him know your thoughts :)
BWAHAHAHAHAHA
That's the first positive review I've read for this movie. Amazing that it comes from a minister.
An Episcopalian "minister" would be the last person I'd trust to tell me about Jesus.
"Amazing that it comes from a minister."
Minister! More like apostate.
The right Reverend Gushee is a Judas goat as he would lead his flock into harms way on his journey of self discovery.
What a POS!
It's easy, the Bible gives you all of his life. The missing years were the years he was growing up and growing in his relationship with his father. This paper assumes that Jesus was a normal person, had a normal sex life, got married....all are assumptions based on others. Jesus was not a regular person. He was the son of God. Born of the virgin Mary, by supernatural means. His birth was foretold in the Old Testament. He never married, Judas and he never got together, as these lastest "books" are misleading and designed to be that way.
This is a fad that will disappear in one year or less.....
Tom
Matthew 7:16
"You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
Matthew 7:17
"Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
Matthew 7:18
"A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
Matthew 7:19
"Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
Matthew 7:20
"Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
Matthew 7:21
"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.
Matthew 7:22
"Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?'
Matthew 7:23
"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'
(NKJV)
5 solas!
I don't care where Jesus was from age 1-12 or 12-30, nor do I care what He did. I've always assumed that He lived as a normal son of a carpenter and had normal social interactions with the people in and around Nazareth.
You are quite right that the Gospels are silent on this time, and further you are right that God uses the Gospels not for biography, but to tell us what we need to know to bring us to faith.
So, therefore, why do you care if He was married or not? We are obviously called to respond to His public ministry, and it is the FACT that God was clothed in human flesh which proves the significance of that ministry, not the fleshly details.
I don't understand the issue.
This phenomenon seems almost like a divine intervention to expose those who have no faith.
The author if truely a minister must have attended a very liberal seminary....cause he didn't catch the drift of the New Testament at all....but he is fulfilling end times comments by Jesus that say many would fall away.
This author is in mid air....LOL
Wonder if he ever heard about repentance and asking forgiveness?
Its not too late.
None of this is new. This movie is not new. Throughout history there has always been somebody either relying on lousy information or trying to make Jesus into a regular person. This film will be just as memorable at The Last Temptation was. Anyone remember that film?
Jesus is The Word Of God, and God has honored His Word above His Name.
Does that tell you where this Brown is headed if he doesn't repent?
I sincerely believe such questioning by 'the thinkers', that have fairly sharp and informative mental capacities, so easily seem miss the boat about the simple concept of the enormity of God's Holiness, wisdom, and love is so great that man cannot begin to imagine; therefore the concept of faith alone evades their conscience as a matter of internal choice. The scripture even spells out in several places that no man will ever be able to conceive the greatness of God.
Hey, Guys/Ladies: Here is just one great address to read more about those "ancient texts repudiated by the church"....that Judas Goat who wrote the article would do well to research the facts for himself....they are very simple and concise:
http://www.markdroberts.com/htmfiles/resources/jesusmarried.htm
I wonder about those whose tolerance of lies is so elastic that it can expand to a point where lies about their Lord and Saviour are tolerable.
Now, I suppose there is some explanation that can account for such a thing but I am sure I can't understand it.
Every time somebody lies about someone I know and love, I get angry and I defend them.
I'm prollly too old school that way
I've read a number of the positive reviews of "The DaVinci Code" (a tiny minority to be sure) and for the most part, as you read the review, you get the distinct sense that they are not reviewing the movie so much as they are expressing they're joy at a film that makes conservative Christians angry. They agree that the film is a "message" film and they like the anti-Christian message.
That fool Gushee is going to be in for a rude awakening when he finds himself standing before the King of Kings and Lord of Lords to account for himself, and somehow I don't think that episopalian apostate is going to be asking "Oh hello there Big Guy, and how is Mrs. Jesus today? And the kids?"
Satan is the father of liars, and Gushee is one of his useful idiots.
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