GUEST ARTICLE
THE TRUTH ABOUT
The Da Vinci Code
Article
description: The so-called Da Vinci Code
has been the topic of animated conversation for some
time. What are the facts about this mysterious “code”?
”The Da Vinci Code” theory (both the book and a
subsequent movie of the same name), has generated significant
publicity over the past several years. Of course the crackpot
journalists, TV talk-show hosts, and liberal theologians
are vigorously promoting these productions as the “truth” about
Christianity. Even some naive folks, who ostensibly are associated
with “Christendom,” are encouraging their friends and associates
to read the book and see the movie, and to use the information
as a “tool” for evangelism.
As a “tool,” these productions have the value of a one-handle
pair of pliers! Most nominal “Christians” do not have two-cents
worth of discernment in being able to separate biblical truth
from error.
The author of The Da Vinci Code book is Dan Brown,
a former schoolteacher, songwriter, and mediocre novelist. His Da Vinci book, which finds its place on the “fiction” shelves
of Barnes & Noble, etc., made Brown a millionaire. It
is reported that by 2006 Brown’s book had sold over 60.5
million copies and had produced more than $200 million in
revenue.
The volume is a combination of a fractional element of truth,
a galaxy of heretical error, and a money-driven ambitious
scheme to capitalize commercially off of the New Testament
gospel. This
latter ploy is so vile as to defy appropriate characterization.
In an excellent article titled, ”The Da Vinci Code vs.
The Facts,” Dr. Steve Morrison has catalogued some of the
egregious errors that characterize this literary monstrosity
(Christian Answers, Austin, TX: 4.2). I
have surveyed these points and added my own observations.
(1) It is alleged that up until the Council of Nice (A.D. 325),
Christ was viewed merely as a human prophet, and not “the
Son of God” (DVC, 233). Anyone
who has even a nodding acquaintance of the New Testament
knows this is an outrageous lie. God
acknowledged Christ as his Son (Matthew 3:17; 17:5), as did
the Lord’s disciples (Matthew 16:16). Even
those involved in the crucifixion were forced to concede
that “truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54), as
did that vicious persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, who was so overwhelmed
with the evidence of Jesus’ divine nature (Acts 9:20), that
he traveled some twelve thousand miles proclaiming the facts
about Christ, and died as a martyr on behalf of his Savior.
(2) It is contended that there are many “Gospels” beyond
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—more than eighty is claimed. And
these must be granted credibility equivalent to that of the
New Testament documents (DVC, 231). It
is true that there were documents circulating in the second
century and onward that were called “gospels,” e.g., the “Gospel
of Thomas,” the “Gospel of Judas,” the “Gospel of the Nativity
of Mary,” etc., but these fanciful works were rejected as
spurious by contemporary scholars. The
article on “Gospels,” in McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia
of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature,
demonstrates the vast difference between the real and the
bogus records.
(3) Supposedly, the books of the New Testament were not
collected into one volume until the time of Constantine,
in the fourth century (DVC, 231). It
does not really matter when the New Testament books were
finally gathered together. The
important point is this: the documents were widely circulated
from the second century onward. Every
passage of the entire New Testament (with the exception of
about a dozen verses) can be found in the writings of the
early “church fathers”—long before the days of Constantine.
(4) The “original” Christianity had a feminine “goddess” (DVC,
237-239). The
New Testament writings are the testimony of the “original” Christianity,
and there is nothing remotely resembling a “Christian goddess” in
these narratives. There were many “goddesses” in the Graeco-Roman world, and
eventually some quasi-Christian cults did attempt to elevate
Mary to the status of virtually a goddess, the “Queen of
heaven,” a myth that continues to be perpetuated even today
by Roman Catholicism. The
theory is false.
The Da Vinci Code is but another of those crass
efforts to cash in on the world-wide influence of Jesus Christ,
without the appropriate honor that acknowledges his true
identity, and yields in submission to him as Lord. The
Da Vinci Code” is a cheap and disgusting manifestation
of greed.
Wayne Jackson
© 2008 by Christian Courier Publications.
All rights reserved.
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about__the_da_vinci_code_
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