The Devil and the DaVinci Code--Part Two

How small are we? And just how big do we think we are?

Robert Funk, the leader of the Jesus Seminar, a group of so-called scholars of the New Testament, wrote in his book "The Five Gospels" (which includes the Gnostic 'Gospel of Thomas'): "The Christ of creed and dogma who had been firmly in place in the Middle Ages, can no longer command the assent of those who have seen the heavens through Galileo's telescope." In other words, the idea of God has been trumped by the inventions of man.

The Almighty, who used to loom so large and occupy so much space in the psyche of man, has been brought down to earth, in a manner of speaking, because the might and majesty of man has caught up to Him and passed Him by.

Poor God. Could we send Him a get-well card or something?

Satan wants us to think that Jehovah is like the Wizard behind Baum's curtain–so imposing, almighty and superior with all the smoke and mirrors that His people use to project Him to the world, but He is in all actuality a stubby little man roaring His demands from a stool and squeaky vocal chords. But ol' slewfoot really has it turned around. His great deception is to humanize, belittle and even erase the concept of God, reducing Him to esoteric philosohy at best and archaic myth for weak-minded and gullible people like you and me at worst. Satan is not stupid. He is a liar, but he is not stupid. He is a master at his craft of deception. It is he pulling the levers behind the curtain, roaring and ranting behind toothless gums, not God!

Funk's associates who make up the Jesus Seminar have taken the gospels and determined which sayings of Christ were truly authentic. Their system includes color-coded beads which each uses as a vote on the red-lettered words of the New Testament. Red means that Jesus absolutely said it, pink means He could have, gray means just that, and black is a definite no. Using this elaborate system (he said with a crooked grin), these self-avowed authorities have determined that Jesus said about 18% of what is actually recorded in the gospels.

Glad such erudition still abounds. Mystery solved. The jury is in: Jesus is no more important than the guy who passed you on a sidewalk twenty years ago on a street whose name escapes you now, in a town you barely remember, who may have mumbled a greeting but you can't for the life of you recall much about him. You just know that you had an encounter but it wasn't exactly life-changing.

Funk and Dan Brown have this in common: they have left the Christ who is your everything on the cutting room floor. They do not deem Him significant; or if they do, they'd stick Him somewhere between the crossing guard when you were in grade school and a diplomat from a third-world country. Somewhat more important than, say, the guy who played the 'soup nazi' on Seinfeld but certainly second-fiddle to Mohammed.

That's not my Christ. He is my everything. Long after Dan Brown's novel turns to dust, the Words of the Lord will live on. After the 'Code's' final hiccup of myth has been laid to rest and any vestige of public hoorah's have choked out their final echo, the Christ of the Gospels will still stand in stark contrast to any figure, past, present or future, and will remain Lord of all, eternal and victorious. Have your say today, devil, for you are a doomed villian and will rue the day you ever rebelled against the Christ of Heaven all those many aeons ago.