The movie industry estimates that Ron Howard's film adaptation of Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code pulled in over 77 million dollars in its opening weekend. Despite dozens of critical reviews released last week, and despite well-documented and obvious flaws in the story's logic and history, Americans saw the film in record-breaking numbers.
Now why would so many persons be drawn to this story? Of course, it is not just The Da Vinci Code, either. Earlier this month, the news media were captivated by the release of The Gospel of Judas, thirteen little pages of reconstructed papyrus found in an abandoned cave that supposedly were about to completely upturn Christianity. There can be no doubt the document is very old. In fact, one of the bishops of the church, Irenaeus, dismissed it as obvious heresy in 189 A.D. What we are experiencing now in the modern age is that the old heresies are coming up all over again. It is a bit like rewinding history, and all the ancient heresies that were tried long ago, opposed by the church, and declared by the church to be false, they are coming back.
People seem to have taken a renewed interest, for example, in the Gnostic gospels. During the early centuries of Christianity many groups tried to hijack Christianity and make it into something else, even as today there are cults and sects who do the same. Because there were so many of these radical groups, archaeologists and other scholars are always coming up with new documents and shreds of evidence--the Nag Hammadi library, for example--and when they are released to the public, the very fact that the church rejected them seems to be proof positive to the postmodern mind that they must be true.
We are living in strange times. Here's the question: Why would persons prefer a lie to the truth? Over the next few weeks, all the shows on the cable news networks and talk radio will most certainly be talking about this new movie, discussing the storyline and the art and the history. They will be talking about the argument this movie makes about Jesus, and the Christian response to it. But what they will not be talking about is this: Why would persons prefer the false gospel to the true?
This is why: If the true storyline concerning Jesus Christ was that He was merely a mortal prophet who came to establish an earthly dynasty and to help us all celebrate the divine feminine and be a part of His circle of knowledge and enlightenment, then the fact is that we do not have to think about the fact that we are sinners. If that is what the life of Jesus is all about, then it is not about how we must be redeemed from our sin, but rather about how we can simply be enlightened and informed. The truth is, the human heart would much rather be told it is uninformed than that it is sinful.
If the truth about Jesus is that he was merely another human being, then God does not lay claim upon your life. He does not lay claim upon your marriage. He does not lay claim upon your sex life. If this is true, then God does not much care about any of that; he simply wants you to be informed. There is no "take up your cross and follow me." There is no discipleship. There is no dying to self and living to Christ. There is none of that, and there is no judgment. All of which sits well with the postmodern mind, for there are many people who think the best news they could hear is that they will never have to face judgment. As a matter of fact, the only way to understand the world around us is to acknowledge that the vast majority of our neighbors do not believe they will face judgment.
The reason false gospels are so attractive and so seductive is because it is convenient for us to be told that we are not the problem. We would much rather believe that the problem is a conspiracy--that humanity has been held in darkness because some have conspired to suppress the truth.
Beginning in Matthew 16:13, we encounter one of those great texts that informs us about the identity of the Gospel, the identity of Christ, and the identity of the church: "Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' And they said, 'Some say 'John the Baptist', others say 'Elijah', others 'Jeremiah or one of the prophets'.' He said to them, 'but who do you say that I am?' Simon Peter replied, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.' And Jesus answered him, 'Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven.'"
