Decoding The Davinci Code

 May 28, 2006

By: Sellers S. Crain, Jr.

    Dan Brown's book, The Davinci Code, to date has sold an estimated 60 million copies.  The movie based upon the book recently came out.  Tom Hanks, the actor who plays the leading role in the movie, said in a recent interview that he felt the movie covered most of the book's main points with the exception of a couple of them.  One movie reviewer said they tried to stay as close to the book as possible.

    Brown said his book is fiction, but in the first part of the book, claims that it is based upon certain historical facts.  That, along with some of the preposterous claims made in the book, is enough for us to be concerned about its negative effects.  However, I do believe that his book and the movie presents Christians with a wonderful opportunity to present the truth regarding the lies and misinformation advanced in them.

    One study found that readers of The Davinci Code were twice as likely to believe that Jesus was not crucified and that He lived to sire children.  This Catholic organization interviewed 1,000 adults and found that 60% of those reading the book believed Jesus married Mary Magdalene and that they has children.  This same study revealed that 30% of those who had not read the book accepted these two things as historical facts.  Austin Iverigh, the press secretary for Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Catholic prelate of Great Britain, wrote that "for many, many people, the Davinci Code is not just entertainment."  He added that Dan Brown and the film studio, Song Pictures, "have encouraged people to take it seriously while hiding behind the claim that it is fiction." (MSNBC News Service, May 16, 2006).

    Why should Christians be concerned?  The story in the book is not the problem.  It is basically a murder mystery that has captivated millions of people around the world.  It begins with a Harvard symbologist named Robert Langdon, played in the movie by Tom Hanks, who teams up with a brilliant French cryptologist named Sophie Neveu, played by French actress Audrey Tautou, to follow clues regarding the murder of the curator of the Louvre Art Museum in Paris, France.  Their search reveals that the murder involved an ancient secret society called the Priory of Sion, which does not actually exist, over which an evil Grand Master presides.

    In following the clues they discovered, some of which are hidden in the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, the famous paintings by Leonardo Davinci, they become embroiled in a dangerous intrigue matching wits with an albino monk who is the assassin for Opus Dei, a secretive Catholic organization which had attempted for years to steal the secret of Christ's marriage which had been safely guarded by the Priory of Sion.

    The problem is the untruths that are taught in the book and in the movie about Christ that are pure fiction, but which use real historical characters, places and objects to weave an intriguing story that ends up presenting fiction as facts.  The antagonism of the main character towards Christianity are clearly seen in a statement he made saying "every faith in the world is based on fabrication.  That is the definition of faith-acceptance of what we imagine to be true, that which we cannot prove."  At the end of the book, everything supernatural is exposed as chicanery and faith is defined as fertile, imaginary, wishes and delusions.

    The Davinci Code is detrimental to Christianity of two reasons: First, it questions the inspiration, the inerrancy and the authority of scripture.  Brown's book makes the claim the Roman Emperor Constantine, who was converted to Christianity, created the New Testament Canon and suppressed 80 authentic gospels in favor of the now-established four: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  What books to include in the canon of the New Testament were not mentioned at the Council of Nicea in 325.  By that time the canon of the New Testament was firmly established.

    Second, it questions the divinity of Christ.  Brown's book makes the claim that Constantine called the Council of Nicea Come together to establish the doctrine of the deity of Christ, and that it passed by a narrow vote.  The Council of Nicea did not convene to decide if Jesus was divine or not, they principally discussed how the divine and human natures of Jesus were related to each other, and they took no "vote" on His deity.  A decision was drafted that stated "The Son was begotten of the Father, only begotten, that is, from the substance of the Father."  Of the 318 church leaders present, only two refused to sign the document.  John 1:1-3, 14 plainly says that Jesus was God.  One of the earliest letters of Paul in the first century proclaims Him to be "equal with God" (Philippians 2:5-11).  There can be no half way on these matters.  It is all or nothing.  What will you believe?

 Brotherly,

Sellers