Church Believes That This Is An Anti-Christ

The church states that this book intends to divert the beliefs of humanity that Jesus Christ is not God, but rather a human like anybody else on earth. Maybe, their basis for stating so is the part on the book wherein the controversial painting of Da Vinci of The Last Supper was described in details and bravely stating that the said meal was attended by His wife, Mary Magdalene, and the whole book was dedicated to find the relic of Mary Magdalene, which was believed to be hidden and taken cared of at France, where the majority of believers of Christ, having a wife, was known to be rampant.

Why did the church thought of it? They denied the fact that the country of France is one of the largest countries with the most number of believers of Christ. They were rattled due to hundreds of so-called proofs that Mary Magdalene indeed lived in France to hide from those that condemns Christ. The questions remain to be: What do the church knows that made them tremble of fear if they said that what those written and said to be "proofs" are but fallacies and are just products of creative minds? What do they fear about that made them think of stopping the publishing of this book, and hold the showing of the movie that was made afterwards?

What The Book Really Is All About

If one person is a real book lover, he or she would not read this book merely because he or she simply wants to know why the church condemns the book, or is merely seeking the truth about the Da Vinci codes hidden on all his works. A real book lover will read because of the satisfaction and relaxation that reading gives them, hence, if you do so, you will begin to understand that the book was written to feed the creative side of the mind. There are people who are not aware how to properly appreciate works of art. Some take them as merely "paintings". In this book, Dan Brown was able to divert the attention of people and made them appreciate art, and be aware of the possibility that there are stories behind each stroke, not just a mixture of colors. Brown is one great disciple of arts, that he made use of his talent to make other people appreciate art the same way he appreciates art.
The real reason behind the book is to catch every man's attention and make everyone see arts in a different view, not just merely mixture of colors or an epitome of the bigger picture. Some people are just narrow-minded that they jumped into conclusion that the book was meant to divert the faith of people, away from the one they believe at, away from Jesus Christ. But the book is just a product of the mind, a book that if one would only start to read between the lines, one would see the beauty of the book, the truth that he wants to convey, not to be tagged as an anti-Christ, but to be known as a true disciple of arts and humanities.

Lessons Learned

One cannot really blame the church for condemning the book, for the book is a very brave approach of introducing arts and humanities to lay people. But there are lessons learned, despite the denunciation of the church. In the book, love of a family was one of the things highlighted. That even if there were unacceptable circumstances that happened long ago, still a family will be there to help you out, and will defend you when all the cards are laid down. Another thing that one needs to learn from here was mentioned in the movie by the main character, Robert Langdon, and rewriting it, it states that, the faith of one person is based on herself. One's faith won't be altered by anyone or anything, if what he believes in is deeply rooted in his heart and not just passed on to him by generations or by the culture that governs his life. This lesson was clearly depicted in the movie; Sophie grew up with Jacques without any idea of what her grandfather believes at. Her grandfather let her grow and let her believe on things according to what her heart wants to believe at, not because it was what the family is holding on or what made their family known. In the same way, the church should not be afraid letting people read the book, let them explore the beauty of arts and humanities, and if one turns his back from Christianity, maybe there is a problem with the way the Words of God was conveyed, that made his choice of religion not deeply rooted in his heart.

Personally speaking, I have read the book, and watched the movie, I did it twice, first was merely to relax and satisfy my creative mind, and the second time was to search the truth, and the reason why the church trembled upon the release of the book and the movie. I did the second one during the time when I was deeply down, and unaware that demon might work its craft on me and make me turn my back from Christianity. But it did not, no matter what I feed my mind, I did not changed my beliefs, for me, Jesus Christ is still our God, the One who gave up His life for our sins. It does not matter to me if they say that He married Mary Magdalene, one of known sinners in the Bible, just treat it this way:

"Jesus married Mary Magdalene, the same way that He took us as His spouse, for Mary Magdalene symbolizes our way of life, and Jesus did not looked down on us as sinners, but rather, took us near His heart and died for us. He did not just marry Mary Magdalene; He is married to each one of us."

Brown's novel fictionalizes the unorthodox account of Christian history popularized in the book “Holy Blood Holy Grail” published in the 1980s. All the conspiracy theories you have heard of are mentioned here as well as several new ones. Central to the plot is the assertion that the descendants of Jesus and Mary Magdalene were part of the Royal Merovingian line of the early middle ages. The Roman church sought to expunge evidence of this hidden history and eliminate the descendants themselves for the sake of preserving church authority and orthodoxy. Mary Magdalene was a leader in the early church - a fact that the church quickly acted to suppress to preserve it patriarchal structures. Some of the arguments put into the mouths of characters in the book question Christian Trinitarian orthodoxy, for example… “ …the early church literally stole Jesus from his original followers, hijacking his human message in an impenetrable cloak of divinity and using it to expand their own power.” The divinity ascribed to Jesus was thus a patriarchal ruse to prevent the spread of the sacred feminine!

The Roman Catholic Church is presented as a devious institution marked by deception, violence and scandal - emphasising its patriarchal excesses. There is much in this book that will appeal to those hurt by, or suspicious of, the church. The religion Brown describes mixes the erotic and mysterious and pleasurable - a package that has a certain popular appeal!

Brown also reinterprets some of the classic works of Christian Art to find hidden esoteric meanings. His comments on Leonardo's famous fresco “The Last Supper” was so intriguing that I had to find a good print to see if the effeminate figure next to Jesus really could have been a woman!

The novel is a gripping adventure story. Brown however, has said he regards the work as a serious contribution to a revisionist history of early and medieval Christianity. Judging by his book sales many people take him at his word. Perhaps they see in it an appealing alternative reading of Christian history.

Fiction and fantasy elements mingle freely with the facts of history to create a picture that is misleading and most readers will not have the patience or knowledge to discern the difference. The strange mysteries that he cleverly describes have an intriguing plausibility that can cast doubts on our certainties.

The sort of Gnostic Christianity Brown describes has little hope for the world, no challenge to injustice, no bias for the poor and marginalised and no call to follow Jesus in the way of self giving love. This spirituality does have an appeal to those immersed in the values of a self-centred consumer society!

The Da Vinci code is an enjoyable read - in the genre of fiction - but it is bad history. The amazing popularity of the book made me aware again of both the deep spiritual thirst in our society for truth and the widespread distrust of the church as the guardian of that truth.

With every step forward there is occasionally a step back. The puzzles become more and more difficult. The knowledge of symbolist, Robert Langdon, and Cryptology Agent Sophie Neveu, they work closer and closer to gaining the secret that the curator of the famous museum The Louvre, was entrusting to them to find and keep hidden from the wrong hands. And there is no telling where the wrong hands will show up.

The church, mainly a different part of the church, a group called the Opus Dei, have found that the Grail is close and give threat to the well-hidden secret. What is also terrible is that the Albino monk has killed for the information before, and he feels that is the work of god that helps him protect the church from all that do not follow in the Lords path. He will kill again, the Teacher commands that he must retrieve the keystone.

Throughout the mission secrets that were kept were revealed and things start to look brighter and brighter. With the Paris Judicial Police, the Paris FBI, on their tails, the albino monk closing in and the main secret that was still looming to be found time is of the essence. The longer things take to find out the more danger becomes apparent.

I would recommend this book to anyone who has tolerance and interest in things that cannot be explained. To the readers that loves mysteries, and a good whodunit. Also to the readers that have the time to read the whole thing in one sitting, so that the book is not distracting from other important things during the day.