Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Christ at the Campfire The Bible Code

I have seen this, in part, discussed several times on the History Channel. Now they have a Bible Code II that I saw part of last night. I'm sure many of you have seen this too and some may have read books regarding it. Thing is, I never have seen a presentation about it from the beginning to end so I am somewhat at a loss as to what they are claiming or from where this code comes.

It appears to me that some theologians/mathematicians/computer programmers (mostly Jewish it would seem) have constructed a computer program that takes input such as 9/11 and prints out a word jumble from which related words and phrases can be found. The program is constructed from a mathmatical perpective of the Bible and the input and output are in Hebrew. The examples shown on the TV program were quite remarkable but I am suspect of all such presentations.

Does anyone have any insights or understandings of this "Code"?

Please note this is not in anyway associated with the DaVinci Code (at least so far as I am aware).

I remember when it first hit the news several years back. At first I thought it was remarkable, but then I came to view it as deceptive and evil. Taking into account the warning about adding to the word of God, it puts these fellows on dangerous territory. The mystery has been unvieled via Paul's revelation of Christ, and that is complete until the return of Christ. I am thinking that using this random selection of letters would probably give secret messages from any book. But even if it didn't I view this bible code as a form of voodoo sort of...

I guess you probably feel the same way.

I don't know anything about the thing, but I know that there are a bunch of things to do with numbers in the Bible, and there are meanings attached to numbers, and their useage.

Anytime there is a "system" to the Bible to explain it, I get a little gun shy. God gave the word - Amen! Any random selection in the Bible is dangerous. God is a God of order. He ordered the words of the Bible and set them in order.

What we really need is to spend more time reading and studying the Bible, instead of wiling away the hours reading and studying books about the Bible.

God blesses his word, not some ancient code.

God must be a having a good laugh up in heaven, as people try to understand "great mysteries" with such stupid methods. There is nothing that we don't know that will help us get to heaven any faster.

God didn't hide anything from us, nor did he give us a confusing Bible. Everybody knows what is right and wrong, and what they SHOULD be doing as Christians... For goodness sake, get off of your butts and do something......

Unfortunately, a bunch of yahooooo's in the name of God have decided that being a Christian is about what theology you are.... Notice none of fruits of the spirits are "biblical" or "right" or "understander of codes". Notice I'm a little ticked after listening to Christian radio today........

God didn't set us up for failure............

leave the code stuff alone. it's like trying to guess when the end comes. we ain't supposed to do it; believers are told only to live like it's coming now.

Yup, I surely won't be devoting my energy toward deciphering when Christ will return. I've seen bits & pieces of those shows and while they do hold some interest for my analytical mind, I shake them off & get back to living for Christ in everything I do. I'll certainly be looking forward to his return, but I won't be expending any energy in trying to figure out the when part of the story. Afterall Jesus said in Mark 13:32-37:

"No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It's like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back; whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: 'Watch!'"

Thanks for the replys.

From my limited understanding the Bible Code does not attempt to explain or define the Bible. It has to do with mathmatics and numbering of all the words in the Bible. I believe only the OT is used in the process. It is basically a predicter/definer of events, both past and future. I understand the Israeli intelligence service uses it, although it is only one sourse of their assembled information on any topic. That gives it a bit of credibility, to me.

I originated this post because I have never seen a show on it start to finish and was looking to satisfy curiousity regarding just how this thing worked. It seems most of you either have not seen the programs or are like me and have only seen bits and pieces.

I share many of your attitudes that the best book to teach us about the Bible is the Bible. I have read some books from other men and have often found my time not well spent. Some of Josh McDowles books such as "Evidence That Demands a Verdict" and Hal Lindseys stuff, I have enjoyed but have not read other commentaries in many years. At this time I don't plan on it either. As I said in another post, reading about Smith Wigglesworth had an impact on me and his preference for only reading from the Bible appealed to me. I have not carried that limitation as far as Smith purported to, but for understanding of His Word, the Bible is my nearly exclusive source.

I also share the recurring theme posted that we need to live as though He is coming back in the next moment. Some days are accomplished better than others, but the race is never quit.

However, I don't share many of your well intentioned caveats against pursuing understanding about such things. I'm not advocating the Bible Code or decrying it. I don't know enough about it to do either and would likely not advocate such a thing in any case. I don't see it as adding or detracting from the Scripture since it's function does not lend interpretation or imply new content to the Bible. It could be borne out of evil but that will never be known from my perspective of ignornance. My main concern in that regard would involve the divination that the process seeks to achieve. Then again, if God has set information that can be accessed from His Word to assist us in these last days, neither do I want to blaspheme His methods. I don't have a burning interest to go out and buy a book and study it, and likely won't, so my ignornace will continue, at least until I happen to see the whole program. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

RickyD,

I read a couple of books on the subject. None of the original participants as far as I could tell were believers in Jesus. In fact one of the fellows is convinced space aliens wrote the Torah and put the code There. The others were Jews.

I am facinated by it. You see I believe God is infinite. He put a message on the surface of His Word that points to Him and salvation. No matter how you read It, it always says what He has It saying. But since He is infinite He could, and apparently did, put a considerable amount of information in a code. Here is a fun example:

In Genesis one goes to the first letter corisponding to our "t". Then one counts forty-nine letters and takes the next one and repeats this until you have spelled Torah. The same thing happens in Exodus, but not Leviticus. When one gets to Numbers and Deuteronomy, the letters are in the reversed order. In Leviticus this does not work. But when one takes every seven letters, you come up with YHWH. God is perhaps telling us the Torah points to God from the front and the back. The odds of this happening by chance are astronomical. God does play games.

Ringman,

Nice to hear from you again!

Thanks for the info. That is a fascinating example you mention. I cannot see how such wonderous mathmatical devices can do anything but proclaim God as the Author and Finisher. I'm torn regarding predictions of the future but can also see how He may have provided such for a special time or purpose. Who can say? I do know we serve an awesome God!

Rick

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

'The Code' is hogwash. All it accomplishes is to provide a generous living for its promoters.

Bagtic,
I don't doubt the second thought of your post but can you better explain the first?

Ricky,

I agree with bagtic. If you try hard enough, you can find a code in anything, or a meaning in anything. Even if it does not exist. God does not "play games" with his children by divinely inspiring a code in scripture. And, if it is not from God, then it is from the enemy.

Beware of those who try to lead you astray with weird doctrines and beliefs. Hold fast to what has been taught to you.

While there may or may not be a code hidden in the bible, I do not know. However, the History Channel shows led me to the conclusion that it is similar to the predictions of Nostradomous. In that, if you look hard enough, you will find what you are looking for..... Of the shows I have seen, the "professies" have not been used to predict the future, but have merely been interpreted to explain past events.

RickyD,

Shoot me a link to the thing so I can look at it and make an intelligent reply. But like most of the other fellows say, it's probably a hoax to make someone some $$$.

This is my understanding of how the code works: They took the old testament, probably in Hebrew. They fed the text, in the original language and letters into the computer. Then, starting at the first letter, they took every second letter, and looked at the new string of text, to see if it made intelligible words. They repeated, starting at the second letter.
They repeated, taking every 3rd letter, starting at positions 1, 2 and 3.
They repeated, taking every 4th letter, starting at positions 1, 2, 3, ant 4�etc.

The amount of intelligible text was amazing. They tested some works of Shakespeare, and some other major texts, and got nothing. Only the bible appears to have hidden, intelligent, intelligible, pertinent, and sometimes prophetic text, buried in it�s letters. It makes you wonder if the bible was written in that way deliberately.

Darrel

'The Code' is hogwash. All it accomplishes is to provide a generous living for its promo

YUP!

Shootist,
Sorry I didn't find a link. Been pretty busy and in any event it's not a big deal. Interesting though!

Remember the original Hebrew text did not include any vowels, only consonants. Also it was written without any punctuation, capitalization, sentences or paragraphs. It was a continuous string of consonants. The reader was to guess at the missing consonants and then determine from context where one word possibly ended and another possibly begain. The same with sentences and paragraphs. That permits so much subjective interpretation that it would possible to interpret many passages more than one way.

It was like the word games where you are suppossed to find words in a bunch of letters. Imagine if they left out all vowels.

More importantly why would there be any reason to write in code.

Also, the Bible is a not unitary text. It was written by numerous authors over a span of about 1600 years. What is the probability that all these unrelated authors would have hit on the same code?

Bagtic, I agree with you totally--what would be the point in writing in some secret code??
All these discovered codes are after the fact. Again, there are no vowels. You can add whatever you want in the text to make it say just about anything you want it to.
This is silliness.
Uh ohh. I think I see a black helicopter flying around my house. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />