Bhangra dancing

It has been a joyful day with the wedding of our dear friend from Thailand, Sumita and her groom Prem, from Singapore. Pictures of how colourful it was will be added early next week... and one thing that always interest me about India and the people, is the diversity in cultures and how they can all live together with 1 Billion cramped on a peninsular!

Most interesting is that both Prem and Sumita the only Christians are in their family and that this wedding was - to my rating - the best Christian wedding ever, seen the pastor gave a message on covenant marriages from the Bible so vividly and so close to the couple ( he even sang a song for them!) to an audience which was mostly Hindu with a few Muslims
They all liked it very much, because on a day like this, when 2 people bind their Love with oneanother, it becomes a reality that it is all about Love... and who is not moved by that?

Here are some pictures by the Bhangra dancing group, colours, music .. preparing us for an even greater feast later on when ... Indian buffet was served

Tit for Tat

... a perspective on the Middle East Crisis and the Zinedan/Matterazzi 'tit for tat farce' during World Cup 2006 ... log on in a few days to read this blog ...

here is a picture of a jockey who learned some bad lessons from Zizoo ... I wonder what the horse told him?

What code... ?

.. Oh! … The Da Vinci Goad!







Yo! Finally, after many months of good intentions to get this blog up and running, I find no better opportunity launch it by sharing my thoughts on the film "The Da Vinci Code" (DVC). No need to further introduce it, most of you have seen it…I haven’t!

But let me highlight some of the "hidden codes" that are not mentioned in the film, nor are they to be found in the author's book's footnotes.

40 million books sold! .. and now the film. Hollywood does know how to turn anything into ₤€¥$’s. Make it controversial, touch a religious string, ‘shutter’ some feathers, cause some hype around it - even a court case - and what more marketing and publicity is needed? Mmmmh… though the film did not really hit box office as expected.


“The last Supper” painting was decorating one of my walls in my humble Bangkok studio for years. Leonardo Da Vinci (DV) … a real master painter, who made a master piece! .. of the real Master!

If DV was still alive today, he’d probably sue Dan Brown (DB) !!! He was commissioned by the church to do the painting job, so he was surely not interested in putting any code in it! Even the allegation that he was a heir of the “Priory of Sion”, not a single shred of evidence is to be found in 6,000 pages of his scribbles or 487 years of The Renaissance wonder’s memorabilia. But even, Mr Pierre Plantard, the so-called- founder of the “The Priory link” to DV, admitted in court in ’84 it was all a hoax. If you really want to know about DV, go to a bookshop and buy books on him, but stay away from the DVC.

But let’s talk a bit on the book and film.

Fiction: DB writes: “And the companion of the Savior is Mary Magdalene. Christ loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often on her mouth.” Quoting from the Gnostic gospel – gospel of Philip. Mrs. Jesus herself is then supposed to be the legendary Holy Grail, the royal bloodline of Jesus.

Fact however, is that the gonostic texts, were not authored by any of the apostles, but written under a pseudonym, using the name of the apostles to get credibility. The gospel of Philip was a late 2nd century AD text and is definitely NOT one of the earliest surviving Christian records.

Even if Jesus was married, this would not contradict his own teaching of marriage. He supports it and in other Bible books it is even recommended for elders and leaders in His Church! On the question of plausibility, however, it would be difficult to explain why there are no records of Jesus’ marriage, fatherhood, etc… he even did not even mention a word about it while addressing his biological mother, Mary, on the Cross dying!

Fiction: DB writes: “The bible as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman Emperor Constantin the great”, P.231 he makes it sound that Constantin was the key figure in deciding the Bible’s final composition!

Fact is that the history of the formation of the Bible did not start nor end with Constantin and involved many churches and leaders over many years. The present New testament of 27 books was confirmed only by Bishop Augustine, who was born 354 AD after Constantine’s death 337AD!

Was Jesus the Son of God?

Fiction: DB: “Jesus Christ was actually only a mere man. But he was elevated to ‘divine’ position as a result of a vote held in 325AD at the Council of Nicaea – a convention of Bishops.”

Fact: DB uses here a half truth to distort the Truth. For 2 and a half centuries before Nicaea, most of the disciples of Christ had already the opinion about the Truth that Christ is divine. (Peter says this in Matthew 16:16 even though having denied Christ so many times) The Council of Nicaea did seriously consider alternating views of Jesus, yet NOT whether he was merely mortal or divine (that was determined already!), but rather whether he was created or eternal. It was not a choice between “human” versus “God”, but as “eternal” versus “created”.

Finally, you may ask the question: “Jan, have you read the book?” My answer I simply: “ No, I have not and will not. The book would belong to the genre I normally would not read, so why bother this time? In the meantime the film critics have given me already enough reasons to pass on the film…” But then, how can you make your judgment? Well, why do people make a judgment or belief after they have seen the film and read the book and make and discredit the claims of Jesus and The Bible? Have they read and studied the Bible? I have read many other books on the DVC book, with excerpts from it on how it distorts truth, exchanges it for fiction, but still claims it is based a fact.

In India, the film is banned because the producers refused to put a disclaimer in the generics that it was all fiction. HellooO !? … India is predominantly Hindu and Islam!
Actually, I am looking at a pile of books, bought but not read yet, so … I am selective on my time spent and obviously would also pass on the film…waste of time, money and it does not bring me new Truth anyway!

I wonder what would have happened if DB would have made a fictional film on "Muhammad and his harem" ...

If you are interested in doing some homework yourself on the DVC, here are some useful web sites:

http://www.charismamag.com/display.php?id=12860 ( Top 20 Big Lies in the DVC book )

http://jesusfactorfiction.com/

http://www.thelife.com/davinci/ or send me a mail, I like to discuss these topics!

But the best source to check is without doubt

... the Bible!