by Greg Quinn
May 17th, 2006
That’s a very good question. The writer of the very popular book, Dan Brown, has
sold over 50 million copies of this book, making it one of the best-selling
books of our time. Now the
DaVinci Code has been turned into a well-hyped
movie, with actor Tom
Hanks and directed by Opie
(Ron Howard). The movie is
out at theatres everywhere on May 19th.
Getting beyond the hype is what we at Gunblast.com do on a regular basis,
and a film and book with this much impact is something that is deserving of
careful examination.
Dan Brown is a fiction writer, and a good one.
But, fiction is not truth. So,
why is this fiction writer causing such a stir with this book?
One reason is its subject, Jesus Christ.
Another is that this writer of stories has made claims, from the very
first page of his book, that the historical data from which the book is written
is absolutely true. He’s defended
this position in numerous articles and interviews.
Yet, beyond a casual acceptance of what he says is true is actually
truth, one can easily find holes in his claims and supposed research. Therefore, to ask a question, “Is there any truth to the
DaVinci Code?”, is both appropriate and something that we feel our Gunblast
readers will want to know. We have
been working hard for the past 7 years for “truth in gun testing and
reporting”. Examining the truth
to the claims in this book, and reporting the facts, is something we feel our
readers deserve, and something we hope you will find informative and
interesting.
So, read on and learn for yourself the “true truth”.
Then, you can answer for yourself, “Is there any truth to the DaVinci
code?”
Urban Legends and the DaVinci Code
Did you know that if you are driving at night and meet a
car without its headlights on, DO NOT flash your lights. If you do, the car will turn around, catch you, and those in
the car will rob and kill you. It’s
all part of a gang ritual. Don’t
fall for it.
You have heard about the guy that goes on a date with a
beautiful young girl, the date ends up at her apartment with a glass of wine,
and he wakes up in a bathtub of ice-cold water several hours later, missing a
kidney. It happens.
It’s part of a group of people dealing with robbing and selling
kidneys.
Here’s another. A
guy makes up a story, and since he’s a great storyteller, decides that if he
says the story is true, that he’ll get a lot of gullible people to believe it.
He writes a novel, sells 50 million copies, sells rights to a blockbuster
movie, and gets millions of people believing that the lies he has pawned off as
truth are just that. He’s rich,
and has impacted millions of people by telling a big lie.
The guy is Dan Brown. The
book is the DaVinci Code. He’s
still laughing.
What do these three stories have in common?
They are all Urban Legends. Myths.
Lies. Stories.
The truth within the scare about the no-lights gang ritual is that this
is a good story but nothing more. The
truth within the no-kidney date story perhaps only has value in keeping your
young son from sleeping around; nothing more, as the story is fictional.
The DaVinci Code could be passed off as just another wacko fiction story,
had the writer not defended the claims of lies becoming truth.
And, when the lies told go against the very foundation of the Christian
faith, and the values that built the great nation of America, then the writer
has gone too far.
Dan Brown is a good fiction writer, a good storyteller.
He crossed the line when he claimed his stories to be truth.
And, having based this errant research on the foundation of the Gospels
in the Bible, this goes beyond a good lie to blasphemous tales that go to the
heart of those of us that believe the Bible to be true.
His research is very sloppy, and this is easily proven. His claims of fact are merely fiction. What he packages as valid research is based on very old but
very wrong documents. What he
presents to the reader as truth has been discounted for centuries as trash.
I have a Masters degree in Bible. Most
people that read Dan Brown’s book, or see his movie, do not.
The impact for the reader in believing these lies could be eternal in
scope.
Don’t just take my word for it. Doing so might be kin to believing Dan Brown at face value.
Instead, do your own research. Here
are some places to start.
Read the Bible, a book that has been attacked by unbelievers
for centuries, but there has never (and I underscore never)
been any validity to any supposed facts that were contrary to the scriptures.
Every line, every verse, every incident as reported in the Bible, and
especially those concerning Jesus, are 100% accurate.
If you read the Gospels in the Bible (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), and
further writings of the apostles and Jesus’ disciples, you will find
undeniable truth that supports the claims of the Bible, claims that are backed
up by centuries of truthful data and evidence.
Do your own Internet research. The DaVinci Code has prompted Bible scholars from around the
globe to provide “true truth” that debunks the lies paraded within this book
of fiction. People much smarter
than I have done a lot of research to provide factual data that eliminates any
doubt as to the validity of the claims in Dan Brown’s book. Check out the following:
http://www.y-zine.com/mona_lisa.htm
http://www.davinciandjesus.com/
http://www.realtruth.org/articles/0402-tdvc.html?gclid=CILOpoHV-4QCFSBjJAodeVoY6Q
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/special/davincicode.html
Now, once you discover the truth for yourself, tell others.
You don’t let your friends drive drunk.
Don’t let them be fed a bunch of lies and believe them to be true.
Believing the truth of the Bible allows us to live forever in peace with
God. Believing the lies of the
DaVinci Code robs us of this.
Truth or lie. Which
will you choose?
Where do the “facts” as reported in the DaVinci Code come
from?
Dan Brown opens his book with the hook…”the greatest
conspiracy of the last 2000 years is about to unravel…”.
Mr. Brown tries to convince us that the Holy Grail is not a cup, but the
womb of Mary Magdelene. He spins a science fiction story about how Jesus and Mary
Magdelene married and had a child, and the search for this child is the basis of
the story.
Interesting story. Great
science fiction tale. But a tale it
is.
The truth is, the “facts” as Mr. Brown reports, are based
on errant data. He does quote (and
often misquotes) historical documents. But,
just because a document is historical, doesn’t mean it is historically
accurate.
Let me give you an example.
I live near Nashville, Tennessee. A
suburb of Nashville is Old Hickory, named after the former President of the
United States, General Andrew Jackson. It’s
many, many years later, but I could even today write an autobiography of Andrew
Jackson, make a lot of crazy claims about him, hide it in a cave, and if it were
found 100 years later, some would think that because I claimed that it is an
autobiography that this must be the case, and because I claimed that the
information was true that it must be factual.
When you and I both know that I made it up.
So, the “facts” as reported in the DaVinci Code are
factual in that some of the data was taken from historical documents, but
documents that themselves were perverse and filled with lies.
Perhaps you have played the following game.
I used to do this in youth classes to teach just how gossip can spread.
It’s a good illustration of an old truth.
Put 15 people in a circle. One
makes up a sentence and whispers it into the ear of the person on their right.
The next person takes what they think they have heard and tells the next
person, and so on and so on. By the
time the story gets back to the person that started it, most often it is
terminally different from the initial tale.
So, whereas the Bible has the story of Jesus told from people
who were there, inspired by God Himself. People who walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, spent time
with Jesus. Not people who wrote a
story 200 years later and claims the information to be factual.
Dan Brown bases his data on what is often referred to as the
Gnostic gospels. They were books
written by a group called the Gnostics. Their
name comes from the Greek word gnosis, meaning “knowledge”.
These people thought that they possessed special, secret knowledge,
information not given to other men. So,
they had a little club and wrote gospels about Jesus and tried to get these
gospels accepted by the early church. There
were some 50-something writings that attempted to be placed within the Bible,
but only 4 were actually included in the Bible and recognized as New Testament
gospels. These are Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John. They were written
by the writers, under the inspiration of God, about Jesus and his life because
they were there and/or written down from direct conversations with those that
were there. As the teachings of
Christ spread, the Gnostics mixed their errant teachings with some elements of
Christianity and tried to pass them off as truth.
It was at best a counterfeit Christianity.
They ended up stripping Jesus of his divine nature, and at the same time
dispelling his humanity as well as his deity.
The teachings of the Gnostics were discounted in their day, only accepted
by those with inclinations toward occultism and oriental mysticism, with
astrology and magic.
One of the best references as to the errant
information reported as truth in the DaVinci Code is found in the
following link: http://www.y-zine.com/mona_lisa.htm.
“Garbage in-garbage out”.
This is a term used in computer programming that explains how, if we
enter distorted data, we will end up with distorted results.
Garbage in-garbage out. Dan
Brown has written a book based on the “garbage in” theory, and as such
delivers the anticipated result: “garbage out”.
If fiction alone, the story could be entertaining.
When based on Jesus Christ, the son of God, dispelling the truth of the
Bible to mislead and deceive good, honest people, and becoming downright
blasphemous in the process, I see little entertainment value indeed.
-
Greg Quinn
If you have questions or
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