A tale of the "Grail"

The entire world is abuzz about the blockbuster book by Dan Brown, and the movie version, which recently hit theaters worldwide. Critics have excoriated the film, but people seem to be fascinated by it and are attending in droves.

Recently, as I waited for a laboratory technician to take care of some lab work, I overheard her chatting with another patient. The patient asked:

"Have you read the DaVinci Code?"

"Yes," she replied, "It was fascinating!"

"Will you go to see the movie?" he asked.

"My husband is eager to see the movie, so I'll go with him, and I may read the book again before we go so I can follow the movie better," she answered.

The entire world is abuzz about the blockbuster book by Dan Brown, and the movie version, which recently hit theaters worldwide. Critics have excoriated the film, but people seem to be fascinated by it and are attending in droves.

The book is a fictional, fast-paced murder mystery thriller, full of violence, intrigue, ritual sex, mixed with some facts. It is skillfully written and is put together in a way that makes it difficult for the reader to put the book down.

The story gives some shocking facts about how the Christianity of the apostles in the first century was hijacked by Constantine and other early "church fathers." It explains how the simplicity of the teachings and message of Jesus Christ were manipulated and distorted by substituting pagan symbols for the plain words of the Bible.

For example, the substitution of Sunday for the biblical seventh-day Sabbath was a major change. Ancient pagan "goddess" worship became the adoration of Mary. Worship of the cross, veneration of saints, the rosary and the worship of angels are all exposed as having pagan, not Christian, origins.

A dominant theme in the book is the search for the "Holy Grail," the cup from which Jesus drank at His last Passover meal with His disciples. The Grail is supposed to have been protected, for millennia, by a highly secret society of the Catholic Church. The author claims that the Holy Grail is actually a symbol for the "goddess" – the "sacred feminine" – and knowledge of her ways.

The book blasphemes the basic tenets of Scripture by denying that Jesus was the divinely conceived Son of God; who died on the cross and was resurrected after three days and nights in the tomb. It also claims that Jesus actually married Mary Magdalene and that they had children; the descendants of whom walk the earth today.

This sort of elaborate distortion is nothing new. The Apostle Paul warned about such heresies. The Apostles Peter and John also encountered heresies in which the resurrection was denied. To deny the divinity and the resurrection of Jesus Christ is to deny the evidence of eye witnesses and the plain, inspired message of the Bible.

In the first centuries after the New Testament Church began, Gnostic philosophers introduced many of the erroneous concepts and ideas found in the DaVinci Code. Professing Christianity added relic worship, even though there is no biblical instruction to practice these things. The Bible is not about the Holy Grail or any other symbol or image devised by man under the influence of Satan (Read our booklet: Satan's Counterfeit Christianity). All these religious symbols, relics, and traditions are of absolutely no value. Acts 4:12 states: "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."

Don't fall for the tale of the Grail or any other heresy, even if it is packaged in a slick and exciting book that is being read by millions. An important warning for us is found in 2 Corinthians 11:3: "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

Focus on Jesus Christ and His message of the soon-coming Kingdom of God, and you will not be misled by the popular heresies of the day.