The Bible Code
Joined: May 2002
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Originally posted by TimTheFoolMan
JonBoy,
I've picked up the book several times, read a chapter or two, and felt that I had a "feel" for its content. After that, doing a bit of research presented enough contrary evidence to make me highly suspicious of the authors' work. As I mentioned earlier, read the link that Fear Itself posted. There is, suffice it to say, lots of evidence that their analysis of War & Peace was flawed at best. (The key point is that THE AUTHORS looked at other books. When others have used the same technique to examine various texts, they had no difficulty in reproducing the results.)
JonBoy,
I've picked up the book several times, read a chapter or two, and felt that I had a "feel" for its content. After that, doing a bit of research presented enough contrary evidence to make me highly suspicious of the authors' work. As I mentioned earlier, read the link that Fear Itself posted. There is, suffice it to say, lots of evidence that their analysis of War & Peace was flawed at best. (The key point is that THE AUTHORS looked at other books. When others have used the same technique to examine various texts, they had no difficulty in reproducing the results.)
[B][QUOTE]As for being open-minded, yes, I tend to be. However, to suggest that the Bible contains a secret code (numeric, or otherwise derived) that will reveal the future, is (in my opinion) inconsistent with the rest of the text.
Joined: Nov 2001
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From: Louisville
Originally posted by JonBoy
Alrighty - it seemed from your previous statements that you'd only read the back of the book or something.
Alrighty - it seemed from your previous statements that you'd only read the back of the book or something.
[QUOTE][B]Not sure why you would believe this.
Joined: May 2002
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Originally posted by TimTheFoolMan
I've not read the entire book, but I've done what I typically do in bookstores... read most of the first and last chapters, and a couple of pages from places throughout.
It's actually somewhat relevant. The "code" of Daniel and Revelation was well-known to Jews, as it was common when they were in captivity.
I've not read the entire book, but I've done what I typically do in bookstores... read most of the first and last chapters, and a couple of pages from places throughout.
It's actually somewhat relevant. The "code" of Daniel and Revelation was well-known to Jews, as it was common when they were in captivity.
[B][QUOTE]When I said it's not predicting the future, that's not quite accurate. What I meant was, I don't see it as "end-times prophecy." It appears to be clearly directed toward the current time that John was living in. For more on Dr. Blevins analysis of Revelation, see the following link:Revelation as Drama Intro
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From: Chicago
Damn, the belief that a few lines in a few books of the Bible are meant to apply literally to the whole collection is beyond comprehension. The writers of the books of the bible used many literary devices to convey the message. Are we really going to hell if we use new cloth to mend an old coat, or do you think that maybe that was simply a literary device to make a point?
When a particular line is translated, it is sometimes not clear what it means, due to the vast differences in languages, from Hebrew and Greek to Latin to English. To presume that the English tranlation in your hand is the actual letter-for-letter Word of God is ridiculous. I have a Bible, and when I get bored and watch those fundementalist religious shows and check their text against my copy, I find differences that certainly alter the tone of the passage. The Catholic Church says my copy is correct, and since the Catholic Church has been around far longer than any of the Protestant sects that claim the English-translated Bible is the flawless Word of God, guess who I am going to believe? However, "correctness" is not all that relevant.
Those who argue that the Bible contains the unaltered Word of God are missing the point. These books are valuable reading, as they contain the knowledge of thousands of years, and one should come away from them with a sense that God does not reward war-like people who force their ways on others, but rather intends peace and love and tolerance as guiding principles.
To my limited knowledge, the Bible doesn't mention prophecies hidden in texts. God works in mysterious ways, but God doesn't hide His message from us. That would be counter-productive. The books of the old and new testaments are preserved to pass knowledge through the generations. If there were prophecies to be made, they would be preserved in plain text, not hidden in some elaborate code.
When a particular line is translated, it is sometimes not clear what it means, due to the vast differences in languages, from Hebrew and Greek to Latin to English. To presume that the English tranlation in your hand is the actual letter-for-letter Word of God is ridiculous. I have a Bible, and when I get bored and watch those fundementalist religious shows and check their text against my copy, I find differences that certainly alter the tone of the passage. The Catholic Church says my copy is correct, and since the Catholic Church has been around far longer than any of the Protestant sects that claim the English-translated Bible is the flawless Word of God, guess who I am going to believe? However, "correctness" is not all that relevant.
Those who argue that the Bible contains the unaltered Word of God are missing the point. These books are valuable reading, as they contain the knowledge of thousands of years, and one should come away from them with a sense that God does not reward war-like people who force their ways on others, but rather intends peace and love and tolerance as guiding principles.
To my limited knowledge, the Bible doesn't mention prophecies hidden in texts. God works in mysterious ways, but God doesn't hide His message from us. That would be counter-productive. The books of the old and new testaments are preserved to pass knowledge through the generations. If there were prophecies to be made, they would be preserved in plain text, not hidden in some elaborate code.
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Yes, new prophecies will not be told until the messianic times...but that does not preclude anyone from finding new meaning in His Name. Each parsha has 70 facets, and each year has 52 parshim. The entire Torah is read over a period of 7 years...7*52*70=25,480 views on each word,letter and space in Torah!!! Consider how many words, letters and spaces there are...multiply that by 25,480 and you find plenty of room for us to discover new meaning every day for all eternity. There is a Midrash that says "Just as water makes many sounds, so is the Torah heard in many voices." Who are we to judge the opinion of one person as being better or worse than that of another? My words are not more or less sacred than yours, and same goes with the guy who wrote the Bible Code book. It's all Gd's work after all. Maybe His purpose in creating the man to write the book was for us to get along with each other in this conversation? 
Even a sin is a mitzvah if it leads to teshuva.
Even a sin is a mitzvah if it leads to teshuva.