FICTION VS FACTS; LIES VS TRUTH

"It's just fiction" is the defense of Dan Brown's book and Ron Howard's movie, The DaVinci Code. You hear or read this from Christian leaders as well as from secular sources. Their point is: why the big fuss? To a degree I agree, but yet I feel compelled to say something here.

While the story is absolutely not fact and is pure fiction, there are too many who don't know the facts that are vulnerable to this lie. Hopefully some will be motivated, as some suggest they might, to seek answers about Jesus, but there are many more that will not. Unfortunately they will take this fiction and fashion a belief about Jesus that is based upon a lie. So few people, even professing Christians, are solidly founded in the Scriptures and have a biblical worldview adequate to know the difference between fact and fiction.

George Barna in his book, Think Like Jesus, said, "Survey after survey has shown that Americans - including a huge majority of born-again Christians and evangelical Christians - lack a biblical worldview." He went on to say that since he had become a Christian no one had ever taught him how to develop a Scripture-based worldview. My point here is that there is a fertile field, even among professing believers, that is ready and waiting to swallow up any seed of untruth that comes along. Without a Scriptural basis to challenge such ideas they are vulnerable to believe this lie.

Lies about Jesus are nothing new, only now lies are euphemistically called fiction. Make your lie into a fast paced, page turner, mystery novel and the world will buy your lie and make you a best selling author at the same time. Lawrence Block's book entitled, Telling Lies for Fun and Profit, a Manual for Fiction Writers, tells me I am not too far fetched in my characterization. It was pure fiction that claimed that Jesus opposed paying taxes to Caesar, was possessed of a demon, was a wine bibber and a glutton, and posed a threat to the Roman authority. It was those same lies that ultimately brought our Lord, Jesus, before Caiphus and Pontius Pilate that night that ended with Jesus being sentenced to death by cricifixion. Jesus has delt with fiction before. Good Friday and Easter celebrate His victory.

A lot of people, however, will read this book and/or see this movie, and in their ignorance of the truth, and with no knowledge of the Truth, will wonder where the line between fact and fiction can be found. Although they had never turned to the scriptures before, they certainly cannot now because the lie has called Scriptures into question and made them suspect. The church too is not trustworthy to turn to for truth since the lie has identified it as an evil institution with mystereous societies and dark secrets full of intrigue that will even stoop to assassinations in its attempt to protect its lies.

The only way the Light of Christ can shine through all this darkness in our day is for the Children of the Light to bear witness to that Light in our own lives. We can say all we want that this is a lie and the Scriptures are true, but what the world needs to see is the Truth lived out in you. The Good News of the Scriptures is true, but is it you? The Word become words, spoken or in printers ink, does not convince. It's the Word become flesh, Christ living in each of us, that will make His Truth known in the world.

Your Brother in Christ Jesus,
Clyde <><