Da Vinci Code-Gnosticism

Welcome to Every Thought Captive, I’m Phil Steiger.

One of the earliest challengers to Christianity was a religious off-shoot called Gnosticism.  While Gnosticism is complicated, one of its core tenants is that Jesus was divine, but was never human-he was spirit but not flesh.

You may not know it, but Gnostic writings are experiencing a resurgence in popularity thanks in large part to the book and movie, The Da Vinci Code.  The author, Dan Brown, claims that several accounts of Christ’s life that were suppressed by the church have now been discovered and they paint a very human Jesus who never claimed to be God.

In an unfortunate and ironic twist, in order to argue that Jesus was only a man, The Da Vinci Code relies on Gnostic writings.  You see, those writings actually agree that Jesus was divine-what they don’t believe is that Jesus was only a man.  Brown might have missed that day in history class.

This has been Every Thought Captive.  I’m Phil Steiger, pastor at Quail Lake Community Church and Director of Dayspring Center for Christian Studies.  For more information please visit everythoughtcaptive.org.