DaVinci Code: The Truth Behind the Fiction - Part 3

A Long Introduction to This Blog Series...

Many people have asked me, "Todd, is it okay for a Christian to see The DaVinci Code." You need to know before I give you my answer that I'm a movie freak! I love movies. My dream is to have my own private entertainment room with a 100" screen and a killer, HD projection system complete with surround sound and leather recliners. All this so that I can become completely enveloped by the experience and not have to worry about cell phones ringing or someone crunching popcorn loudly one chair behind me. None of this will likely happen of course but it's okay to dream!

What does this have anything to do with seeing the movie? I'm gald you asked. I will be seeing the movie. I am looking forward to seeing the movie for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that Tom Hanks is starring in the film and one of my favorite directors, Ron Howard, is directing it. I have also read the book and I think it will make a fantastic movie full of intrigue. BUT...I cannot recommend this movie or the book for young believers. The main reason lies in the fact that the author, Dan Brown, is so masterful at weaving fiction into more fiction that Brown himself believes is truth. It's very difficult to separate fiction from what Brown tries to claim is fact. So, this movie is not a good choice for people who are new to the faith. I say this not because I'm concerned that the movie might turn new believers away from their new found faith. I have far more confidence in the strength of God's Word and the power of His Spirit to guide believers into Truth than I have concerns about the fallout of a new believer seeing this film. Yet, I have seen movies or books create unnecessary detours in the lives of young Christians that will ultimately bring them back to the veracity of Scripture but take valuable time away from them in the process.

I have very little concern, however, for believers who are well grounded in the truth of Scripture watching this movie and seeing it for what it is - a work of fiction and nothing more. I, however, will not go so far as to recommend the movie for any believer regardless of the maturity of their faith. So, to all, I neither recommend the movie nor do I strongly oppose the viewing of this film, except for my concerns about young believers that I have already mentioned.

Now that I have provided my pastoral perspective on believers seeing this movie, I know that many of you reading this will be seeing this movie and will need to have an arsenal of responses to the issues that the book creates. To this reality, I'm devoting this blog series. You'll be able to refer back to these as you have conversations in the coming weeks and months.

Brown hasn't ever claimed that his book is non-fiction nor have any of the thousands of book stores placed the book in the non-fiction section (as far as I know). Bottom line - his book is a novel. yet, Brown presents much of the information in his novel about early Christianity and the life of Jesus as historical fact, when - in fact - it is not.

To further (and in my opinion purposely) confuse readers, the first page of the book has this statement, "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." What are we supposed to make of this statement as we begin to read the book? Clearly, Brown seems to suggest that any information pertaining to any documents in his book are true.

As a result, many, many readers view what they are reading in this fiction novel as fact. My mother, a highly intelligent Christian and critical reader, called me after reading the book and said, "Todd, I just finished The DaVinci Code and I'm a little disturbed by the things I read in the book about the Bible." I replied, "Mom, it's a fiction novel." To this she said, "I understand, but the author claims that anything he writes about church documents including the Bible is true...he says so on the front page." My mother's call was the first time I had heard about the claims on the first page of the book. I reassured her that the book was fiction but that I would read it and get back with her about her concerns when I finished the book. Sure enough, the statement on the first page of the book led me to the same conclusion as my mother - that the information in the book about any document, including the Bible, is accurate.

So, through the power of suggestion, Brown has masterfully taken what is a fiction novel and caused many readers to believe that they will be shown an underlying "truth" as they read through the fiction. This brilliant maneuver in print has catapulted this novel into sales of over forty million! But, and I will continue to remind you, this is a fiction novel and nothing more.

To begin with, Brown uses phrases like, "All scholars know that..." which many readers take to mean that what they are ab out to read is factg rather than a statement made by a fictional character in a fictional work. So, when Brown's characters claim that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are unreliable sources of information about the life, miracles, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and further, that other early writings that are not found in the Bible such as the Gospel of Philip or The Gospel of Mary are superior sources of accurate infomration about Jesus, some readers buy into this fictional perspective as fact. I'll say it again - The DaVinci Code is a work of fiction and nothing more.

In my next blog, I'll begin to respond to Brown's fictional claims about the unreliability of the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). We'll look together at both the reliability of the Gospel accounts of Jesus life and why we can have such confidence in these accounts.

Also, there is a great site where you can read or re-read the Gospels on your computer. Simply click on this link, http://www.biblegateway.org/. Keep this site on your 'favorites' list so you can go directly to the Word as we work through this series together.

I look forward to our journey together!Finally, I'm going to be weaving two blog series together in the coming weeks. This blog series on DaVinci will be coupled with a blog series on the One Campaign to end extreme poverty around the world. I hope you'll read both series as they are written!

Carpe Deum! (Seize God!)
Todd Phillips