After five months of painstaking research, my two hours lecture on CRACKING THE DA VINCI CODE, was video-taped in the media studio of Andrews University. The taping was directed by Leonard Brown, Prof. of Filming at Andrews. The setting of the lecture is a very modern virtual studio with a wide screen surrounded by several TV monitors. It looks as if the lecture is delivered from a multi-million dollars Hollywood studio, when in reality the taping was done in the modest studio of Andrews University. Digital technology makes it possible to superimpose my lecture on an impressive virtual modern studio and the results are incredible. This has been a very expensive project which adds quality to the lecture. In a few days you will be able to view to a three minutes trailer of the lecture by clicking HERE It is hard to describe the deep sense of relief I experienced at the end of the video-taping session. For the past five months I have been reading and reflecting (even while sleeping at night) on the significance of Dan Brown's best selling novel, The Da Vinci Code (Henceforth DVC). As of May 2006 more than 60.5 million copies have been sold in 45 languages. Why I Examined The Da Vinci Code You may be wondering, why would a Church Historian like me, invest much time and money in examining a novel? The answer is simple. The DVC is much more than a novel. It is a social phenomenon that is shattering the faith of millions of Christians by blatantly attacking the fundamental beliefs of the Christian faith. In many ways this is a blasphemous and sacrilegious novel that insults God, Christ, the Gospels, the Bible, and fundamental Christian teachings. The problem with the DVC is that it is fiction presented as fact. On page 1, called the "FACT" page, Dan Brown, states: "All descriptions of art work, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate" (DVC 1). On several interviews, Dan Brown repeated the same claim. When asked by Matt Lauer in the Today Show how much of the book was based on actual events, Dan Brown replied, "Absolutely all of it." Surprisingly, the DVC has been favorably reviewed in several newspapers and journals. The New York Daily News says: "The research impeccable." The Library Journal writes: "This masterpiece should be mandatory reading." The Washington Post states: "Read the book and be enlightened." I read the book but I was not enlightened at all. On the contrary, I was greatly distressed by the sheer absurdity of the following false claims: * Christ married Mary Magdalene and they had a daughter Sarah. * Christ chose Mary Magdalene to lead His church, not the twelve apostles as the Gospels tell us. * Constantine chose our 4 Gospels out of 80, because they promote Christ's divinity. He rejected the Gnostic Gospels because they stress the human traits of Christ. * The early Christians worshipped the "sacred feminine" with ritual sex in order to experience the knowledge of God. * The Catholic Church has conspired to suppress the secret of Christ's marriage by using murderous organizations like Opus Dei. As an Early Church historian, I can assure you that there is not a shred of historical evidence for any of these absurd claims. Yet million of gullible Christians are accepting as truth Dan Brown's false claims about the origin of Christianity. The reason is that they are biblically and historically illiterate. The Da Vinci Code Undermines the Faith Polls conducted in different countries clearly indicate that DVC is undermining the faith of million of people. For example, a British poll conducted by Opinion Research Business found that that 60% of people who read the DVC, believe that Jesus had children by Mary Magdalene- compared with 30% of those who had not read the book. A French survey conducted by IPSOS, shows that 48% of the readers of DVC believe that Jesus was a mere man who married Mary Magdalene-compared to 29% of those who had not read the book. A survey of 1005 Canadian conducted by Decima Research shows that 32% of those who have read the DVC believe that the book offers a factual presentation of the origin of Christianity. The devastating impact of the DVC upon the fundamental Christian beliefs of millions of people, calls for an examination of its false claims. To ignore Dan Brown's deceptive attempts to discredit the Christian faith, means to fail to help the million of confused Christians, who are unable to distinguish between the DVC's facts and the fiction. The Aim of the Lecture The aim of the lecture is to expose, not the UNREAL Catholic conspiracy to cover up Christ's marital status, but the REAL conspiracy of Dan Brown himself, that is, the deceptive methods he uses to discredit Christianity, in order to promote his neo-pagan forms of worship. The ultimate aim is to seek to understand how the neo-pagan false worship promoted by the DVC, fulfills the prophetic scenario of the endtime showdown between true and false worship, as predicted by Jesus, Paul, and expanded in Revelation. The numerous books that I have read on the DVC and the 20 plus powerpoint presentations that I have reviewed, largely ignore the prophetic significance of the neo-pagan false worship promoted by Dan Brown. This is true even of the Adventist powerpoint presentations that I have seen. The primary concern of these authors is to respond to such false allegations as: Constantine chose and manipulated the Four Gospels in order to prove Christ's divinity; Constantine rejected 80 Gnostic Gospels because they stress Christ's humanity; the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 voted on the divinity of Christ; Leonardo Da Vinci knew the secret of Christ's marriage to Mary Magdalene and left clues in The Last Supper, the Catholic Church has attempted during the past 17 centuries to conduct a massive cover up the secret of Christ's marriage to Mary Magdalene, through murderous organizations like Opus Dei. In my lecture I do briefly examine these absurd allegations, but my concern is to understand where is Dan Brown leading people? What is his secret agenda? What are his strategies to lead many people away from the true worship of God into his neo-pagan forms of worship? Dan Brown Uses Two Strategies to Promote His Neo-pagan Worship Simply stated, I found that Dan Brown uses two major strategies. On the one hand, he attack all the fundamental beliefs of Christianity, and on the other hand, he promotes his neo-pagan forms of worship. Let us briefly summarize each of these strategies. First, Dan Brown promotes false worship by attacking such fundamental Christian beliefs as these: 1) Jesus was not the Son of God, but a mortal man. 2) Emperor Constantine declared Jesus to be God at the Council of Nicaea in 325, by rejecting 80 Gospels and rewriting the four Gospels of the NT. 3) Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had a child Sarah, whose royal bloodline survives to this very day. 4) "The Bible is the product of man … not of God … and it has evolved through countless translations, additions and revisions" (DVC 312). 5) Salvation is not through Christ's atoning death, but through the worship of the "sacred feminine" with ritual sex. Second, Dan Brown promotes false worship by teachings such heresies as these: 1) We need to liberate ourselves from the monotheistic worship of one God- the male God of the Bible. 2) We are free to worship several Gods and Goddesses on any day, because the Sabbath is Jewish and Sunday is pagan. 3) We need to liberate ourselves from the worship of Jesus as the Son of God, because He was a mere mortal man, who was declared divine by Constantine in AD 325 at the Council of Nicaea. 4) We need to liberate ourselves from the ignorant belief that the Bible is inspired and authoritative, because it has evolved through countless revisions done by men. 5) Ritual sex "is not a perversion. It is a deeply sacrosanct ceremony" practiced by early Christians (DVC 309). 6) We can become "spiritually complete" and achieve knowledge of God through ritual sex (DVC 308). 7) We must worship the "Sacred Feminine" because Goddesses have unusual powers to give wisdom and saving knowledge. Prophetic Significance of The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown's neo-pagan false worship is popular because it appeals to our secular, postmodern, humanistic, new age culture which rejects moral absolutes-such as the Ten Commandments, creation, no sex outside marriage-accepting instead moral relativism. Truth, as Dan Brown puts it, is "whatever you believe it to be." Surprisingly, the prophetic significance of Dan Brown's neo-pagan false worship, is largely ignored in the critical reviews and powerpoint presentations that I have read and seen. The major concern is to expose the flaws of Dan Brown's allegations. This seems to be true even for the Adventist reviews and powerpoint presentations that I have seen. But as Adventists who claim to have a prophetic understanding of the endtime showdown over worship, we can hardly ignore the prophetic significance of The Da Vinci Code. Our past tendency to place all our eggs in the basket of the papacy, may blind us to the fact that Satan is using a variety of agencies to lead the world into idolatrous forms of worship. The false worship being promoted by the DVC represents in my view a key player in the prophetic endtime battle between true and false worship. God's final appeal in Revelation is to come out of the false worship promoted by spiritual Babylon: "Come out of her my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues" (Rev 18:4). Revelation portrays Satan like a monster with many tentacles, using different strategies (beasts) to win the battle over worship. The DVC is one of the significant strategies. Our calling is to proclaim to the world God's final warning message: "Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come; and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the funtain of the water" (Rev 14:7). You will find the DVD recording of CRACKING THE DA VINCI CODE, intriguing, informative and challenging. It addresses a host of questions, including the alleged role of Constantine in changing the Sabbath to Sunday. Since we live in a visual society, I invested a lot of time and efforts looking for pictures related to each topic discussed. The album includes also a separate file with the 135 powerpoint slides that I used for the lecture. To make it possible for many to benefic from this timely visual lecture, we are offering the DVD album on CRACKING THE DA VINCI CODE until Nov. 30, 2006 at the following introductory prices: ONE DVD ALBUM for $35.00 instead of regular price of $100.00: CLICK HERE THREE DVD ALBUMS for $50.00 instead of the regular price of $200.00: CLICK HERE TEN DVD ALBUMS for $100.00 instead of the regular price of $700.00: CLICK HERE You can order the DVD albums on CRACKING THE DA VINCI CODE in four different ways: (1) Online: By clicking here: http://www.biblicalperspectives.com/cart/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=54 (2) Phone: By calling us at (269) 471-2915 to give us your credit card number and postal address. (3) Email: By emailing your order to <[email protected]>. Be sure to provide your postal address, credit card number, and expiration date. (4) Regular Mail: By mailing a check for $35.00 to BIBLICAL PERSPECTIVES, 4990 Appian Way, Berrien Springs, Michigan 4990, USA. 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