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    Back To The Future

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    Neutron Zion
    The document discusses a technique called Equidistant Letter Sequencing (ELS) that claims to find hidden messages in the Bible by analyzing skip patterns in the Hebrew text. While ELS advocates claim it predicted the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, many critics argue the methodology is flawed and the findings are not convincing evidence of predictive power.

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    Back To The Future

    Uploaded by

    Neutron Zion
    14 views2 pages
    The document discusses a technique called Equidistant Letter Sequencing (ELS) that claims to find hidden messages in the Bible by analyzing skip patterns in the Hebrew text. While ELS advocates claim it predicted the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, many critics argue the methodology is flawed and the findings are not convincing evidence of predictive power.

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    Back to the Future

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    The document discusses a technique called Equidistant Letter Sequencing (ELS) that claims to find hidden messages in the Bible by analyzing skip patterns in the Hebrew text. While ELS advocates claim it predicted the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, many critics argue the methodology is flawed and the findings are not convincing evidence of predictive power.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    14 views2 pages

    Back To The Future

    Uploaded by

    Neutron Zion
    The document discusses a technique called Equidistant Letter Sequencing (ELS) that claims to find hidden messages in the Bible by analyzing skip patterns in the Hebrew text. While ELS advocates claim it predicted the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, many critics argue the methodology is flawed and the findings are not convincing evidence of predictive power.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 2

    STATEMENT DB309

    Back to the Future?


    Does “Bible Code” Offer New Clues to Coming Events?

    In his new book The Bible Code, former Washington Post reporter Michael Drosnin has popularized a technology called
    Equidistant Letter Sequencing” or ELS, that decodes” prophecies allegedly hidden in the Bible. It has been on The
    New York Times bestseller list for 13 weeks and currently is ranked eighth (as of September 14).

    Supporters claim ELS is a breakthrough means of predicting the future. But is it real? And what does it mean for
    Christians and for our understanding of the Bible?

    On May 30 a full page ad in The New York Times stated that Drosnin sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
    Rabin on September 1, 1995 warning him of assassination, based on his “decoding” of the message “assassin will
    assassinate” in Deuteronomy 4:12. On November 4, 1995, Rabin was killed by an Israeli student.

    ELS advocates claim to be able to “break” the code allegedly existing in the original Hebrew of the Old Testament.
    Drosnin did not invent the technique, but relied upon the research of mathematician Eliyahu Rips of Hebrew
    University and physicist Doron Witztum of the Jerusalem College of Technology. Rips, Witztum, and Yoav
    Rosenberg published their research in Statistical Science, a prestigious and peer‐reviewed academic journal in 1994
    (with the editors making it clear they were not endorsing the authors’ work).

    Michael Shermer, publisher of The Skeptic magazine, explains ELS in his review of The Bible Code in the Los Angeles
    Times. An ELS “technician” might program a computer to pick out every fifth or tenth letter in the book of Genesis
    (any number may be chosen for the “skip code,” and any book of the Bible selected). The computer then sifts through
    the chosen text to decipher hidden messages.

    An English‐language ELS example was given in The Bible Code press release: “Rips explained that each code is a case
    of adding every fourth or twelfth letter to form a word.” The message of the letters in bold is “READ THE CODE.”

    Shermer and others note however that Hebrew contains no vowels, making the interpretive options much greater
    and therefore much more confusing. For example, Prime Minister Rabin’s name could have been translated “Robin,”
    or as many as six other ways.

    Also, while Hebrew reads from right to left, Bible “decoders” have allowed themselves to move from left to tight, top
    to bottom, and diagonally in any direction. Since diagonal lines depend on where the margin of the page ends, there
    is no consistent methodology for interpretation.

    “Complete Nonsense” Or Proven By Events?

    CRI, P.O. Box 8500, Charlotte, NC 28271


    Phone (704) 887-8200 and Fax (704) 887-8299

    1
    Nonetheless, Rabin’s assassination has led to vast speculation and excitement. As many as 30 Internet sites are
    devoted to ELS. Hollywood actors such as Kirk Douglas and Jason Alexander have hosted seminars. But despite one
    sensational prediction, not all critics are convinced. Harvard mathematics professor and Rabbi Shlomo Sternberg told
    Time that Drosnin’s book is “complete nonsense.” Computer Science professor Dr. Brendon McKay of Australian
    National University has pointed out that the Rabin prediction decoded in Deuteronomy 4:42 could read “assassin who
    will be assassinated.”

    Even Rips and Witztum, the original “discoverers” of ELS, are critical of Drosnins methodology.
    Many evangelicals also are unconvinced. May Lou Nielsen, manager of For Heaven’s Sake bookstore in Longmont,
    Colorado stated, “I had one customer who wanted to order 100 copies of The Bible Code. I told him there are serious
    flaws with ELS. I hate to sacrifice the sales but I also, want to have integrity in what I sell.” Even Drosnin seems
    unclear on what the “Bible code” really means. Drosnin told TV host Oprah Winfrey in June, “I am entirely secular. I
    don’t believe in God.”

    But when Oprah pressed him, he acknowledged there seems to be an intelligence that gave us the code. “There is a
    code, therefore there is an Encoder,” he said.

    In fact, ELS is simply a high‐tech version of a Ouija board or tarot cards, and the biblical injunction against divination
    applies (Deut. 18:9‐11,2 Chron. 33:6, Isa. 2:6). Paul exhorted Timothy to “do your best to present yourself to God as
    one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Tim.
    2:15). Paul intended Timothy to be an evangelist and disciple, not a Bible decoder!

    Skeptic Michael Shermer concluded his review this way: “The Bible Code is not only an insult to science and to those
    who are deeply religious, it is also an insult to God.”

    CRI, P.O. Box 8500, Charlotte, NC 28271


    Phone (704) 887-8200 and Fax (704) 887-8299

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