A Christian Response to The Da Vinci Code

Nashotah House Theological Seminary, 2006

Lecture 7 (14 March 2006):     Dr. Mel Lawrenz, Elmbrook Church

Was Jesus' Divinity Based on a Vote?

The Early Church and Jesus' Divinity

1.   Introduction:

a. A key historical premise of The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown: “... almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false” (p.231), stemming back to a meeting of bishops in the city of Nicea in A.D. 325, where they consolidated their power base by inventing the idea of a divine Jesus Christ.

b. “... until that moment in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet ... a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.”
“Not the Son of God?”
“Right ... Jesus’ establishment as ‘the Son of God’ was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicea.”
“Hold on, you’re saying Jesus’ divinity was the result of a vote?”
“A relatively close vote at that.” (The DaVinci Code, pp. 233).

c. A watershed issue:  it gets at the core issue of the identity of Jesus.

§     Not a new idea.

a. Historical oddities in the novel:  the “Vatican”? the “Roman Catholic Church”?

•  This is the early fourth century.

2.   Thesis of this Lecture:         The historic understanding  of  the  person of Jesus Christ

      as uniquely human and divine emerged in the very first generations of Christians who reflected on the biblical text and responded in devotion and worship. A progression of questions and controversies from the second through the fifth centuries resulted in more and more specific definitions of the person of Christ. The Council of Nicea in A.D. 325 took up the specific matter of the deity of Christ because of a radical Alexandrian philosophy/theology which asserted that Jesus belonged to the created order, rather than that of Creator.  The theology coming out of Nicea was neither novel nor political.  It prevailed because it lined up with theology and devotion of most of the churches in the Christian world at the time.

3.   Christ and Early Christian Devotion:

a. A.D. 112:  A letter from Pliny the Younger, Roman Governor of Bythinia, to the Roman emperor Trajan concerning the early followers of Jesus:

"[O]n an appointed day they had been accustomed to meet before daybreak, and to recite a hymn antiphonally to Christ, as to a god."

4.   Jesus and God in New Testament Reflection:  The meaning of "deity."

a. The attributes of “deity”:

1.   His power:

Mark 4.41:    They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”

Mark 5.8:      For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you evil spirit!”

Mark 5.41:    He took her by the hand and said to her, [Talitha koum!]  (which means,        “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”)

2.   His glory:

1 Cor. 2.8:    None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not      have crucified the Lord of glory.

John 17.5:     And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you     before the world began.

3.   His holiness:

Acts 3.14:     You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be      released to you.

Isa. 8.13:       The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you     are to fear, he is the one you are to dread.

4.   His eternality:

John 17.5:     And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you     before the world began.

5.   His immutability:

Heb. 13.8:     Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Mal. 3.6        “I, the LORD, do not change. So you, O descendents of Judah, are not          destroyed.”

6.   His omniscience:

John 4.29:     “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the          Christ?”

b.   The prerogatives of deity:

1.   The authority to declare:

Matt. 12.8:    “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Mark 13.31:  “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

2.   The forgiveness of sins:

Mark 2.7       “Why does this fellow talk like that? He’s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

Mark 2.10:    “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins...”

Luke 7.47:     “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven--for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven loves little.”

3.   The act of judgment:

Matt. 24.30–31:     “At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.”

4.   The acceptance of worship:

Matt. 14.33:  Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the     Son of God.”

Matt. 28.9:    Suddenly Jesus met them, “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshipped him.

5.   Participation in creation:

John 1.3.       Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Col. 1.16.      For by him all things were created: things in heaven and things on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

Acts 3.15      “You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.

6.   The solicitation of faith:

John 14.1      “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.

John 14.6:     Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

c.   Claims of deity:

1.   Union with God:

John 10.30:   “I and the Father are one.”

John 10.33:   “We are not stoning you for any of these,” replied the Jews, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

2.   The manifestation of God:

John 14.9:     Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’”

Col. 2.9         For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form

3.   Total participation with God:

John 5.17:     Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”

John 5.18:     For this reason all the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God.

John 16.15:   “All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.”

d.   Names of deity:

1.   Jehovah:

John 8.58:     “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

Exod. 3.14:   God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I AM has sent me to you.”

2.   God (theos):

John 1.1:       In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 20.28:   Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Titus 2.3:       ... while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ

Rom. 9.5:      Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen.

3.   Lord (kyrios):

Luke 2.11:     “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

Luke 3.4:       As is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet: “A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’”

Rev. 19.16:   On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:  KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

4.   Son of God:

Matt. 16.16:  Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Matt. 26.63:  But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under the oath by the living god: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”

5.   Son of Man:

Matt. 26.64:  “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

5. Classic Christologies: New Testament to Chalcedon:  see attached chart.

6.   Nicea, The Council:  Controversy began in Alexandria, A.D. 319:  Arius, Alexander and some new hymns:

§ the remarkable gathering of bishops at Nicea

§       the emperor and the council

§       the outcome of the council

7.   The Creed (from Caeserea to Nicea to Constantinople):

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, only-begotten, that is, of one substance with the Father, God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the Father, through whom all things were made, things in heaven and things on earth; who for us men and for our salvation came down and was made flesh, and became man... And those that say ‘there was when he was not,’ and ‘before he was begotten he was not,’ and that, ‘He came into being from what-is-not,’ or those that allege, that the son of God is ‘of another substance or essence’ or ‘created,’ or ‘changeable’ or ‘alterable,’ these the catholic and apostolic church anathematizes.

8.   Orthodoxy and Heresy: React? Respond?

Christian responses to The DaVinci Code:  Class discussion.