by Greg Johnson
Founding Pastor
Loving God Fellowship
May 9, 2006

I just completed reading the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I read it for three reasons. First of all over 40 million people have read the book. Second of all, the high budget movie with high caliber stars is getting ready to be released. If 40 million have read the book, you can imagine how many will see the movie. Thirdly, I want to be able to answer the many questions that the book and movie will generate in the minds of many non faith and marginal faith individuals.

Please know upfront that my heart is not to condemn readers or movie goers. My heart is to be able to exalt Jesus and point people to Him. If it takes reading a controversial book of fiction to be able to point people to Jesus in my day, I will gladly read it! There will be multitudes of Christians that will never read the book or see the movie, but they will be quick and vocal in condemning others. I don't want to be counted in that number.

I found the book to be very captivating as it is full of mystery and suspense, but I was very disappointed at the number of historical and theological errors that were made by the author. I think the book could have been just as captivating without the errors. It was obvious that Dan Brown did not put forth a lot of time in historical or theological research.

In Dan Brown's defense, he did make the following statement on the copyright page of The Da Vinci Code: "This book is a work of fiction." Readers and movie goers will need to remind themselves of this fact. I'm sure that in the days ahead, the media will fail to focus on the errors and the fact that the book is admittedly fiction by its author.

Would I read The Da Vinci Code if I had to do it all over? YES! I would for the three reasons I mentioned above. My desire is to point people to Jesus in my day. The book did not even come close to diminishing my faith in the Bible and in the deity of my Lord Jesus Christ. I made a choice a long time ago to make God's Word my authoritative guide to all of my beliefs and actions.

Check out the links below.  If we are going to point people to Jesus in our day, we need to be informed.  In the days ahead, there will be people in our sphere of influence that will have questions.  For the attentive follower of Jesus, this book and movie will open many doors of conversation and give many divine appointments. Christians need to be informed and not condemning as we need to use this as an opportunity to point people to Jesus and not drive them away.  These links will help inform.

Christians and the Davinci Code

The Code is Fiction

The Da Vinci Code Christian Forum

The Da Vinci Code Polls