The Da Vinci Code Presents Opportunities to Witness

 

So you think you have heard a lot about mega-selling The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown? Get ready for much more.

The movie version with Tom Hanks premieres this May. The more than 12 million copies of the book already sold have all been in hardcover. The paperback version will hit the stores along with the movie.

The book is a publishing phenomenon—a top-ten best seller for almost three years now. Only Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven Life—also on the best seller list for three years—rivals its fame.

Why So Popular?

The Da Vinci Code is only a fictional thriller (obviously a very good one), so how can it affect your faith and your witness?

The truth is, it misrepresents facts basic to our understanding of the New Testament. It implies, in the words of lead character Lee Teabing, “that almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false.”

The perception that here is a book that finally debunks Christianity at its heart has to be driving much of its highly unusual popularity.

What makes this very appealing book especially threatening is Dan Brown’s claim at the beginning that “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.”

Constantine’s “Conspiracy”

Be prepared to brush up on your knowledge of the first four centuries of Christianity.

You are going to read or hear that “Constantine commissioned and financed a new Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of Christ’s human traits and embellished those gospels that made him godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.”

It is a fact that Emperor Constantine recognized Christianity and convened the Council of Nicea in 325.

However, it is not fact, as Dan Brown’s version claims, that until A. D. 325 Jesus’ followers viewed him as a mortal prophet—great and powerful, but still only a man. Nor that Constantine maneuvered the voting at Nicea to declare Christ’s divinity and thereby put him and his representatives beyond challenge.

The “New” Gospels

Also be prepared to explain how the New Testament canon (list of books regarded as genuine) emerged out of a growing consensus long before Constantine.

If Dan Brown were making up stories out of thin air, The Da Vinci Code would not be so threatening (or appealing). But he claims through Teabing, the teacher, that “The vast majority of educated Christians know the history of their faith.” That is, Jesus was indeed a great and powerful man, but only a man.  The conspiracy of later centuries turned him into God.

In Breaking the Da Vinci Code conservative New Testament scholar Darrell Bock highlights how liberal Biblical scholarship has been heading in The Da Vinci Code’s direction for decades, recently claiming the rediscovery of banished Gospels as evidence the earliest church knew Jesus only as human. 

The truth is, the “new” gospels of Thomas and Philip, among others, are manuscripts discovered in 1945 in the Nag Hammadi deserts of Egypt. According to Harvard New Testament scholar Karen King, a phrase in Philip suggests that Jesus kissed Mary Magdalena on the lips. From this comes the possibility that they were married. Dan Brown speculates further that they had a child, whose descendants are alive in France today. That bizarre twist drives the suspense of the novel. 

A Witnessing Opportunity

For many readers and viewers The Da Vinci Code will be only fanciful entertainment. But be prepared to see this phenomenon as the tip of the dangerous iceberg of “modern” Biblical scholarship becoming visible at the popular level. It shoves aside big time the Bible as divinely inspired and authoritative.

The phenomenon is a threat, but it is also a great opportunity to witness to the basics of our faith.

After the book’s three years of best-seller fame, plenty of resources have emerged to set the record straight, including:

·   LCMS Vice President Paul Maier together with Hank Hanegraaff  provide The Da Vinci Code—Fact or Fiction (Tyndale, 2004, $5.99).

·   Rev. Luke Biggs and Gary Dunker have a nine-part Bible study with accompanying DVD of study notes presented by Dr. Maier. (Gccadunker@aol.com)

·   A 45-minute video/PowerPoint presentation by David Luecke is available for download free from www.ministrypartnership.org. 

DSL