after the da vinci's code and the gospel of judas, what would be the next controversy in the church?
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They will probably find the bones of a person an claim them to be the bones of Christ..
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A Response to "The DaVinci Code": What's the Problem?  \n\nSince its release in 2003, forty million hardback copies of The Da Vinci Code have sold. Six million paperback copies also are now in circulation, and this weekend, a major Hollywood movie will be released. In both the book and the movie, the central character is one who does not actually appear in either, and that is Jesus Christ. Because of that, many of our friends and neighbors are going to be talking about who Jesus is and why He came. Many of our neighbors are going to be seeing, perhaps for the first time, an explanation about who Jesus is and why He matters, and our great concern is that the entire story presented in this movie is a lie. \n\nThe interest in this book and movie should remind us that there is going on right now a spiritual battle, not only between light and darkness, and between the truth and the lie, but also between life and death. Our great concern therefore should not be merely that people might be confused, but that people would be blinded and held captive by a story that appeals to them, and yet a story that is an anti-Gospel, a false gospel, the very thing that the Apostle Paul warned against when he said, "If I or even an angel were to come to you preaching any other gospel, let him be anathema." \n\nYou see, sometimes the church does not remember this, but it is the church's responsibility to anathematize. That is something we don't talk about very much, but it is the church's responsibility clearly to declare as false anything which stands against the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We live in a harmonious age when everyone wants to nod at everything, smile appreciatively at everything, and not pass judgment on anything. In the midst of such an age, however, the church is called to say "no" and to identify the false as false. Otherwise we cannot truly honor the truth. \n\nAuthored by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code is a conspiracy story. It is a mystery suspense thriller, and Americans love mystery suspense thrillers. What makes this story different, however, is that the conspiracy theory that lies at the very heart of the book's plotline has to do with the Gospel. What drives the action of the story is the argument that the church's traditional teachings about Jesus are all a fraud. Instead of revealing who Jesus really was and what he really did, the book argues, the church buried the truth in an intentional conspiracy, claimed that Jesus was divine, and said that He had come to save sinners from their sin.\n\nBeginning in chapter 55, Brown gets to the very heart of the story when the central character begins to reveal to another character the truth about the conspiracy. Consider what the character Leigh Teabing says: "The Bible is a product of man, my dear, not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds, man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times and it has evolved through countless translations, editions and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book." \n\nNow if that is true, then we are reading a kind of committee report when we open the Scripture. But it is not true. This is one of those insidious statements that makes sense to sinners, because in effect, that one paragraph has just declared that we do not have to take the Bible as the Word of God. It is just a human document, says the book. \n\nHe goes on: "Jesus Christ was a historical figure of staggering influence, perhaps the most enigmatic and inspirational leader the world has ever seen. As the prophesied Messiah, Jesus toppled kings, inspired millions, and founded new philosophies. As a descendant of the lines of King Solomon and King David, Jesus possessed a rightful claim to the throne of the King of the Jews. Understandably, his life was recorded by thousands of followers across the land. More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, and
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The background of The Gospel of Judas is in itself an interesting tale no matter what you think of it's contents.\n\nThe manuscripts were touted round the "gray market" for years before being purchased. According to their owner, Dr. Mario Roberty, the manuscripts are papyrus and consist of:\n\n- a Gnostic codex in Sahidic dialect containing:\n\nthe 'Gospel of Judas'\nthe "First Apocalypse of James" \nthe "Epistle of Peter to Philip"\n\n- the 'Book of Exodus' in Greek\n- 'Letters of Paul' in Sahidic dialect and a\n- 'Mathematical Treatise' in Greek.\n\nPublication of a translation is planned by the National Geographic Magazine.\n\nAccording to wikipedia "The National Geographic Channel will be airing a special entitled "The Gospel of Judas" on April 9, 2006 at 8 pm" as well.
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Someone said the da vinci code was a work of Satan. Wonder what movies Satan is planning to release next?
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The Gospel of Judas totally refutes the idea that Judas 'sold out' Jesus and suggests that he was instructed to do what he did by Jesus. This was unacceptable to the early Catholic Church and so was expunged from the gospels completely.\n\nIt goes without saying that Judas' actions are believed to be responsible for the way Judaism is reviled and the Jews have been persecuted throughout history. If it ever came out that Judas was just acting under orders there would be a lot of shamed people in the world.
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The book concerns the attempts of Robert Langdon, Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard University, to solve the murder of renowned curator Jacques Saunière (see Bérenger Saunière) of the Louvre Museum in Paris. The title of the novel refers, among other things, to the fact that Saunière's body is found in the Denon Wing of the Louvre naked and posed like Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawing, the Vitruvian Man, with a cryptic message written beside his body and a Pentagram drawn on his stomach in his own blood. The interpretation of hidden messages inside Leonardo's famous works, including the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, figure prominently in the solution to the mystery.\n\n \nVitruvian Man, by Leonardo da Vinci.The main conflict in the novel revolves around the solution to two mysteries:\n\nWhat secret was Saunière protecting that led to his murder? \nWho is the mastermind behind his murder? \nThe novel has several concurrent storylines that follow different characters. Eventually all the storylines are brought together and resolved with the denouement.\n\nThe unraveling of the mystery requires the solution to a series of brain-teasers, including anagrams and number puzzles. The solution itself is found to be intimately connected with the possible location of the Holy Grail and to a mysterious society called the Priory of Sion, as well as to the Knights Templar. The Catholic organization "Opus Dei" (a caricature of the real Opus Dei) also figures prominently in the plot.\n\nThe novel is the second book of a trilogy by Brown in which Robert Langdon is the main character. The previous book, Angels and Demons, took place in Rome and concerned the Illuminati. Although Angels and Demons is centered around the same character it is not necessary to read the book in order to understand the plot of The Da Vinci Code. The next book is tentatively scheduled for release in 2007.Its working title is The Solomon Key, and it is understood to concern Freemasonry.
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#1.  It was written too late to have been written by an apostle or a companion of an apostle.\n\n#2. The content contradicts the rest of the New Testament.\n\n#3.  It was never accepted by the early church.\n\nThe New Testament was in its complete form before the end of the first century, long before Constantine or the Roman Catholic Church.  There never was any reason to accept "The Gospel of Judas."
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The DaVinci Code was on the New York Times bestseller list for over a year now, and it's still being sold and read.\n\nThe major controversy in the story is that the Holy Grail isn't a cup, but is the bloodline of Jesus Christ, and that Jesus didn't die on the cross and was resurrected in three days, but married Mary Magdalene and had children.
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Hollywood intends to re-write history but one only needs to research for themselves the validity of the claims. For example the quality of the New Testament documents can be validated outside of the Bible through the research of Josephus Flavius, Tacitus, Caesar's Gallic Wars, Herodotus, and Thucydides. In fact there are 5366 documents discovered so far to validate that the Bible we have today is 99.5% as accurate as it was way back then. \n\nInternal evidence is pretty clear as well. 2 Peter 3:15-16 clearly states that the canon was already in the process of being collected for what we have today in the Bible. There were gnostic books but they were not accepted because they were written by Hellenistic writers that intended to change the original message of the Greek translation to imply that Jesus was not the Son of God. \n\nSee the sources below for addition research. \n\nSource(s):\n\n"Exploring the Da Vinci Code"\n"Breaking the Da Vinci Code"\n"Is the New Testament Documents Reliable?"\n"The Gospel Code"\n"Hidden Gospels - How the Search for Jesus Lost the Way"\n\nLast this is a personal favorite of mine...\n\n"New Evidence that Demands a Verdict" \n\ngo to any book store and pick them up.
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The Da Vinci Code\n\n'tis great
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Its about the theory that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene & their blood line still exists protected by a secret society called Priority of Sion. \n\nThough this is the main theme od Da Vinci Code, there are also many controversial facts such as Jesus was a mortal just like any of us, the church has been putting down the role of women in the society & many such things.\n\nIts worth a read, very intresting.
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Like you the Gospel of Thomas would probably be at the top of the list.  I would add the Gospel of Mary and parts of the book of Epiphanius (specifically book 33 of The Medicine Chest).  I also skimmed the Malleus Maleficarum if that counts.\n\nInteresting Question, I hope you get some more answers.\n\nRegards,\nArmus
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It is a thriller story involving secret societies, conspiracies, the Catholic Church, and the fictional "truth" about Jesus Christ. Here is the author's own summary: \n\nA renowned Harvard symbologist is summoned to the Louvre Museum to examine a series of cryptic symbols relating to Da Vinci's artwork. In decrypting the code, he uncovers the key to one of the greatest mysteries of all time . . . and he becomes a hunted man.\nDuring the course of the novel it is alleged that the Catholic Church is perpetuating a major, centuries-long conspiracy to hide the "truth" about Jesus Christ from the public, and it or its agents are willing to stop at nothing, including murder, to do so.
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The left behind series is based on the future, and is just trying to for cast  a scenario of what may happen in the future, according to scripture. Now with that being said, it is purely speculation and not by any means right.\n\nThe Da Vinci Code on the other hand, was based on the past. Now what upset the Christians, is that it changed what was written in scripture. It made a scenario out of Jesus' life, and changed words and stories of scripture.  \n\nOne is based on future, and one is based on the past.\nOne thing for sure is that they are both fiction. Because no one "really" knows how the world will end. They should be upset at both books.\nThey might accept Left Behind because it was written by a preacher, while Da Vinci was not.
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Definitely fiction. Sorry for the lengthy explanation. It's cut and pasted from a ChristianityToday article. See link below.\n1. Was Jesus married to Mary Magdalene?\nNo. Mary Magdalene was certainly close to Jesus. She wept at Jesus' tomb (John 20). Jesus even entrusted her to return and tell the disciples about his resurrection. But we have no reason to believe they were married. Brown says that Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper reveals the secret. He writes that the figure to Jesus' right, traditionally known as the apostle John, is actually Mary. Not true. Artists often gave characters feminine features to portray youth. John was the youngest of the disciples.\n\nBrown correctly observes that few Jewish men of Jesus' day did not marry. But why, then, did the apostle Paul, himself celibate, not mention Jesus and Mary when he argued that apostles could marry (1 Cor. 9:5)?\n\n2. What about these alternative gospels that aren't in the New Testament?\nIt's true that the Bible did not arrive as a "fax from heaven," as Brown writes. The New Testament canon in its current form was first formally attested in 367. Nevertheless, church leaders applied important standards when compiling the Bible. Authors of accepted writings needed to have walked and talked with Jesus, or at least with his leading disciples. Their teaching could not contradict what other apostles had written, and their documents must have been accepted by the entire church, from Jerusalem to Rome. Church leaders considered earlier letters and reports more credible than later documents. Finally, they prayed and trusted the Holy Spirit to guide their decisions. \n\nThe so-called Gnostic gospels, many discovered just last century, did not meet these criteria. Many appeared much later than the Bible and were dubiously attributed to major Christian leaders. Their teachings contrasted with what apostles like Paul had written. For example, many Gnostic writings argued that Jesus did not appear in the flesh, because flesh is evil, or they rejected the Old Testament. \n\n3. Were there really competing Christianities during the early church?\nYes—in the sense there were many disputes about the nature of Jesus. And the church has done its best to vanquish challengers to orthodoxy. Once the church decided against the Gnostic writings, they gathered and burned all the Gnostic manuscripts they could find. \n\nLater church councils convened to discuss other threats to Christian orthodoxy. Constantine, the first Roman emperor to make Christianity legal, called the most important of these meetings in 325. Leaders from around the Christian world gathered in Nicea, where they debated Arianism, which taught that God created Jesus. Brown writes that Constantine called this council so he could introduce a new divine Jesus on par with the Father. On the contrary, documents from before Nicea show that most followers of Jesus already called him LORD, the Yahweh of the Old Testament. The church leaders at Nicea rejected Arianism and affirmed that God and Jesus existed together from the beginning in the Trinity. This council produced the first drafts of what became the Nicene Creed, a landmark explanation of Christian belief. \n\n4. What is Opus Dei?\nA conservative religious group within the Roman Catholic Church. Opus Dei urges priests and laypeople to strenuously pursue sanctification through everyday discipline. The group has taken criticism for its conservative views, zeal, and secretive practices. There is no evidence that Opus Dei has resorted to murder; nor has the Vatican entrusted Opus Dei to violently guard the church's deepest secrets, as Dan Brown claims in The Da Vinci Code. \n\n5. Does the Priory of Sion really exist?\nYes, but not as described by Brown. Researchers suspect that members of the real-life Priory of Sion, founded in 1956, forged documents that placed major historical figures—such as Isaac Newton and Leonard da Vinci—in
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yes\n\nthe gospel of Judas is false doctrine, written by gnostics in 300 AD... \n\ndont just accept what dan brown says people
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a mystery/detective novel by American author Dan Brown, published in 2003 by Doubleday Fiction. It is a worldwide bestseller with more than 60.5 million copies in print (as of May 2006) and has been translated into 44 languages.It is thought to be the sixth biggest selling book of all time. Combining the detective, thriller and conspiracy fiction genres, the book is part two of a trilogy that started with Brown's 2000 novel Angels and Demons, which introduced the character Robert Langdon. In November 2004, Random House published a "Special Illustrated Edition", with 160 illustrations interspersed with the text.\n\nThe plot of the novel involves a conspiracy by the Catholic Church to cover up the "true" story of Jesus. In the book, the Vatican knows it is living a lie but continues to do so to keep itself in power. The novel has helped generate popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and the role of Mary Magdalene in the history of Christianity. Fans have lauded the book as creative, action-packed and thought-provoking. Critics have attacked it as poorly written, inaccurate and creating confusion between speculation and fact. From a religious point of view, some critics consider it sacrilegious, and decry the many negative implications about the Catholic Church and Opus Dei.\n\nDan Brown's novel was a smash hit in 2003, even rivaling the sales of the highly popular Harry Potter series [1]. It spawned a number of offspring books and drew glowing reviews from the New York Times, People Magazine and the Washington Post [2]. It also re-ignited interest in the history of the Catholic Church. As well as re-invigorating interest in the church, The Da Vinci Code has also spawned numerous "knockoffs" (as they are referred to by Publishers Weekly) [3], or novels that have a striking resemblance to The Da Vinci Code, including Raymond Khoury's The Last Templar, and The Templar Legacy by Steve Berry.\n\nSony's Columbia Pictures has adapted the novel to film, with a screenplay written by Akiva Goldsman, and Academy Award winner Ron Howard directing. The film was released on May 18, 2006, and stars Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon, Audrey Tautou as Sophie Neveu, and Sir Ian McKellen as Leigh Teabing.