The reason that (some) Christians reject this thesis with such vigor is because of what the Apostle Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth 2000 years ago in response to earlier Gnostic heresies. He wrote that if this is indeed true than Christianity is a farce and we are all dead in our sins.

"If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless, you are still in your sins," (1 Corinthians 15:17).

Bennett goes on to state that just because Jesus was married does not necessarily negate the fact that He was the Savior and died and rose again and she cites Leonardo DaVinci as proof. She is once again incorrect because the Bible most certainly does state that He never married. the Bible does not state that Jesus was married or not married. Infact, because the Bible does not state that Jesus was not married, it is assumed by some biblical scholars that Jesus was in fact married.)

First of all, the Bible clearly states that He was pure as a spotless lamb.

"Having no spot or wrinkle, holy and blameless," (Ephesians 5:27).

"Not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ' (1Peter 1:18-19).

Not that marriage or conception is by any means evil, but He was most certainly chaste. He had to be pure and virginal in order to be able to take on the sins of the world. Furthermore, Christ was to be married to the Church not to Mary Magdalene or any other earthly woman.

"Christ is the head (husband) of the Church, "(Ephesians 5:22-23) "For I betrothed you (Church) to one husband, Christ," (2 Corinthians 11:2)

Thus in Biblical terms, Christ was the bridegroom and the Church was the Bride not Mary Magdalene. How is it then that well meaning, intelligent people like Mary Alice Bennett cannot see the reality of this truth and are deceived? Once again the Apostle Paul enlightens us.

"But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds shall be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ " (2Corinthians 11:3).

"A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised," (1Corinthians 2:14)

Unless one is truly born again and God is with him, a person can be easily deceived. This does not mean that one can be born again by church membership or baptism or tithing or lighting candles. The obvious hypocrisy of organized religion in its futile attempt to control and thereby subjugate individuals runs many people off. I know that it did me.

What I am speaking about is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and turning your life over to Him. Then and only then, can the Holy Spirit which then resides in you show you the truth.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God," (John 3:3).

Therefore, while any born again Believer can readily know that Jesus was not married and was Divine and was resurrected, this can be seen as foolishness to those who are not. Only God can reveal this to someone and all my pleadings will most probably just fall on deaf ears as happened to me. God opened my eyes not the people witnessing to me. Then and only then did my entire belief system undergo a radical paradigm shift.

Now, I am going to change gears for a minute and take this discussion from one of deception and misperception to an even higher level of outrage. I am going to try and tie this quest for the Holy Grail to the murderous rampage of Adolph Hitler and the Nazis. This is of course not to say that Bennett or all of those who search for the supposed Holy Grail are Nazi sympathizers anymore than are vegetarians or those who shun alcohol as did Hitler, but it does raise some very intriguing questions. Just like in the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Nazis were actually really searching for the Holy Grail as a power source for victory.

Hitler had a messianic complex which manifested itself in an unbridled quest for the power needed to change the world into his Reich with him as God. Please bear with me.

Before I continue, however, I first need to state that I believe this Holy Grail like the Spear of Longinus that supposedly pierced Christ's side as well as other iconic artifacts have become idols. The Bible warns us "not to make for yourselves idols" (Leviticus 26:1).

Also:

"Let all those be ashamed who serve graven images, who boast themselves of idols" (Psalm 97:7).

"They shall be turned back and utterly put to shame who trust in idols, who say to molten images, you are our gods" (Isaiah 42:17).

Seeking the Grail as your idol, your source of power rather than God, is as wrong as making Hitler or the Pope or the Virgin Mary or Saints your idols or your source. The One and only true and living God should be your only source.

Several years ago, I ran across a very interesting book entitled The Twisted Cross: the Occultic Religion of Hitler and the New Age Nazism of the Third Reich by Joseph J. Carr. In his book, Carr alleged that both Adolph Hitler as well as German composer Richard Wagner had a fascination with Holy Grail stories. They also were intrigued with the poem Parsifal by Wolfgang Von Eschenbach. Wagner even made it into an opera. Hitler saw himself as either Parsifal or the central character in other Grail stories who would bring salvation to Aryan mankind and lead them to a new age of history.

When Italy concluded a separate peace with the Allies, the German army moved into southern France and northern Italy to take up positions abandoned by the Italians. Shortly after the occupation, a research team sent by Heinrich Himmler and headed by Col.. Otto Rahn, a professor steeped in Eastern mysticism and the occult arrived in the Pyrenees Mountains along the Franco-Spanish border to search for the Holy Grail. Excavations were undertaken in the vicinity of Montsegur fortress (just as Bennett stated in her article). Col. Otto Rahn was a member of the SS Standartenfuehrer and the Occultist Ahrenerbe (Ancestral Heritage Department of the SS) and an instructor in the Vogelsang schools which trained SS leaders.

This castle was an old Cathar stronghold which had been ravaged in the Albigensian Crusade of 1244. The Cathars not only practiced a heretical pseudo-Christian religion influenced by Manichaeistic dualism but they also revered Mary Magdalene rather than the Virgin Mary and thus were persecuted and killed by the Roman Catholic Church. Author Jean-Michel Angebert wrote that the Holy Grail was actually the Lost Book of the Aryans containing secret Gnostic knowledge. This repository of secret knowledge was believed by Himmler and Rahn to have been sent to Europe from Tibet by way of Persia.

Hitler as was said earlier was enthralled by Grail stories however they manifested themselves. In the Parsifal story, the Holy Grail was a philosophers stone of secret knowledge while the Cathars called it a cup of secret knowledge. Some spoke of tablets possessing secret knowledge which supposedly were stored in Nuremburg while others spoke of it as the spear of Longinus that pierced the side of Christ and contained awesome power. As I stated previously, all of these became idols that detracted from the true worship of Jesus Christ.

The Cathars believed that the Roman Catholic Church had distorted the original meaning of the Holy Grail as a repository of secret knowledge into something to do with Christ. The Roman Catholic Church spoke of the Holy Grail either as the cup that Jesus used at the Last Supper or of a cup that Joseph of Arimathaea used to collect the blood of Christ dripping from the Cross.

Unfortunately, these church sanctioned legendary artifacts also became idols. According to Hitler, all of these legendary Holy Grail artifacts (idols) supposedly had secret occultic powers which would enable him to rule the world as a God. In reality they were nothing but what the Bible calls "dumb idols that led people astray" (1Corinthians 12:2).

The Templars, a Gnostic order of warrior monks, also figured into Hitler's plans. His Teutonic Knights were founded as the German order of the Knights Templar. The Templars like the Cathars believed the Holy Grail to be an object of secret power. Thus both the secretive Cathars and the Templars figured into Hitler's plans for world conquest using these occultic idols.

In another fascinating book entitled Hitler's Cross: The revealing story of how the Cross of Christ was used as a symbol of the Hitler Agenda by Erwin W. Lutzer, the author explains how Hitler believed that only those with a pure blood line were fit to possess the Grail. Hitler believed that the inferior beings in the concentration camps were shedding their blood to purify the blood of the Aryan people. The Jews were being offered as sacrifices to the Aryan gods.

Of course, Scripture tells us that only the blood of Christ can purify us.

"The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin" (1John 1:7).

Hitler's justification of genocide by an allusion to Christ's redeeming sacrifice was an abomination just as was the allusion to himself as God.

Lutzer went on to explain how Hitler stated "Yes, I am God but so is nature; in fact everything is God and God is everything." Hitler said "I will tell you a secret. I am founding an order of the man-God, that splendid being will be the object of worship.

This was the lie that the serpent told Eve in the garden: "You will be like God" (Genesis 3:5).

Thus in conclusion, it must be acknowledged that the romantic quest for the legendary Holy Grail can not only lead to apostasy because it is at the least idol worship but at the worst can lead to a quest for unbridled power and ultimately to genocide. When we mortal humans start thinking of ourselves as gods only ruin can follow. The self proclaimed god man Adolph Hitler sought the legendary Gnostic Holy Grail of secret knowledge of the Cathars and the Templars to finalize his plan for world domination. His sadistic quest for unbridled power fortunately ended with the whimper of suicide.

My hope is that all who search for the Holy Grail will "turn to God from idols to serve a living and true God' (1Thessalonians 1:9).

"Whether even if there are so called gods whether in heaven or on earth yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him" (1Corinthians 8:5-6).