The idea that the Bible has a hidden code is not new. Rabbi Bachya ben Asher, who died in 1340, was probably the first to discover an ELS code in the Bible. His code dealt with the zero-point of the Jewish calendar. Isaac Newton believed that the Bible itself "is a cryptogram set by the Almighty--a riddle of the Godhead of past and future events divinely fore-ordained...which Daniel was commanded to shut up and seal, till the time of the end." The Jewish sage, Vilna Gaon Elijah Ben Solomon Zalman (1720-1797), taught that everything that ever was, is, or will be, was contained within the Torah. He said: "The rule is that all that was, is, and will be unto the end of time is included in the Torah, from the first word to the last word. And not merely in a general sense, but as to the details of every species and each one individually, and details of details of everything that happened to him from the day of his birth until his end."
Current research appears to be proving him right, but the Hebrew codes extend beyond the Torah.
Although codes were found in the past, most notably by Rabbi Michael Ber Weissmandl, it wasn't until the advent of the computer that the existence and extent of the Bible Codes was fully realized.
In the 1980s, codes research came to the attention of Eliyahu Rips, Doron Witztum, Alexander Rotenberg and several others. The result was that, in 1994, a paper called: "Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis" was published in Statistical Science--one of the world's foremost mathematical and scientific journals.
Using a computer program that they had written, they searched the Book of Genesis by Equidistant Letter Sequence (or ELS). Once the computer had found the first letter of a word search, it would look for the second letter of the word. The program searched at different intervals. It would search at a four letter interval, say, then five, and so on. Once the program would find the second letter of the word, it would continue to search at that skip sequence. So if there were seven skips between the first letter and the second, the computer would continue to search for the remaining letters of the word at a skip sequence of seven.
In the "great rabbis experiment," they searched for the names of 34 famous rabbis who had lived between the ninth and eighteenth centuries. They paired the names of these men with their dates of birth or death. (Using the Hebrew calendar and language.) They found every single name, paired with the date of birth or death, encoded in the book of Genesis! The odds of this happening by chance were only one chance in 775,000,000!
Later, a second group was run. All 32 men in this group, along with their dates of birth and death, were also found. The odds of all 66 names and dates occurring by chance were 1 in 2.5 billion!
Since that day, many more codes have been found, and the research continues.
Unfortunately, many sensationalists have attempted to use Code research to predict the future--to the detriment of serious code research.
I use the Bible Codes 2001 software. I have done code research into my name and the personal names of my family. This is a brief overview of the results of my own personal search:
My name is encoded twice in the Bible. It runs backwards: Kennedy Dora L. The odds of just my name being encoded twice are 1 chance in 170. In the most significant matrix, which is the size of a large paragraph, there are numerous occurrences of my middle name, Lynn. One of the " Lynn's" that occurs on the page shares the "L" in Kennedy Dora L. It runs diagonally, pointing down and right to a large cluster of codes that relates to my family. (My name runs vertically down the middle of the matrix.) I was named after my maternal grandmother, Dora Esther. One skip above the L in my name, and running horizontally, is my maternal grandmother's middle name, Esther. My grandfather's name, Nellis, is also in the matrix. I was unsure of the Hebrew spelling of his name. I used two different spellings; one is to the right of my name, under my grandmother's name, the other is to the left of my name. A few skips to the right of my name are the names of my mom and dad. Their names are overlapping. Coming down from my mom's name, is my sister's name. My sister's name is Holly. Her name occurs six times in the matrix. (There are six years between our dates of birth.) Holly died July 17, 2002. Her name, her date of death, and the date of her last birthday, February 8, 2002, form a small, open triangle. One of the tips of the triangle cuts through the heart of my mother's name.
My son's name, Luke, appears numerous times in the matrix--which is to be expected since his name is only a few letters long. One occurrence is toward the bottom of the matrix. The K in his name shares the K in my name. Another occurrence of his name runs vertically across the middle of my name and is just below the name of his father--Doug. The names of my two nieces are also encoded in the matrix. There are numerous family names in the matrix as well, but in order to maintain some privacy, I won't go into all of them.
The matrix also lists some of the jobs that I have held in my life, and the time of the year that I was born--I was born on the first day of spring. There is quite a bit of personal information in the matrix. It even lists the name of the first boy I ever dated--Wayne . The word 'encode' is also found in the matrix. It is actually embedded in my name and shares several of the same letters as my name. Shroud is also found in the matrix, and it was the Shroud of Turin and the Codes that led to my conversion to Christianity. The Codes and the Shroud started me on a search for more evidence. It led me into a study of Biblical prophecies and their fulfilment. It led me into a search for historical, scientific, and archaeological evidence. And much to my shock, despite what I'd been taught in schools and in the media, the evidence was there. If you have never really checked for yourself, please do. The consequences of being wrong in this regard are drastic. I know most people think there are no answers to the skeptics' questions about God, but there are answers. I strongly encourage you to seek them, and through them, God and His Son.
But, back to the Code. The matrix where my name is encoded is very tightly grouped. The odds of this matrix occurring by chance are less than 1 in a million. No one will ever be able to convince me that this matrix is not statistically significant. If you have the software, you can check the accuracy of my research. There are many Bible Code skeptics, and they make some good arguments, but for me, the evidence in favor of the Codes is more convincing.
The purpose of this article is to help you make a reasoned decision about the authority of the Bible.
Why is it important to make a reasoned decision about the authority of the Bible? Because the Bible says in Romans 3:23 that "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." The Bible says that no one enters Heaven unless they've been born again. It says that no one comes unto the Father except through Christ.
Despite what the Bible says, most people consider themselves to be good people. Yet, when the 10 commandments are presented to them, they quickly admit: "Yes. I've lied." "Yes. I've stolen--but it was only something small." "Yes. I've taken God's name in vain, but I'm basically a good person." They're convinced they're a good person, even though they just admitted that they're a liar, a thief, and a blasphemer. The Bible says that all liars, thieves, adulterers, blasphemers, etc. will not see Heaven.
Still, when asked, most people will say that when they die they think they will go to Heaven--even though the Bible tells us that God is a just God and will punish sin.
At this point, most people will say, "But God is merciful. He's a God of love and forgiveness. I think He'll overlook my sins."
But consider an earthly judge. Let's say you're in court. You're guilty. You've broken the law and there is a penalty, but you say to the judge, "Your Honor, I know you're a merciful judge and I'm sure you won't punish me for my crimes."
Do you think he'll let you go? No. If he did, he wouldn't be a just judge. Imagine a world where child molesters, murderers, thieves, and criminals always go unpunished. Judges who allow these criminals to walk away are not just. They are as guilty as those who committed the crimes.
Now let's say that you're back in court awaiting your sentencing. You find out that the court is charging you an enormous fine that you can't possibly pay. But just as you're about to be led away in handcuffs, someone that you don't even know comes into the courtroom and pays your fine for you. How would you feel toward that person? Grateful? I hope so. He just took the punishment for you.
Well, that's what Christ did on the cross for us nearly 2000 years ago. He suffered a terrible, humiliating death, and He paid the penalty for our sins with His blood--so that we could be reconciled to God.
Romans 5:8 puts it this way: "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." And Romans 6:23 tell us that: "The wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That's the good news. In Romans 10:9 the Bible says: "If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, Yield and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved."
For a better presentation of this gospel message, which comes from Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort, see their Website, The Way of the Master. For my Bible Code resources, please see: http://www.biblecodedigest.com/page.php/9 For a full list of resources see: http://www.doralynn.net/BibleCodes.html Thank you for reading.
About the Author
Doralynn Kennedy is the owner and operator of the U.S. Directory. http://www.doralynn.net