“The Da Vinci Code”–
The Real Conspiracy Revealed
Jeff Chacon
John Oakes
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.
Why So Popular?

A great read…
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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
So, is it a good book?
Trailer for the movie:
“Seek the truth”
o
A lot of research behind this book
o
Very bad scholarship underlying the premises of the book
The fictional conspiracy
of the book
o
Quote from The Da Vinci Code
o
“…almost everything our fathers taught us about Christ is
false.” (page 255, DVC)
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
The Premise of the Da Vinci Code (cont.)



The early church worshiped the Holy
feminine/mother goddess. Mary represents the holy
feminine—representing the divine goddess.
The early church believed Jesus Christ was just a
man—that he was not deity.
Emperor Constantine changed Christianity. He
created the myth that Jesus is God. He threw out
most of the gospels—only keeping those of a small
segment of Christianity which agreed with his
premise.
The premise of the Da Vinci Code (cont.)

Western Christendom is a conspiracy of epic
proportions.
But what is the real conspiracy?

The Real conspiracy is that of Dan Brown.

His co-conspirator is Satan himself.
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!
The real conspiracy
of the book

We need to liberate ourselves from the worship of
Jesus as the God the Son!
The real conspiracy
of the book

We need to liberate ourselves from the ignorant
belief that the Bible is inspired and authoritative!
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 coverup.
o
Let’s piece this hidden
puzzle together as we read
excerpts from The Da Vinci
Code (DVC) and ask
ourselves this question:
o
Where is Dan Brown really
leading us?
o
(Note: some of this material
appears in the book, but not in
the movie.)
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)
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 family’s rightful claim to power.” (page
278, DVC)
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)
Excerpt from DVC

“Sophie,’ Langdon said, ‘the Priory’s 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)…”
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)
The real conspiracy
o
The real conspiracy in The Da Vinci Code is where
author Dan Brown is leading his readers.
o
But is this really where we want to go?
The real conspiracy

Replace religion with humanism and place our trust
and confidence in ourselves rather than in God?
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?
The real conspiracy

Praise pagan sexual fertility rites as appropriate
worship?
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.
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 man’s only bridge from earth to heaven.” (page
335, DVC)
The real conspiracy

Group sex is a spiritual
act?

Immorality is how we
experience God?

No wonder the Apostles
warned us about the
destructive teachings of
the Gnostic heretics!
2 Peter 2:1-3 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 them—bringing 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.”
The real conspirator
o
But this is not about
author Dan Brown…
o
Satan is the real
conspirator behind
The Da Vinci Code
2 Corinthians 2:11
o
“…in order that
Satan might not
outwit us. For we
are not unaware of
his schemes.”
Satan seduces us to sin
o
(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)
Satan’s 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”.
Satan’s scheme revealed

Sex is “a cherished route to spiritual fulfillment”?
Satan seduces us to doubt
o
2 Corinthians 11:3-4
o
“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.”
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.”
Decoding The Da Vinci Code

Let’s explore
10 false claims
in The Da Vinci Code…
FALSE CLAIM #1

Christianity is simply a
compilation of pagan
religions such as
Mithraism and Mystery
Religions such as the
Greek Cult of Dionyssus
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
Christianity’s weekly holy day was stolen from the pagans.
…Originally, Christianity honored the Jewish Sabbath of
Saturday, but Constantine shifted it to coincide with the pagan’s
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 god’s
weekly tribute – Sunday.” (page 252, DVC)
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.
The TRUTH
o
No wonder the early Church apologist, Justin Martyr
(160 A.D.) “referred to the Mithraic meal as a Satanic
imitation of the Lord’s supper.” (First Apology, 66)
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.”
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.
The TRUTH

And the claim that “Originally, Christianity
honored the Jewish Sabbath of Saturday, but
Constantine shifted it to coincide with the
pagan’s veneration day of the sun (DVC)” is
equally absurd.
The truth on Sunday worship




Acts 20:7 “On the first day of the week we came
together to break bread.”
Revelation 1:10 “On the Lord’s 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!
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…”
The TRUTH
o
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.
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.
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)
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)
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.
The Truth

John 1:1,2,14 The Word was God
John 8:52 Before Abraham was born, I AM
Titus 2:13 Our great God and savior, Jesus Christ
Colossians 1:15-20 He is the image of the invisible God.
Colossians 2:9 In him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily
form.
John 20:27 Thomas: “My Lord and my God”
And many more.

The Bible says Jesus is God.
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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.
The early church fathers were
unanimous about the deity of Jesus
o
Justin Martyr wrote of Christ,
“being the first-begotten
Word of God, is even God.”
(First Apology, Ch. 63)
o
Irenaeus (A.D. 130-200)
wrote about Christ, “our
Lord, and God, and
Saviour, and King.”
(Irenaeus, “Against
Heresies”, bk. 1, ch. 10)
The TRUTH
o
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.
1 John 2:22

“Who is the liar? It is the
man who denies that
Jesus is the Christ…”
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.
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)
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)
Excerpt from DVC

“Constantine commissioned and financed a
new Bible, which omitted those gospels that
spoke of Christ’s human traits and
embellished those gospels that made Him
godlike. The earlier gospels were outlawed,
gathered up, and burned.” (page 254, DVC)
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.
The TRUTH
o
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)
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.
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.
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.
Excerpt from DVC

“The Sangreal documents simply tell the
other side of Christ’s 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)
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.
The TRUTH
o
The Gnostics were never part of the mainstream of
Christianity. They followed a combination of Greek
philosophy and the mystery religions.
o
The Gnostics taught that the God of the Old Testament was
an evil God, unlike the God of the New Testament.
o
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 touched—this we proclaim.”
The Gnostic “Gospels”

The “Gospel” of Thomas. Written about AD 150. Definitely not
written by Thomas. A forgery.
–
1:22 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].“
–
1:114 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.
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?
FALSE CLAIM #5

Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married.
Excerpt from DVC

“As I said earlier, the marriage of Jesus and
Mary Magdalene is part of the historical
record.” (page 265, DVC)
Dan Brown: Da Vinci is hinting at the secret; Mary
Magdalene was at the Last Supper
The apostle John of Mary Magdalene?
Raffaelo’s John the Apostle, 1503
Hans Baldung St. John the Evangelist c. 1515
Juan de Juannes 14451450 John the
Evangelist
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.
The TRUTH
o
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
16:20 = “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, it’s
statement about Jesus isn’t historically accurate, and there is
no other historical document to confirm this theory.
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.
Excerpt from DVC
–
“Early Jews believed that the Holy of Holies in Solomon’s
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)
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.
FALSE CLAIM #7

The Bible is not inspired by God, and the New
Testament is historically inaccurate and therefore
unreliable.
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)
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.
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 Constantine’s version
(DVC)”.
Excerpt from DVC

“An interesting note,’ Langdon added.
‘Anyone who chose the forbidden gospels
over Constantine’s version was deemed a
heretic. The word heretic derives from that
moment in history.” (page 254, DVC)
2 Peter 2:1

“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 them—bringing
swift destruction on
themselves.”
FALSE CLAIM #9

Author Dan Brown asserts that Christianity
demonized Mary Magdalene in order to suppress her
influence.
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.
That’s an odd way to demonize.”
The TRUTH

Ironically, the Gnostic
“Gospel of Thomas”,
one of Dan Brown’s
primary sources for his
allegation of sexism in
the orthodox gospels,
has passages in it that
thoroughly demean
women.
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 women’s rights, and yet the
“Gospel of Thomas” is one of the primary sources for
Dan Brown’s feminist agenda.
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.
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).”
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.
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.”
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 God’s
authoritative word. The books were selected by the church in
the first century because they had apostolic authority.
“The Da Vinci Code”–
The Real Conspiracy Revealed