The double issues of The Da Vinci Code and The Gospel of Judas and the reaction of hardline Christians got me thinking and questioning a lot.
And no I am not questioning whether TDVC or TGOJ were worth paying attention to, or wondering whether they were true or not. I was questioning the most common worry of the conservatives: “What will happen to those who are of shallow faith?”
Shallow faith? Is that how little faith these conservatives have on their own Bible that they are worried about the repercussions of a work of fiction and a manuscript of a breakaway early-Christian sect will have on their flock?
I think that these conservatives are actually the ones who have little faith, fearing that Jesus’ words and teachings are so weak they can be shaken by such works. By choosing to dwell in their familiar blankets of security — the truth as declared by the Church — rather than entertain the possibility of an alternate truth, the conservatives are only repeating the mistakes made by the absolutist pharisees of Jesus’ time.
If you really wanna test your faith, ask yourself the following set of questions:
- If Jesus were married, would that have made Him less divine?
- If Jesus has had sex and sired children, would that have made Him less holy?
- If Jesus has descendants that live to this day, would that make Him less of God?
- If Judas did not betray Jesus, would that make Jesus’ sacrifice less significant?
- If Judas was not absolutely evil, does that mean Jesus wasn’t absolutely good?
- If TDVC or TGOJ were proven true, would they undermine Jesus’ teachings?
Ask yourself these questions. And then tell me how much faith in Jesus you really have.
7 responses so far ↓
1 andre // Apr 12, 2006 at 7:25 am
agree with you right there Jon. on the other hand, these new pieces of “evidence” should be welcomed because, studied properly, these can further strengthen one’s faith. i’m quite sure there was a time when some scholars thought that the Bible is fiction and that everything there was just made up by the Jews or Israelites.
also i don’t understand why some people including those in religious authority continue to demonize sex, as if one engaging in it is automatically less holy. as if hindi sila nabuo dahil doon.
2 ate ems // Apr 14, 2006 at 1:49 pm
hmm on the other hand, I know a few who began questioning Christianity and its belief because of the book “The Vincci Code” and this got me worried. Tag me as someone who has shallow faith or whatever you may think of me, but since I have known a few who actually began to believe Dan Brown, i cant help but be worried about what Dan Brown books may bring to us. Though I love philosophy myself, I would say I love God more than theories. *wink*
Yun lang.
3 ate ems // Apr 14, 2006 at 1:51 pm
oh, and regarding your questions, i believe its not about “Jesus being less holy” if those theories were indeed true, but its about saying that the Bible is fictional and not ture at all.
Which would I believe more, Dan Brown books or the Bible? Because they are simply contradictory and we can only choose one to believe and have faith with.
4 ate ems // Apr 14, 2006 at 1:59 pm
thought that the Bible is fiction and that everything there was just made up by the Jews or Israelites.
5 cocoy // Apr 15, 2006 at 6:51 pm
well… tdvc is fiction. now when it comes to the gospel of judas… apparently it was a highly quoted document during the early church. why isn’t it part of the Bible? may be the early church fathers didn’t think highly of it it. or something else. well i guess the answer is probably lost in time. as for the gospel of mary m., they were able to piece information from the dead sea scrolls on it. why is it not part of the Bible? same answer as above, probably lost in time, maybe even because of politics, who knows right? it could be so many other reasons, why and it may even be none of the reasons we come up with.
it doesn’t change anything.
you and andre are agree though, doesn’t really matter. when you take all the trimmings away— what matters is someone took a bullet for us 2k+ years ago and that has made all the difference.
well as for the demonization of sex, it doesn’t make sense to do that. i guess some members of the Church just can’t express themselves properly. when you read John Paul II’s book, Crossing the Threshold of Hope, he doesn’t demonize sex. what he said could be summed up in this: Love should be responsible.
6 ate ems // Apr 15, 2006 at 8:17 pm
ey jon! bakit nawala yun comment ko kahapon (or the other day, i forgot when)??
7 Jon Limjap // Apr 17, 2006 at 1:42 pm
ate ems,
Hindi lang lumabas agad yung comments mo kasi hindi ko pa naaapprove… well ngayon naapprove ko na.
If people start believing Dan Brown even if his book is clearly found in the Fiction section of bookstores and libraries, then I will not only question their faith, I will also question their intelligence. That said, the appeal of TDVC is exacerbated by the fact that many people heard about the apocryphal/Gnostic gospels because of TDVC.
I think it’s high time the Christian churches (Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Protestant, Born-again, etc.) re-educated people about the history of Christianity to be able to explain why such gospels exist, and more importantly why they are *NOT* part of the Bible today.
Christians should take advantage of the opportunity given by TDVC and TGOJ: these texts (heretic texts if you want to call them such) actually stirred more interest in the Bible, and more importantly, in the truth behind the history of Jesus that many Christians take for granted.
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