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Posted on May 18, 2006 ...

This week?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s release of the motion picture, The Da Vinci Code has created a lot of buzz in various media outlets. I personally read the novel by Dan Brown about a year and a half ago. The author utilized his exceptional writing skills to craft an intriguing fictitious story of mystery and intrigue. The key word there is fictitious. Like other readers, I became engaged by the plot and eager to see how the story resolved for the characters. But the novel (and forthcoming motion picture) is what it is: a work of FICTION. Just as Mr. Brown invented characters for his story, he also invented historical events that simply are not true. A keen student of scripture and church history will recognize most of these falsehoods for what they are: literary inventions. However, you may find your unchurched or non-Christian friends asking you about some of The Da Vinci Code?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s assertions. Here, briefly, are a few fictitious items presented by this book.

Fiction: There are more than 80 other gospels about the life of Jesus that are equally authoritative as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. While writings such as The Gospel of Thomas, The Gospel of Mary, and The Gospel of Phillip do exist, there are nowhere near 80 of them. Those that do exist came into being during the second and third centuries. By contrast, the four gospels of the New Testament are solidly rooted within the first 50 years after Jesus?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ earthly ministry. The church accepted these four gospels in a large degree because of the evidence that apostles who actually witnessed the ministry of Jesus authored them. To claim that other later writings possess equal or greater truth than found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is historically erroneous.

Fiction: Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene and fathered a child with her. Brown?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s novel asserts this based on what he calls countless references to Jesus and Mary Magdalene?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s union. Actually, there are only a few references to Mary Magdalene in the writings mentioned in the paragraph above and none give any word to conclude that such a relationship existed between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

Fiction: The doctrine affirming Jesus?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ divinity was invented by the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. Before then, Jesus?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ followers merely thought of him as a great teacher. This cannot be true because well before AD 325 the divinity of Jesus already was declared by the Church, claimed by Jesus himself, and proclaimed by the apostles (Mark 8:28-30, Philippians 2:6)

So be not deceived. The Da Vinci Code is no more than a fantasy story worthy of supplying us with perhaps a taste of entertainment, but certainly no more. A person seeking truth would not wish to build his/her personal theology upon a popular novel?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s fictitious conspiracy theory. Instead, the New Testament remains as an accurate and time-tested presentation of the true identity of Jesus and the hope found only through Him. - Jay