The Deception of The Da Vinci Code – Part II

by Dr Jeffrey Khoo
Deception #3: The Bible is a Product of Man, Not of God

Teabing tells Sophie, “The Bible is a product of man, my dear. Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book. … More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John among them.” Teabing lies to Sophie, “The Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great. … Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.”

Refutation
It is not true that the Four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—were 4th century inventions of Constantine and the Nicaean Council. The Four Gospels were written in AD 40-50 shortly after Christ rose from the dead and ascended to heaven. The Early Church Fathers— Papias (in AD 110) and Irenaeus (in AD 180)—mentioned them by name and affirmed their Apostolic origins. It is thus not the over 80 gospels that Teabing mentioned that were the early and authentic Gospels but the Four that we have in the Canonical Scriptures today, totally inspired and entirely preserved to this day.

It must be pointed out that the over 80 gospels that Teabing regards as authentic do not paint Jesus as a mere mortal at all, but super-divine in a fairy-talely way that can only come from the corrupt imagination of unregenerate men. As a matter of fact, these false gospels deify Mary more than they do Jesus which eventually led to Mary-worship that we see in the Roman Catholic Church today. It is no wonder that God’s people have always rejected those 80 gospels as spurious. A born-again, Spirit-indwelt Christian (John 14:16-17, 1 John 2:27) when reading about the boyhood of Jesus in these false gospels can easily tell that they are myth and not truth (see The Lost Books of the Bible, especially 1 Infancy 14-15, about Jesus being bitten by a mad and demonised Judas, and Jesus being a proud and boastful showoff).

Teabing’s claims that Constantine (1) was “a lifelong pagan who was baptized on his deathbed,” and that he (2) financed a new Bible in AD 327 to consolidate his power as emperor, are lies. The truth is: (1) Constantine lived from AD 285-337, and became a Christian in AD 312—i.e. 25 years before his death! (2) The NT Canon as we know it today existed since the first century. By God’s special providence, it was the Council of Carthage of AD 397 and not the Council of Nicaea AD 327 that settled the NT Canon; this happened 60 years after Constantine’s death!

Teabing says that the Scriptures “evolved,” and there is no such thing as a definitive version of the book. This is nonsense. The biblical doctrine of the Verbal Plenary Inspiration (VPI) and Verbal Plenary Preservation (VPP) of the Scriptures tells us that we have an absolutely perfect and definitive Bible today as found in the infallible and inerrant Hebrew and Greek Scriptures underlying the Authorised King James Version. Dr E F Hills of Harvard says that the logic of faith is the key to such a certainty, “You must begin with Christ and the Gospel and proceed according to the logic of faith. This will lead you to the Traditional text, the Textus Receptus and the King James Version.” See Edward F Hills, The King James Version Defended (Des Moines IA: The Christian Research Press, 1984), 220. See also my paper, “A Plea for a Perfect Bible,” The Burning Bush 9 (2003): 1-15.

Deception #4: Jesus was Only a Man, and Not God at All

Teabing says, “Jesus Christ was a historical figure … a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal. … Jesus’ establishment as ‘the Son of God’ was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea. … A relatively close vote at that. … Many scholars claim that the early Church literally stole Jesus from His original followers, hijacking His human message, shrouding it in an impenetrable cloak of divinity, and using it to expand their own power.”

Refutation
The Council of Nicaea was convened to hear the case of Arius, a priest from Alexandria, who taught that Jesus was only half God and not fully God. Arius said that Jesus (1) was a creature and thus not the Creator, (2) had a beginning and thus not eternal, (3) was different from and not the same as God Himself. But God raised up a defender of the faith in Athanasius. In the Council of Nicaea, Athanasius argued from the Scriptures that the Lord Jesus Christ was fully God and fully Man (John 1:1, 14, Col. 2:9, 1 Tim. 3:16), eternally begotten of the Father, not created (John 1:3, 3:16, 18, 10:30, 1 John 4:9). Arius was declared a heretic. The vote was hardly close—315 for Athanasius and only 3 for Arius. Arius was defrocked and excommunicated.

Furthermore, Teabing’s claim that the deity of Christ was a NT invention is not true at all! It was not the NT that first spoke of the deity of Christ but the OT. “We have also a more sure word of prophecy” (2 Pet. 1:19). The OT prophetic Scripture had already made mention of a coming Messiah who would be none other than God Himself. Isaiah 7:14 was one such prophecy, “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Jesus Himself fulfilled this prophecy in 5 BC as announced by the angel Gabriel. Jesus was Immanuel, “God with us” (Matt. 1:22-23). It is significant to note that Isaiah’s prophecy of the virgin-born Son of God was given 750 years before Jesus came. It goes without saying that the lie that Jesus was never God but made God by the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 was not Constantine’s invention, but Teabing’s.

Today, Arius’ teaching is found in a cult called the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and in the corrupt modern versions of the Bible (like the NIV) that are based on the Alexandrian text. It would be no surprise if Arius and his followers had altered the inspired text to create their own text to undermine the deity of Christ. It is indeed troubling to note that in the NIV, I Timothy 3:16 should read falsely, “He appeared in a body,” which undermines His deity and humanity. The true reading is, “God was manifest in the flesh” (as accurately and faithfully translated from the original by the KJV) which tells us that Christ is Theanthropos—100% God and 100% Man. Deception abounds today not only in the cults that claim to be “Christian,” but also in the modern versions that claim to be “Holy Bible.”

Warning

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Tim. 4:1-2). In the face of such dangers, what must Christians do? The Apostle Paul exhorts, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee” (1 Tim. 4:16).

May the Lord protect His Church from falling into Satan’s trap of deception.

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Sunday School Outing at East Coast Park, Nov 15, 04