Bible Codes
John Fok
Bible Codes
Hello,
I am sorry I am afraid I cannot endorse your prayer at the present
moment.
Before we accept or reject an idea or statement, the most important
thing for us to do is to carry out an intensive research in order to
prevent blindly follow or reject anything.
1. COMMENTS ON PAKIE'S PASSAGE
I would like to comment your opinions and clarify some misundertood
points regarding the discovery of Bible Codes as follows:
> Pakie <9522...@polyu.edu.hk> wrote:
> Did you hear a news that some people use computer and some strange
> method to find out what they called the "code" in Bible. They said
> that there are lot of hidden codes in the Bible. They claimed that
> these codes correctly predicted the past and thus they predict when the
> End of the world would come in within a certain years.
No, they haven't said that these codes correctly predicted the End of
the world. The author of the book said that these Codes are not crystal
ball to predict the future.
First, the discovered Bible Codes only shows "2000 Atomic Holocaust,
2006 Atomic Holocaust." We cannot base on these simple words to predict
that the End of the World would come in 2000 or 2006.
Second, "atomic holocaust" does not necessarily means the End of the
World because Japan suffered from atomic bombs during the World War 2,
but still exits today. We can simply imply that there may be wars in the
years 2000 and 2006 with nuclear weapons.
The Holy Bible contains a lot of Bible Prophecies regarding the future,
some of them have mentioned about wars. Read the book of Revelation; 2
Peter 3:10; Matthew 24:3-51; Daniel; Isaiah; Ezekiel; etc. Atomic wars
doesn't necessarily mean the End of the world!
> Of-couse, no one know what is the date of the End of the world as the
> Truth from the the Bible said.
Yes, no one know what is the exact date of the End of the world (Matthew
24:36).
> So, we could have a short conclusion
> that they are telling people the wrong thing.
No, you could not base on Matthew 24:36 to draw any conclusion at the
present moment. We still need to know more the research method of the
discovery of Bible Codes and also need to compare the Prophecy contained
in the Bible Codes with the well-known Bible Prophecy (i.e. Eschatology)
taught by Theological Seminaries and orthodox traditional Christian
churches before we could reject the validity of the discovery of Bible
Codes. We should be "conservative", "careful" and "positive" when
confronting any new ideas. As a genuine Christian, we should not blindly
follow or reject anything.
Your conclusion is invalid due to the following points:
1. "2000 holocaust and 2006 holocause doesn't necessarily mean the end
of the world. It only indicates possible nuclear wars in 2000 and 2006.
2. Matthew 24:36 only tells us that "but of that day and hour no one
knows." That is to say, no one knows the day and hour of the End of the
World, but it may be possible that we could know the year. Please read
Matthew 24:36 again and carefully. Read English, Chinese and Greek
versions of the Holy Bible, if necessary.
It may be possible that the God allows His servants (i.e. some devout
Christians, Prophets, Bible scholars, pastors, church leaders, elders,
Jews, etc.) to know the year.
For examples, the God told Noah to build the Ark to prepare for the
coming Genesis Flood, Lots escape the destruction of Sodom (Read
Genesis).
> But what important here
> is that they use Bible as their tool to increase their reputation.
No, how can you know about their hearts and minds? The Bible taught us
that we should not judge the mind of the other people because we don't
have such ability. Only the God can know the mind of men.
First, such Bible Codes research have been carrying out for several
years by a lot of scientists, mathematicians, computer experts, etc, and
such information has been published in some scientific journals,
therefore we cannot guess "they use Bible as their tool to increase
their reputation" unless we have some solid and sufficient evidence to
prove this.
Second, after the discovery of the Bible Codes, the researchers
suspected that the Bible Codes are so complicated that it is impossible
for human beings to write the Bible, they admitted that the Bible Codes
may be treated as a evidence to proof the inspiration of the Holy Bible.
You see, the discovery of Bible Codes shows that the Bible is come from
the true God, it is a testimony to the existence of a true God.
Therefore, the reputation of the Holy Bible is further improved.
> Non-christian may then have a wrong concept or view about Bible and
> Christian.
No, it only shows that the Bible is the inspiration of the God due to
the complexity of the Bible Codes.
All people including Christians and non-Christians will have some wrong
concepts or view about Bible if we don't study it diligently and
regularly. Some Christians think that they understand the Bible,
however, their Bible knowledge may be too superficial to comprehend some
important Bible Prophecies. In order to prevent any wrong concept or
misunderstanding, open mind, diligent research and don't blindly follow
or reject anything are the golden rules.
> Let's pray for this matter: more people could received the Truth from Bible.
I will pray for more people including Christians and non-Christians
could receive the Truth from Bible.
2. CORRECT WAYS TO UNDERSTAND BIBLE PROPHECIES
Let's forget the discovery of the Bible Codes at this moment. I would
like to tell you something about the correct ways to understand Bible
Prophecies.
1. compare the suspected prophecies with the Holy Scriptures to see any
contradictions or convergence. For examples, the Second Coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ, if it is true, then such prophecy should be appeared
throughout the Bible chapters instead of only single verse. In this
case, the book of Revelation, Matthew, Thessalonians, and various Bible
chapters also contained such reference, therefore we can accept such
concept safely from the view point of Christians (of course,
non-Christians still will not believe this.).
In case of the Bible Codes, we can compare "2000 & 2006 holocausts" with
the traditional orthodox view of Bible Prophecy regarding the future
wars and signs of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, in order
to verify its correctness, any similarities, any contradictions, etc.
Consult your church pastors, elders, theological seminaries, books
written by Bible scholars if you have any questions regarding the
traditional orthodox view of Bible Prophecy.
Read the books written by Bible scholars e.g. "The Coming Prince by Sir
Robert Anderson (AD 1841 - 1916)" and "Things to Come - A Study on
Biblical Eschatology by Dr. J. Dwight Pentecost (1958)" or visit my
Bible study web site, courses "Bible Prophecy & the book of Revelation,
at: http://home.hkstar.com/~johnfok1.
2. The Bible taught us that we could understand some Bible Prophecies by
counting or calculation (Read Revelation 13:18; 2 Peter 3:8). If you
have sufficient spiritual intelligence or wisdom, then you could know
more about some Bible Prophecies, let's pray for this.
3. The Bible told us that some people will read and study the Bible
Prophecies diligently. As a result, in latter days some people will know
more about the signs of the End times, but some people still don't
understand (Read Daniel 12:4, 8-10).
4. "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the
prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is
near (Read Revelation 1:3).
3. CONTROVERSIAL POINTS REGARDING THE PROPOSED BIBLE CODES
Returning to the discovery of the Bible Codes, I think that some points
are quite controversial such as:
1. Is it appropriate to delete all spaces between words? Will it distort
the original meaning of the Bible chapters?
2. Is it appropriate to skip some words in the word strings in order to
read these Bible Codes? Different screening methods may yield totally
different results.
3. Is it appropriate to use computers to unlock the secrets of Bible
Codes or prophecies? The Bible is supposed to be understood by simple
men. Computers are only invented by human beings and widely available in
recent years. Not every people are computer experts.
4. CONCLUSION
We cannot accept or reject the discovery of Bible Codes at the present
moment because we don't have sufficient information. I neither approve
nor reject the discovery of the Bible Codes at the present moment
because I still need to know more information.
5. RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Believe and accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour now. The God
will let humble men and children of the God to know more about Bible
Prophecies.
2. For all people, study the Holy Bible diligently and regularly.
3. For mature Christians who have possessed extensive Bible knowledge,
please get more information regarding the Bible Codes and also compare
with the traditional orthodox Bible Prophecies (Eschatology) to see any
similarities or contradictions.
4. For young Christians who only have possessed superficial Bible
knowledge, please ignore the Bible Codes at this moment because you
don't have the ability to determine or verify its correctness.
Therefore, don't waste time in Bible Codes. Allocate more time in
reading the Bible especially the four Gospels.
Please visit my Bible study web site at:
網上聖經課程 Bible Studies On The Internet
http://home.hkstar.com/~johnfok1
My mission statement is:
Bible knowledge accessible world-wide. Both Chinese and English Bible
courses are available.
God bless you.
Yours in Christ,
John K.C. Fok
Hong Kong
22 June 1997