The DaVinci Delusion That Cannot Be Ignored

Olivetreeviews.org ^ | May 16, 2006 | Jan Markell

[Esther Ruth]

The DaVinci Delusion That Cannot Be Ignored--May 16 --> Posted to Jans_eUpdates for May, 2006

May 16 - The DaVinci Delusion That Cannot Be Ignored

I had hoped I could ignore this social and spiritual tsunami but I cannot. When "The DaVinci Code" has sold 45 million copies and millions more are eagerly going to enter theatres this summer for the film, cautions must be sounded as many are doing.

There is no name on earth that evokes such instant and blinding hatred than does the Name of Jesus Christ to all enemies of the gospel. And though the book has done its damage, in the coming days, one of the biggest hate crimes against true Christianity is about to open on film with tens of millions more eagerly standing in line.

Author Dan Brown says, "My sincere hope is that 'The DaVinci Code', in addition to entertaining people, will serve as an open door to begin their own exploration." Exploration of what?? The total debunking of all that the Bible has to say, including the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord. As Erwin Lutzer of Moody Memorial Church says, "Dan Brown's agenda is not thinly veiled: This book is a direct attack against Christ, the church, and those of us who are followers and call Him Savior."

Hear my radio interview/discussion on this with discernment Pastor Gary Gilley from last weekend here: http://www.olivetreeviews.org/radio/mp3/ It is an hour full of pertinent information.

Brown has the audacity to state right up front that all facts in the book are TRUE when, in fact, they are irrational lies. He has introduced to the unsuspecting an alternative form of Christianity debunking the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross. While dozens of films and books have done this over the years, none have been quite this salacious, filled with lies and distortions, about the One who took our sins upon Him. One should only waste money on the Hollywood Christian haters if you have a genuinely seeking friend or relative who wants the facts to be unraveled so they can hopefully embrace truth. And no previous Bible/Jesus-bashing book has sold 45 million copies so this has reached the state where the culture must be engaged in a reasonable way.

Brown tries to wipe away doubt in the opening segments of the film. What he's done is exercise his imagination, strung together rumor, myth, and legend. He has introduced to the unsuspecting an alternative form of Christianity. Any doubt these are the "last days" of deception predicted by Jesus Himself in Matthew 24?

The plot includes Jesus NOT dying on the cross, marrying Mary Magdalene, and having a child whose descendents are still alive. A secret society guards this "truth." Yet not a single credible, ancient source substantiates this.

Skeptics, seekers, new Christians, and unstable Christians could end up believing that the Christian faith is founded on a myth, for Brown cleverly mixes some truth with a lot of fiction, something that always confuses and leads people away from truth. And most today do not have the time or will not take the time to really study and find the real truth.

Campus Crusade for Christ says they have gotten notes saying some of the following:

"I read 'The DaVinci Code' and no longer know what I believe." (A missionary in Europe)

"Two close friends of mine in the church lost their faith over 'The DaVinci Code.' "

"I lost my son to 'The DaVinci Code.' "

This apostasy has gotten some fuel from Emergent Church leader Brian McClaren. In an interview in "Sojourner's Magazine," very much to the left but calling itself evangelical, McLaren suggests it is popular because "it is an experience in shared frustration with status-quo, male-dominated, power-oriented, cover-up-prone, organized religion (which is why he created a new, more trendy one called "Emergent.") McLaren suggests that the standard vision of Jesus is not sufficient to most. "I don't think 'DaVinci Code' has more harmful ideas in it than the 'Left Behind' novels, as they twist Scripture toward a theological and political bend." This leaves me speechless and in more serious doubt and concern for those filtering into McLaren's movement called the Emergent Church.

On the positive side, the book and movie open up a tremendous opportunity to talk about Jesus while He's on the minds of millions. It's an opportunity to engage the culture.

For more on the topic beyond last weekend's radio program, visit the link "Spiritual Deception" at my Web site, http://www.olivetreeviews.org/topics/spiritual_deception.shtml This CBN link also has a good analysis, also under "Spiritual Deception" on my site: http://www.cbn.com/special/DaVinciCode/

So rescue the perishing while there is still time, won't you?

Awaiting His return, Jan Markell

[bella1]

If this book helps to separate the wheat from the chaff (real believers as opposed to sunday-morning only believers) then maybe it is a good thing. The fact that Satan is still trying to deceive people should come as no surprise to anyone.

When we read God's word, we see the no good ever came to anyone who distorted the truth about His son Jesus. I am watching to see what will come of the people who had a hand in writing this book and/or creating this movie.

"Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man sows, that will he also reap".

[Esther Ruth]

Romans 8:28 And we KNOW that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose.


Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.


Rom 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.


Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God [be] for us, who [can be] against us?


Rom 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?


Rom 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? [It is] God that justifieth.


Rom 8:34 Who [is] he that condemneth? [It is] Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.


Rom 8:35 WHO SHALL SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF CHRIST??? [shall] tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?


Rom 8:36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.


Rom 8:37 NAY!!! in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.


*** ==>>> Rom 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,


Rom 8:39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

[pabianice]

There is no name on earth that evokes such instant and blinding hatred than does the Name of Jesus Christ to all enemies of the gospel. And though the book has done its damage, in the coming days, one of the biggest hate crimes against true Christianity is about to open on film with tens of millions more eagerly standing in line.

Nice way to get converts, a$$hat.

[oldleft]

And as for the "Jesus is just a man" stuff you pose, well there are branches of Christianity that believe just that.

That statement, by definition, is impossible. You can't be Christian unless you believe that Jesus was the Messiah. That, in fact, is the definition of Christianity. People who don't believe that are called Jews.

You also demonstrate a problem in society that many get their information about Christianity from books like this.

As far as "just a book", I'm not trying to stop anyone from reading it, I'm just giving my opinion on the matter. I happen to think it's dangerous, and in your words, stupid.

[trashcanbred]

It isn't the people with faith I worry about in this instance. It is the people without faith who are deliberately being misled.

And do you think making a big noise about it is going to solve your problems? On the contrary it will just attract more and more people. And if everyone keeps making a big deal about this book, then people will start to believe that there maybe a shred of truth to it.

For crying out loud just let the book and the movie die. Everytime the Church or a Cardinal opens their yapper or a group of people try and get it banned you just keep breathing life into it and making Dan Brown richer. We have all been through these things before and for some reason no one learns the lessons of the past.

And not to mention... what can anyone do about it? Nothing... you can't stop it. You cannot threaten to kill the author (we aren't Muslims), and you cannot make laws to ban it. So the best thing to do is just say it is fiction and leave it at that.

[subterfuge]

Amen to that Esther. Thanks.

[oldleft]

Look, the book is presented as historical fiction in the same way "Saving Private Ryan" was. It is presumed in the book that the fictional events occur around things which happen to be historical facts.

Not only is this not the case, but is very, very misleading as one can see from the amount of people I happen to respect who buy into this BS.

[Pyro7480]

The Church isn't just the leaders of the visible institution.

[Pyro7480]

So the best thing to do is just say it is fiction and leave it at that.

Not only that, but educate people who think the book is presenting facts about Jesus and Christianity.

[mlc9852]

Isn't a novel usually fiction? Why do people think this is true?

[GAD]

The MSM's incessant hyping of this heresy sickens me.

[trashcanbred]

That statement, by definition, is impossible. You can't be Christian unless you believe that Jesus was the Messiah. That, in fact, is the definition of Christianity. People who don't believe that are called Jews

What I said was that there are a number of groups who call themselves Christians who reject the holy trinity or at least claim they are three distinct individuals. That is true, right?

By the way.. never... ever try and say I get my information from Marx or Communists...

[dhs12345]

Okay. Then make it very clear to the followers that their leaders are humans just like the rest.

For example, the Pope is just another man and there is nothing special about him except that he happened to make it to the top through the church bureaucracy. Much like our president.

And all of the saints (multitude of deities) that people pray to, well they were humans, too. They may have done great things while they were alive, but they were just humans who did good things or like the Pope made it to the top and through the church bureaucracy.

[BearArms]

Skeptics, seekers, new Christians, and unstable Christians could end up believing that the Christian faith is founded on a myth...

Well, the Christian story is a myth. It is an ancient story which claims supernatural events and acts for which there are no external confirmations or evidence. It is one of countless fantastic stories that survive from the ancient world, it just happens to have a large number of modern-day believers in it's truth.

I happen to think that the DaVinci Code has done a service to society by encouraging people, especially Christian believers, to question the authority of those who assure us that the Bible is an inerrant document given to us somehow by God and that it's stories are all literally true. Literal belief in ancient myth is what gets us into situations like we see currently in the United States, where fundamentalists fight to insert a mythological explanation for the origin of the human species into science classes.

[trashcanbred]

I don't know... I am confused why people want to keep breathing life into this thing. It just keeps the whole thing alive.

[oldleft]

I wasn't trying to say that you get anything from any communist source. I would never disrespect you like that. I was trying to make the point that the "Communist Manifesto" was just a book, and a fiction book at that.

Sorry I offended you, it was by no means intentional.

[trashcanbred]

Not only that, but educate people who think the book is presenting facts about Jesus and Christianity.

I agree. There are many errors in the book and some people have done a great deal of work documenting them. These should be given more exposure.

[subterfuge]

I agree with everything you said. (psst, I'm not Catholic)

[trashcanbred]

Ok thanks... sorry I did think that was what you meant and yeah that got me a tad upset.