The Da Vinci Code - Again?
Monday, March 20th, 2006
Yes I know that I’ve already written on this before but now with the movie soon to be released it would seem appropriate to revisit this topic. Now that this book is soon to be released as a film, it seems that refuting it has become something of an industry unto itself. So why is there such an outcry about this book and movie? After all, it’s only fiction and probably just a fad that will die out soon enough and be forgotten. Aren’t we just selling more books and movie tickets by raising such a fuss over it? I mean really, how much damage can this thing do anyway?
These were thoughts going through my head recently as my email box continued to fill with notices of new articles, new books, new DVDs, MP3s, study guides, web sites, etc.. I thought to myself, ‘This is really a little over-kill isn’t it?’ Now don’t misunderstand me, I agree that the basic premise of the story is an affront to Christianity and that many people are being misled and misinformed by it, but I do think that most people can tell the difference between fact and fiction. After a few months, the Da Vinci Code will fade away until it gets released on DVD in about a year or so when we can look forward to all this stuff coming up again.
At least these were my thoughts until I recently heard the Da Vinci Code described and compared to a Tsunami storm. You see a Tsunami hits very fast and very quickly and causes massive damage and loss of life but the storm itself is very short lived. The problem now is that even though the storm may be short lived, the damage is done and can take years, maybe even decades to repair. So in the case of The Da Vinci Code, the church and Christians are the ones who have been damaged and hurt and in need of repair. Well just as a Tsunami never totally obliterates a country, neither will the Da Vinci Code totally obliterate the church. It has however, served as a wake up call to many.
Walter Martin once describe the church as ‘a sleeping giant’. Well, the ’sleeping giant’ just got a rude awaking from Dan Brown. For most Christians, apologetics has been seen as something better left to the apologists themselves and left out of the church and the mainstream. I remember being told once by a leader in a church, “We’d rather be known for what we are ‘for’ than what we are ‘against.’ ” The idea being that teaching about false teaching would ‘turn people off’ when we should be teaching people the love and forgiveness of Christ and ‘all that good stuff.’
I agree that ‘all that good stuff’ is necessary but now unfortunately by ignoring the importance of apologetics, the church has left it’s members defenseless against attacks like The Da Vinci Code. Now when Christians try to share their faith, they are met with the claims of The Da Vinci Code, all of which have been thoroughly refuted for centuries and available to all, especially now with the ease of access to information on the internet, but because we only want to hear ‘all that good stuff’ we have no answers to these claims and our testimony is suspect.
Not only has the Da Vinci Code been compared to a Tsunami, it has also been compared to an earthquake which also causes massive damage in a short amount of time. Earthquakes are also followed by aftershocks which is What The Da Vinci Code is sure to produce. It already has sparked an increased interest in the gnostic gospels as evidenced by The Jesus Papers and The Gospel of Judas The aftershocks will continue for some time as the popular culture has now accepted Christian bashing as legitimate entertainment.
So what about The Da Vinci Code being just a fad? Well, when we talk about fads, let’s talk about pet rocks and mood rings. These things are fads that we really don’t need to worry about because they have no eternal significance. The Da Vinci Code is a sunami and an earthquake on the church and the world really as many who may have considered the claims of Christ and the gospel message will not anymore after reading this book. So let’s stop worrying about turning people off with apologetics because ‘all that good stuff’ won’t mean much if we can’t reasonably defend it. All of our evangelistic efforts must now be girded with solid reasons for our faith, reasons that can act as an antidote to the poison being fed to us by the mainstream media.
So I was wrong in thinking that all ‘this stuff’ refuting the claims of The Da Vinci Code was over-kill. We need ‘this stuff’ more than ever.
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