-morgan young 4.2.06 The book The DaVinci Code has been translated into 44 languages, sold more than 40 MILLION copies worldwide and it's going to be a HUGE blockbuster movie in May. Already it's generated a ton of questions, debates, books, and sermons in churches all over the country. The reason for all the discussion & controversy is this story takes some true things, some made up things, alleges some things are true that aren't; mixes it all together and it all circles around biblical subject matter and the Catholic church. For most people when they read the book (or when you'll see the movie) it's hard to know where the line is between fact and fiction. Let me just give you two quick examples of some untruths in the story. There's a note in the book that, "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals are true." This seems like a straight-forward enough statement and one you could believe. But in fact, it isn't even true on the artwork & architecture points. e.g. It says that in the Louvre Museum, at the explicit demand of President Mitterand the famous glass pyramid be constructed of 666 glass pieces. (satanic reference) It has and has always had 673. So what it says is true is not true. And the bigger point in the story that a lot of people are having trouble with is that Jesus and Mary had a child and this has been hushed up by a secret society. (promote The DaVinci Code Quest for Answers by Josh McDowell) Since there's all this confusion swirling around out there, we thought it would be good to take a look at the evidence for the Bible and for Jesus. If we're going to say that this particular book isn't true, how do we know that the Bible and what we believe as Christians is true? (welcome skeptics & people that are unsure--I MYSELF used to be a skeptic) When I was younger I thought, "Ok look, the Bible is a zillion years old. It's a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy. It was copied BY HAND for thousands of years before Gutenberg decided to invent the printing press. You can't get 10 people to sit in a circle and play "telephone" and get the same phrase to come out correctlyyou telling me that the Bible is accurate to this day?" When I researched the Bible what I found is in the last 4,000 years, Jewish scribes (later Christian scribes) took meticulous care to copy the Bible. It wasn't their job just to COPY the Bible, but to protect the accuracy of it. They weren't as much like a human copy machine; they were more like an armed guard who was protecting the accuracy of God's Word. And when a scribe finished, he turned it over to a "master examiner" who counted EVERY INDIVIDUAL LETTER to make sure there were no errors. If errors were found it was destroyed to keep it being used as a master copy. And really the best time to be scinical about the Bible would have been prior to 1947 because that's when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. In '47 an Arab shepherd boy discovered a hidden cave in Qumran near the Dead Sea. It had over 1,000 manuscripts, all dating prior to 68 A.D. It contained a library of both biblical & secular texts. Cave 4 contained all of the Old Testament books except for Esther and multiple copies of Genesis, Deuteronomy, and Isaiah. The amazing thing is that when they compared these 2,000+ year old texts to the 1611 King James version, aside from some spelling variations there were no significant differences. This is one of the scrolls found called the "Isaiah Scroll." This is the prophet Isaiah's text that foretold the coming of Christ. We're looking at the scroll that said that the Messiah would be a leader of the community who would be put to death. That He would suffer the sins of His people. That He would rule forever without dying. That He would be "pierced" and "wounded." In addition to the Dead Sea Scrolls that verify the Old Testament, historians have recovered nearly 100,000 manuscripts and letters from the first few centuries A.D. Of these nearly 100,000 writings, they contain 99% of the nearly 8,000 verses in the New Testament. Sir Frederic G. Kenyon, former director of the British Museum concluded that the Gospels indeed were written within a few decades of Christ's life and they in turn found their way into churches right away. Which just underscores that what we read in the Gospels are accounts of the people who wrote them; not something written-down hundreds of years later. It was eye witness accounts, not handed-down legend. And interestingly, from the time the apostles wrote the New Testament, it became the most widely quoted book in the first centuries and still is to this day. To add to the Bible's credibility, it's interesting of the hundreds of thousands of artifacts unearthed over human history, NONE have contradicted or denied anything in the Bible; but in fact, artifacts & digs have only CONFIRMED the biblical text. And with that I'll take you on a tour of just SOME of the evidence. (We could be here all day, literally!) Let's start at the beginning. Genesis ch. 2 says that the Garden of Eden was located in relation to four rivers: Tigris, Euphrates, Pihon and Gihon. Generally that puts Eden in the middle east in the general area that secular scientists consider to be the cradle of civilization. It's the region that originated: oxen, goats, sheep, horses, pigs, dogs, apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, mulberries, olives, figs, dates, almonds, wheat, barley, oats, peas, beans, spinach, radishes, onions, and most of the fruits and vegetables. Ethnologists (scientists who study origins of races) consider this to be the origin of the human race. One misconception I had was to dismiss stone tablet information of people in the 3,500 BC era. I assumed that people who were here 3000 years B.C. were not very bright, not very advanced. But in the hundreds of thousands of ancient civilizations artifacts, we have found letters, business documents, poetry, prose, narratives, geometry, recipes etc. Yale's Babylonian collection alone is over 45,000 pieces. When I know that, it helps me give more credibility to the 3,500 B.C. artifacts that have been discovered that have a man, a woman and a serpent on it. Or the artifacts that have been found that depict a great flood. What about the flood? Any evidence that the flood from Genesis ch. 6 & 7 was real? (Recap: Man had become very evil and wicked and God decided it was time for a "do over." God chose a flood that would wipe out man, all but Noah's family and two of every animal. (No one knows why Noah took the mosquito) The ancient cities of Ur, Kish & Fara are some of the most excavated (VAST) of the ancient Mesopotamian cities. (Ur is mentioned from Genesis thru Jude.) In these three separate locations (about 150 mile area), as scientists dug, they found a layer of water-laid clay that was EIGHT FEET THICK. Many scientists say a layer of clay that thick can only be the result of an epic scale flood. What's more interesting is that (flood diagram), below the clay was evidence of human existence: skeletons, tools, homes etc. And above the clay, more remains of human existence. BUT, the two layers of human existence were so different that Dr. Wooley indicated, "A sudden and terrific break in the continuity of history." It just might reflect the difference between how man was before the flood and afterward when God cleaned up our act (so to speak.) For what it's worth, I find it interesting that accounts of a flood that destroyed all people with the exception of one family have been found in Egyptian, Greek, Hindu, Chinese, Indian, English, Polynesian, Mexican, Peruvian, Greenland, American Indian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Persian, Fiji Islands, Brazilian, and Phrygian cultures. /// A while after the flood, in the book of Exodus, Moses leads his people out of Egypt, out from under Pharaoh. Scientists have concluded that on the timeline that's either Ramses the Great (II), or Amenhotep the II. Regardless, we can see both of them here. (ppt pic of Ramses & Amanhotep) History tell us that neither Ramses the Great or Amenhotep the II were succeeded by their sons. Which ironically lines up with Exodus 11:5 "Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl who is at her hand mill" niv Also in Exodus, the Hebrew slaves were being used by Pharaoh to build Egyptian cities. In Exodus chapter 5, Moses makes Pharaoh mad and Pharaoh says, "I will not give you any more straw. Go and get your own straw wherever you can find itSo the people scattered all over Egypt to gather stubble to use for straw" Exodus 5:10-12 Scientists have unearthed 3 cities of that region and time period and found something interesting. The lower levels of brick were filled with good chopped straw; the middle layers of brick with less straw, that included stubble picked up by the root; and the upper level of bricks contained no straw whatsoever! What a strange coincidence ;-) In the book of Joshua, God told the Israelites to exterminate the Canaanites. This is one of those chapters that can be hard for us to understand. I mean, how can a loving God ask one group of people to take out another group of people? This doesn't seem to make sense to us. Does it make sense for a loving God do that? What scientists found in excavations in the Canaanite regions, were temples where the Canaanites worshiped multiple gods. In these temples they found great numbers of jars containing the remains of children who had been sacrificed to their gods. (this pic is NOT actual kid remains, just a Caananite jar) Another horrible practice discovered was called "foundation sacrifices." When a house was built, a child would be sacrificed and its body built into the wall to bring good luck to the rest of the family. Also, in the temples were found enormous quantities of images of their gods that were grotesquely erotic in nature, that were designed to foster perverse sensual feelings during worship. How could a loving God wipe out a group of people? Because they were so depraved they were unimaginably murdering their own children and pursuing perversion during worship services. /// Let's move forward into the New Testament. In John ch. 11 we find the story of Lazarus (ppt Lazarus tomb): He was a friend of Jesus who became sick & died, was already laid in a tomb and Jesus brought him back to life. Here's the inside of Lazarus' tomb today in the city of Bethany. This is the portrayal of Pontius Pilate from the Passion of the Christ. The Bible says Pilate eventually called for Christ to be crucified. For centuries there was no evidence that such a Roman leader ever existed. But 1961 Italian archaeologist Dr. Frova excavated an ancient Roman amphitheatre and found this limestone block. "Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea." ("prefect" is a magistrate or authority) This is the portrayal of Caiaphas from the same movie. Caiaphas was the Jewish leader who held a mock trial in his own home at night and pushed Pilate to crucify Jesus. For centuries there was no evidence any such man existed. But 1990 a construction crew was working on a road just outside the old city of Jerusalem when they accidentally discovered an old tomb. They found twelve ossuaries inside. An ossuary is a limestone box that after a body had decomposed, they would go into the tomb and put the bones in a box; an ossuary. This is the most beautifully decorated of the twelve and it's inscribed, "Joseph, son of Caiaphas," which was the full name of the character we know as just "Caiaphas." In it were the remains of a 60-year old man dating to the first century A.D. (Simon of Cyrene's {& others] found--man ordered to help Jesus carry cross) Herod Antipas (ppt pic Herod) was the Jewish leader of Galilee between 4 B.C. and 39 A.D. He was the one who refused to do anything with Jesus other than send Him back to Pilate. There's never really been any question about his existence. There are so many Herod Antipas coins from this period that you can actually go online and buy some. If you have enough "coin." ;-) Naturally the fact that Jesus' body did not remain in the tomb after He was crucified caused quite a ruckus. It's the hinge pin of Christianity. It's what separates Jews from Christians. It's what makes forgiveness and freedom available to everyone. Here's proof that it was making a commotion in the first century. Here's a picture of the "Nazareth Decree." It says, "Ordinance of Caesar: It is my pleasure that graves and tombs remain undisturbedIfany man lay information that another has either demolished or extracted the buried, or has maliciously transferred them to other places in order to wrong them, or has displaced the sealingstonesLet it be absolutely forbidden for anyone to disturb them." In another writing, Suetonious, a Greek historian, writes that the Nazareth decree was done, "At the instigation of one, Christos," or Christ. The Bible tells us that Christ was crucified at Golgotha or "Skull Hill." It is a real place and I just wanted to show you this picture (ppt Skull Hill) really because this is the first picture I've seen that shows how much it looks like a skull. /// Let's talk about evidence of Jesus for a minute. If the Bible is credible (I think it is), one of the amazing things is that the genealogy of Jesus is threaded all through it. In Matthew ch. 1 and Luke ch. 3 we have a family tree that traces Jesus all the way back to Adam. One of the amazing thing is you can find all of those people listed throughout the Old Testament. One of the things the Old Testament does is lay the verifiable history of where Jesus came from. Ever wonder why there are so many "begats" in the Old Testament? They were "begatin" their way to Jesus Christ. The most amazing evidence for Jesus probably comes through the fulfillment of over THREE HUNDRED prophesies that were published during an 1,100 year period that ended 400 hundred years before Jesus' birth!! 48 of the prophesies are specifically about Jesus' life, death and resurrection. Of course you could say, "If they were foretold and written down He knew which ones to fulfill." Yes, you could "say" that, but in realty, how could Jesus: arrange to be born in Bethlehem? arrange to be born in the tribe of Judah? make sure the price of His betrayal was 32 pieces of silver? arrange to be crucified with thieves? arrange to have enemies gamble for his clothing? As I was putting this talk together I ran across this great quote about Jesus --I love this. As I read this, ask yourself, "Could any mere man reflect these truths?" (by Henry G. Bosch) "Socrates taught for forty years, Plato for fifty, Aristotle for forty, and Jesus for only three. Yet the influence of Christ's three-year ministry infinitely transcends the impact left by the combined one hundred and thirty years of teaching from these men who were among the greatest philosophers of all antiquity; yet, some of the finest paintings of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci received their inspiration from Him. Jesus wrote no poetry; but Dante, Milton, and scores of the world's greatest poets were inspired by Him. Jesus composed no music; still Haydn, Handel, Beethoven, Bach, and Mendelssohn reached their highest perfection of melody in the hymns, symphonies, and oratories they composed in His praise. Every sphere of human greatness has been enriched by this humble Carpenter of Nazareth." Henry G. Bosch /// (end quote) You know it's kind of ironic. Naturally I'm a skeptical person who really likes to be able to prove things and back stuff up with factsthat's my nature. But I didn't come to embrace Jesus Christ in my life because of scientific evidence. I accepted Jesus Christ more like the same way I love my wife. I can't explain exactly why I fell in love with Sandra. I can tell you loving things she's done for me and ways I have done loving things for her. I can show you wedding rings and a certificate of marriage and book of wedding pictures that cost entirely too much money ;-) But I can't prove to you that our love exists. And you can't prove to me that the love you have for people in your life exists either. But you know it does. Love is one of those strange realities in our life that you can't prove scientifically. Ironically, the Bible tells us, that "God is love." (1 John 4:16) As I was putting this message together and I was pouring over tons of evidence for people and places in the Biblethings where I thought, "Wow, there's no doubt on that pointthat's an absolute fact." But I didn't have that experience with Jesus. I couldn't seem to prove Him "without a doubt." And I wondered if God doesn't intentionally keep us from being able to "without a doubt" prove that Jesus is His Son. I wonder if archaeologically speaking, God will always keep Jesus a couple steps away from being able to absolutely 100% prove He's for real. This week as I thought of Jesus in my life the phrase, "Beautiful Mystery" came to my mind. The way He forgave and forgives my sinthe way He loves me unconditionally is unbelievably beautiful. I tell my kids I love them after they've made a poor decision. But sometimes I think they can still smell the residue of disappointment in me. After I've made a poor decision, Jesus tells me He loves mebut it's pureI don't sense His disappointment. And there's something beautiful in that. And I could stay up here a while longer and tell you tons more things about Jesus, but the truth is I could only tell you so much; because there's so much about Him that I'll never figure outthere will always be mysteries about Him that I'm clueless about. I was thinking about that this week too. I thought about my son, Slater, when he play's his Play Station 2 video game. Do you know which games always stay in the box and he never plays with? They're the ones he's totally figured out. When there's no mystery left, that game doesn't hold his attention any more. I thought this week that God knows me too well. And as much as I'd like to have all the answers about Him answered; He knows that there's something about this Beautiful Mystery that keeps me in the game. (setup video of people telling how Jesus has shown up in their lives--prayout after "King of Glory") suggested reading: |
cave 4 at Qumran |
Lourve Museum |
Isaiah Scroll |
Amenhotep II above Ramses the Great (II) below |
Lazarus tomb |
"Pontius Pilate, prefect (magistrate) of Judea" |
Caiaphas ossuary |
Herod Antipas coins |
Nazareth decree |
Golgatha or "Skull Hill" |
