Da Vinci: Round 2

I'm going to do this Da Vinci thing in installments for a number of reasons. 1.) I'm too tired right now to write more than just a little, and 2.) I'm not that interested in it anymore, now that I've moved on to reading Ryrie's book on Dispensationalism.

Anyway, like I said, I'm pretty exhausted, so I definitely do not trust my grammar, spelling, and syntax right about now. However, I will point out one of the greatest flaws of the book's argument-- something that shoots the premise to pieces, once you apply simple logic to the "facts" presented by the author.

The book states that:
1.) Jesus was not divine, His deity was a myth created by Constantine (don't even get me started on Brown's completely false portrayal of Emporer Constantine); Jesus was only human, but possibly one of the greatest teachers to walk the earth (same old lie that's been propogated since the Pharisees told the Romans to post a guard at the tomb)
2.) Mary Magdelene was not a former prostitute that Jesus redeemed; she was a woman of Jerusalem who had great influence and power and who was married to Jesus, with whom she gave birth to a daughter. Mary Magdelene is the Holy Grail of legend because she was the "chosen vessel" of Christ (to bear the seed) and therefore is the culmination of the age-old concept of "The Sacred Feminine" (the belief that nature advocates the near-deity status of the female gender; and that man can only acheive true knowledge of God by having sex with woman-- in the orgasm he sees God). Basically, Mary Magdelene, a normal woman, is special because she was chosen by Christ.

Here's where this argument breaks down: If we grant the (heretical and bogus) assumption that Jesus was only a man, how in the world does that make his "choosing" of Mary Magdelene to be His wife significant?!? If Mary Magdelene is only a woman, and yet she is to be worshipped as the Holy Grail (which is what the book advocates) because she is chosen by Christ, then there must be something more significant to the person of Christ other than the fact that he was a great teacher. You cannot have both facts-- they are incompatible. Either Christ was God, and His choosing of Mary made her special (and therefore praiseworthy) or Christ was a normal human and Mary was a normal human and therefore, neither one is to be worshipped. All througout the novel, Brown equivocates and ignores this contradiction, presenting as "fact" what he wants the reader to believe.


Fortunately, I've got the inside track on the truth. Yep, I know the answer. 1.) Jesus didn't get married, and he didn't father a child-- read the Bible. Not an ounce of truth to Brown's claims. 2.) Jesus is God-- read Colossians and Ephesians. 3.) Mary Magdelene was a grateful sinner who had been forgiven by her Savior. Their relationship was that of a sheep to a Shepherd. Not a wife to a husband.

That's pretty much all I've got to say for now.

The Truth Shall Set You Free....

Nutri-Grain bars are neither.

Healing or Betrayal?

I had a dog that died right before Christmas of my senior year of high school. He wasn't my dad's dog or my mom's dog or my brother's dog.... he was my dog. He'd sleep at the foot of my bed. He'd wait for me to come home from school. He was my dog, my friend. And then one night, while trying to jump up on something in the middle of the night, he broke a disc in his back and couldn't walk. Less than 12 hours later, the vet ruled that it would be best to put him to sleep. In the space of 24 hours, my living, breathing friend who'd wag his tail when I'd walk through the door went from a dog to a pile of ashes. It hurt. Terribly. I cried and missed him a ton.

But time went by and the pain decreased. I didn't miss him as much. Sure, I missed him, but I didn't ache when I thought of him. I got less and less sad. We got a new dog. I began to slowly forget about Frisco (that was my dog's name).

And then it hit me one day-- I didn't miss Frisco that much anymore.... and I felt awful about it. I felt disloyal. I felt guilty. I felt like the biggest jerk in the world.

So, is it right? Time causes us to forget the pain.... but when we forget the one who's gone themself, are we right? I don't know.



I miss my friends. I know they are (for the most part) all coming back in the fall, but I wish they were here. However, I don't ache to be with them like I did right when they left. I'm getting more and more used to the routine of Santa Clarita without my closest friends.... so am I disloyal? Am I a jerk? Should I feel guilty? I don't know. I don't think so....


But the thing that hits me the most is that so often I neglect thinking about Christ; often more than I don't think about my friends. And the difference is that He hasn't gone anywhere. He's never left me. And yet I'll forget.

I think that's where I'm most faithless. And that's where I feel most guilty.

Praise be to Christ that he is the One spoken of in Hebrews 13-- the One who is the same yesterday, today and forever. When I am faithless, He is more than abundantly faithful. Though friends move away and move on, He will always be there. That's His promise.




And by the way, I finished the Da Vinci Code Wednesday morning. I'll blog more about it later.

As if there wasn't enough commentary on the Da Vinci Code by Christian Fundamentalists already, here come the ramblings of a 20yr. old college student

Yes, I am reading the Da Vinci Code. Don't label me a heretic or worse... a liberal. I'm about 2/3 of the way through with it, so if you've read it, don't ruin the end for me.

Here are my thoughts thus far:

It is incredibly intriguing. I have to force myself to put it down.

It is driven basically by once concept: plausibility. Not possibility or probability, but plausibility. This could happen.... but more than that, when you string the "facts" together the way the author does, you're of course a blinded fool not to agree that this is how history should be known.

Ugh.

Some of the books basic flaws are the oldest tricks in the book:

1.) immediately create a mutually exclusive dichotomy between what is "religious" and what is "true"
2.) cast those who defend religion in an antagonistic light and make those who are the liberal, intellectual, seekers of "truth" the protagonists
3.) reinforce your main points over and over in extremely subtle ways througout the narrative (in this case, any critical reader can see that Sophie's and Langdon's impeccable teamwork is merely Brown trying to convey the veracity of the Divine Feminine)
4.) THIS IS THE BIGGEST AND MOST DANGEROUS FLAW OF THE BOOK (as with every false teaching): Mix just enough true, historical, actual facts (and the book does have a lot of them) and tie them together just right in order to create an effect that establishes a brand new "truth" in and of itself. In other words, hit the mark, or just close enough to the mark, enough times, and you'll get whatever you want.

And people believe this.


It is my firm conviction that people should not read this book unless they have at least two of the following three things:

1.) a decent knowledge of the entire Bible
2.) a decent knowledge of Church History and European History
3.) half a brain

(odds are if you have the first two, you'll have the third)



I'll keep you posted on what more I find in this piece of...... literature. I'm still debating on how long the essay I'm going to write in response to the book is going to be.


P.S.-- if you're planning on reading the book, it's really really really good until Chapter 55. Then, if you're a Bible-Believing Christian (and you have a historical-grammatical-contexual-literal hermeneutic), it'll start to tick you off royally.

To My One Consistent Commenter (and Quite Possibly Only Reader)

You know who you are.

Thank you.

I don't write this blog to impress anyone. My goal is to collect, refine, and convey my thoughts and subsequently bring God glory.

But it is nice to know that someone actually reads. And it's even nicer to know that the person who still reads has had every reason to quit a long time ago.

Thank you.

Saturday afternoon....

It is getting hotter and hotter in Santa Clarita... most of you know I'm not a huge fan of heat....

I really want to be deep right now, to say something moving, to make a profound theological impact on the blogosphere that will resound throughout cyberspace, but I can't think of anything. Nothing deep. I suppose I could write about what I'm learning from the character study of Saul (the King, not Paul) I'm doing... except I'm still trying to put together the pieces. I had intended to study dispensationalism really in depth, but I started on this Saul thing and I just can't stop. He is fascinating. So many chances to get it right. He had tons of privileges. He was the first king of Israel, for crying out loud. And yet, without fail, he blows it, time after time. Even in death, he was a failure-- he committed suicide!

But I can't get much deeper than that right now. Summer's kinda zapping me. I pretty much went this past schoolyear non-stop and I'm still feeling pretty drained.

I'm so glad God is not like us. I think that if I was a racehorse, I'd probably be slated for the glue factory right about now. I honestly don't know how I'm gonna do two more years of undergrad, let alone grad school. But God doesn't give up on us. He doesn't turn us out to pasture. He takes the broken, the wrecked, the exhausted, the sinful, the wretched, the stressed, the confused, the helpless, and He does something with them. I think He's still got some use for me left.... how do I know? As of right now, I'm not dead. And as long as I'm living, there's something more I can do for God's glory. Now that's a cool thought. I don't think I'm gonna do any of the things I thought I'd be doing with my life as recently as a year ago..... but I know I'm still going to be used by God for God.


Ok, I've got to go watch a friend get married now. Now there's a deep thought-- I'm about to watch one of the people I graduated from High school with (only two years ago!) GET MARRIED. Holy cow.

A few discoveries from today...

Tootsie Rolls taste exactly the same when you find them buried in the bottom of a box a year after you placed them there.... I truly believe that they could survive a nuclear holocaust.

A whole day can slip away if you're not careful to redeem every moment.

Carrot Cake and dark chocolate are like sin... they satisfy just for a little bit and then after it's done you feel like you have to make up for it...

You have to preach the gospel to yourself even when you're hanging out in your house all day.

I never ever ever ever want to go fully into retirement. Doing nothing all day sucks. I can't wait to go back to work.

I like Jack Johnson.... his music's pretty good.

"Monday found me on my knees again...."

So yesterday afternoon, I checked my phone and I had three new voicemails. One from Robby, one from Hugh, one from Micah. Nothing really significant about the voicemails except they came from three of my best friends. I'm really gonna miss those guys this summer.

It hit me Saturday that the semester is over. The first wake up call came in the afternoon. It was around 3:30 pacific standard time, and I walked outside my house to the front yard, when what should I encounter but one of the neighbor girls (my age) washing her car in her bikini top and a pair of daisy dukes. I kid you not, my immediate, knee-jerk, first reaction was to think "good night, that's inappropriate! I'd better tell her RA!"

And then I realized that there are no RA's in the real world. I walked back inside the house and told Hugh, "we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto."

It hit me also Saturday evening that the semester is over. I was driving home from taking Hugh to LAX and I was thinking about going to church on Sunday and I almost began to start calling Mary, Micah, and Hannah to see who was driving to church..... and then it hit me that they've all gone home. No more carpools to Grace during which we'd sing and pray and talk about God and the sermons we'd just heard (those were seriously the highlight of my week). That was the toughest.

And so Spring '06 is over. I had really not expected much out of this semester. I had figured it would fly by, like last spring. In many ways, it did fly by, but looking back, it was my best semester to date. I made some incredible friendships and learned some really hard lessons. God was gracious and kind and loving thoughout it all.

And now it's summer. I was talking about this weird feeling with Hugh before he left... it's like you're a runner, and you just crossed the finish line, but you're runningmates are all gone.... you finish alone.

Oh well, I think I'm done talking about alone-ness for a while. You can only do that so much before you get bored with yourself.

I made a great discovery yesterday-- putting melted cheddar cheese and salsa on top of steak is AMAZING!!!!! Everyone should try it. It is sooooooooo good.

Calvin had this favorite latin saying of his that went "Post tenebras, Lux!" It means, "after darkness, Light!" He used it to refer to his salvation experience, but I think it applies to being done with finals as well.

Ok, well, I better get going. See you later!

"Alright guys, take a knee..."

So as of today I'm officially halfway through my college career. Tonight marks my last night on curfew. I'm done with finals. By God's grace, I survived. I told someone tonight that I feel exactly like how I did during football right after we finish my least favorite part of practice-- laps. We would run about a mile to two miles just to warm up, and when you come back from doing laps, you're so tired but so excited because you know the hard stuff (running) is over and the fun stuff (tackling and hitting on the freshmen) is about to start. It's the same way right now-- finals are over and summer can begin.

I am soooooo excited about this summer. I've got a whole stack of books to read. I'm looking forward to planning WOW and taking some extra classes. I'm stoked about continuing to go to my Bible study.

I'm gonna miss my friends, though. A lot. I will be praying for them and eagerly awaiting their return.

Once I got into high school, I developed this pattern of looking back at the end of each schoolyear and evaluating "how I did." Often, I would conclude depressed because I would look back and just be discouraged at the countless ways I failed.

Now I try to look back and not so much focus on what I did or didn't do, but on what God has done.... and He's done a lot....

But right now I just realized that I've got to pack up my room, so I'll write more on what God has done later...

adios.

Quite Possibly the Best Blog/Xanga Posting I Have Ever Read...

You absolutely have to read this. It is Gunner's most recent post. Read it.

http://www.xanga.com/gunner23

It's the post from Saturday, May 6th. Nothing I could say would even come close to this.

Lead of Love

It feels like everything and nothing are going around and around in my head right now.

This past weekend was Executive Council Retreat. I was pleasantly surprised. For the most part, we bonded extremely well and were pretty productive and still had a lot of fun. It's a very random group, but I think we mesh a whole heck of a lot better than I was expecting. I really think it has something to do with the fact that none of us are super good friends with the others.... it kinda gives us all a blank slate, more or less. Pretty cool.

My sandals are starting to smell pretty bad. This is not a good sign. It took my last pair of sandals almost a whole year to start smelling like this.... and I've only been wearing this pair for a few months.

I just finished going through the books of Judges and Ruth. Judges pretty much rocked my world. I saw in the Israelites my own propensity to play the harlot after gods that don't satisfy. It was like seeing a mirror image of yourself. I would find myself just asking in frustration, "why don't they just get it and choose to love God?!?" and then I realized that I fail in this same way so often. I am thankful for a merciful and faithful God.

Sin has long-lasting consequences. I really don't know what to say about certain things. I think I'm enduring punishment for something I didn't do; but then again, I've gotten away with a lot.... so I guess it works out. I really don't know what to say. It's kinda frustrating, but I should've expected it. Some people don't change. Some people don't want to think others change.

God answers prayer. I've prayed to be humbled and He's done it. I've prayed for wisdom and He's given it (although I could use a lot more). I've prayed that He would do whatever it takes to bring me closer to Him and He's done it, is continuing to do it, and I trust will still do it. It makes me think of the Caedmon's Call song, "Lead of Love".

I've got a ton of homework to do, so I better get going. Hopefully I'll produce a more exhorting and uplifting post soon.

Adios.