St Luke's Church Eccleshill - Articles from "The Link"

Books the church suppressed?

Michael Green’s book (Monarch, Ł7.99) is reviewed by Rev’d Steve Allen, Diocesan Training Officer and formerly vicar of St John’s Great Horton.

With The Da Vinci Code movie soon to be released no doubt the wrong ideas behind the book will soon be taken up by many more millions around the globe. Many will see it as 'just a good story', but there will surely be many who will embrace the 'facts' within it. So Michael Green's timely book may be very useful for those who want to know what's really going on.

The early part of the book is a detailed description of how the New Testament came to be defined and accepted. The later chapters show how Brown's book is part of a wider movement to subvert historic Christianity and exalt neo-paganism and the sacred feminine.

The key idea behind The Da Vinci Code is that the Church suppressed early versions of the Gospel that were at variance with its views, and that these different versions circulated with equal vigour and authority until the Council of Nicea in AD325. Only then, says Brown, was there a clear distinction between orthodoxy and heresy. Not so, explains Green. The content of the NT had been 90% recognised long before Nicea. The alternative 'gospels', which we now call the Gnostic Gospels, were all late and almost universally regarded as false from their very first appearance.

Inevitably Green covers some complex and difficult ground - as any student of early Church history will know - but it's about as readable as it can get. Yes, the content of the NT did take a while to take on its final shape and the process was slightly different from place to place - and Green gives examples. However, the bulk of the NT: the Gospels, Acts, Paul’s letters, 1 Peter, 1 John, and Revelation were all accepted pretty well everywhere.

The early Christians were acutely aware of the difference between fact and fiction - those books that had apostolic origins and could be trusted and those that were spurious. They decisively rejected the false 'gospels' such as the Gospel of Mary (late 2nd century) and the Gospel of Philip (3rd century), which Brown and others like him rely on so much because they claim insight into Jesus’ sexual activities.

In between the clearly accepted and clearly rejected books were a few others that were eventually discarded - not necessarily because they taught error, but because their apostolic origins were dubious - that's how keen the early Christians were to pass on only the truth.

A useful book - for, make no mistake, The Da Vinci Code is soon to get a whole lot bigger than it already is.

Steve Allen

This article is a slightly shorter version of what Steve originally wrote for Bradford Diocese. There is another useful article on The Da Vinci Code on the Evangelical Alliance web site at: http://www.eauk.org/resources/idea/bigquestion/bq13.cfm .

	*St Luke's Church, Eccleshill - The Link* magazine** The Link is published monthly at 40p (Senior Citizens 35p), and we deliver free within the parish and post copies (at the reader's expense) to those who request it. Please contact us if you would like a free copy for a trial period. May 2006, Page 4.
Home Page. Index of articles: by subject, by date. In this issue: (May 2006) Gospel of Judas, Last Straw, Da Vinci Code, Beautiful earth. Other articles on the bible.	Books the church suppressed? Michael Green’s book (Monarch, Ł7.99) is reviewed by Rev’d Steve Allen, Diocesan Training Officer and formerly vicar of St John’s Great Horton. With The Da Vinci Code movie soon to be released no doubt the wrong ideas behind the book will soon be taken up by many more millions around the globe. Many will see it as 'just a good story', but there will surely be many who will embrace the 'facts' within it. So Michael Green's timely book may be very useful for those who want to know what's really going on. The early part of the book is a detailed description of how the New Testament came to be defined and accepted. The later chapters show how Brown's book is part of a wider movement to subvert historic Christianity and exalt neo-paganism and the sacred feminine. The key idea behind The Da Vinci Code is that the Church suppressed early versions of the Gospel that were at variance with its views, and that these different versions circulated with equal vigour and authority until the Council of Nicea in AD325. Only then, says Brown, was there a clear distinction between orthodoxy and heresy. Not so, explains Green. The content of the NT had been 90% recognised long before Nicea. The alternative 'gospels', which we now call the Gnostic Gospels, were all late and almost universally regarded as false from their very first appearance. Inevitably Green covers some complex and difficult ground - as any student of early Church history will know - but it's about as readable as it can get. Yes, the content of the NT did take a while to take on its final shape and the process was slightly different from place to place - and Green gives examples. However, the bulk of the NT: the Gospels, Acts, Paul’s letters, 1 Peter, 1 John, and Revelation were all accepted pretty well everywhere. The early Christians were acutely aware of the difference between fact and fiction - those books that had apostolic origins and could be trusted and those that were spurious. They decisively rejected the false 'gospels' such as the Gospel of Mary (late 2nd century) and the Gospel of Philip (3rd century), which Brown and others like him rely on so much because they claim insight into Jesus’ sexual activities. In between the clearly accepted and clearly rejected books were a few others that were eventually discarded - not necessarily because they taught error, but because their apostolic origins were dubious - that's how keen the early Christians were to pass on only the truth. A useful book - for, make no mistake, The Da Vinci Code is soon to get a whole lot bigger than it already is. Steve Allen This article is a slightly shorter version of what Steve originally wrote for Bradford Diocese. There is another useful article on The Da Vinci Code on the Evangelical Alliance web site at: http://www.eauk.org/resources/idea/bigquestion/bq13.cfm .
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