Scandal

Ever since the publication of the Da Vinci Code, people have been going round with the assumption that it's true. Newsflash... it's cobblers! Anyone who saw the Tony Robinson documentary on it will have seen that nearly all of the major issues raised by the book were deconstructed and debunked thoroughly.

The Priory of Sion does not exist. It was invented in the 60's by a small band of French eccentrics, one of whom fantasised about having claims to the French throne. When a previous scandal mongering book came out that made similar claims to the Da Vinci Code, the hoaxers came forward and admitted what they had done. They in no way wished to be associated with the idea that they may be thought of as descendants of Jesus.

The Knight's Templar were not trying to protect descendants of Jesus when they fled the besieged French Templar stronghold. They were trying to protect gnostic teaching. The Catholic church was going after them for two reasons 1) To seize their lands and fortunes and 2) To eradicate heretical teaching.

The second reason was valid, but not worth killing over. Gnosticism is heretical because it claims the physical world is an evil lie created by an evil god. It claims that Jesus was sent by the true spirit god and resurrected only in spirit and that salvation is not by grace through faith but through "special knowledge" (gnosis is a greek word meaning "to know"). Gnosticism survives today in institutions such as Freemasonry (but that is only one of the evils that Freemasonry plays host to).

Gnostic heresy is evil because it in effect claims Satan made the earth, and everything physical is evil. A cute baby, a beautiful woman, the awe inspiring stars, the tender texture of a flower, the sweet sensation of fresh water running through your fingers... gnostics would say all these are evil, because of their physicality. It also suggests that Jesus was in part evil because he had physical form. It also denies the physical resurrection of Christ, whereas the Gospel tells us Jesus was raised in body because he ate and touched after he returned to us. Gnosticism is a complete pile of crud!

OK now to the issue of Mary Magdalene. The only proof we have of a physical relationship with Jesus is the gospel of Philip which is... yep you guessed it a GNOSTIC gospel. It is at odds with apostolic teaching in regards to salvation and it's authorship is severely questioned... THAT is the reason it's omitted from the Bible. Even if this were not so, the "gospel" attributed to Philip only mentions that Jesus kissed her once, and the disciples got jealous. OK, now if I come and kiss you lot... does that mean your my wives and the bearers of my progeny? I don't think so! Mind you, if you are my future wife and the bearer of my progeny, please do step forward and introduce yourself LOL!

Brown in his book uses French folk stories of middle eastern women (some called Mary) fleeing the War of the Jews, to back up his idea that Mary Magdalene was fleeing persecution with a child. However, there were plenty of people called Mary in 1st century Israel. Heck there were plenty of people called Jesus too! there still are today... is your name Joshua? Congratulations you're name is Jesus (Joshua is the nearest modern Hebrew version of Jesus name... Jesus being the Greek)!

In short, Dan Brown knitted together a series of conspiratorial fictions to make a mountain of cash for himself. Of course, he acknowledges and stresses his work is fiction. I think I heard he had an unhappy Roman Catholic upbringing... so it wouldn't surprise me if he was secretly pleased that his fiction is giving the established church a headache, it is probably repression kicking in. We could just ignore him, if he hadn't tried to pass of his "work" as historic fact. SECULAR historians (not Christians) have big problems with authors like Dan Brown because they sensationalise history and deliberately take things out of context for artistic licence.

So, why do people want to buy his books? It's about the darker side of human nature I suspect. We live in a culture that thrives on scandal and we have an obsession with conspiracy. The media feeds us the rise and fall of celebrity. People by OK and Hello, to watch the big names take a big fall... and oh how people love to read about it happening. Inside we have a dark desire to believe the worst in everything. Everybody will fail, everybody will fall, every major event and or. So when a book comes along saying that the Church is built on lies, it's no different. It fills the need of that dark corner of the soul.

Keep on reading gossip and scandal and you feed your soul poison though! I could quote reams of scripture on the subject of slander and all kinds of behaviour... but a children's song sums it up quite eloquently:

Oh, be careful little ears, what you hear (repeat)
For the Father Up above,
Is looking down in love,
So be careful little ears what you hear.

Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see, (repeat)
For the Father up above,
Is looking down in love,
So be careful little eyes what you see.

Oh, be careful little mouth, what you say, (repeat),
For the Father up above,
Is looking down in love,
So be careful little mouth what you say.

Oh, be careful little hands, what you do (repeat),
For the Father up above,
Is looking down in love,
So be careful little hands what you do

Oh, be careful little feet where you go (repeat)
For the Father up above,
Is looking down in love,
So be careful little feet,where you go.

Oh, be careful little mind what you think (repeat)
For the Father up above,
Is looking down in love,
So be careful little mind, what you think.

Oh, be careful little heart what you love (repeat)
For the Father up above,
Is looking down in love,
So be careful little heart, what you love.

Whatever you believe... just please BE CAREFUL!