Nathan E. Lewis

Elaine Pagels is a primary source of inspiration and content for Dan Brown. Most of her scholarship has been devoted to the Nag Hammadi texts, discovered in Upper Egypt in 1945. These texts are mostly fragments of the writings discarded by the Church in the process of canonizing the Bible. In 1979 Pagels’ “The Gnostic Gospels� was published. Her subsequent books have each taken up a theme or issue that can be recognized as “Gnostic.� In 2003 Pagels’ “Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas,� continued her life’s work to promote the Nag Hammadi texts as equally valid documents for the Christian religion, alongside of the books of the Bible.
Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code,� popularly spins and embellishes the stories that are told by those who have read the Nag Hammadi texts.
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“The Mystery of Godliness�
I Timothy 3:16
(a sermon preached at Evergreen Presbyterian Church, in Beaverton, Oregon, by Nathan Lewis)

Paul was a church planter. He not only traveled throughout Asia Minor and Europe, establishing new congregations; he also trained others to serve these new congregations. He invested much of his time in Timothy, whom he considered to be a son. The Bible includes two letters of Paul addressed to Timothy, training him to lead and to serve the church. Paul had assigned Timothy to the congregations in Ephesus. There may have been as many as 30 congregations in Ephesus at this time.
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Resurrection Sunday
“Remember Jesus Christ, Risen from the Dead�
II Timothy 2:8-13
(Resurrection Sunday sermon at Evergreen Presbyterian Church in Beaverton, Oregon)

This Resurrection Sunday, 2006, we follow the command of St. Paul to Timothy, to “remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.â€? While Paul was yet Saul, the persecutor of the Church, the apostle Peter preached the resurrection of Jesus during the feast of Pentecost. To the crowds gathered in Jerusalem, he said, “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are all witnesses.â€? Continue reading »

In today’s issue of the Oregonian, Saturday, May 13, 2006, Nancy Haught “pulls together observations and ruminations” concerning the Da Vinci Code. Under her “Web sites” she recommends three, one of which is Westminster Theological Seminary’s site, www.thetruthaboutdavinci.com.
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Dan Brown’s “DaVinci Code” has been a New York Times Bestseller for two years straight and the movie shows this May 19, 2006. Brown is a master at writing “cliff hangers,” and weaving a fast paced story. Amazingly he does so with one of the most tired, uninteresting stories in western literature. We are fascinated with Jesus - we either worship him or we hate him - but few people ignore him.
In a recent Newsweek article Dan Brown candidly revealed his intentions of putting an end, once for all, to the lie, known as Christianity. Regardless of his authorial intent, he has offered us the opportunity to discuss the nature and life of Jesus. This is the view of the editors of World Magazine who write in their May 6, 2006 issue, “It’s hard to imagine a time in at least the past 40 years when the big New York publishers were promoting so many books about Jesus. While these volumes are meant to undermine faith in the Jesus of the Bible, their popularity suggests an opportunity to talk about Jesus in the public square.” Continue reading »