July 2006 Letters to the Editor

Challenging truths sparked by Da Vinci

The Challengingdavinci.com website (SC, May) states: ‘Some people say Jesus had to get married, because all rabbis were required to. But Jesus wasn’t a rabbi. He wasn’t an official church leader, so the rules didn’t apply to him’. Within Judaism, to the best of my knowledge, it is not stated officially or unofficially that a rabbi is required to be married. Furthermore, I am not aware of any extra-religious rules that apply only to rabbis.
Robert Teicher
Sydney, NSW

I found a flyer in my mailbox this afternoon regarding the movie The Da Vinci Code.  I honestly cannot understand what the big deal about this movie in Christian circles is really about. If one’s faith is being threatened by something like this then maybe their own faith and knowledge in Jesus is not as well grounded as they think. Doesn’t Scripture say that the truth sets you free and whom the Son sets free is free indeed?

The real threat to Christianity is hypocrisy within the Church itself. How can the meaning of Christ be portrayed in an organisation that promotes such abominations as homosexual relationships and even homosexual priesthood?
Keith Wheeler
Email address supplied

A word of thanks for a wonderfully helpful and well-made web presence! In doing research to refute the claims of the DVC, I came across your site(s) - thanks.
Tim Stiffler
Indiana, USA

I just finished reading over your website about The Da Vinci Code and wanted to commend you on an excellent job.  I thought the information conveyed was clear and well written, so as to be easily understood by anyone seeking the truth about the ‘real’ Code.
Charles Devenport
Texas, USA

Healing help at hand for sufferers

A comment on the article by John Piper on ‘Don’t waste your cancer’ from a survivor of said malady!

I appreciated his thoughts but would like to contribute a comment from the late Jim Glennon where he described my cancer as ‘permitted difficulty’.

I think this could be the more ‘balanced’ perspective presented by Anne Bates (Letters, June) but for me to experience healing under the gentle and yet authoritative guidance of the Healing Ministry of St Andrew’s Cathedral was so very real and wonderful.

The whole experience was good for me – I needed something like this in my life to bring me back to total dependency upon God and a new, heightened awareness of his reality. It certainly changed my life!
Ruth Lockley
Winmalee, NSW

Sex trade shame

About three million soccer fans are in Germany for the World Cup. Most journalists fail to report that some 40,000 young women are being ‘imported’ from Central and Eastern Europe to ‘service’ the men (SC, June). Sex trafficking is now out of control, since the government treats prostitution as a legitimate occupation.  A pastor visiting Germany told me: ‘To give you an idea of the problem – a prostitute can get a work visa for Germany in just four weeks.  Pastors have to wait up to six months!’ Austin Ruse of the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute says of the German prostitutes:  “Whatever their circumstances, each and every one of these young women is someone’s daughter, a child of God, and deserves our protection.”
Roslyn Phillips
Adelaide, SA

Dead Wrong

I would have to differ to the view expressed by Mark Dever that Christians are playing down Jesus’ death (SC, June). To the contrary, I think we play down his resurrection.  Too often, the raising of our Lord - the most critical element of the gospel story! – is tacked on at the end of gospel explanations, while and his atoning death is championed as the most significant achievement of his life.  Without the resurrection though, his death means nothing (Rom 4:25) and his atonement is of no effect.  Paul’s words in 1 Cor 15: 14 are an apt reminder at this point: ‘If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty’.  I would rather we get the balance right and focus more on Jesus’ resurrection.  What is our faith without it?
Haydn Sennitt
Burwood, NSW

No single answer to marriage debate

Haydn Sennitt (SC, June) posits that having a spouse is surely preferable to not having one. Might this not be the Bible’s witness on this topic?

On the one hand, of course, Haydn is right. But there is a tension in the Scriptures between the blessings of marriage and the blessings of singleness and we should maintain the tension in our thought as best we can.

Could we say that in the light of creation marriage is preferable to singleness (Gen 2:18), but that in the light of the last days singleness is preferable to marriage (1 Cor 7:8, 25-35)? Could we say that both those things continue to be true?
Simon Flinders
North Sydney, NSW

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