Well, we had a pretty interesting night on Sunday as we tackled this emerging Da Vinci Code-ish movie-documentary called The Lost Tomb of Jesus by James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici (I’ve said that name so much lately that I think I’ve become an expert at pronouncing it). 

I would say our group was comprised of Christians, those seeking to possibly be Christians and those who would not consider themselves Christians.  A pretty interesting group of people when you throw a controversial thing like The Lost Tomb of Jesus into the mix.  The evening started with the usual yummy desserts, coffee and tea, moved into a time of singing and worship with the kids, followed by an exit of the kids to their JHKids time and an entrance of a clip of the epilogue from the movie-documentary in question.  After watching said 10 minute clip we adults entered into a good but at times feisty discussion about the issues raised by Jacobovici’s find.

People shared their general thoughts about the argument presented by Cameron and Jacobovici as well as their experiences with other people talking about the movie-documentary in other settings, i.e. work, school, friends, etc.  But the fun stuff didn’t happen until we began to enter into the question of, "what implications does such an archaeological find have for Christian theology and doctrine today?"  Some Christians felt that we should not hide our heads in the sand on such a find but rather with eyes wide open and biblical discernment in hand seek to find whatever truth could be uncovered in such a discovery, if there was any to begin with.  Other Christians, understandably, felt the whole idea of even talking about such an issue in a "church" setting could be tantamount to blasphemy.  Others (Christian and non alike) mentioned either their possible belief in or strong doubts about the assertions made by Jacobovici and company.

Overall, most everyone I hope (even the Christians who toyed with the idea that I might be blaspheming God by even discussing this movie-documentary, which by the way does clearly imply a complete denial of both the bodily resurrection and ascension of Jesus, a non-negotiable doctrine and truth held by The Joshua House and historical, orthodox Christianity…sorry had to get that out!), enjoyed the time together and the value that such a discussion brought to us all.

As I explained later to some of the attendees, this night was a prime example of The Joshua House’s value of "cultural engagement" in action.  We value engaging culture for the sake of transforming it into the likeness of God’s Kingdom.  We don’t just say this on our web site to sound cool, we are actually trying to work this out in our community’s life and learning more each day.

In conclusion, I thank God for this opportunity to begin this conversation with Christians and non alike on some of the core beliefs we hold to as followers of Jesus today.  Moreover, I pray for wisdom in learning to see and use things like The Da Vinci Code, The Lost Tomb of Jesus, etc. not so much as a threat to be defeated (although there are times for that) but rather as means by which to listen to and interact with people on behalf of the gospel and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.

More to come…