The Leaves Have Fallen

Spring time may not seem the appropriate season to think of falling leaves. But the thought goes beyond the seasonal cycle to that of life and death. In the spring of the year all of nature invites us to enjoy the rebirth of the seeming deadness of winter. Trees leaf out in varying shades of green. Azaleas bloom in radiant splendor. Dogwoods are adorned in white-like bridal dresses. The impatiens are asking the pansies to step aside. The fescue and centipede grasses are preparing for their summer cuttings. The breezes are softer. The daylight is longer. However, all this will fade into the lengthening shadows of fall. God said it would be this way, “while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.” These words to Noah define nature’s boundaries. But attached to this “life and death” cycle is the story of the fall of man. All of nature is in death’s grip. All of God’s creatures die. The perpetual perfect environment of the Garden of Eden gave way to sin’s curse upon creation.

It doesn’t take the falling leaves of summer’s death to open our hearts to winter’s grief. We have to bid farewell to loved ones and friends, never to see them again in this life. In recent months a daughter has been left with only the memories of her father. A son will no longer talk with his father. A brother read Psalm 23, prayed, and told his brother good-bye. Death leaves grief in its wake. The grief of winter sets in when our fathers and brothers leave us to finish our course in this life without them. Pam Newton, Ed Sherwood, and Bill Thorn know about those cold winds that blow over the hills and valleys of our memories.

Grief is an internal pain almost indescribable. A sea of thoughts and emotions inundate one’s life. It is a jolt, disorientation, confusion, disbelief, helplessness, depression, sadness, love, guilt, loneliness, unpredictable tears, weariness, and shock. Grief ravages us physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. You can know it is coming, but you can’t prevent it. Nor should you try to prevent it. Grief, a grace from God, is a response to any kind of loss (a broken relationship, loss of a job, a move, etc.). But death can be especially cruel. Mary and Martha were beside themselves with misery over the loss of their brother Lazarus. They believed the resurrection would ultimately remedy their grief, but this truth did not keep them from weeping. Christians grieve. God has appointed grief as a natural and beneficial consequence of man’s fallen condition. God Himself grieves. He grieves over the sins of lost humanity and those of His children (Gen. 6:6; Psa. 78:40; Isa. 63:10; Eph. 4:30). Christians don’t grieve in the same manner as non-Christians do. The difference is hope. The apostle Paul comforted the believers in the Thessalonian church with the assurance that there is hope in Christ (1 Thess. 4:13-18). Yes, the believer will grieve, but not as the unbeliever who has no hope. Grief is immersed in a sea of hopelessness for non-Christians because of the absence of Jesus Christ in their lives. In Christ there is the forgiveness of sin, eternal life and joy. Death is not loss but gain for those who belong to Christ (Phil. 1:21). The cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ have cut the roots of grief because He became a man of sorrows, and became acquainted with grief (Isa. 53:3). His entire life was filled with pain and suffering. He even grieved over the grief-stricken (Jn. 11:35).

Where is the hope that banishes despairing grief? When Jesus came to Lazarus’ funeral, He found a sobbing and grief-stricken family. He was grieved and angered by what He encountered. Death, the enemy, the child of sin, had done its vile work. A brother had been ripped from joyful family gatherings. So what did the Son of Man do? He stepped toward the tomb of Lazarus as the “champion who prepares for conflict.” He cried aloud for all to hear, “Lazarus, come forth.” Tear-stained faces gave way to joy-filled amazement as a four-day-dead Lazarus emerged from his tomb. A word from Christ had brought instant life. The violent tyranny of death had been overcome. This was a sign of things to come. The leaf of life that had fallen to the ground had been restored to the splendor of a hope-filled spring. Death is no match for the Lord Jesus Christ. In His own death, death was defeated. The empty tomb of Jesus guarantees the Christian’s participation in the resurrection of life. It makes possible a life of abiding hope.

To my friends, Pam, Ed, and Bill, who grieve in this season when all nature sings the song of spring, find your comfort in our Champion, the Savior. All who die with a faith fixed upon Christ and the precious gift of eternal life in Him are but leaves that have fallen momentarily. Those who die in Christ go to be with Him to wait for that great resurrection morning. For us who remain to finish out our earthly purpose God gives the grace to transform death’s loss to eternal gain. We who grieve must remember that all genuine comfort comes from the God of all comfort (Lam. 2:32-33). Grief is a favorable time to draw near to God, to talk to God, to learn from God. It is the opportunity for Christ to be exalted. It is a time to bear our souls before God and delight in His mercy and be consoled.

Thank you to one of our own for the following hope-drenched words you have written in the early morning of your grief.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

Thoughts at Sunrise

A cold chill blows across the hill
Light’s first glimmer in the eastern sky.
The earth stirs from its slumbering still.
Dark’s hold loosed, morning draws nigh.

A young boy’s hand upon a plow
Dreaming of life beyond the farm.
Leaving home he fulfilled his vow
With great hopes and high aims armed.

Too soon his time has gone
His race run, his course done.
He gave us a lasting offer
Family, friends, and helping others.

Late in life to the Lord he drew
Not seeking honor or his due.
The richest blessing he received –
God’s forgiveness on him bestowed.

Mountain shapes now with shining crowns,
Trees and fields come full in view
The warming light on golden ground,
The promise of life renewed.

Flowers cover that special place,
Their beauty tells of future grace.
An earth-worn temple just laid to rest
Will rise in glory at the Lord’s return.

Ed Sherwood

The Da Vinci Code - A Double-Fiction

The speed at which news travels in our modern world is head-spinning. The novel, The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown is one example of how quickly books and movies can dominate our cultural experience. Its intriguing plot, well-written prose, mass-media attention, and the controversy it has inspired have combined to make this book a best-seller. Undoubtedly, the movie with Tom Hanks playing a lead role will bring in the millions, both in attendance and money. By the second page of Brown’s fast-moving story the reader is hooked. Through increasing circles of suspense, surprising turns in the plot, and real-life locations, the audience can think they are reading a true story.

However, before one gets caught-up in the adventures of Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu, there is a play on the mind of the reader that can be dangerous. The author has placed the word “fact” in bold print regarding two organizations that are said to exist. One could be fooled into thinking that there is a line of truth being developed and forget that it is a work of fiction. The truth of the matter is, as has been noted elsewhere, the document that places Leonardo Da Vinci as a member of the Priory of Sion has been proved to be a forgery. But more serious is the attempt to re-write history and reinterpret Christianity according to a neo-pagan template. In order to keep the historical accuracy of biblical truth in sharp focus a number of facts need to be established.

Is the Da Vinci Code fact or fiction? It is fiction. And not only that, it is double- fiction. By definition a novel is an imaginary literary work. Dan Brown’s story didn’t happen and it could not happen. Why? Many of the ideas and claims of the characters in the story are outside the boundaries of truth. For example, Jesus was not a mere mortal. He did not marry Mary Magdalene. The Bible is not the creation of man. The Emperor Constantine did not “collate” the Bible. Mary Magdalene and Jesus did not have a child. The Gnostic gospels do not have the same authority as the Bible. There is no “Holy Grail.” If one wishes to believe these things they are certainly free to do so, but believing the moon is made of green cheese doesn’t make it so. The authority on which one bases his or her beliefs is subject to challenge and can be contrasted with the authority of the Bible. That is the fundamental issue. The double-fiction of The Da Vinci Code is the nature of literary style, namely prose fiction (the fault does not lie there), and the theological fiction its author puts into the mouths of its principle characters.

Did man create the Bible? No. The fictional character Sir Leigh Teabing makes the claim that “the Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great.” Human beings did not put the Bible together. The reason the Bible is the Bible is because of the essential nature of each of its sixty-six books. The words of Scripture are God’s and God does not make mistakes. God the Holy Spirit guided each human author to write exactly what God wanted to be said (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:20, 21). This not only guarantees its inerrancy, but also its final authority. No, “the Bible did not fall magically from the clouds” as Teabing observes. It was written over a period of 1600 years, and yet has a supernatural, internal consistency of truth. Jesus Christ Himself believed in the inerrancy and authority of Scripture (Matt. 22:29, 43-45; Jn. 10:33-36; 15:26, 27; 16:13). Both the Old and New Testaments rest on the authority of Jesus Christ. One cannot be consistent and speak of Jesus as a great prophet and at the same time deny the trustworthiness of the Bible. The Bible is God’s Word and has weathered the assaults of its critics through the centuries.

Was the deity of Jesus determined at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.? No. Jesus Christ is full deity as He said that he was. Again, Teabing makes a false claim when he says, “Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet…a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.” This is completely fallacious. The Bible reveals Jesus Christ as claiming His own deity (Jn. 5:13; 8:57, 58; 10:30). His apostles believed Him to be the Son of God (2 Pet. 1:1; 3:18; Rom. 9:5; Col. 1:19). If Jesus were not God in human flesh (without human sin), then He was a fraud. We have no Savior to save us from our sins. The apostles gave their lives for a deceiver. And there is no Christianity. Constantine did not turn Jesus into a deity. The early church councils did not make Jesus God by a vote. The Council of Nicaea rejected the heretical teachings of Arius, who taught that Jesus was of a different essence or substance from the Father. The vote of the gathered bishops against Arius’ views was 298 to 2. The bishops were merely acknowledging what was claimed by Jesus and believed by the apostles. Jesus has always been God, was God during His incarnation, and will never cease to be God (Jn. 1:1; Phil. 2:6-11).

Did Jesus marry Mary Magdalene and father a child by her? No. This is a complete fabrication. The fictional historian Teabing states that “the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is part of the historical record.” Teabing is further convinced that Leonardo Da Vinci painted Mary Magdalene into his famous portrait of “The Last Supper” at the right hand of Jesus. Granted that John, who was reclining on Jesus at the Passover meal (Jn. 13:23), is pictured as somewhat effeminate looking, but that proves nothing. The true spiritual head of the church is Jesus Christ, not Mary Magdalene (Eph. 5:23). Dan Brown has adopted the Mary Magdalene of historical revisionists for his conspiracy theory, not the Mary Magdalene of the Bible. The Mary Magdalene of the four Gospels of the New Testament bears no resemblance to the one constructed from various apocryphal works, medieval legends, modern conspiracy theories, and the writings of feminist scholars. In the flawed logic of Teabing (Dan Brown’s articulate heretic), Jesus must have been married because at least one of the Bible’s gospels would have explained why he remained a bachelor. The fact that the New Testament is silent about the marital status of Jesus thunders with meaning. The purpose for which the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth was best accomplished through the single-focused nature of his life, namely, death and resurrection. For further discussion concerning the question “was Jesus married?” see Darrell Bock’s Breaking the Da Vinci Code.

Was there a conspiracy to cover up the truth about Jesus and Mary Magdalene? Absolutely not. Conspiracy theories are seductive. They become easy explanations for the things we want to believe. Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code taps into a wish that fallen man cherishes. “Christianity is not what it seems. It is the Big Lie. Jesus Christ was a very religious man but not God. There isn’t only one way to heaven as Jesus taught.” These kinds of thoughts and opinions are confirmed for many when a popular novel and movie come along like The Da Vinci Code. Conspiracy theories have to be based on historical facts. Brown substitutes unsubstantiated ideas such as the Gnostic “unaltered gospels” for the biblical text of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. He postulates the true worship of the Divine Feminine as having been suppressed by scheming male leadership in the early church. He wants a neo-gnostic, moral and theological impostor to replace historic, biblical Christianity. Dan Brown’s book will eventually be the stuff of used book sales and long forgotten cultural trivia. The truth of the gospel in Jesus Christ will continue to offer the only hope for a sin-cursed world.

Is there a conspiracy whose plot must be exposed? The real conspiracy is the one that Satan sponsors and propagates which is the attempt to build a kingdom without God. Adam’s fallen race participates in this plot by refusing to worship the Son of God. But there is a way out of the domain of darkness. Sin’s grip can be broken. The way into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son is through repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ (Col. 1:13; Eph. 2:8-9). “The quest for the Holy Grail is the quest to kneel” not before the idols of this world, but to confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

The Da Vinci Code and the Deity of Jesus Christ

Any attack upon the deity of Jesus Christ is an assault upon the very foundation of the Christian faith. Christianity is Christ. At the heart of every heresy there is a fundamental error about the person and work of Jesus Christ. That is why any cult or kind of theological liberalism which denies the deity of Jesus Christ cannot be considered true, biblical Christianity. In this ecumenical day where religious inclusiveness is the goal, Christ is often moved to the side and the talk is, rather vaguely, about God. Jesus made it quite clear that, “He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him” (Jn. 5:23). The fact is if the deity of Jesus Christ is rejected, then God is insulted and rejected.

A recent hostile offensive against Jesus Christ has been launched in the best selling novel, The Da Vinci Code. The fictitious character Sir Leigh Teabing lectures Robert Landon and Sophie Neveu on the nature of the “Holy Grail” (for those who have not read the book or do not intend to, the Holy Grail is not the cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper but the alleged documentation concerning the sacred feminine as found in Mary Magdalene). With arrogant aplomb he tells them that Jesus was “not the Son of God.” The reader over-hears a lengthy discourse that informs us that “Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet…a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless.” An uninformed audience may take Mr. Teabing’s assertions at face-value, even though it is only a part of a work of fiction. What has actually happened is that the author, Dan Brown, has created a double-fiction. Not only is the story an imaginative literary work, so are the words of Teabing, the world renowned “Grail researcher.” The denial of Christ’s deity is not the only absurdity foisted upon the millions who read the book and see the movie. But such an egregious claim concerning Jesus warrants a full exposure to the light of historical realities.

The only accurate and trustworthy record we have about the full deity of Christ is the Bible. The lines of evidence are bold and clear. The names of deity are ascribed to Jesus. In Hebrews 1:8 (Psa. 45:6-7) He is designated as God. When Thomas said of Jesus, “My Lord and My God” (Jn. 20:28) he was not being profane but worshipful. Jesus tied the Pharisees in theological knots when He said that David spoke of Him (Messiah) as “my Lord” (Psa. 110:1; Matt. 22:44). Jesus possesses all the attributes of deity. He is eternal (Jn. 1:1), omnipresent (Matt. 18:20; 28:20), omniscient (Matt. 16:21; Lk. 6:8), omnipotent (Mk. 5:11-15; Matt. 8:26-27), and immutable (Christ does not change, Heb. 13:8; Jas. 1:17). Jesus performs work which only God can do. He is the creator (Jn. 1:3; Col. 1:16) and sustainer of the universe (Col. 1:17). He forgives sin (only God can forgive sin, Mk. 2:1-12; Isa. 43:25). The miracles of Christ witness to His deity (walking on water, raising the dead, etc.). Jesus received worship and claimed to be God (Jn. 5:23; 10:30, “I and the Father are One”). This avalanche of biblical attestation to the full deity of Jesus Christ is the reason that the church believes that He is the God-man, not because “Jesus’ divinity was the result of a vote.”

The author of The Da Vinci Code makes Mr. Teabing an embarrassment by having him say such absurdities as “Constantine turned Jesus into a deity.” Those who knew Jesus best, the apostles of the New Testament, left an indelible record as to who He was and is. If Jesus is not God, He could not have been “a great and powerful man.” The claims of Christ about Himself leave us with only two options. In the words of C. S. Lewis, He was a liar, a lunatic, or Lord. Those who would have us believe that Jesus was merely a man are the ones who are attempting to rewrite history. Quite pathetically, Robert Langdon (The “Harvard Symbologist” who gets caught up in the search for the “Holy Grail”) tells Sophie, his companion in gullibility, that Christ’s virgin birth and His miracles are only metaphors. It’s all “religious allegory” he claims. This verbal slight of hand is a favorite trick of skeptics in real life who want to evaporate a literal and actual fact of history in the Scriptures. One could, of course, read the book and not buy into such nonsense. Fiction doesn’t have to be about truth in order to entertain. But one of the dangers of reading or viewing things that are contrary to a Christian worldview is that an immature believer in Jesus Christ can be mentally and emotionally manipulated into a compromise with error. Non-Christians can be made to feel a bit more comfortable in their unbelief. The tragedy is that self-deception makes the broad road that leads to eternal destruction easier to travel.

What is really at stake in the belief that Jesus was fully divine? Why all the fuss? If Jesus were not God in human flesh, then He could not have died to save us from our sins. It requires an infinite God to bear the full penalty for human iniquity. A finite creature can never bridge the gap between God and man (1 Tim. 2:5). Sinful human beings need a sinless mediator. Only Jesus Christ as fully God is qualified to bring us to God. How serious is it to discard the witness of God to the full deity of the Son of God? Mr. Teabing and company, meet the Apostle John: “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father” (1 Jn. 2:23). The “Holy Grail” is the free grace of God that gives the sinner everlasting life found in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Teabings, Langdons, and Sophies of this world miss that infinitely valuable treasure. God sent His only son Jesus to provide eternal life and joy based upon the infinite value of His death. That is not a novel idea.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church

Jesus Christ and the Red Dragon

Dragons are frightful creatures which haunt the halls of our imagination. Stories and paintings abound that tell us of a time when valiant men fought and killed these menacing monsters of the ancient world. One particular dramatic scene by the Renaissance artist Jacopo Bellini shows a warrior with sword and shield engaged in battle with a winged reptilian adversary. Satan is symbolized in the Book of Revelation as a great, red dragon whose intent is to destroy the Virgin Mary’s child (Rev. 12:4). Though the devil makes his appearance as an angel of light he is in reality a fierce, depraved antagonist to God. The Old Testament unfolds a drama of conflict between the seed of the woman (the coming Christ-child) and the seed of the serpent (Satan) (Gen. 3:15). Satan’s desire is to establish an enduring kingdom independent of God and to do this, Jesus Christ, Israel’s Messiah, must be eliminated as a threat. All through the Bible Satan can be seen attempting to destroy the Lamb of God either by death or deception. We are reminded by all this that there are “hidden forces” behind the course of human events determined to get rid of Jesus Christ as the one “who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron” (Rev. 12:5; Psa. 2:9).

It was Jesus who said that the devil was a murderer from the beginning (Jn. 8:44). Cain was doing the devil’s work when he killed Abel. It was Satan’s desire to corrupt the line of Seth. Abraham endangered Sarah and the messianic seed by lying. Rebekah’s plan to cheat Esau out of his birthright and the consequent enmity of Esau against Jacob was a threat to the promised seed of Abraham (Gen. 27). Pharaoh and Egypt’s allegiance to her pantheon of gods stood as the sinister background to the murder of male children in Israel (Ex. 1:15-22). Male infanticide was but another strategy of Satan to remove the possibility of the coming of Israel’s Messiah. The Amalekites’ war on Israel, the Canaanite’s moral and spiritual corruption of Israel, the apostasy of Israel, Saul’s attacks upon David, Queen Athaliah’s attempt to destroy the royal seed (2 Chron. 22:10) and Haman’s attempt to slaughter the Jews (Eshter 3-9) were all a part of the conflict of the ages.

The consistent attempts of the Israelites to murder their own children for sacrificial purposes was a self-inflicted, Satanically inspired drive to destroy the seed of the woman. If the Messiah could not come, God’s covenant with Abraham fails. Antiochus Epiphanes turned his hatred upon Israel and foreshadowed the future Antichrist’s anti-Semitic campaign in the Great Tribulation (Dan. 11:21-35). Following in the footsteps of other enemies of the coming Messiah, Herod the Great declared war on all male children in Bethlehem from two years old and under, as a desperate attempt to kill any would-be rival to his dynasty (Matt. 2:16). In a further advance against the redemptive plan of God the temptation of Jesus was an all-out assault of the devil to make Jesus fail. Satan would have loved nothing better than the disqualification of Israel’s Messiah and the Savior of the world.

The works of the devil were rendered a mortal blow at the cross through the atoning death of Jesus Christ (Heb. 2:15). However, until his final judgment Satan is mobile and prowls about as a roaring lion. So after the death and resurrection of the Son of God the great, red dragon had to change his mode of attack. At His ascension Jesus left the domain of the devil and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Heb. 12:2). Since he could not prevent the sin and death-slaying work of God, Satan would seek to deceive the nations regarding Jesus Christ. Jesus and the apostles predicted that this would happen (Matt. 24:11, 24; 1 Tim. 4:1). Satan is a liar and sponsors all maligning witness against the person of Christ. At the dawn of the church age a religious philosophy that eventually came to be known as Gnosticism arose (from the Greek word gnosis, “knowledge”). This movement exalted knowledge and enlightenment as the key to saving oneself. Its dualistic philosophy, which views all matter as evil and the immaterial world of the spirit as good, promised salvation by the understanding of secret or esoteric knowledge. It was an early form of this false teaching that John attacks in his first epistle. Some were teaching that Christ’s spirit descended on Jesus at his baptism and ascended at the cross before he died. Others claimed that because God could not live in a human body, Jesus was only a phantom. This ancient heresy has been refurbished and sold as the “real truth” which has been suppressed by the church for two thousand years. At least this is what The Da Vinci Code would have you to believe. Yes, of course, the book is a novel (fiction), but it is the kind of fiction that, for many, the wish is the father of the thought. If only the Jesus of the Bible can be discredited, then we are off the hook. The author of this best selling book (over 40 million copies in hard back) uses the word “fact” at the beginning of his action packed page-turner to highlight some of the historical framework upon which his story hangs. The fact remains that the premise of this “intelligent thriller” is as flimsy as a ship’s sail made of tissue paper. The book, like such a ship, cannot weather the winds of reality. The truth about the Son of God is found in the infallible, inerrant Word of God, the Bible, not in the mythologies of the Gnostic libraries.

Satan is no match for the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ our Savior reigns supreme. That old red dragon can hiss, posture, attack, and deceive, but the seed of the woman has crushed the serpent’s head at the cross. Jesus’ deity was not the result of a vote. He is God the Son who has enjoyed eternal fellowship with the Father. So we say to The Da Vinci Code, sit down and shut up. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church