Anyone who has read the book, knows that it was a real ‘page turner’. I have enthusiastically read all of Dan Browns’ novels. All of them keep ones interest at a fever pitch, from page one through to the end. He is an expert at bringing a few characters together and placing them in a limited time-line of non-stop action, and sustaining the story line at such a high level that the reader rarely wonders about the plausibility of the background material.
I had no intellectual problems with “Deception Point” & “Digital Fortress”. These were non-stop fun; after all, I am a technophobe who took only a couple of science classes in college over 30 years ago, I had no verifiable ‘facts’ to get in the way. ”Angel & Demons”, did cause me to pause occasionally, but “The …Code” sent me over the top every couple of pages or so, with one historical inaccuracy and one conjecture after another. You see, I have actually read all the early Christian & Gnostic books referred to in the book; and I have also read several of the works of ‘fiction’ that Dan Brown heavily relied upon. I gave it all a pass though, since “The ..Code” itself was suppose to be fiction.
But then, Mr. Brown went on the talk circuit, and claimed during radio & TV interviews that the background material about Christianity was all ‘true’. This of coarse, caused a major uproar! When Dan Brown was challenged by critics, with documented historical facts to the contrary, he stated that “it is the winners who write the history.” I guess since he is a ‘winning’ writer, this means he is free to rewrite & distort the history of the Christian Church? NOT!!
Nevertheless, a great deal of ‘water cooler’ conversation will be generated by this movie, creating a good opportunity for Christians armed with the real historical facts, concerning the origins & documents of early Christianity.
Here’s a link to my article naming the top ten false statements against Christianity in the book: -The Da Vinci Code: Top Ten False Claims Made In The Book
Other references challenging the facts brown presents in his book:
1. -“The Da Vinci Code: A Quest for Answers”, by Josh McDowell, 128 pages
2. -”The Da Vinci Code: Fact or Fiction?”, By Hank Hanegraaff & Paul L. Maier, (Wheaton, Ill:Tyndale, 2004) 81 pgs.
3. -”The Da Vinci Deception”, By Erwin W. Lutzer, (Carol Springs, Ill: Tyndale, 2006) 167 pgs.
4. -”Cracking Da Vinci’s Code: You’ve Read The Fiction, Now Read the Facts”, By James L. Garlow & Peter Jones, (Colorado Springs, Col: Victor, 2004) 252 pgs.
5.-”Truth & Fiction In The Da Vinci Code”, By Bart D. Ehrman, (Oxford Press, 2004)
The book is written by a noted New Testament Textual Critic, & an acclaimed scholar of early Christian documents and history. Author of, “Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew”, “Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament”, and “Misquoting Jesus”. Though I disagree with many of the conclusions in his books; I include him here because he is an ‘agnostic’ (self proclaimed in one of his radio interviews), and not really a friend or believer of Christianity. However, he points out the historical errors in “The …Code”: