Chapter 1

"Please, Help Me!"

The e-mail reached our office with a sense of urgency. This is what it said:

Dear RBC, I don’t know where else to turn. I pray to God that you can help me. I began to read the book by Dan Brown called The Da Vinci Code. It was an interesting book until I got to the part where he’s talking about how Christianity began, how it’s all false, and that Christianity is basically a lie and stolen from pagan religions. The secret societies, the Holy Grail, the church changing facts, removing parts of the Bible. Is it all true?

So much of it makes sense. There were things that I had heard before and ignored. But now I have to know. Is the last 25+ years I’ve been a Christian all a lie? Was Jesus just a man? Did it all really happen? Was He married to Mary Magdalene? Is everything I was raised to believe just made up for the sake of money? I have to know.

I don’t know where else to turn. Now I am doubting if there is a heaven, a God, and Jesus. Please, help me! Please, in God’s name, help me. I’m brokenhearted, confused, and still crying.

This person’s response is not surprising. The Da Vinci Code has a storyline that makes it difficult to know where the truth begins and ends. Although it’s written as a novel, this conspiratorial murder mystery claims to be based on well-researched historical facts—facts that contradict historical Christianity.