Cracking the Da Vinci Code

Part One: The Book,

Its Story & Success

I. The Book

A. The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown. (Doubleday Publishers, 2003) 454 pp.

B. The Genre: Historical Fiction

Although technically considered fiction, the first word the reader encounters, in bold uppercase letters, is the word "FACT." Shortly thereafter Brown writes, "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate."¹

II. The Success

A.Sales

As of March, 2006:

• More than 40 million copies in 36 months

• Forty-four languages

As of April 17, 2006:

• # 3 N. Y. Times Hardback Fiction Bestseller

• # 1 N Y Times Paperback Fiction Bestseller

• 159 weeks on N. Y. Times Best-selling List.

B. The book has spawned an entire field of related literature, with extraordinary sales.

C. Movie rights have been sold to Sony Pictures Entertainment for $6 million. Ron Howard plans to direct the movie, and Tom Hanks will play the leading role. The cost of production is apparently around $125 million.

III. The Storyline

While in Paris on business, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon receives an urgent late-night phone call: the elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum. Near the body, police have found a baffling cipher. Solving the enigmatic riddle, Langdon is stunned to discover it leads to a trail of clues hidden in the works of Da Vinci…clues visible for all to see…and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Langdon joins forces with a gifted French cryptologist, Sophie Neveu, and learns the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion—an actual secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Botticelli, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci, among others. The Louvre curator has sacrificed his life to protect the Priory's most sacred trust: the location of a vastly important religious relic, hidden for centuries.

In a breathless race through Paris, London, and beyond, Langdon and Neveu match wits with a faceless powerbroker who appears to work for Opus Dei—a clandestine, Vatican-sanctioned Catholic sect believed to have long plotted to seize the Priory's secret. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle in time, the Priory's secret—and a stunning historical truth—will be lost forever.

In an exhilarating blend of relentless adventure, scholarly intrigue, and cutting wit, symbologist Robert Langdon (first introduced in Dan Brown's bestselling Angels & Demons) is the most original character to appear in years. THE DA VINCI CODE heralds the arrival of a new breed of lightening-paced, intelligent thriller…surprising at every twist, absorbing at every turn, and in the end, utterly unpredictable…right up to its astonishing conclusion. ²

IV. Why address the book?

This book affords us an enormous opportunity. It has captured the attention of a large part of America. That makes it relevant to us. It is filled with errors, but we have the truth it is lacking – a truth that can make its readers free! G. K. Chesterton once said that orthodoxy is not only true; it is infinitely more interesting than heresy. Think about that. And think about the orthodoxy we have to share. The eternal, immortal, invisible God becomes man and walks some thirty-three years on the earth. He ministers grace and truth, heals the sick, casts out demons, touches lepers with an unprecedented mercy, and teaches like no one before Him. He is crucified for the sins of the world, is raised from the dead, and appears to hundreds. He sends the Spirit of holiness and power to enable His people to be His witnesses until He returns again to judge the world and usher in perfect righteousness. Wow! Our orthodoxy should make Brown’s storyline look like a first-grade primer on Dick, Jane and Spot.

Darrell Bock observed, “The popularity of both the book and the special (ABC special) points to our culture’s continuing fascination with Jesus. And even when that curiosity borders on the perverse, we need to be engaged in the conversation – if not on TV specials, certainly in our neighborhoods, schools, and offices, wherever the topic of conversation comes up – talking about the real Jesus in a constructive way.” ³

A. Opportunity to Teach Believers Orthodoxy at a Point of Interest

1. The Deity of Christ

2. The Composition of God’s Word

3. False Teachers

4. Mary Magdalene

5. The Church in History

2. Opportunity to Equip Believers to Engage Our Culture at a Point of Interest

This is an opportunity to be a witness of truth at a point of relevance and cultural interest.

1 Chron. 12:32

Acts 17

Acts 16:3