1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.
2 Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned;
3 and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
(2 Peter 2:1-3 NASB)

Brothers and Sisters in Christ I must say this again "We are in the end times." I know that people may not want to hear this but it needs to be said. I know that we will see more evil, more natural disasters, more and more ungodliness until Jesus Christ comes back. These past few weeks many people had questions about the bible because of the book and its new movie; "The Da Vinci Code".

I am telling you that I read the book "The Da Vinci Code" and I am not going to say whether I liked it or not but I felt that if I was going to speak about on this website I should read the book (I see it as a fiction as well as a mystery). I also felt that if you are not strong in the word or really don't know the history of Christianity; the book may cause questions. I did some researching by reading the book "Breaking The Da Vinci Code" and other sources that my church provided. If I did not read those sources and see those sources, I would have faltered and fell into those lies.

Breaking The Da Vinci Code

There are 3 problems:

#1: Was Jesus Married?
The story line claimed that Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalene. The evidence comes from two non-biblical gospels (the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and the Gospel of Philip). Both books talk about Jesus having special relationship with Mary and that He loved her more than any the 12. Da Vinci Code book referenced this when it says that Jesus kissed Mary in the lips in public - so he must have been her husband. See, back in Jesus' time, anyone who was kissing on the lips publicly had to be husband and wife. The Fact is almost all scholars, both liberal and conservative question these extra gospels contain anything of value in terms of the historical Jesus. Even if it did, the famous "kiss on the lips" text actually has a blank in the original manuscript right at the point where it describes where Mary was kissed. It could be a kiss on the lips or the cheek (a kiss of fellowship). Also, those texts from those gospels are from after the first 5 centuries. Mathew, Mark, Luke and John are from the 1 century after Jesus went back to heaven.

#2: When Were The Gospels Accepted?
The novel also claims that the four gospels were chosen to be apart of the Bible later then what we claim because they describe a divine Jesus as opposed to the other gospels that had more "human" Jesus. Once again scholars disagree with the book. The study of what is called the canon is a complex area when it comes to the compilation of the entire New Testament. Athanasius in AD 367 is the first figure we have who list the 27 books of the New Testament as we have them today. It may be that Dan Brown rested his view on this fact, although he never mentions it. However, what this does not take into account is that the books that were under discussion in the third and fourth centuries were several epistles and Revelation, books like 2 Peter, Jude, 2 and 3 John, not any of the gospels.
Scholars of the canon agree that by the end of the second century the four-fold gospel was recognized as authoritative. This is a full 125 years before Constantine and the Nicean Council came on the scene to do the defining work for orthodoxy about the time of the fourth century is just bad history.

#3: Was Jesus' Divinity Decided by a "Close Vote" in the Fourth Century?
Brown claims that the Council of Nicea in AD 325 decided, by a narrow margin and for political purposes, to declare for the first time that Jesus was the Son of God. History shows that this is just not true. What we know about the Council is this, They gathered not to declare the divinity of Jesus Christ but to decide how was, Jesus divine. Was he the first created being or was he eternally related to God as His Son (as stated in the Nicene Creed)? Jesus as the Son of God was always a core belief of the earliest church.
Constantine called this council together because he wanted peace and unity, which resulted in the creation of the Nicene Creed. The Creed merely served to put into precise philosophical and theological language what had been expressed in more general terms for years. The vote at Nicea, rather than establishing the church's beliefs, affirmed and officially recognized what was already the church's dominant view. The council had about 216 bishops representing most of Christendom in attendance, but only 2 out of the entire group refused to accept this affirmation of the Christian faith. Hardly a close decision. Brown's claim, then, is false here as well.

See, all of these facts show how the book can deceive anyone even though it is a novel, it puts thoughts in your mind and thoughts can turn into questions. questions can turn into questioning the Bible.

I pray that if you do read the book or see the movie, just remember this that it is a novel; fiction and the Bible speaks the truth; Fact

In God's Love,
<>< - - Mark E. Arroyo - - <><