I read the book recently and have to agree that The Da Vinci Code is a fascinating, absorbing, exhilarating and engaging thriller. If you haven’t read the book, it’s about a two thousand-year-old conspiracy that starts to unravel as a desperate race takes place through the cathedrals and castles of Europe.

Dan Brown on his official website describes the plot as follows:

"While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. Solving the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci . . . clues visible for all to see . . . and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion - a secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others. The Louvre curator has sacrificed his life to protect the Priory’s most sacred trust: the location of a vastly important religious relic, hidden for centuries. In a breathless race through Paris, London, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker who appears to work for Opus Dei - a clandestine, Vatican sanctioned Catholic sect believed to have long plotted to seize the Priory’s secret. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory’s secret . . . will be lost forever."

On May 19 the film of The Da Vinci Code will be released worldwide.

The movie stars one of my favourite actors, Tom Hanks, who plays the part of Robert Langdon, the Harvard symbologist. With Tom Hanks in the lead role and the book already having made the top of the New York Times best-seller list, the film will no doubt be a huge success.

So why am I telling you this? What’s the big deal with The Da Vinci Code?

While the book is a novel, the author claims to have written a fact-based conspiracy theory alleging scientific evidence that the New Testament isn’t true, that Jesus Christ wasn’t the Son of God but a mortal man who married Mary Magdalene and had a child, that the early Jewish religion involved ritualistic sex, that the Roman emperor Constantine tampered with the contents of the Bible, that the Gnostic writings are reliable documents, and that the Catholic Church has kept the world in the dark by telling a pack of lies for two thousand years.

One of the so called "experts" in the book says, "Almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is false."

Is this true? Have we been hoodwinked for centuries? The Da Vinci Code suggests we have.

At the beginning of the book the author claims: "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate."

And in an interview Brown said: "One of the many qualities that makes The Da Vinci Code unique is the factual nature of the story . . ."

In other words, Brown claims his book is historical fiction.

In making this claim he’s saying that while he’s used imagination and creative style to master his art he hasn’t distorted past reality or manipulated historical facts to make his novel more interesting or exciting.

But Brown’s lying. He’s twisting the truth. He cannot rightfully say the documents in his book are accurate and then say, "It’s only a novel." Such positioning places the reader in a schizophrenic world of fact and fiction.

If this sounds confusing, it is. Brown’s written an alternative history that’s a seductively clever mix of fact and fiction. In a nutshell, The Da Vinci Code is a cunningly devised fable that’s inconsistent with historical facts.

Let me back up and try to explain the problem in simple language. It’s okay when Dreamworks in Prince of Egypt have Moses and the Pharaoh’s son racing chariots around the pyramids. That’s dramatic licence and it doesn’t take away from the basic historical facts. But when one of Brown’s characters, in reference to the Bible, says that "history has never had a definitive version of the book" he’s changing the facts to suit his story.

This is problematic. 

While The Da Vinci Code is a good read, I must warn you; it’s full of lies and deception. Brown references second and third century writings of known enemies of the church. His book claims that the original form of Judaism was polytheistic with goddess worship. And his book calls Christ a wonderful man but denies that He is God and Saviour.

The bottom line is Brown appears to be a Gnostic in modern garb. Gnosticism is a complex and varied philosophical and religious movement, which among other things, promises salvation from the grip of the material universe through special knowledge or gnosis.

Please don’t get sucked in by Brown’s deception. Gnosticism was strongly opposed by the early church fathers for good reasons. Salvation isn’t found through secret knowledge, hidden codes, or cryptic messages but in Jesus Christ who offers forgiveness of sins and eternal life to everyone who trust in Him.

That’s the good news today. Jesus is " . . . the way, the truth, and the life" John 14:6 (NLT). "Everyone who trusts in him will not be put to shame" Romans 10:11 (NIV). You see, there’s a substantial difference between fact and fiction. The Bible is fact. The Da Vinci Code is fiction.

Hear these words of life from 1 John 4:1-3: "Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. This is the way to find out if they have the Spirit of God: If a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ became a human being, that person has the Spirit of God. If a prophet does not acknowledge Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist. You have heard that he is going to come into the world, and he is already here" (NLT).

Dan Brown has the right to say whatever he wants to say. There’s no dispute over his freedom of speech. What’s problematic is the way in which he, his publisher, and the media have presented The Da Vinci Code as a fact based novel wherein the characters reveal truths that have long been hidden from the general public.

Look at this poster advertising the film. Under the title it says, "Seek the truth." Don’t be deceived. The Da Vinci Code doesn’t seek truth or reveal truth - it twists truth. In not acknowledging Jesus Christ as the Son of God, Dan Brown has "the spirit of the Antichrist." He’s a false prophet. He’s ignored or dismissed the historic Jesus by creating an unhistorical Jesus through a process of suppression and exaggeration.

Which brings me to a question you may be wanting to ask. Is it okay to read Brown’s book or see the film? That’s a tough question. It may be appropriate for some and inappropriate for others.

Here are a few Scriptures which should help you arrive at an answer:

1 Timothy 4:1 says, "Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from what we believe; they will follow lying spirits and teachings that come from demons" (NLT).

Some Christians have already had their faith shaken by The Da Vinci Code.

One person wrote to RBC Ministries saying, "I don’t know where else to turn. I pray to God that you can help me. I began to read the book by Dan Brown called The Da Vinci Code. It was an interesting book until I got to the part where he’s talking about how Christianity began, how it’s all false, and that Christianity is basically a lie and stolen from pagan religions. The secret societies, the Holy Grail, the church changing facts, removing parts of the Bible. Is it all true? So much of it makes sense. There were things that I had heard before and ignored. But now I have to know. Is the last 25+ years I’ve been a Christian all a lie? Was Jesus just a man? Did it all really happen? Was He married to Mary Magdalene? Is everything I was raised to believe just made up for the sake of money? I have to know. I don’t know where else to turn. Now I am doubting if there is a heaven, a God, and Jesus. Please help me! Please, in God’s name, help me. I’m brokenhearted, confused, and still crying."

As your pastor I’m committed to your spiritual well-being. As an under-shepherd God expects me to be both a guide and a guard to the flock. I’m speaking about The Da Vinci Code today because I don’t want anyone to turn away from Christ.

James 1:16 says, "Do not be deceived . . ." (ESV).

I’d be devastated if one of you started following "lying spirits and teachings that come from demons" as a result of reading The Da Vinci Code.

What concerns me is that literary scholars can probably read the book or see the film and discern where the facts end and fiction begins, but the average reader, like the lady who wrote to RBC Ministries, may read the book or see the film and be deceived or confused.

Here’s another text.

In 2 Peter 1:16 the apostle says, "For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and his coming again. We have seen his majestic splendour with our own eyes" (NLT).

The Theological Dictionary Of The New Testament makes this observation: "Certain unspecified Gnostic teachings are in view in 2 Peter 1:16, but the warning is a general one to shun contact with all false doctrines, which can pass on only myths and not the realities of revelation."

There’s no doubt that The Da Vinci Code is a fascinating, absorbing, exhilarating and engaging thriller.

But be on your guard. ". . . Don't let anyone mislead you" Luke 21:8 (NLT).

The Da Vinci Code is more than a good thriller. It’s also a cunningly devised fable - a myth promoting false doctrine.

There you have it. The Da Vinci Code at best, if one views it purely as a novel, is an absorbing tale. But The Da Vinci Code at worst, if one views it as historical fiction, is a book of deceit that twists the truth.

Here’s a final Word from the Lord: ". . . evil people and impostors will flourish. They will go on deceiving others, and they themselves will be deceived. But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus" 2 Timothy 3:13-15 (NLT).

(L. Murray)