P/S: For those who are weak in the faith, please don't read the Da Vinci Code, it really does have many bad things inside. But God often brings out the good in a bad book, if you are forced to read if as a part of the university requirement. Do not read it, if you do not have to read it.
Yesterday, as part of my university module, I was forced to read the Da Vinci Code. It was not a book that I wanted to read, but in the end, I read it.
Well, when I touched it, I was like... er... I am touching something that will stumble... stumble... stumble my christian walk with God. I am touching something evil, something bad.
I heard that there were many bad references inside the book about Jesus, about Mary, about agh... their relationships, and about the Catholic Church.
When I read it, well, I saw a person. I saw a man who was not a believer of God, who was seeing the church from outside the perspective of the church.
To his outsider's eyes, he could not understand why the church was so bent to destroy other religions, religions like the pagan religion which was harmless to him but harmful to the Christians.
What was wrong with sex? Why was the church so against woman? Corporal mortification... why did people in this Catholic organization like to hurt themselves so much?
To usthe Christians, what he wrote was not true, of course. We are not weirdoes. Not all of us hurt ourselves that much, and we are not that crazy about money, either. We are not like that bishop who was the head of that Opex something.
Yet, in the eyes of a non-believer, their views of the church could often be quite different from the eyes of the Christians.
Flawed as he was, that bishop, who was being mocked repeatedly in the Dan Brown novel, he did have one good point. He really did care for Silas, and he did give a second chance to that assassin who the rest of the world could not be bothered with and would have forgotten and abandoned.
Even as a non-believer, Dan Brown with all his criticisms and anger of the church did recognize one thing which the Christian Church, which God, in Christ, gave to the entire world--Forgiveness.
Forgiveness was God's greatest gift to the world, and this was the word of the greed-driven but sincere bishop to Silas. The bishop forgave Silas for shooting him and the bishop wanted Silas to forgive also the one who had double-crossed them.
I felt that in the midst of all kinds of discouragements (Agh... all this leonardo thing, all this John is bigger than Jesus thing, all this crazy theory about Jesus having children, all this portrayal of greed-driven catholic priest who love both faith and money and all this bad message being written repeatedly in the book about the Christian church), there is at least one thing good in here. Forgiveness. Forgiveness for the wicked, for the unwanted, for people like Silas, which the Christian God, and the Christian church that represent Him did give to the world.
And I realized that this Dan Brown was not the scrum that I thought he was, not that satanic guy which I felt he must be, because I had heard so many things from my Christian friends about the book and him that did not really paint a er very nice picture of him in my eyes. He was just a normal human being, who saw the church and Christianity and God from an outsiders perspective.
To me, I had been to the Holy of holies. I had tasted the goodness of Christ. I had witnessed and encountered Him face to face and tasted the pleasure of being in His presence. To him, God is someone he is not even sure is real or fake, God is distant, God is far away, and God may even be the imagination, the product of the human mind.
I am of the spiritual world, seeing things in the span of eternity. I had seen God and know that there is only one God, and therefore know why He commands us to destroy all the other religions, so that no one will be led astray to other religions. He is of earth, and he sees thing from an earthly point of view. From an earthly perspective, he saw the Christians building larger and larger church. From the earthly perspective, he saw Christians fighting in wars. From the earthly perspective, he saw many politics that occurred in the secular world occurred in the church of God as well, and he reflected all these unsightly thing he saw in his story.
He is like the gentile, who can only access God through the outer court, the court of the gentile, and it is at the court of the gentile where the buying and selling of sparrows took place. No wonder Jesus chased all the money changers and the sellers out of the temple. We had given the outsiders the perspective that we Christians were very business minded, and were sincere in God er and Money.
Minus all the bad things about the church which Dan Brown see from his outsider and non-spiritual perspective, he did notice one good thing about the Christian church, which will reflect very well on our God.
In his novel, while the bishop was greedy for money, the bishop did have a heart for the sheep that was under his care. The bishop, on discovering he was double-crossed by the teacher, tried all means and ways to locate Silas, who was really like a son to him. In the end, in spite of how Silas was the one who shot him, the bishop told Silas to remember one thing from himforgiveness.
Dan Brown notices that Christians, with all our flaws and imperfections, are often active in doing good works for the world around us. We may be greedy people, but some of us do have this redeeming feature in his eyes about uswe give second chance to people who others dont give a second chance to. No one will want to give a second chance to Silas, a condemned criminal, an unwanted, abandoned youth, with no name, but the bishop gave a second chance, a new life to this ghost that no one else notices.
I guess non-believer like Dan Brown may also see the good side of the Christian church, even though they also see our many bad sides. He can see us giving prisoners and outcasts in society a new meaning in life, a chance to start afresh a life which is like a ghost. As much he had seen the wars we fight, the money-seeking mind we appear to have, he also noticed our prison ministry to the undeserving, and our outreach to the poor and outcasts in society.
The bishop in the novel is sincere. Dan Brown may make fun of his bigoted mind in which he see everyone in the world as being against him, and he cannot see why the world will hate him and go against his religious conviction. But the bishop is at least sincere in what he believes in. He feels for his sheep, for those people under his care that he feels he is watching over for God.
In the end, he tries every mean to help Silas. He tries to look for his sheep. He also tries to redeem the sins that his sheep has committed by giving away all the money in his possession to the relatives of those whom Silas had murdered. The money is so precious to him, since his church, his million dollars church is on the brink of a crumple, and yet he gives up the money that may possibly save the church, to redeem the crime of someone who is a ghost that no one else notices, that he sees and he forgives.
Dan Brown notices the good works that Christians had done all through the centuries as much as the bad things he notices about us, and he makes reference to it as well.
The bishop is greedy and money-minded and that is his flaw. He wants to have both faith and God. Dan Brown the bigoted perspective of the church in their conservativeness and overly liberalism at times. He mocks the money-mindedness of the church and also the wars which we Christians sometimes go into over the centuries for our religions. He mocks our naïve beliefs in God, our over-dependence on faith, to the point that we often forget about reasons. But there is one thing Dan Brown respects about Christians in his book, Da Vinci code. He respects the fact that we notice the ghost of society--the transparent people who are in need of help that no one else notices. People like Silas who is abandoned, who is a murderer, who is unredeemable in the eyes of the world, who the bishop, who the Christians are willing to give a chance and new life to. Dan Brown may not agree with our views on God and other religions, but he does respect the second chance we give to people like Silas, and the message of forgiveness which we preach, which our God commands us to preach to the rest of the world.
Forgiveness is Gods greatest gift. That is what the bishop says to Silas, when he is being pushed away to the operation room. He forgives Silas, someone he treats as a son, and loves as a son, someone who no one else wants to give a chance to. At least, Dan Brown does recognize some good in a Christian. Our God forgives.
I feel a heart to pray for Dan Brown and the non believers of the world that they may know Him who forgives them. I feel a heart to pray for the church, both the Christian and catholic church that we will be lights of the world and not love the world and money so much. And I think we need to be on our knees more often.
Yesterday, as part of my university module, I was forced to read the Da Vinci Code. It was not a book that I wanted to read, but in the end, I read it.
Well, when I touched it, I was like... er... I am touching something that will stumble... stumble... stumble my christian walk with God. I am touching something evil, something bad.
I heard that there were many bad references inside the book about Jesus, about Mary, about agh... their relationships, and about the Catholic Church.
When I read it, well, I saw a person. I saw a man who was not a believer of God, who was seeing the church from outside the perspective of the church.
To his outsider's eyes, he could not understand why the church was so bent to destroy other religions, religions like the pagan religion which was harmless to him but harmful to the Christians.
What was wrong with sex? Why was the church so against woman? Corporal mortification... why did people in this Catholic organization like to hurt themselves so much?
To usthe Christians, what he wrote was not true, of course. We are not weirdoes. Not all of us hurt ourselves that much, and we are not that crazy about money, either. We are not like that bishop who was the head of that Opex something.
Yet, in the eyes of a non-believer, their views of the church could often be quite different from the eyes of the Christians.
Flawed as he was, that bishop, who was being mocked repeatedly in the Dan Brown novel, he did have one good point. He really did care for Silas, and he did give a second chance to that assassin who the rest of the world could not be bothered with and would have forgotten and abandoned.
Even as a non-believer, Dan Brown with all his criticisms and anger of the church did recognize one thing which the Christian Church, which God, in Christ, gave to the entire world--Forgiveness.
Forgiveness was God's greatest gift to the world, and this was the word of the greed-driven but sincere bishop to Silas. The bishop forgave Silas for shooting him and the bishop wanted Silas to forgive also the one who had double-crossed them.
I felt that in the midst of all kinds of discouragements (Agh... all this leonardo thing, all this John is bigger than Jesus thing, all this crazy theory about Jesus having children, all this portrayal of greed-driven catholic priest who love both faith and money and all this bad message being written repeatedly in the book about the Christian church), there is at least one thing good in here. Forgiveness. Forgiveness for the wicked, for the unwanted, for people like Silas, which the Christian God, and the Christian church that represent Him did give to the world.
And I realized that this Dan Brown was not the scrum that I thought he was, not that satanic guy which I felt he must be, because I had heard so many things from my Christian friends about the book and him that did not really paint a er very nice picture of him in my eyes. He was just a normal human being, who saw the church and Christianity and God from an outsiders perspective.
To me, I had been to the Holy of holies. I had tasted the goodness of Christ. I had witnessed and encountered Him face to face and tasted the pleasure of being in His presence. To him, God is someone he is not even sure is real or fake, God is distant, God is far away, and God may even be the imagination, the product of the human mind.
I am of the spiritual world, seeing things in the span of eternity. I had seen God and know that there is only one God, and therefore know why He commands us to destroy all the other religions, so that no one will be led astray to other religions. He is of earth, and he sees thing from an earthly point of view. From an earthly perspective, he saw the Christians building larger and larger church. From the earthly perspective, he saw Christians fighting in wars. From the earthly perspective, he saw many politics that occurred in the secular world occurred in the church of God as well, and he reflected all these unsightly thing he saw in his story.
He is like the gentile, who can only access God through the outer court, the court of the gentile, and it is at the court of the gentile where the buying and selling of sparrows took place. No wonder Jesus chased all the money changers and the sellers out of the temple. We had given the outsiders the perspective that we Christians were very business minded, and were sincere in God er and Money.
Minus all the bad things about the church which Dan Brown see from his outsider and non-spiritual perspective, he did notice one good thing about the Christian church, which will reflect very well on our God.
In his novel, while the bishop was greedy for money, the bishop did have a heart for the sheep that was under his care. The bishop, on discovering he was double-crossed by the teacher, tried all means and ways to locate Silas, who was really like a son to him. In the end, in spite of how Silas was the one who shot him, the bishop told Silas to remember one thing from himforgiveness.
Dan Brown notices that Christians, with all our flaws and imperfections, are often active in doing good works for the world around us. We may be greedy people, but some of us do have this redeeming feature in his eyes about uswe give second chance to people who others dont give a second chance to. No one will want to give a second chance to Silas, a condemned criminal, an unwanted, abandoned youth, with no name, but the bishop gave a second chance, a new life to this ghost that no one else notices.
I guess non-believer like Dan Brown may also see the good side of the Christian church, even though they also see our many bad sides. He can see us giving prisoners and outcasts in society a new meaning in life, a chance to start afresh a life which is like a ghost. As much he had seen the wars we fight, the money-seeking mind we appear to have, he also noticed our prison ministry to the undeserving, and our outreach to the poor and outcasts in society.
The bishop in the novel is sincere. Dan Brown may make fun of his bigoted mind in which he see everyone in the world as being against him, and he cannot see why the world will hate him and go against his religious conviction. But the bishop is at least sincere in what he believes in. He feels for his sheep, for those people under his care that he feels he is watching over for God.
In the end, he tries every mean to help Silas. He tries to look for his sheep. He also tries to redeem the sins that his sheep has committed by giving away all the money in his possession to the relatives of those whom Silas had murdered. The money is so precious to him, since his church, his million dollars church is on the brink of a crumple, and yet he gives up the money that may possibly save the church, to redeem the crime of someone who is a ghost that no one else notices, that he sees and he forgives.
Dan Brown notices the good works that Christians had done all through the centuries as much as the bad things he notices about us, and he makes reference to it as well.
The bishop is greedy and money-minded and that is his flaw. He wants to have both faith and God. Dan Brown the bigoted perspective of the church in their conservativeness and overly liberalism at times. He mocks the money-mindedness of the church and also the wars which we Christians sometimes go into over the centuries for our religions. He mocks our naïve beliefs in God, our over-dependence on faith, to the point that we often forget about reasons. But there is one thing Dan Brown respects about Christians in his book, Da Vinci code. He respects the fact that we notice the ghost of society--the transparent people who are in need of help that no one else notices. People like Silas who is abandoned, who is a murderer, who is unredeemable in the eyes of the world, who the bishop, who the Christians are willing to give a chance and new life to. Dan Brown may not agree with our views on God and other religions, but he does respect the second chance we give to people like Silas, and the message of forgiveness which we preach, which our God commands us to preach to the rest of the world.
Forgiveness is Gods greatest gift. That is what the bishop says to Silas, when he is being pushed away to the operation room. He forgives Silas, someone he treats as a son, and loves as a son, someone who no one else wants to give a chance to. At least, Dan Brown does recognize some good in a Christian. Our God forgives.
I feel a heart to pray for Dan Brown and the non believers of the world that they may know Him who forgives them. I feel a heart to pray for the church, both the Christian and catholic church that we will be lights of the world and not love the world and money so much. And I think we need to be on our knees more often.
