[Apologetics] Re: Da Vinci Code - Adventist Review

[Art Kelly]

To successfully combat the evil of this book and
movie, Catholics should be fully prepared to speak out
against The DaVinci Code. 

It would be nice if we could count on the Protestants
to "put their shoulder to the wheel," but I suspect
that many of them are secretly pleased that the
Catholic Church is being attacked.

Before the blasphemous movie, "Dogma," was released, I
predicted that Protestants would hate it as much as
Catholics. Boy, was I wrong! I found numerous
fundamentalist websites that loved the fact that the
Church was being lampooned by this movie.

I suspect that a lot of the same will hold true for
The DaVinci Code, i.e. Protestants will mildly protest
some parts of the movie, while hitting hard against
the Catholic Church as much as they can.

Catholics will have to answer The DaVinci Code
essentially alone. The movie and book are very serious
attacks that MUST be refuted!

It would be nice if Protestants would put aside their
intramural dispute with Catholics and unite to fight
the totally anti-Christian Da Vinci Code.

However, I've already seen a long message from a VERY
prominent Protestant minister who could not resist
making reference to the Last Supper, where "Jesus
passed around bread and wine SYMBOLIZING his body and
blood."

Much more of this kind of thing will follow.

Catholics had better be ready to be the only COMPLETE
opponents of The Da Vinci Code.

Art

--- Stephen Korsman <skorsman at theotokos.co.za> wrote:

> Here's my blog on The Da Vinci Code.  Mainly used it
> to change the subject, but there are a few good
> links in it too.  A lot of groups, though, will
> continue with the Constantine theme, I think.
> 
> God bless, Stephen
> Da Vinci Code - Adventist Review
> May 7, 2006, 8:43 pm 
> The Adventist Review's response (by David Marshall)
> to The Da Vinci Code is critical of the book/movie,
> but still continues on to agree with it on matters
> that have long formed part of Adventist mythology.
> 
>   Yes, Constantine created a religion that
> represented a mix of Christian and pagan practice.
> No, he did not rewrite the New Testament.
> 
> No, Constantine didn't create a new religion. 
> Historians today do not subscribe to that opinion,
> which has long since been condemned to the archives
> of mythology.  However, because it helps support the
> anti-Catholic position of Adventism, it's accepted
> by many Adventists.
> 
> Bill Cork writes on his blog:
> 
>   Fortunately, the church historians I had as
> professors at Atlantic Union College and Loma Linda
> University knew better.
> 
> So not all Adventist historians subscribe to this
> view.
> 
> But of those who do, what exactly did Constantine
> add?
> 
> The Trinity?  Some Adventists are Arian or
> semi-Arian, and non-Trinitarian, and would accept
> this position.  Adventism, as a whole, is
> Trinitarian, although this took a few decades to
> reach formal consensus.  Although Constantine
> convened the Council of Nicaea in 324 AD, he did not
> dictate its outcome.  The Trinity had been
> developing in clarity long before Nicaea in the
> writings of early Christians, and what needed to be
> done at Nicaea was decide between two views - the
> older view that Jesus was fully God, and the later
> view that he was not.
> 
> Sunday observance?  Samuele Bacchiocchi - whose
> credentials for his thesis/book are being questioned
> - leads the Adventist voice of disagreement here. 
> No credible historians claim this any more - it's
> left for those who avoid historical facts because
> they disrupt their world-views.
> 
> Infant baptism?  This can be dated to long before
> Constantine in the early Christian writings.
> 
> The Catholic clergy?  The basis for deacons,
> priests, and bishops in a ministerial role is
> strongly supported by the Bible.  All three words
> are derived from words used to describe the ministry
> of Christian leaders in the New Testament.  And
> Christian witnesses from long before Constantine
> show that this leadership was recognised from the
> start.  Not to mention the witness of the New
> Testament.
> 
> I would say that while Dan Brown has rewritten
> history, so have Adventists.  It was not Constantine
> that fashioned a new religion out of Christianity
> and paganism, but Adventism, and other similar
> fundamentalist groups, who have fashioned a new
> religion for themselves - out of historical
> Christianity, adding in myths and legends to support
> whatever views have no real historical support, and
> removing history from the equation.
> 
> 
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> --
> Stephen Korsman
> skorsman at theotokos.co.za
> www.theotokos.co.za
> 
> IC | XC
> ---------
> NI | KA
> 


                           
  ART KELLY, ATM-S
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