The Sacred Page

In the tradition of conspiracy theories is the current interest in the idea that the Bible may contain secret codes, predicting such events as Watergate, the Oklahoma City bombing, the assassination of Yitzak Rabin and the death of Princess Diana. In his 1997 book, The Bible Code, Michael Drosnin claims to have found secret predictions in the Bible for these and other events of note.

The supposed code is based upon "equidistant letter sequence," which is the idea that codes are found by eliminating a certain number of letters or words in order to find "hidden" letters or words. This methodology is supposed to reveal the "death of the Prime Minister" (Rabin) in Genesis 25:11. It is a curious thing how "Abraham" became "Prime Minister" in the translation. It would be easy to imagine that with this technique one could find just about anything he might want to find in the Bible.

Why are some people just not satisfied with the simplicity of Scripture? William Tyndale once vowed that he would translate the Bible so that the plowboy would know more of the Scriptures than the clergy of his day. Paul wrote, "But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3). Isn't it sad that some are attracted to a non-existent code in Scripture rather than to the Christ of Scripture and to a simple and single-hearted devotion to him?