Sooner or later, someone will ask you what you think of The DaVinci Code. Neither disinterest nor indifference can prevent its far-ranging influence.
I call it the “Browning” of America (and the world). In three years as a best seller, The DaVinci Code, by conspiracy buff Dan Brown, picked up complimentary, yet naive, reviews and stormed the literary world. It is the best-selling fiction book of all time. Now it is set to extend its influence throughout the movie-going public. Christians need to pay attention
If you buy the book or attend the movie, you’ll add momentum to this runaway media marvel. It was with great reluctance that I purchased a copy of the book for myself, but I felt that I had to be able to speak about it firsthand. To save you time, money and energy, a simple review of the story and the errors it presents is the point of this commentary. All you need to know is here.
Basic Plot and Themes
Brown presents a gripping murder mystery from a fertile imagination. Some historical truth about church abuses and occult practices are intermixed with appalling errors. It is also a book with some sexual reference on almost every page. It is an old plot (Brown stood trial in England for plagiarizing the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail but was acquitted) with new twists. It is an accusatory plot against the Bible, the disciples, the Church and the basic tenants of Christianity.
The book takes place over an incredibly short period of one very long day. An albino Opus Dei monk mysteriously murders a museum curator, who is found to be the Grand Master of the secret organization, the Priori of Sion. His death inspires a search by a Harvard symbologist named Langdon and the curator’s granddaughter, a cryptologist, to rediscover the real leader of the Christian Church. The curator had left telltale clues about this hidden truth, and, before he died, had drawn a mysterious pentagram on his naked body in his own blood. Langdon reveals that the pentagram is a pre-Christian symbol of nature.
Langdon and the granddaughter become suspects in the murder. As they flee a police dragnet, they discover clues related to the secret. They learn that Leonardo DaVinci’s “Mona Lisa” is a code name for the Egyptian god Amon and goddess Isis, that DaVinci was fixated on painting androgyny, as evidenced in the “Mona Lisa,” and that his famous painting, “The Last Supper,” really shows Mary Magdalene at Jesus’ side rather than the Apostle John. DaVinci was deeply involved in the Priori, which is a long line of those who bear secrets about Jesus and Mary Magdalene, and he painted clues about this into his paintings, hence the DaVinci “code.”
The secrets are that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were romantically involved and had a child resulting in a French royal bloodline. It was Mary, not Peter, whom Jesus designated as the leader of the church. This “sacred feminism”—the original pre-Christian religion—has been suppressed by the church and needs recognition and renewal.
In 454 pages, the thriller goes on a rip-roaring pace through the world capitals Paris, Rome, London, Edinburgh and Jerusalem with New York thrown in. It ends with Professor Langdon kneeling in worship at the presumed burial place in Paris of Mary Magdalene.
If you are incredulous, join the club. The DaVinci Code is the latest in a growing line of works designed to portray the church through the ages as warped and the perverter of basic truth about Christ, the Scriptures and Christian feminism, and to portray the primacy of Mary Magdalene extending through European royalty. It draws from a growing acceptance of secret and late-appearing false gospels, which some believe are equally authentic with the 66 books of our Bible. Mix in the Knights Templars, the Crusades and the Holy Grail (in this case, Mary Magdalene’s bloodline, not a cup), and you have a fiction thriller that indoctrinates the emotionally receptive, but spiritually ignorant, into revised dimensions of Christianity.
Whenever Brown mentions the church, he means the Roman Catholic Church. It seemingly has the most to lose since it is cast as the chief assailant of feminine freedom and suppressor of truth about the Code. The church is also charged with abuse through its disciplined Opus Dei, a Catholic lay movement. Questionable historical practices and recent moral scandals fuel the fires of suspicion. Some Catholic leaders are so incensed by The DaVinci Code that the Vatican was encouraging Catholics to institute lawsuits over the movie’s impending release and have organized boycotts of the film.
While The DaVinci Code is clearly a work of fiction, Brown gives it an air of authenticity, saying it is fact in the opening section. He declared elsewhere that if he were writing history, nothing would be changed. However, there are basic errors and inaccuracies in these themes presented in The DaVinci Code:
* Christ did not really say what our Bibles say He said.
* Everything we’ve believed about the Bible and Christianity is false.
* Christ never declared He was divine. The Council of Nicea proclaimed Christ divine in 325 AD.
* Mary Magdalene was appointed by Christ to lead the church.
* Jesus and Mary had a sexual relationship and had a daughter. Jesus would not have remained single
since single men were frowned upon in Jewish society.
* Mary Magdalene and her daughter fled to France after the crucifixion.
* Secret knowledge preserved by an organization known as the Priori of Sion, which was formed in 1099
by a descendant of Jesus, reveals that French royalty is the line of Christ.
* The Catholic Church portrayed Magdalene as a prostitute in order to demean her and perpetuate male
domination.
* Other “Scriptures” need to be recognized as accurate. Early Christians accepted these along side of
those we accept.
* The early church refused to recognize pagan religion as legitimate and suppressed it.
* Leonardo DaVinci, a Grand Master of the Priori, eliminated John from “The Last Supper” and painted
Mary Magdalene in as Jesus’ wife.
* DaVinci believed in androgyny and painted this theme into the “Mona Lisa.”
* DaVinci and others of his day held a secret knowledge of the bloodline of Magdalene.
* The Holy Grail is not the Last Supper communion cup but the Magdalene bloodline of Christ.
* The New Testament diminishes Christ’s humanity; the Gnostic writings restore it.
* The early church (i.e., the Roman Catholic Church) suppressed the facts about Jesus and Mary.
* The Roman Catholic organization Opus Dei, cast in a bad light, deals in international intrigue.
* The “Holy Grail” is everywhere, e.g., paintings, music, books, cartoons and theme parks. It was Walt
Disney’s passion to pass this on.
Biblical themes are given a tawdry cast shaded by paganism. Romping through some eight murders in the book, we find biblical words such as “keys” “keystone,” brotherhood,” “end of days” and “the way” along with weird salvation themes. The book is given over to the feminism of God in goddess worship. Brown’s character, Teabing, calls Magdalene “a wronged Queen” and says, “…the quest for the Holy Grail is literally the quest to kneel before the bones of Mary Magdalene. A journey to pray at the feet of the outcast one, the lost sacred feminine.”
The incorrect assertions made in The DaVinci Code can be fully researched and refuted by reading any of the many books written in response (see bibliography for some suggested titles). The errors are many, and I will go into some of them later. None of Brown’s basic premises for crafting his novel are historically accurate or verifiable. To write fiction is one thing, but to equate fiction with fact is fraudulent.
A Climate of Acceptance
The DaVinci Code and other books like it have become popular because an anti-Christian attitude, or at least a questioning posture regarding authority, has become popular.
The singular dominance of the Bible as we have known it has been diluted by religious scandals and discoveries of so-called extra gospels also known as Gnostic gospels. Gnostic means “secret or hidden knowledge.” It was thought these were all destroyed or lost because the early church considered them false. In 1947, 13 lost Gnostic gospels were discovered in Egypt. They were published in the 1970s. Another has recently appeared called the Gospel of Judas. It reveals Judas as the most intelligent of the disciples who was actually commissioned by Christ to betray him. The Gnostic gospels have encouraged critics of the accepted texts to call our Bible into question. These have also encouraged Dan Brown to formulate novel themes for his books.
Another emphasis of these so-called gospels is the Gnostic theme of “divine feminism.” A “goddess” element and special knowledge of God through sex is to be a primary emphasis of true Christianity. Brown’s claim is that this inspired some elements of the modern women’s movement. Brown finds a ready reception for his views on presumed female suppression. A generation of new pagans aided by a modern feminism is returning to a pre-Christian paganism.
The wrenching pedophile scandals of Roman Catholicism created a climate of suspicion. Since Brown is primarily charging the Catholic Church with dereliction of duty, some readers are eager to accept his premise.
Mix into this the Star Wars generation. They have grown up with a blur between fantasy and fact and have a Scripturally ignorant gullibility.
Further, there seems to be a growing dislike of the Bible. If it is proven to be false, we do not need Christ, we do not face a coming judgment, and we do not have to order our lives after the moral dictates of the Bible. Brown’s novel is welcome liberation for people who want to believe whatever they want and do whatever they want.
The Problems
Dan Brown has exceeded the literary bounds of fiction by making it fact. He has launched a frontal attack on everything Christians hold dear. He has contradicted the Bible, elevated false Gospels and made Christ a mere man. He has defamed the church, ascribed faulty behavior to the first Christians and made fools of the early church fathers. He has energized the modern pagan feminist movement. He has inverted good and bad and has spoofed millions into false suppositions. He has rewritten history. In fact, one analyst suggests Brown has only a 20% accuracy in his facts.
Sadly, many believe this as truth. Reuters ran a story relating the results of a survey in Britain. The poll shows that “for many, many people the DaVinci Code is not just entertainment.” For example, those who had read the book were twice as likely to believe that Jesus fathered children. George Barna found that one in five adults in the U.S. has read the book. In a national sample, 53% of adults who had read the book said that it had been helpful in their personal spiritual growth and understanding.
Historical Errors
Brown’s plot builds on document related to the Priori of Sion. However, it is a modern and temporary organization no longer existing. The Priori documents were forgeries planted throughout France since about 1960, and their author confessed them to be false in court in 1993. However, Brown states that these and other papers and documents are “fact.”
Leonardo DaVinci criticized the church but never left it, and his hatred of it has not been established. At the end of his life, he reaffirmed his allegiance to the church. There are no indicators in his paintings of a Magdalene reference or androgyny.
Brown’s portrayal of occult rituals is, however, probably correct. People involved in witchcraft and secret societies should feel uneasy over this exposé.
Brown says he is a Christian but that he is still seeking and is not settled on any particular truth. He says he regrets offending some and that he was only trying to inspire ongoing discussion. Toward the end of the book, he mildly exonerates the Vatican and Opus Dei, but his overall damage to the basics of Christianity is hard to ignore. Brown never corrects or disclaims erroneous and blasphemous statements made by characters in the book.
Scriptural Errors
The basic issue is always the inspiration and completeness of the Scripture—the Bible as we know it whose canon was settled long ago by the people qualified to do so. If the Bible is the Word of God, then it contains all the truth we need and gives us the true facts about Jesus Christ, Mary Magdalene and the early believers. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness” (II Timothy 3:16).
By the end of the first century, all necessary truth had been revealed. The four Gospels in our Bible were written no later than 70 AD, and all New Testament books were subject to eyewitness affirmation. They were accepted based on accuracy, authorship, edification and widespread acceptance, and their validity was established long before the Council of Nicea. When John finished Revelation, he said that all we need to know had been given and we were not to add or subtract (Rev. 22:18 & 19). Anything after that is suspect and likely false. Dan Brown contradicts this completely, writing that the New Testament is basically falsehood and that we now need secret information of bloodlines, goddess worship, etc.
Brown claims that the Gnostic gospels establish Christ’s humanity. However, they have more supernaturalism in them than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Jesus was not married to Mary Magdalene, and there is no “Holy Grail” bloodline. It is a farce. In fact, the Bible does not record that any of the disciples was married except for Peter (Matthew 8:14). The redeemed Church is the Bride of Christ. Mortal marriage is a reflection of Christ’s union with the church (Ephesians 5:22-30) not of an earthly marriage He had with Mary Magdalene.
Nowhere does the Bible say that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. This is a falsehood that even many evangelical Christians believe. Mary Magdalene is described only as a woman from whom Jesus cast out seven demons and one of a group of women who followed Him (Mark 16:9; Luke 8:2). Jesus appeared to her after His resurrection (John 20:11-18).
The true bloodline of Jesus Christ is in believers, not in some secret lineage through Mary Magdalene. Believers are the children of God (I John 3:2), and it is the new birth that makes us His children (John 3:3, 5 & 7). I John 3:9 says, “His seed remains in [the child of God].” Galatians 3:26 declares, “For you are all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Christ says, “Here am I and the children whom God has given Me” (Hebrews 2:13).
The deity of Christ has been firmly established in Scripture not by a church council. Jesus proclaimed His deity when He said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM,” a clear reference to God. (John 18:58). Thomas called Him, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28), and the disciples and other followers worshipped Him (Matt. 28:9 & 17). Revelation 19:16 says He is “King of kings, and Lord of lords.” Jesus also said, “If you do not believe that I am [God], you will die in your sins” (John 8:24). No wonder people dislike the Bible and prefer to substitute other, more appealing doctrines!
There are no secrets in the true Gospel. There is no magical “code” to be cracked. The essential facts were and are public. As Paul said to Festus, “This was not done in a corner” (Acts 26:26). The Great Commission is the full expression of Christian truth to be proclaimed to every creature (Matt. 28:19 & 20; Mark 16:15).
The most humble believer has all he needs to know in Christ. Paul says, “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him…” (Colossians 2:9 & 10a). John wrote his first epistle to refute Gnosticism, which is the belief that some have a higher knowledge than others. His recurring theme is “that you may know” or have full knowledge.
Let us not forget that much of the New Testament was written to refute error. Today, our educated response to The DaVinci Code is for the same reason. Again, Brown may have done us a modern favor in agitating the church into action.
The Apostle Paul warned against fascination with “fables and endless genealogies” (I Tim. 1:4). “Fables” in the Greek is “mythos,” meaning “close-mouthed” or secret. The word fables is used five times in the epistles—four times by Paul and once by Peter (I Tim. 1:4; 4:7; II Tim 4:4; Titus 1:14; II Peter 1:16)—and it is defined as “fiction.” The term appears to be associated with “initiation” and “mystery.” There were secret societies then as now, and those higher states of mind and mystery religions were to be avoided by believers since they were contradictory to the Christian faith.
Christians are not in a secret society but are to be open books “known and read of all men” (II Corinthians 3:2). Becoming a Christian is not a silent initiation into some secret cult but comes about by confessing with the mouth the Lord Jesus (Romans 10:9 & 10). Believers are to speak out the Gospel.
There are some legitimate “mysteries” in the New Testament, but they are those things that are now fully revealed. The word “mystery” is used 22 times in the New Testament, and it is always in relation to something now fully revealed by God, e.g., the mystery of the incarnation, of marriage, the church, the gospel, Babylon, etc. (Here’s a full listing for further personal study: Mark 4:11; Rom. 11:25; 16:25; I Cor. 2:7; 15:51; Eph. 1:9; 3:3, 4 & 9; 5:32; 6:19; Col. 1:26 & 27; 2:2; 4:3; II Thess. 2:7; I Tim. 3:9 & 16; Rev 1:20; 10:7; 17:5 & 7.) These mysteries are now fully known. There is no “code” to crack!
Mystery Babylon, the false global religious system of the Tribulation, is portrayed in Revelation as a wicked woman with the cup of fornication (Rev. 17:4), and believers are commanded to abandon it. “Come out of her, my people…” (Rev. 18:4). Dan Brown has elevated the “feminine divine” and mingled it with the search for the Holy Grail—a mysterious female bloodline in Europe. Interestingly, it is from there that most literalist prophecy students believe Antichrist will come.
With respect to The DaVinci Code, perhaps the most significant New Testament “mystery” is the “mystery of iniquity (or lawlessness),” which is the full revealing of Antichrist (II Thessalonians 2:1-8). This mounting pressure for Antichrist to be revealed is presently thwarted only because the Holy Spirit through believers restrains it (vs. 7). Antichrist will come “with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this reason, God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (II Thess. 2:10-12 – emphasis mine). The definite article “the” is in the original Greek.
That there is an easy acceptance of obvious falsehoods such as The DaVinci Code may be a basic element of the approach of Antichrist, who is The Lie. The lie is that Satan, not Christ, is God. The word “antichrist” actually means “in place of Christ.” The New Age Movement is bent on proclaiming a new Messiah. Some occultists believe Christ and Satan are brothers.
Our Response
Controversy has built among evangelical Christians over our role in fighting or at least countering The DaVinci Code, especially since the film’s success will flood the country with historical and doctrinal absurdities. I believe that this can be a great boon to Christian apologetics, and it may energize sleepy people and even laid-back pulpits to investigate and launch vigorous campaigns of truth-telling and doctrinal and historical information.
I visited a large bookstore to buy a copy of the book and found thirty other books related to The DaVinci Code. Most were for it; a few, including Christian books, were dead set against it. At a nearby Christian bookstore, I found eleven different books written against it.
As I stood there, I thought of the countries that are Muslim-dominated or highly influenced where massive riots, deaths and an international commotion followed the publication in Europe of cartoons of Mohammed. In contrast, Believers use reasoned discussion and peaceful protest regarding a gross misrepresentation of Jesus Christ and the Bible. Unfortunately it has become open season on the Christian’s Christ, whereas a similar attack on other religious leaders would engender a firestorm.
We must overcome evil with good, as Romans 12:21 enjoins, and offer a measured and logical response. Organized boycotts probably enhance the popularity of The DaVinci Code and are self-defeating. Christian education among believers and calm reasoning with the curious is most effective. Armed with the facts of history and the truth of Scripture, we should be ready to give a well-crafted response.
In fact, Brown may have done the Church a service by irritating it into action. It was persecution at the time of Stephen that caused the early believers to disperse and preach the Gospel worldwide (Acts 8:1-4).
We live in a time where authors write whatever they please and readers believe whatever they choose. I hope that the conflict over The DaVinci Code will move people to honestly examine the facts of history and Scripture and that they will believe The Truth—Jesus Christ. He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
If you are searching for truth, look no further than what has been clearly and simply revealed in the Word of God. First, “All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). We are all sinners separated from God, and we cannot gain salvation on our own. Second, each of us needs a new birth from God in order to gain eternal life. Jesus Christ said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a man is born again (born from above, from Heaven), he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
Third, Jesus Christ was fully man and fully God, and His substitutionary death on the cross satisfied God’s requirement of a perfect sacrifice for sin. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son (Christ), that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Anyone who prays to God directly and admits his sinful, lost condition and receives Christ into his life is saved. He is forgiven, cleansed, becomes a child of God and is certain of Heaven. “For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13).
Pray, “God, I know I am a sinner. I believe Jesus Christ died for me. Come into my life, forgive my sins and make me your child.” When this decision is made, we possess eternal life as a positive fact forever. “And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life…” (I John 5:11-13a). There is no clearer truth than that!
Dan Brown’s work will eventually fade, but God’s Word stands forever (Psalm 119:89; Isaiah 40:8). Spiritually educated and mature Christians have nothing to fear from The DaVinci Code. The unsaved and uneducated could be eternally distracted by it, however. Let us pray that the latter listen to the former as we carefully share the truth.
Scripture quotations are from The New King James Version of the Bible © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc.
Source Materials/Recommended Reading
Books:
Bloodlines of the Illuminati, Fritz Springmeier, Ambassador House, Westminster, CO
Breaking the DaVinci Code, Darrell L. Bock, Nelson Books/Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN
Cracking DaVinci’s Code, James L Garlow & Peter Jones, Victor/Cook Communications, Colorado Springs, CO
Exploring the DaVinci Code, Lee Strobes & Garry Poole, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI
Guardians of the Grail, J.R. Church, Prophecy Publications, Oklahoma City, OK
The DaVinci Code: Fact or Fiction?, Hank Hanegraaf & Paul L. Maier, Tyndale House, Wheaton, IL
The DaVinci Deception, Erwin W. Lutzer, Tyndale House, Wheaton, IL
The Gospel According to the DaVinci Code, Kenneth Boa & John Alan Turner, Broadman & Holman, Nashville, TN
The Truth Behind the DaVinci Code, Richard Abanes, Harvest House, Eugene, OR
Articles:
“Christians and The DaVinci Code”, George Barna, The Barna Update
“DeCoding DaVinci”, Rusty Benson, AFA Journal, April 2006
“The Ways of Opus Dei”, TIME, April 24, 2006
“Why the ‘Lost Gospels’ Lost Out”, Ben Witherington, III, Christianity Today, June 2004
Websites:
by David Virkler
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Fiction, Fact and Faith
The DaVinci Code
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