Some Things We Should Know
About ‘The DaVinci Code’
INTRODUCTION
A current popular movie (starring Tom Hanks, directed by Ron Howard) is based on the book – The DaVinci Code, by Dan Brown.
Opinion Research Business (ORB) ORB interviewed more than 1,000 adults last weekend, finding that 60 percent believed Jesus had children by Mary Magdalene — a possibility raised by the book — compared with just 30 percent of those who had not read the book.
The novel, which has sold over 40 million copies, also depicts Opus Dei as a ruthless Machiavellian organization whose members resort to murder to keep the Church’s secrets.
Bad News – the book is full of lies about Christ and the Bible. More than 40 million bought the book. More millions will see the move. The potential damage to people’s faith in Christ and in the Bible is tremendous. That is why this study is needed today.
Backlash – Many religious leaders are speaking out to expose the errors. There will be a backlash against this movie. Peter tells us to “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you” [1 Peter 3:15].
Some of you have already read or heard about The DaVinci Code. Others may not know what I’m talking about. Let me read to you from an introduction (based on the book’s contents) from the book Cracking DaVinci’s Code by James Garlow and Peter Jones:
Is this possible? Leigh Teabing is an expert in the ancient trail leading to the Holy Grail. A former British Royal Historian, Teabing moved to France to personally search through churches for clues leading to the Grail. He is a multimillionaire descendant of the First Duke of Lancaster and lives in a seventeenth century castle with two private lakes. One more thing about Leigh Teabing: He does not exist.
Teabing is one of the fanciful characters in Dan Brown’s runaway best seller. But Dan Brown is very real. And the ideas he presents about Christianity, spoken through Langdom, Teabing, and other characters in his book, are causing many to question what they have always believed to be true about Jesus.
It’s time to separate fact from fiction.
The DaVinci Code starts out with a ghastly murder in the Louvre Museum in Paris. The police call in a professor of religious symbology at Harvard, to help unravel the clues left near the corpse. On and around the body are riddles, which lead to clues hidden in the art of Leonardo da Vinci.
The murdered curator of the Louvre was also the Grand Master of an ancient society entrusted with guarding a secret that, if revealed, would threaten the very existence of the Christian church. He died protecting the location of the proof of the Holy Grail.
The police try to stay ahead of an albino killer, who is orchestrating this deadly search for the Grail.
The Grail, according to is such a great secret that, if it were exposed, Christianity as we know it today would cease to exist.
The Holy Grail is Mary Magdalene … the mother of the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ. Brown asserts that Mary Magdalene and Jesus were sexual partners and had a child together. Mary fled from the other disciples, who were jealous of her relationship with Jesus, and lived in a Jewish community in France with their child. There is documented proof of this assertion, according to Brown, proof that has been guarded since the days of the Crusades by a secret organization known as the Priory of Sion. Hints of this secret can be found hidden in paintings and drawings by DaVinci and other artists throughout history, if only one knows how and where to look.
Dan Brown claims it is based on fact. He appeared on the Today Show October 10, 2005. Matt Lauer asked him, “How much of this is based on reality in terms of things that actually happened.” Brown answered, “Absolutely all of it . . . is historical fact.” On Good Morning America on November 3, 2003, Charlie Gibson asked Dan Brown how the book would have been different if he had been writing it as a work of non-fiction. Brown replied, “I don’t think it would have [been different].” So, we’re dealing with an author who says he believes these blasphemous accusations are true.
I want to deal with some of the allegations Brown makes against Christ and the Bible.
1. BROWN CLAIMS THAT CHRISTIANITY IS BASED ON OTHER RELIGIONS.
“Nothing in Christianity is original. The pre-Christian God Mithras—called the Son of God and the Light of the World was born on December 25, died, was buried in a rock tomb, and then
resurrected in three days. By the way, December 25 is also the birthday of Osiris, Adonis, and
Dionysus. The newborn Krishna was presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Even
Christianity’s weekly holy day was stolen from the pagans.” [p. 232]
We don’t suggest that Dan Brown simply made up all these claims. There are documents he can cite to support to back up at least some of this. But how reliable are these documents?
Little is known about these mystery religions before the third century A. D. The Mithrain religion became popular in the Roman Empire in the second, third, and fourth centuries. A third century document which says that Mithras was resurrected three days after his death only substantiates that Mithrains taught such a doctrine in the 3rd century. These claims offer no proof at all that Christianity is based on Mithraism or any of the other mystery religions of the 3rd and 4th centuries.
Instead, it is much more likely that these later mystery religions developed features that were based on Christianity. We have first century documents (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts) which teach us about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. [Illustration: it is as if someone claims “The French Revolution influenced the beginning of the American Revolution.” You might make a convincing case until someone happens to remember some dates from history class. The American Revolution started in 1776; the French Revolution occurred in the 1790s. So if there was any influence, which one influenced the other? ]
2. BROWN CLAIMS THAT CHRISTIANS WORSHIPED ON THE SABBATH UNTIL EMPEROR CONSTANTINE CHANGED IT TO SUNDAY.
“Christianity honored the Jewish Sabbath of Saturday, but Constantine shifted it to coincide with the pagan’s veneration day of the sun. To this day, most churchgoers attend services on Sunday morning with no idea that they are there on account of the pagan sun god’s weekly tribute— Sunday.” (pp 232-233)
The New Testament church met on the first day of the week.
1 Corinthians 16:2 On the first day of the week let each one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no collections when I come.
2. Acts 20:7 Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight.
Obviously if the churches in Corinth and Troas were meeting on Sunday (the first day of the week) back in the middle of the first century, the time of worship could not have been changed by Constantine in the early years of the fourth century.
3. BROWN CLAIMS THAT THE EXISTENCE OF ‘THE SACRED FEMININE’ WAS COVERED UP BY CHURCH AUTHORITIES.
“The ancients envisioned their world in two halves – masculine and feminine. Their Gods and Goddesses worked to keep a balance of power. Yin and yang.” (p36)
They used Gnostic writings from the second century and later to bolster their idea that Jesus was a radical feminist. The notion of Mary Magdalene being one of the chief apostles fits right in with these aims.
Mary Magdalene is mentioned only a few times in the Bible.
Jesus cast seven demons out of her [Mark 16:9].
She was present while Jesus was dying on the cross [Matthew 27:55-56, “And many women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to Him, were there looking on from afar, 56 among whom were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.”].
She was present when Jesus was buried [Matthew 27:60-61].
She went to the tomb early on the first day of the week [Matthew 28:1].
She told Peter and John about the empty tomb [John 20:1-2].
Jesus appeared to her after His resurrection [Mark 16:9] and told her that He had not yet ascended to the Father [John 20:17]. Mary reported to the disciples what Jesus had said to her [John 20:18].
Those scripture references present Mary as a devoted disciple, but there is not a hint of any kind of romantic relationship between Jesus and Mary.
Certainly the Bible does not teach that they married and had children together.
4. BROWN CLAIMS THAT THE BIBLE IS ‘A PRODUCT OF MAN, NOT OF GOD.’
“The Bible did not arrive by fax from heaven… The Bible is a product of man, my dear. Not of God. The Bible did not fall magically from the clouds. Man created it as a historical record of tumultuous times, and it has evolved through countless translations, additions, and revisions. History has never had a definitive version of the book.” (p231)
The Bible gives a different explanation for its origin.
2 Peter 1:21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
If Brown’s view is correct, the Bible ought to be a mishmash of confusing and contradictory stories. How could the “countless translations, additions, and revisions” produce anything like the Bible we study today?
66 books . . . 1,500+ years . . . about 40 different writers
Written on three continents . . . Asia, Africa, Europe
Written in three languages . . . Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic
Written by writers from very different backgrounds – shepherds, fishermen, doctors, lawyers, kings, tax collectors
From Genesis to Revelation, the writers spoke with amazing harmony. The Bible is the single unfolding story of sin and redemption through Jesus Christ.
5. BROWN SAYS THE COUNCIL OF NICEA DECIDED WHICH BOOKS WOULD BE IN THE BIBLE.
“The Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great.” (p231) “More than eighty gospels were considered for the New Testament, and yet only a relative few were chosen for inclusion-Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John among them.” (p231)
The church did not determine canonicity of Bible books; it recognized the evidence for inspiration which God had given to these works. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God [2 Timothy 3:16]. Dr. Norman Geisler stated it this way, “A book is not the Word of God because it is accepted by the people of God. Rather, it was accepted by the people of God because it is the Word of God. That is, God gives the book its divine authority, not the people of God. They merely recognize the divine authority which God gives to it.” [General Introduction to the Bible, 210].
When did the books of the NT become recognized?
Most books in the New Testament were readily accepted as belonging to the canon of Scripture. Peter referred to Paul’s writings along with the rest of the Scriptures [2 Peter 3:16].
Clement of Rome writing in the AD 90s quotes from Paul’s writings.
Polycarp (c. 115 A. D.) referred to New Testament writings as scripture.
Ireneus, about 180 A.D. attested the canonical recognition of the fourfold Gospel and Acts, of Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy., and Titus, of 1 Peter and 1 John and of the Revelation.
6. BROWN CLAIMS CONSTANTINE AND THE COUNCIL OF NICEA MADE JESUS DIVINE.
“Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made Him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.” (p234)
“Many scholars claim that the early Church literally stole Jesus from His original followers, hijacking His human message, shrouding it in an impenetrable cloak of divinity, and using it to expand their own power.” (p233)
“Jesus’ establishment as the ‘Son of God’ was officially proposed and voted on by the Council of Nicaea…A relatively close vote at that.” (p233)
The New Testament (written in the first century) clearly teaches Jesus’ identity as the Son of God.
Matthew 16:16 Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Council of Nicea did discuss the controversy between the followers of Arius and the followers of Athanasius. Athanasius and most of the church leaders believed that Jesus was purely and simply God in the flesh come to earth. Arius thought Jesus was some kind of specially-created being, not mere humanity but not fully God either.
The close vote - I must admit, though, that there are historians who disagree that the vote was 218-2. They say it was 300-2.
CONCLUSION
Much more could be said on this subject. But this is enough to show that the information in The DaVinci Code is bogus. It is not credible.
We must be alert to the many attempts to destroy faith.
When Jesus comes will He find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8)