Oakbrook Evangelical Free Church

Introduction:

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Are there secret documents about Jesus?

Was Jesus God or did the church along with Emperor Constantine upgrade Jesus’ status from a mortal man to God?

Did Jesus have sex? Was he married?

And how do we know? Can we trust the Bible we have or should we look elsewhere for the truth?

Matthew 22:37 “Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’” NIV

1 Peter 3:15 “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,” NIV

I. Why this is important.

II. Examples of The Da Vinci Code’s Misinformation

III. How Were The NT Gospels Assembled?

The Da Vinci Code

“Constantine upgraded Jesus’ status almost four centuries after Jesus’ death, thousands of documents already existed chronicling His life as a mortal man. To rewrite the history books, Constantine knew he would need a bold stroke. From this sprang the most profound moment in Christian history. Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.”

Langdon added, “Anyone who chose the forbidden gospels over Constantine’s version was deemed a heretic…”

Constantine and the Vatican are made responsible for suppressing the release of the Gnostic gospels. The modern Bible is said to be “compiled and edited by men who possessed a political agenda – to promote the divinity of the man Jesus Christ and use His influence to solidify their own power base.”

A. Need to note three things

1. Constantine was a key figure and his rule was a turning point in Christian history.

2 The Council of Nicea and the Nicene Creed was an important affirmation of the history of our faith. The creed was an attempt to affirm the core of what Christians regarded as essential for all Christians to believe.

3. The collection of texts into an official list that became the canon of Scripture gained momentum. One result of that process was that documents on the other side of this dispute were destroyed.

The Nicean Creed did put into words what a sizeable number of Christian communities had believed for more than 200 years. The council put into precise theological language what had been expressed in general terms since the time of Christ.

The vote at Nicea did not establish the church’s beliefs. It affirmed them and officially recognized what was already the dominate view of Christians.

(We will look at the actual Nicene creed when we talk about the deity of Christ.)

B. How the NT and the Gospels were assembled

1. The naming of the books of the NT were part of a long process that extended from the writing of the books in the last half of the 1st century until they were fully recognized in the middle of the 4th that included:

a. Apostolic roots

b. Widespread usage

c. the pressure of alternative expressions of Christianity

all of which is over 100 years before Constantine and the Council of Nicea.

2. The process of identifying Christianities core beliefs and key documents was pushed along by the existence of false teachers like the Ebionites, Marcion (140 AD wealthy shipowner and heretic), Montanus (170 AD), and Valentinus (100-175 AD).

This should not surprise us.

John 17:14-15 ” I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.” NIV

Acts 20:28-31 ” Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” NIV

Galatians 1:6-7 ” I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.” NIV

3. The Muratorian Canon (a Latin work from the 8th century) dates back to the middle of the 2nd century or 150-175 years before the Council of Nicea.

It names only four gospels, Luke being the 3rd.

The church receives only the apocalypses of John and Peter

It explicitly names the works of Valentinus and Marcion as excluded

4. 2nd century church father, Iranaeus wrote a 5 volumn set entitled, Against Heresies.

Iranaeus listed 21 books and used all four gospels to affirm the truth. He affirmed Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in their entirety as the core testimony about Jesus. He coined a phrase later used by the church. “the gospel is quadriform”. The 4 fold gospel already existed.

He criticized the Ebionites because they used only Matthew.

He criticized Marcion bec/ he used only selected portions of Luke.

He criticized Valentinus bec/ he used only portions of John.

His writing indicates that the debate was over revelation and authority.

The basis of the “quadriform gospel” was apostolic roots.

5. Justin Martyr (100-165 AD) wrote the Dialogue and First Apology, Second Apology, even earlier than Iraneus.

Referred to the gospels as “the memoirs which I say were drawn up by His apostles and those who followed them.” He used this term 15 times in his writings. He references Matthew, Mark and Luke. He referred to Mark as the “memoir of Peter”.

Embraced the gospels because of their ties to the Apostles and rejected other writings because they lacked apostolic connection.

6. Origen, 185-254 AD defended a recognized set of books for the church “Among the four gospels, which are the only indisputable ones in the church of God” and names the 4 gospels. All this 150 years before Nicea.

7. A.D. 367 Athanasius was the first to list the 27 books of the NT as they exist in our Bibles today. He was also the first to use the word “canon” for this collection.

Writing his Easter letter to his people in 367, Athanasius set forth the authoritative list of Christian writings that would be finally approved at the Council of Carthage in 397 and accepted by the Christian church as the closed canon of the New Testament.

8. This list comes from the Council of Nicea, 325 AD

By the end of he 2nd century, because of their roots, content and usage, the NT Gospels had become the primary source for the life and ministry of Jesus.

Roman Catholic NT scholar, Raymond Brown reviewed The Gnostic Gospels for the NY Times in November 1979. He said,

“What these second and third century Christians did in moving to recognize these books (the NT) and in rejecting others (the Gnostic Gospels) was to reject ‘only the rubbish of the second century,’ and he added, ‘it is still rubbish.”

The idea that the selection of the Gospels was done by Constantine and the Vatican is pure nonsense.

IV. The Deity of Christ