 | Charlie Traffas has been involved in marketing, media, publishing and insurance for more than 40 years. In addition to being a fully-licensed life, health, property and casualty agent, he is also President and Owner of Chart Marketing, Inc. (CMI). CMI operates and markets several different products and services that help B2B and B2C businesses throughout the country create customers...profitably. You may contact Charlie by phone at (316) 721-9200, by e-mail at ctraffas@chartmarketing.com, or you may visit at www.chartmarketing.com. |
Religion
2006-06-01 08:48:00
Christianity, ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and the ‘lost gospels’
: What does Christianity have to say about "The Da Vinci Code" and other books and ancient manuscripts (i.e. the Gospels of Thomas and Judas), which contain alleged teachings of Jesus and his Apostles, hidden by the Church authorities during the early Christian centuries and recently discovered in the deserts of Egypt and Palestine and Syria?
ANSWER: "The Da Vinci Code" is simply a novel, as the author admits. It is based on ancient falsehoods regarding the person and teachings of Jesus.Nowadays, just as in past centuries, the devil is active to diminish or even destroy our faith. Books and films are being published in increasing numbers, alleging new ideas about Jesus and his teachings and the origins of his Church, supposing that these ideas are based on ancient documents recently discovered in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine and Syria. Some of these documents are attributed to various apostles and disciples of Jesus, and – they allege – were hidden or buried by the Catholic Church. Thus, in the news lately we have read or heard about the so-called “Gospel of Thomas,” the so-called “Gospel of Bartholomew,” and the “Letter of Judas Iscariot.”While it is true some of these documents may be dated from the 2nd or 3rd centuries, they were certainly not written by any of Jesus’ disciples, and were known to the Fathers of the Church, who rejected them as being of Gnostic origin. That word gnostic is a Greek word, meaning knowledge, particularly some secret knowledge. They are like children who pretend: “I know something you don’t know.” In their epistles, the Apostles Peter and John warned about false doctrine being taught by persons pretending to have some secret knowledge of sacred mysteries, knowledge not shared by the rest of the Christian community. Such teachings are contained in those spurious manuscripts, recently discovered. Just as some persons today have their own political agenda, which they wish the Church to adopt, so also in ancient times, there were false teachers with their own agenda. They would pretend that their agenda was taught by Jesus, even though it had been rejected by the Apostles and the Church.Basing himself on such gnostic teachings, Mohammed denied the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The founder of Islam taught that Jesus fell into a coma on the Cross, and later was revived in the coolness of the tomb. Proponents of modern errors, such as “one religion is as good as another,” promoters of same-sex marriages, women-priests and euthanasia (putting to death elderly sick persons, who might be inconvenient to someone), and other falsehoods | will likely allege that they found some divine authority for their causes | based on recently-discovered ancient manuscripts.Not every manuscript that is found and claimed to be ancient, is actually so. You can make your own “ancient manuscript” by writing your text in indelible ink on parchment skin, then put the parchment into boiling water with tea-leaves for several minutes, and it will turn brown and look wrinkled and aged. Bury it in the ground for six-months, and then have someone dig it up and proclaim “the discovery of an ancient manuscript,” which teaches or prophesies what you had written on it.
