Coded messages

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In our modern age of smart bombs and unmanned drones, it may seem hard to believe that not so long ago one of the most effective unmanned flying machines used in warfare was the humble pigeon.

The homing, or carrier pigeon, is able to find its way home over hundreds and even thousands of miles. Approximately 250,000 of them were used in World War II as a low-tech but highly effective way to carry messages. Because the enemy would deploy air-to-air anti-pigeon hawks to bring them down, these messages were often written in secret code.

Last November, one of these coded messages was discovered in a canister attached to the leg of a dead pigeon that had become stuck in a chimney. There are few secrets remaining from that war, but this is one of them. The message, which has 27 five-letter code groups, is said to be impossible to crack without its codebook. It may never be deciphered, but here it is (see picture at right) if you want to try.

There is something fascinating and challenging about coded messages, isn’t there? Some people seem to think the Bible is just as mysterious as that pigeon’s message, containing coded information that must somehow be unraveled so the real truth may be known.

Perhaps you remember a book that was published some years ago, The Bible Code. The author claimed that there were secret messages hidden in the original text of the Hebrew Bible. By looking at the sequence of Hebrew letters—for example, every 50th one—the secret information could be deciphered. That information, encoded into the text thousands of years ago, revealed specific details about contemporary events.

If you think this sounds a bit far-fetched, you’re right. It just doesn’t work. The Bible Code failed to predict some important developments and history has shown it to be quite wrong in many others. Also, computer analysis has shown that you can actually do this with almost any book. One critic, presumably with tongue firmly in cheek, showed how Herman Melville anticipated the assassination of Martin Luther King in the text of Moby Dick.

To study the Bible in this way is a waste of time. It is not what it is for. The Bible is certainly profound and repays in-depth study. Ever since it was written, scholars have poured over Holy Scripture in search of a better understanding of God’s character and will. Studies of the Hebrew Scriptures by Jewish scholars before the time of Jesus left them with unanswered questions. This is what Paul was referring to when he wrote to the church at Colosse that the word of God was to some extent a “mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations” (Colossians 1:26a). However, as Paul notes, it is no longer a secret and we are called to proclaim the word: “I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness” (v 25).

That fullness is the core message of the gospel, which, through Paul, “God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ (vv. 27-28).

Paul’s point is that the Sender has given us the code to the mystery. We don’t have to be expert code-breakers and we don’t have to be stumped. We can shout the message from the highest hill. We don’t have to spend hours struggling to work it out because the mystery has been revealed. God has come to us through his incarnate Son, Jesus Christ with unbounded grace for all. God is the Sender and we are the recipients. Jesus, himself, is the deciphered message of God to us.

The essential starting point of correct Bible interpretation is to read and interpret it through the lens of the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus told the biblical scholars of his day, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40 ESV).

Sadly, for many, that is still the case. They spend their lives trying to decipher what the Bible “really says,” coming up with a never-ending stream of bizarre and inaccurate ideas. You’d think they’d learn, wouldn’t you?

But the hope of unlocking “secret knowledge” lures them on—like, I suppose, those people who are still trying to decipher the message strapped to the leg of that long-dead carrier pigeon. Though the pigeon’s message may never be decoded, we most certainly do not have to be confounded by the message of the Bible. Jesus not only decodes it, he is the code and the message.

Your brother in Christ,

Joseph Tkach

PS: We will publish Weekly Update on July 24 and then skip July 31. The triennial GCI Denominational Conference will be held in Orlando, Florida during the week spanning July 29-August 4. I hope to see many Update readers there.