The speed at which news travels in our modern world is head-spinning. The novel, “The Da Vinci Code,” by Dan Brown is one example of how quickly books and movies can dominate our cultural experience. Its intriguing plot, well-written prose, mass-media attention, and the controversy it has inspired have combined to make this book a best-seller.

Undoubtedly, the movie with Tom Hanks playing a lead role will bring in the millions, both in attendance and money. By the second page of Brown’s fast-moving story, the reader is hooked. Through increasing circles of suspense, surprising turns in the plot, and real-life locations, the audience can think they are reading a true story.

However, before one gets caught-up in the adventures of Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu, there is a play on the mind of the reader that can be dangerous.

The author has placed the word “fact” in bold print regarding two organizations that are said to exist. One could be fooled into thinking that there is a line of truth being developed and forget that it is a work of fiction.

The truth of the matter is, as has been noted elsewhere, the document that places Leonardo Da Vinci as a member of the Priory of Sion has been proved to be a forgery. But more serious is the attempt to re-write history and reinterpret Christianity according to a neo-pagan template.

In order to keep the historical accuracy of biblical truth in sharp focus a number of facts need to be established.

Is the Da Vinci Code fact or fiction? It is fiction. And not only that, it is double-fiction.

By definition a novel is an imaginary literary work. Dan Brown’s story didn’t happen and it could not happen. Why?

Many of the ideas and claims of the characters in the story are outside the boundaries of truth. For example, Jesus was not a mere mortal. He did not marry Mary Magdalene. The Bible is not the creation of man. The Emperor Constantine did not “collate” the Bible. Mary Magdalene and Jesus did not have a child. The Gnostic gospels do not have the same authority as the Bible. There is no “Holy Grail.”

If one wishes to believe these things they are certainly free to do so, but believing the moon is made of green cheese doesn’t make it so.

The authority on which one bases his or her beliefs is subject to challenge and can be contrasted with the authority of the Bible. That is the fundamental issue.

The double-fiction of “The Da Vinci Code” is the nature of literary style, namely prose fiction (the fault does not lie there), and the theological fiction its author puts into the mouths of its principle characters.

Did man create the Bible? No. The fictional character Sir Leigh Teabing makes the claim that “the Bible, as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great.” Human beings did not put the Bible together.

The reason the Bible is the Bible is because of the essential nature of each of its 66 books. The words of Scripture are God’s and God does not make mistakes. God the Holy Spirit guided each human author to write exactly what God wanted to be said (2 Tim. 3:16; 2 Pet. 1:20, 21). This not only guarantees its inerrancy, but also its final authority.

No, “the Bible did not fall magically from the clouds” as Teabing observes. It was written over a period of 1,600 years, and yet has a supernatural, internal consistency of truth.

Jesus Christ Himself believed in the inerrancy and authority of Scripture (Matt. 22:29, 43-45; Jn. 10:33-36; 15:26, 27; 16:13). Both the Old and New Testaments rest on the authority of Jesus Christ. One cannot be consistent and speak of Jesus as a great prophet and at the same time deny the trustworthiness of the Bible. The Bible is God’s Word and has weathered the assaults of its critics through the centuries.

Was the deity of Jesus determined at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.? No. Jesus Christ is full deity as He said that he was. Again, Teabing makes a false claim when he says, “Jesus was viewed by His followers as a mortal prophet ... a great and powerful man, but a man nonetheless. A mortal.”

This is completely fallacious. The Bible reveals Jesus Christ as claiming His own deity (Jn. 5:13; 8:57, 58; 10:30). His apostles believed Him to be the Son of God (2 Pet. 1:1; 3:18; Rom. 9:5; Col. 1:19). If Jesus were not God in human flesh (without human sin), then He was a fraud. We have no Savior to save us from our sins. The apostles gave their lives for a deceiver. And there is no Christianity.

Constantine did not turn Jesus into a deity. The early church councils did not make Jesus God by a vote. The Council of Nicaea rejected the heretical teachings of Arius, who taught that Jesus was of a different essence or substance from the Father. The vote of the gathered bishops against Arius’ views was 298 to 2.

The bishops were merely acknowledging what was claimed by Jesus and believed by the apostles. Jesus has always been God, was God during His incarnation, and will never cease to be God (Jn. 1:1; Phil. 2:6-11).

Did Jesus marry Mary Magdalene and father a child by her? No. This is a complete fabrication. The fictional historian Teabing states that “the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene is part of the historical record.” Teabing is further convinced that Leonardo Da Vinci painted Mary Magdalene into his famous portrait of “The Last Supper” at the right hand of Jesus.

Granted that John, who was reclining on Jesus at the Passover meal (Jn. 13:23), is pictured as somewhat effeminate looking, but that proves nothing. The true spiritual head of the church is Jesus Christ, not Mary Magdalene (Eph. 5:23).

Dan Brown has adopted the Mary Magdalene of historical revisionists for his conspiracy theory, not the Mary Magdalene of the Bible. The Mary Magdalene of the four Gospels of the New Testament bears no resemblance to the one constructed from various apocryphal works, medieval legends, modern conspiracy theories, and the writings of feminist scholars.

In the flawed logic of Teabing (Dan Brown’s articulate heretic), Jesus must have been married because at least one of the Bible’s gospels would have explained why he remained a bachelor. The fact that the New Testament is silent about the marital status of Jesus thunders with meaning.

The purpose for which the Lord Jesus Christ came to earth was best accomplished through the single-focused nature of his life, namely, death and resurrection. For further discussion concerning the question, “Was Jesus married?” see Darrell Bock’s “Breaking the Da Vinci Code.”

Was there a conspiracy to cover up the truth about Jesus and Mary Magdalene? Absolutely not. Conspiracy theories are seductive. They become easy explanations for the things we want to believe. Dan Brown’s “Code” taps into a wish that fallen man cherishes: “Christianity is not what it seems. It is the Big Lie. Jesus Christ was a very religious man but not God. There isn’t only one way to heaven as Jesus taught.”

These kinds of thoughts and opinions are confirmed for many when a popular novel and movie come along like “The Da Vinci Code.” Conspiracy theories have to be based on historical facts. Brown substitutes unsubstantiated ideas such as the Gnostic “unaltered gospels” for the biblical text of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

He postulates the true worship of the Divine Feminine as having been suppressed by scheming male leadership in the early church. He wants a neo-gnostic, moral and theological impostor to replace historic, biblical Christianity.

Dan Brown’s book will eventually be the stuff of used book sales and long-forgotten cultural trivia. The truth of the gospel in Jesus Christ will continue to offer the only hope for a sin-cursed world.

Is there a conspiracy whose plot must be exposed? The real conspiracy is the one that Satan sponsors and propagates which is the attempt to build a kingdom without God. Adam’s fallen race participates in this plot by refusing to worship the Son of God.

But there is a way out of the domain of darkness. Sin’s grip can be broken. The way into the kingdom of God’s beloved Son is through repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ (Col. 1:13; Eph. 2:8-9). “The quest for the Holy Grail is the quest to kneel” not before the idols of this world, but to confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Howard E. Dial, pastor
Berachah Bible Church
Fayetteville, Ga.

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