Beyond The Da Vinci Code By Alan Parker, Th. D. Murder, coded messages, intrigue, suspense, and a race against time to discover the world’s best-kept secret—Dan Brown weaves all these elements together in his bestselling thriller The Da Vinci Code. Judging by the 30 million books that have been sold followed by a full-budget hollywood film, many people have been influenced by this fanciful story. Yet what is surprising is that this obviously fictional work is being taken so seriously as a real explanation for the life of Jesus and the history of the Bible. Perhaps it’s because the novel begins with a single word: "FACT." Shortly afterward, Brown writes, "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." Nothing could be further from the truth! Not only are there gross historical errors throughout the book, but what Dan Brown calls "the greatest mystery of all time" turns out to be a sinister fiction. By couching his hypothesis in the distinguished voices of a British royal historian and a Harvard professor, Brown lends an air of undeserved authenticity to his fantastic claims. The characters of the book discover that not only was Jesus "mortal," but also that he married Mary Magdalene and had a daughter whose descendants live among us today. The sources of this information are supposedly a secret society and the discredited Gnostic gospels, which give the "true" picture of the historical Jesus. In addition, paintings of Leonardo da Vinci are portrayed as coded messages that indicate that Mary Magdalene, not John, was the beloved disciple, and that it was she and not Peter whom Jesus intended to take over the leadership of the church. Because John is painted without a beard and sitting close to Jesus in the picture of 1The Last Supper, the characters in Brown’s book claim that Leonardo really intended this to be Mary Magdalene! The Council of Nicaea Brown’s book claims that in A.D. 325, a group of bishops rewrote history in a meeting convened by the newly converted Roman emperor Constantine. Constantine wanted to unify his empire, and the bishops sought greater control of the church. To achieve their objectives, according to Brown, they introduced two new claims: Jesus was divine, and the Bible was infallible.The Da Vinci Code, National Geographic sums up the evidence: "Brown’s assertion that the divinity of Jesus Christ was an invention by the Roman emperor Constantine in A.D. 325 is widely dismissed by scholars—Christ’s divinity had already been described in the New Testament."2 Brown mixes together an ounce of historical fact with a pound of speculative fiction to form a potent brew of semi-realistic heresy. Indeed, it is correct that there was a council of Nicaea and there were power plays in the empire, but these did not change the divinity of Christ nor the authority of the Bible. For instance, Brown’s Professor Teabing asserts that before the council, the prevailing view, promoted by a bishop called Arius, was that Jesus was human. Teabing states that at the council, the majority of bishops overruled Arius’ belief that Jesus was a mortal prophet by a "relatively close vote." Brown neglects to mention that Arius believed that Jesus was God’s supreme creation. He also believed that Jesus was sinless, that He created the universe, and that He was much more than a mere man. Still, the "relatively close vote" was actually 316 to 2! There is abundant evidence that Jesus was regarded as divine in both the New Testament and in early Christian writings. In commenting on The Da Vinci Code, National Geographic sums up the evidence: "Brown’s assertion that the divinity of Jesus Christ was an invention by the Roman emperor Constantine in A.D. 325 is widely dismissed by scholars—Christ’s divinity had already been described in the New Testament."2 The book is nothing more than an open attack against the deepest beliefs Christians hold. It strips Jesus of His divinity, destroys faith in the Bible, and invents a false history of Christianity. But what is the truth? The Origin of the Bible According to a character in The Da Vinci Code, "The Bible is a product of man, my dear. Not of God. … The Bible as we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman emperor, Constantine the Great" (231). This is pure fiction. There is plenty of evidence that the canon (list of authoritative books) of the Bible was well established by the fourth century. One of the earliest evidences comes, ironically, from a Gnostic sect. Around the year 160, a Gnostic leader, Marcion, referred to the authoritative books of the apostles and mentioned many of the books that are in our New Testament today. The irony is that Brown tries to use the Gnostics to paint an alternative view of history. In recent times, a canon was discovered (the Muratorian Canon) that dates back to A.D. 190 and includes virtually all of today’s New Testament. By the fourth century, the only books in dispute were Hebrews (because it does not have a clearly defined author), 2 Peter (because it sounds so much like Jude), and Revelation (because of its mystical character). The reality is that the early Christian church revered and protected the Scriptures. Indeed, at the Council of Nicaea, the question of the books of the canon was not even on the agenda! The claims in Brown’s book about Mary Magdalene are even more obviously spurious. Although Mary Magdalene is portrayed as a close and understanding friend of Jesus in both the Scriptures and other historical sources, there is absolutely no evidence of her being married to Jesus. Brown simply made this up, along with his fictional characters. (If you want a better understanding of Mary Magdalene and her role in Christ’s life, we suggest Doug Batchelor’s book, At Jesus’ Feet.) Was There a Cover-up? Even though Dan Brown has so many facts wrong, and even though his theories are speculative at best and heresy at worst, he might just be onto something. We can clearly see the rise of Roman power in history as fallible men declared themselves gods and sought to replace the authority of the Bible with the traditions and pagan rituals of men. The facts indicate that there has indeed been a cover-up, one that Dan Brown missed: Constantine and the bishops of Rome did conspire in one of the greatest secrets of all history. Who Was Constantine? Constantine the Great was a Roman emperor who reigned from A.D. 306 to 337. Tradition has it that on his way to an important battle in A.D. 312, a vision of a flaming cross appeared to him with the inscription, "In this sign conquer." He therefore authorized his mostly pagan soldiers to place a cross on their shields, and went on to win the battle. Believing the Christian God to be his secret to military success and the key to uniting his empire, Constantine adopted Christianity as the official religion of Rome in A.D. 324. His life continued to be marred by bloodshed and political intrigue until his death, but through his influence the bishops of Rome gained rapid ascendancy to political and temporal power. Sun Worship The real secret of Constantine and the bishops of Rome is their cunning introduction of sun worship and paganism into Christianity. It was done so shrewdly that, incredibly, it has been veiled within the faith for centuries. Through Constantine, paganism and Christianity joined hands in the Roman Empire. History readily records that Constantine was a sun-worshiper. In one decree he declared, "On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed" (March 7, 321). He made this decree in honor of the sun after his supposed conversion to Christianity! Constantine, even after his "conversion," remained a pagan. Constantine sought to unite his kingdom’s pagan and Christian worshipers, in order to promote stability and ensure that his empire lasted. The easiest way to bring harmony would be to blend sun worship and Christianity. History shows that the Church of Rome did not object; indeed, it had been engaging in the practice for nearly two centuries! The bishops at Rome also claimed Peter as the head of the church, instead of Christ (Ephesians 4:15). Developing a non-biblical doctrine of "apostolic succession," they claimed that the authority conferred on Peter was transferred to themselves. The "Saint Peter" that was created was actually a combination of pagan idolatry and Christian veneration. Even today, the statue in St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome includes a solar disk above his head. Tradition has it that this was actually a statue of Jupiter taken from a pagan temple and simply renamed "St. Peter"! Sun worship, which appears in nearly every pagan religion in the world, soon appeared in Christian art, imagery, and theology. The halo often seen on Christ and Mary is actually a symbol of sun worship. Madonna ("Mary") was depicted holding sun disks. The Silent Conspiracy One of the earliest entrances of sun worship into the church was through the spring pagan festival. The festival was celebrated in honor of Eostre (according to the eighth century cleric Bede). The festival often honored a goddess (such as Ishtar), and one of the more popular tales of this time concerned the god Attis, who was said to be resurrected each year during the month of March. According to one tradition, the festival of Attis began as "a day of blood on a black Friday and culminated after three days in a day of rejoicing over a resurrection."3 These spring festivals eventually became the Christian festival of Easter, complete with eggs and rabbits, both ancient pagan symbols of fertility. At the Council of Nicaea, Constantine also persuaded those in attendance that only one Easter "Resurrection" day should be kept. "Our Savior has left us only one festal day … and he desired to establish only one Catholic Church," he argued. Then he added this significant statement. "You should consider … that we should have nothing in common with the Jews."4 Constantine felt that the Jews were "murderers of the Lord," and therefore desired to blot out any links between Christianity and Judaism. For this reason he persuaded the Christian church to drop the ancient biblical Sabbath, given at Creation, and replace it with Sunday worship. "The Church made a sacred day of Sunday … largely because it was the weekly festival of the sun; for it was a definite Christian policy to take over the pagan festivals endeared to the people by tradition, and to give them a Christian significance."5 Pope Sylvester I (314–335) finally made Christian Sundaykeeping official by decreeing that "the rest of the Sabbath should be transferred to the Lord’s day [Sunday]."6 Perhaps this was Constantine and Rome’s crowning conspiratorial victory—sneaking sun worship into Christianity by exchanging the true Christian day of worship for the day dedicated to ancient sun worship. So Dan Brown was partly right after all. There has been a conspiracy. Constantine and Rome did change history. What Mr. Brown does not seem to realize is that the very things he has attacked are the only things that have kept truth alive. Believing in Jesus as Lord and in the Bible as His infallible Word are the only ways to safely combat error and ground ourselves in truth. Through the Dark Ages these facts were lost sight of, and paganism took over the church. Thank God that today we have ready access to the Bible, the ultimate resource, and to the throne of grace. God’s truth will always prove stronger than the world’s fiction. ______________________________________________ Endnotes 1 Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code (New York: Doubleday, 2003), 1. 2 December 17, 2004, "No Gospel in ‘Da Vinci Code’ Claims, Scholars Say" National Geographic News. 3 Gerald L. Berry, "Religions of the World," Barnes & Noble, 1956. 4 From the Letter of the Emperor to all those not present at the Council, Found in Eusebius, Life of Constantine, 3: 18-20. 5 Arthur Weigall, The Paganism in Our Christianity, p. 145. (Copyright 1928, by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York). 6 Rabanus Maurus, as quoted in Sabbath and Sunday in Early Christianity, by Robert L. Odom, 1977 by the Review and Herald Publishing Association, pp. 247, 248.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Jun 2013 17:02:18 +0000
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