Archive for category: General Apologetics

It has taken quite some time to get to the center of Brown’s theory (a theory, of course, propounded by others long before he came along), but finally we have arrived. On page 249 we read, “Behold,” Teabing proclaimed, “the greatest cover-up in human history. Not only was Jesus Christ married, but He was a father. My dear, Mary Magdalene

As Brown develops his fanciful theory that Jesus was married (calling it a historical fact—but we have already learned that Brown calls “fact” what history calls “fiction” with shocking regularity) he throws out what is actually a plausible argument: singleness for Jewish males would be unusual at best, and, if Jesus had been single, “at least one of the Bible’s

Christianity and paganism have always been mortal enemies, mainly because paganism has no interest in truth while Christianity is, by definition, wedded to Him who was and is the very embodiment of it. The use of lies in the service of paganism is nothing new, and The Da Vinci Code is just another example of paganism using falsehoods to promote

Like a true post-modernist, Brown then inserts a discussion about how modern Vatican is made up of “pious men who truly believe these contrary documents (i.e., Nad Hammadi, DSS, noted in the preceding section) could only be false testimony.” But it is Teabing’s response that reveals Brown’s true feelings: “As you can see, our professor has a far softer heart

We have already seen that Brown relies heavily upon a highly doubtful, uncritical, easily challenged view of extra-biblical sources such as the Nag Hammadi Library and various other gnostic-influenced works. Ironically, Brown contradicts himself once again in his statements immediately following the embarrassing “heretic” comment on page 234. Here Brown speaking as Teabing says that “some of the gospels that

After creating, out of whole cloth, the idea that Constantine was busy running about the Roman Empire looking for at least 996 “original” gospels while promoting his edited versions of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Brown decides there is simply too much credibility lingering in this story, so he decides to shoot the last of it dead immediately. Enter the

After insisting that “educated” Christians know all about Constantine’s hi-jacking the faith and inventing the deity of Christ, Teabing tries to say that Jesus was a good guy and did good things. That is very nice: defame the entirety of His own teaching about Himself, tell us that we actually can know abolutely nothing about Him or His teachings (if

“It was all about power,” Teabing continued. “Christ as Messiah was critical to the functioning of Church and state. 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. I’ve written several books on the topic.”

We have come to the examination of one of the key assertions made by Dan Brown in his attack upon the central elements of the Christian faith (so as to make room for his Magdalene-based conspiracy theory). We read:    “My dear,” Teabing declared, until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet…a great and

I’ve decided I might as well live-blog while I watch this thing. Given that it will feature John Dominic Crossan and Scott Hahn…well, it will have to be interesting. Prediction: Hahn will be one of the most conservative on the program. We can hope, anyway. Remember, he was trained as a Presbyterian. 🙂 00: Ah, there’s ol’ Dr. Crossan, “Get

He was on his way to his death, and he knew it. The story of Ignatius, the great bishop of Antioch, one of the early Christian martyrs, is well known, at least to those with an interest in church history (which limits things a good bit these days). Unwilling to compromise, Ignatius happily, as an aged man, embraced his departure

Yahoo! had a story yesterday on the finding of an ancient Christian church in Israel, one pre-dating Constantine (hat tip SafeHaven). And almost as if on cue, the story contains this paragraph: Two mosaics inside the church — one covered with fish, an ancient Christian symbol that predates the cross — tell the story of a Roman officer and a

Having endowed Constantine with a-historical super-powers and credited him with doing things he never did, would never have had any interest in doing, could never have accomplished, and in fact, would have worked against his actual historical interests, Dan Brown continues the demolition of his historical credibility, but at least for a moment he sounds like so many others who

I apologize for being behind in returning to our Da Vinci Code series. I spoke on the subject at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church this weekend, and will be speaking at various churches in the Phoenix area on it between now and next May. Sadly, in most churches, almost no one is aware of what is coming our way with this

I hope the few folks left in sound evangelical churches who might be tempted to in any way listen to or utilize any materials produced by Paul Owen, will read his latest musings here. Note his consistent use of “expiate” instead of “propitiate,” the sure sign of heterodoxy and a collapse on the central aspects of the faith. Owen’s self-destruction

After mentioning Constantine, Teabing goes on to insist he remained a pagan his entire life. While that could be argued, at least at this point you do have disagreements amongst historians as to the exact state of Constantine’s religion. He then continues, insisting that “Christians and pagans began warring, and the conflict grew to such proportions that it threatened to

Upon announcing his sweeping attack upon the validity of the Bible, Brown continues his work through the dialogue of his characters. Sophie’s in-depth response, “Okay,” then leads to these claims by Teabing: “Jesus Christ was a historical figure of staggering influence, perhaps the most enigmatic and inspirational leader the world has ever seen. As the prophesied Messiah, Jesus toppled kings,

The Da Vinci Code (hereafter TDVC) is not one big long attack upon the Christian faith. In fact, if you fall asleep for about ten minutes in the film…ok, and run to the bathroom a little later for another couple of minutes…you’ll probably miss the main objectionable portions. But more problematic, from an evangelism/apologetics viewpoint is just this: the anti-Christian

Very shortly after posting the previous article the following e-mail was sent through our website: Someone at Alpha and Omega ministries might like to encourage James White to point out at the beginning of his blog that The Da Vinci Code is marketed as a fictional story. Fiction defined as: a making up of imaginary happenings. He should point out

May 19, 2006. That’s when one of the most outrageous anti-Christian films we’ve ever seen will explode onto American movie screens. Powered by big stars (Tom Hanks, Ian McKellen) and Oscar winning director Ron Howard, the film adaptation of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code represents the investment of millions of dollars in spreading the clear message that the Bible

Oddly enough, it was found right where…John said it was. How can that be, since John is not historical? Oh sorry, been reading too much Jesus Seminar stuff lately. Here’s the story. (Hat tip RW)

I headed out to the Sun Valley Parkway again this morning and got in a 47.2 mile ride. I downloaded a series of John Dominic Crossan’s lectures from the Chautauqua Conference Center in 2001 and listened to them on the drive out, during the ride, and on the way back (no, listening to Dr. Crossan does not help you to

Just got a note from someone pointing out that the group that “ministered in music” after the Johnny Hunt sermon in the Pastor’s Conference prior to the opening of the full Southern Baptist Convention was Geron Davis and Kindred Souls (verified here). I was asked if Geron Davis was not a Oneness Pentecostal. I honestly had no idea, so I

Let’s say you were in an extended debate/conversation with a believing member of the LDS faith (then again, why would a non-believing member bother debating with you anyway, but I digress). You are debating the LDS belief that God the Father is a physical–being, separate and distinct ontologically from the Son (i.e., they are two separate beings, not just two

Once in a while I get a packet of clippings from one of my publishers regarding references to my books in the media. I generally don’t look too closely, but today as I was packing up the envelope after glancing through it a very small item fell out on the countertop, and I took a look at it. It was

The prevalence of words and ideas borrowed from the world of battle and war and military training in the midst of inspired Scripture must bother a lot of post-modernist style folks. But they are there. I’ve been thinking a lot about those terms of late. Ever seen that picture (they used to have them on t-shirts back when I was

Many of you were not familiar with A&O when this written debate took place. I thought I’d link to it for our newer readers. Here is a “Disputatio” between myself and Doug Wilson on the so-called “Ecclesiastical Text” issue.

I have often thought back, with a smile and the feeling of incredulity, at the scene which unfolded in Denver, Colorado in 1993. It was the second night of the debate on the Papacy with Gerry Matatics. Gerry was really scrambling. He had never been hit with so many patristic citations in his life, that was obvious. During the break

At the Midwest Founders Conference this past week we were blessed by the “Ark Singers,” a group from the Ukraine. Great guys. I got to sit down with them at one point just to chat. I was not surprised in the least when they told of how very hard it is for them to evanglize amongst the Russian Orthodox in

The Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum: Exploring the tensions of Faith and Culture is March 11-12, 2005 and will showcase N. T. Wright and John Dominic Crossan dialoguing on “The Resurrection – Historical Event or Theological Interpretation?” Responses will be made by Gary Habermas, William Lane Craig, and others in conjunction with the 2005 Southwest Regional meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society,

Doug Wilson absolutely nails the tactics of the post-modernist style apologists in this blog entry on his website.