2006-05-21 - Da Vinci This

Titus 1:2, "God, who cannot lie."

There is a slight paranoia among Christians about the recently released movie, The Da Vinci Code. Having not seen the movie and not intending to do so, I can't really comment on the movie itself. However, if I got the gist right, the movie portrays Christ as having been married and denies His deity. It is marketed as fiction, but still many Christians are nervous about the implications of the film. Let us put these nerves aside and worry about something worthy of our concern. The agenda of those who hate Christ, and those who follow Him, is alive and active. So what? What has it accomplished in the last 2000 years? The Bible, assault after assault, remains unblemished. Christians still thrive by God's grace. With Luther, we can all say, "Let the devil do his worst." God's truth remains just that, truth.

God, who cannot lie, is where we started today - and it remains a foundation for everything Christians hold dear. He has revealed Himself to us through His Word, and He cannot lie. It makes all the assaults brought against Him seem almost childish. Like Don Quixote, the hero of Cervantes who battled windmills, so are all those who rage against God. They not only fight a worthless battle; they fight a battle that is over, because it never was. How have others fared who have sought to fight against God? Voltaire invented a witty system. Hear much about that today? I doubt it. Or how about the bullying system introduced by Tom Paine? Hear much about that today? These creations of a day are just that. They live their hour, and we never hear from them again. They are gone. God's truth stands firm.

The Christian takes these things in stride and moves on. We hold firm to the "sound doctrine" (1 Timothy 4:6) we find in Scripture. This is why it so important that we can trust that God cannot lie. In knowing this to be a foundation of our faith, we can "hold fast the word of life" (Philippians 2:16) and rest in what we learn in His Word. We should strive to be like the Berean Christians in Acts 17, who "searched the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so."

Those who would lead us away from the truth of God's Word are numerous. But knowing that God cannot lie, we must take everything to His Word and make sure we are not being sold a bag of coal. Recently in my city, Philadelphia, there was a group advertising on TV their "blessed handkerchief." I am not pulling your leg. For $14.95 or some price or another, you could be sent a blessed handkerchief and achieve financial freedom, victory over demons, healing in relationships, and who knows...maybe it also made you bulletproof.

The point is that these peddlers are out there, trying to capitalize on your felt needs. There might be a curiosity as in the Da Vinci movie, or real desires, but the peddlers that we see on many of the "Christian" TV shows - promising a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, or extra-human healing abilities, etc., must be seen for what they often are. And only by taking their claims to God's Word can we fend off those who would manipulate us, often by using the Bible, into believing things that are so against common sense, that even our pets become bewildered at our foolishness.

Soli Deo Gloria,
T-

tim@cfdevotionals.org
http://www.cfdevotionals.org