Being a pastor is sometimes like a man by the roadside with a warning sign. God gave us a job to guide people in their life journey with the words from Him. The Parable of the Sandwich Sign by Max Lucado is a simple one but with a very good reminder. There are 3 essential qualities that we must always bear in mind. Firstly, it is perseverance. There are times when we feel tired and dejected. But we must already hold on and continue. Secondly, it is humility. We must remember that the focus must lie in the message and not in the messenger. Lastly, it is conviction. We must defend the true orthodox message at all times. May the Lord bless the work of his servants.
Rev. Wong Siow Hwee
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Way to go, Dae Jang Geum
Mention "Dae Jang Geum" anywhere in Singapore (and Korea) and you'll strike a chord with almost anyone.
The serial is dunno how many weeks in the run and the following has not seen any decrease. A personal confession - I'm a "Dae Jang Geum" fan!
Not only does "Dae Jang Geum" give its viewers a detailed lesson in culinary skills and TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), it is also a must watch for those who wants to excel in "office politics" (In "Jang Geum" case, "palace politics"). And to top it all, the script writer made sure there is emotional buildup and release in every single episode!
As a Christian, I find much encourgaement from the story too when I see how the main actress endured hardship and persisted in what is right. This is the ingredient for success in life. You and I may have great gifts and talents that come from the Lord. But it is the persistance to do good in the grinding of everyday life that polishes us and makes us shine for Jesus. Otherwise, we'll just be an unimpressive dull gem.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Synod MissionDialogue - 24 Apr 2006
SynodMissionDialogue_24Apr2006 044
Originally uploaded by synodym132.
Some photos from the events on that day. You would need a yahoo account to view photos from flickr. If you do not have i advised you to set one up for free. It's easy as 1,2,3!
Reboot your computer daily
I was reminded of the importance of having a personal silent time with the Lord daily when I looked at my computer today.
It's common knowledge that when a computer runs continuously for a long time without shutting down, it risks slowing down and even hanging on the user! So it is a good practice to shut down and restart your computer regularly.
I see my quiet time with the Lord as a spiritual reset button. During my quiet time, I like to read a few chapters of scripture, read a devotional material (e.g. Daily Bread), reflect on what I've read and on the things that have gone by and is to come, write a simple thought in my journal, and end with prayer. When I open my eyes at the end of my prayer, I felt like I've been renewed for the new day! All my "old anxieties" have been downloaded and packed away!
I wish for you a great daily time with our Lord too.
It's common knowledge that when a computer runs continuously for a long time without shutting down, it risks slowing down and even hanging on the user! So it is a good practice to shut down and restart your computer regularly.
I see my quiet time with the Lord as a spiritual reset button. During my quiet time, I like to read a few chapters of scripture, read a devotional material (e.g. Daily Bread), reflect on what I've read and on the things that have gone by and is to come, write a simple thought in my journal, and end with prayer. When I open my eyes at the end of my prayer, I felt like I've been renewed for the new day! All my "old anxieties" have been downloaded and packed away!
I wish for you a great daily time with our Lord too.
Saturday, May 20, 2006
Youth Mentors' Get Together - 19 May 2006
collage
Originally uploaded by synodym132.
Quite a good turn-out...close to 40 youth leaders / mentors from about 14 chuches came to the Synod for an evening of sharing, prayer, worship and a talk on "A pastoral response to Da Vinci Code" (by Rev. May Tan). I felt very much edified by her insightful thoughts on this hot-topic and somehow it is different from other talks or articles on Da Vinci Code. Listening to a church historian, we were treated to an in-depth understanding of historical groups like Priory of Sion, and Opus Dei and also the actual meaning of the Holy Grail. I would also like to thank Ps Chong Yew and his team of musicians (Feri and Stanley) who led us in a wonderful time of worship. Thanks guys!
PS: the cute baby - "future" mentor - in the pic is Karyn, love-child of Ps Jasmine and Boon Lee of Bethel PC. adborable huh?
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Youth Mentors' Get Together
Reminder for all youth mentors who are coming for this meet-up:
Date: 19 May 2006, Fri
Time: 7-9pm (Dinner provided)
Venue: The Synod
132 Sophia Road, S(228186)
Program:
7pm Dinner
7:30pm Welcome Address by Rev. Dr. Boon Young
7:45pm Worship and Prayer (Pr. Chan Chong Yew)
8:15pm Pastoral Aspects on Da Vinci Code (Rev. May Tan)
9:00pm End.
Also check out the updated Contact List and the newly added Synod Youth Ministry Overview 2006 (on the right)!
Date: 19 May 2006, Fri
Time: 7-9pm (Dinner provided)
Venue: The Synod
132 Sophia Road, S(228186)
Program:
7pm Dinner
7:30pm Welcome Address by Rev. Dr. Boon Young
7:45pm Worship and Prayer (Pr. Chan Chong Yew)
8:15pm Pastoral Aspects on Da Vinci Code (Rev. May Tan)
9:00pm End.
Also check out the updated Contact List and the newly added Synod Youth Ministry Overview 2006 (on the right)!
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Responding to the "Da Vinci Code"
You are invited to hear Dr Ben Witherington III address the controversies raised by the novel and movie “Da Vinci Code.”
The schedule of the talks is as follows:
Public Talk 1
Date: Thursday 1 June 2006
Time: 7.45 pm-10 pm
Subject: “The Da Vinci Code---Historical Fiction or Hysterical Fiction?”
Public Talk 2
Date: Friday 2 June 2006
Time: 7.45 pm-10 pm
Subject: (1) “What were Jesus and Mary Magdalene really like?”
(2) “The Reliability of the Canonical Gospels”
Venue: Both talks are at St Andrew's Cathedral's New Sanctuary
Each session will include a question-and-answer time. Admission to the talks is free. Seats are limited; do come early.
About the Speaker
Bible scholar Ben Witherington III is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. His recent book The Gospel Code has been described as “a much-need antidote to the history-twisting misinformation” that one finds in our culture and particularly in The Da Vinci Code.
The schedule of the talks is as follows:
Public Talk 1
Date: Thursday 1 June 2006
Time: 7.45 pm-10 pm
Subject: “The Da Vinci Code---Historical Fiction or Hysterical Fiction?”
Public Talk 2
Date: Friday 2 June 2006
Time: 7.45 pm-10 pm
Subject: (1) “What were Jesus and Mary Magdalene really like?”
(2) “The Reliability of the Canonical Gospels”
Venue: Both talks are at St Andrew's Cathedral's New Sanctuary
Each session will include a question-and-answer time. Admission to the talks is free. Seats are limited; do come early.
About the Speaker
Bible scholar Ben Witherington III is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. A graduate of UNC, Chapel Hill, he went on to receive the M.Div. degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Durham in England. He is now considered one of the top evangelical scholars in the world, and is an elected member of the prestigious SNTS, a society dedicated to New Testament studies. Witherington has written over thirty books, including The Jesus Quest and The Paul Quest, both of which were selected as top biblical studies works by Christianity Today. His recent book The Gospel Code has been described as “a much-need antidote to the history-twisting misinformation” that one finds in our culture and particularly in The Da Vinci Code.
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
20 Big Lies in the Da Vinci Code
By James A. Beverley
Source: http://www.charismamag.com/display.php?id=12860
Don't be fooled. Here are just a few ways Dan Brown's best-selling book twists and distorts the truth of the gospel.
In a little more than three years The Da Vinci Code has become the best-selling adult novel of all time. It has also become the subject of intense debate among Christians because of its radical claims that undermine basic Christianity.
Why all the fuss over a work of fiction? The answer lies on Page 1, where author Dan Brown asserts that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate."
In reality, the novel is a model of inaccuracy in almost every subject it addresses. Critics have noted its mistakes in mathematics, French geography and even the layout of the Louvre. More important, Brown's jarring claims about Jesus, the Bible, secret societies and ritual sex are based on shallow research, sloppy investigation and careless thought. However, given the novel's popularity and the staggering bravado in its tone, it is necessary for Christians to provide a critique of its central blunders.
Here are 20 of them.
1.The Bible was invented by Roman Emperor Constantine in the fourth century.
The Da Vinci Code reports that "Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible," one that left out the Gnostic texts and included the four traditional Gospels. In fact, Constantine had nothing to do with the making of the Christian canon. He is not even mentioned in the standard Cambridge History of the Bible. The traditional Gospels were recognized by virtually all Christians 150 years before Constantine.
2. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gnostic Gospels are the "earliest Christian records."
Not so. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947 and date from 250 B.C. to A.D. 100. However, these documents have virtually nothing to do with Christianity but with various Jewish groups, rituals and ideas before and during the time of Christ.
The Gnostic Gospels offer a twisted and heretical version of the Christian faith, but they didn't come into existence until about a century or more after the death of Christ.
The earliest Christian records are the writings of the New Testament.
3. The Gnostic Gospels present a positive view of the feminine.
The Gnostic texts are said to picture a human, sexualized Jesus who embraced the sacred feminine. Actually, the Jesus presented in the Gnostic material is often simply weird, and the underlying ideology tends to be radically anti-feminine. Consider this bizarre passage from the Gospel of Thomas: "Simon Peter said to them, 'Make Mary leave us, for females don't deserve life.' Jesus said, 'Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of Heaven.'"
4. Early Christians did not believe Jesus was God's Son.
This is a bizarre claim, rooted in either willful ignorance or blindness to the obvious. After 2,000 years, people continue to debate whether Jesus is the Son of God. But what has never been subject to doubt is that early Christians confessed that Jesus is God's Son, as the following Scriptures indicate: "Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God'" (Matt. 16:16); "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son" (Gal. 4:4).
5. The Council of Nicea (A.D. 325) invented the divinity of Jesus.
Contrary to Brown's claim, the famous church council met to clarify the divinity of Jesus, not create it. There are thousands of references to the divinity of Jesus in Christian literature and archaeology before the Council at Nicea. This includes the hundreds of claims in the New Testament and the witness of early church leaders through the second and third centuries.
6. Jesus was really a pagan or a witch.
No standard reference works on witchcraft ever include Jesus as a witch or pagan. The novel attempts to argue that Jesus was a copycat figure of ancient pagan deities. This view depends on totally ignoring the Jewish context of the life and teaching of Jesus. If Jesus had been a pagan or a witch, this would have been noticed by the Jewish leaders who opposed Him.
7. Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.
The novel claims that there are "countless references" to their union in ancient history and that the topic "has been explored ad nauseam by modern historians." First, there is nothing in the New Testament or other first century material about such a marriage. Second, there is no explicit mention of the alleged marriage in the Gnostic material of the second and third centuries. All we have in the Gnostic material is one reference to Mary as the "companion" of Jesus. That word, however, does not usually mean "spouse" or "wife."
8. Jesus and Mary had a child named Sarah.
The novel claims Mary was pregnant at the time of the death of Jesus. Joseph of Arimathea, her uncle, helped her move to France. There she gave birth to a girl she named Sarah. Mary and Sarah found refuge in the Jewish community in France. We are told that "countless scholars of that era chronicled Mary Magdalene's days in France." This is nothing but historical junk first made popular by the 1982 potboiler Holy Blood, Holy Grail. There are no ancient documents supporting any of these claims, and no scholars of that era chronicled these alleged events.
9. There was a smear campaign against Mary Magdalene in Catholic tradition.
To the contrary, Mary Magdalene receives positive attention in the Bible and in Catholic tradition. In fact, she is regarded as a saint, and her Feast Day is July 22. As a close disciple of Jesus, she was one of the first witnesses of His resurrection. The mistaken view that she was a prostitute did not arise until A.D. 591 when Pope Gregory I confused her with a prostitute mentioned in Luke 7:36-50.
10. A secret society named the Priory of Sion started in 1099 and has protected the bones of Mary Magdalene and documents about the bloodline of Jesus Christ.
This is one of the most significant blunders of The Da Vinci Code. The Priory of Sion was actually started in France on May 7, 1956, by a con artist named Pierre Plantard (1920-2000). The Priory was first a civic organization. In the 1960s Plantard created the mythology of a secret society led by figures such as Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci.
11. Ancient documents about the Priory were discovered in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris in 1975.
The Da Vinci Code refers to these alleged parchments as Les Dossiers Secrets. These documents are not ancient but are actually forgeries done by Philippe de Chrisey (1925-1985), a co-conspirator with Plantard. They were not discovered by the French library in 1975 but were placed there by Plantard in 1967.
Both de Chrisey and Plantard admitted the hoax before their deaths. In fact, Plantard was forced to admit his fraud before Judge Thierry Jean-Pierre in a French court case in September 1993.
12. There are historical lists of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion.
Actually, when Plantard invented the Priory of Sion he copied most of his list of Grand Masters from lists of alleged leaders of other groups, such as the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, a secret society founded in America in 1915. Plantard also changed his list of Grand Masters as he adopted different conspiracy theories about his Priory of Sion.
13. The Holy Grail is not the cup used at the Last Supper but the bones of Mary Magdalene.
The novel states that "the quest for the Holy Grail is literally the quest to kneel before the bones of Mary Magdalene. A journey to pray at the feet of the outcast one, the lost sacred feminine."
The Holy Grail legends started about A.D. 1180 and continued through the 19th century. They never involved claims about the bones of Mary Magdalene. Isn't it amazing that no Priory of Sion member has ever given in to the temptation to reveal the location of the bones of Mary Magdalene?
14. The Knights Templar guarded the bones of Mary Magdalene and four huge chests of ancient documents about the bloodline of Jesus Christ and the French kings who descended from Him.
The Knights Templar is a religious military order founded in the early 12th century. Hugues de Payens, a French Knight, led eight comrades in the campaign to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land.
It has never been argued in the historical material about the Templars that they protected either Mary Magdalene or documents about French kings. These claims are the inventions of Pierre Plantard, who declared at one point that he was the descendant of Jesus and the proper heir to the French throne.
15. Leonardo da Vinci was once the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion.
The Priory started 437 years after the death of the great artist. Not one Leonardo da Vinci specialist in the entire world has supported the view that he once headed a pagan sex cult. James Beck of Columbia University calls this "total nonsense." Leonard da Vinci scholars have convened special conferences in order to debunk the novel's false claims about the famous artist.
16. Leonardo da Vinci placed Mary Magdalene next to Jesus in his famous painting The Last Supper.
In da Vinci's time everyone believed that this person was John, the beloved disciple. Renaissance art specialists have always noted that John was painted in a rather effeminate manner. The painting was not meant to reveal the identity of a woman but the tension created among the apostles after Jesus says to them, "'One of you will betray Me'" (Matt. 26:21). Of course, even if da Vinci put a woman next to Jesus in his painting, this would not tell us anything about the real Last Supper more than 14 centuries earlier.
17. The Catholic Church killed 5 million women during the Witchcraft Inquisition.
The women targeted as witches were freethinkers, scholars, priestesses, gypsies, nature lovers, mystics and midwives.
The novel radically misinterprets the nature and scope of the Inquisition. First, both men and women were targeted as witches. Second, the female victims were generally older and were not from any specific class or profession. Third, the deaths totaled no more than 100,000, counting both males and females. Most important, the Inquisition was rooted in the real belief that certain men and women actually worshiped Satan and performed diabolical acts of evil.
18. French President
Francois Mitterand ordered 666 panes of glass in the pyramid at the front entrance to the Louvre.
The novel adopts a false rumor that circulated in French society two decades ago. Mitterand did not order 666 panes of glass to be in the pyramid. In fact, the public relations office at the Louvre informed me that the pyramid actually has 673 panes of glass.
19. Early Jewish as well as Christian tradition involved sex ritualism in worship.
There is not a single hint in the entire Old Testament or in Jewish history that sex rites were part of temple worship. Jewish males did not engage in sex with priestesses in the temple. The word "priestess" is not even used in the Old Testament.
In the novel Jesus and Mary Magdalene are pictured as the ideal participants in an early Christian sex ritual. This wild claim has no basis in history, either in terms of early Christian tradition or even in reference to Gnostic documents.
20 True worship involves sex ritualism.
The Da Vinci Code states that "historically, intercourse was the act through which male and female experienced God" and that "by communing with woman … man could achieve a climactic instant when his mind went totally blank and he could see God."
The Da Vinci Code will bring great harm to every innocent religious seeker who follows its endorsement of sex ritual as the path to God. Brown is surely bluffing in his rhetoric about sex in worship. It is impossible to imagine that he really believes his own novel's ideology.
Would he be willing to participate in the ancient ritual that The Da Vinci Code defends? Would he really recommend this ancient ritual to his wife, family and friends?
In both book and movie form The Da Vinci Code represents a threat as well as an opportunity for Christians. Its danger lies in its strident assertions of falsehoods that undermine basic teachings of the gospel.
Uninformed readers and moviegoers must be made aware of the historical blunders in Dan Brown's claims. At the same time, the novel and movie create an unprecedented opportunity for believers to witness about the reliability of the Bible and its central redemptive message—that the Son of God became flesh, died on the cross and rose again.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James A. Beverley is associate director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara and professor of Christian Thought and Ethics at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto. He is also the author of 10 books, including Counterfeit Code and Religions A to Z. For information on his writings, visit www.jamesbeverley.com.
Source: http://www.charismamag.com/display.php?id=12860
Don't be fooled. Here are just a few ways Dan Brown's best-selling book twists and distorts the truth of the gospel.
In a little more than three years The Da Vinci Code has become the best-selling adult novel of all time. It has also become the subject of intense debate among Christians because of its radical claims that undermine basic Christianity.
Why all the fuss over a work of fiction? The answer lies on Page 1, where author Dan Brown asserts that "all descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate."
In reality, the novel is a model of inaccuracy in almost every subject it addresses. Critics have noted its mistakes in mathematics, French geography and even the layout of the Louvre. More important, Brown's jarring claims about Jesus, the Bible, secret societies and ritual sex are based on shallow research, sloppy investigation and careless thought. However, given the novel's popularity and the staggering bravado in its tone, it is necessary for Christians to provide a critique of its central blunders.
Here are 20 of them.
1.The Bible was invented by Roman Emperor Constantine in the fourth century.
The Da Vinci Code reports that "Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible," one that left out the Gnostic texts and included the four traditional Gospels. In fact, Constantine had nothing to do with the making of the Christian canon. He is not even mentioned in the standard Cambridge History of the Bible. The traditional Gospels were recognized by virtually all Christians 150 years before Constantine.
2. The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gnostic Gospels are the "earliest Christian records."
Not so. The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947 and date from 250 B.C. to A.D. 100. However, these documents have virtually nothing to do with Christianity but with various Jewish groups, rituals and ideas before and during the time of Christ.
The Gnostic Gospels offer a twisted and heretical version of the Christian faith, but they didn't come into existence until about a century or more after the death of Christ.
The earliest Christian records are the writings of the New Testament.
3. The Gnostic Gospels present a positive view of the feminine.
The Gnostic texts are said to picture a human, sexualized Jesus who embraced the sacred feminine. Actually, the Jesus presented in the Gnostic material is often simply weird, and the underlying ideology tends to be radically anti-feminine. Consider this bizarre passage from the Gospel of Thomas: "Simon Peter said to them, 'Make Mary leave us, for females don't deserve life.' Jesus said, 'Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of Heaven.'"
4. Early Christians did not believe Jesus was God's Son.
This is a bizarre claim, rooted in either willful ignorance or blindness to the obvious. After 2,000 years, people continue to debate whether Jesus is the Son of God. But what has never been subject to doubt is that early Christians confessed that Jesus is God's Son, as the following Scriptures indicate: "Simon Peter answered and said, 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God'" (Matt. 16:16); "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son" (Gal. 4:4).
5. The Council of Nicea (A.D. 325) invented the divinity of Jesus.
Contrary to Brown's claim, the famous church council met to clarify the divinity of Jesus, not create it. There are thousands of references to the divinity of Jesus in Christian literature and archaeology before the Council at Nicea. This includes the hundreds of claims in the New Testament and the witness of early church leaders through the second and third centuries.
6. Jesus was really a pagan or a witch.
No standard reference works on witchcraft ever include Jesus as a witch or pagan. The novel attempts to argue that Jesus was a copycat figure of ancient pagan deities. This view depends on totally ignoring the Jewish context of the life and teaching of Jesus. If Jesus had been a pagan or a witch, this would have been noticed by the Jewish leaders who opposed Him.
7. Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.
The novel claims that there are "countless references" to their union in ancient history and that the topic "has been explored ad nauseam by modern historians." First, there is nothing in the New Testament or other first century material about such a marriage. Second, there is no explicit mention of the alleged marriage in the Gnostic material of the second and third centuries. All we have in the Gnostic material is one reference to Mary as the "companion" of Jesus. That word, however, does not usually mean "spouse" or "wife."
8. Jesus and Mary had a child named Sarah.
The novel claims Mary was pregnant at the time of the death of Jesus. Joseph of Arimathea, her uncle, helped her move to France. There she gave birth to a girl she named Sarah. Mary and Sarah found refuge in the Jewish community in France. We are told that "countless scholars of that era chronicled Mary Magdalene's days in France." This is nothing but historical junk first made popular by the 1982 potboiler Holy Blood, Holy Grail. There are no ancient documents supporting any of these claims, and no scholars of that era chronicled these alleged events.
9. There was a smear campaign against Mary Magdalene in Catholic tradition.
To the contrary, Mary Magdalene receives positive attention in the Bible and in Catholic tradition. In fact, she is regarded as a saint, and her Feast Day is July 22. As a close disciple of Jesus, she was one of the first witnesses of His resurrection. The mistaken view that she was a prostitute did not arise until A.D. 591 when Pope Gregory I confused her with a prostitute mentioned in Luke 7:36-50.
10. A secret society named the Priory of Sion started in 1099 and has protected the bones of Mary Magdalene and documents about the bloodline of Jesus Christ.
This is one of the most significant blunders of The Da Vinci Code. The Priory of Sion was actually started in France on May 7, 1956, by a con artist named Pierre Plantard (1920-2000). The Priory was first a civic organization. In the 1960s Plantard created the mythology of a secret society led by figures such as Isaac Newton and Leonardo da Vinci.
11. Ancient documents about the Priory were discovered in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris in 1975.
The Da Vinci Code refers to these alleged parchments as Les Dossiers Secrets. These documents are not ancient but are actually forgeries done by Philippe de Chrisey (1925-1985), a co-conspirator with Plantard. They were not discovered by the French library in 1975 but were placed there by Plantard in 1967.
Both de Chrisey and Plantard admitted the hoax before their deaths. In fact, Plantard was forced to admit his fraud before Judge Thierry Jean-Pierre in a French court case in September 1993.
12. There are historical lists of the Grand Masters of the Priory of Sion.
Actually, when Plantard invented the Priory of Sion he copied most of his list of Grand Masters from lists of alleged leaders of other groups, such as the Ancient and Mystical Order Rosae Crucis, a secret society founded in America in 1915. Plantard also changed his list of Grand Masters as he adopted different conspiracy theories about his Priory of Sion.
13. The Holy Grail is not the cup used at the Last Supper but the bones of Mary Magdalene.
The novel states that "the quest for the Holy Grail is literally the quest to kneel before the bones of Mary Magdalene. A journey to pray at the feet of the outcast one, the lost sacred feminine."
The Holy Grail legends started about A.D. 1180 and continued through the 19th century. They never involved claims about the bones of Mary Magdalene. Isn't it amazing that no Priory of Sion member has ever given in to the temptation to reveal the location of the bones of Mary Magdalene?
14. The Knights Templar guarded the bones of Mary Magdalene and four huge chests of ancient documents about the bloodline of Jesus Christ and the French kings who descended from Him.
The Knights Templar is a religious military order founded in the early 12th century. Hugues de Payens, a French Knight, led eight comrades in the campaign to protect pilgrims to the Holy Land.
It has never been argued in the historical material about the Templars that they protected either Mary Magdalene or documents about French kings. These claims are the inventions of Pierre Plantard, who declared at one point that he was the descendant of Jesus and the proper heir to the French throne.
15. Leonardo da Vinci was once the Grand Master of the Priory of Sion.
The Priory started 437 years after the death of the great artist. Not one Leonardo da Vinci specialist in the entire world has supported the view that he once headed a pagan sex cult. James Beck of Columbia University calls this "total nonsense." Leonard da Vinci scholars have convened special conferences in order to debunk the novel's false claims about the famous artist.
16. Leonardo da Vinci placed Mary Magdalene next to Jesus in his famous painting The Last Supper.
In da Vinci's time everyone believed that this person was John, the beloved disciple. Renaissance art specialists have always noted that John was painted in a rather effeminate manner. The painting was not meant to reveal the identity of a woman but the tension created among the apostles after Jesus says to them, "'One of you will betray Me'" (Matt. 26:21). Of course, even if da Vinci put a woman next to Jesus in his painting, this would not tell us anything about the real Last Supper more than 14 centuries earlier.
17. The Catholic Church killed 5 million women during the Witchcraft Inquisition.
The women targeted as witches were freethinkers, scholars, priestesses, gypsies, nature lovers, mystics and midwives.
The novel radically misinterprets the nature and scope of the Inquisition. First, both men and women were targeted as witches. Second, the female victims were generally older and were not from any specific class or profession. Third, the deaths totaled no more than 100,000, counting both males and females. Most important, the Inquisition was rooted in the real belief that certain men and women actually worshiped Satan and performed diabolical acts of evil.
18. French President
Francois Mitterand ordered 666 panes of glass in the pyramid at the front entrance to the Louvre.
The novel adopts a false rumor that circulated in French society two decades ago. Mitterand did not order 666 panes of glass to be in the pyramid. In fact, the public relations office at the Louvre informed me that the pyramid actually has 673 panes of glass.
19. Early Jewish as well as Christian tradition involved sex ritualism in worship.
There is not a single hint in the entire Old Testament or in Jewish history that sex rites were part of temple worship. Jewish males did not engage in sex with priestesses in the temple. The word "priestess" is not even used in the Old Testament.
In the novel Jesus and Mary Magdalene are pictured as the ideal participants in an early Christian sex ritual. This wild claim has no basis in history, either in terms of early Christian tradition or even in reference to Gnostic documents.
20 True worship involves sex ritualism.
The Da Vinci Code states that "historically, intercourse was the act through which male and female experienced God" and that "by communing with woman … man could achieve a climactic instant when his mind went totally blank and he could see God."
The Da Vinci Code will bring great harm to every innocent religious seeker who follows its endorsement of sex ritual as the path to God. Brown is surely bluffing in his rhetoric about sex in worship. It is impossible to imagine that he really believes his own novel's ideology.
Would he be willing to participate in the ancient ritual that The Da Vinci Code defends? Would he really recommend this ancient ritual to his wife, family and friends?
In both book and movie form The Da Vinci Code represents a threat as well as an opportunity for Christians. Its danger lies in its strident assertions of falsehoods that undermine basic teachings of the gospel.
Uninformed readers and moviegoers must be made aware of the historical blunders in Dan Brown's claims. At the same time, the novel and movie create an unprecedented opportunity for believers to witness about the reliability of the Bible and its central redemptive message—that the Son of God became flesh, died on the cross and rose again.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James A. Beverley is associate director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion in Santa Barbara and professor of Christian Thought and Ethics at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto. He is also the author of 10 books, including Counterfeit Code and Religions A to Z. For information on his writings, visit www.jamesbeverley.com.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Pastor Kien Seng speaking on the Da Vinci Code...
to his youths at True Way PC on 7 May 2006! I was visiting his church today with Rev. Timothy See (our new Executive Secretary of the English Presbytery). After attending the morning 8:30am service and hearing Rev. Tim See's great sermon about not yoking with unbelievers (2Cor 6:14-7:4), Shih-Huei and I went for a quick breakfast at the coffee-shop just opposite TWPC. We had the most wonderful Char Siew noodles and quickly rushed back to the church to attend the youth fellowship group. After a short time of worship and a very fun "guessing" game, Pastor Kien Seng came on to deliver a wonerful and very intersting teaching/sermon on the Da Vinci Code. If your church is thinking about finding a suitable person to speak on the hot topic, may i strongly suggest asking Pastor Kien Seng, who in my humble opinion, did a marvelous job in straightening things out for us. Keep up the good work guys!
What is there to argue about?
verbum Dei
I have been reading this blog for awhile (not that long lah) and had found it to be exceptionally interesting and "reformed"! hee! hee! I have invited him to contribute to the Synod Youth Ministry whenever he can. I believe he worships at ARPC and definitely an avivd reader in theological and biblical works past and present. Do check his blog out whenever you can. Not to mention his extensive list of other recommended great blogs on his blog too!
I have been reading this blog for awhile (not that long lah) and had found it to be exceptionally interesting and "reformed"! hee! hee! I have invited him to contribute to the Synod Youth Ministry whenever he can. I believe he worships at ARPC and definitely an avivd reader in theological and biblical works past and present. Do check his blog out whenever you can. Not to mention his extensive list of other recommended great blogs on his blog too!
Saturday, May 06, 2006
Too Comfortable In Our Bondage
The toughest thing you will face when mentoring / discipling another person is that the person you try to help refuses vehemently to change - to change for the better. When you start to represent God's voice in his life, he will start to avoid you, resist you, and sometimes even attack you. All these he will do, unknowingly. This will cause you great heartache.
But take heart that the Bible has already given us such examples:
After the Isrealites slaved for Egypt for 400 years, Moses spoke up to the Pharaoh to request their freedom. As a result, Pharaoh treated the Isrealites in a harsher manner. Instead of looking forward to freedom, they turned around to accuse Moses for being a trouble making.
They said to him, "May the LORD look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us."
The Isrealites were angry with Moses for disrupting their life of slavery!
Ask yourself these questions: Have you been lulled into a comfortable relationship with your bondage? Do you fear change more than you fear God? Are you willing to allow God to do what is necessary in order to free you? Will you cooperate with your mentor to bring about a better you ?
But take heart that the Bible has already given us such examples:
After the Isrealites slaved for Egypt for 400 years, Moses spoke up to the Pharaoh to request their freedom. As a result, Pharaoh treated the Isrealites in a harsher manner. Instead of looking forward to freedom, they turned around to accuse Moses for being a trouble making.
They said to him, "May the LORD look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us."
The Isrealites were angry with Moses for disrupting their life of slavery!
Ask yourself these questions: Have you been lulled into a comfortable relationship with your bondage? Do you fear change more than you fear God? Are you willing to allow God to do what is necessary in order to free you? Will you cooperate with your mentor to bring about a better you ?
Friday, May 05, 2006
NT Wright: Decoding The Da Vinci Code
A very good response to the Da Vinci Code from Bishop NT Wright who is a renowned and well-respected New Testament scholar of today, taken from his website Response. He urges Christians and non-Christians alike to differentiate facts from fiction and exposes the myths in the best-seller and as a result, he provides a very well-thought and thorough response to the phenomenonal success arsing from the book.
Lift your eyes...
a heart warming revival story of a small church in South Wales. I got it from the CWM e-newsletter. There is hope for the world, including UK and Europe because we have a God who gives us this hope! Praise God!
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Synod Youth Ministry New Books!!!
1) Bernall, Misty She Said Yes
2) Dobson, James C. Preparing for Adolescence
3) Bock, Darrell L. Breaking the Da Vinci Code (Audio CD)
4) LaRue, Jan / York, Frank Protecting Your Child in an X-Rated World
5) Peterson, Eugene H. Working the Angles
6) Peterson, Eugene H. Take and Read
7) Piper, John Brothers, We Are Not Professionals
Re: A Journey… (an email response from pastor lai kein)
Hi sis, good evening! :)
Hmm you sent me an interesting article. The writer focused on her internal journey of learning from life experiences more and more about herself. You asked my opinion. In a sense, I agree with her. From every experience in life, we can learn something, whether the experience was good or bad. When we think about how we responded to it, we realized our strengths and our weaknesses, our inner desires...
But there is also another way to look at life experience, which looks not in (as inside ourselves), but also up (as looking up to God). When we look up, we ask what is God's plan for us, why is He allowing this, where is He leading us to. Sometimes from bits and pieces here and there in our past experiences, we see a pattern, pointing us to a direction. Usually this is not very very clear, so we also need to daily walk with God, talk with Him about this, and listen to Him. We trust that God wants more than anything else, to show us the way, to guide us and lead us. All He wants us to do is to trust and obey.
We all want to quickly know the future, to know how things will turn out, we want God to quickly tell us everything, His whole plan for our lives. But maybe, to God, the journey is as important as the destination. Day by day, as we learn to listen to Him, as we practice trusting Him, as we walk in faith one step at a time even though we cannot see that far ahead, we grow stronger in our faith. In the process, we enjoy sweet fellowship with God. Perhaps this is what God intended all along, perhaps this is why sometimes despite our plead, He did not tell us everything.
So my sister, while you are praying and waiting, take this uncertain period of your life as a special learning time from God, train your heart to listen to His voice, to pay attention to Him. Take time to enjoy this journey with Him :)
God bless,
Lk
Hmm you sent me an interesting article. The writer focused on her internal journey of learning from life experiences more and more about herself. You asked my opinion. In a sense, I agree with her. From every experience in life, we can learn something, whether the experience was good or bad. When we think about how we responded to it, we realized our strengths and our weaknesses, our inner desires...
But there is also another way to look at life experience, which looks not in (as inside ourselves), but also up (as looking up to God). When we look up, we ask what is God's plan for us, why is He allowing this, where is He leading us to. Sometimes from bits and pieces here and there in our past experiences, we see a pattern, pointing us to a direction. Usually this is not very very clear, so we also need to daily walk with God, talk with Him about this, and listen to Him. We trust that God wants more than anything else, to show us the way, to guide us and lead us. All He wants us to do is to trust and obey.
We all want to quickly know the future, to know how things will turn out, we want God to quickly tell us everything, His whole plan for our lives. But maybe, to God, the journey is as important as the destination. Day by day, as we learn to listen to Him, as we practice trusting Him, as we walk in faith one step at a time even though we cannot see that far ahead, we grow stronger in our faith. In the process, we enjoy sweet fellowship with God. Perhaps this is what God intended all along, perhaps this is why sometimes despite our plead, He did not tell us everything.
So my sister, while you are praying and waiting, take this uncertain period of your life as a special learning time from God, train your heart to listen to His voice, to pay attention to Him. Take time to enjoy this journey with Him :)
God bless,
Lk
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Bro (Sis), you gotta have FAITH
When the disciples failed to drive out a demon, they asked Jesus why. Jesus answered, "Because you have so little faith... if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
As a pastor, I was often times discouraged by Christians who are still unwilling or unable to surrender to Jesus. I asked God, "Lord, when will your children learn to love you, worship you and serve you? They seemed so caught up with themselves, so bent on doing their own things... I still dreamt that one day, we will become a people shining brightly for you in Singapore! Nothing I can do will make a difference..."
To that, Jesus gave me the same answer as He gave Peter while walking on water, "You of little faith. Why did you doubt?"
Indeed, I should doubt my own abilities. But why should I doubt God's abilities? Isn't He able to achieve for Himself all that would please Him? Isn't His children more precious to Him than any gold or silver put together on earth?
O, me of little faith. I would wise up and continue to be God's faithful co-laborer. Though I'm weak, He shall show me His own might by raising for Himself a new generation of spiritual warriors!
As a pastor, I was often times discouraged by Christians who are still unwilling or unable to surrender to Jesus. I asked God, "Lord, when will your children learn to love you, worship you and serve you? They seemed so caught up with themselves, so bent on doing their own things... I still dreamt that one day, we will become a people shining brightly for you in Singapore! Nothing I can do will make a difference..."
To that, Jesus gave me the same answer as He gave Peter while walking on water, "You of little faith. Why did you doubt?"
Indeed, I should doubt my own abilities. But why should I doubt God's abilities? Isn't He able to achieve for Himself all that would please Him? Isn't His children more precious to Him than any gold or silver put together on earth?
O, me of little faith. I would wise up and continue to be God's faithful co-laborer. Though I'm weak, He shall show me His own might by raising for Himself a new generation of spiritual warriors!
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