The Deception of The Da Vinci Code Part I
by Dr Jeffrey Khoo
The Da Vinci Code is a Satanic masterpiece. It is utterly deceptive, and particularly so in Chapter 55. In this chapter, you find the two talking snakes, Teabing and Langdon, seducing Sophie with their sophistry. Alas, the helpless lass is mesmerised, and the serpentine duo go for the jugular with their venom of lies.
Deception #1: Da Vinci’s Fresco Tells the Truth, Not the Bible
The Da Vinci Code assumes that Leonardo was telling the truth concerning who Jesus was and what happened in His life. Teabing pontificates, “In fact, Da Vinci painted the true Grail.” At the end of the chapter, Teabing again presses the point that Da Vinci’s fresco is truthful and not the Bible, “You will be shocked to learn what anomalies Da Vinci included here that most scholars either do not see or simply choose to ignore. This fresco [of the Last Supper], in fact, is the entire key to the Holy Grail mystery.”
Refutation
It must be said that Da Vinci, born in 1452 and died in 1519, was not an eyewitness to the Last Supper. How can his painting then be regarded as an authoritative depiction of that event? We should rather trust in eyewitness accounts. Matthew and John who were there recorded what happened during the Last Supper in their respective Gospels. The truth is not in the painting of Da Vinci, but in the testimonies of Matthew and John, and of Peter and Paul as found in Mark and Luke, who wrote under divine inspiration (2 Tim. 3:16, 2 Pet. 1:20-21).
One proof that Da Vinci’s fresco is historically unreliable is that he painted Jesus and His disciples dining at a long and high table with some sitting down and others standing up. The people in those days did not have their meals in such a way. In those days, they had their meals in a reclining posture. This fact is accurately reported in the Four Gospels where we find Jesus and His disciples reclining on mattresses around a low table during the Last Supper (cf John 13:23, 25).
Deception #2a: If You Believe in the Bible, You Must be Stupid
In order to cause Sophie to doubt, Teabing made her read a couple of Da Vinci’s sayings that demean believers of the supernatural and miraculous. Quotation of Da Vinci #1 reads, “Many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles, deceiving the stupid multitude.” In other words, Sophie is made to think that anyone who believes that the Bible is a supernatural God-given Book, and that the miracles recorded therein are true, must be simpleminded and stupid.
Refutation
People ought to realise that Da Vinci is but a creature, and not the Creator. Da Vinci is dead, but Jesus is alive (1 Cor. 15:1-20). As such, it is not what Da Vinci says in his paintings that we should worry about, but what Jesus the risen Lord says in His Word.
Who are the fools in God’s eyes? They are those who deny His existence and His miracles. Twice in the Psalms, God says, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Ps. 14:1, 53:1). The judgement of such fools as recorded in Romans 1:18-22 applies to Teabing, Langdon, and the author Brown himself, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” The truly blind are they who deny the miracle of creation, even the Creator God—the Lord Jesus Christ—Himself (John 1:3, Col. 1:16).
Deception #2b: If You Believe in the Bible, You Must be Blind
Quotation of Da Vinci #2 states, “Blinding ignorance does mislead us. O! Wretched mortals, open your eyes!” Teabing could be quoting Da Vinci out of context. Whatever the case may be, Teabing is trying to tell Sophie, “Don’t be blind! Don’t be misled! Stop believing in the Bible! Stop following Christ!”
Refutation
Da Vinci says “Blinding ignorance does mislead us,” and so it does. Jesus speaks against “blinding ignorance” and calls on all to seek and know the truth. “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isa. 55:6-9).
From where do we seek the Lord? “Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail” (Isa. 34:16). Why the book of the Lord? Because “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Ps. 19:7-8).
How should we seek the Lord? We should seek Him by faith, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6). We do not see in order to believe, we believe in order to see. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). We should seek Him with great reverence, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7). “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding” (Prov. 9:10). (to be continued)
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THE GOSPEL OF LIFE: Chapter IX
To the blind of body and spirit Jesus Christ is the Sight of Life
When our Lord came to Jerusalem during the Feast of Tabernacles it was about the end of September. In this chapter we see Him in Jerusalem still, but now it was winter and the Feast of Dedication, also called the Feast of Lights, was at hand. It commemorates the cleansing and the dedication of the Temple by Judas Maccabeus after its defilement by Antiochus Ephiphanes, 165 B.C. It is observed today by the Israelis as Hanukkah (Chanukah).
In this setting John tells of the healing of a man born blind, on the Sabbath Day. This brought Jesus to another bitter clash with the Jews, so bitter that He was obliged to leave the city (Jn. 10:39). Do we see such polemics in the Church world today? Where is Mr. Valiant for the Truth?
The healing of the man born blind involved a deep question of theology. It was a settled dogma of the Jews that physical suffering was always punishment, implying sin previously committed (cf. Luke 13:1-5). But what about one born blind? This was also deemed punishment, but in this case the sin had a deeper origin. Two theories were propounded: 1) The affliction was hereditary (cf Ex. 20:5); 2) The affliction was due to personal sin, even in the case of babies in the womb. The Jews would refer to Gen. 25:22 which records of Rebekah that “the children struggled within her.”
Furthermore, there was the Oriental belief in reincarnation (transmigration of souls) familiarised by Pythagoras (582-500 B.C.) and Plato (427-347 B.C.). The belief in reincarnation had thus crept into Jewish thought (cf. Wisdom of Solomon 8:19, 20, an apocryphal book, and the philosophy of Philo). On this theory men reap in each successive incarnation what they have sown in the last (David Smith). It is commonly believed by Buddhists that if you are wicked in this life you may be born into a pig in the next.
With these Jewish concepts came the disciples’ question to the Master, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he should be born blind?” Into the darkness of Jewish speculation there shone a bright answer from the Light of the World: “Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (9:3). How it comforts our hearts that the sicknesses we’ve gone through may not all be due to sin, personal or parental. There is a higher cause to sickness, God Himself! God uses sickness sometimes to show forth His power that those who experience His healing might witness to the Truth, that they might reflect the Light that is come into the world so the blind of spirit might have their inner eyes opened. Let’s study if the blind leaders of the blind came to see the light?
Children’sWorship
