1
The Da Vinci CodeThe Real Conspiracy Revealed

• Jeff Chacon
• John Oakes

2
A Very Popular Book

• 21 in the US have read the book.
• 25 of those say it was a helpful spiritual
  document.
• 2 million American say they changed one or more
  religious beliefs because of the content of the
  book.

3
Why So Popular?

• A great read
• Great suspense
• A smart premise
• Intelligent writing style, yet not over head of
  readers
• A love interest
• Titillating controversy
• A slap at authorities we love to hate
• A subtle appeal to our own pride to be smarter
  than those in power

4
So, is it a good book?
Trailer for the movie Seek the truth

• A lot of research behind this book
• Very bad scholarship underlying the premises of
  the book

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The fictional conspiracy of the book

• Quote from The Da Vinci Code
• almost everything our fathers taught us about
  Christ is false. (page 255, DVC)

6
The Premise of the Da Vinci Code

• Jesus Christ was married to Mary Magdalene. Their
  royal bloodline is still in existence today
• A secret society known as the Priory of Sion has
  guarded and protected this truth for over one
  thousand years
• The conservative Roman Catholic lay group Opus
  Dei is in a murderous conspiracy to cover up the
  truth about Jesus and Mary Magdalene

7
The Premise of the Da Vinci Code (cont.)

• The early church worshiped the Holy
  feminine/mother goddess. Mary represents the
  holy femininerepresenting the divine goddess.
• The early church believed Jesus Christ was just a
  manthat he was not deity.
• Emperor Constantine changed Christianity. He
  created the myth that Jesus is God. He threw out
  most of the gospelsonly keeping those of a small
  segment of Christianity which agreed with his
  premise.

8
The premise of the Da Vinci Code (cont.)

• Western Christendom is a conspiracy of epic
  proportions.

9
But what is the real conspiracy?

• The Real conspiracy is that of Dan Brown.
• His co-conspirator is Satan himself.

10
The real conspiracy of the book

• We need to liberate ourselves from monotheism and
  sexism - the worship of only one God and a male
  one at that the God of the Bible!

11
The real conspiracy of the book

• We need to liberate ourselves from the worship of
  Jesus as the God the Son!

12
The real conspiracy of the book

• We need to liberate ourselves from the ignorant
  belief that the Bible is inspired and
  authoritative!

13
The real conspiracy of the book

• Then we can be free to worship several Gods and
  Goddesses as the Israelites and the early
  Christian Church supposedly did before this
  massive cover-up.

14

• Lets piece this hidden puzzle together as we
  read excerpts from The Da Vinci Code (DVC) and
  ask ourselves this question
• Where is Dan Brown really leading us?
• (Note some of this material appears in the book,
  but not in the movie.)

15
Excerpt from DVC

• The point here, Langdon said, motioning back to
  the bookshelf, is that all of these books
  substantiate the same historical claim.
• That Jesus was a father. Sophie was still
  uncertain.
• Yes, Teabing said, And that Mary Magdalene was
  the womb that carried his royal lineage. The
  Priory of Sion, to this day, still worships Mary
  Magdelene as the Goddess, the Holy Grail, the
  Rose, and the Divine Mother. (page 275, DVC)

16
Excerpt from DVC

• At its heart, the quest for the Holy Grail has
  always been a quest for Magdalene the wronged
  Queen, entombed with proof of her familys
  rightful claim to power. (page 278, DVC)

17
Excerpt from DVC

• Teabing spoke more quietly now. The quest for
  the Holy Grail is literally the quest to kneel
  before the bones of Mary Magdalene. A journey to
  pray at the feet of the outcast one, the lost
  sacred feminine. (page 277, DVC)

18
Excerpt from DVC

• Sophie, Langdon said, the Priorys tradition
  of perpetuating goddess worship is based on a
  belief that powerful men in the early Christian
  church conned the world by propagating lies
  that devalued the female and tipped the scales in
  favor of the masculine Constantine and his male
  successors successfully converted the world from
  matriarchal paganism to patriarchal Christianity
  by waging a campaign of propaganda that demonized
  the sacred feminine, obliterating the goddess
  from modern religion forever (page 133, DVC)

19
Excerpt from DVC

• we are currently in an epoch of enormous
  change. The millennium has recently passed, and
  with it has ended the two-thousand-year-long
  astrological Age of Pisces the fish, which is
  also the sign of Jesus. As any astrological
  symbologist will tell you, the Piscean ideal
  believes that man must be told what to do by
  higher powers because man is incapable of
  thinking for himself. Hence it has been a time
  of fervent religion. Now, however, we are
  entering the age of Aquarius the water bearer
  whose ideals claim that man will learn the truth
  and be able to think for himself. The
  ideological shift is enormous, and is occurring
  right now. (pages 289-290, DVC)

20
The real conspiracy

• The real conspiracy in The Da Vinci Code is where
  author Dan Brown is leading his readers.
• But is this really where we want to go?

21
The real conspiracy

• Replace religion with humanism and place our
  trust and confidence in ourselves rather than in
  God?

22
The real conspiracy

• Extol the virtues of atheism as the supreme
  enlightenment and laud nature worship and
  polytheism as a step in the right direction?

23
The real conspiracy

• Praise pagan sexual fertility rites as
  appropriate worship?

24
The real conspiracy

• Here is the type of worship
• that this book exalts
• and commends to the reader
• Note in the movie, it is a brief flashback that
  Sophie (the main female character) has of seeing
  her grandfather engaged in a pagan sex ritual.

25
Excerpt from DVC

• He (Langdon) explained that although what she
  saw probably looked like a sex ritual, Hieros
  Gamos had nothing to do with eroticism. It was a
  spiritual act. Historically, intercourse was the
  act through which male and female experienced
  God. The ancients believed that the male was
  spiritually incomplete until he had carnal
  knowledge of the sacred feminine. Physical union
  with the female remained the sole means through
  which man could become spiritually complete and
  ultimately achieve gnosis knowledge of the
  divine. Since the days of Isis, sex rites had
  been considered mans only bridge from earth to
  heaven. (page 335, DVC)

26
The real conspiracy

• Group sex is a spiritual act?
• Immorality is how we experience God?

27

• No wonder the Apostles warned us about the
  destructive teachings of the Gnostic heretics!

28
2 Peter 21-3 and Gnosticism

• But there were also false prophets among the
  people, just as there will be false teachers
  among you. They will secretly introduce
  destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign
  Lord who bought thembringing swift destruction
  on themselves. 2Many will follow their shameful
  ways and will bring the way of truth into
  disrepute. 3In their greed these teachers will
  exploit you with stories they have made up. Their
  condemnation has long been hanging over them, and
  their destruction has not been sleeping.

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The real conspirator

• But this is not about author Dan Brown
• Satan is the real conspirator behind
• The Da Vinci Code

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2 Corinthians 211

• in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we
  are not unaware of his schemes.

31
Satan seduces us to sin

• (DVC) Is it surprising we feel conflicted about
  sex? he asked his students. Our ancient
  heritage and our very physiologies tell us sex is
  natural a cherished route to spiritual
  fulfillment and yet modern religion decries it
  as shameful, teaching us to fear our sexual
  desire as the hand of the devil. (page 336, DVC)

32
Satans scheme revealed

• According to The Da Vinci Code the reason we feel
  conflicted about sex is that modern religion has
  taught us to be ashamed of our sexuality and fear
  it as from the Devil. But our pagan ancestry and
  the cravings of our human physiology tell us that
  sex is a cherished route to spiritual
  fulfillment.

33
Satans scheme revealed

• Sex is a cherished route to spiritual
  fulfillment?

34
Satan seduces us to doubt

• 2 Corinthians 113-4
• But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by
  the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be
  led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to
  Christ. 4For if someone comes to you and preaches
  a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if
  you receive a different spirit from the one you
  received, or a different gospel from the one you
  accepted, you put up with it easily enough.

35
Satan seduces us to doubt

• (DVC) Sophie looked skeptical. My friends who
  are devout Christians definitely believe that
  Christ literally walked on water, literally
  turned water into wine, and was born of a literal
  virgin birth.
• My point exactly, Langdon said. Religious
  allegory has become a part of the fabric of
  reality. And living in that reality helps
  millions of people cope and be better people.
• But it appears their reality is false.

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Decoding The Da Vinci Code

• Lets explore
• 10 false claims
• in The Da Vinci Code

37
FALSE CLAIM 1

• Christianity is simply a compilation of pagan
  religions such as Mithraism and Mystery Religions
  such as the Greek Cult of Dionyssus

38
Excerpt from DVC

• Nothing in Christianity is original. The
  pre-Christian God Mithras called the Son of God
  and the Light of the World was born on December
  25, died, was buried in a rock tomb, and then
  resurrected in three days. The newborn Krishna
  was presented with gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
  Even Christianitys weekly holy day was stolen
  from the pagans. Originally, Christianity
  honored the Jewish Sabbath of Saturday, but
  Constantine shifted it to coincide with the
  pagans veneration day of the sun. He paused,
  grinning. To this day, most churchgoers attend
  services on Sunday morning with no idea that they
  are there on account of the pagan sun gods
  weekly tribute Sunday. (page 252, DVC)

39
The Truth

• Brown offers no evidence for this
• Others make these claims. They fall into two
  categories
• Vague parallels which prove nothing
• Mithra supposedly performed miracles (even though
  he is clearly a mythical figure)
• Ideas borrowed from Mithraism from Christianity,
  not the other way around.

40
The TRUTH

• No wonder the early Church apologist, Justin
  Martyr (160 A.D.) referred to the Mithraic meal
  as a Satanic imitation of the Lords supper.
  (First Apology, 66)

41
Josh McDowell quote

• With Christianity exploding onto the scene of
  the Roman Empire, it is evident that other
  religions adopted certain teachings or practices
  from Christianity in order to stem the tide of
  departing adherents and/or to attract Christians
  to their side.

42
The Bottom Line

• The god Mithra is a myth. This person never
  lived, so any parallels are spurious. Jesus
  really lived and he really did the things
  recorded in the gospels.

43
The TRUTH

• And the claim that Originally, Christianity
  honored the Jewish Sabbath of Saturday, but
  Constantine shifted it to coincide with the
  pagans veneration day of the sun (DVC) is
  equally absurd.

44
The truth on Sunday worship

• Acts 207 On the first day of the week we came
  together to break bread.
• Revelation 110 On the Lords Day I was in the
  Spirit
• From the first century, all available evidence,
  both biblical and extra-biblical, even from
  non-believers proves the church always met on
  Sunday.
• Dan Brown is not mistaken. He is lying!

45
Justin Martyr quote

• The early church father, Justin Martyr (100-165
  A.D.), confirms that the 2nd Century church
  continued to meet on Sunday well before the time
  of Constantine
• And on the day called Sunday there is a
  gathering together in one place of all those who
  live in cities or in the country, and the memoirs
  of the apostles or the writings of the prophets
  are read

46
The TRUTH

• In summary, it is a false claim to say that
  Christianity is a compilation of pagan religions.
  The truth is that many pagan religions imitated
  Christianity.

47
FALSE CLAIM 2

• Nobody worshipped Jesus as God before the Roman
  Emperor, Constantine, made it mandatory. Jesus
  is simply a mortal man, not the Son of God.

48
Excerpt from DVC

• Constantine turned Jesus into a deity who
  existed beyond the scope of the human world, an
  entity whose power was unchallengeable. It was
  all about power the early Church literally stole
  Jesus from his original followers, hijacking His
  human message, shrouding it in an impenetrable
  cloak of divinity, and using it to expand their
  own power. (page 253, DVC)

49
Excerpt from DVC

• (speaking of the Council of Nicaea, in 325 A.D.)
  My dear, Teabing declared, until that moment
  in history, Jesus was viewed by His followers as
  a mortal prophet a great and powerful man, but a
  man nonetheless. A mortal.
• Not the Son of God?
• Right, Teabing said, Jesus establishment as
  the Son of God was officially proposed and
  voted on by the Council of Nicaea. A relatively
  close vote at that. (page 253, DVC)

50
The TRUTH

• From the very beginning of Christianity, Jesus
  was worshipped as the Son of God, some 300 years
  before Constantine and the Council of Nicaea in
  325 A.D.

51
The Truth

• John 11,2,14 The Word was God
• John 852 Before Abraham was born, I AM
• Titus 213 Our great God and savior, Jesus
  Christ
• Colossians 115-20 He is the image of the
  invisible God.
• Colossians 29 In him all the fullness of deity
  lives in bodily form.
• John 2027 Thomas My Lord and my God
• And many more.
• The Bible says Jesus is God.

52
Reliability of text

• This passage from the gospel of John (chapter
  one), known as the Rylands Papyrus, has been
  discovered in an ancient manuscript, and has been
  carbon-dated at 125-135 A.D.
• This is forensic evidence, scientific proof if
  you will, that Jesus was clearly believed to be
  God at least 200 years before Constantine and the
  Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.

53
The early church fathers were unanimous about the
deity of Jesus

• Justin Martyr wrote of Christ, being the
  first-begotten Word of God, is even God. (First
  Apology, Ch. 63)
• Irenaeus (A.D. 130-200) wrote about Christ, our
  Lord, and God, and Saviour, and King. (Irenaeus,
  Against Heresies, bk. 1, ch. 10)

54
The TRUTH

• Constantine did not turn Jesus into a deity in
  order to give the church more power. That is a
  false claim. The truth is that Jesus was
  worshipped as God by the Apostles and the early
  Christian church since the very beginning of
  Christianity, and that worship has continued to
  this day.

55
1 John 222

• Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that
  Jesus is the Christ

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FALSE CLAIM 3

• The four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John)
  were personally selected by Constantine in 325
  A.D. at the Council of Nicaea, to be included in
  the Bible because they were the only gospels that
  emphasized Jesus divinity and downplayed his
  humanity.

57
Excerpt from DVC

• Aha! Teabing burst in with enthusiasm. The
  fundamental irony of Christianity! The Bible, as
  we know it today, was collated by the pagan Roman
  emperor Constantine the Great. (page 251, DVC)

58
Excerpt from DVC

• More than eighty gospels were considered for the
  New Testament, and yet only a relative few were
  chosen for inclusion Matthew, Mark, Luke and
  John among them. (page 251, DVC)

59
Excerpt from DVC

• Constantine commissioned and financed a new
  Bible, which omitted those gospels that spoke of
  Christs human traits and embellished those
  gospels that made Him godlike. The earlier
  gospels were outlawed, gathered up, and burned.
  (page 254, DVC)

60
The TRUTH

• Matthew, Mark, and Luke were written before AD
  70 John before AD 85.
• The church chose the canon of scriptures in the
  first and second century AD.
• The Muratorian fragment has been dated to 180 AD.
  It mentions all the New Testament books except
  Matthew and Mark (but it says Luke is the third
  gospel), Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter and 1 John
  as being inspired and therefore having apostolic
  authority.

61
The TRUTH

• The early church father, Irenaeus, only about 100
  years after the four orthodox gospels were
  written, referred to them in his book, Against
  Heresies, saying that it was fitting that she
  (the church) should have four pillars. Later on
  he speaks of them as the Gospels in quadriform.
  (Ch. 3.11.8)

62
When was the canon scripture assembled?

• The letters known as the Epistle of Barnabus, the
  Didache and the Letter of Clement of Rome have
  all been dated from around 100 AD. These authors
  quote from Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts, Romans, I
  Corinthians, Ephesians, Titus, Hebrews, I Peter
  and others. The early church father Ignatius was
  martyred in 115 AD. In a set of letters he
  composed on his way to his execution in Rome, he
  quoted from nearly every New Testament book. 
• Virtually the entire New Testament can be
  recreated from church father quotes pre AD 200.

63
Did Constantine create his own list of inspired
scripture in AD 325 at the council of Nicea?

• Answer
• The New Testament Canon was developing by AD
  100 and was virtually set and unchanged after AD
  200. 125 years before Nicea.

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FALSE CLAIM 4

• The Gnostic gospels (referred to as the Sangreal
  documents in the DVC) are unaltered, written
  before the orthodox gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke
  and John), and written by the early followers of
  Jesus.

65
Excerpt from DVC

• The Sangreal documents simply tell the other
  side of Christs story. (they are) the Purest
  Documents thousands of pages of unaltered,
  pre-Constantine documents, written by the early
  followers of Jesus, revering Him as a wholly
  human teacher and prophet. (page 277, DVC)

66
The TRUTH

• The Purist Documents? Hardly. The Gnostic
  gospels were forgeries claiming to be written
  by the apostles, but actually written by
  imposters over 100 years later.

67
The TRUTH

• The Gnostics were never part of the mainstream of
  Christianity. They followed a combination of
  Greek philosophy and the mystery religions.
• The Gnostics taught that the God of the Old
  Testament was an evil God, unlike the God of the
  New Testament.
• The book of 1st John was written to oppose the
  Gnostic false teaching that Jesus did not have a
  physical body. That which our hands have
  touchedthis we proclaim.

68
The Gnostic Gospels

• The Gospel of Thomas. Written about AD 150.
  Definitely not written by Thomas. A forgery.
• 122 They said to him, "Then shall we enter the
  kingdom as babies?" Jesus said to them, "When you
  make the two into one, and when you make the
  inner like the outer and the outer like the
  inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you
  make male and female into a single one, so that
  the male will not be male nor the female be
  female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a
  hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a
  foot, an image in place of an image, then you
  will enter the kingdom.
• 1114 Simon Peter said to him, "Let Mary leave
  us, for women are not worthy of life. Jesus
  said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make
  her male, so that she too may become a living
  spirit resembling you males. For every woman who
  will make herself male will enter the kingdom of
  heaven.

69
The Gnostic Gospels (cont.)

• The Gospel of Judas was written about AD 170.
• Obviously, Judas did not write it.
• Judas was Jesus closest apostle.
• Judas did a favor to Jesus by betraying him. But
  you ie. Judas will exceed all of them.  For you
  will sacrifice the man that clothes me.
• Are these the purest documents about Jesus?

70
FALSE CLAIM 5

• Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married.

71
Excerpt from DVC

• As I said earlier, the marriage of Jesus and
  Mary Magdalene is part of the historical record.
  (page 265, DVC)

72
Dan Brown Da Vinci is hinting at the secret
Mary Magdalene was at the Last Supper
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The apostle John of Mary Magdalene?
74
(No Transcript)
75
Raffaelos John the Apostle, 1503
76
Hans Baldung St. John the Evangelist c. 1515
77
Juan de Juannes 1445-1450 John the Evangelist
78
The TRUTH

• The speculation that Jesus and Mary Magdalene
  were married or romantically involved at all is a
  complete fabrication, and certainly not part of
  the historical record as author Dan Brown
  asserts.

79
The TRUTH

• There is a single verse in a Gnostic writing
  (The Gospel of Philip not written by Philip)
  that says Jesus kissed Mary. But greeting
  friends with a holy kiss was common in the Bible
  (1 Corinthians 1620 Greet one another with a
  holy kiss), and had no sexual connotation. But
  even if that is what this Gnostic gospel writer
  had in mind, the Gospel of Philip is a forged
  document, written 150-220 years after Christ by
  an unknown author. So, its statement about Jesus
  isnt historically accurate, and there is no
  other historical document to confirm this theory.

80
FALSE CLAIM 6

• God has a powerful female equal named
  Shekinah, and to experience wholeness with this
  deity, men must have sex with temple prostitutes
  as a pathway to union with God.

81
Excerpt from DVC

• Early Jews believed that the Holy of Holies in
  Solomons Temple housed not only God but also His
  powerful female equal, Shekinah. Men seeking
  spiritual wholeness came to the Temple to visit
  priestesses or hierodules with whom they made
  love and experienced the divine through physical
  union. The Jewish tetragrammaton YHWH the
  sacred name of God in fact derived from
  Jehovah, an androgynous physical union between
  the masculine Jah and the pre-Hebraic name for
  Eve, Havah. (page 336, DVC)

82
The TRUTH

• Shekinah? Advocating sex with temple
  prostitutes? Are you kidding? (No, Dan Brown is
  not kidding.)
• Can you imagine Moses advocating sex with
  prostitutes in the tabernacle?
• The Hebrew word Shekinah means the glory of God.
  The idea that this is a reference to the female
  God is a total fabrication.

83
FALSE CLAIM 7

• The Bible is not inspired by God, and the New
  Testament is historically inaccurate and
  therefore unreliable.

84
Excerpt from DVC

• The Bible is a product of man, my dear. Not of
  God. (page 250, DVC)
• presenting to the world thousands of ancient
  documents as scientific evidence that the New
  Testament in false testimony the New Testament
  is based on fabrications. (page 369, DVC)

85
The Truth

• The Bible is by far the most reliable book of
  ancient history we have.
• Luke is a historian of the highest order.
• The evidence for the resurrection of Jesus is
  overwhelming. (www.evidenceforchristianity.org)
• Krishna is a myth, Mithras is a myth, Dionysus is
  a myth, Isis is a myth. Jesus was a very real
  person.

86
FALSE CLAIM 8

• That the term heretic was born at the Council
  of Nicaea in 325 A.D. and referred to those who
  chose the forbidden gospels over Constantines
  version (DVC).

87
Excerpt from DVC

• An interesting note, Langdon added. Anyone
  who chose the forbidden gospels over
  Constantines version was deemed a heretic. The
  word heretic derives from that moment in
  history. (page 254, DVC)

88
2 Peter 21

• But there were also false prophets among the
  people, just as there will be false teachers
  among you. They will secretly introduce
  destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign
  Lord who bought thembringing swift destruction
  on themselves.

89
FALSE CLAIM 9

• Author Dan Brown asserts that Christianity
  demonized Mary Magdalene in order to suppress her
  influence.

90
The TRUTH

• Amy Welborn, in her USA Today article, 5 Biggest
  Flaws in Da Vinci, points out that Mary
  Magdalene is a saint. In every Gospel, she (Mary
  Magdelene) is cited as the first person to find
  the empty tomb. She was the second-most revered
  saint of the Middle Ages, after Mary, Jesus
  mother. Thats an odd way to demonize.

91
The TRUTH

• Ironically, the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, one
  of Dan Browns primary sources for his allegation
  of sexism in the orthodox gospels, has passages
  in it that thoroughly demean women.

92
From The Gospel of Thomas

• (supposedly quoting Peter) Let Mary go away from
  us, because women are not worthy of life.
• Then Jesus allegedly tells Peter that he will
  make Mary male so that she may enter the kingdom
  of heaven.
• Not much of a battle cry for womens rights, and
  yet the Gospel of Thomas is one of the primary
  sources for Dan Browns feminist agenda.

93
FALSE CLAIM 10

• That the secret society known as the Priory of
  Sion actually existed in medieval times and had
  the noble task of protecting the bloodline of
  Christ.

94
Excerpts from DVC

• The Priory of Sion a European secret society
  founded in 1099 is a real organization The
  modern Priory of Sion has a momentous duty they
  must nurture and protect the bloodline of Christ
  (page 279).

95
The TRUTH

• The modern Priory of Sion was created in 1956
  by Pierre Plantard. All documents proving a
  bloodline and a list of historical Priory
  members (such as Leonardo Da Vinci) were proven
  to be forged by a French court of law.

96
Excerpt from the Wikipedia Encyclopedia on The Da
Vinci Code, continued

• Arnaud de Sede, son of Gerrard de Sede, stated
  categorically that his father and Plantard had
  made up the existence of the Priory de Sion, the
  cornerstone of the Jesus bloodline theory to
  quote Arnaud de Sede in the programme, frankly
  it was piffle Detailed analysis of many other
  claims in the Da Vinci Code in the programme
  showed them to be unverifiable or unhistorical.

97
Conclusions

• The entire basis of the Da Vinci Code and its
  outrageous claims is a fabrication created to
  destroy faith in the truth about Jesus.
• Jesus Christ claimed to be God and he proved it
  by his miracles and by being raised from the dead
  on the third day.
• The New Testament we have in our hands is Gods
  authoritative word. The books were selected by
  the church in the first century because they had
  apostolic authority.

98
The Da Vinci CodeThe Real Conspiracy Revealed