jump to navigation

The Da Vinci Code vs. Resurrection of the Dead

July 3, 2006

Write your comment | Print This Post

Dear Friends

On June 23, I had the opportunity to visit ancient Corinth which Paul made his home for a year and and a half. It was thrilling to see the judgment seat (Gr. bema) over which Gallio presided (Acts 18) and before which Sosthenes was beaten. It was equally thrilling to stride down the Lechaion Way which Paul himself would have walked nearly 2,000 years ago.

In the registration book for the museum there, I made the following entry: “This is in tribute to Paul’s lost teaching of the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15) which has been lost to the masses for centuries.”

Perhaps no one will ever take notice of the entry. Perhaps some individual whom God is calling will scan the entry and be persuaded to actually read the fifteenth chapter of Paul’s first letter to the brethren in Corinth and ask themselves what he is teaching in this chapter.

In contrast to this, take the current Da Vinci Code craze. If you are the one person on earth who hasn’t heard of this phenomenon, let me fill you in. The bestselling novel and now blockbuster movie concerns the “secret” that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and bore a child with her. What has happened is that people are taking this fictional novel seriously and actually believing this nonsense.

It strikes me as entirely typical of human nature to have these two strikingly different scenarios.

Why is it that a supposed “lost” story is “found” and becomes a sensation while the most published book in the history of the world has a clearly defined teaching concerning resurrection which is nevertheless “lost?” I believe the answer is found in another of Paul’s writings; his letter to the Thessalonians. In it, Paul writes:

“They received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” (2 Thess. 2:10-12)

This passage among others seems to indicate that God Himself, in His providential workings with mankind, provides us with these choices. Paul had told the Corinthians something similar when he said “For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.” (1 Cor. 11:19) So it seems that God is working through the Da Vinci Code and other means to provide us with a choice: to believe the truth or to believe the lie. Which will we chose? I, for one, chose to believe the following:

But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. (1 Cor. 15: 20-24)

Have a great week,

P.S. Many requests have been made to print the TFTW in book form. Since this has been a community effort, I would like to make this book a community effort as well. If there is any particular TFTW that has touched you or that you would like to write a preface for, please contact Kyle Tucker. We will include some of these comments in the book, Lord willing.

Comments»

No comments yet.