31th May 2006

What God thinks of The Da Vinci Code
By John Fischer

With The Da Vinci Code enjoying another weekend at the box office, the debate about the story's outrageous claims continues. What makes them outrageous is not that they haven't been presented before, but that they are presented with such convincing aplomb and supported by “mountains” of documentation. Of course the whole story is a fast fiction ride, documents included, but people who aren't careful about their history may not know that. Herein lies the concern of many Christians: How will people find out these claims are lies, and who will tell them?

The answer to that question lies more in the way God has set up the universe than anything. It's not an unusual question, nor is it new on the scene. It has actually been a valid question for as long as we have recorded history.

According to the Bible, God created this planet, put human beings on it, and let evil loose in the place as well as good (at least this is the shortened version of the story). Why he did this is only up to speculation as far as we are concerned, but it means that, from the beginning, we have existed surrounded by truth and error and with limited ability to tell one from the other. One could easily panic over this, but it appears that God hasn't. He seems to have a way of knowing that those who truly seek him will reach their destination, and he not only knows this, he guarantees it.

For this reason he is not too concerned about all the lies floating around. Nor does he seem to be running around nervously trying to correct every new falsehood that surfaces. In fact, some of these falsehoods appear to be getting along quite well in the world. God trusts an innate ability to recognize truth that he has placed in people, and the drama of finding that out seems to be part of the unfolding story.

Yes, people are going to be led astray by The Da Vinci Code just as they have been led astray by countless other fictions and fabrications of the truth throughout history, but the people who are led astray are the ones who are going to be fooled anyway, if not by this, then by the next thing to come along. These are people, in fact, who move from one thing to another and never alight on the truth precisely because they are not seeking the truth while those who truly are seeking are given the ability to see.

This does not mean that we don't make intelligent attempts to uphold the truth and discredit falsehood. But these will do more to confirm those who are honestly looking than to get anyone to radically change his or her mind about things. There are other factors at work here beyond our control.

To those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But to those who are not listening, even what they have will be taken away from them. (Matthew 13:12 NLT)