Recently, someone posted a question on our Endtime Prophecy Org messageboard
regarding the so-called Bible Codes. I would like to share my response to
that person with you.

First of all, there is a lot of controversy surrounding the so-called Bible
Codes. My personal advice is that Christians do not involve themselves with
the so-called Bible Codes, because it is my belief that if one tries hard
enough, he can make the Bible Codes say just about anything that he wants
them to say.

The so-called Bible Codes are based on a research technique referred to as
ELS, or Equidistant Letter Sequences, which was first made popular by
journalist Michael Drosnin in his 1997 book "The Bible Code". Drosnin, who
is an atheist, wrote a sequel to the book in 2002 called "Bible Code II: The
Countdown", and from what I have read, a third book is currently being
written. While I didn't read the second book, I did read Drosnin's first
book, as well as another book which was written as a rebuttal to Drosnin's
first book.

While the oldest Bible manuscripts were written in Hebrew and Greek, and
Hebrew is the preferred language for using the ELS system, a lot of people
today also use other languages, including English, and the King James Bible,
in order to supposedly find hidden mysteries and prophecies in the Bible.
The original "discoveries" concerning the ELS system were made by several
Jewish researchers who conducted an experiment in which they looked for the
names of rabbis in the Hebrew Torah.

In the ELS system, one counts and selects an alphabetical character every so
many letters -- such as say every seventh letter -- in order to form words,
phrases and messages.

It is claimed that by doing this, one will find new, hidden words and
phrases in the same general area of the Bible text, which are related to
each other in some way, and which will convey some hidden message or yet
unfulfilled prophecy. People have come up with all kinds of theories as a
result of using this technique.

Following is a simple example of how the ELS system works. If you take the
first letter of the following sentence, and then also select every fourth
letter after that in the first four words, "just over high noon" -- spaces
between words are eliminated so that you have one continuous string of
letters -- you will discover the name "John". That is basically how the ELS
system works:

Just over high noon, nine shots were heard in the town.

In other words...

Just Over High Noon

Please notice the letters that I have capitalized.

As I said, if one tries hard enough, and long enough, he will eventually
find something that seems to be connected, and seems to make sense.

A number of different computer programs have been written, and sold, in
order to make using the ELS system a lot easier. In my view, it is all about
money and profit.

To reiterate, personally, I don't put much faith in the Bible Codes, because
they are so easy to manipulate, and the results can be interpreted in so
many different ways...but that is just my opinion. As I have told my readers
before, there is so much in the plain black and white text of the Bible that
we still don't fully understand, that I really don't think that we need to
go digging around, using questionable analytical techniques, in order to try
to discover something new and exciting, which may or may not be true or
valid.

For more detailed information regarding the ELS system, and its history,
consider doing some online research, such as by using the search phrase
"Bible Code" at Wikipedia.


Jeff Snyder, SysOp - Armageddon BBS  Visit us at endtimeprophecy.org port 23
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your Download Center 4 Mac BBS Software & Christian Files.  We Use Hermes II


--- Hermes Web Tosser 1.1