In 2003, a novel called The Da Vinci Code was published, and it quickly made it to the top of the best seller list for fiction.  And it stayed at the top of that list.  Now, three years later, 42 million copies of  The Da Vinci Code have been sold in 43 languages.  It is estimated that 45 million adults in the United States have read the book.  This weekend, the movie based on the book opened.  I have not seen the movie, so I can’t tell you whether or not it is well done or how close it is to the book.  Stay tuned. 

          I read the book three years ago, but I did not buy one of those 42 million copies—I borrowed a copy from the library.  I enjoyed the book as a novel—it is a page turner.  But it is also disturbing.

          This book is fiction.  It’s a novel.  The problem is that it seems very real.  Dan Brown, the author, may be full of malarkey, but he is a very convincing writer.  And the book makes a full frontal attack on some of the most basic tenets of the Christian faith.

          When I read the book, I had recently finished four years of seminary.  My education included three classes in Church History, three classes in Theology, more classes in Bible and various other things.  And still, when faced with the so-called “facts” that Dan Brown sprinkles into this novel, I was left scratching my head.

          I knew that much of what he purported was untrue, but I had a hard time sorting the truth from the fiction.  Normally, when I read a novel, this would not concern me.  The problem is that the untrue concepts in The Da Vinci Code attack the central beliefs of our faith and of the Christian church. 

          Lots of people, of course, attack the beliefs of the church, but most of them do not sell 42 million copies of their book.  Before the movie comes out!

          I don’t expect this book to significantly change the beliefs of most Christians who attend church.  It may confuse them, but it won’t likely have a long term impact on their beliefs. I think it is more likely to impact the beliefs of people who are searching for some sort of spirituality.  It may also influence some who have been disillusioned by the church.  I think the Catholic Church, which takes a hard hit in The Da Vinci Code, stands to lose more than Protestant churches do. 

          The reason I have decided to preach on the issues raised by The Da Vinci Code is that it gives us a wonderful opportunity to reexamine some of the central tenets of our faith and, I believe, learn some things about how we separate truth from fiction when it comes to our faith.

          Today, we will look at some of the claims in the book.  We will also look at the beginning of the book of Acts, which is the biblical account of the beginnings of the church.  That’s because, in the end, the best offense is a good defense.  Knowing what we believe matters.

          I can’t possibly address all the issues raised by The Da Vinci Code in one or two sermons.  My suggestion is that if you have read the book or seen the movie, call me or email me with any questions you particularly would like to see addressed, and I will try to respond to your questions next Sunday.

          One of the most widely discussed claims of the book is that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, but the church covered up this secret.  Brown claims that the fact Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene is revealed, of all places, in Leonardo da Vinci’s very famous painting, “The Last Supper.”  Brown claims that the person seated to the left of Jesus, who people have always believed was the apostle John, is not really John, but Mary Magdalene.  Brown says that if you look closely at the painting, you can tell the person is a woman.

          It is true that this disciple looks somewhat feminine in Da Vinci’s painting.  However, most scholars assume this is because Leonardo da Vinci wanted to show that John is the youngest of the disciples.  It is highly unlikely that the person in the painting is supposed to be a woman.  Even if Leonardo da Vinci had painted a woman into the scene, it would prove absolutely nothing.  Da Vinci, after all, was not at the last supper—he painted “The Last Supper” almost 1500 years after the event took place.

          Brown also claims Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene.  Almost all biblical scholars agree that Jesus was not married to Mary Magdalene or anyone else.  Nowhere in the Bible or even in the extrabiblical texts is the claim made that Jesus was married.  It was certainly no shame to be married in Jesus’ day.  The norm for Jewish men was marriage.  So if Jesus had been married, it certainly would have been noted somewhere.  It simply is not.

          Brown claims that since it was expected of all Jewish men that they marry, we can assume that Jesus was married.  However, we know there were actually plenty of men in Jesus’ day who were not married.  The Essenes, for example, were a group who chose not to marry as a spiritual discipline.  We also know that the apostle Paul was not married, and recommended others follow his example.

          Brown’s claim that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene is somehow supposed to argue in favor of what he calls the sacred feminine.  I find this quite odd.  If he wanted to prove that Mary was somehow equal to Jesus and some sort of a goddess, I would think he might choose to focus on Mary, the mother of Jesus.  Certainly the Catholic Church has elevated Mary, the mother of Jesus, to a high position. Although he criticizes the church’s suppression of women, he never even mentions Mary, the mother of Jesus. Somehow, Dan Brown seems to be unaware of the Virgin Mary. I believe that is because of Brown’s agenda regarding pagan religions, which I will talk about next week.

          Who was Mary Magdalene?  She was a prominent disciple of Jesus who followed him after Jesus cast seven demons out of her. (Luke 8:1-3)  She was the first person to whom the resurrected Jesus made an appearance.

          There exists a text which was written in the second half of the third century called the Gospel of Philip.  This text calls Mary Magdalene a companion of Jesus.  Some have taken a statement in this text as proof that Jesus had a sexual relationship with her.  The text is incomplete—it is a damaged manuscript.  Another text is similar, and also far from conclusive.  There are two reasons that neither of these texts can be considered to be a reliable source.  First, the text is so damaged that it is impossible to know what it originally said.  Second, it falls into a category of texts written long after the events took place and people of that day judged it to be an inaccurate account.

          This brings us to the question of the alternative gospels Brown speaks of.  Brown writes, in the novel, that the Bible did not arrive as a “fax from heaven.”  He’s correct there, of course. 

          In the novel, there is a character named Teabing who is treated as a reliable source of information.  He is critical of the church, to say the very least.  He claims there were more than eighty gospels which were considered for inclusion in the New Testament, and we only have four of those—the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

          This is simply not true.  There were writings that did not make the cut when the Bible as we know it was compiled.  However, only a few of them would be classified as gospels.

          Brown’s character, Teabing, gives a slanted and incorrect explanation of Constantine’s role in the history of the church.  As it says in The Da Vinci Code, Constantine was a key figure in Christian history.  Teabing claims that the Bible as we know it was collated by the pagan Roman emperor Constantine the Great.

          This is a good example of the half truths in the book that make it so confusing.  Yes, Constantine was in office at the time of the council of Nicea, and he gave his stamp of approval.  But there was a large group of scholars and church leaders who determined over a period of time which books would eventually be recognized as scripture.  Most of that took place before Constantine was even born.

          Teabing, in the book, goes on to attribute more things to Constantine, claiming that Constantine turned Jesus into a deity by deciding on the divinity of Jesus.  He goes on to say this was about power.  It is true that Constantine’s actions on behalf of Christianity may very well have been about power.  But it is not true that Constantine changed Jesus’ message and made him divine.

          Under the rule of Constantine, The Nicene Creed was written and accepted by the church.       It did not change what Christians believed about Christ.  Rather, it was a statement of faith, written to bring unity of understanding to the church.

          At the beginning of the book, there is a “fact” page.  Here, Brown tells us of The Priory of Sion—a European secret society founded in1099.  Its members have purportedly included Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, and Leonardo da Vinci.  The Priory os Sion does exist.  Acccording to Collin Hansen, associate editor of Christianity Today, researchers suspect that members of the real-life Priory of Sion, founded in 1956, forged documents that placed major historical figures—such as Isaac Newton and Leonard da Vinci—in an ancient secret society. There is no evidence for this group beyond dubious documents. Any story relating this group to a dynasty begun by Jesus and Mary Magdalene is a fanciful work of fiction.

          Also in the book, there is an organization called Opus Dei, which Brown declares on the “fact” page to be an actual Catholic sect.  This is basically true.  Opus Dei is a conservative religious group within the Roman Catholic Church. Opus Dei urges priests and laypeople to strenuously pursue sanctification through everyday discipline. The group has taken criticism for its conservative views, zeal, and secretive practices. There is, however, no evidence that Opus Dei has resorted to murder; nor has the Vatican entrusted Opus Dei to violently guard the church's deepest secrets, as Dan Brown claims in The Da Vinci Code.

          Someone asked me if I recommend that you read the book or see the movie.  If you enjoy this sort of thing, then I think it’s fine to go see it, or better yet, read the book.  Just realize that Brown plays very loose with historical facts.  And he’s pretty good at confusing the reader with his so called facts.  So enjoy it, but don’t allow yourself to take it too seriously.

          Next Sunday, I will talk more about this –so feel free to send me your questions.

          And now, let me read to you the opening section from the book of Acts.  This is a reliable account, written by Luke to help us understand the events of the early church.  It begins with the ascension of Jesus into heaven.  The book he refers to in the first line is the gospel of Luke.

Acts 1:

¹In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach ²until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. ³After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. ⁴On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. ⁵For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

 ⁶So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"

 ⁷He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

 ⁹After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

 ¹⁰They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ¹¹"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

          This is a true story—one we can depend upon.  It has stood the test of time, and we know that it will never change.  Praise be to God for his marvelous Word.

Prayer:

Lord, we grieve when your name is defamed.  When someone writes untrue statements about you and people believe them, we are concerned.  Yet we know that in the end, the truth will always prevail.  Help us to have wise, discerning minds.  Help us to understand the value of the truth.  Help us to trust in you and to believe that you will have the last word in history.  Thank you for your Word, which will never disappoint us.   Amen