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THE BIBLE

Welcome to. THE BIBLE. EXPOSED. Sponsored by Metro Manila Christian Church. EXPOSED. THE BIBLE. Bible Secrets, Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, and the Gospel of Judas… How does the Bible hold up?. Attacks on the Bible. Incoherent! Fraught with inconsistencies

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THE BIBLE

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  1. Welcome to THE BIBLE EXPOSED Sponsored by Metro Manila Christian Church

  2. EXPOSED THE BIBLE Bible Secrets, Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code, and the Gospel of Judas… How does the Bible hold up?

  3. Attacks on the Bible • Incoherent! Fraught with inconsistencies • Incomplete! Partisan and faulty compiling • …a determinist sociological phenomenon • …a product of mere coincidence, arbitrary decisions, or political agendas

  4. Attacks on Jesus as he is presented in the Bible • Jesus is a mythical figure. • Jesus is an overrated Bible character. • Other wild claims

  5. Seeking to ‘expose’ the Bible • Expert skeptics • Uninformed skeptics • Fiction enthusiasts • Wide readers • Ordinary readers

  6. A question of evidence • A study of the defense of the Bible requires judgment • Before you make a judgment, you need to look at all the facts

  7. The Bible Exposed Ill-meaning attempts to ‘expose’ the truth about the Bible backfire on the people who start them. Instead of the Bible getting ‘exposed,’ it’s the other way around; people’s motives, faults, and inconsistencies get exposed.

  8. Bible Exposé #1 The Gospel of Judas

  9. What is the Gospel of Judas? • Historical background • 3rd /4th century doc • Coptic language

  10. What is the Gospel of Judas? Judas, who is portrayed as ‘greater’ than the other apostles, was commissioned by Jesus to be the instrumental hero towards the ultimate goal: for (the true) Jesus to be ‘released’ from his mortal body

  11. The Gospel of Judas & Gnosticism • Gnosticism: from ‘gnosis’; hybrid philosophical and religious system of belief; emphases - ‘the all’, ‘flesh is evil’, ‘elite knowledge’ • Vocabulary & theology  Gnostic leanings • Nag Hammadi documents (largely Gnostic) • Related text: Gospel of Thomas

  12. Problems with Gospel of Judas • Influence of Gnostic philosophy • Late time of writing; at least 3 generations from the writing of the other gospels • Removed from Jesus’ lifetime • Cryptic, non-orthodox teaching • Does not pass the 1st century ‘bios’ test • Not accepted by the early church

  13. Rejection of false gospels

  14. What the earliest witnesses say • 2 Pe 1:16 “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.”

  15. What the earliest witnesses say • Col 2:8-10 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.

  16. What the earliest witnesses say • Col 2:20-23 ….why, as though you still belonged to [the world], do you submit to its rules: "Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!"? These are all destined to perish with use… Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

  17. The Gospel of Judas-Conclusions • Represents a later reaction (like other Gnostic writings) on the original and earlier teaching of the apostles • Presents vocabulary and theology different from OT, apostolic and early church documents; explains rejection • Does not shed any light on our historical understanding of Jesus and the NT

  18. Bible Exposé #2 Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code”

  19. Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code • A novel • A suspenseful, thought-provoking plot • Includes an intro: “FACT:…All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” • A novel nonetheless • Category (per printer): Fiction

  20. Cracking the code… • Impossibility of the storyline • Misrepresentation of organizations

  21. Cracking the code… • Inaccuracy of geographical data Regino Cortes: Brown located 24 Rue Haxo on the ‘western outskirts of Paris’ in the novel’s original English version. This error is so glaring that in the French translation of the novel, it was changed to 24 Rue de Longchamp.

  22. Cracking the code… • Wrong information on art history Art historian Denise Budd, Columbia University: There is no real evidence at all that Leonardo da Vinci was a member of the Priory of Sion or any other secret organization. The documents that Dan Brown relied upon…appear to be 20th century forgeries…

  23. Cracking the code… • Wrong information on art history Art historian Diane Cappadona of Georgetown University: [On Brown’s supposition that the ‘John’ character in the Last Supper is really Mary] It nicely fits with feminist theology...However, that doesn’t make it true…No, I do not believe that there is a woman in the Last Supper and I do not believe in any way that it is Mary Magdalene.

  24. Cracking the code…

  25. Cracking the code… • Dan Brown guilty of ‘stealing ideas?’

  26. Cracking the code… • Impossibility of the storyline • Misrepresentation of organizations • Inaccurate geography • Inaccurate art history • Plagiarism angle

  27. Dan Brown’s intro “FACT:…All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” documents

  28. Claim #1 regarding documents Ch 55, p.254: “As of the fourth century, thousands of documents already existed chronicling His life as a mortal man.”

  29. What are the documents out there? 1 Nag Hammadi library 2 NT Apocrypha (not same as OT apocrypha) 3 Apostolic ‘Fathers’ 4 Ante-Nicene documents 5 Others - inscriptions, coins, etc.

  30. Claim #2 regarding documents Ch 55, p.251: “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”

  31. More than eighty gospels? • Dan Brown is saying here that aside from Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, many dozens of other ‘gospels’ were considered in the selection process for the formation of the NT canon.

  32. Let’s do the math • Number of gospels other than Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John actually brought forward by the author or an apostle to be included in the ‘canon’ = 0

  33. Let’s do the math • Number of ‘gospel’ documents mentioned in history but not commended as canonical (accepted by agreed standard) gospels = Gospel of the Hebrews Gospel of Thomas Gospel of Judas 3

  34. Let’s do the math • Number of documents called gospels and remotely resembling the canonical gospels but largely rejected by Christians= Gospel of Peter Gospel of Philip Gospel of Mary 3

  35. Let’s do the math • Number of documents called ‘gospels’ even if they have nothing to do with the good news and were largely ignored = Gospel of the Egyptians Gospel of Truth Gospel of the Ebionites Gospel of Naassenes Gospel of Nazoreans Gospel of Bartholomew Infancy gospel of Thomas 7

  36. Let’s do the math Gospels of Thomas (2) Gospel of Judas Gospel of Philip Gospel of Peter Gospel of Mary Gospel of the Egyptians Gospel of Truth Gospel of the Ebionites Gospel of the Hebrews Gospel of Naassenes Gospel of Nazoreans Gospel of Bartholomew • 13 total; all are later writings • Can’t even be called ‘gospels’ • Not seriously considered by early church • Where are the so-called ‘eighty gospels’?

  37. Claim #3 regarding documents • Ch 55, p.251: “The Bible as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman Emperor Constantine the great…” p.254 “…Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible…”

  38. Did Constantine collate the Bible? • New Testament books were written by 100 AD, and were in circulation already by that time • Constantine (and the Council of Nicaea, 325 AD) came 200 years later, and had nothing to do with ‘choosing’ which books of the Bible would be included in the Canon • Constantine commissioned the ‘copying’ of Bibles, meaning there was already a Bible to be copied!

  39. Dan, get your facts straight! NT & Bible Compiled OT Compiled 380AD 325AD OT Completed Nicaea, Constantine 180AD 90AD 30AD NT 85% Compiled 400BC 2200BC NT Completed

  40. Claim #4 regarding documents Ch 55, p.254: “Some of the gospels that Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950’s hidden in a cave…And of course, the Coptic scrolls in 1945 at Nag Hammadi…these documents speak of Christ’s ministry in very human terms.”

  41. Do the Dead Sea Scrolls teach that Jesus was merely human?

  42. Claim #4 regarding documents Ch 55, p.254: “Some of the gospels that Constantine attempted to eradicate managed to survive. The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950’s hidden in a cave…And of course, the Coptic scrolls in 1945 at Nag Hammadi…these documents speak of Christ’s ministry in very human terms.”

  43. Comments on DVC • Bart Ehrman, University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill): There is no evidence that Jesus was ever married, let alone married to Mary Magdalene.

  44. Comments on DVC • Harold Attridge, dean of Yale Divinity School: [Brown] has “wildly misinterpreted” early Christianity…if people are intrigued by the historical questions, there are plenty of materials out there.

  45. Comments on DVC • James Robinson, Claremont Graduate School, on the Da Vinci hubbub: We are a Jesus-haunted culture that’s biblically illiterate.

  46. Comments on DVC Skeptic Magazine (atheist magazine), on Dan Brown’s research: “In matters of historical analysis, it is not possible to be more wrong than this.”

  47. Truths, Half-truths, Lies • Mk 3:22 By the prince of demons he is driving out demons. he is driving out demons by the prince of demons

  48. Problems with Da Vinci Code in the area of ‘documents’ only • Erroneous statements on the gospels • Confusion regarding early writings and later reflections • Misunderstanding of the role of church councils • Inaccurate assessment of Constantine’s role in 4th cen Christianity

  49. More thoughts on the DVC G.K. Chesterson once wrote: …we have made fiction to suit ourselves.

  50. More thoughts on the DVC Curtis White, author of The Middle Mind: Why Americans Don’t Think for Themselves—The Da Vinci Code: …it is the popular expression of a desire for a kind of meaningfulness to life that is missing for most of us…it is [this] assumption that we’re willing to think heretically in order to escape that fraud that makes Brown’s deepest appeal to his readers.

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