Reading Dan Brown’s “Angels And Demons” in preparation for the May release of the movie by the same name is an excruciating task. Not just because page after page wrongfully attacks the church, but more so because he gets his history and his facts wrong, yet pretends to be intellectually astute.
G.K. Chesterton once said that, if a man doesn’t reason from first principles, he will go mad. Dan Brown’s “Angels And Demons” lacks a principled approach to history, science and religion, and therefore spreads lies and half-truths that have been circulating in the occult world for the last hundred years.
Forty years ago, people knew that these were lies. They understood that the Middle East had been Christian for a thousand years before the Muslims conquered those lands ruthlessly, and it is only recently that the Muslims have overwhelmed the Christians in many of the Middle Eastern territories. The Christians were not the aggressors in the Middle East, Turkey and Europe – the Muslims were. Yet, the Christians are portrayed by ignorant people like Brown as being the villainous aggressors, with the Muslim assassins and warriors being portrayed as the poor, persecuted people. Thus, Dan Brown turns history completely on its head.
This is just one example in one area where he is 100 percent wrong. Unfortunately, most people do not have enough history to see where Brown is wrong. They are caught up in this Big Lie against Christianity. Even worse, many of those caught in the lie are Christians, who have compartmentalized their faith while allowing the loony left to educate them in the corrosive, revisionist, politically correct lies of our age.
Almost daily you read of some Christian who has fallen for the lies about the Muslims and the Crusades. Brown spreads other lies, such as: the Founding Fathers being occult Freemasons, the church being a conspiratorial institution, the Christian Coalition being wickedly opposed to real science, or the Christian faith being built on irrational superstitions rather than the objective, transcendent logic rooted in God’s Divine Character, and the historical facts and reliable eyewitness testimony that withstood and overcame hostile prosecution and persecution.
None of the facts support any of Dan Brown’s views about Jesus Christ and Christianity, but we live in an age gone mad where people have forgotten first principles. Our Christian holidays have been handed over to the pagans. For example, the English word “Easter,” used in 16th century Christian scholar William Tyndale’s and other English translations of the Bible, is not rooted in pagan words, as some pseudo-intellectual scholars of the 19th century began to teach. It is actually rooted in the old German word “Oster,” which meant “resurrection.” Many people today, however, have accepted the pseudo-intellectual lies about the nature of such Christian holidays as Easter. They have also accepted many unproven lies about who Jesus is.
There is a principle that can help us out of this madness. Trust the ancient sources of Christendom much more than the modern pundits and scriveners. William Tyndale is a much more reliable source about the Bible, or Martin Luther (who did a German translation of the Bible), than the modern heretics running our “schools” these days – and he is certainly a far more reliable source than ignorant fools like Dan Brown or contemporary atheists like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.
The Bible is a reliable, accurate history about God’s dealings with the human race since the beginning of time. As Jesus Himself says in Matthew 4:4, quoting Moses and God in Deuteronomy 8:3, “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
The traditional doctrines of Christianity are worthy of your faith and trust. Please warn your relatives, neighbors and friends about the lies coming from such anti-Christian bigots like Dan Brown and Christopher Hitchens. There are much better, much more accurate books and novels to read than “Angels And Demons.” And, there will be much better movies to see this summer than director Ron Howard’s version of Dan Brown’s occult madness.
Seek first the Kingdom, or Rule, of God and His Righteousness in your life (Matthew 6:33). And, overcome the evils of godless occult fairy tales like “Angels And Demons” or “Harry Potter” by pursuing (and filling your eyes, mind and heart with) the Good, the True and the Beautiful.
Tom Snyder contributed to this column.
