Factual Faith - Belief Founded on Truth

The Christian Bible, as we know it today, was originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.  It contains 66 books written over a period of about 1,600 years and had at least 40 authors.  The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and also contains some books that had sections written in Aramaic.  The New Testament was written in Greek and although the New Testament is rejected by the Jewish faith, it forms the crux of Christian belief. 1 

Most Christians believe that both the Old and New Testaments were verbally inspired by God.  Some Jews, after studying specific aspects in the Old Testament, have also come to accept the New Testament as being supernaturally inspired, based on similarities that are found in the design of both these texts.

The Old Testament of the Christian Bible is similar to the Jewish Bible (Tanakh) except that the order of the books differs.  You may wonder why I am specifically referring to the Christian Bible here and not just the Jewish Tanakh (which excludes the Christian New Testament), or the Roman Catholic Bible (which has additional books as part of the canonical structure) or any other version of the Bible.  The reasons for this will become evident as we progress.

The Christian Bible today consists of the 39 books in the Old Testament and 27 in the New.  It was written between 1,500 BC and 90 AD. 2  When considering the structure of the Tanakh in its original Hebrew form, it is divided into three parts:  It starts off with the “Pentateuch” or Torah.  These first five books are known as the “teaching" or the "law”.  It comprises of the creation of heaven and Earth, the Flood and the origins of the Israelite nation and God’s covenant with them. 

It is traditionally believed that the Torah was given to Moses letter-by-letter during the wanderings of the nation Israel in the Sinai Desert.  Many scholars today dispute this fact and speculate that the Torah was written by various different people and that it could not have been written by Moses alone.  One of the reasons for this is that Deuteronomy contains information of Moses’ death.  The next section is the Nevi’i  or "prophets" containing the historic account of ancient Israel and Judah and the works of prophecy that are today known in the Christian Bible as the Major and Minor prophets.  The last section in the Jewish Bible is the Ketuvim or "writings" and contains the poetic and philosophical works such as Psalms, Proverbs and Songs of Solomon.  These three sections also make up the Old Testament in the Christian Bible and the first 3 letters of these sections as given above (T,N,K) make up the Jewish word Tanakh.

Authors of the books contained in the Tanakh include kings, shepherds, prophets and various leaders of the people, whose writings were captured on leather scrolls and tablets over centuries.  Around 450 BC, the three sets of writings, forming part of the Jewish Scriptures, were arranged by councils of rabbis (Jewish teachers), who then recognised the complete set as the inspired and sacred authority of God (Elohim).

Jewish scholars in Alexandria, Egypt, started as early as 250 BC with the translation of the Jewish Scriptures into Greek.  This translation became known as the "Septuagint", referring to the team of 70 or more scholars who were involved in the translation project. It was also during this process that the book order was altered to the order we have in the Bible today: Historical (Genesis - Esther), poetic (Job - Song of Songs), and prophetic (Isaiah – Malachi).

The first question people normally ask when encountering manuscripts that are copied is: “How accurate are the copies when compared to the originals?” or “How well were these manuscripts preserved through the ages since the days of Moses?”  Although these manuscripts were copied by hand, until the invention of the printing press in the 1,400’s AD, the Jewish scribes had an intricate and ritualistic system by which this was done.  This ensured that each copy of a manuscript was letter-for-letter an exact match of that of the original. 

These rituals included counting of letters, words and paragraphs to avoid any errors from slipping in and even washing their hands every time they encountered a situation where they needed to write down the unpronounceable name of God.  Should a mistake have been made during the copying process, the entire scroll or tablet would have been destroyed and the scribe would have to start afresh. 3 

Jewish scribes responsible for the preservation of the holy books would dedicate their entire lives to this process. 4  The discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in the Qumran caves between 1947 and 1956, confirmed the accuracy that was maintained over centuries.  These manuscripts, comprising around 900 Biblical and extra-Biblical documents, were written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek and are estimated to have originated around the period of 150 BC to 70 AD. 

When a modern-day manuscript is compared to one found in the Qumran collection, the remarkable reliability and accuracy with which the scribes copied the documents, is evident and the teachings contained in these documents, is found to be identical, with some stylistic variances and slight variances on spelling here and there. 5  However, for our purposes we will consider the Masoretic text, which is used today by both Jews and Christians for our analysis as this is the official text used by both faiths that underwent the stringent copying process.

What about the New Testament?  A period of around 400 years passed from when the last book of the Old Testament was written, until the time that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  The accounts of his life on Earth were captured in the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Each of these documents has a defined and unique approach in the way Jesus is presented and each also makes use of a different genealogy to provide a matching ancestry for the viewpoint taken in each Gospel.  These four documents are followed by Acts, written by Luke, concerning the formation of the Christian Church; followed by the Epistles, most of them written by Paul, but also including other apostles, such as James, John, Jude and Peter.  Finally, we have Revelation, which is a document stating that the content was given to John on the island Patmos, by Jesus Christ himself.  The entire New Testament was written over a period of about 50 years, from 40 AD to 90 AD. 6 

The four Gospels were eye-witness accounts of the life of Jesus and the events that unfolded around him up to his crucifixion, resurrection from death and ascension into heaven.  The authors of the New Testament quote from 31 books in the Old Testament and the writings were circulated so widely that the complete set of both Old and New Testament writings became known as the “New Covenant”.  Translations into Latin, Coptic and Syriac were performed during the 200’s AD and these were spread throughout the world as “Inspired Scripture”. 7 

The final canonical structure of the 27 books of the New Testament, as we have them today, were put in place in 397 AD by the “Synod of Carthage” in an effort to protect the New Testament writings from various heresies and false religions. 7

In our quest to evaluate the Bible as we know it today, according to the scientific method to see what conclusions we can draw, we will firstly start with the New Testament and see what it offers in respect of design.  By applying the scientific method in the evaluation of the Bible, we would like to obtain answers to the following questions:

Can we prove the following scientifically:

A: -- That evidence of supernatural design is found in abundance throughout the collection of books contained in the Bible?

B: -- That prophecies, or predictions, which are made in the Bible regarding events that have already occurred in history - but after the Bible was written - can be verified as 100% accurate and truthful from historic records?

C: -- That the Bible is unique and that no other book on Earth possesses similar qualities?

D: -- That some authentication mark and evidence of design was put in the Bible, through its entirety, by God to authenticate it as His Word?

If the answers to all these questions are “yes”: then we can conclude, without any doubt, that the information contained in the Bible is not just some mythical convolution of ideas conjured up by weird and fanatical people from the past and put together in a collection over many centuries.  We can also say that Someone from outside the limits of time and space, who knew the end from the beginning, guided the way in which this book was compiled over 16 centuries.  Furthermore that the scriptures in the original Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek were truly supernaturally inspired, letter-for-letter, although penned by more than 40 different people. 

The implications that this holds for us, is that absolute truth is contained within the pages of such an artefact.  This information can then be considered timeless and will be as valid today as it was in 1,500 B.C.  Our views, influenced by various social philosophies, doctrines and beliefs over millennia and even by the media, may need to be measured against the information about these subjects contained within the Bible.  Only then can we determine whether our viewpoints conform to the truth.  This will however only be possible if we can prove without any doubt, that the Bible contains supernatural qualities.  

In addition to this, if we know that the Bible is a document that was constructed by someone who is not bound by the same limitations that we as humans are bound by, what should we make of the information that it conveys?  Can we trust it?  Should we stop and listen to what it is saying?  How should we treat the information when we have provable evidence that it was put together by someone, who is not only outside of our time and dimensional space, but who claims to be responsible for creating the environment in which we live?  We will firstly set out to identify aspects in the Bible, relating to the presence of design and also consider aspects of design at different levels.

With Relativism influencing people’s thinking today, especially when considering subjects like spirituality and faith, as we have discussed earlier, it would be good to firstly reset our own thinking: For this, I would ask you to take a totally objective stance and bury all preconceptions that you may have about this subject.  We need to ensure that we have a fundamental understanding of what “design” is and how we recognise the presence of “design” in a subject we are evaluating and that we can, as a result, consider the subject objectively before we continue.

On TV channels (such as National Geographic, Animal Planet or one of the Discovery channels) we often hear about the evolution of specific animals in reference to aspects of design that are evident in the creatures being discussed.  This is actually an oxymoron - to believe in Evolution and to then talk about design - since design would imply that there was a “designer” involved. In most cases, they would refer to Nature as the designer.  Would that not be the same as saying that a big industrial fuel plant was the designer of the large compressors, operating within it, and that over time the compressors adapted to the environment to become perfectly part of the plant and to provide compressed air to specific units within the plant?  It is absurd and makes no sense.  It is further just as important to recognise the absence of “design” when dealing with a subject where chaos or randomness is prevalent. 

By using the word “design”, when referring to aspects within a living organism, let us quickly see what is implied. Can one then have design without a designer?  The English Dictionary describes “design” in the following ways:

“Design” as a verb (used with object):

1. -- To plan and fashion artistically or skilfully.

2. -- To intend for a definite purpose.

3. -- To assign in thought or intention; purpose

4. -- To plan and fashion the form and structure of an object, work of art, decorative scheme, etc.

“Design” as a noun:

1. -- Organisation or structure of formal elements in a work of art; composition. 8

On the other hand, if we look at concepts such as “chaos” or “disorder”, we have the opposite of “design” with the following definition:

“Chaos” as noun:

1. -- A state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organisation or order.

2. -- Any confused, disorderly mass: a chaos of meaningless phrases. 9

If Evolutionists then make use of the word “Design”, when referring to specific aspects in organisms that supposedly came about by chance, they in fact acknowledge that a designer, having in mind the skilful execution of a plan to put together a work of art with a specific purpose, was behind the subject that they are discussing.  Yet, Evolutionists will not acknowledge the fact that a designer is required for generating a design and would argue that this process can occur spontaneously, by chance, if allowed enough time. 

We know today, using sophisticated instrumentation and advanced technology that the field of biology is much more complicated than people anticipated in the 1,800’s.  We know now that the structure of DNA and processes in a single cell are extremely complicated and that it cannot be ascribed to mere chance, even if the Universe was 100 times older than scientists postulate.

If the Bible is said to be God’s Word and claims that God created and maintains all substance, surely he would then also provide evidence of “design”, in the compilation of the Bible as an integrated object.  We would also expect these “design” qualities and properties to be distinctly identifiable and outside of human capability to reproduce.

Let us therefore consider the Bible and see what it offers in respect of design.  If we look at the complexity of DNA and the intricacies of a single cell, can we find similar qualities that are as complex, within the Bible?

From the definitions above, we will firstly consider the structure of the text, in the original languages in which the Bible was written, specifically looking at three main areas in the Bible.  From this we will then begin to draw some conclusions on deciding whether the Bible can be considered a candidate for supernatural design.  If we can demonstrate that the aspects mentioned below are in fact true, we will have a good foundation for further investigation and for moving on to other points.  If the Bible then is considered to be inspired by God and manifests similar complexities to that which is found in our own fabric, we should be able to identify the following:

A: -- We should find unambiguous evidence for supernaturally inspired structure in the text, as it was put together over more than 16 centuries, even though more than 40 people took part in writing it.

B: -- We should also be able to identify recognisable patterns evident in the Bible, at different levels:

C: -- Firstly, in the methodology of structuring the text and analysing any numeric or chronologic structures that may exist in the original text.

D: -- Secondly, any patterns or models, used throughout the Bible and their correlation to fulfilment in actual events that they pointed to, should be consistent.

E: -- Thirdly, when considering the Bible as an integrated unit or message system, evidence of integrated “design” should also be evident throughout the scripture as a whole, if we are to accept the Bible as the Truth.  What I mean by this is that if specific attributes of design are noted in a specific section of the Bible, the same should be true for other sections.  There should also be some evidence of the various books being linked together through some intricate system that we can observe and test.

F: -- The Bible, as a supernatural document, should be self-interpreting.  If it was designed outside of time and space, it should be able to anticipate questions that would be asked in the future (well after it was written) and also provide answers from within the same document.

If the Bible is to be seen as a document that can be trusted, it should contain prophecies.  We should look out for prophecies, that were predicted and then fulfilled with 100% accuracy, by verifying events from history.

Would one be able to find any of these qualities in the Bible?  To give some logical structure to the way in which we approach this, the best starting point would be to work from the bottom up.  If we can identify the specific and recognisable structure in the composition of the original texts, look at the complexity thereof and then compare it with other possible candidates to see if we have similar results, we will have a good foundation to continue our investigation.  Without a proper foundation to work from, we may as well be on a wild goose chase and would do better looking for options elsewhere.

Structural Design of the Biblical Text:

Research into the structure of the Bible dates back to at least the 12th century, when rabbinical scholars first wrote about their discoveries of meaningful words, hidden in the Hebrew text of the Torah. 10  At that point in history, technology was primitive at best and to perform a comprehensive and detailed analysis on the structure of the Bible, would have taken years.

One of history’s greatest scientists and mathematicians, Sir Isaac Newton, devoted more of his time in the late 1,600s and early 1,700s to the study of the Bible, than to that of science.  Newton’s greatest passion was the Bible and he spent a great deal of time delving deeper into it and trying to discover messages that were hidden within.  He said: “I have a fundamental belief in the Bible as the Word of God, written by those who were inspired. I study the Bible daily."  He was also fascinated with the apocalypse and believed that the Bible contained histories of future events yet to occur.  (These were portrayed in the Bible as metaphors and symbolism that demanded exacting skills of interpretation). Newton was enthusiastic about this challenge and embarked on a journey, which would last for 55 years until his death in 1727. 11  As knowledge increased and techniques were improved over the years, the information that could be gleaned from the Scriptures also increased.

In 1890 Dr. Ivan Panin, a Russian-born emigrant  to the United States, claimed to have discovered numerical patterns in the Hebrew texts of Psalms, as well as in the Greek text of the New Testament. 12  Until his death in 1942, he devoted his life to the painstaking exploration of numerical structures in the Bible and generated more than 40,000 hand-penned pages of his analyses. 

Panin’s studies were triggered in 1890, when he started to read from the Gospel of John, using the Koine Greek version of the Bible.  The first verse in John reads as follows when translated directly to English: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with ‘the’ God, and the Word was God."  As he considered this sentence, he was intrigued by the fact that the definite article “the” preceded the first mention of “God” in the verse, but not the second.  Why would there be a difference?  To analyse this apparent discrepancy, he made a list in which he collected all verses from the New Testament in which the word "God" occurred with the article "the" and all those without it. 

When the two lists were compared, he noted that there was a remarkable mathematical relationship.  He repeated this exercise for the word “Christ” and followed this with several other words.  He noted that in each case there was an amazing numeric relationship hidden in the structure of the text.  This apparent discrepancy in the first verse of the Gospel of John would later provide scientific proof of the numerical structure underlining the entire text of the scripture.  Panin discovered that these anomalies were not just there by chance, but that they were actually required for perfecting the underlying structural design of the text, which became evident as his studies continued. 

During the next 50 years, Panin would devote up to 18 hours a day painstakingly counting letters, numbers, sentences and syllables and performing calculations to mathematical problems and then recording his findings in hand-written notes. He was so devoted to this task that his health frequently suffered as a result.  He did not receive any compensation for his work and even though he was offered a prestigious post as President of a College, he turned it down and continued in his labour of love, trusting that God would provide for him. 13

In order to gain a full understanding of the dedication and involvement that Panin‘s work required, we must realise that he started off with only the bare essentials.  Before his discovery no previous studies had been performed in this field and he was about to embark on some ground-breaking work, without the tools and technology that we have available today.  This enormous task also required mathematical precision of a level never before encountered.  His work also depended on reference works, which for all intents and purposes, were non-existent then!  He had to first compile a set of tools for himself with which he could attack the task at hand and only when these were completed, could he start with his analyses. 

The extreme difficulty that dr. James Strong encountered while compiling his "Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible" (where each and every word of consequence in the entire Bible was carefully noted, recorded, numbered, collated and corresponding Hebrew and Greek definitions were provided) was dwarfed by the tasks that Panin had to perform in his studies.

Before he could start, he had to compile his own unique concordance.  Not only did Panin have to focus on the words of the original Greek texts, but also on their arrangements, positions, numeric values, the syllables they contained and the letters that they consisted of.  These had to be arranged into a logical and ordered system which served as a concordance.  This was not just any concordance.  In it, he would record the intricacies of each letter, its position and its value in great detail.  Both the Hebrew and Greek cultures made use of a numbering system that was incorporated in their alphabet.  There was no separate numbering system, as we have in ours today - in Hebrew and Greek each letter would also represent an associated number.

Not only did Panin require a very detailed concordance, but he also had to compile accurate vocabularies to address the required detail in the text.  The first concordance that Panin produced was around 1,000 pages and listed every one of the occurrences of the 137,903 New Testament Greek words.  The words are listed in alphabetical order and every reference to chapter and verse is neatly written beneath each word in his hand-written notes.  At the time, there were no reliable Greek concordances available to the standard that Panin required and so it was necessary to create these from scratch. 

The second product that resulted from this exercise was a second 2,000-page concordance, which listed the various forms of the Greek words used.  This took six years to compile, was tedious and time-consuming, but provided Panin with the tools with which an in-depth analysis could be performed.  The next project that took another two years was that of compiling a reference containing the entire vocabulary of the New Testament.  Each word had 16 attributes that were described, each in its own column next to the word.  These would include order number, numeric value, place value, number of occurrences, syllables, letters, writers, books, number of forms etc.  During this time, Panin never received a salary and any assistance he got, was from volunteers. 14 

Let us look at some of the examples from Panin’s findings:

Staggering Precision in Structural Design:

If we consider the first chapter in Matthew, the first Book of the New Testament, we find the first 17 verses of this book deal with a single principle subject:  The genealogy of Jesus Christ from a Jewish perspective - starting with Abraham. Below is the English translation from the Greek and it reads as follows:

Mat 1:1 -17 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.   Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren;   And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram; And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon;  And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;  And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa; And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias; And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias; And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias; And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon: And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel; And Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor; And Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud; And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob; And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.

At first glance, in English, this would seem to be just an ordinary genealogy, something that is often found in the Bible.  Few people would entertain any thoughts about the structure of the text whilst reading through it and often a reader would just skip over it, since it could be tedious to read through a lengthy genealogy that does not provide any meaningful information.

It is however, incredible when realising how precisely this passage was put together, when you delve to deeper levels of analysis in the Greek.  Not only is there staggering evidence of design in this passage, but it seems that even the names were designed and somehow inspired to be given at the time of their births.  The names also had to be in a specific order, so that this passage, as it was written in Greek sometime after 30 AD, would conform to an underlying design.  It also seems as if the knowledge of the structure of this passage was known to the author in a dimension outside of time, since the names given to the children when they were born, would have had to be inspired, to meet the requirements of the design that is found in the text at the time it was penned.  Further to this, the designer had to anticipate the languages that would emerge, as well as the numbering system that would be associated with the letters of the alphabet that would be used.  How could the parents have known that their genealogies would someday be recorded in a book that would have a very specific design to it? 

All of this - the specific names; the attributes of each name i.e. length of the name in letters; number of vowels; number of consonants and many other properties used in this genealogy that stretches from Abraham all the way to Jesus Christ; the language and numbering system that would be employed - would finally fit like small pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, that would only reveal a masterly constructed design, once the final piece was fitted. 

To provide more detail and insight into the attributes hidden in this passage: Imagine you were asked by a client to write a  work of literature in such a way that it would meet very specific requirements and conform to his detailed design specifications.  If you were required to write a paragraph consisting of letters, syllables, words and sentences and were requested to make use of a number of words that are evenly divisible by 7, most people would not see this as an issue and would agree that this can easily be achieved.  On top of this however, you also have to make use of words for which vowels and consonants, respectively could be evenly divided by 7.  This adds a level of difficulty that would take some time to achieve, but it is do-able.  You are also asked to ensure that the number of nouns you use, are evenly divisible by 7; the number of words that appear in more than one form should be exactly 7; words starting with either a vowel or a consonant should be divisible by 7.  At this point most people would begin to think that these requirements are just too complex to achieve realistically, while you also have to keep the information meaningful at the same time.  This is only a small part of the complexity that is contained within this piece of scripture. 

Below is a list of attributes that are associated with this passage, which contains 72 words in the Greek vocabulary, as found by Ivan Panin:

1. -- The number of words that are nouns is exactly 56, or 7 x 8.

2. -- The Greek word "the" occurs most frequently in the passage: Exactly 56 times, or 7 x 8.

3. -- Also, the number of different forms in which the article "the" occurs, is exactly 7.

4. -- There are two main sections in the passage: verse 1-11 and 12-17.  In the first main section, the number of Greek words used, is 49, or 7 x 7.

5. -- Of these 49 words, the number of those beginning with a vowel is 28, or 7 x 4.

6. -- The number of words beginning with a consonant is 21, or 7 x 3.

7. -- The total number of letters in these 49 words is exactly 266, or 7 x 38.

8. -- The number of vowels among these 266 letters is 140, or 7 x 20.

9. -- The number of consonants is 126, or 7 x 18.

10. -- Of these 49 words, the number of words which occur more than once is 35, or 7 x 5.

11. -- The number of words occurring only once is 14, or 7 x2.

12. -- The number of words which occur in only one form is exactly 42, or 7 x 6.

13. -- The number of words appearing in more than one form is also 7.

14. -- The number of 49 Greek words which are nouns is 42, or 7 x 6.

15. -- The number of words that are not nouns is 7.

16. -- Of the nouns, 35 are proper names, or 7 x 5.

17. -- These 35 nouns are used 63 times, or 7 x 9.

18. -- The number of male names is 28, or 7 x 4.

19. -- These male names occur 56 times or 7 x 8.

20. -- The number of non-male names is 7.

21. -- Three women are mentioned - Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth.  The number of Greek letters in these three names is 14, or 7 x 2.

22. -- The number of compound nouns is 7.

23. -- The number of Greek letters in these 7 nouns is 49, or 7 x 7.

24. -- Only one city is named in this passage, Babylon, which in Greek contains exactly 7 letters.

25. -- The 72 Greek words add up to a gametrical value of 42,364, or 7 x 6,052 from the Greek letters.

26. -- The 72 words appear in 90 forms, some appear in more than one form.  The numeric value of the 90 forms is 54,075, or 7 x 7,725. 15

Each result that is obtained is divisible by 7 exactly.  It becomes immediately obvious that this underlying structure in the numerical qualities of the passage, when compared to the definitions of “design” and of “chaos”, would have to fall under that of being designed.  There is a notable and a comprehensible structure, patterns that are repeated and the number 7 is found as the foundation for construction of the text.  What makes this phenomenon even more mind-boggling is the fact that we are working here with a genealogy – people’s names.  This limits the flexibility one would have in fitting words into the passage that would suit the requirements as mentioned above. Furthermore the information contained in the passage also spans multiple centuries in which each person’s given name fits perfectly into this design.  People’s names are what they are and can normally not be written in different forms or be adjusted to fit design requirements. 

Another dilemma would be that in order for someone to intentionally putting something like this together would require pre-existing knowledge of various aspects long before they actually occurred.  These include the design constraints that have to be met once the information is penned; the language and its properties that will be used when it is captured, including numerical associations with characters of the alphabet that will be used.  From a human point of view, it would be necessary to somehow guide the parents over centuries, without failing once, in how to name their children, so that they would eventually form part of the genealogy, according to specific design criteria.  The only logical way in which one would be able to accomplish something as elaborate as this, would be to enjoy total freedom from our dimensionality - to exist outside of time altogether and be able to influence every person in such a way that they would be swayed to carry out the requirements for the  design.

It is not just coincidence that a passage would have unintentional structured and patterned properties.  If we now turn our attention to the Old Testament, where we have a different language (Hebrew) would we see similar design qualities evident in the text?  Considering just the first verse of Genesis for a similar analysis, we find the following: Genesis 1:1 reads as follows: “In the beginning God Created the heaven and the Earth.”

At first glance and in English, once again, nothing special seems to jump out. If one considers the same verse in the original Hebrew however, the sentence contains 7 words that are made up of 28 letters. We also find the following interesting features that are hidden in the structure of the text:

1. -- The 7 words have exactly 28 letters (4 x 7).

2. -- There are 3 nouns (God, heaven, and earth) with a gamatria of exactly 777 or (111 x 7).

3. -- There is one verb (“created”) with a numeric value of 203 (29 x 7).

4. -- The first 3 words contain the subject and have exactly 14 letters (2 x 7); the other four contain the object and also have exactly 14 letters.

5. -- The Hebrew words for the two objects (heaven and earth) each have exactly 7 letters; the value of the first, middle and last letters in the sentence is 133 (19 x 7).

6. -- The numeric value of the first and last words in the sentence is 1,393 (199 x 7).

7. -- The value of the first and last letters of the verse is 497 (71 x 7).

8. -- The value of the first and the last letters of each word in between is 896 (128 x 7).

9. -- The Hebrew particle “eth” is used with the article “the” twice; its total value is 406 (58 x 7).

10. -- The last letters of the first and last words are valued at 490 (70 x 7).

11. -- The 4th, 5th, and 6th words have 7 letters each…and so it goes on!

Panin found more than 30 different numeric features in this one verse alone, showing the number 7 once again forming the foundation of the design that is used in just this one sentence.  This phenomenon is found throughout the Bible, in both the Old and New Testament.

Many sceptics will argue that they can find the same characteristics or numerology in any given sentence.  This may seem true at first, but this is considering only one aspect of the design in isolation - the numerical structure, that is evident throughout the entire Bible - and ignoring others which are also present and also have to be adhered to when putting the structure together. 

The numerical structure is only one level of a number of interlocking levels of design, which are also incorporated within the same text, interdependent on each other.  These interconnected relationships between different levels of design in the Bible, incorporate not just numerical structures, but also other particular qualities that are seamlessly interwoven into the overall design of the entire framework that makes up the Bible. 

Without being exhaustive, we will also discuss a number of the others in a little more detail.  We recommend that you do some of your own study in this field, should it interest you.

Consider the following: The original sequence of the Books of the Bible differs somewhat from the sequence that is presently found in the English Bible.  The most original or oldest text that was known at the time, had the following order:

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings, II Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Songs of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, I Chronicles, II Chronicles, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, James, I Peter, II Peter, I John, II John, III John, Jude, Romans, I Corinthians, II Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I Thessalonians,  II Thessalonians, Hebrews, I Timothy, II Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Revelation.

Some of the Books assign themselves totally or in part to a particular scribe‘s name, while others are anonymous. The Books, which reveal the Scribe‘s identity (in part or totally), are:

1. -- Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are ascribed to Moses in other Books of the Bible.

2. -- Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the 12 Minor Prophets ascribe themselves to the scribes whose name the Book bears.

3. -- Psalms is ascribed to David.

4. -- Proverbs and Song of Solomon ascribe themselves to Solomon.

5. -- Ecclesiastes ascribes itself only to the "Son of David", which most believe to be Solomon.

6. -- Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah ascribe themselves to these respective scribes.

7. -- James, 1 and 2, Peter and Jude bear the names of their respective scribes.

8. -- Epistles of Paul ascribe themselves, with the exception of Hebrews, to Paul.

9. -- Revelation ascribes itself to John.

The anonymous Books therefore are:

Genesis, Judges, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings, II Kings, Job, Ruth, Lamentations, Esther, I Chronicles, II Chronicles, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Act, II John, III John, Hebrews.

Moses has 5, Solomon 3, Peter 3, and Paul 13. The other identified scribes have one Book each.

If we now look at these collectively and consider the properties as we did for Matthew and Genesis we find the following:

1. -- The sum of the number of Books in the Bible is 66 (6x11).

2. -- The anonymous Books are 22 (2x11). The non-anonymous Books are 44 (4x11).

3. -- Of these 44, 22 (2x11) belong to writers of more than one Book and 22 (2x11) belong to writers of only one Book.

4. -- We can divide the number of Books in this manner: the 22 Books of the writers of more than one Book have a sum of 946 (86x11), while the other 44 Books have a sum of 1,265 (115x11).

5. -- Of the 66 Books, 21 are Epistles and 45 are Non-Epistles. The names of the Epistles are James to Philemon and their numbers are 45 to 65. The sum of the 66 numbers, (1+2+3+…+66), is 2,211 (201x11) and this sum can be divided between Epistles and Non-Epistles. The Epistles have a sum of 1,155 (105x11) and the Non-Epistles have a sum of 1,056 (96x11).

6. -- Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, David and Daniel are expressly quoted in the New Testament. The numbers of their respective Books are 2, 3, 4, 5, 12, 13, 15, 16, 27, and 35. The sum of these Books is 132 (12x11).

7. -- The Numeric Values of the Bible writer‘s names are:

Moses – 345, Isaiah – 401, Jeremiah – 271, Hosea – 381, Joel – 47, Amos – 176, Jonah – 71, Micah – 75, Nahum – 104, Zephaniah – 235, Zechariah- 242, Malachi – 101, Solomon – 375, Daniel – 95, Ezra – 278, James – 833, Haggai – 21, Paul – 781, Ezekiel – 156, David – 14, Peter – 755, I John – 781, II John – 1069, Obadiah – 91, Habakkuk – 216, Nehemiah – 113, Jude – 685

The sum of these Numeric Values is 7,931 and can also be expressed as (721x11), while the sum of the factors of 7, 11, and 103 is 121 (11x11). 16

This is just another example of numeric structure found in the Bible, but it is a level higher than the actual compositional structure of the text, but it is nevertheless fully integrated and fully dependent on the structural composition.  The names of the books and their numeric values conform to specific design specifications that become evident in the number 11 that forms the foundation for this analysis.  If the number of books were different and if one book was left out, the entire structure would be void.  The value of 11 would no longer be valid for looking at the numerical structure, with which the placement of books in the Bible and numeric values, with regards to the authors, was designed.  Taking away or adding one book will break the pattern which exists in the structuring of various design aspects that are visible in the Bible.

When studied and analysed, these structures show remarkable complexity also in the use of very specific design criteria.  This relates to the physical text and the message it conveys.  It contains information that is hidden in the structure through equidistant letter sequences or (ELSs), but also accurate information (both in surface text and hidden messages about events that took place in the past).  This provides authenticity of the reliability of the text and also of events that are yet to happen.  All of these are reliant upon a structure where every letter that is used, would have a designated position.  The way in which the letters are ordered form part of the structural design, which can be analysed by looking at the numerical, alphabetical, chronological and other qualities which form the foundation. 

Moving up to higher levels of design, one also finds that the Bible contains additional design criteria within the already existing structural design.  These include hidden messages that can be found through Equidistant Letter Sequences (ELS). 17 

An ELS will normally provide hidden information on events and topics throughout history and even some events that we are expecting to happen in the future. In some instances it contains the names and detailed information about people not yet born, at the time when these documents were written.  When reading the surface text in the original language, one can find information hidden within the text, which provides further validating proof that the Bible was designed outside of our dimensionality. If even one letter was out of place or position, the entire structure falls apart and the design would be broken.

I have only touched on a few examples to demonstrate the intricate numerical structure contained in the text of the original languages that exist at different levels in the Bible.  From these examples we can see that at the lowest level every letter that makes up the scripture was intentionally placed in a specific position to conform to the overall design.  To be able to place each letter in the Bible, in such a way that it conforms to specific structural and numerical designs and also form part of various other levels of design, while even containing accurate information about current events and people living today, can only be explained through the involvement of a Designer with supernatural abilities.  This would be someone that would not be bound by physical limitations such as time or space or have any restrictions on the level of intelligence that we as humans are subject to.  The Designer would need to know, and also be able to influence, all history from outside the domain of space-time.  He would need the ability to anticipate and have knowledge of future events, at the time when the books were written, to be able to design and construct this masterpiece.  He would also not only need to anticipate the language involved in the construction of the Bible, but even the values associated with the letters of the alphabets.

The genealogy in Matthew 1 is a good example of this.  The information contained within the genealogy was generated over many centuries, yet every name fits perfectly into an overall design (remember that most of the genealogy in Matthew originated in Hebrew before Greek existed).  This characteristic is observed throughout the Bible, yet no other book in the world has ever been found to incorporate similar attributes.

Another interesting aspect found in the New Testament, is the way in which Greek vocabulary words are used throughout the New Testament.  The number of words that are used only by Matthew, is evenly divisible by 7. 18  How could Mathew have known: That his Gospel would one day form part of the overall design of various books, written over centuries, having a specific order within the New Testament?  He would have had to write his book last and had to know that the New Testament would contain 26 other books.  It is even more astonishing to find that if one considers each book in the New Testament, they all demonstrate this very peculiar feature: Each book contains words that are only used in that specific book and are divisible by 7.  From a human perspective, to achieve this feat, would be impossible.  We know from historic records that each book was written at a different time, during a period of 50 years.  The only other option is that the entire structure of the New Testament was designed to conform to a numerical and chronological structure which is humanly impossible to achieve.  It can only be achieved by Someone who is not bound to time and space and who could inspire the writers without them even being aware of it.  For something like this to happen by chance, 27 times in a row, with the result evenly divisible by 7, each and every time, rules out coincidence and emphasises once again the fact that supernatural design is in play here.

Looking at the Old Testament now at another example of design which forms part of the text, but on a much higher level and above the physical structure of the text, we find the following:

In Genesis 5 we encounter a very interesting hidden message in the first genealogy given in the Bible.  It covers the lineage from Adam through to Noah and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth.  Once again, when reading this in English, it seems to be an ordinary genealogy and even looking at the passage in Hebrews, containing the same information, might not provide one with the full impact of what is hidden in it. If we take the names of the people listed in this genealogy and list them chronologically from Adam to Noah, we have the following:

Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah.

Next, consider the meaning of each of these names in Hebrew:

Adam is the Hebrew word for “man”

Adam’s son, Seth, means “appointed”

Enos means “mortal death/sorrow”

Mahalaleel means “Glorious/Blessed of God”

Jared means “descend”

Enoch means “dedicated/teaching”

Methuselah means “His death shall bring”

Lamech means “captive/despairing”

Noah means “rest/hope”

If we now string the meaning of these words together, it constructs the following sentence:

“Man was appointed mortal death/sorrow. But the Blessed God will descend, teaching that His death shall bring the captive/despairing hope/rest.” 19

This is truly amazing.  The message that is conveyed by the four Gospels and other books of the New Testament was already hidden in a “watermark”-like feature in the very first book of the Bible, written around 1,500BC.  This is not only evidence that the person who put the Bible together knew the future before it happened.  It also serves as authentication that the same Person, who inspired the writing of the Old Testament, was also responsible for inspiring the writing of the New Testament and fulfilling the words that were hidden in the Old Testament, 1,500 years earlier.

Most non-Christian groups today claim consistently that the 66 Books of the Bible are either:

1. -- Mythical, fairy tale-like or

2. -- Incorrect, unreliable, contradicting or

3. -- Incomplete or that the original texts have been lost.

The question to ask when encountering such statements would be whether any of these phenomena found in the structure of the Bible, would be possible if even one letter was omitted or changed to something else.  Would a computer program work if you removed one bit from the compiled code?  The answer is NO.  Would the Bible contain evidence of supernatural design if the evidence relies on each letter in the Bible to be in its appropriate position?  How can any letter then be lost or missing if the evidence shows it completely intact, in the original languages?

Models that are used in the Bible:

Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and that he would come to Earth twice.  The first time was 2,000 years ago when he came as a lamb for the slaughter, as a gift to humanity to take away the sins of the world - to those who would accept his gift of salvation.  Looking briefly at some other models that are hidden in the Bible, let us see what else can be found.  If we keep in mind the supernatural design that is evident throughout the Bible in various interconnected layers, can we find any indication where models are used in the book of Genesis that point to Jesus’ coming to the earth to free us from sin?

Firstly, let us take Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden where they were instructed not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge: There are many speculations as to what conditions Adam and Eve were living in during their time before they sinned.  There are some who argue that before their fall, they were clothed with light and that falling into sin stripped them of this covering and left them naked.  They had a much more intimate relationship with their Creator than we have today.  When Eve was deceived by the serpent and ate the fruit, Adam was not with her.  When Eve went to Adam to give him the fruit to eat, she had already fallen into disobedience before God.  Adam would have seen the effects that Eve’s choice would have had on her.  The New Testament also confirms the fact that only Eve was deceived and that Adam knew what He was entering into when eating the fruit they were told not to eat:

1 Tim 2:14: And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

Because of his love for Eve, he offered up his position in God to be with her and to be mortal.  This is the first model used in the Bible that points to God so loving his creations that he would willingly leave his position, as God and Creator, and become sin on their behalf, so that they could become fellow heirs, with Jesus Christ, of God’s creation.  The Bible relates this clearly when talking about the “First Adam” and the “Last Adam”.  We know that the first Adam was a direct creation from God.  He is therefore also referred to as a son of God.

Luk 3:38: Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ is called the last Adam and is specifically referred to as “the only begotten Son” of God or God manifested to us in person.  There are however distinctions that are drawn between the two Adams.  Through the first Adam, sin entered into the world and death by sin.  The Second Adam brought life to those who would otherwise have remained trapped in their sinful state.

Rom 5:12 - 17 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:   (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam‘s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.  But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.  And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.  For if by one man‘s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.

1Co 15:21, 22  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

1Co 15:45 And so it is written:, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

In the examples above, the first Adam had a privileged position with God.  When Eve ate the fruit, Adam could have chosen to remain in his position that he had with God.  Having seen the effects of Eve’s choice on her life, he loved his wife so much that he offered up his position with God to be with his wife, even if it would cost him his life.  In the Bible God’s love for us is portrayed in the same model that is given in Genesis.  The Lord Jesus Christ offered his lofty position up to be born into a human body, to be raised in a poor family and to innocently die a horrifying death on a cross, so that we can be absolved of all our sin and be brought back into the relationship with God that he initially intended.  Jesus Christ took on the punishment for our transgressions and provided us with his righteousness as a gift for which we don’t have to do anything in return, but to accept it.  There are various other examples of this in the Bible.

When the Israelites murmured about their circumstances in the desert, fiery serpents bit them and many of them died.  God instructed Moses to fashion a brazen serpent and place it on a wooden pole so that those who were bitten and poisoned could look up at it.  When they looked on it, they were saved from death and healed from the poisonous bites of these snakes.  If we look at the symbolism, it is clearly another foreshadowing the future of which this would be a model. Brass or bronze is usually associated in the Bible with God’s judgement.  The serpent is normally portrayed as the embodiment of sin.  Anything that is lifted up on or hanging on a tree, is seen by God as cursed. 20 

In this image we have God instructing Moses to lift up an image that spells out “God Judges Sin”.  In the New Testament Jesus was raised up on a wooden pole in similar fashion.  If the serpent in the desert is in any way conveying a message about events that were to occur in the future, looking at this logically, we have in the desert people who dying because of their involvement with sin (being bitten by the serpents).  God wanted them to look upon his judgment of sin in order for them to be healed and to avoid death.  From a Christian viewpoint, we are all bitten by the serpent (sin) and are dying in our sinful living.  Jesus, being without sin, became the serpent (sin) that was judged by God on our behalf, so that we could live.  Being sinless, he became the perfect offering on behalf of everyone who would look upon him and receive his gift.

People ask why God could not just change his mind and forgive them without any consequences...  Would God be God if he did not keep his Word?  Throughout the Bible we see that God values his Name in everything he does, even above himself.  There is one thing that God values more than his name: that is his Word. If God says something and does not stick to what He says, can He truly be God?  The following verses show how serious God is about his Word:

Matt. 5:18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

Matt. 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Mark 13:31 Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.

Luke 16:17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. 

There are thousands of models in the Bible that are used in similar fashion, where a situation in the past points to an event in the future - where it carries a message that could be understood by looking at the event as it occurred in the past.  Continuing down this road, let us shift our focus to Bible Codes which became popular after Michael Drosnin’s book was published.  Here we venture into a whole new arena where supernatural design is also evident, but also intricately connected to and relying on the integrity of the structural layers that we have previously considered.  This further authenticates the Bible as a product of intentional design from a supernatural source.

Equidistant Letter Sequences (ELSs):

The next phenomenon that we will consider is that of Equidistant Letter Sequences or ELS that are found in the original text of the Bible.  These are messages that are hidden from plain view and that can be read if specific letter sequences are extracted out of the text by skipping equal spaced distances.  This phenomenon was first discovered in the 1,200s AD by rabbis who had devoted their lives to the preservation of the original texts contained in the Bible.  They noticed that hidden messages could be found in the Hebrew text when skipping equal distances between letters. I have constructed a small example of how this works to explain the concept.

Ron Keats asked for more, yet acres of Pedro’s estate had already been relinquished.

When reading the sentence above, can you spot the hidden message at a glance?  One of the problems of ELS’s is that they require a key to be able to decipher the information that is hidden in the ELS.  If someone comes across this sentence in a book or a magazine, they would never consider the fact that the sentence actually contained a hidden message.  Without knowing what to look for, the hidden information will not be conveyed and the person will just continue to read that which is visible in the surface text.  Additional information is needed to understand how the message was constructed in the first place; where one needs to look for the code and the letter skip to read the message.  If I told you to start at the first letter of the example above, write it down, count 3 letters then write down the 4th, count another 3 letters and write down the 4th and to continue in this fashion, you will be able to read the hidden message in no time. 

This is a simple example of what is known as an ELS.  It took me a while to put this sentence together so that it would both make sense when reading the sentence itself, as well as providing the appropriate letters in the desired positions for conveying the hidden message.  The process I used to hide the code in a sentence is aimed at achieving one design goal (to create an ELS), and does not at all comply to any underlying numeric design or higher levels of design that may also exist in the sentence, as we find existing in the Bible.

If we analyse the first 5 books in the Bible, they have very interesting features when it comes to ELS’s.  If you started reading Genesis until you came to the first “Tau” or “T”, counted 49 letters (or 7x7) and wrote down the 50th, counted another 49 (or 7x7) and wrote down the 50th, you would get the word “Torah” spelled out.  Exactly the same is true for Exodus. In Numbers and Deuteronomy the same is true, but spells the word “Torah” backwards.  The “Torah” code is not found in Leviticus, which sits right in the middle of the five books which are seemingly mirroring each other around Leviticus.  What we do find, however, is the Name of God “Yahweh” or “YHWH” in Hebrew with a 7-letter skip in Leviticus.  If we analyse this phenomenon somewhat, it is logical to expect the word “Torah” to be found at various intervals throughout the Torah, due to the length of the word.  It consists of only 4 letters which raises the statistical chances of finding it in the Torah at varying skip values. 

If we consider the accurate letter skips that are used in each case, the unique and defined starting positions in each book, and the patterns that are mirrored around Leviticus; it is statistically much more improbable that this phenomenon occurred as a result of mere chance.  To me this demonstrates that the person who put this together had design in mind.  For this phenomenon to have been included in the text by accident, we would have to multiply our already impossible odds of constructing the numerical structure of the text by another 3,000,000 to obtain the odds of this being a result of chance.

Taking this even a step further, the biggest difficulty with ELS’s is that it is almost impossible to know what to look for when starting off.  We have no idea what information a hidden message would contain, when reading the surface text.  We do not know where to start looking for it, where the starting position would be in the text or what skip value it would require to make it readable.  It was only in recent years, through information technology, that we gained the ability to perform searches within the text and to have computers do the searching for us.  This would have been extremely tedious to undertake in previous centuries without the technology that we have today and it is amazing that people found some of these codes as early as 1,200 AD.  To explain the ELS search process in a little more detail, this is how it would work:

A person would install a Bible Code Search software program on a computer that contains various compilations of Hebrew and Greek Scriptures and even modern-day writings such as “Moby Dick” or “War and Peace”.  When the program is running, the user will then type in a search term and specify the text that they would like to search in, which could be the Tanakh, the Torah, the Peshita or any other books or collection of books.  They would then specify upper and lower limits for the skip intervals (which could include both positive and negative values) that the computer needs to use when searching for the term or phrase.  The computer will then scan the entire text, at various intervals, considering every possible starting position and list the results vertically in a matrix for each term that is found.  An example of such a find is shown below:

(Image removed for upload to Authonomy)

Figure 1:  Bible Codes

The search result will be shown vertically as we see highlighted in red in the figure.  The first activity that the user will then undertake is to evaluate the matrix by looking at the letters vertically above and below the search term.  This often leads to a passage that contains not only the search term, but also additional insightful words, elaborating on the original search term.  It is like looking for a specific hidden word and once an ELS for that word is found, to see if it forms part of a sentence that consists of additional words, following or preceding the word, at the same letter skip. 

The next step would be to make use of the matrix that was found and look at the surface text within which the term or phrase was found.  Often the surface text would either relate to the phrase or further expound it.  Once this is done, the user can then search for additional terms which may also relate to the subject and see if they appear in the matrix. In many cases the codes that are found by just extending the search terms up or down, result in a sentence that contains the search term and is often meaningful enough on its own. Although some sceptics of this phenomenon have found similar patterns in secular books, their results were within statistically expected values.  None of their examples ever compete with the length, relevance, frequency or complexity of codes that are found in the Bible.  Neither do the books in which they are found demonstrate any complexity in design, as is evident in the Bible.  Statistically, and if one considers this phenomenon to be a result of chance, one is not supposed to find the kind of information in ELS’s as lengthy, as accurate and as complex as one finds it in the Bible.

It is relatively easy to find 4 to 8-letter words or phrases in any text, but to have meaningful and relevant codes of 296-letters that convey an understandable message about a specific subject or person is a phenomenon that is only encountered in the Bible.  A 296-letter ELS has been discovered by Bible Code Digest researcher Moshe Aharon Shak.  The ELS was found when searching for the name of the current president of Israel, Shimon Peres.  It consists of 30 sentences all added together into one code with a skip of 8. 21 

If we now consider the numerical properties of the code itself and the subjects around it, we once again find the same design patterns that we have discussed in the surface text of Matthew and Genesis.  Not only does the ELS have a skip of 8, but even the term itself is evenly divisible by 8 since 296=37x8.  The Matrix is found in the Torah section called 8th.  Shimon Peres is the 8th President of Israel.  He was born on August 16, 1923 - it is in the 8th month and the day is also a factor of 8 or 8x2.  His name has got 8 letters in it when read in Hebrew.  Peres failed 8 times to become President of Israel.  Through this example we can see that the patterned design around 8 is not only contained in the text that comprises the ELS, but even factors in attributes around the life of the person being discussed.  The chances of:

A: -- Finding a hidden message as long and as complex as this 296-letter ELS, randomly in any text,

B: -- it containing meaningful information pertaining to specific subjects or persons when the discovery is made,

C: -- it demonstrating similar numeric design as that found in the surface text and

D: -- finding that the life of a person who will exist at some point in the future, after the text was penned, would form an integral part of the design that is encountered in the Bible, is completely outside of the realms of occurring by chance alone.

This phenomenon, combined with the others already mentioned, requires meticulous design, knowledge of historic and future events at the time of writing the letters that would make up the book in which these hidden messages are found.  There are simply no other explanations that would logically allow for this to occur.  What is even more astonishing about this code, is that it chronologically addresses the life of Shimon Peres in 30 concise statements, showing that whoever included this message also knew how history would roll out into the future.  To review the full article and discussion, please visit the following webpage.

http://www.biblecodedigest.com/page.php/386

Another long ELS with regards to Mel Gibson was found after Gibson produced the film, “The Passion of The Christ”. 22  The original ELS that was discovered had 147-letters in it and had a letter-skip of 3,806 letters.  After further study, Bible Code researcher, Moshe Aharon Shak, discovered that this code actually wrapped around from the end of the Tanakh and continued again in the Torah to add an additional 40 letters.  What is phenomenal about this code is that the 187-letter ELS contains in itself 13 other codes, at different intervals and directions, making use of the original 187-letter code only.  This 187-letter code provides a string of letters that contain multiple messages that lead to a total of 666 letters forming 85 sentences and all of this making use of the original 187-letter code with letters in the specific order in which they are found.  This entire phenomenon is similar to what is found within the DNA molecule where the basic building blocks, or base pairs, are supported by a double-helix structure, the base pairs form genes and the genes form chromosomes.

Consider this for a moment: Have you ever encountered a piece of literature that you can read in one direction and get a meaningful sentence and then read the same piece  backwards and get meaningful words and a sentence giving a different message relating to the same subject, making use of the letters  in the reversed order?

To demonstrate how this works, we could use the palindromic example of:

“A man, a plan, a canal, Panama”

This sentence reads forwards and backwards and conveys exactly the same message.  What is astonishing about this 187-letter ELS in the Bible, is the complexity of the fact that it actually contains 13 different codes that convey 85 different sentences, reading in both directions at various intervals and have the same negative outlook or describe something bad in each case.  This phenomenon is only found in the Bible and no other book on earth has these characteristics.  Please visit the websites below to see in detail what information is conveyed in the Mel Gibson code and how the Bible exhibits similar intricacies found within the DNA molecule:

http://www.biblecodedigest.com/page.php/497

http://www.biblecodedigest.com/page.php/236

Another very interesting Bible code is a 108-letter long code about Buddhism.  What makes this code fascinating is the fact that it wraps around the entire Tanakh 9 times.  This means that the distances between the letters are so vast, that it requires all 39 books in the Old Testament 9 times in succession to complete the code.  Furthermore, this code conveys a lot of relevant information about Buddhism, not only in the message itself, but also the way in which the message is designed. Please have a look at the code and the interpretation of this code on the website as given below:

http://www.biblecodedigest.com/page.php/606

Something that I would like to highlight, is the fact that the number 108 is featured in this find, by just looking at the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet that is used. It just so happens that the number 108 is also a very significant number in the Buddhist religion - the Buddhist mala, or string of prayer beads, has 108 beads on it.  This is a string of beads used to count mantras when followers of the faith are said to focus their concentration.  Some Buddhists carve 108 small Buddhas on a walnut for good luck.  Some ring a bell 108 times to celebrate a new year.  There are said to be 108 virtues to cultivate and 108 defilements to avoid.  The chakras are the intersections of energy lines, and there are said to be a total of 108 energy lines converging to form the heart chakra.  If one is able to be so calm in meditation as to take only 108 breaths in a day, enlightenment will come.  The sacred River Ganges spans a longitude of 12 degrees (79 to 91), and latitude of 9 degrees (22 to 31). 12 times 9 equal 108. In astrology, there are 12 houses and 9 planets. 12 times 9 equal 108.  The code as it is laid out in the Bible also covers 12 letters per pass of the Old Testament and passes it 9 times or 12 x 9 = 108.

If we consider the complexity, not just of the message that was hidden in this wrapped ELS, but also of the design properties, we see the following aspects emerging from this code and can therefore draw the following logical conclusions:

A: -- The ELS is hidden within - and forms part of and are fully integrated with - the amazing numerical structure that is found in the Bible.

B: -- To make this ELS possible, would logically require knowledge of the future - during the time that the Old Testament was written - since Buddhism did not exist when the Old Testament was penned.

C: -- It would require knowledge of the final order in which the books of the Old Testament or Tanakh would be arranged to have this design become effective. 

D: -- The person who hid this message in the Bible had to accurately anticipate the following aspects, millennia before they would actually occur:

1: -- The name of the religion that would one day exist

2: -- The number that would be considered very significant by this religion

3: --  What the foundation of this religion would be. 

E: -- Having the ELS wrap the Old Testament 9 times extracting 12 letters from the text in each pass, proves and confirms that the entire Old Testament is word-for-word and letter-for-letter exactly what it was designed to be and that not a letter was lost or misplaced over the ages.  If a letter was missing from the Bible the equidistant sequence would be broken and the code would have failed on the first pass.

Is it not amazing that one can actually look into the depths of creativity and observe this incredible mind-boggling ability that we, through our advances in technology, can only begin to see and realise today?

We find that Bible Codes convey accurate, although in some cases cryptic, information about events as they occur in today’s life, also past and future events.  The problem is that one does not really know what to look for until an event has occurred, or until a person actually exists, before you know which event or name you need to look for.  The codes include information regarding subjects that were unfamiliar and unknown to the authors of the era in which the Bible was written.  They also contain information about historic events that, from the writers’ perspectives, would have occurred sometime in the future.

We live in an age, almost 2,000 years after the Bible was completed.  Looking back in history, we can verify that as history unfolded, the information hidden in the text at the time of writing was indeed correct when predicting future events, both in the surface text as well as in hidden codes.  Bible codes can sometimes span various books (starting in one book and ending in another or spanning more than one book or wrapping around the entire Bible several times as in the example above).  Considering all these facts, it is mind boggling to even try and fathom how one would go about constructing an object such as this, containing the qualities that have been mentioned, from a human point of view.

How could any person know: What a person’s name would be who will only exist in another 2,000 years?  What this person will be doing, thinking and saying and then to not only adapt your writing style to include the predictions about his life, actions and words into a code hidden in the book you are writing, but is also contained in books that other people will write?  How to hide all this information in an elaborate code?  It is even more difficult to picture how one would achieve this when considering the design criteria required from the perspective of someone such as Moses.  How would he have known that the Bible, as we have it today, would one day exist?  How could he predict what would happen in the future and know the numerical requirements, which he would have to adhere to, for including codes about the future into his writing?  Every single letter in the Bible fits perfectly into a masterfully designed, fully integrated compilation that can only serve its intended purpose, if each individual letter is in its intended designed position and remained there over millennia. 

Various other books have been studied to see if they conform to similar criteria, but have been found lacking.  None of them contained any codes that were outside statistically expected probabilities and none had any numeric underlying structure to them, similar to what is found in the Bible.  None could correctly predict the future with clarity and accuracy as the Bible does. 23

Considering some of the latest codes that have been discovered around prominent world events, like the unrest in Egypt, Ghadaffi’s death, the release of Israel’s Ghalit who was exchanged for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners and more, please go to the following web page for more details:

http://www.biblecodedigest.com/page.php?PageID=7

On this point, let us look at the Bible’s ability to predict future events accurately.  We have already shown that, hidden within the codes, it contains accurate and elaborate information about renowned people living today. J. Barton Payne’s “Encyclopaedia of Biblical Prophecy” lists 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament and 578 prophecies in the New Testament, a total of 1,817.  These encompass 8,352 verses.  Compared with the underlying structure of the Bible and Bible codes that have to be studied in the original languages, prophecies are relatively easy to assess and test for truthfulness.  What differentiates the Bible from other books that predict the future, is that the Bible is very clear and concise in its prediction of future events still to come and based on historic records that have been verified, we know that about two thirds of the prophecies in the Bible have already been fulfilled.  There still remain about 500 odd prophecies, the large majority of which are focused on the end-times and specifically on the last 7 years that will soon be experienced. 24 

If we only consider prophecies contained in the Bible that have already been fulfilled, it further confirms with absolute certainty that the Bible is unlike any other book.  The number of predictions about future events contained within the Bible and the fact that we find that all events that have occurred in our past, came true with 100% accuracy, not failing once in accuracy or timing, should leave one with sobering thoughts about the events predicted for our future.  Some of these predictions that are still to be fulfilled are extremely ominous and paint a dire picture of the world in its last seven years, before the Messiah returns to reign for a thousand years.

Taking into account the number of prophecies in the Bible and the odds of having all of them fulfilled 100% by pure chance, we have odds of smaller than that of 1 in 102000.  As we have previously explained, the scientific community’s standpoint on something occurring by chance, with odds of less than 1 in 1050 means that it is absurd or impossible and cannot have occurred by chance.  The fact that more than two thirds of all prophecies in the Bible have been fulfilled on time with 100% accuracy, should convince us of the accuracy of prophecies still to be fulfilled.  It is also absolute proof that this Someone is not bound by our space-time restrictions and is the same today as he was 4,000 years ago and will also be the same in another 10,000 years.  The Bible contains more than 300 prophecies about Jesus Christ, his life and his purpose here on Earth.  There are also some prophecies about him that still need to be fulfilled.  Let us look at some of the prophecies that have been fulfilled and others that are yet to be.

Many people may argue that one can have different views and interpretations on what the Bible actually says regarding specific subjects, including prophecies.  I think the best stance to take on this, is to ask God to reveal his Word to you through his Spirit, but to always measure the information, that is provided, against the Bible itself to see if it is true.  An example of this is found in Acts 17:11

Act 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

This verse described the Bereans who were open to receiving information about the Bible, but searched the Bible to test whether the information that they were receiving, was actually scriptural and true.  We also have to deal with the barriers that exist between languages.  Today there are hundreds of versions of the Bible based on various interpretations of the Hebrew and Greek, by people and organisations holding specific views about the information they were translating from the original texts.  Some translators may feel that the information they are working with has to be translated literally, while others may feel it should be considered allegorically. 

Many of the new Bible versions that have been released will change or omit certain aspects, which will alter the message that a passage intended to convey.  In my own experience, the best option is to read the King James Version.  It contains some flaws, but over the centuries these have been properly documented and we know what they are.  Compared to other versions of the Bible, it remains closest to the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek versions.  It may be difficult to read initially, but the more time you spend with it, the easier it becomes.  Not having English as my mother tongue, I found it difficult to understand at first, but it became easy after only a short period of time.

We also have to deal with people’s interpretation of specific meanings of certain concepts in the Bible.  Some may feel that a certain sentence may convey a literal message ‘A’, while others feel that it conveys an allegorical message ‘B’.  All depends on one’s view of the Bible.  An example of an interpretation issue is given below:  

Bible Code researchers have performed various searches throughout the Bible with specific attention to finding out who the true Messiah is.  Christians believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Messiah who came to Israel about 2,000 years ago, as was foretold in many instances in the Old Testament.  The Jews, on the other hand, reject this notion and they feel that Christians are mistaken in believing that Jesus is Israel’s Messiah and that passages in the Old Testament actually refer to Israel itself, whereas Christians would see those as references to Jesus Christ.  So, if we have two groups of people holding two different beliefs and having the same Book as basis for their beliefs, how does one tell right from wrong? Could it be that both are right, or both are wrong?  One chapter in the Bible that probably causes most of the dissension between Christians and Jews is Isaiah 53, which is considered by many to be the high ground in the Old Testament.  This passage directly prophesied the coming of the servant of God, or the Messiah, and portrays him to be a suffering servant who would offer himself up for his people so that they could be saved.  Before we get into that, let us consider the surface text of Isaiah 52 from verse 13 to the end of Isaiah 53 below:

Isa 52:13 - 15  Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. As many were astonished at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:  So shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

Isa 53:1 – 12  Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?   For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.  He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.  And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.  Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.  He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.  Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

There has been a lot of controversy over this piece of scripture where Jews feel that Isaiah 53 refers to the nation Israel and they provide proof from various passages that show that when God refers to his servant, it actually points to Israel. 25  Some of these, from the Jewish perspective are listed below and are also from Isaiah:

Isa 41:8 - 10 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.  Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

Isa 44:1 Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant; and Israel, whom I have chosen:

Isa 44:21 Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee; thou art my servant: O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me.

Isa 45:4  For Jacob my servant‘s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

Isa 48:20  Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, The LORD hath redeemed his servant Jacob.

While Jews reject Jesus Christ as their Messiah and the New Testament in its entirety as being part of God’s Word, Christians are of the opinion that the information conveyed through Isaiah 53, as with many other passages and models that are used throughout the Bible, points to Jesus Christ as the Messiah.  Looking at the evidence that Jews give for their belief that “the servant” is meant to be the nation Israel, it would at first glance seem to be a very plausible and reliable explanation, but this is true only if the evidence, that is presented, is considered in isolation.  If we compare the same information in Isaiah 53 to other scriptures, prophecies and to the events as they unfolded during Jesus’ crucifixion from a Christian point of view (also taking into account the information provided in the New Testament and the fact that Jesus himself declared that the Jews would be blinded to not recognise who He was) it fits the scenario described in here even better. So how does one then know which view is correct? 

There are many models, passages, and specific prophecies that point directly to Jesus as being the Messiah and also serve as proof that he is indeed Israel’s Messiah.  The Bible also prophesies that Israel will first accept the anti-Christ as their Messiah.  He would not come in the name of his Father, but in his own name and that they will only recognise Jesus as their true Messiah during the Great Tribulation, where they will then realise who he really is and in their torment, ask him to return.  Also, when people of the Jewish faith claim that Jesus could not be the Messiah, but that “the servant” refers to Israel, does this view conform to the rest of the evidence that is provided in the Bible?  Does this view match aspects found in the Bible Codes and the evidence of similar supernatural design qualities found in the New Testament that are also observed in the Old Testament?  Being objective, one would once again need to consider the scientific method and remember that a theory is disproven whenever evidence to the contrary of a hypothesis comes to light.  We already know that the same person, who was responsible for constructing the Old Testament, also constructed the New Testament.  If it is scientifically verifiable that the same supernatural design qualities are found in both the Old and New Testaments, would both then not need to be considered as originating from the same source and that both would be equally true, valid and important?  Can we find any linkage between the New and Old Testaments that would confirm that they are meant to go together and that would reveal additional information not visible when considering only the Old Testament in isolation?

The Old Testament covers the history as well as the prophesised future of the nation Israel.  The New Testament, especially the Gospels, focuses on the life of a Man and provides information in the other Epistles regarding God’s church and the principles for living under his grace that he provided free for those who would recognise him and accept his gift.  Many events, designs and models in the Old Testament, if carefully studied, are also linked to aspects found within the New Testament that would demonstrate through symbols, hidden messages and other devices, things yet to come.  These are then understood and revealed when considering the information as it is presented in the New Testament.

Why do Christians then believe that Isaiah 53 actually refers to Jesus as the Messiah and that the passage does not only refer to the nation Israel?  To start this journey of discovery, one needs to refer to Daniel 9:25, where the angel Gabriel appeared to Daniel and gave him a very precise date of when Israel’s Messiah would be revealed.

This is certainly one of the most incredible prophecies in the Bible where Gabriel gave Daniel a message regarding the nation Israel, interrupting his prayer in Daniel 9.  The exact time span, from when the decree to rebuild Jerusalem would go forth, up to the point where Israel’s Messiah would be revealed, was given to him.  The Jews would therefore know exactly on what day they could expect to see the revelation of their Messiah. The passage below describes this:

Dan. 9:25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.

This verse tells us that from the time that the decree was passed to rebuild Jerusalem, until the revelation of the Messiah, would be exactly 69 weeks of 7 years or 483 years or 173,880 days.  From a Jewish perspective it was common to refer to time periods as weeks. 26  These would then include weeks of years, weeks of months or weeks of days.  From a Jewish perspective it would not be seen as strange to refer to 7 weeks as 7 periods of 7 years.  This prophecy made it possible for the Jews to know precisely on which day (down to the day itself) they could expect their Messiah to be revealed.  From historic records we know that Antaxerxes’ decree to restore Jerusalem, was passed on March 14th, 445 BC.  If we added 173,880 days to this date, keeping in mind that calendars were reorganised from a 360-day calendar in ancient times to a 365-day calendar in 701 BC by Numa Pompilius, we arrive at April 6th, 32 AD. The 173,880 days would be calculated as follows:

1: -- Number of days between Mar 14th and Apr 6th = 24

2: -- Number of days from 445 BC to 32 AD = 365 x 476 = 173,740 – (there is no year 0 in changing from BC to AD and therefore number of years = 445 +31)

3: -- Number of Leap years = 116 days extra required.

So we have 24 + 116 + 173,740 = 173,880 days. 27

Did the Bible provide any information in the Old Testament to the Jews on how to identify their Messiah when he would be presented on that day or where to look for him?  In Zechariah 9:9 a clear description is given in another prophecy of how the Messiah would be presented to the Jews, so that they could know exactly what to look for.

Zec 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.

Did anything significant happen on the April 6th, 32 AD as predicted by Gabriel to Daniel?  Interestingly enough, this was the exact day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, presenting himself and being hailed as King of the Jews by a multitude of people that were following him at the time.  The following passage from Luke 19 in the New Testament, recorded what happened:

Luk 19:35 - 44 And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.   And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way.  And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.  And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples. And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out. And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

We see firstly that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, fulfilling the prophecies of both Gabriel to Daniel in Daniel 9, as well as the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9.  The Pharisees required him to silence his disciples when they were quoting scriptures from the Old Testament that pointed to the Messiah who would come in the name of the Lord.  Because the Jews attributed the works that Jesus performed through his miracles to the devil, Jesus declared that the Jews would be blinded and that they would not know the things that are now hid from their eyes.  The Jews subsequently refused to recognise Jesus as their Messiah on the day that was prophesied to Daniel by Gabriel.  This is exactly what happened and is still occurring today!  The Jews have been blinded to the fact that their Messiah has already revealed himself to them and has also told them that they would accept a false Messiah, who one day will come to them in his own name and promise them peace.  The New Testament goes further to expound on the blindness of the Jews with a yet another prophecy where Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, explains that the Jews will be blinded until the fullness of the Gentiles comes in.

Additionally, we also find the following passages referring to the blindness that was declared over Israel for not recognising the Day on which their Messiah would reveal himself to them.  Does this mean that God has rejected his chosen people?  The Bible even answers this question for us: In Romans 11 we have the following:

Rom 11:1 - 11 I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.   God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,  Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.  But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.  Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.  And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.  What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded   (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day. And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompense unto them: Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.  I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.

Here we see that there is still a future plan for Israel. Although they did not accept their Messiah when he first presented himself to them and as we can see demonstrated from the Old Testament, their blindness and rejection of Christ has allowed the Gentiles to become the election as seen in verse 7 referred to above.

Rom 11:25  For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

Romans 11:25 one can see that it is prophesied that Israel’s blindness will end at some point and that they will recognise and embrace their Messiah at a point in time, when the fullness of the Gentiles emerges or when the determined number of Gentiles (or people from nations other than Israel) have entered into God’s Kingdom.

Returning to the prophecies about Jesus, we have only touched on three Messianic prophecies that have been fulfilled by Jesus with 100% accuracy.  There are in fact 365 prophecies in the surface text of the Old Testament alone regarding the Messiah, which have already been fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ. 28 The odds of one person in history fulfilling so many prophecies by chance, without failing in at least one of them, are once again impossible according to our scientific standards.  This does not include the prophecies that are hidden in the codes. 

Another question is, if Jesus is the Messiah who has already fulfilled more than 300 prophecies from the Old Testament, was He aware of the fact that he was the Messiah, or did this just happen by chance from his point of view?  Also, can one assume that someone could plan to live their lives in such a way that they would fulfil prophecies intentionally?  It may be possible if those prophecies did not include facts such as your genealogy, your birthplace, the nation into which you were born.  Also that your mother would be a virgin at your birth, the perfect timing of your existence in the history of the world, that you had the ability to avoid a massacre of infants when you are still under the age of two, that you were born into and growing up in a poor family, that you had the ability to heal people wherever you went and to drive out evil spirits and raise people from the dead.  It would also be very difficult to ensure that the Roman soldier, who was given an order to break your bones after you passed away, decided to disobey his orders and rather pierce your side with a spear - just as it was prophesied in the Old Testament.  It would also be impossible for any normal human being to raise themselves from the dead, after water and blood had flowed from a gaping wound in their side - proof that life has left the body. 

These are all aspects over which anyone, even attempting to fulfil prophecies through his own efforts, would be powerless to exercise influence in any way.  Returning to the question whether Jesus knew who he was and what his mission on Earth was - consider the following passages:

Luk 4:17 – 22 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,  To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.  And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph‘s son?

What is interesting about this passage is that Jesus quoted a passage from Isaiah 61, but stopped halfway through the passage when he closed the book and declared that the prophecy was fulfilled in their ears on that day.  He left out the part in bold below – let us look at this again as it is written in Isaiah:

Isa 61:1, 2  The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;   To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

Why did Jesus pause and not read the entire passage?  Would the prophecy’s fulfilment be true if he included the part that was left out and told his peers that the prophecy was fulfilled on that day?  This gives us a clue to something which is in the future.  If all prophecies in the Bible are reliable and are proven to be 100% accurate, what does the day of God’s vengeance have in store and when will this happen? We will look at this later.  Another passage which gives us an idea of who Jesus really was is given in John 10:

Joh 10:17, 18 Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

Can any of us declare that we have the power to lay down our life and take it up again after we die and then do as we said we would?  Has anybody in history been able to return from the dead through their own devices and had more than 500 witnesses attest to the fact?  Before his death, Jesus claimed to be able to do exactly that.  He also proved that he was indeed able to do so, through his resurrection; where He was witnessed as being alive - talking to people and having meals with them, after his death on the cross.  More than 500 people were witness to his resurrection after his crucifixion. 29

Another example from the Old Testament is the prophecy regarding Cyrus and his conquering of Babylon, which was made 150 years before the event.  The Jews, who were at that time captives in Babylon, showed Cyrus the prophecy of his life and actions as described in the book of Isaiah.  When he read it, he was so impressed with the accuracy of it, that he provided the Jews with incentives to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their city.  An excerpt from the prophecy is provided below - remember, this prophecy was written 150 years before it was fulfilled by Cyrus:

Isa 45:1-4  Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;  I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:   And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.  For Jacob my servant‘s sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.

Comparing this prophecy with what happened on the night when Cyrus invaded Babylon, we also have the following passage in Daniel where we see remarkable accuracy in the events that took place.

Dan 5:6 Then the king‘s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.

We can also see that in the prophecy God says that he had in mind what Cyrus’ name would be and that he would also give him his surname.  From a scientific perspective, if we compare the Bible to any other book in the world, based on the information provided above, we can without any doubt say that whoever created this book is endowed with abilities that no one on Earth possesses.  The Bible itself elaborates on the Creator’s qualities in the following verses:

Isa 55:8,9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isa 40:22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

Isa 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

Isa 57:15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Isa 40:25, 26  To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.  Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

Now, given the fact that the Bible was written over almost 2 millennia, by about 40 different authors and the fact that we can prove through scientific methods that the Bible contains enormous amounts of evidence of elaborate design.  This is something that throughout history, would have been humanly impossible to obtain; even with the best technology available to us today, can we with absolute certainty conclude that, as mere mortals, we would in no way be able to get even close to reproducing an artefact of similar qualities.  To construct the patterns, models or the numerical design in the structure of the text, while at the same time predicting events in the distant future with 100% accuracy, both in the surface text and in codes embedded in the text, would be absolutely impossible for a human to achieve.  Only someone outside of our dimensional limitations and with an unlimited amount of power and intelligence would be able to achieve this – seeing events on Earth in front of him as if everything happened at the same time.  This would be the only explanation as to how 100% accurate information concerning future events could be included in a book, long before the events actually took place. 

This is not the only fact that we can glean from the information above. If we considered the elaborate and detailed design exhibited within the structure of the original texts in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek, we quickly realise that it would take super-human efforts to obtain all of the interwoven information and tasks listed below:

A: -- A Book containing the history of a nation in the Old Testament and the life of a Man in the New Testament, including accurate descriptions of the lives of many people who  lived during these periods and who  interacted with the nation Israel and the Lord Jesus Christ.

B: -- Creating the book by using 40 authors over almost 2 millennia.

C: -- Ensuring that historic events occur in such a way that would one day provide a model of events that would happen at specific times in the future and also serve as pointers to milestones which are achieved as time passes.

D: -- All of the information contained in the book is ordered in such a way that the text ends up demonstrating amazing numerical, structural and chronological features when analysed - the design structure demonstrating that every letter’s placement was carefully planned, positioned and anchored.

E: -- Designing the text in such a manner that future parts, which were still not written at the time when the earliest books were written, would be crafted to link in with those future texts, capturing the names of people who were yet to exist.  Their names would not only match the numerical structure, but in some cases even convey hidden messages and be part of other hidden messages that form part of ELS’s in remarkable complexity and detail.

F: -- Structuring the text in such a way that it would seem that each book was written last - due to the fact that words exclusively used in that specific book were divisible by 7.

G: -- Building into the text hidden messages possibly about every person who has ever lived and hiding that within the text making use of ELS’s.  We know that prominent people living today are featured and elaborate codes have already been discovered, containing accurate information about these people and various other topics.

H: -- Penning prophecies of future events before they happen, ensuring that in all cases each prophecy is fulfilled with 100% accuracy and immaculate timing in every respect.

I: -- Ensuring that all the aspects mentioned above are incorporated into one book in the correct order, so that all these qualities are perfectly intertwined and complement each other, and that each letter remains in its original designed position for at least 2,000 years after the book is completed.

I am sure that you would agree with me that to achieve something as complicated and elaborate as that which is found in the Bible, would be without any doubt, humanly impossible.  Can any human pull off something like this?  If we compare this information with works from historic figures like Nostradamus, could their works be compared to the design found in the Bible?  You would find that, although some similarities may be present, the predictions by Nostradamus and others are in all cases extremely vague and require a lot of interpretation from the reader’s side and are in many cases incorrect or cannot be linked to any events that have occurred or will occur.  Neither do any of these texts contain any of the other complex design qualities which are found only in the Bible. 

The person who inspired the writing of the Bible was also intimately involved in all events that occurred on earth throughout history.  He did not only intend to predict events in the future, but guided people in what they should name their children, so that the names would one day fit into the majestic design that would complete the structure, design and modelling within the book.  People’s choices were anticipated and required at the same time to form part of the way in which history played out and to finally form part of the chronology recorded in detail in the Bible. 

In every aspect the writer of this Book had to consider how people would react to certain situations, what they would say, decide, when they would be born, when they would die and what names their parents would give them.  All this would be required just to begin to reach some understanding of what would be essential in achieving the complicated and humanly impossible design that is contained in historic events that have been captured in this document.  From a human perspective it would be impossible to write a piece of literature and include a hidden message within that literature about a person who will be living in the future, who would become famous in the future and to be intimately familiar with what that person would do during his lifetime and then include this information in a coded message of more than 600 characters long.  Also, to hide 13 additional messages about the same person in the original code at different letter skips and to be 100% accurate with that information is humanly unachievable. We simply can’t imagine how something like this would be possible.

Most people are not aware that the Bible contains these qualities.  In many people’s minds the Christian Bible - and by that we refer to the Hebrew and Aramaic texts in the Old Testament and the Greek in the New Testament - is just another religious book, containing mythical information that is not verifiable, and questionable tales that are considered by many to be untrustworthy flights of fantasy. 

Many people would also consider this Book to contain restrictive rules, which limits what people can do and who they can be.  This is not true.  Although the Designer of this Book did provide his rules for living and perfection, they are there to show us what the Creator considers as good and perfect.  He knows that in our fallen state, we are not able to achieve these and above all, he desires a personal relationship with each person on earth.  He has done everything that you have not been able to do yourself on your behalf as a gift to you, so that you can be brought into a relationship with God where you are viewed as perfect, based on his gift. 

Given the information above, I think it would be necessary for people who doubt the Bible’s authenticity and the relevance of the information it contains, to rethink their position.  My argument in this case would be based on the fact that we can scientifically prove that the Bible was:

A: -- designed and inspired on a level far exceeding human capacity and which no human would ever be able to replicate

B: -- supernaturally preserved through the ages, ensuring that not one letter in both the Old and New Testaments was omitted, added or moved

C: -- filled with information that is verifiably accurate, 100% of the time, when considering various aspects such as:

1: -- Prophetic predictions that we can verify through historic accounts that were all 100% accurate and concise.

2: -- Verifiable structural design at various levels which proves that moving or omitting even one letter would render it unreliable.

3: -- Accurate integration of information in codes that are relevant at all times and describing people, events and various subjects as they occur throughout history without fail.

4: -- Accurate usage of models in history which point to events, situations or people still to be at the time of penning the books which would eventually make up the Bible.

D: -- The Bible even validates itself and states that all scripture was inspired by God and what it should be used for:

2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 

If we keep all these aspects in mind, what conclusions should we then draw from these provable facts?  We are dealing here with a Book that is unlike any other book on earth.  Each letter on each page in the original languages has been placed exactly in its position with the utmost accuracy and intent.  We know that this Book contains many prophecies, which have been fulfilled, down to the last letter, for every event that was predicted and occurred in our past.  With this track record of absolute accuracy, how should we approach information that is provided in the Bible with regards to events that will only happen in the future or information about the Creation account?  Should these be treated differently?  Are we supposed to apply our own interpretation of information contained in the Bible for which we are unable to provide verifiable evidence?  Especially when we know that for all cases in which we are able to collect data, the Bible’s accuracy is proven to be 100% true.  Are we not being arrogant in our attempts to interpret the information in the Bible to suit our beliefs, or even calling it false? 

Looking at the table below, we consider two sets of data.  Both are found in passages from the Bible and form part of the supernatural aspects as discussed.  For Information Set A, we may have current evidence or well preserved historic accounts through which we can validate the statement.  We also find that in all cases where we do have the ability to verify the statement, it is always found to be 100% accurate.  How then should we treat those statements or sections from the Bible which we are unable to verify authenticity?  Would it be accurate to assume that if we can prove 100% factual truth in all cases, would it be fair to treat the sections or passages for which we lack the evidence or foresight into the future, with exactly the same attitude?  Would it be stretching it too far to think that we can demonstrate scientifically that the Bible as a whole is a supernatural unity and that we can accept with certainty that it contains true information on all aspects - even on subjects that we are unable to validate, due to our limitations?  If we know that the information contained in this Book, predicted events that would happen in the future with 100% accuracy and continue to predict future events which we cannot assess from our point in time, should we not pay serious attention to what it says about those future events?

Information Set A

Passage contains supernatural text structure?   Answer:  Yes

Passage forms part of numeric patterns?   Answer:  Yes

Passage contains hidden codes?   Answer:  Yes

Passage contains specific statements for verification?   Answer:  Yes

Humanly possible to validate?   Answer:  Yes

Findings of validated statement:  Statements always 100% true.

Information Set B

Passage contains supernatural text structure?   Answer:  Yes

Passage forms part of numeric patterns?   Answer:  Yes

Passage contains hidden codes?   Answer:  Yes

Passage contains specific statements for verification?   Answer:  Yes

Humanly possible to validate?   Answer:  No

Findings of validated statement:  ???

In my opinion, one has a decision to make.  On the one hand you can select to side with the Evolution Theory.  It emerged officially, about 200 years ago, when technology was still primitive and where proponents of the theory were unable to test some of their hypotheses.  A theory, where the scientists themselves expressed doubt in the validity of their own theory about the origin of life and the complexities they encountered and where we now have ample evidence mounting against the validity of the theory.  There is also no supernatural evidence that can be found within the Evolution Theory and the promoters of the Theory want people to exclude any ideas of the supernatural.  On the other hand, one can decide to choose to accept the information as it is presented in the Bible. In my opinion, the choice one has to make is a simple one, given the facts on both sides.  One can choose to rely on people’s philosophical interpretations of what they saw around them, which we know is subject to human limitations, not only in space-time, but also the human quality of being prone to making mistakes.  Or one can choose to rely on a document, which is scientifically proven to be far above human capability to construct, both in its structure and content, and which is proven to be 100% true in the information that it conveys. 

We have to consider that the information contained in the Bible also addresses our origins in the creation account in which it describes how God created everything and that it was a deliberate choice and action from God to perform his creative work. It did not happen by chance as modern day opinion would have you believe.

If one is to rely on the information as it is provided in the Bible and compare it with what Evolution depicts, can one find similarities where the two viewpoints meet or are they opposing?  From the Internet, the following description of the Universe’s formation after the Big Bang occurred is given:

“The earliest phases of the Big Bang are subject to much speculation. In the most common models, the Universe was filled homogeneously and isotropically with an incredibly high energy density, huge temperatures and pressures, and was very rapidly expanding and cooling.  Approximately 10-37 seconds into the expansion, a phase transition caused a cosmic inflation, during which the Universe grew exponentially.  After inflation stopped, the Universe consisted of a quark-gluon plasma, as well as all other elementary particles.  Temperatures were so high that the random motions of particles were at relativistic speeds, and particle - antiparticle pairs of all kinds were being continuously created and destroyed in collisions.  At some point an unknown reaction called baryogenesis, violated the conservation of baryon numbers, leading to a very small excess of quarks and leptons over antiquarks and antileptons - of the order of one part in 30 million.  This resulted in the predominance of matter over anti-matter in the present Universe.”

The Universe continued to grow in size and fall in temperature; hence the typical energy of each particle was decreasing.  Symmetry breaking phase transitions put the fundamental forces of physics and the parameters of elementary particles into their present form.  After about 10-11 seconds, the picture becomes less speculative, since particle energies drop to values that can be attained in particle physics experiments.  At about 10-6 seconds, quarks and gluons combined to form baryons such as protons and neutrons.  The small excess of quarks over antiquarks led to a small excess of baryons over antibaryons.  The temperature was now no longer high enough to create new proton-antiproton pairs (similarly for neutrons–antineutrons), so a mass annihilation immediately followed, leaving just one in 1010 of the original protons and neutrons, and none of their antiparticles.  A similar process happened at about 1 second for electrons and positrons.  After these annihilations, the remaining protons, neutrons and electrons were no longer moving relativistically and the energy density of the Universe was dominated by photons (with a minor contribution from neutrinos).

A few minutes into the expansion, when the temperature was about a billion (one thousand million kelvin) and the density was about that of air, neutrons combined with protons to form the Universe‘s deuterium and helium nuclei in a process called Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Most protons remained uncombined as hydrogen nuclei.  As the Universe cooled, the rest mass energy density of matter came to gravitationally dominate that of the photon radiation.  After about 379,000 years the electrons and nuclei combined into atoms (mostly hydrogen); hence the radiation decoupled from matter and continued through space largely unimpeded.  This relic radiation is known as the cosmic microwave background radiation.  Over a long period of time, the slightly denser regions of the nearly uniformly distributed matter gravitationally attracted nearby matter and thus grew even denser, forming gas clouds, stars, galaxies, and the other astronomical structures observable today.  The details of this process depend on the amount and type of matter in the Universe.  The four possible types of matter are known as cold dark matter, warm dark matter, hot dark matter and baryonic matter.  The best measurements available (from WMAP) show that the data is well-fit by a Lambda-CDM model in which dark matter is assumed to be cold (warm dark matter is ruled out by early reionisation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang - cite_note-41), and is estimated to make up about 23% of the matter/energy of the Universe, while baryonic matter makes up about 4.6%.  In an "extended model" which includes hot dark matter in the form of neutrinos, if the "physical baryon density" Omega-bh2 is estimated at about 0.023 (this is different from the “baryon density” Omega-b expressed as a fraction of the total matter/energy density, which as noted above is about 0.046), and the corresponding cold dark matter density Omega-ch2 is about 0.11, the corresponding neutrino density Omega-vh2 is estimated to be less than 0.0062.

Independent lines of evidence from Type Ia supernovae and the CMB imply that the Universe today is dominated by a mysterious form of energy known as dark energy, which apparently permeates all of space.  The observations suggest 73% of the total energy density of today‘s Universe is in this form.  When the Universe was very young, it was likely infused with dark energy, but with less space and everything closer together, gravity had the upper hand, and it was slowing the expansion.  But eventually, after numerous billion years of expansion, the growing abundance of dark energy caused the expansion of the Universe to gradually begin to accelerate.  Dark energy in its simplest formulation takes the form of the cosmological constant term in Einstein‘s field equations of general relativity, but its composition and mechanism are unknown and, more generally, the details of its equation of state and relationship with the Standard Model of particle physics continue to be investigated both observationally and theoretically.

All of this cosmic evolution after the inflationary epoch can be rigorously described and modelled by the ΛCDM model of cosmology, which uses the independent frameworks of quantum mechanics and Einstein‘s General Relativity.  As noted above, there is no well-supported model describing the action prior to 10-15 seconds or so.  Apparently a new unified theory of quantum gravitation is needed to break this barrier. Understanding this earliest of eras in the history of the Universe is currently one of the greatest unsolved problems in physics. “ 30

Evolution goes on to say that the Earth finally formed some 4 billion years ago and life emerged by chance about 2.3 billion years ago, starting with the simplest life form and evolving over time into the diversity we see around us today.  This gives us a good idea of the progression through time and sequence of events according to the Evolutionary Theory.

The Bible says God created everything and performed his creation work over a period of 6 days and confirms this twice in Exodus.  Many people will argue that the days, as mentioned in Genesis 1, were ages or periods of time in which God gradually allowed the development of everything through the process of evolution. Is this something that we can accept as true? 

If we look at the order in which things were created, according to the creation account in Genesis 1, we find that God tells us that he began his creative work by creating Heaven and Earth.  He also tells us that the Earth was empty when he started his work and that Earth was covered in water and in darkness. 

He then created light and divided light from darkness, also on the first day.  Whether these two events happened on the same day, or describes different events altogether is debated by many people; but we will see how the Bible interprets itself on this subject. 

On the second day he created the firmament which he called Heaven and which would divide the waters above Heaven from the waters below heaven. 

On the third day he gathered the waters under Heaven together in one place and created dry land.  The waters he called Seas and the dry land he called Earth.  He also created plants, grass and all herb-yielding seeds and trees on the third day. 

On the fourth day he created the Sun, the Moon and the stars and set them in the sky for seasons and signs and to divide the light and the darkness on earth. 

On the fifth day he created the sea-living creatures, as well as birds, and on the sixth day he created land animals and humans as his representatives on Earth – humans being the only creation made in the image of God.

Before we continue, we have to remember that our understanding of God’s works is and will always remain limited at best.  To try and fully explain exactly how God worked and what He did, will always result in failure, errors or misunderstanding on our side.  What we do know however, is that God left us enough information in the Bible to understand certain facts clearly and that he also provided clarifying information in the Bible in anticipation of questions we may have about certain aspects unclear to us.  We also know from previous chapters that the Bible contains the ultimate truth and that it will anticipate any relevant question that you could ask and also provide the answer to it, either in the surface text or hidden in a code that one could search for with the proper software.

If we therefore compare the sequence of events, as prescribed by Evolution to that of Creation, we see an immediate problem relating to plants that were created on day 3, while the Sun, Moon and stars were only created on the following “day” – day 4, according to the sequence in the Bible.  Even if we do not understand all the mechanics and processes that God used to perform his creative work, we know, based on the provable accuracy of the Bible, that the sequence of events as recorded in the Bible, has to be accurate.  If we think about this carefully, what scenario, as far as periods of time are concerned, would allow for plants to be created in one period of time and survive long enough without the essential source of photosynthesis that is needed to maintain them, until a source for photosynthesis becomes available?  The only logical answer in this case would be a relative short period of time such as a single day as the Bible describes. If this era was longer than a year, there would be very few plants left alive, if any at all, when the Sun finally arrived.  Looking at the Sun, Moon and stars we can also identify some peculiar properties: Have you ever noticed that the Sun and the Moon, although at different distances away from the Earth are exactly the same visual size when observed from the surface of the Earth?  This becomes most apparent during a full solar eclipse.  The observers of the eclipse will see the Moon moving between the Earth and the Sun and cover the Sun exactly.  What are the chances of these relationships being perfect and this happening by chance?  The relationships between the Earth, the Moon and the Sun, the rotation speed of the Earth, the tilt of the Earth’s rotational axis, the exposure time of the different hemispheres to light and darkness (and many other critical factors that are related to the movements of the Earth, Moon and Sun to provide a life supporting environment) are far too perfect to have happened by chance. 

Scientists cannot explain how the Moon came to be where it is today.  Although there are numerous theories, none of them properly fits or explains the fact that we have a rather large celestial body orbiting us and are unable to explain through scientific observations how it came to be there and has remained there over millennia. 31

Why did God create the Sun, Moon and stars only on the fourth day?  Is it perhaps because people would one day adopt the Theory of Evolution?  Did God in anticipation of this, have an order and sequence in his creation work, that would provide insight into the fact that it happened over a short period of time and was completed within 6 actual days, as opposed to Evolution’s billions of years?  How can we be sure that everything was in fact created in 6 days and that these days are not to be interpreted as ages?  If we look at Exodus, we have the following two passages:

Exo 20:11  For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is  in them, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Exo 31:17 It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.

Here, God clearly confirms directly to Moses twice; by giving him the Ten Commandments, as well as a clear affirmation in Exodus 31 of the fact that everything, including Heaven and Earth, was created over a period of six days.  These timeframes or periods are set equal to each other in both affirmations and are meant to be recognised and understood as 24-hour periods.  With this information available and considering the fact that the Bible contains truthful facts, there is really no valid reason why one would assume that the Author of the Bible would intend the reader to understand a time period that is different to what was written, or to apply special interpretations to the information as presented in Genesis 1. 

The Bible is clear about the topic and elaborates on the statements in Genesis 1 through additional passages elsewhere in the Bible - answering the question with clarity and putting aside any confusion one may have about the topic.  Some people will argue that the words used for describing God’s creative work in Genesis 1 point to new creations that did not exist before in some instances, and re-creation in others.  This argument is usually combined with the Gap Theory where people believe that Genesis 1 points to two separate events in verse one and two. 

The Gap Theory proposes that God created a first Heaven and Earth, that these were somehow destroyed and became empty and that he then had to recreate it in the 6-day period as described from verse 2 onwards.  In the process of recreation, he then recreated pre-existent life forms and also new life forms that previously did not exist.  This argument is based on the two words that are used in Genesis 1 to describe the creation work: “Bara” – which means to create and “Asha” – which means to make.  In fact, the two Hebrew words that are used for God’s creative actions are used interchangeably throughout the first chapter of Genesis.  It is similar to saying God “made” in some instances and God “created” in others.  The Bible does not provide any substantiating evidence, which would support the theory that God performed any creative work prior to the 6-day creation as described in Genesis 1. 

Some sceptics will point to Isaiah, where the Bible clearly states that God did not create the Earth to be empty and void, and compare that with the second verse of Genesis 1, in which the Bible states that the Earth was void and empty.  Based on these two verses, they imply that something needed to have happened to cause the Earth to become void and empty. For clarification the two verses are given below:

Gen 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Isa 45:18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

In the two verses above, the words “void” and “in vain” share the same Hebrew word “Tohoo”, which means empty.  To answer the question above, it is clear that the passage from Isaiah indicates that God is addressing his purpose for the Earth and that his intentions would be for it to be inhabited.  This does not in any way relate to the sequence of events in Genesis, where God describes his creative works to us, but specifically the purpose of the Earth.  Also, if the Earth was not to be empty before God started describing his creative work to us, would there be any sense in describing it at all, if we assume that it should all have happened on the first day?  To demonstrate this more clearly: When an artist describes how he goes about creating a painting, we would not find it strange that he would start by telling us that he would need a clean canvas mounted on an easel.  He would then prepare the canvas for oil paints and mix different colours of paint in different ratios to obtain the colours he wants and only then commence painting a scene with the various levels of detail.  It would be illogical to assume that his explanation of starting with a clean canvas and providing the sequence of his actions to arrive at a finished product, actually implies having removed (erased) an earlier painting.  If God had created the Earth on two separate occasions, why would he hide this fact from us and not clearly tell us that this was the case?  He has nothing to lose by doing this.  He does not need to prove himself to us. 

Through his supernatural abilities he could have easily included and confirmed this information through his Word at different levels.  The fact remains that there is no evidence in the Bible for these beliefs.  God actually confirms twice in the Bible, outside of Genesis, that the creation of everything occurred over a period of 6 days.  It boils down to humans trying to read their own interpretations into the information.  This would allow them to easier adapt the information in the Bible, to the views that are widely accepted by the majority of people and the scientific community.  This normally leads to arguments, debates and many new versions of the Bible that distort the truth and diverge from the original texts.  One would be entering speculative territory by assuming that the Bible should be interpreted differently. 

Returning to the differences between Evolution and Creationism - given the information as described above - I think it is reasonable to conclude that the differences between the two views are demonstrably irreconcilable.  The order of the creation events does not match that of Evolution and also does not allow for the long periods of time to pass, as proposed by Uniformitarianism and Evolution, in order to keep plant material alive when compared to the account as given in the Bible.  Thus one cannot believe in Evolution and the Bible at the same time and one needs to choose one or the other.

Let us consider some other facts mentioned in the Bible that relate to God, the Creation and the differences when compared to the Evolution Theory.  Considering our attempts to understand our Universe, the Earth and attempting to unravel God and His works, as the Theory of Evolution would have us believe we can do, what does the Bible have to say about this?

Jer 31:35 - 37 Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:  If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.  Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.

Jer 10:12 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.

Jer 51:15 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding.

Isa 40:12  Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

Isa 42:5 Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:

Isa 45:12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

Isa 51:12,13  I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;  And forgettest the LORD thy maker, that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth;

Isa 40:28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

Psa 136:6 To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Col 1:16,17  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

In the sections above, we see once again that the Bible clearly confirms God’s exclusive responsibility for and intensely detailed involvement in the creation process.  It also states that we, as humans, are acutely limited and will never be able to measure or fully understand our Universe as we see and experience it today.  Consequently certain questions will always remain unanswered.  The Bible also states that we will not even be able to understand the Earth completely - and how true this is - we know less about our deepest oceans, than we do about the surface of the moon - not to mention the mantle and core of the Earth, which are currently part of our speculative reasoning.  We have limited technology available to probe it and conclusions that are drawn are obtained from sketchy information at best.  In the passage from Colossians, as quoted above, we see that the Bible states that through God all things consist.  In the field of quantum physics and quantum mechanics, scientists today are only beginning to unravel some of the mysteries locked in these subjects. 

When talking about subjects like Zero Point Energy, otherwise known as Vacuum Energy, one would be dealing with empty space void of any particles and have 10107 Joules of energy contained within a mere cubic centimetre of empty space. 32  Considering the size of the Universe and that it does not consist of empty space alone, but is also filled with substances requiring energy to consist; just imagine the amount of power that would be required from the Creator to enable the Universe to be created and to be maintained.  We cannot begin to understand what is meant by through him everything consists.

How has our increased exposure to partial knowledge influenced our cultures and thought patterns? Are we becoming smarter, or are we actually becoming prisoners of our own misconceptions? In the second book of Peter we see the following:

2Pe 3:3 - 7 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,  And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.  For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:  But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

This section from 2nd Peter is particularly important as it has in mind the thoughts of people concerning the Creation currently.  Why do I say this?  The reasons are as follow:

A: -- For many millennia people believed the fact that God created Heaven and Earth.  Today, we have advanced technology available to us and have become so filled with pride and arrogance about who we are, that we are no longer content to accept that God is the Creator of everything and that he has the authority to command respect from his creations.  With the result that people are scoffing and ridiculing the information contained in the Bible and even God Himself.  People prefer to form their own views, interpretations and truths regarding the evidence in front of them, relating to who we are and where we came from.  Where humans are positioned at the top of creation, being the most advanced of all beings, they take over and make their own rules as they please.  People are most comfortable with not having to answer to anybody.  This tendency is becoming more and more prevalent today.

B: -- Uniformitarianism, an integral part of the Evolutionary thought pattern, is also anticipated long before it happened, as stated in the passage above, since many people today assume that God does not intervene in history by using the passage that mentions: since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.  Today we would expect to hear something like: “Since the Big Bang happened, all processes have gradually occurred over billions of years and therefore we do not believe that the Earth is only about 6,000 years old or that a global flood occurred, as it is written in the Bible.”

C: -- The next section goes on to describe the rejection of Noah’s Flood as an actual event that occurred in history.  Hereby they knowingly subject themselves to a false doctrine, instead of that which is true: For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.  Being “willingly ignorant” tells us that people would in their last days choose to believe something which is clearly false, instead of holding fast to the truth. Is this not so true for the day and age in which we live?

D: -- The passage also predicts that the world we live in now will be destroyed by fire.  This is obviously a prophecy pointing to a future event.  Based on the Bible’s accuracy, when it comes to prophecy, we know with 100% certainty that this will happen sometime in the future.

To cover the topic of Noah’s Flood: Many people and respectable scientists hold the view that Noah’s Flood was only a localised incident and reject the notion of a global catastrophic event.  Removing a global catastrophe such as the Flood of Noah from one’s frame of reference and viewing it as a localised incident only, enables people to adapt their interpretation of the Bible to be more aligned with the views of Evolution.  Siding with Uniformitarianism, it would allow people to look at the Earth and assume that much longer periods of time would have had to pass over the Earth to produce the evidence found in the fossil record and provide the human perspective of the Geologic Column’s formation.  The problem with viewing the Flood of Noah as a localised incident only, is that the Bible says that God promised not to “destroy the Earth” in this way again.  To get a better idea of God’s destruction through the Flood, let us see what the Bible has to say in the following passages:

Gen 6:7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Gen 6:13  And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Gen 6:17  And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.

Gen 7:4  For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

Gen 7:21- 23  And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:  All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.  And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

After the Flood transpired, God says the following:

Gen 9:11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

Gen 9:15 And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

Isa 54:9 For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee.

From the passages above it is clear that God mentions several times that “all flesh” and “all living creatures” on Earth would be destroyed through the Flood which he had brought on the Earth.  It also states that the Earth itself would be destroyed by the Flood.  Can one then adopt an interpretation that God actually meant only the people and animals in the region where Noah lived?  Would this be a true reflection of the meaning that is clearly emphasised through various passages?  If God repented that he had made man, beast and birds, would he then only destroy 10% of them and leave the other 90% alive, when he said that he would “destroy all flesh” and destroy “everything that is in the earth”?  Would he accomplish anything by destroying only a certain percentage as would be the case with a localised flood?

Genesis 9 specifically refers to this Flood as a “flood to destroy the earth”.  God goes further; promising that an event of this nature would never happen again.  Now if Noah’s Flood was only a very large localised flood, as many people believe it to be, how does one go about explaining the fact that there have been many other large localised floods that have occurred since the time of Noah and that these are also occurring today with increasing frequency. 

Think about the large Tsunami that occurred in Indonesia in December of 2004, in which close to 300,000 people were killed.  Many animals have also died in the process.  What does this view do to the fact that God promised that he would never again make use of a Flood to destroy life and the Earth?  Holding a localised flood view actually voids the promise that God made and makes him out to be a liar.  We know however, that this is not the case.  We can with 100% certainty state, based on the numerous times that Noah’s Flood and its effects are mentioned in the Bible, that it was not just a localised flood, but a global catastrophe that wiped out all living creatures, except those that were preserved in the ark with Noah and his family.

If we do accept that a global flood destroyed the Earth and every living creature on the planet, except for Noah and his family and the animals in the ark, we now have a much better explanation that fits the evidence found in the Geologic Column.  It perfectly matches the conditions for formation of fossils that are evident today. 

As discussed earlier, it is clear that rapid burial had to have occurred for animal remains to undergo fossilisation and to preserve the detail found in some of these fossils.  We know that the Bible said that all flesh on the entire Earth would be destroyed.  A global catastrophe in the form of a world-wide flood that covered the entire planet, would also account for the fact that fossils of extinct animals can be found all around the world and not just in one area.  It would also provide an explanation for the fact that polystratic fossils are found in more than one layer of strata or type of sediment and that fossilisation preserved even soft tissue and fragile detail in the many samples that have been discovered.

Accepting a global flood still leaves us with questions.  How would this event have occurred and how would it be possible to have the entire globe flooded by water all at once?  Looking at the world around us today, it would be difficult to imagine that something like that could be possible.  We should also carefully consider whether we should cling to our knowledge of the Earth’s condition today, or whether we should rather look at the conditions on the Earth before such a flood occurred as described by the Bible?  From what the Bible tells us, the world was a lot different in the times before the Flood from what we experience today: Below are some passages describing various aspects:

Gen 1:29,30  And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

Gen 2:5,6  And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.  But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

Gen 5:27 And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.

Gen 7:11  In the six hundredth year of Noah‘s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

From the passages above we can identify specific facts that indicate to us that different conditions prevailed on the Earth during the years before the Flood, compared to conditions on earth today.  It sounds far-fetched and impossible, because it is not common for people to reach the age of a hundred and twenty years or more.  People therefore have been conditioned by various sources to accept a world in which we have rejected conditions on Earth that could have been different.  The conditions described in the Bible before Noah’s Flood would definitely be considered as “different”. 

Given the fact that the Bible can be scientifically proven to be 100% accurate and truthful, we can also accept the information regarding the time before the Flood as being 100% accurate.  This means that it did not rain on the Earth before the Flood and that people did reach very old ages - in some cases close to 1,000 years.  It also states that both man and animal were herbivores, before man sinned and death entered the world as a result.  The Bible clearly states that death entered the world through the sin one man committed:

Rom 5:12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin;

According to the Bible there was no death on the Earth before Adam sinned.  Evolution’s standpoint on this is that the Bible cannot be taken seriously and that death was something that occurred long before mammals even evolved.  Once again, we are facing two opposing views and you need to choose either one or the other; since both cannot be true at the same time.

To make sense of what the Bible tells about the time before Noah’s Flood, you have to refer to the scripture to form a better understanding about what exactly is described and to recreate a scenario that would match the description given in the Bible.  Here, I am not assuming or implying that my understanding comprises complete knowledge of the conditions that were prevalent on Earth before the Flood.  I am however proposing a possible scenario.  Let’s see if we can reconstruct an antediluvian Earth with conditions matching those described in the Bible that would allow the entire globe to be flooded during a cataclysmic event, such as Noah’s Flood.

Firstly, from the passages quoted above and also in other chapters and books in the Bible, we see that people, who reached ages of close to 1,000 years, lived before Noah’s Flood.  After the flood, the aging process’ impact on the human body was altered and people’s life expectancy changed from multiple centuries to a number of decades over a relatively short period of time.  We also know that the Bible twice addresses this time of change in two passages that point to this change, although it does not provide us with clarity on what exactly occurred for these changes to impact on the longevity of man.  I suspect the Bible codes will have more information on this.

Gen 10:25 And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother‘s name was Joktan.

1Ch 1:19 And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg; because in his days the earth was divided: and his brother‘s name was Joktan.

Interestingly enough, Peleg’s Hebrew meaning actually means “divided” and Joktan, his brother’s name, which is oddly also mentioned as part of this genealogy, means “shortened”.

From Peleg’s time forward we see that people’s ages drastically diminished.

We read that it did not rain on Earth before Noah’s Flood and that there was a mist that went up from the ground to water the surface of the planet over the entire Earth.  In Genesis 1 verse 7 we also see that when God created the firmament, it served as a division between two areas of water.  The one part would be on the Earth, below the heavens.  The other part would be above the firmament or above the sky.  This may seem confusing, but bear with me for a while.  If we have doubts about something in the Bible, the Bible will always provide confirmation in one way or another and we see these waters above the sky confirmed in the Psalms:

Psa 148:4 Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens.

In Genesis 7, the Bible states that all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and that the windows of Heaven were opened on the same day - resulting in a flood that covered the entire surface of the Earth and even the highest mountaintops.  We have to accept that in conditions where there was not enough water available to produce a water cycle in the form of rain or having evaporation, condensation and precipitation around the globe, much of the water that we see in the oceans today, must have come from somewhere else – otherwise it would have resulted in rain.  Noah’s Flood could therefore not have been caused by water sources that were on the surface of the planet and had to have come from sources that were above the earth and/or below the surface of the Earth.  The Bible describes these as the windows of Heaven that were opened and the fountains of the great deep that were broken resulting in the Flood.  We can therefore deduce that the relationship between landmasses and seas in the time before the Food would also have had to be different from what we have today, to prevent it from raining.  This would mean that the continents, that we know today, would have looked totally different in the period before the Flood. 

The Bible mentions the fountains of the great deep that were broken up, all on the same day that a flood was caused in Genesis 7:11.  The fact that it is described as the “great deep” implicates that it had to contain a large body of water, which may have been locked up in subterranean chambers deep under the Earth’s crust or even inside the earth’s mantle.  Genesis 1 only refers to “the deep” in the second verse of the chapter as being dark and that God’s spirit moved over the deep.  Does the Bible provide us with further insight into what is meant by “the deep”?  Please consider the following clarifying verses:

Psa 104:5, 6 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever.  Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains.

Psa 136:6 To him that stretched out the earth above the waters: for his mercy endureth for ever.

Pro 30:4 Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son‘s name, if thou canst tell?

Pro 8:28 When he established the clouds above: when he strengthened the fountains of the deep:

Psa 24:1,2 A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD”S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.

Job 38:30  The waters are hid as with a stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.

Psa 18:15 Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

Psa 33:7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses.

Psa 78:16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

Psa 105:41 He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river.

Pro 8:24 When there were no depths, I was brought forth; when there were no fountains abounding with water.

Rev 14:7 Saying with a loud voice, Fear