As more people consider possible Armageddon during their lifetime, it is little wonder that the Isaac Newton Bible Code Resear

Whether resting on an altar, courtroom podium, or bedroom nightstand, the Holy Bible commands respect. Christians profess it contains the mind of God and the way of salvation – and that a sinner’s doom awaits its lawbreakers. Although the longest debate about its teachings concerns evolution versus creationism, today’s controversy isn’t generating sermons or atheists’ arguments inasmuch as challenging a standard belief system. The good book is getting a closer look from people learning that past tragedies like September 11, 2001 and the future Apocalypse may actually be encrypted in its 3,200-year-old text.

According to the Bible’s plain text, Moses went to the top of Mount Sinai in 1,200 B.C. and “saw the God of Israel, and there was under his feet a kind of paved work of Sapphire stone.” [1] Legend has it that upon this sapphire stone God wrote the original words of the Bible without break of words. From then on, Hebrew scribes kept the Torah as an unbroken string of characters, for it was their opinion the letters were symbols that would reveal a greater truth. In training, a strict warning was passed down to them: “Should you perchance omit or add one single letter from the Torah, you would thereby destroy all the universe.”

The Christian New Testament points to such precision at Matthew 5:18, wherein Jesus said:

“I tell you the truth, until Heaven and Earth disappear, not the smallest letter, nor the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law (Torah) until everything is accomplished.”

Passages such as this beg interpretation. Jesus obviously knew something that no one else did – and this motivated curious revolutionaries to explore the unthinkable.

Hunting for hidden messages began back to at least the 12^th century when rabbinical scholars wrote about unearthing secret messages in the Torah. Their writings would later inspire Sir Isaac Newton, born in 1642, who is best remembered for discovering gravity and the mechanics of the solar system. But Newton also spent many years searching for codes, judging from the ample amount of paperwork found at Cambridge University in England. He clearly believed the prophecies of Daniel and John wouldn’t be understood until the end of history. Shortly before his death in 1727, he wrote:

“[The Bible] is a cryptogram set by the Almighty … a riddle of the Godhead of past and future events divinely fore-ordained. This prophecy is called the Revelation, with respect to the Scripture of Truth, which Daniel was commanded to shut up and seal, till the time of the end. Until that time comes, the Lamb is opening the seals.”

When Newton spoke of “the Lamb opening the seals” he alluded to the Book of Revelation 5:1-3, in which Saint John experienced a vision of Heaven. John claimed he saw God holding the Book of Life fastened with seven seals and an angel proclaiming loudly: “Who is worthy to open the book and loose the seals thereof?” The text continues: “No man in Heaven or Earth, neither under the Earth, was able to open the book, or to look thereon.” He then witnesses a lamb “as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the Earth.” [2]

Though John’s vision chiefly involved God’s judgment of Earth as a vindication of the church’s martyrs, the latter part of the scripture focuses on spiritual warfare between evil forces and God’s people.

The mystery of the seven seals lead Newton to presume that conflicts surrounding Christ’s Second Coming would arise in stages. He would write avidly on the subject but would keep his observations confidential. Historians speculate that he was trying to avoid the same fate as his predecessor, Galileo. Regrettably, the Vatican had sentenced Galileo to life imprisonment for refusing to retract his theory that the Earth revolved around the sun.

Though Newton was apparently alone in his quest for deeper truths, Michael Bar Weissmandl, a Slovakian rabbi, would pick up where Newton left off more than two centuries later.

During the Holocaust of World War II, Weissmandl studied the Hebrew scribes’ ancient writings before Nazis sent Weissmandl and his family to an Auschwitz death camp in 1944. He alone managed to escape, taking two copies of the Torah and 13^th century works referencing the codes. Eventually he continued his research in America but the devastating grief he felt for his family lead to his death in 1957.

Weissmandl is now heralded as the pioneer of Equidistant Letter Sequence (ELS) because he noticed that if he skipped fifty letters, then another fifty, and another fifty – the word Torah was spelled out at the beginning of the Book of Genesis. The same skip sequence again spelled out Torah in the Books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Yet as profound as this finding was, such insight wouldn’t allow for his decoding the Bible’s 304,805 characters. The code had a time lock with its key awaiting invention for over a quarter of a century: the modern-day computer.

Dr. Eliyahu Rips, a renowned mathematician specializing in group theory [3] , wasn’t thinking about the Apocalypse when he was working on a brainteaser back in the late 80’s. Rips first heard about ELS from a rabbi in Jerusalem who mentioned it, then proceeded to find the only copy of the Hebrew Old Testament at the National Library of Israel. He began writing a program that searched strands of letters using Weissmandl’s method and made a breakthrough. By skipping any equal number of letters, using a system of adding every fifth, tenth or fiftieth letter, he saw that germane words were formed.

Author Michael Drosnin, whose 1997 book The Bible Code publicized this discovery, demonstrated the mechanics of Rips’s method with his own four-letter skip sequence:

Rips explained that each code is a case of adding every fourth or twelfth or fiftieth letter to form a word.

Rips would then present compelling empirical evidence that the Bible was written by an intelligence far beyond the abilities if mankind. It would then be argued that ELS could be nothing more than random criss-crossing; a foolish fad that could be used with any book. Yet in experiment after experiment, the crossword patterns were found only in the Bible – not in any other book or in ten million computerized test cases. While it’s true ELS can be applied to any text to spell out words, it’s the number of significant words clustered in just the right places that makes the discovery so extraordinary.

Skeptics countered that the existence of a hidden language is a misleading concept diverting Christians from the truth: that God has already granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness. Scientists, who are traditionally less religious, wanted proof. Soon an investigation unfolded that would render astounding, if not miraculous, results.

Scientific peer groups reviewed Rips’s phenomenon for four years in the United States before the information was printed in the prominent Statistical Science Journal in 1994. The theory, which they scientifically called theomatics, perplexed them. While they couldn’t fault Rips’s evidence, they couldn’t believe it. Rips had found the names of 32 sages who lived and died long after biblical times encoded with their dates of birth and death. The odds of this happening were reportedly one in ten million.

Meanwhile, Harold Gans, a senior code-breaker at a top secret National Security Agency in Washington, D.C., heard about the amazing claim and decided it was the product of Rips’s fertile imagination. He even wrote a computer program to prove how wrong the doctor was. But after 440 hours, Gans wound up replicating Rips’s work. In disbelief, he looked for data that the doctor never tried to find. He was sure the names of the cities where the 32 sages lived and died couldn’t be found. When he found them, he was flabbergasted.

Now that theomatics has been proven mathematically, it would seem that the theory would make front-page headlines. But many people still refuse to accept it or fear the ridicule of their family, friends, or co-workers. How can a book be written to include precise details of future events? Ironically, though no one can answer this question, few people can deny the truths of the past.

In June of 1992, Michael Drosnin, then a reporter for the Washington Post, was in Israel meeting with the Chief of Israeli Intelligence about the future of warfare. Upon leaving, an officer told Drosnin about Dr. Eliyahu Rips who learned the exact date the Gulf War would begin from a code buried in the Bible. Drosnin considered the notion far-fetched but paid him a visit out of curiosity.

Drosnin soon met Dr. Rips, a modest man in spite of his academic and professional successes. Though Drosnin expected the doctor would show him the Bible to illustrate the Gulf War code, Rips instead went to his computer. Hebrew letters were highlighted in five different colors, crossword-style. He then gave Drosnin a printout wherein Hussein, Scuds, and Russian missile were arranged together in Genesis. The full code sequence stated Hussein pick a day. Rips further referenced Genesis Chapter 14, finding the Hebrew calendar equivalent of January 18, 1991 within the story of Abraham’s wars. Incredibly, this was the date Iraq had launched the first missile against Israel. Rips told him he had uncovered the code three weeks before the war began.

The sign that would make a lasting impression on Drosnin was about Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin. In 1994, Rips saw Rabin’s name cross with the words assassin that will assassinate, Tel Aviv and again cross the Hebrew year starting in late September 1995. A troubled Drosnin forewarned Rabin in a letter, indicating Rips’s other findings:

“This should not be ignored, because the assassinations of Anwar Sadat and both John and Robert Kennedy are also encoded in the Bible.”

Drosnin’s efforts to save Rabin failed when in November 1995 Rabin died from a gunshot wound to his back.

As if the murder of Yitzhak Rabin was not disturbing enough, The End was observed four times in the Bible’s original five books. Drosnin noticed that the only place where End of Days was seen, Arafat also appeared along with E. Barak.

When Drosnin informed Rips, it was his opinion that Arafat’s involvement had ominous overtones. Therefore, when it was announced in July 2000 that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat would meet with President Clinton for peace talks at Camp David, Drosnin sent Clinton a letter that warned:

“The stakes are even higher than you may imagine. The alternative is starkly stated in the Bible code, the real Armageddon, a nuclear world war starting in the Middle East.”

Clinton never responded and the Camp David talks failed. Ariel Sharon, who opposed the peace plan, became the new Prime Minister of Israel and George W. Bush was elected President – all foreseen in a code giving names of those involved, crossing the phrase End of Days. Rips calculated the odds of such a complex matrix appearing and discovered it was a million to one.

With Rips’s guidance, Drosnin would realize that the Bible code predicted everything from World War II to Watergate, from the Holocaust to Hiroshima, from the moon landing to one of largest cataclysms in American history: September 11, 2001.

Interestingly, the notorious mystic Nostradamus, who died in 1556, intimated that an attack on New York could happen. He wrote: “The world garden near the new city in the road of the hollow mountains will be seized and plunged in the tank.” [4] Some interpreters have guessed that the expression ‘hollow mountains’ was Nostradamus’s best description for skyscrapers. Although critics are justified in exposing his followers for failing to predict 9/11, they can’t fault Drosnin for trying.

On September 10^th, 2001, Michael Drosnin phoned the White House to verify that President George W. Bush received the letter he had sent him. He was told that Chief of Staff, Andrew Card, and National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, received it. This letter was sent more than a month earlier warning Bush that the United States might face World War III during his term.

Drosnin, who had since learned Hebrew, located a code in 1993 containing Bush, Arafat, and Sharon with the time of danger foretold by all three major Western religions – The End of Days. The very next day, he awoke in his Manhattan apartment to the sound of a massive boom and watched in horror as an airplane crashed into the second of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers. The destruction he witnessed came in a radio news report that confirmed New York was indeed under attack.

Additionally, Dr. Rips would find Osama bin Laden’s name with a guilty verdict in Genesis: the sin, the crime of bin Laden where the city and the tower were spotted. Pentagon was also crossed by damaged and emergency followed by Arabia, alluding to the attack on the Pentagon by Saudi Arabian terrorists.

Another bizarre aspect of this phenomenon was that Eliyahu Rips’s name was found as well. Drosnin examined the Hebrew word for book, sefer, which was spelled out with the same three letters as sapphire – the original material on which the Bible was engraved when Moses received it from God. As if gazing into a mirror, he saw the Hebrew word for sapphire in reverse spelled Rips. This strange turn of events would be echoed in the words of the prophet Isaiah, who once said: “To see the future you must look backwards.” These Hebrew words can be translated to mean: “Read the letters in reverse.”

While it seems that we are witnessing a revelation of immense proportions, world leaders stay focused on modern politics. But without any natural or earthly explanation about this phenomenon it would be difficult at best to convince even one politician.

While a code has yet to be found denoting Satan’s power, devout Christians still hold firmly to the idea that the beast knows his time is short. They are convinced that he will stop at nothing to prevent God’s people from coming to their own God-ordained conclusions. Many say that the terrorism we are seeing today is blatant proof of Satan’s wrath.

Since the 2002 publication of Drosnin’s second book, The Countdown, more unsettling ELS’s have been sited. Lung health is the subject of a matrix in Deuteronomy 28:58-63 with hints of the SARS [5] virus. The Hebrew years for 2004 and 2005 appear with codes indicating an acceleration of the epidemic. The bottom line about very sick lungs states that they no longer function, and the last term states no breathing.

In April 2004, the Chinese Ministry of Health reported eight possible SARS cases – six in Bejing and two in Anhui Province. One patient died, and nearly 1,000 contacts of these patients with possible SARS were under medical observation. In light of this information, the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, recommended that all United States physicians maintain a greater index of suspicion for SARS in patients. To date, health care providers know that patients with a travel history to mainland China are considered high risk for the disease.

A cluster in Deuteronomy targets 2006 as the year of an atomic holocaust and it will strike them, to destroy and annihilate all overlap world war. There is also a second matrix that contains sign in the sky, red star and visible in daylight.

On January 8, 2002, astronomers took optical images of a giant planet-like body orbiting a sun-like star, making it the closest ever observed around a star through direct imaging. The object has since become known as a brown dwarf though it casts red light. The exact date in 2006 to view this star is currently unknown. As unsettling as it may be, we will have to rely on the accuracy of the Hubble telescope for a further update.

Natural disasters appear in Leviticus 14:18 with great earthquake and Japan in the years 2002 and 2006. A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 already shook southwestern Japan in November 2002. This quake didn’t cause significant damage because it was located 22 miles beneath the ocean. However, officials said that if it had been centered under a populated area, like Tokyo, there would have been enormous devastation.

The year 2010 has horrendous implications, combined with comet, days of horror, darkness and gloom. Eerily, the word crater crosses India twice, suggesting an impact from outer space. Also in that year, the word Etna occurs four times throughout Exodus and Deuteronomy. Etna, situated along the coast of Sicily, is one of the world's most active volcanoes with a long record of eruptions. But it is not the only volcano to be watched.

Yellowstone, also found in the sequence, is intermingled with the words choking, toxicosis [6] , dust, ash, darkness and dimming. Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming is the site of what scientists call a “super-volcano” which sleeps under a large part of the national park area. It is long overdue to erupt. A giant crater that can only be seen from space was formed 640,000 years ago by the last explosion. Humans didn’t exist then, but experts know its effects; a herd of fossilized rhinos was found under the ash layer a thousand miles away.

The year 2012 also appears in Deuteronomy with the word comet, it will be crumbled, I will tear it to pieces and Earth annihilated. This could well turn out to be a mass extinction event. It has become common knowledge that the Earth has already been hit by cosmic debris, and that dinosaurs met with extinction due to a devastating asteroid impact. Yet unlike the 1998 film Deep Impact in which survivors freely roam Earth afterward, a comet hit would cause our planet to turn dark and cold for several years before becoming unusually hot. Survivors would likely seek the highest mountains for refuge to avoid breathing in cosmic dust and gases.

Since a nuclear war in the Middle East isn’t impossible and large objects from space have already struck the Earth in the past, some trust in the probability of biblical indicators and also look for straightforward signs. For example, Isaiah 2:2 reads:

“In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations shall stream to it.”

Some think the temple referenced in this scripture could only mean St. Mary’s of Zion Church in the highlands of Axum, Ethiopia. This holy site is thought to be a place of safety and that the Ark of the Covenant is housed there. According to sources, the temple in Axum could provide good protection from tsunami [7] and huge winds.

Like those relying on bomb shelters when the nuclear threat from Russia occurred in the early 50’s, some are planning a 2006 exodus to escape the end. Presently there are over 600,000 websites devoted to the Bible code, signaling a subculture of believers exists. One can safely assume that one-way plane tickets to Axum will seem priceless if we are indeed attacked in 2006.

Currently Israeli code-search software is available online, giving customers the ability to search for codes confidently throughout the Torah. According to ancient Jewish beliefs, everything is encrypted in some way in the Torah: one’s birth date, date of death, when one will marry, etc.

Bible Codes 2000 creates reports on finds that include skips, books, chapters, verses and letter locations, as well as letter numbers. It also contains a Hebrew font, a dictionary, name databases, and creates matrices. The compact disc costs about $50 and is shipped directly from Israel.

Andy McCracken, whose Exodus 2006 website receives more than a million hits per month, is planning for the extreme worst. As ridiculous as it looks to cynics, McCracken provides for steps one should take if World War III should break out. Some of the items on his list of items to bring to Ethiopia include: cold weather survival gear, five years worth of basic rations, water purification equipment and medicines of all kinds. A visa from the Ethiopian embassy must be acquired in one’s country before traveling there. He also adds that anyone going to Ethiopia must first receive a Yellow Fever vaccination.

In Sydney, Australia, author Michael Drosnin spoke to Between the Lines Editor, Wendy Cavenett, about the important prophetic information he alleges the code contains. In an interview he said:

“Many religious leaders - from every faith - are troubled, feel threatened by a Bible that is no longer cut in stone … I don't feel threatened by it. I'm in awe of it, impressed by it, I want to know more. I have no instinct to worship the encoder but I certainly would like to know who the encoder is and how the future can be known.”

Though Drosnin certainly sounds sincere, the question must now be asked: Could the Bible code really be false prophecy? Perhaps it’s best to examine what Jesus said regarding the end times and untruths. Upon leaving the temple He told his disciples: "I tell you the truth, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down." [8] When asked when this incident would transpire, Jesus answered:

“Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that ye be not troubled for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes. All these are the beginning of sorrows… and many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.” [9]

Although over 2,000 years have passed since these poignant words were spoken, they still carry a distinct chill. One can’t help but recall that Mother Earth has an expiration date. Still, it’s comforting to think that end times paranoia is merely a by-product of millennium fever.

Even if Eli Rips is entirely wrong about a secret language concealed in the Bible’s gauzy pages, it’s difficult to disagree with his logic when he says: “It isn’t a prediction but a warning of what can happen, according to what we do.” His testimony serves to remind believers and skeptics alike of a verse that needs no interpretation: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” [10] While we may never be fully convinced that another side to the Holy Bible exists, its haunting truths continue to make it the greatest story ever told.

Sources

[3] Group theory: field of math that underlies quantum physics

[5] Severe Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome

[6] A condition resulting from poisoning

[10] Galatians 6:7-8

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