First, let's ponder upon the issue using an example that could happen to us in real life:

You walk on the sidewalk and spot four coins being scattered randomly on the ground, your immediate impression will naturally be: "Oh, someone has dropped some coins here."

Let's look at another scenario: You walk on the sidewalk and spot four coins forming a certain pattern, say, a square with each coin on the corner, What would be your first response in this case? "Hummm... it was so interesting that the four coins dropped and formed a regular pattern!" While you cannot rule out that it is a coincidence, you cannot also rule out the possibility that someone has deliberately put the coins there and arranged them in the square pattern.

Let's consider a third scenario: What if you find out that all the four coins piling up together with one on the other? What do you say this time? Coincident? Well, although we cannot rule that out 100%, it is very hard for us to believe so in this case.

This principle of regularity or law is the very basis for all what scientists are doing today. They are trying to find regularities and repetitions in the physical realm. Similar to this, the readers of the Bible are trying to find regularities and repetitions in the spiritual realm of God's Word. All in all, God's Word and Creation are in greatest harmony.

Let's consider what is Bible Code -- I call it the "Alphabet Code" in order to distinguish it from the "Number Code" found in the Bible. Bible Code refers to the phenomenon that has been observed in the Hebrew Bible when a rule called "Equidistant Letter Sequence" (ELS) is utilized.

Bible Code = (Alphabet + Number) Code!

In order to illustrate what is ELS, I produced an English text below based on an example given by others. Different from the original example which encoded "MEET AT 8" starting from "m" in the word "man" and then counted every 7th letter thereafter (this process is called skipping), I changed the original text so that I could DELIBERATELY encode the same message at a skip distance of 10, during the process of which, I found that I could easily add another code "OLD" to it at a skip distance of 1. This made my encoded message complete: "Let us meet at 8 o'clock, the old place." Here is the final text:

"After finishing this, the man now walked toward the door and into the big stadium that stood to hold 80,000 fans for sporting events."

To remove the spaces and punctuation marks, it becomes:  

Afterfinishingthisthemannowwalkedtowardthedoorandintothe bigstadiumthatstoodtohold80000fansforsportingevents  

These two codes can be made more visible by using capital letters and colors:

AfterfinishingthistheMannowwalkEdtowardthEdoorandinTothe bigstAdiumthatsToodtohOLD80000fansforsportingevents  

To make the codes even more pronounced, we could rearrange -- without changing the order of the letters -- the above like the following so that each line contains 10 letters: 

If we rearrange it again so that each line contains 11 letters -- again without changing the order of the letters -- then the pattern of the encoded messages will look like this:

Now we see clearly the "toe to toe" pattern of the two original codes. In this way, the codes are revealed even to our physical eyes. Note that I did not change the letters or the order of these letters in all of the above processes. What I did was simply rearranging the letters as if they are elements of a matrix.

This example illustrates the basic rules and principles behind the so-called Bible Code. Unlike my example, the original Hebrew text was not altered in any way during the code study; what people did was that they took out the spaces and punctuation marks (Orthodox Jews believe that they were not there in the first place) and then rearrange the letters in the text without changing their order as if they are element of a huge matrix. Then a program could be written (counting manually is tedious, even impossible when the number of the codes is large) so that the so-called "Equidistant Letter Sequence" rule (the one we just used in our example above) can be executed in scanning the text for hidden messages.

This should not surprise us at all as it has been a common place in our daily lives. Think about it, most of the signals we receive now and then, e.g. music, TV, telephone, etc., even the words on this page you are reading, are all virtually encoded messages. The reason we could receive them is that we all play them by the same law: We use the same rule to encode a message and the same rule to decode it.

Then one may ask this question, a legitimate question: Were all these codes found using ELS intended by God in the first place? Not likely. Let me explain below using my own example:

Having encoded the two words there in the surface text and rearranged it so that the two codes are more visible to be picked up by my our naked eyes, I then examined the block and, you know what, found several other words like "port," "his," "sat" "toe," "nor," etc. which were NOT in the surface text. They can indeed be called "codes." HOWEVER, these "codes" -- if one insists that they are -- were NOT the original codes in my mind in the first place!!! What should we call them then? "Random" codes indeed. These codes may or may not relate to the original codes in the beginning. Therefore, finding them there does not strengthen the original codes nor invalidated them totally.

How can we know which code was real and which was "random" or "accidental" in the first place? Attempt to answer this question is like attempting to answer another question: Was the physical universe we see indeed made by God? That was something happened in the past. There is no way we could reverse the process in reality at all. Therefore, we cannot prove it or disprove it objectively like we do to other reversible processes. An irreversible process can only be studied by the method of implication or by proposing a hypothesis.

Let us say it again: Finding random codes in a certain text neither proves that they were purposely intended in the first place, nor invalidates them altogether -- the latter has been one of the tactics someone used to disprove the Bible Code.

Is there an absolute assurance from an outsider? Not really! As only the ORIGINATOR of this text has the absolute assurance; only he is absolutely sure what codes he put there in the first place. An outsider cannot claim that he could prove or disprove the validity of the code he finds as he does have a 100% confidence that this code is exactly the code God inserted there in the beginning.

Let us approach this issue from another angle by asking ourselves these questions:

(1) Are there hidden things in the Bible?
(2) Is there a need for God to hide these things in the form of ELS?
(3) Should God's intended codes scatter everywhere in the Bible?
(4) How was the Bible Code misused by Michael Drosnin and others?
(5) What are the precautions of finding and using codes in the Bible?

The following are my attempted response to these questions. If you would like to read other independent views, please go to http://www.biblecodedigest.com.

(1) Are there hidden things in the Bible?

Holy Spirit reminds us that there is indeed hidden things in the Bible. For example, God asked Daniel and John specifically not to write everything they saw, but only those that could be written. In the case of Daniel, in order to seal the meaning of visions and dreams he saw and experienced (including the dreams of the king), the Lord had to give Daniel more partial visions (a Ram and a Goat) so that the interpretation of these visions were impossible by others unless we come to the last days (Daniel 12:4, 9).

All serious readers of the Bible know that God does not reveal to us everything, but only things that are needed before the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus. There are many mysteries in the Bible, some of these mysteries can be understood by a serious reader at a certain time under the help of Holy Spirit, but certainly not everyone can understand (Daniel 12:10b). However, some mysteries, e.g. those future events in the book of Revelations, can only be fully understood shortly before and when the events are occurring. Yes, we can perceive them under the help of the Holy Spirit, but our perception cannot be 100% accurate unless they have happened or are happening. Other mysteries, for example, the mysteries of Christ and Church, can only be understood by believers of Christ; certainly not by non-believers at all.

This says it loudly that certain things, especially the spiritual things, CANNOT be proved OBJECTIVELY (at least not the objective way that a fallen man claims to be), but only subjectively. If anyone seeks to prove or disprove these things objectively, he is certainly taking the wrong path. Paul says it well in 1 Cor. 2:10-16:  

"...but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual word (direct translation from Greek: "SPIRITUAL matches SPIRITUAL"). The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: 'For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?' But we have the mind of Christ."

We have come to such an era that most people have this strong mentality: If we cannot not prove anything objectively, we should have all the reason to reject it altogether. Our mind of thinking is always "black or white." It is sad indeed. With such a mentality, how can we possibly know the will of God? Granted, there are certain truths that are absolute and solid; they allow no room for fuzziness and for us to contemplate. However, for certain other things, we have been given the opportunity and freedom to seek the guidance of the Spirit of God.

(2) Is there a need for God to hide things in the form of ELS?

Yes, at least for Jewish people. We know the unbelieving Jews get stumbled at the Scriptures that are held in their own hands because they do not perceive that Jesus is in fact their Messiah!

Paul did not see that too in the beginning either. How did he see it? Not by his own effort (his own was to persecute those who believed!), but by the revelation of the Lord Himself to him, otherwise, he was impossible to get saved, not to say that he could be used to give us most of the New Testament. What Paul did after he got saved was to prove that Jesus is the Christ (Acts 9:22) How did he prove that? "...he reasoned with them from the Scriptures..." (Acts 17:2-3) What made him different now from the unbelieving Paul? The indwelling Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is always the AUTHOR and the INTERPRETER of the Scripture.

God knew that Jews would deny their Messiah in His First Coming, but God prophesized that the remnants among them would all get saved at His Second Coming. God also says in Revelation that certain numbers of them will get sealed so that they could withstand the terrible persecution of the last Antichrist and the Great Tribulation. Who are these people? I believe that they are not Jewish Christians (they will be raptured together with Gentile Christians), but rather, Jews who believe the accuracy of the Old Testament (including the support of ELS) but have not yet received Jesus. They will hold to their faith in God of their forefathers till the last hour.

Think about the current situation, many of the Jews who have moved away from the Old Testament teachings are now like Gentiles: some do not believe in God of their Scripture at all; some are simply pure atheists who believe in evolution and other theories that are trying to move God totally from our earthly knowledge. Based on this leading, I believe that there is a need for God to speak to Jews in this secret way so that they can hold fast to God in these last days.

What about Christians? Well, as Christians, on one hand we should be fully content with our Lord and Saviour given by the Father in our hearts, on the other hand we should seek opportunities to identify or even pinpoint things God prepared for us in current age so that we can know His will and act according to His will. Once we achieve this, we can find many many ways to express and live out our faith as testimony to non-believers.

To answer the question from another angle, we know that the Bible is the Word of God written as words on paper, and that His Son Jesus is the Word incarnated as flesh on earth. Since the incarnated Word is as mysterious as the biggest riddle on earth, so is the written Word on paper. Did Jesus disciples fully know who He was when He was on earth? No! They knew gradually through a progressive revelation. Does anyone now dare to claim that he has fully know Him? No! He still remains to be a mystery, maybe on a deeper level, for us who should have grasped all the revelations God deposited in the Church for the past 2000 years.

Like what the Paul says in Colossians 2:2, "My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." and 2:9 "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form..." (NIV) Christians, do we see that all the fullness of God's Message in the Bible is to testify about Jesus our Lord (John 5:39)? Can we say with confidence that the Word written is as mysterious as the Word incarnated?

(3) Should God's intended codes scatter everywhere in the Bible?

If there are indeed some special hidden messages in the Bible, we should not expect them to occur everywhere or evenly in the Bible, just like we should not expect to find a specific internal biological organ to be existing everywhere inside our body. Yes, ELS may indeed be one of the general rules that can be used to encode certain messages in the surface text. But it does not mean that these hidden codes are everywhere or evenly distributed in the whole Bible. If we expect it to be so or if that is a fact, then this fact itself disprove that there are codes in CERTAIN places at all. It should be easy for us to see this. We Chinese have a saying:

"It takes more than ten people to find a thing hidden by one person."

In fact, it appears that there is NO reason for God to hide these codes EVERYWHERE because He knew He would gradually reveals these hidden things in the surface text. After the greatest mystery of God -- His Son Jesus Christ (Col. 2:2) was revealed to mankind, God could speak plainly and directly to those who are willing to listen.

Let us back off a little bit: Even God's hidden messages are everywhere in the Bible, we should not expect them to be encoded always in the same way. It is quite possible that God could have encoded them according to different rules other than ELS. Among devout Jews, there is indeed a strong belief of this sort.

(4) How was the Bible Code misused by Michael Drosnin
and many others?

The problem with Drosnin was that he is not a Christian at all. As he says himself, he does not have "preconceived beliefs". How could we expect such a person to explain his and others' findings correctly and in line with the Holy Spirit?

We must remember, there is only ONE KEY to the correct understanding of the Bible: Jesus Christ! Knowing Him, the door to Grace can be opened for us; without knowing Him, what is left before every sinner is simply the door to death and destruction (Note: the latter is the main message of Drosnin's book). No wonder he focuses on these phrases as "last days," "atomic holocaust," "earthquakes," etc. To us Christians, these are not hidden codes at all; they are plainly said and/or implied in the surface text throughout the Bible.

As to those who are working hard in denying the Bible Code, many of them are unbelieving Jews or die-hard atheists. They came up with many ways in refuting the Bible Code. I should say that they are very smart indeed, but their wisdom is merely an earthly one. Certainly they are not smart enough to see that Jesus is their Messiah. And that is the very reason why they are now trying so desperately to disprove it as accepting the Bible Code certainly means that they could not ignore the Messiah codes at all.

It is interesting to see a few books written by Christians on this subject, e.g. Yacov Rambsel, Grant Jeffrey, Jeffrey Satinover, etc. The main feature of their books is that they focus on the Codes of Messiah (all of them agree with the teachings of the Bible and were found in those widely accepted passages of Messiah prophecies). I believe this is the correct way of using the ELS rule. What is more sure for us Christians than the fact that our Lord Jesus is real and with us every moment of the day? If there are any real hidden codes at all, they must be directly related to Jesus our Lord who is hidden for non-believers. As many of these Christian writers hold up to, one should NEVER use it to PREDICT the future (it is prohibited by God for doing that), we can only use it to CONFIRM what has happened in the past.

(5) What are the precautions for us in finding and using
codes in the Bible?

God is not a God of contradiction. If there is codes that are biblical meaningful, they must NOT be in conflict with teachings of the whole Bible. Paying too much attention on the hidden codes while ignoring the teachings of the surface text is not right.

I propose a more strict test for biblical meaningful codes: They should be in line with the surface text where the code is found. If there are real God intended codes in a certain passage of the Bible, these codes should summarize all spiritual teachings (including those in depth) of that passage.

There is a lot of evidence for the fact that hidden codes cannot be used to predict future events as these codes only give us a possibility; they can only be best used to confirm things happened in the past.

CONCLUSIONS:

(1) There are indeed hidden messages in the Bible. These hidden messages can only be revealed by the indwelling Holy Spirit in the heart of Christians.

(2) While it is possible that these messages could be encoded by God in certain places, but it is hard for us to believe the need for so doing everywhere in the Bible. Bible Codes found using the rule of ELS appears to be a SPECIAL, rather than a GENERAL, phenomenon that occurs only in certain places of the Bible. Christians should be fully aware of this before we could use it the way God intended in the first place.

(3) Codes that are biblical meaningful must not be in conflict with teachings of the whole Bible. A more strict test is that they should be in line with the surface text where the code is found.

(4) It is beyond our limitation to objectively prove or disprove in a 100% accuracy the validity of any hidden code in the Bible. Holy Spirit is the only true interpreter of anything that is true. Finding codes that are not in line with the teachings of the whole Bible is not the sure way to invalidate them.  

(Compare: Can we prove or disprove objectively the existence of God? NO, as His existence is beyond our reason and proof. We could only worship Him because He is certainly not the object of our studies; we can study His Word, but never Himself directly. We approach Him through His Son, the Only Mediator)

(5) No new teachings have been found in the hidden codes claimed so far. This means that basic doctrines can be established without the help of the codes at all; Holy Spirit is the real helper in this regard.

(6) Hidden codes cannot be used to predict future events as codes only give us a possibility; they can only be used to confirm things happened in the past.

(7) The codes of Messiah should be the focus of our attention. If there are anything worth studying, Messiah codes are certainly the candidates. This might be the very reason why God hid codes in the Hebrew text in the first place if He indeed had done it because His Son is as mysterious as the spirit of the written words.  

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Revised: 2001/10/25