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In just three years since its publication in 2003, Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code has become one of the most widely read
books of all time. As of April 2006, it has been translated into 44 different
languages, selling approximately 40 million copies and earning Brown more than
£200 million. On 19 May, 2006, The Da Vinci Code
film, produced by Sony Pictures, directed by Oscar winner Ron Howard and
starring Tom Hanks and Sir Ian McKellen, hit cinema
screens all around the world. However, it’s
anti-Christian plot has created controversy.
The last page before the book’s prologue begins with the word
"Fact" and states, "All descriptions of artwork, architecture,
documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." Moreover, Dan
Brown speaks of his historical research in preparing to write this book. He
claims, "The Da Vinci Code describes
history as I have come to see it through many years of travel, research,
reading, interviews [and] exploration." Repeatedly in The Da Vinci Code, Sir Leigh Teabing,
a British royal historian, and Robert Langdon, a Harvard symbologist,
assert that their various claims are supported by "historical evidence
… [which] is substantial," so that they are "a matter of
historical record" according to "religious historians." Sir
Leigh Teabing states, however, "almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is
false." Moreover, The Da Vinci Code
portrays the doctrine, history and worship of Christ’s church as based on
politically motivated lies. The book’s blasphemy is absolutely essential
to its plot.
According The Da Vinci Code, Jesus Christ
proclaimed the "sacred feminine" or "goddess worship." Yet
witness the vehement opposition of the Old and New Testaments to all idols,
including Ashtoreth, the queen of heaven, Diana of
the Ephesians and the goddesses of
In The Da Vinci Code, Jesus married Mary
Magdalene (a descendant of King Saul!) and fathered a daughter, Sarah, from whom sprang the Merovingians, a
medieval French royal dynasty, and ultimately Sophie Neveu,
the book’s heroine. Christ intended Mary Magdalene to be the head of His
church. The sacred feminine, Mary Magdalene—her bones and secret
documents—is the Holy Grail!
In support of this world of virtual reality, The Da
Vinci Code contains numerous, gross, historical blunders concerning the
Dead Sea Scrolls, Nag Hammadi, the New Testament
canon, the early church, Constantine, the Council of Nicea,
the Lord’s Day, the origin of the word "heretic," etc.
Instead of the four biblical gospel accounts, The Da
Vinci Code would substitute the Gnostic gospels which are fragmentary, much
later, pseudonymous (no one believes that Mary Magdalene, Philip or Thomas
wrote the "gospels" attributed to them), largely disinterested in
events in Christ’s life, and often bizarre (e.g., "every woman who will
make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven;" Gospel of Thomas
114). The Gnostics were dualists, believing the spirit to be good and matter to
be evil. The world was created by the demiurge, a derivative and evil god. For
most Gnostics, Jesus only seemed to be human (the heresy of Docetism;
I John 4:1-3).
The heavenly Christ did not suffer
on the cross; His earthly substitute was crucified. Salvation lies in secret
knowledge (Greek: gnosis) providing the elite with passwords enabling
them to ascend past the planets.
Even Tom Hanks, Harvard professor Robert Langdon in The Da Vinci Code movie, admits, "… the story we
tell is loaded with all sorts of hooey and … nonsense." Similarly,
Tim Robey, after watching the two and a half hours of
The Da Vinci Code film, wrote in The Daily
Telegraph of "the plot’s sheer volume of mulish nonsense."
Solomon declares, "The simple believeth every word" (Prov. 14:15). Don’t be deceived into thinking that The
Da Vinci Code is "fiction based on
fact." Scripture warns against departing from the truth and being "turned unto fables"
(II Tim. 4:4).
Anti-Christian conspiracy
theories, and the religious controversies they spawn, sell books and fill
cinemas but The Da Vinci Code ought not prejudice one against the incarnate, crucified and
reigning Christ of the Bible.
Rev. Stewart
So far in my answer to a reader’s question, "Why did God bring
the universe into being?" I have affirmed the biblical doctrine of
creation by the Word of God, out of nothing, in six days of twenty-four hours,
and insisted that God’s purpose already in the original creation was to
glorify Himself through Jesus Christ. God never intended nor planned to glorify
Himself through the first Adam and through the first paradise. When God saw
that all He had made was very good, He meant, not that the creation was morally
perfect (though, of course, it was), but that it was perfectly suited to
glorify Himself through Jesus Christ. The first creation was the stage, built
by God, on which would be enacted the great drama of sin and grace, as God
saves His church through Christ. The truth that God created all things to
glorify Himself through Christ implies other truths, which we must briefly
mention.
First, it implies that God is sovereign over all His creation. He is
sovereign in creation itself; He is sovereign in providence; He is sovereign in
all of history, including the fall of man in paradise. God ordained that the
first Adam would be moved aside to make room for the second Adam, and that,
therefore, the first Adam was a "figure of him that was to come"
(Rom. 5:12-14).
Second, this also implies election and reprobation, for election is in
Christ. The elect, gathered from every nation and tribe and tongue, are the
true human race, the human race of God’s eternal decree, the human race
chosen from before the foundation of the world in Christ. The reprobate are in
relation to the elect what the scaffolding of a building is in relation to the
building itself—necessary, but destroyed when the building is finished. The reprobate are to the elect what the chaff (
Ps. 1)
or tares (
Matt. 13)
are
to the wheat or what a corn plant is to the kernels of corn—necessary
while the wheat and corn are maturing, but burned when the harvest is gathered.
Third, the purpose of creation is also the glory of God’s great name
in the salvation of the entire universe. This is a dimension to the whole
question which we do not frequently consider. Yet it is crucially important and
we must say a few things about it.
When the first Adam fell, he chose to form an alliance with Satan, in order
to steal God’s creation from Him and put it to the service of Satan and
sin. The creation itself came under the curse because of Adam’s fall, for
Adam was the head of the creation and responsible for its well-being.
Nevertheless, God saves His creation. He established His covenant with His creation after the flood
(Gen. 9:8-17).
There are many references in the Bible to the glory that awaits the creation
(Ps. 72:19;
Isa.
65:17, 25). The creation longs with groaning for the time of its deliverance from the bondage of the curse
(Rom. 8:19-22).
Thus the prophet John, in his
visions recorded in Revelation, sees a "new earth"
(Rev. 21:1).
The purpose of God in the original creation was to glorify it in the final
new earth. But this great glory of the creation is also through Christ who is
exalted as the head in the place of Adam, for the creation is redeemed by Christ’s cross (I Cor. 15:27-28;
Eph. 1:22;
Col. 1:20).
But even this great miracle is not all. We must not forget that God not only
created the universe, but also heaven. Heaven is a place where the angels
dwell, with its own unique character and its own history. In heaven, just as on
earth, sin entered through the fall of Satan. In heaven, just as one earth, a
large part of the angelic world fell. In heaven, just as on earth, election and
reprobation were realized, for the angels who remained standing did so because they were elect and the objects of God’s grace
(I Tim. 5:21;
Belgic Confession 12).
The result was a certain breach in heaven between God and the heavenly
creation along with the angels. This breach according to Scripture was healed by Christ’s work of reconciliation of all things
(Col. 1:20),
for Christ
died on the cross also for the heavenly creation and the elect angels.
Christ not only now takes the place of Adam in this creation in order to
make all things new, but He takes the place of head in the heavenly creation so that there may be a "new heaven" as well as a new earth
(Rev. 21:1).
The great wonder is that through the universal work of Christ in which He
saves heaven and the elect angels and the earth and the elect human race, He
brings both earth and heaven together under His headship into one great and
glorious world that shall endure forever and ever.
We often forget that when the original heaven and earth were created, they
were created by God as two separate creations, each with its own character, its
own inhabitants, its own history. The barrier between
them was impenetrable: no one from earth could go to heaven, for "flesh
and blood cannot inherit the
You say, "What about Abel who went to heaven and angels who came to
earth." Yes, but this only happened because of the promise of Christ in
whom all these things were made possible.
Christ died for elect men and angels and for the earthly and the heavenly
creation. His cross was truly far more than merely universal, for it embraced
heaven as well as earth. His resurrection and ascension proved this truth, for
His resurrection took place on earth and His resurrected body ascended into
heaven. He died in a natural, corruptible, weakened, earthly body and He arose
in a spiritual, incorruptible, powerful, heavenly body (cf. I Cor. 15:42-44). Thus the crucified Christ unites heaven and
earth.
In glory Christ is exalted over all the united and glorified creation, as
the supreme head, to the glory of the Triune God! This is the purpose of the
creation! Wonderful purpose of God! What a wonder, too, that we, through
Christ’s cross, are included in God’s glorious purpose with His
creation! Prof. Hanko
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