Living Water of Washington DC. A Christian Outreach Ministry.

The Wide Gate (Matthew 7:13)

“… every faith in the world is based on fabrication…The Bible represents a fundamental guidepost for millions of people on the planet, in much the same way the Koran, Torah, and Pali Canon offer guidance … Religious allegory has become a part of the fabric of reality. And living in that reality helps millions of people cope and be better people.” The Da Vinci Code p. 341-342. [Emphasis in original.]

The passage above is an example of how the meaning of Christianity is being systematically reduced in the mind of the general population to mere allegorical fiction, or to stock and stale guidelines for better living. It is an example of how Christianity is being relegated to a diversionary side-road along the broader way to “salvation”, the broad way with a wide gate into which the paths laid down by all of the world’s respective religions coalesce. But this broad road, this superhighway with its wide beckoning gate, does not lead to salvation; it leads to destruction.

Christianity is not merely guidelines for better living. You can find plenty of guidelines for living outside of Christianity—just have a chat with your doctor or financial advisor. On the contrary, true Christianity is the less trodden path, but the only path, of absolute truth that leads to life. Few people will take this difficult path and enter by the narrow gate (Matt 7:14). Jesus assures us that many people will prefer the wide gate that leads to destruction.

Yes, as Dan Brown contends in his novel The Da Vinci Code, every faith is based on fabrication. But Brown’s assertion is true of all faiths except for one. And that’s what makes the one—Christianity—different and real. But the devil and his servants have manufactured a different “one” religion. They have created an anti-Christian one, a compromised and counterfeit one: a unified single religion encompassing all others, forged through iterative compromise, which competes with true Christianity for the hearts and minds of fallen, rebellious humanity. It is a broad way that seems right to many people, “but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12). This false “one” religion has been around for centuries—its roots reach all the way back to Eden in fact. Therefore, among the few factual statements in the TDVC is that its anti-Christian religion is very ancient and thoroughly seasoned (more on this later).

People such as author Dan Brown and his fans attempt to distort and to drag down biblical Christianity to comic levels by contending, among other things, that it is fabrication, arguing that certain aspects about biblical Christianity cannot be “proved”. We could take their bait and attempt to “prove” Christianity through apologetics, but this is unnecessary and counterproductive. We should not dignify Brown’s contention with a response from apologetics; it merits no such response. Christianity is manifest truth and does not “need” to be proved. Dan Brown and his fans have forgotten that that which cannot be proved is not the same as that which is fabricated. It might be the case, for example, that a murderer’s guilt cannot be proved with logic and evidence, but yet the fact remains that the murderer is guilty, that his guilt is absolutely real. There are absolute truths that cannot be proved with logic, yet they are absolute truths indeed. To answer this particular attack of Brown’s, at least, doesn’t require the Christian to try to “prove” anything. The truth of Christianity needs no defense, no apology, against such foolishness. An observer could spend his time as productively by trying to prove to another observer that the sky is blue.

Now, back to the matter at hand.

TDVC, among other books that have been published or that have surfaced in recent years, is the devil’s preemptive strike against the inevitable revelation of Truth. It is intended to prepare people to receive and to accept even greater lies to follow, by easing the initial shock with “innocuous” fiction and entertainment, and to shut out the Gospel. By attempting to disprove the real Christ who is Jesus, any future Antichrist will appear less “Anti” and more Christ-like. This preparation, the preaching of a one religion merging all religions together, is attractive to most “reasonable” people who are systematically taught to believe that compromise is virtue, and to prefer compromise as the solution to any conflict, instead of unyielding adherence to principle and unchanging truth. This brings us to a discussion of syncretism. Syncretism paves the broad road into which all paths that supposedly lead to God (but actually lead to destruction) merge together, in accordance with infernal notions emanating from the very mouth of the Serpent.

“All paths lead to God”

“Rosslyn Chapel…stands seven miles south of Edinburgh, Scotland, on the site of an ancient Mithraic temple. Built by the Knights Templar in 1446, the chapel is engraved with a mind-boggling array of symbols from the Jewish, Christian, Egyptian, Masonic, and pagan traditions…Rosslyn Chapel was a shrine to all faiths… to all traditions… and above all, to nature and the goddess.” TDVC 432-434. [My emphasis.]

Christ tells us that the gate to destruction is wide and many will go through it. The gate to life, on the other hand, is narrow and few people will go through it. The wide gate is what Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) is all about: people from all over the world gathered together there in hope to make a name for themselves. In Babel (Babylon in Greek) the pagan religion flourished and we can be sure from the biblical account that Babylonians were of one mind in the matter as they attempted to erect the obnoxious Tower: “Behold, the people are one” (Gen 11:6). It was this unified, one world enterprise to exalt humanity that God detested, so He scattered the peoples and confused their tongues, making it difficult for them to try again anytime soon (Gen 11:7-8). But now rebels in the face of God are ramping up for another go at it. We see the one world religion that they took out of Babylon and into their respective destinations cropping up everywhere all over again—in different languages and cultures—as exemplified in the passage above from TDVC. Indeed to this day, people such as Dan Brown, through his characters in TDVC, claim to all worship the same “god”. There are many different paths to their one god and many different flavors of their religion, in many different languages. Today’s heirs of Babylon conspire to reveal the world’s one “true” religion, lost but not forgotten, which accommodates all faiths and belief systems through endless compromise, vaunting a wide beckoning gate to heaven for all proselytes. All those paths which lead to “God”, when combined, make for a very big path indeed. It is the broad road to destruction.

There is only one Way to the One True God (John 14:6): the road is narrow, the gate small (Matt 7:14).

The denizens of Babel aspired to display and to memorialize their power, to make an everlasting name for themselves. Today, the postmodern interpretation of all religion is that it is only about power. The syncretistic power religion identified in TDVC has no prayer to our Lord God. There are only mantras, chants, trances, false “prayer”, and transcendental meditation that focus the adherent inwardly. Often drugs are used to enhance the effect. It’s all about self-fulfillment. Specifically, it’s about power harnessed by the performance of acts, deeds, rituals, and incantations in order to get some reward, to obtain a result or object selfishly sought after, or to achieve “self-actualization”. Unfortunately, many people practice Christianity for these very reasons, and this is no service to our Lord God.

As I have said before, Babylonianism is the one world religion that manifests in civilizations as vogue forms of paganism. Mithraism, mentioned in TDVC for example, was the mystery religion practiced in Rome, based on Persian and Babylonian mysticism. If Christianity today is compromised to the extent that it conforms to this one world religion, then it ceases to be Christianity and becomes a form of paganism with a “Christian” spin: it would be “Christian” in name only. And we see this “Christian” paganism all around us today. Those of you who have read our previous articles can recall our discussion of Gnostic influence in such “Christian” books as John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart. Consider the parallels that Eldredge’s “god” has with the goddess of TDVC:

“Look around you. Her [the goddess’] story is being told in art, music, and books.” TDVC p.444.
“God’s word comes to me in many ways—through…music and wilderness and books.” Wild at Heart p.200.

This “god” (or goddess) is not the God of the Bible. It belongs to a Gnostic faith described in TDVC as worship of the “sacred feminine” and which Wild at Heart mislabels “Christianity”. There is little material difference between the theology of TDVC and the theology of Wild at Heart: in both books is depicted a religion devoted to nature and to an impersonal creative force that speaks through secular music and books, among other things. We must heed especially the apostle Paul’s warning to understand that the creation and its Creator are separate (Romans 1:25).

What I call Babylonianism in the postmodern world was often referred to in the modern world by the now passé term Secular Humanism. The “ism” in Humanism tells you what you need to know: it is a religion, a creed in which the human takes center-stage. There is a reason for this. The Bible explains it with a piece of critical history that is habitually ignored even in many Christian circles.

Back Further than the Background

TDVC identifies the actual roots of the anti-Christian religion it espouses—at least TDVC has the intellectual integrity to do that (which isn’t saying much). So where did the religion of TDVC come from originally? Did it originate with the Templars? No. With the Priory of Sion? No. With the early Church? With the distorted picture of Jesus Himself (as rendered in TDVC)? No.

Page 420 of TDVC contains a paean to Nature-worship, Venus (Ashtoreth), and the Garden of Eden all rolled into one:

“The signs were everywhere. Like a taunting silhouette emerging from the fog, the branches of Britain’s oldest apple tree burgeoned with five-petaled blossoms, all glistening like Venus. The goddess was in the garden now. She was dancing in the rain, singing songs of the ages, peeking out from behind the bud-filled branches as if to remind Langdon that the fruit of knowledge was growing just beyond his reach.” [My emphasis.]

This “fruit of knowledge” is a direct reference to the forbidden fruit consumed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3). The goddess is the Serpent. Here, the character Robert Langdon is tantalized by the fruit almost within his reach—all the hidden secrets are about to be revealed to him. His eyes will be opened and he will be like God (Gen 3:5). This worldview makes the Serpent of Genesis seem honest, not like the Liar he actually is. TDVC later confirms this explanation for the fruit:

“The orb from which Eve partook,” Langdon said coolly, “incurring the Holy wrath of God. Original sin. The symbol of the fall of the sacred feminine.” TDVC p. 425.

In the end of days, we’re being reminded of the first days when humankind ever walked the earth, and the devil is trying to force the rationalization for his lies after all these years. The fall of the sacred feminine? How about the fall of humankind? In the end of the age, vehicles of the media such as TDVC, and Wild at Heart for that matter, are even applying spin to the Fall, calling it something mysteriously appealing, such as “the fall of the sacred feminine”, or outright ridiculous, such as “a loss of heart”. A more accurate way to describe the Fall is with one word: Death.

Are the sacred feminine and Humanism equal? Yes they are, according to the worldview affirmed by TDVC. In the Bible, the Serpent’s lie to humans was that by eating the forbidden fruit they would become like God. Extolling the sacred feminine by the twisting of this biblical narrative is referential exaltation of humanity. Significantly, the final words of TDVC again hearken back to Eden and the Serpent’s voice.

“For a moment, he [Langdon] thought he heard a woman’s voice…the wisdom of the ages… whispering up from the chasms of the earth.” TDVC p. 454.

This sounds remarkably like the Serpent’s beguiling voice, offering wisdom to them who partake of the forbidden fruit, wisdom that is “earthly, sensual, demonic” (James 3:15). We know that the Serpent whispered to Eve, “your eyes will be opened and you will be like God” (Gen 3:5).

Times have not changed.