Decoding the Da Vinci Deception

The Da Vinci Code has been a best-selling book, a top box-office movie, and now, even a video game! So what’s all the fuss?

Dan Brown, the author of “The Da Vinci Code,” is attempting to recast the image of Jesus as a totally different figure from the one we’ve come to know through the pages of the Bible. Brown’s book is listed as a work of fiction, but the movie and the media are promoting these ideas as serious questions regarding the “truth” of Christianity and
the Church.

Basing his claims on the heretical Gnostic gospels and a theory first proposed in the 1982 book, “Holy Blood, Holy Grail,” this new Christ is the subject of an elaborate scheme that defies logical explanation. If Brown is to be believed, the real gospel of Jesus Christ involves the supposed marriage of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene and their secret offspring in France who would later become the Royal Blood lines of many Kings and Queens of Europe. This, according to the story, is the true meaning behind the worship of the Holy Grail. The “Grail” then, is not a cup at all, but a vessel named Mary Magdalene!

Brown, citing the Gospel of Philip, (a text not accepted as part of the canon of Holy Scripture), says Mary was a “companion” of Jesus. The Aramaic word for companion, we’re led to believe, means wife! But, this ancient text was not written in Aramaic. It was written in Coptic, a language where the word “companion” means “companion!” This is just one of many instances where expediency overcomes accuracy in Brown’s attempt to rush to “prove” these contentions.

In the famous Da Vinci painting of the Last Supper there is the depiction of the young apostle John who, according to Brown, looks too suspiciously like a woman. This is characterized as Da Vinci’s secret way of informing the world that the figure in the painting is not John, but actually Mary Magdalene- Jesus’ wife! There’s only one problem. During the time of Leonardo, the artistic trend was to portray young men as angelic and androgynous. Leonardo was especially praised for his skill in this area, and so no one, aware of this fact, should really be surprised by John’s effeminate appearance.

So what are the Gnostic gospels anyway? These were texts written around the time of the original canon, or in some cases, many years after, that were dismissed by the early church fathers for their obvious errors and attempted forgeries. They do, however, contain certain consistent themes, but none of them have anything to do, whatsoever, with what was, and is, orthodox, Christian belief.

According to the Gnostics- Jesus never claimed to be God, there was no Atonement made for sin, and Jesus didn’t die upon the cross. Everyone is saved in the Gnostic gospel because there is no original sin, and we’re all intrinsically Divine! Furthermore, central to the Gnostic philosophy is the belief that all physical matter is evil. God is something we attain mystically through a system of works: ie. personal, subjective experience involving secret knowledge ,or “gnosis.” They also assert that there was no Resurrection and that no Redeemer is even needed. This truly is- “another gospel.”

Basically, the Da Vinci Code puts forth the conceited idea that we save ourselves through the New Age dogma of progressive enlightenment where everyone has their own “truth” and their own pathway to God. This ultra-tolerant, free-form, no con- demnation religion fits right in with the Secularist agenda of modern liberalism with their Left-wing, Politically-Correct, One-World view. If all truth is subjective and relative, as the theory goes, then there really are no moral absolutes to get in the way for creating a One-World, Socialist Paradise. Apparently, all that’s restraining us from achieving this idealistic goal is the traditional beliefs of a few “backward-thinking” Christians and Jews.

Brown would lead us to believe that for the past 2,000 years the Catholic Church has hidden all of this information from us in a monumental effort to solely perpetuate their power. I guess he’s never heard of the Protestant Reformation!

Ironically, it has been just the opposite. It was the imposed rule of the Divine Right of Kings, which over the succeeding centuries has served to inflict the most egregious tyranny upon the world- not the Church. Our own American Revolution was fought to displace this type of autocratic government. In other words, if Brown is right, then whoever is the legitimate offspring of Jesus and Mary Magdalene would necessarily be someone in a different “class” of eugenics who would likely garner a unique position as absolute ruler of us all. Isn’t this exactly what the former Kings and Queens of Europe claimed to be?

The Da Vinci Code doesn’t pass the scholarly test, offers no authenticity in regard to orthodox Christianity, and, in the final analysis, doesn’t even make good sense!

Still, for a fanciful tale in the Imaginary World of Hollywood, it does make for an interesting movie. Just don’t get suckered in by all the snap, crackle and popcorn.

(send comments to: WFC83197@aol.com)