Hidden in Plain Sight

The New Bible Code

A P.E.G case file

© Brian Allan 2004

Word count: 6,870

The universe is a cryptogram set by the almighty (Sir Isaac Newton, 1642-1727)

Authors Note: The horrific events of the eleventh of September 2001 cast a long and macabre shadow across the world stage and it could honestly be said that this atrocity of chaos, blood and terror heralded a new and deadly age. However, although at first sight the act was one of retribution perpetrated by religious zealots and fanatics who justified their barbaric actions by the warped use of Islamic scripture, perhaps the truth behind what the atrocity actually represented lies in the fulfilment of a millennia old prophecy. While it is easy to dismiss what follows as a mixture of coincidence, delusion and wishful thinking, it is also possible that this account of one mans spiritual quest for knowledge and enlightenment may sound the first trumpet call of a new dawn for mankind.

Foreword

Occasionally it has been suggested that similar events tend to occur in clusters, rather like the old maxim that everything happens in threes, and just such a phenomenon appears to be happening in relation to UFO/paranormal events. Over the last few years, several intriguing and apparently unrelated cases have emerged and each one embodies a curious sense of spirituality not normally associated with rigidly defined, hard-edged extraterrestrial contact. Closer examination revealed that in all these cases the persons receiving the attention, rather then experiencing any sense of fear or dread, have been motivated to express their encounters in a variety of positive and creative ways. The most recent manifestation of this almost obsessive creativity happened to an unassuming family man, Bill Downie, who has discovered a code hidden in the text of the 2001 translation of the Christian bible. His discoveries have led him to a number of the remarkable conclusions, one is that the English language itself is encoded, deliberately so, with the knowledge to unlock specific truths that, for some unknown reason, have been encrypted within the pages of the Holy Bible. His other discovery is the breathtaking and alarming conclusion that the horrendous atrocity perpetrated upon the World Trade centre on the 11th of September 2001 marked the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and that we are now living in the apocalyptic, biblical 'end times'.

It is vital to make clear from the outset that this is not in any way related to the books, 'The Bible Code', or 'The Bible Code 2' written by Michael Drosnin. Drosnin's recent works concern a code based on 'equidistant letter sequences' (ELS) in the Torah (Hebrew bible) and the encryption was only broken by rearranging the Hebrew characters therein, using specialised computer software developed by the Israeli mathematician and scholar, Dr. Eliyahu Rips. This code is claimed to function as a living oracle of future events and its modus operandum is the creation of related words that tend to cluster and in some instances directly cross one another so that one word often shares a letter of another. The code discovered by Bill Downie is quite different, and is based on the little-known fact that words can be converted into numbers. Rather than predicting the future, it functions as a key, opening the gates to biblical prophecy. Astonishingly, when the gates are swung open, the same apocalyptic scene is revealed time and again Bill cracked the code by applying his own version of an ancient Kabbalistic technique of numerical analysis called gematria to the English text of the 2001 edition of the New International Version (NIV) bible.

 As he did this, he discovered that underneath the plain text message of the Bible is a concealed cipher-text, affirming the ubiquitous nature of a theoretical Creator, and insisting over and over again that the event known as 9/11 was the fulfilment of biblical end-time prophecy.

Gematria has been practised since biblical times, because Hebrew and Greek letters (significantly, both are scriptural languages) double as numerals. Since this is the case, the letters forming any Greek or Hebrew word can be assembled as a series of substitute numbers and summated to assign any word a numerical value. In this manner, numerical connections between biblical words and phrases have been made and studied for millennia. In traditional Kabbalistic teaching, words and phrases with related numerical values are said to be 'explanatory of each other', a phenomenon which as we shall see is very unlikely to have arisen by chance and is so internally consistent that the only reasonable explanation appears to be that the evolution of both the bible and these languages was deliberately guided. Crucially, this system also applies to the English language. The principal cipher for translating letters into numbers is the conversion of each letter into a number representing its position in the alphabet: A=1 B=2, C=3 and so forth. Using this system the word 'God' is converted into a number as follows: G = 7, O = 15, D = 4. Therefore the gematria of 'God' = 7 + 15 + 4 = 26. Bill was not the first to discover that an English gematria exists, however a mysterious chain of coincidences and strange happenings led him to the astounding discovery that this is the key to a code hidden within the NIV Bible. Applying this system to the NIV Bible, Bill gradually traced out a tapestry of meaning apparently woven into the text. Bill is at pains to point out that although all bibles contain part of the code (including the original Hebrew and Greek scriptures) it is only the NIV bible that contains the core message of the Second Coming of Christ. The NIV bible is the end point of an evolutionary process that begun when the first Jewish scribes put pen to parchment.

Hidden in Plain Sight

Like other people who have received a spiritual gift, Bill Downie's talent did not emerge fully fledged like bolt from the blue; rather it was the culmination of years of steadily accelerating events and phenomena that began to achieve significance in his life. His journey began with what he describes as shamanic awakening in nineteen seventy-two when he was just turning thirteen years of age. During this time he experienced three crushing events in his life spanning a period of approximately six months until the end of December in the same year. The net result of this culminated in him being diverted from the path he thought he was going to take onto another path entirely, one he now realises was destined for him. The experiences constituted a kind of crucifixion for Bill, and for the most part so outwith the usual run of events that he thereafter felt isolated from other people. Bill described how, perhaps as a result of an atheistic belief system, he had constructed a comforting wall of scientific materialism around him, but, beginning in his early thirties, the wall began to crumble under the pressure of what he eventually realised was a spiritual awakening. His 'conversion' began in the early 1990's soon after reading Robert Pirsig's famous and iconic book 'Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' and its follow up 'Lila', both of which had a profound and lasting effect on him. With increasing pace Bill's outlook became more spiritual; he gives the classic analogy of walking out of the fog into the light. His reading also increased in pace and consisted mainly of books on philosophy and related subjects, until in April 1998, as he read a well-known book on the subject of reincarnation, called Life Between Life (Joe Fisher and Joel Whitton), he experienced one of the events that have become commonplace in his life: he began to have flashes of precognition.

He described how one evening while reading the book he began to doze off to sleep when suddenly a woman's face appeared in front of him. It was very clear and luminous but he though no more about it till two hours later when he saw the face again. He was reading a story to his daughter, when in the book he saw the face he had dreamed of, it was an illustration of a mermaid's face, and from then on these 'flashes' occurred with increasing frequency. But the signal event for Bill, the event that shook his crumbling wall to the ground, happened the morning after he had finished reading the book. He awoke from a very deep sleep into what he thinks may have been a hypnopompic state. His eyes were closed yet he could clearly see three bright lights hovering in front of him. The lights were arranged in a triangle and each shone with a pearlescent light, the top light being white, the lower two lights yellow (he now realises that he was being introduced to numerical geometry, a fundamental element of the New Bible Code, by being shown the second triangular number, 3, which is created by adding 2 units to the first triangular number 1). He somehow sensed that the lights were sentient and they were observing him. Plucking up his courage he focused on the light forming the right hand base of the triangle and just for a second he felt transported into another realm. Such was the pleasurable and tactile intensity of the emotion; he described it as how honey would taste on the tongue. His impression during the brief altered state was that wherever he was, it was immensely more expansive than our reality, from then on it was though Pandora's Box had opened and he began to experience a range of unusual phenomena, culminating in contact with entities that, for want of a better word, he describes as angels.

It is worth pausing for a moment to consider the effect of both hypnagogic and hypnopompic states. According to received wisdom, these states of altered awareness occur when one is in the transition from sleeping to waking and vice versa. The standard psychiatric view states that the visions experienced in these states are hallucinations and nothing more; but is this observation correct? Although psychologists and psychiatrists profess to understand the labyrinthine workings of the human brain, this is purely in terms of the physiology and function because even they do not fully understand the nature and scope of consciousness. In many cases people attaining altered states of consciousness experience visual and sensory experiences that defy explanation and there is no evidence to suggest that they are purely the result of a mixture of electric impulses and neurotransmitters. Since quantum science now suggests that we are surrounded by invisible realities and continuums quite separate from our own, then it is possible that contact with what we regard as angels or for that matter aliens, can be achieved via the medium of expanded or altered consciousness. It may be the same method by which the entities make contact with us; it also hints that some dreams may be messages and allegories coming from these beings intended for our benefit and instruction. Since these entities, particularly in Bill's case, appear to desire contact with him, and have done so physically, then it is probable that they have the facility to arrive in our reality in human form, either that or they can create some type of host to inhabit.

Whether or not the contact was presaged by his early morning vision, when they occurred they were startling in their very ordinariness; there were no mystical overtones or magical trappings, although Bill feels that the events were in some way choreographed, with him as an unwitting participant. These beings approached him in shops and once in a mall, gave him a message then simply walked away. This phase of Bill's awakening began during Christmas 1998, immediately after he read M. Scott Peck's influential book of self-discovery, 'The Road Less Travelled'. He explained that, after finishing the book, he went to buy some groceries at a local store.

As he walked round the store he was musing on a metaphor for losing faith (which he likened to a light bulb blowing,) and regaining it (which could be likened to replacing the bulb) when he was approached by an old man who asked if he would get four light bulbs for him. He did this and the old man moved off, but as Bill went to the checkout the old man was there again. Bill realised that he was almost identical to a tramp character in the classic Frank Capra feel good film, 'It's a Wonderful Life', which he had just watched for the first time on Christmas day, a few days before. Significantly, in the film the tramp was in fact an angel who saved the hero from suicide. It was then that the synchronicity relating to the light bulbs dawned on him. It also brought about a remarkable number of experiences centred on the number four. For instance, the experience involved four light bulbs, it was the fourth-last day of the year, this was the first of four similar experiences over four months, ending on Easter Monday, which was four months less four days short of his fortieth birthday.

Although he only realised it in retrospect, this was the beginning of an evolving sequence of events that about to engulf both him and his life. His contact with the other angelic entities was equally oblique and synchronistic, but in every case the message was both encouraging and uplifting. They were also filled with Christian symbolism. Eventually, he realised that he should heed the advice he appeared to be receiving and so he decided to obtain some focussed instruction in Christian philosophy and tradition by joining an 'Alpha Course', (see note at conclusion) which is designed as an introduction to Christian doctrine and ideology and it was at the conclusion of the course that he first felt the power of the Holy Spirit enter his life. He also realised that his spiritual experiences were organised into some kind of college course, which was obviously preparing him for something.

In spring 2001 he read a book called The Messengers, about the angelic experiences of Nick Bunick. He was amazed to learn that Bunick's angels communicated to him through the number 444, because 4 was the number Bill's own experiences had featured. As he read the book he was assailed by '444' experiences and he knew without doubt that angels were around him. He had also begun to see that the numerical signs he was receiving were woven into times, dates, telephone numbers and car registration plates, which, significantly, contained letters as well as numbers. Soon afterwards, a friend who was interested in angels and knew a little about Bill's experiences told him that there was an internet 444 forum. Bill looked it up and came across a claim by someone that the name 'Jesus' could be converted into the number 444, by the application of a system called 'gematria'. Bill investigated further and came across a website devoted to English gematria. Realising that it was simply an extension of the numerical system he was being taught, Bill started learning gematria. He soon abandoned the system he had learned from the website and developed another, which seemed far simpler and more natural to him (this is the system described earlier). With growing excitement he began applying it to simple words and phrases connected with the spiritual, discovering that, against all common sense, these words appeared to be based on hidden numerical foundations.

Then, two months after the outrage of the world Trade Centre, during a period in which his life was filled with signs and portents as never before, he applied the numbering technique to the words, 'Osama bin Laden' (which totalled 110) and then to 'New York' (which totalled 111). A chill went up his spine and he knew, with complete certainty, that he had found his calling. As Bill progressed he discovered an astonishing array of sequential and other numerical anomalies all relating to the disaster. There is one in particular that relates to the number eleven:

As Bill worked on the code he found many more anomalous number groupings. For instance, there is a cluster of fives centered on the Pentagon:

 Amazingly, 92 is a pentagonal number (meaning that 92 coins can be arranged into a pentagon), so we have the idea of 'fiveness' once more. What Bill found was that the Pentagon can be symbolised by the number 5 and the twin towers can symbolised by the number 11. Furthermore the gematria values of the three targets on 9/11, 'the North Tower', 'the South Tower' and 'the Pentagon', sum to 511. The numbers 5 (the Pentagon) and 11 (the twin towers) have further profound meaning here, related to the fact that the gematria of 'Jesus Christ' and 'Holy Spirit' are both 151. It may be relevant to recall that on September the 13th, 2001, in the north tower of the WTC, firefighters found the remnant of two girders where they intersected, forming a perfect cross. The twin towers themselves resembled the two beams of a cross. Bill is convinced that this symbolism was intended and that the events of September the 11th, 2001, could be said to constitute a second crucifixion. This reenactment of the crucifixion is the Second Coming, the signal event for which devout Christians have been waiting. When Bill investigated the gematria of the words 'Second Coming' he stumbled upon something truly remarkable. Firstly, the phrase 'Second Coming' has a gematria of 121, or 11 x 11, immediately linking it through the number 11 to 9/11. This persuasive piece of evidence is underlined by the number's geometric properties: 121 coins can be shaped into a hexagram (Star of David) and a square.

 These both contain internal figures that naturally split 121 into 60 (= Second) and 61 (= Coming). Now here's the clincher: Remember that the Pentagon and the twin towers were symbolised by 5 and 11? Well, hexagram 121 and square 121 are the 5th and the 11th members of their respective geometric series! For instance, the hexagram series runs 1, 13, 37, 73, 121. The Second Coming is related to the destruction of the beast, and through Bill's code and the numbers 5 and 11 we have a proclamation that this is what actually took place on 9/11: The United States of America is the beast of Revelation = 511.

As Bill began to work on the New Bible Code something happened that can only be described as near miraculous, not in the magnitude of the event but in its simple yet breathtaking implications. The woman who organised the Alpha Course Bill attended was reading her bible when she twice heard the words 'This is for Bill'. Later, she discovered a bookmark in the class bible bearing a message that apparently was intended for Bill, the verse was from Thessalonians 5, [23 & 24] and began (in old type,) 'Dear Bill' and ended, also in old type, 'Love Paul'. This was two days after Bill's first discovery of the New Bible Code, a day when he himself received a sign that his destiny was unfolding. Neither the group leader nor anyone in the group had written the text, which left only one possibility, and given one of the sources of the original gospels, if genuine is surely by definition miraculous. These words were from the NIV Bible, one of three signs that gave Bill the idea to look in the NIV for a code. Another sign came a week or two later. Bill's wife went to a bookshop to get Bill a bible for his Christmas. As she stood there, unable to remember which of the many versions Bill had asked for, an NIV fell from the bookshelf into her hands.

Bill has also deliberately developed the technique of inducing the hypnopompic state both as a form of meditation and as a method of communicating with the entities that encouraged spiritual awakening. He no longer sees or meets the 'angels', but instead he hears voices talking to him in the same code that he uses, he gave the example of a voice saying to him, 'I'm twenty six and I'm here for you'; 26 is the gematria of 'God'. He also feels that the voices have different characteristics, there is one he calls the 'wise child' who said the above words to him. There is another voice that he believes is negative and it was this voice that spoke to him on the fateful morning of September the eleventh. It whispered in his left ear, 'Serpent power'. Bill says that the use of gematria suggests that rather than the serpent representing evil, it in fact represents another aspect of the Christ. In Hebrew gematria 'The Messiah' equals 363 and 'the serpent' also equals 363 (which, incidentally, is 11 x 11 x 3). In addition the serpent has traditionally always represented wisdom. Bill also revealed a few truly fascinating examples of gematria as applied to the USA, e.g. if one adds up the gematria of 'the City of Boston', 'the City of New York' and 'the City of Washington D.C.', it comes to 666. In addition, if one adds up the gematria of 'President George Bush', 'President Bill Clinton' and the current incumbent 'President George Bush' it also comes to 666. Precisely what this actually means is difficult to assess, but it cannot be accidental, however it certainly supports the radical Islamic idea that the USA is the beast. Astonishingly, if one adds up the full name of the reigning Pope it also comes to 666. This particular and disconcerting discovery was not actually made by Bill, but because of its bizarre implications it is worthy of inclusions and additionally, it appears to help corroborate his findings.

Bill himself believes that the twin towers were the physical manifestation of an archetype (an organising principle) that resides in our collective unconscious, what has been called the Luciferic principle. This is the consciousness of division, conflict and separation and it is perfectly symbolised by the number 11. In our society it appears as the twin forces of political/military power (the Pentagon) and financial/economic power (the World Trade Centre). These are the horns of the beast, and their destruction on 9/11, sent out a message to all humankind: these represent the forces that are enslaving the world. Bill believes that this is quite literally the eleventh hour. If we are to survive as a civilisation, we have to abandon materialism - of which the twin towers and the Pentagon were such potent symbols - and adopt a more sustainable lifestyle.

Bill has found that many biblical narratives can readily be interpreted as prophecies of 9/11. The number 11 runs through these verses like a watermark, as if to draw our attention to them. Three examples of his findings are given below:

1. The story of the building of the tower of Babel is found in Genesis 11. The tower can be seen as a metaphor for the twin towers and more generally for man's ambition and hubris. In the NIV bible chapter 11 begins as follows:

Gen 11:1 (NIV) Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.

a) The gematria of this verse is 484, or 11 x 11 x 4. b) 'Babel' = 22, or 11 x 2. c) There are 11 words in the verse.

2. Daniel 8 is the story of the ram with two long horns, which were shattered after an attack by a flying goat. As you read this note the eerie parallels between Daniel's incredible prophecy and the attacks on the twin towers.

Daniel 8:3-7 (NIV) 3. I looked up and there before me was a ram with two horns, standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later. 4. I watched the ram as he charged towards the west and the north and the south. He did as he pleased and became great. 5. As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between his eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground. 6. He came towards the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at him in great rage. 7. I saw him attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering his two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against him; the goat knocked him to the ground and trampled on him, and none could rescue the ram from his power.

a) Verses 3 - 4 describe the strutting ram with two long horns, which did as he pleased: Gematria verses 3 and 4 = 3102 = 11 x 282.

b) Verses 5 - 7 describe the attack on the ram by the flying goat: Gematria verses 5, 6 and 7 = 4555 = 911 x 5.

c) Daniel 8 is the Bible's 858th chapter, 858 being 11 x 78.

So the numbers strongly suggest that this dramatic scene is describing the attacks of 9/11, more than two millennia after Daniel's dramatic vision.

3. Mark 11 has the curious story of Jesus causing a fig tree to wither. Verse 20 describes the withered tree.

Mark 11:20 In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.

a) The gematria of this verse is 803, or 11 x73 b) The key word 'fig' = 22, or 11 x 2 c) The word 'fig' is the 11th word in the verse d) Mark 11 is the Bible's 968th chapter, 968 being 11 x 11 x 8. e) The chapter and verse numbers, 11:20, are an anagram of 121.

Seen in the light of the New Bible Code, this inexplicable, apparently petty act appears as another prophecy of 9/11.

As Bills' account progressed, he revealed that the night after he first placed a page on 9/11 on his website (which he had created in May 2003, he was 'rewarded' with a series of visions. In the first vision he was being taken somewhere eons ago by an insect-like creature, he described it as resembling a giant fly or preying mantis. In the second vision he was told that 'a bad time' was about to befall the Earth, but it was necessary for the ultimate salvation of man, and he was told that the universe was not created by God, but for the unknown purposes of a race of higher beings. Finally he was shown a sentence consisting of four words, 'Life is a sentence', and got the clear impression that the Earth was like a sort of Botany Bay and the human race was held in quarantine for being troublesome. Surprisingly, the gematria of 'Life is a sentence' is the same as 'The Earth is a jail' and both phrases even break down internally in a similar manner It is when one is confronted with evidence like this that real fascination begin to surface and one realises that there is a very real phenomenon at work here. It also lends credence to the various theories suggesting that humanity was created for their own purposes by beings beyond our comprehension using a set of unimaginable mathematical laws governing all creation.

Perhaps this is why we find hints of it when physicists and mathematicians push the back the boundaries of reality with their formulae and equations. According to Bill, the relevance of these codes is that some kind of super-conscious power must have been at work in our lives; in effect it is a hello from God, or of not God then a higher intelligence. Is it fair to compare the implications of this observation with a story written by Arthur C. Clarke, 'The Sentinel', which was later made into the groundbreaking film, '2001 a Space Odyssey'? This highly perceptive and touching story depicted the development and evolution of the human race. The film also featured the appearance of enigmatic monoliths that sent signals to their makers, a race of unseen multidimensional beings who, by implication, helped shape the destiny of humanity at the dawn of time. The initial signal was sent when a primitive hominid gingerly touched the surface of one of the monoliths and another signal was sent millennia later when a space suited human touched another one that had been unearthed during excavations on the moon.

Our unknown benefactors waited until we, their creations, finally left our home planet and achieved a measure of the promise that was our birthright before finally rewarding us with immortality and perfection. There is a clear analogy here between an advanced race that was both super beings and God (or Gods). Not only did Clarke create the story, he also coined the remarkably prescient comment that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. This short quote eloquently explains why many primitive societies assumed that the artefacts used by explorers and adventurers from more advanced civilisations were magical and therefore their users by association were gods. It is therefore fair to comment that if confronted with unfamiliar advanced technology our relatively sophisticated civilisation would exhibit exactly the same sense of awe. This is why Bill's premise that the English language has been deliberately engineered to allow the creation of a code in the Bible may be valid. His suggestion is also inextricably linked to the tantalising theory that we as a race owe our existence to deliberate and purposeful genetic manipulation by an external force rather than a chance pooling of chemicals, which through countless dead ends and mutations ended up as human beings.

Conclusion

Much of what has been discussed here is open to interpretation, the angelic entities that, depending on context, could legitimately be viewed as extraterrestrials, the triangular array of lights that visited Bill in his bedroom and revealed the impression of an immense 'other place'. Even the infinitely more profound and mystical concept of the hand and enigmatic purpose of an ultimate creator becomes possible, what a cosmologist would equate with the idea of intelligent design.

From the outset Bill Downie was at pains to state that his discovery is not completely unique because there have been numerous alternative and legitimate claims of codes hidden in the books of the bible. Perhaps the earliest example of this which predates all modern efforts, was the oddly named 'Pesher technique', where, due to the political and cultural climate prevailing at the time, overt anti-establishment statements were either undesirable or downright dangerous. In essence, the Pesher technique is entirely allegorical (and perhaps to some extent intuitive), relying on whoever is reading a particular text being aware that certain words and phrases potentially carry within them different meanings. It also relies heavily on whoever wrote the base texts ensuring that the texts they produced were capable of being 'De-Pesherised' by the reader. Whatever else, this technique opened up an entire range of possible translations and made scripture, particularly the Pentateuch or first five books of the bible, accessible to a range of religious and historical interpretations. It is also important to realise that the Pentateuch was written over centuries if not millennia, and almost certainly without any intended encoded Peshers since it was produced by many chroniclers and is also based upon many disparate oral and written traditions. While this possible method of decryption may initially appear useful in discovering hidden interpretations of scripture, particularly the New Testament, it is also inherently flawed because, (A) really ancient texts may not have been Pesherised in the first place and (B) much depends upon the personal agenda of whoever is applying the technique.

Pesher techniques aside, hidden codes normally insinuate the impression of arcane and forbidden knowledge, but codes allegedly hidden in the bible must surely signify other, more positive values. To be sure, as we have seen, this is not the first time ELS and numerical codes have been located in both the Christian bible and the Torah and in all cases so far they all claim to make similar revelations. In the case of Michael Drosnin and the Hebrew bible codes, the messages encoded in the Torah are entirely prophetic and claim, amongst other things, to warn of Armageddon. This final and apocalyptic battle, which is also foretold in the Book of Revelation, will apparently ignite in the Middle East in a bloody and perhaps final conflict between Islam and Judaism. Significantly, since Israel is a nuclear state, and there are unlisted rogue, nuclear weapons available to those that are not, it will probably end in a nuclear holocaust. If one examines the current, highly charged state of affairs existing between Israel and it neighbours, then it is obvious why this already highly unstable train of events could come crashing off the rails in a deadly and murderous conflagration. The outcome of such a partisan war would almost certainly trigger planet-wide destruction as various factions take sides with and align with whoever they consider to be the ultimate victor. If fought on purely fundamentalist, religious grounds, this will inevitably involve pairing Judeo/Christian values against those of Islam in the final crusade. Sadly, if the Torah based prophecies are to be believed, there will no victors in this war, none, only a few poor, unfortunate survivors…and of course the multitudes of dead who lie, mouldering in the ruined towns and cities. However, the prophecies divined by Bill using his method of decryption appear to hold out a measure of hope, according to his discoveries the 'end times' which are happening now are largely symbolic and may even point the way to saving humanity from itself.

Whether one is a true believer, agnostic or completely atheistic there is no doubt that what has been uncovered here is significant for a number of reasons. Even if one does not accept the hand of a supernatural creator behind the codes, then one must at least admit that they represent a genuinely bizarre and, vitally, a testable phenomenon. A plethora of numbers can be derived from any lengthy text whether it is scripture, a work of fiction or some other written form of words. But the NIV bible appears to be uniquely different. Here, the letters start to take on a different and complete form and substance, not only in language but also in geometry and mathematics. Bill uses the metaphor of walking through a forest to explain the difference. Imagine being lost in a forest, trying to find the way out. The traveller may come upon many false trails and rabbit tracks, all leading to dead ends. The true path is recognised because it leads to other, larger paths, which eventually lead the traveller out of the forest into the light. Even a cursory examination of the text using Bills adaptation of Gematria reveals that there is indeed something extremely odd taking place; in fact it nudges the very limits of reality and credibility. Why should this collection of words produce numerical matches when words and phrases of similar meaning and converted from letters to numerical values?

Ultimately obvious questions must be asked, first, is this code genuine, and does it follow a logical, demonstrable and systematic pattern?' Next, if the code is genuine then who devised it and why? Is this a message from some external entity and if so, why was it put there and what is its significance? Finally, there is always the likelihood that the New Bible Code, in fact all the Bible Codes, are nothing more than a series of bizarre and sustained linguistic and mathematical coincidences. While this is of course a possibility, the more one studies the curious mathematical connection of words and phrases, the more a sense of benign inevitability and even acceptance starts to replace the doubts. Perhaps the greatest difficulty facing anyone examining the evidence for the first time is how to attribute what they are reading and who to attribute it to and if not to an almighty God, then who…or what?

The majesty, power and similarities inherent in simple numbers and letters is undeniable and irrefutable, but the truth is the hardest part of the evidence to accept. While there is no requirement for the reader to fall upon their knees and worship something they may not be able to accept, still there are sufficient grounds to question many so-called truths and absolutes they might have previously learned. Exposure to this new bible code may not necessarily provide proof of the existence of a God, but it may be sufficient to make the reader question the nature of the cosmos and their place in it.

NOTE

 The Alpha Course, although designed to provide a broad based introduction into the Christian faith, unfortunately does make differences between Roman Catholic and Protestant interpretations of scripture. The courses reflect this. I should also like to express my gratitude to Bill Downie for his invaluable insights into the implications of his discovery and his invaluable assistance with the mathematical complexities in writing this article.

Sources: Jesus The Man, By Barbara Theiring, pub Corgi 1993: ISBN-0-552-13950-5