<i>The Da Vinci Code</i>

"The Da Vinci Code offers a potentially valuable opportunity for Christians to present an authentic account of the gospel to many who would not normally attend church services"

Dan Brown's novel The Da Vinci Code is strewn with serious errors of fact and interpretation on the origins of Christianity. Brown claims in an opening note to the reader that all descriptions of historical documents referred to in the book 'are accurate'; yet this claim is laughable.

Brown holds that Jesus was made into a divine figure by the Council of Nicea in 325 AD to serve the political agenda of the Emperor Constantine; but Jesus was recognised as God by the New Testament writers. Brown also claims that Jesus fathered a child by Mary Magdalene. Yet not even the Apocryphal Gospels confirm such a relationship.

For all its faults, however, The Da Vinci Code offers a potentially valuable opportunity for Christians to present an authentic account of the gospel to many who would not normally attend church services.

The Alliance is seeking neither to get the film banned, nor to prevent people from seeing it, but we are strongly encouraging Christians to challenge the distortions of the film in a gracious way.

Read David Hilborn's review of The Da Vinci Code film

Listen to an interview with David Hilborn talking about the issues raised by The Da Vinci Code (10.5MB)

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