By Mike Licona

What if the world’s greatest works of art held a secret that could change the course of mankind forever? Dan Brown’s best-selling suspense novel, The Da Vinci Code, tantalized readers with that very question. The controversial story sparked debates about Christ and spawned dozens of books and TV specials dedicated to breaking the code.

Now the much talked about book is coming to a theater near you. “The Da Vinci Code,” directed by Ron Howard and produced by Columbia Pictures and Imagine Entertainment will open in theaters May 19. If you haven’t read the book, you might check it out from your library and give yourself a couple of days. It’s a page turner. What makes his book so effective and, some would say, dangerous is its ability to capture the imagination while making some outrageous claims. And, it’s got that ambiguous claim in the front: “All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.” So Brown’s a historian, right? Actually, no. Imaginative? Yes. Intriguing? Yes. Historically accurate and accepted by any balanced scholars? No. Even the agnostic New Testament historian Bart Ehrman maintains serious reservations regarding the claims of Brown’s work in Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code: “[Brown’s] a novelist, not a scholar of history. . . . Even though he claims that his ‘descriptions of . . . documents . . . are accurate,’ in fact they are not.”

The Da Vinci Code begins with a spectacular murder in the Louvre museum. All clues point to a covert religious organization that will stop at nothing to protect a secret that threatens to overturn 2,000 years of accepted dogma. The book and now the film claim that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, had a child with her, and a clandestine society once headed by Leonardo da Vinci has protected the information for centuries against a threatened Catholic hierarchy.

If Ron Howard is successful in recreating this experience on the big screen, then he could raise the same questions as Brown. But this is not cause for Christians to get angry, boycott, or run and hide. In fact, this is a great opportunity for Christ-followers to respond with the historical truth and the Truth of the gospel. You might make this an opportunity to take your non-believing friends and co-workers to a movie and then grab some coffee after for a little Q and A. But first, let’s discuss how to respond to some of the questions the movie might raise.

Is the New Testament really reliable?

Brown makes the claim that the New Testament has been through countless translations, additions and revisions and is completely different from the original texts.

Fact check: Multiple checks and balances safeguard the scriptures against varying significantly from the original text. For example, according to Daniel Wallace who is an expert on the ancient New Testament manuscripts, there are 5,745 manuscripts of the New Testament alone in its original language of Greek. Around a dozen of these date to the second century or within 150 years of when the New Testament writings were first penned. Given the wealth of the New Testament manuscripts, anyone calling into question the validity of a certain text could have reviewed it in light of an abundance of other copies. Where there is an abundance of manuscripts, there is sometimes an abundance of variances. However, by applying the rules of textual criticism, one can arrive at a text which is remarkably close to the original.

The Da Vinci Code also claims there were more than 80 Gospels from which the early fathers chose the four New Testament Gospels.

FACT CHECK: There were fewer than 20 writings that were considered for the Gospel canon. These apocryphal writings were written quite some time after the New Testament Gospels making them questionable in their reliability. The final four—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the only ones that are considered true biographies written by an apostle of Christ or someone with a direct contact with the apostles.

Besides this fact, the Council of Nicea didn’t address the canon of scripture, contrary to the claims in The Da Vinci Code. The purpose of Nicea was to discuss whether Jesus was deity or created by God.

is jesus the son of god?

The Da Vinci Code claims that Jesus was never considered divine but was voted as such at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.

Fact check: In the New Testament we find references to Jesus’ claims to being one and the same with God the Father. Christ’s apostles taught of His divinity. In the year 60, Paul in his writings to the Romans declared Jesus the Son of God (Romans 1:3).

Did Christianity borrow from pagan religions?

Fact check: There are examples of pagan religions sharing some of the same doctrines as Christianity. For example, a number of religions present dying and rising gods. However, the consensus of today’s scholars has concluded that none of these predate Christianity and, in fact, the earliest parallel postdates the New Testament Gospels by at least half a century.

Was Jesus married to Mary Magdalene?

Fact check: There is no accepted historical evidence that would point to this claim as being true. A year ago I had a television dialogue with Princeton religion scholar Elaine Pagels, who is an expert on the Gnostic Gospels. During a break, host Lee Strobel asked us what we thought about the idea of Jesus being married. Pagels spoke up and said that The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown is probably the only person holding such a belief. Brown’s claim is based on the 3rd century Gospel of Phillip in which he has filled in some blanks that exist due to holes in the manuscript. He also relies on a word for “spouse” that he claims is Aramaic but turns out to be a Coptic word borrowed from Greek and rarely means spouse. The New Testament not only portrays Jesus as single, he is not mentioned as being married at a spot where citing a married Jesus would have been of great advantage (1 Corinthians 9:5).

Where did Brown get these incredible claims?

Fact check: We might not have to look that far back. In Ben Witherington’s book The Gospel Code, Witherington makes the astute connection that many of Brown’s claims come from two previous works: Holy Blood, Holy Grail and The Woman with the Alabaster Jar. Both attempt to paint Jesus as a man who married and settled down to have children. However, much of what’s contained in these texts, Witherington says, is derived from medieval lore and art and not historical or biblical texts. So, Brown’s book does a masterful and accessible job of taking these works, along with some other radical ideas, and creating an experience that feels well researched but in fact is not.

But believers can use the movie as an opportunity to engage the controversy with spirit and truth. This summer people are going to be talking around the water cooler about the divinity of Christ. Now, that’s an opportunity! Armed with the truth, we can watch the movie with friends and engage them in dialogue as Christ would if present to answer Brown’s claims.

Make no mistake about it: Christians can make good use of “The Da Vinci Code” movie for God’s glory if they are willing to engage in intelligent and respectful dialogue concerning the claims raised in it.

Mike Licona is a New Testament historian and director of Apologetics & Interfaith Evangelism at the North American Mission Board. He is the author of Paul Meets Muhammad and co-author of the award-winning The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus.