We were discussing in our Bible class this morning the "trustworthiness" of the Bible and the teacher enumerated several reasons why we can count on the authenticity of the Bible and the fact that it is the word of God such as; verifiable fulfilled prophecies, large number of early manuscripts, archaeological finds, external sources which support Bible teachings, etc. Somehow The DeVinci Code came into the conversation. (It seems to do that a lot as of late.) As we talked, I began to think about how many millions of people are caught up in the frenzy of the false teachings found in The DeVinci Code.
The last tally I heard was that Dan Brown's book, The DeVinci Code, has now sold something like 10,000,000 copies and I see it is now available in paperback which will only encourage the numbers to skyrocket even further. How is it that a book, that the author himself describes as "fiction", can capture the minds of so many people and convince huge numbers of them that what they are reading is true with absolutely no proof and no evidence? Why are people so eager to believe a lie and so ready to reject truth and hard evidence? Let me suggest a possible reason for some of this phenomenon.
By accepting stories like The DeVinci Code, man brings Christ down to our level, stripping Him of His divinity and sacredness and it raises man to almost a "superhuman" level, giving him almost "Godlike" qualities. If Jesus did marry and have a child that had to be secretly hidden from the world to preserve their lives, then He wasn't much different from us and His human lineage is among us today--and who knows, you might even be part of that blood-line. Not only that, if mankind has been a part of some conspiracy and been able to conceal these truths through little known secret societies throughout the centuries, how "Godlike" they appear. This is really exciting and intriguing stuff and makes us feel really good about ourselves.
On the other hand, if Jesus is the Christ we read about in the Bible, if the Bible is literally the word of God and we are going to stand before our maker in judgment based on our obedience to that word, then that demands change in each of our lives. Change is not exciting or intriguing--it is hard and requires work and humility on my part--I must acknowledge how unlike God I really am. It would be a "lot more fun" to believe The DeVinci Code.
What this proves to me is that many people are not at all interested in "truth" but rather in what makes them feel good. The evidence proving the Bible can be piled in volumes sky high and will be ignored by the man who does not want to change.
Dana Burk
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