Influential Bible scholars pour a lot of their intellectual gifts into tearing up the roots of biblical Christianity. This is not new, but in our culture, the effect of "critical" biblical studies is multiplied. A general suspicion of "organized religion" finds confirmation from "the experts."

Such an expert is Elaine Pagels, Professor of Religion at Princeton University, recognized scholar, and author of the award-winning Gnostic Gospels (1979). This book convinced many that the early Gnostic heretics, who introduced pagan spirituality into the Church, represented a genuine Christian alternative, suppressed by a cold, calculating Church institution. In Beyond Belief (New York: Random House, 2003), Pagels expands this message.

Mars Hill Bible Church opened its doors in February of 1999 with a stated desire to exist as a "church where scripture would be taught in a new way, a way that would reach a changing culture."

Gary Knapp and his wife, Becky, were among the first members of the Grandville, Mich., church, which now numbers more than 1,000 members and some 10,000 weekly attendees. Knapp taught an adult Bible class at Mars Hill and led a small group in the church for more than two years.

Remember that bucolic vacation in the countryside when a rooster's crowing gently raising you from sleep to one more delicious day of sheer joy, away from city noise, surrounded by the reassuring sights and sounds of nature?

It was not like that at all. The third time the rooster crowed, it was like a time bomb exploding in your face. Peter, sheepishly warming himself over the garrison fire, having lied to save his skin, was shaken to the depth of his soul-by a rooster! (John 18:27). "How could Jesus have known with such accuracy? What have I done? My life is over." The eventual first apostle was brought very low before the pieces were put together again, and he became a worthy and courageous servant of his Lord.

Roosters crow throughout our lives, bringing good and bad news. In my teenage years, I lived with the constant fear of going bald. (My adolescent fears were justified!) The rooster that woke me every morning was a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that kept me awake, but unable to crawl out of bed, since it paralyzed me with fear of the future and of inevitable social failure.

At CWIPP we take seriously the notion of a pagan planet and of the need for Christian witness to it. Such witness becomes more difficult as Christians discover the all-encompassing planetary nature of our world.

As they say, a butterfly flaps its wings on one side of the globe and a violent storm arises on the other side. Acid rain observes no national borders. The "market" never closes, and red-eyed investors can follow global economic trends 24 hours a day, while Google Earth shows you the license plate numbers of the cars parked in any street you choose to observe. Big Brother is no longer fictional!

Supporters of gay clergy are impatient and want changes right now. They believe that traditionalists are too slow in responding to their appeals for justice and mercy. They do not intend to stop short of making as many changes as quickly as possible in every ecclesiastical setting that will hear them out and accept their views. Last week the goal of the gay advocates was to change the present policy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) at its annual meeting in Chicago. By the time you read this article a decision will have been made.

It's as if we were back in the second century! Irenaeus, an elder of the Christian church of Lyons in Gaul (France), went to Rome in A.D. 177. He returned to discover that forty of his fellow church members, including the old pastor, Potinus, had been executed by the pagan Roman authorities. He became the pastor, and spent the rest of his life protecting the flock both from the pagan authorities on the outside, and denouncing the Gnostic "Christians" and their heretical writings on the inside.

In our day, the once "Christian" society of modern-day America now looks more and more like pagan Rome. Indeed, not since pagan Rome has homosexuality been accepted in history as normal behavior, but even in pagan Rome, there was no such thing as "gay marriage." In our liberated, "secular" though actually religiously-pagan society, Christianity is silenced and pushed to the margins. That is on the outside. On the inside, we face serious apostasy. We face a form of Christianity that is nothing more than a new, virulent strain of the heresy Irenaeus labored to denounce.

My last NewsCWiPP was delayed because Jim Garlow and I were writing Cracking Da Vinci's Code: You've Read the Fiction, Now Read the Facts, a response to Dan Brown's novel, The Da Vinci Code, which has 7 million copies in print, representing some 30 million readers. Ron Howard, producer of Beautiful Mind, is making the movie version, slated for 2005. When Dan Brown finishes with America, evangelism will never be the same.

Previously, I discussed Brown's attack on the historicity of the Christian faith, but his promotion of a "new" spirituality is even more explosive. This is when the feathers begin to fly. On the "Deborah Norville Tonight" show, my co-author discussed our book in the company of two formidable Gnostic scholars, Karen King from Harvard, and Harold Attridge from Yale, who buy into Brown's views of feminism and spirituality. The conflict is out in the open.

Gospel of Thomas sounds far more misogynist than anything found in the Bible.
For some months I have been getting questions about the "Gnostic gospels" and The Da Vinci Code, so it seems right to give readers of this newsletter a bit of guidance. This is by no means a definitive response or analysis—it is more like pastoral counsel— but I hope it will clear up a few things.

The Gnostics' Jesus
In 1945 a red earthenware jar was found buried near Nag Hammadi, a town in upper Egypt. Within thirteen papyrus books dating from A.D.350 were discovered. The writings were those of believers in the philosophy/religion of gnosticism. Gnosticism is heavily influenced by the Hellenistic understanding that the material world is evil and the spirit is good. Gnostics believed that the ultimate supreme God did not create the world, but rather a lesser god, a 'demiurge,' created the world poorly and imperfectly. The result was a material world filled with decay, weakness, and death. But Gnostics believed that human beings, though locked in this material body, have a spark of the higher spiritual reality within. This spark, if fanned into a flame, can liberate us and help us evolve back into spiritual perfection. This happens through a process of self-discovery, in which you discover your divine identity, you separate from the world by 'stripping off ' the consciousness of the physical body, and you finally experience the kingdom of light, peace, and life.