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June 01, 2006

The Da Vinci Code Whirlwind

   In my April 20th post, I talked about the recently-published Gospel of Judas. I mentioned that it was written by a heretical group known as the Gnostics and that it offered no threat whatsoever to orthodox Christianity. The next big thing to grab the public's attention, however, has been the release of the movie version of the best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code. It showed first at the Cannes Film Festival on May 17th without much critical acclaim, but box office receipts from its general theater release have been pretty good so far.

   The book, a mystery thriller by author Dan Brown, has become a fiction best-seller all around the world. The story revolves around a murder committed in Paris' Louvre museum which leads investigators to uncover a shocking truth being concealed by a super-secret society. The supposed "truth" that they uncover is that Jesus Christ didn't die on the cross, nor did He rise from the dead. Instead, He married Mary Magdalene and they had a daughter. This daughter went to France and became the ancestor of a line of French kings. This whole matter, they discover, was hidden centuries ago and the idea that Jesus Christ is God was created at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD to cover up the truth.

   The whole story is a thoroughly groundless and wildly fanciful tale. The foundational ideas that Mr. Brown used in his novel were borrowed from Gnostic teachings and from the thinking of a heretical teacher name Arius. Yet, no matter how often or how loudly one might insist that this is merely fiction, there are still those who will be unduly influenced by the erroneous theories contained within it. Therefore, real discernment in dealing with this material is definitely needed.

   If you take a close look at how the mainstream media handle things like The Judas Gospel and The Da Vinci Code, as well as how people react to it in general, you quickly come to the conclusion that this world typically responds to material of an anti-Christian nature by taking an immediate and active interest in it. The fact that people have a greater interest in a lie than they do in the truth is evidence of the sin nature in all of us and is "par for the course" in this world. We must be ever vigilant and alert so that we, as well, do not get swept away by the currents of the age we live in.

   Personally, I think Dan Brown's whole approach smells of fraud. His deception lies in the fact that he comes across to his readers as the author of a thoroughly historical novel, when all the while he's only writing fiction. Readers who have no understanding of the background of Christianity fall for the illusion that whatever Brown has written must be the truth. That's the really scary thing about it.

   A true historical novel, put simply, is this: a piece of literature that mixes the author's creativity with well-known and established historical facts. As a rule, any work that distorts or alters historical facts cannot rightly be called a historical novel. To do it correctly, an author must look at his material, first of all, as a historian and examine in detail the events, background and customs of the period he wants to depict. He also examines archeological, geographical and other works that shed light on his subject. Distorting historical facts just to make your story more interesting breaks a cardinal rule that no self-respecting historical novelist would ever violate.

   The first person to witness the reality of Christ's resurrection from the dead was the woman known as Mary Magdalene (cf. John 20:1-18). Because there are already a good number of historical novels that deal respectfully with her person and don't make such preposterous claims, one can only be astounded by The Da Vinci Code's treatment of her. The book's story line suggests that Jesus and Mary were married or were lovers. Why this approach? In my opinion, this is predominantly a failure to read the Bible from a Hebrew perspective.

   A writer wanting to tell an original and interesting story will unconciously tend to reinterpret the Bible narrative through the lens of modern society. However, the Hebrew culture of Jesus' day and the loose moral standards of modern Western culture are fundamentally different. It's totally unthinkable to suggest that Jesus, who was always trying to clarify the heart of the Mosaic Law and taught the importance of living by it, could have had a secret intimate realtionship with Mary Magdalene and still be the promised Messiah of Israel. For Him to have done so would have made Him the most shameless hypocrite who ever lived. If His disciples, then, risked their lives to follow such a fraud, the entire New Testament comes off as nothing more than a ridiculous farce.

   My prayer is that you would not let superficial phenomena like this monopolize your attention. What's needed more than anything else in this day and age are eyes that can see through the surface distractions of life to what's going on behind it all. May the Lord bless and protect you from every device of the Enemy as you seek to be salt and light in this dark world. For your own investigations, below are some links to some useful Da Vinci Code websites. As always, leave your comments or questions about this post by clicking on the "Comments" link below. Shalom in Y'shua's precious name!

Kenichi Nakagawa
   Kenichi Nakagawa

Posted by HarvestTV at 05:10 PM | Comments (0)