It Is Written | THE BIBLE MATRIX #1013-2 Store My Account Contact Site Map Home TV Program Events Resources Studies Make a Gift Partners About Us Program Outlines & Online Viewing | Upcoming Programs | Stations | Program Archives | Production | Global Television IT IS WRITTEN Television Series THE BIBLE MATRIX We can’t assume that because a computer finds interesting words hidden like a giant crossword puzzle in the text of the Bible that those words are the Word of God, because some of the things people are finding in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament are plainly contradictory to the word of God. For example, consider what Dr. James Price, Bible code skeptic and professor of Hebrew at Temple Baptist Seminary found in the so-called Bible code. Some Christian writers claim to find the name of Jesus encoded in the Old Testament, and cite it as proof of the validity of the code, so Dr. Price decided to see what he could find. Starting in Isaiah 53, at the end of a famous Messianic prophecy, Dr. Price starting counting backward every 20 letters in the Hebrew, and he found a rather startling sentence about Jesus. It said, “I desire after treachery, Jesus is my violent name.” Now obviously, this is not a message from God inspired by the Holy Spirit! The Bible tells us that Jesus is God’s beloved Son, the sinless Lamb of God, but then the so-called code tells us that He is not. And Dr. Price was able to find several other phrases in the so-called code that referred to the name of God as an abomination. Something must be wrong. Maybe the code isn’t really from God. In fact, maybe the code doesn’t exist at all. There are a number of reasons as a minister of the gospel that I am uncomfortable with the Bible code theory. For starters, Michael Drosnin makes a number of claims for the code that are simply unbiblical. Now I realize that Drosnin is not the only one writing about the code and that some God-fearing Christians have also written about it—but because Drosnin’s book is by far the most popular, I think it is important to examine some of the claims he makes. For starters, Drosnin downplays the importance of the Bible itself in favor of the code. Let me read you what he says: “The Bible is not only a book—it is also a computer program. It was first chiseled in stone and handwritten on a parchment scroll, finally printed as a book, waiting for us to catch up with it by inventing a computer. Now it can be read as it was always intended to be read.” The insinuation is that for more than 3,500 years, nobody has been able to read the Bible the way God intended, because they didn’t have computers. But the Bible itself doesn’t talk about computers as an aid to deciphering the Bible. Instead, it talks about the Holy Spirit. You see, there is no question that some things about God are hard to understand, and there are things in the Bible you have to dig to find, but you don’t need a computer to do it. Notice what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2:10: (1 Cor. 2:10 KJV) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- “But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.” --------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is no mention of a computer. There is no mention of a mathematical code, or equidistant letter sequencing. The key to spiritual knowledge is not your PC, it’s the Holy Spirit. And unless you are studying the Bible in cooperation with the Holy Spirit, you will not discover the deep things about God, no matter how clever you might happen to be. Paul goes on to say in the 14th verse: (1 Cor. 2:14 KJV) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Drosnin claims to have found a key to modern prophetic knowledge in the Bible code, a new revelation. But at the same time, he admits that he doesn’t even believe in God. And the fact that the name of Jesus Christ doesn’t come up even once in the book is clear confirmation that he is on the wrong track, because the Bible—part and parcel—is about Jesus. As He held up the Scriptures to the people of His day in John 5:39, He said “This book testifies of Me.” Jesus is the central theme of the Bible. He is found behind every chapter, every page and every verse. Everything in the Bible points to Him. And yet, according to Drosnin’s Bible code research, nothing points to Christ. His name never even comes up. And that tells me something is wrong with Mr. Drosnin’s theory. But that’s not all that bothers me. Michael Drosnin also makes some claims for the code—perhaps unwittingly—that simply aren’t true. For example, he repeatedly claims, as do other Bible code researchers, that the code is only found in the Bible. He says it doesn’t work with other books. But that’s simply not true. One clever person—at least—has discovered many famous assassinations encoded in the text of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. You can find incredible bone-chilling details of the assassinations of Indira Gandhi, Leon Trotsky, Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert Kennedy, John Kennedy, Princess Diana, Abraham Lincoln, and—of all people—Yitzhak Rabin. Prev 1 2 3 Next Home | TV Program | Events | Resources | Studies | Make A Gift | Partners | About Us It Is Written Television · Box O, Thousand Oaks, CA 91359 · Tel 805-955-7733 · Fax 805-955-7734 ©Copyright 2004, It Is Written International Television. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | webmaster@iiw.org