"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come."
Matthew 24:42 (NIV)

Two opposing views of the nature of our universe compete daily for our attention. The first, generally known as materialism, holds that the cosmos and everything it contains is essentially lifeless, mechanistic, dominated by chance, comprehensible in terms of simple causes and without meaning or purpose. It is promoted by some influential figures within the scientific establishment.

However, there is a feeling among many that something essential is missing from the materialistic worldview. Firstly, it denies the possibility of spiritual and paranormal experiences, reported across all cultures and since the dawn of civilisation; secondly, although materialism is often presented as being scientific, it fails to take account of recent scientific discoveries (note 1); finally, it stands in opposition to the world's great religions, who generally maintain that our universe is the creation of a purposeful Intelligence. I hope to add weight to the case for such an Intelligence, by showing you evidence of His active presence in our lives. This evidence takes the form of a numerical structure, existing within a modern version of the Christian Bible. The Creator of this structure appears to have used it to communicate an urgent message to us.

In classical antiquity it was common practice to use letters as numerals. This was true of all the biblical languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek) and the practice survives to this day in Latin as Roman numerals. Under alphabetic numeration systems some or all letters are assigned numerical values. Any number can then be represented either by a single letter or by strings of letters, the individual values of which are usually summed to obtain a total.

Since words are themselves strings of letters, numerical values for any word or phrase can also be calculated. This may seem to be nothing more than a game, but it has long been associated with an esoteric science generally known as gematria: the discernment and study of what appear to be intelligently-designed numerical structures existing within some ancient languages, notably biblical Hebrew. What is the nature of these structures? In essence, words and phrases related by meaning also appear to be related through their numerical values, a phenomenon that has no naturalistic explanation. Modern societies generally use a separate system of numerals to denote quantity and therefore we now have little need to use letters as numbers. However, investigators have repeatedly observed that when ancient systems of alphabetic numeration are applied to modern English, an intelligently-designed numerical structure is again apparent.

The numeration of English words and phrases is the basis for what appears to be a numerical code, encrypted within the text and structure of the New International Version Bible (2001, edition, British text), and within the details of two recent events of worldwide impact. This code, which I call the New Bible Code, is an elegant tapestry of meaning, its weft and weave attesting to the reality of a Divine Artist, the tableaux within depicting recent world-shaking events from a higher perspective.

The code’s foundations were laid down within the original scriptures and earlier Bible versions, manifesting as chapter and verse numbers, book ordering and tabulated numbers. However, most of the code is found within the text itself. Consequently, only one bible version could hold the code, because the encoding of numbers within passages of text is critically dependent upon sentence structure, which varies greatly between versions. Why, then, was the NIV chosen as the vehicle for the code? Firstly, the NIV is written in English, which is now the international language of choice. Secondly, the NIV is the most popular modern English translation of the Bible; this is wholly appropriate for a code whose message is universal.

The New Bible Code contained a built-in timelock. It could not, in any case, have been decoded before the creation of the NIV Bible, which dates from about the 1970s. However, the timelock is very precise. The version ‘given’ to me for decoding is the 2001 edition. Additionally, my unlocking of the code was greatly assisted by a special type of key, but I did not receive the key until November 2001. The code therefore seems to have fully manifested in that year; in fact, I believe its purpose is intimately bound up with the event that shook the world one bright September day...



Acknowledgments

I discovered the New Bible Code whilst on a remarkable journey that eventually led me to the findings of researchers working with the original Hebrew and Greek scriptures, from whom I have learned much. I would like to pay tribute here to the late E. W. Bullinger, for his seminal writings on bible numbers. I am also grateful to Vernon Jenkins for the insights I have gained from his mathematical exegesis of the Hebrew and Greek scriptures. I would like to thank Richard McGough for his excellent database of numerical values of Greek and Hebrew words. Kenneth Libbrecht of Caltech University kindly allowed me to use a few of his stunning snow crystal photographs and an anonymous Christian sent me a fractal snowflake design which is almost identical to the Creation Snowflake. The writings of M. Scott Peck, C. S. Lewis, Robert M. Pirsig and Carl Jung were a constant source of inspiration, as was the music of John Adams and Philip Glass. Finally, I would also like to thank my family for their saintly patience with me as, bible in one hand, calculator in the other, I absorbed myself in this most unusual quest.

In Christ,

Bill Downie

email: william.downie@btopenworld.com

Site Created: 14/5/03
Latest update: 3/5/08

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Notes

1. Quantum entanglement (‘spooky action at a distance’ between subatomic particles) has always sat uneasily beside scientific materialism, as have many other discoveries in the new physics, biology and of course parapsychology. Now a new study clearly shows that some part of us is aware of the future. See http://www.mondovista.com/future/index.html.