 June 1st,
2006 at Southern New Hampshire University:
Have you read the Da Vinci Code? Seen the movie? Have you wondered what’s facts and what’s fiction? What is Opus Dei, really? How about the Priory of Sion—is it all he says? Does it even exist? What about Mary Magdalene, and Jesus? What kind of relationship did they have? How did the Bible come to be? What picture of Jesus did the church of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd century have? What are the Gnostic gospels, and what do they tell us about Christianity?
All of these questions swirl around Dan Brown’s bestseller, and they are the reason for an event sponsored by Church of the Redeemer in Manchester on June 1st at 7:00 p.m. “The Da Vinci Dialogues” is an open forum discussing these and many other questions that arise from this novel. If you are curious about the church, seeking truth or even skeptical about its claims, come hear and discuss these matters in a frank and open forum. We have assembled a talented panel of educators and a moderator to field questions for the panel from the audience as we discuss these issues from a Christian perspective. You can email your questions ahead of time to
info@redeemernh.org, or simply come with questions that evening. Come enjoy coffee, dessert, and some treats for your mind and spirit. For directions and bios on our panel, see below. Hope to see you there!
"Everything in The Da Vinci Code is wrong, except
Paris is in France; London is in England and Leonardo da Vinci
painted pictures. All else is fabrication," says Sandra
Miesel, coauthor of The Da Vinci Hoax.
"Don't they have editors at Doubleday in New York; don't they
have fact checkers?" exclaims Paul Maier, coauthor of The
Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction? "Put it this way,"
he said, "there is not one ranking scholar in the entire
world who supports what Dan Brown has done with history."
Our discussion panel includes the following:
| 1) Bill Johnson
Bill has been the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Pittsfield Maine for the past 17 years. He is Director of the Pine Tree Leadership Development Network for Classis Atlantic Northeast of the Christian Reformed Churches, with whom he is ordained. He has an M.Litt. in Religion and Society Studies from Oxford Graduate School and is working on a Ph.D. in Ethics through the University of Birmingham (UK). |
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| 2) Pam Drayton
Pam is a staff member with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship at UNH in Durham. Pam's ministry on campus is split mainly between the athletes and the Greek system. Hailing from New Jersey originally, Pam came to UNH, studied music, and was a star on the UNH women's basketball team, where she remains a leader in a variety of statistics. With a passion for evangelism, Pam came on staff here at UNH after her graduation and has grown the Athletes Bible Study (ABS) into an active Christian community. Pam also working in ministry with fraternities and sororities here in Durham. She lives in Barrington with her husband Matt, a former UNH football player and the Life Skills Coordinator for the athletic program. |
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| 3) Ryan Goding (Producer of The Da Vinci Delusion video
) Ryan is Co-founder and regular contributor to Christian Podcasting Network a web based ministry dedicated to providing audio and video material to those interested in better understanding the Christian faith. With a focus on the field of Christian apologetics Ryan recently Directed and Produced a documentary called 'The Da Vinci Delusion' which has now been seen by tens of thousands of people in over 40 different countries worldwide. Ryan is involved with church planting through the Leadership Development Network, an initiative of the Christian Reformed Church. He also serves as a lay Pastor and teacher in his local congregation. |
|
 | Ross Hickey, will moderate/emcee the
event. Ross has been a volunteer staff-worker for IVCF at the University of Maine at Farmington for the past four years, where he attended as an undergraduate. He is also a lawyer who graduated from the University of Maine School of Law in 2001. He is from Tenants Harbor, Maine. |
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Location/Directions:
Sponsored
by Church of the Redeemer / For information call 603.622.1881
The
Da Vinci Code is an attack on the very foundation of the
Christian faith and it threatens to lead millions to believe that
Jesus Chris was a fraud. But the book writer Brown
said on his website that he worked 'very hard to create a fair and
balanced depiction of Opus Dei' and denied that his book was
anti-Christian.
 The
Da Vinci Code book cover (UK edition) is a novel written by
American author Dan Brown and published in 2003 by Doubleday
Fiction. It is a worldwide bestseller with 36 million copies in
print (as of August 2005) and has been translated into 44
languages. Combining the detective, thriller and conspiracy theory
genres, the novel has helped generate popular interest in certain
theories concerning the Holy Grail legend and the role of Mary
Magdalene in the history of Christianity — theories that
Christians typically consider heretical and that have been
criticized as historically inaccurate. 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.
READ
MORE>>>
ORDER
VIDEO By Dr. D. James Kennedy>>>
The
one-hour documentary takes up key Da
Vinci Code claims, including:
| Jesus
and Mary Magdalene were man and wife. "We don't
have any evidence anywhere in any kind of document of any
sort that Jesus was married" - Darrell Bock
| The
New Testament is false testimony (p. 345 of The
Da Vinci Code). "The four Gospels were written
during the life and the times of those who were the
eyewitnesses of Jesus. Now, more importantly, … they were
also written during the life and times of the skeptics, who
could refute anything that was said." - Kerby
Anderson
| There
were 80 gospel accounts of Christ's life. "Frankly,
there are no written Gospels from the same time frame that
are even in the picture." - Gary Habermas
| The
Roman emperor Constantine gave us the New Testament.
"Totally false. He had nothing to do with it whatever.
… The Canon was pretty well set in concrete about 150
A.D." - Paul Maier
| The
divinity of Jesus is an invention of fourth-century church
leaders at the Council of Nicea. "That is bunk. If
you look at the documents, and we have men, like Eusebius,
who were there, what happened at Nicea is because the early
Church believed in the deity of Jesus." - Erwin Lutzer |
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