Dan Brown's fictional novel The Da Vinci Code has sold over 8 million copies worldwide and still remains near the top of most bestseller lists. This book has many gullible readers believing the story within its pages reflects truth and documented history, which it does not! The book is filled with historical inaccuracies, and is admittedly a work of fiction. The book weaves a tale involving actual places and real people from history. The settings move you from the Louvre museum in Paris to the historic Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, the book, includes mysteries within the Catholic organization Opus Dei, and historical figures such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Mary Magdalene, and Jesus Christ. The (real) Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland was built in 1446. The walls of the chapel are filled with hundreds of ornate carvings and images that reflect Christian, pagan, and Masonic images. Most European churches feature gargoyles and other "protective" demons as decoration. Since the publication of The Da Vinci Code the chapel has seen a huge jump of 56% in curious visitors. In the book, Rosslyn Chapel contains clues that point the way to the Holy Grail. However, some of the clues mentioned in the book don't even exist, like a Star of David that is supposedly hidden in the chapel floor. According to Rosslyn project director Simon Beattie "People come looking for the Holy Grail. Obviously, it's not here. We tell them that the book is a work of fiction, meaning that it isn't true."

Much of the story takes place in Paris, which has also seen a large number of tourists flocking to see the sites described in the book including the Louvre and the Saint Sulpice church. Travel agents are giving guided tours of locations mentioned in the book. (I guess that is not so odd, we here in Miami have guided tours of where the famous and infamous were killed!) The Saint Sulpice church has posted a statement pointing to the inaccuracies in the book. Obviously this book combines fact and fiction, which is why so many cannot delineate fact from fiction, not getting their "truth" from the most reliable source. How wily of the author and his little helper- (the devil?)- to take real persons and then reinvent history by making them do and say things they never did or said! The gross inaccuracies in this story hardly lines up to what the Word of God says about Mary or of Jesus.

Even though the book has raised public interest in the Divinity of Jesus Christ, the book sends people down a very inaccurate rabbit trail, away from truth and not towards it. The book gives the uneducated the idea that the fourth century Roman emperor Constantine invented the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ Jesus for political reasons. The historical evidence, however, clearly shows that the New Testament and the very earliest Christian writings manifest Christian belief in the Divinity of Christ. The book suggests that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had children, a old European nobility myth made popular by the Merovingians. A book called Holy Blood, Holy Grail popularized this myth many years ago. This book will hardly inspire the reader to come to know who Jesus is. There is a book that DOES reveal the real story, the pages aren't moldy yet and will always be able to lead us and guide us into all truth, the book is the Bible of course! It amazes me how many read a work of pure fiction and then fall hook, line and sinker for it as the truth, even to the point of becoming cultish followers. Characters portrayed by actors have become reality to the desperately deluded. Lies-truth- do you know the difference? [Open Seal Newsletter October 11.2004]