Bible Code

In 1997 The Bible Code was published, suggesting that if you rearrange the letters of the Torah into a kind of graph, secret messages appear. Then in 2003 The Da Vinci Code swept through bookstores creating a stir about secret societies controlling the truth about Jesus. All these play on a real fears among Christians; that the Bible is becoming irrelevant to modern society, or that they somehow don't have the entire truth.

In fact, there is a real code in the Bible; and the Bible is becoming irrelevant to society; and modern Christians don't have the entire truth. The Bible is written in such a way that the pure in heart will gain wisdom while the ignorant and unstable will be destroyed by it. It even says just that. Here are two examples,

Num 12:8 With [Moses] I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord.

2Pe 3:14-17 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position.

The Scriptures are not simple or black and white on issues. They require some reflection and can be easily distorted. How then, have dogmas crept into Christianity that defy logic and accept the literal interpretation of verses? How is it that Christians are sitting around waiting to be zapped away into another world? I recently read the entire Bible expecting some kind of basis for the dogmas that seem illogical and contrary to logic, but what I found was a text written in a coded language that clearly used physical metaphors to relate to spiritual truths. It described how to interpret those metaphors, and then to top it off, it cleverly identified itself as only communicating through riddles and parables.

Parable

Psa 78:1-3 Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter riddles of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

This reference in the Psalms was later referred to by Jesus, who only spoke to the public using parables, as mentioned in two gospels,

Mat 13:34-35 Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world." (Psa 78:2)

Mar 4:33-34 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to [the crowd], as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

Jesus only revealed teachings in parables, and said so. Why would God make it hard to understand the scriptures? Jesus addressed that as well, as mentioned in three gospels.

Mar 4:10-13 When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!' (Isaiah 6:9-10)" Then Jesus said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?"

Luk 8:9-10 His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.' (Isaiah 6:9)"

Mat 13:10-17 The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" Jesus answered them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, 'You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; for the heart of this people has become dull, with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear."

This outstanding clear reference shows that the teachings of Jesus were intentionally in parable form so that those without spiritual insight would become lost, while the pure would gain from them immensely.

Examples

The New Testament writers go on to interpret Old Testament scriptures as metaphorical.

Veil of Moses

Exd 34:33-35 When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Isreal what he had been commanded, the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him.

Paul wrote that the veil was symbolic of an inability to understand scripture, veiling them from the light of truth.

2Cr 3:12-16 Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

Compare Paul's interpretation to "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light" (Rev 21:23) Is this a material or spiritual city that Christians are waiting for?

All Flesh

Luk 3:4-6 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every ravine will be filled, and every mountain and hill will be brought low; the crooked will become straight, and the rough roads smooth; and all flesh will see the salvation of God."

Here Luke quotes Isaiah 40:3-5 and says that it is being fulfilled with John the Baptist and Jesus. The Jews of the time were waiting for an obvious event because they had been promised Elijah to come down from the sky on a fiery chariot, and the Messiah to come with a conquering army that everybody would see. Jesus said that Elijah came as John the Baptist, and that His kingdom was not of this world. All these literal expectations were fulfilled symbolically and spiritually. For this prophecy of Isaiah to be applied to Jesus, as Luke suggests, we would have to interpret "see" to mean spiritual perception, or in other words, those with spiritual insight would immediately see the truth of Jesus and the wicked would not perceive. This concept is mentioned by Paul using the same metaphor of sight,

2Cr 4:4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Now compare to Revelation, "Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him;" (Rev 1:7) Today there are people expecting the physical body of Jesus to descend from the literal sky, waiting for an obvious event. They base this conclusion on the same logic used by the Jews that denied and killed Jesus, despite having the added benefit of the New Testament examples that clearly contradict such a conclusion. The verse itself precludes a literal interpretation: if Jesus appeared among clouds nobody would see him. The spiritual clouds are similar to the veils over the hearts of the Jews, things that obscure the light of truth. When questioned about how such an event might literally materialize, Christians either refer to technology or wave their hands while recalling the infinite power of God.

The Sun Shall be Darkened

Act 2:14-21 But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: "Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: 'and it shall be in the last days,' God says, 'that I will pour forth of my spirit on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of my spirit' and they shall prophesy, 'and I will grant wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the lord shall come. And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'"

Peter told the Jews that this prophecy was being fulfilled, that great wonders in the sky, blood, fire, smoke, and a darkened sun were happening as he was saying it. How then, should we interpret Jesus' prophecy about his return when he references a prophecy of Isaiah (Mat 24:29, Mar 13:24, Luk 21:25),

Isa 13:10 The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light.

Or again in Revelation,

Rev 6:12 There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red,

Rev 8:12 ... a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them turned dark. A third of the day was without light, and also a third of the night.

Again a literal interpretation has crept into churches regarding the signs of Jesus' return, and the spiritual meaning of these verses is almost entirely ignored. When the sun is out during the day it illuminates and gives light to the world, just as the Manifestation of God brings teachings that illumine the world of mankind. After some time though the teachings become corrupted and the sun of truth sets. When the world is dark again the system is renewed by the appearance of another Manifestation of God. This analogy is powerfully confirmed in Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians,

1Th 5:4-7 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.

Anybody expecting the physical sun to be darkened before Jesus' return should also heed the words of Paul and they should not sleep at night.

Return

What then, should we be looking for? According to the real Bible Code, Jesus will return in the form of a human being with a revelation from God, He will have a new name, and he will be identified by His teachings and "fruits". Anyone with spiritual perception will recognize the source of those teachings. He will be persecuted, maybe imprisoned or killed, but will wield immense spiritual power that will be renew civilization. His new name is Baha'u'llah.