In This Month's Report:
* Editorial - The Cross and the Code
* April Events - Centennial Celebration of Azusa Street Revival
* April Ministry - Impacting the Northeast
* Tips and Resources - God's Love Toward a Radical Muslim
* Products - Two Great Resources (see link below)
* Partnership - Invest in God's Program for the Northeast of America

We would love to hear from you; please send us your feedback today. Don’t forget the ever-popular 'GOD THOUGHTS' at the end of this report. Enjoy! JB

"There is never any peace for those who resist God." —Francois Fenelon

INTRODUCTION
In the lead up to Easter, the most sacred time in the Christian calendar, there were two concerted efforts to discredit Christianity and make a lot of money! The so called ‘gospel’ of Judas and "The Da Vinci Code" book and movie, the latter due out soon, both make persuasive suggestions that Jesus did not die, but just fainted on the cross. He was revived in the tomb and lived out a normal life, having children with Mary Magdalene.

THE 'GOSPEL' OF JUDAS
The Gnostic 'gospel' of Judas is a third century manuscript discovered in the Egyptian desert in the 1970s. The 1,700-year-old papyrus manuscript suggests that history has misjudged Judas, the greatest villain of Christianity. It says that he sold Jesus out as an act of obedience, not treachery! This 'gospel' ends in the Garden of Gethsemane because the death and resurrection of Jesus was not what the Gnostic Christians wanted to keep alive. They believed that He was not incarnate, but was just a spirit. They were desperate to undermine the doctrine of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. The Gnostics wanted to rehabilitate Judas from being the villain of Christianity to being the 'chosen one.'

The Gospel of Judas was as unimportant to most Christians when it was written in the third century as it is today. Like the gospels of Mary Magdalene and Philip, it does not even merit the name 'gospel' — a 'gospel' is good news, focusing on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Christ is still being sold — not for 30 pieces of silver, but for millions by book publishers and editors. There has been no shortage of desperate and unscrupulous people trying to discredit the central component of Christianity — the resurrection! The Gospel of Judas is a companion text to ancient scriptures unearthed in 1945, which have formed the basis of some assertions in Dan Brown's controversial bestseller, "The Da Vinci Code."

THE DA VINCI 'CODE?'
"The Da Vinci Code" is a very interesting story, but it is false! Myths can create seeds of doubt in the gullible and those not firmly grounded in doctrine. The book and movie's main claims are these:

1) The Roman emperor Constantine conspired to deify Jesus Christ.
2) Constantine personally selected the books of the New Testament.
3) The Gnostic gospels were banned by men to suppress women.
4) Jesus and Mary Magdalene were secretly married and had a child.
5) Thousands of secret documents disprove key points of Christianity.

Could these shocking assertions be true? Or, is the premise behind it just the stuff of a good conspiracy novel — on a par with one belief that there was a second gunman on the grassy knoll in Dallas when JFK was assassinated? Either way, the story is persuasive. While the book and movie claim to be based on fact, they clearly are not. Tragically, many people, even Christians, will go away believing the book and movie are truthful. Let's address each claim.

1) Did the early church think Jesus was the Creator or merely a creation?

Constantine’s conversion to Christianity was a turning point in church history. Rome became a Christian empire. For the first time in nearly 300 years, it was relatively safe, and even cool, to be a Christian. "The Da Vinci Code" turns Constantine into a conspirator, saying he invented the Christian doctrine of Jesus’ divinity at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. However, hundreds of years earlier, Paul wrote in Philippians 2:5 that Jesus was God in human form, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God....” This passage has been discovered in an ancient manuscript, and it is carbon-dated at 200 AD. Thus, Jesus was clearly spoken of as God over a hundred years before Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea.

2) Did Constantine personally select the books of the New Testament?

Although the official canon was still years from being finalized, the New Testament of today was deemed authentic more than two centuries before the Council of Nicaea.

3) Were the Gnostic gospels banned by men to suppress women in the early church?

Ironically, it is the Gnostic gospel of Thomas that demeans women. It ends (supposedly quoting Peter) with this eye-popping statement: “Let Mary go away from us, because women are not worthy of life.” Then Jesus allegedly tells Peter that he will turn Mary into a male so that she may enter the kingdom of heaven. In other words, women are inferior. In stark contrast, the Jesus of the biblical Gospels always treated women with dignity and respect (woman at the well). Galatians 3:28 also tells us, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all Christians — you are one in Christ Jesus.”

4) Did Jesus and Mary Magdalene secretly get married and have a child?

The juiciest part of the Da Vinci conspiracy is the claim that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a secret marriage that produced a child, perpetuating His bloodline. Furthermore, Mary Magdalene’s womb, carrying Jesus' offspring, is presented in the book as the legendary Holy Grail, a secret closely held by a Catholic organization called the Priory of Sion, of which Leonardo da Vinci was said to be a member. However, the legendary Holy Grail had nothing to do with Mary Magdalene, rather was Jesus’ cup at his last supper. And Leonardo da Vinci never could have known about the Priory of Sion, since it wasn’t founded until 1956, 437 years after his death. And the Priory of Sion has since been proved to be the fabrication of a French con man.

Romance, scandal, intrigue! Great stuff for a conspiracy theory, but phony history!

5) "The Da Vinci Code" asserts that there are “thousands of secret documents” that prove Christianity is a hoax. Could this be true?

If there were such documents, scholars opposed to Christianity would have a field day with them. Fraudulent writings that were rejected by the early church for heretical views are not secret, but have been known for centuries. The New Testament we have today has passed numerous tests for authenticity. The contrast is devastating to those pushing conspiracy theories. New Testament historian F. F. Bruce wrote, “There is no body of ancient literature in the world which enjoys such a wealth of good textual attestation as the New Testament.”

In spite of the lack of historical evidence, conspiracy theories will still sell millions of books and set box office records. We all love mysteries — but we love conspiracies more.

CONCLUSION
Although "The Da Vinci Code" is fictional, it does base much of its premise upon actual events (the Council of Nicaea), actual people (Constantine), and actual documents (the Gnostic gospels). This gives it false credibility. A WWII novel will also include some actual events to establish the story, but if the outcome of the war is changed, it will totally discredit the story as a reliable historical document. "The Da Vinci Code" assertions about Christianity are the same as if we made Hitler the winner of WWII!

For the last 2,000 years, there have been hundreds of unsuccessful attempts to deny Christ's bodily death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. The 'gospel' of Judas and "The Da Vinci Code" are just one more round of attempts to undermine the central belief and hope of Christianity. Like all those prior, they will fail!   #

Azusa Street Conference Celebrates 100 Years of Pentecost - During the last week of April, the city of Los Angeles was host to the centennial celebrations of the revival in Azusa Street that began at the opening of the 20th century and has grown from a hand full to nearly a billion 'Spirit-filled' Christians around the world today. Over 30,000 attended, with 360 ministries represented. Among those ministries was Christian Friends of Israel (CFI), a ministry based in Jerusalem for over 20 years, whose mission is to reach out to the Jewish people with the love of Jesus through projects and outreaches in Israel and to encourage the Church concerning its Hebrew heritage and biblical responsibility to the Jewish people.

Defenders of the Family Banquet – On Friday evening, April 28th, close to 700 people attended the 10th Annual Defenders of the Family Banquet hosted by the New Jersey Family Policy Council. The evening was motivating, and retired US Senator Zell Miller encouraged everyone with his life experiences, anecdotes and sound wisdom on how and why we must vamp up our efforts to defend marriage, family, faith and freedom in New Jersey. Len Deo, president of the NJ Family Policy Council, also shared the vision for the next ten years, which includes a Marriage Builders program that we will be instituting in communities throughout our state. I was honored to receive the Pastoral Award for the state.

Joseph Mattera Consecrated as Bishop - On Saturday, April 29th, more than 400 clergy, community, political leaders and church members celebrated the consecration of Bishop Joseph Mattera, senior pastor of Resurrection Church, Brooklyn, NY and founder of City Covenant Coalition and City Action Coalition. Bishop Mattera comments, "I was honored to be involved in such an ecumenical assembly made up of clergy, community leaders, and saints with approximately 30 local and national bishops and apostolic leaders that took part in the ceremony, something I have never seen before in New York! The government of God in our region is now maturing as never before! We started off praying together, and then laboring together, and now we are placing and commissioning bishops and apostolic leadership together! Praise God for this glorious day we are living in."