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Bible Code II: The Countdown

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After watching this subject on the History Channel I wanted to know more about this Bible Code which is the reason why I purchased this book. I read it in several hours cover to cover with an open mind and it was easy to read and pretty well written, despite the fact that I caught the author repeating himself several times throughout the book. I also felt at times that the author might have been looking for accolades as "the man who tried to save the world". Be that as it may, I don't exactly know what to make of the Code itself, except to say that I think the odds of finding words and phrases in such close proximity to each other, as they were found throughout the Torah relating to past historic events falls out of the scope of "coincidence". The odds are just too great. It cannot be "coincidence" as the skeptics claim. For those who are asking for a Hebrew dictionary to prove the translations, all I can tell you is what I saw on the History Channel. The translations are confirmed by Hebrew scholars. That is all the validity I need. I know from reading some of the reviews here that some of you are claiming that this book was a disappointment becaused it failed to predict the future. I believe the author had stated early on that it is almost impossible to find things in the Code unless you know what to look for which is why they are now searching for the Code Key to break the entire Code. This explains why it is easier for them to find things in the Code that have happened in the past than it is to find things that have not yet happened, simply because they have no idea what to search for in the Code. You cannot find an event that hasn't happened yet. Clearly what they have managed to find in the Codes pertaining to the future is a warning of things perhaps to come. At best, this book may be the vehicle which will bring us to the brink of something spectacular yet to be discovered. At worst, this book allows us to view life from yet another perspective and in that event you really have nothing to lose. I say read it for yourself and draw your own conclusions. It never hurts to keep an opened mind.

1) The book's theme is that the end of the world is nigh (2006), so our hero author must travel the world and get everyone to understand that the Middle East conflict must be resolved so that the PREDICTIONS OF THE BIBLE CODE DO NOT COME TO PASS. That's right. Without ever explaining why, he concludes that the code's message is just a warning and that we can change it. He even says that it encodes all possible outcomes. If that's the case then it is utterly meaningless, since an infinite number of false futures would be encoded. This claim is totally at odds with the book's theme. According to the author, there is only one year where the words "End of Days", "nuclear holocaust", etc, are encoded with a year: 2006. So does that mean that if we can avoid self-destruction in 2006, then humanity is saved for eternity from nuclear holocaust. Obviously, the more rational conclusion is that the code, if it is real, is absolutely written in stone, and the holocaust will occur on schedule in 2006, notwithstanding the heroic globetrotting our the author.

2) It's political. Arafat is a warm fellow and a true believer, Sharon is a war monger, and George Bush stole the election from poor Al Gore. His political bias is incredibly transparent.

3) He wonders out loud whether the aliens that planted our DNA here 4 billion years ago were still around. That's a long time for a civilization to last. Since he doesn't believe in God, who does he think gave Moses the tablets (code) on Mount Sinai? Either it was God or aliens, but the death of our progenitor is simply not a logical option.

4) He tells us about a zillion times that he doesn't believe in God. He apparently thinks his secularism gives the book a sheen of credibility. Actually, it makes him look like a fool. The Torah claims to be the Word of God. So why would the subliminal code underlying the plain text contradict that claim. He apparently believes that the Torah itself is just a bunch of ridiculous tales and lies, but encoded within it is ultimate truth. This guy needs to take a remedial course in Logic.

5) The author repeats himself endlessly. The book could have been one-third as long as it is.

6) All his leads end up as dead-ends. He drones on endlessly about Lisan, but of course, doesn't find the code key.

7) I only recall four predictions made in the book. The 2006 nuclear war, the assassination of Arafat, and the worldwide economic depression beginning in 2002, and the proliferation of nuclear weapons by Libya. Two of those predictions can now be evaluated. Since we are in a robust economic recovery, and since Libya has abandoned its WMD programs, it looks like the author is 0 for 2. You can't get much worse than that.

Bottom line: The book is worth reading because the evidence that Bible codes are real is very compelling, from a mathmatical point of view. I'm convinced. I'm equally convinced that the author used this esoteric knowledge to tell us nothing we didn't already know, and is lousy at predicting the future.

Anybody who spends anytime investigating the claims made by Mr.Drosnin will quickly come to the conclusion that they are garbage. A quick search on the web under "bible code" will reveal a multitude of articles by serious mathematicians which discredit Mr.Drosnin's conclusions.
In 1997, after having written his first book, Mr.Drosnin challenged his critics by stating; "When my critics find a messsage about the assassination of a prime minister encrypted in Moby Dick, I'll believe them" Unfortunately for Mr.Drosnin the critics were quick to respond.. they found in Moby Dick "death" messages for Indira Gandhi, Leon Trotsky, Martin Luther King, President Kennedy, Yitshak Rabin and others.
In addition, 55 mathematicians from different countries have signed a paper declaring all claims of incredible probabilities by Mr.Drosnin to be bogus.
In the appendix of his latest book, Mr.Drosnin makes a feeble and unconvincing attempt to respond to his critics, never addressing the issues point by point. Futhermore, his book is written in an immature and childish way, blatantly attempting to buttress his credibility by mentioning world leaders that he has tried to contact. Thanks God that most of them have refused him.
Mr. Drosnin repeatedly states that he is a journalist simply interested in the facts, but in reality, by refusing to look at the ample research that discredits his first book, he looks more as an author who is interested in perpetuating the franchise established by his first book and who will surely find an audience among those who cannot wait for the apocalypse to come.

At this point, nobody should have even any remote interest in buying this book. He only makes 4 actual predictions in it, and is 0 for 3 so far.

1) Libya will start hording WMDs
- The exact opposite has happened

2) Massive Worldwide Economic Depression in 2002
- Does anyone remember this happening? I don't. Because it didn't happen.

3) Arafat would be assassinated.
- Well he's dead now, but there is nothing that indicates he died from poisoning or anything else besies natural illness, so this one's wrong too.

So why would anyone be worried his 4th prediction (Nuclear war in 2006) will come true, especially considering he originally said it would happen in 2000 in the first Bible Code book?

Nobody should, but that's how he sells his books. If you tell people they're all gonna die and your book tells them how and how they can possibly avoid it, of course they'll buy it.

But what are these predictions really? The first three are just educated guesses. When he wrote this book Libya was still a source of major international conflict and 9/11 was in the past, so it's only logical certain countries might try and make WMDs in their situation. You don't need the Torah to make a guess at that, but a history book might help. By the way, isn't it convienient that he was able to see the events of 9/11 after the fact, but failed to see them in Bible Code I? But it doesn't matter because he was wrong. The economy goes up and down in cycles, and we were already heading down in 2001, so why not just guess it is going to get worse? You need an alien code to tell you that? And Arafat has had multiple attempts on his life for the last 30 years, and this guy guessed one would eventually succeed. Again, how is this anything more than an educated guess?

The nuclear war prediction is nothing but a sell point. It's been predicted a thousand times before by other people and the idea always scares people, which in this case equals book sales.
I doubt he even believes this stuff, but he knows it will make him a lot of money, which it has.

I have a prediction, and I don't need a throughly debunked method of text analysis to make it:

In 2007, there will be a Bible Code III.

Who is the encoder of the Bible Code? God! The author says that, yet refuses to acknowledge that. The author describes himself as one who doesn't believe in God yet writes that God told Moses what to write. Thus, Mr. Drosnin should become a believer -- at least in what he writes.

Drosnin is a reporter... he wants hard facts! If he was a believer like Dr. Eliyahu Rips -- a prize-winning mathematication who's a devout Jew and the founder of the Bible Code -- he would know he has hard facts. Instead, Drosnin spends his time making observations of the obvious -- that the world has nukes and terrorists could use them -- and writing countless letters to leaders who file them away. Drosnin is cashing in on Dr. Rips work by following his knowledge of the Code for all it's worth. It's probably been worth millions by now. I can't wait for after 2006 when Code III is released. That's the year to watch out, says Drosnin, who will probably find new codes to excuse his findings from this work.

What I learned from this book is that: 1) iron/metal won't rust in the Dead Sea because of the density of salt and lack of oxygen ... 2) many of Israel's leaders and/or higher powers are secular, or non-believers in God, or don't let Drosnin know they are ... 3) Arabs believe -- like common knowledge has let most Westerners suspect that some Arabs can be terrorists and Israeli leaders actually act like Westerners knew they really acted ... 4) I wish I could read ancient Hebrew to understand the text of the many, many, many charts presented to fill pages ... and 5) I got ripped off for the purchase price of this book.

In the 1st volume, Bible Code I, Drosnin made his money by finding in the code a year in advance that former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin would be assassinated during 1995. He warned Rabin, who really didn't take action. What was Rabin supposed to do, spend the year in a bunker? Rabin was a leader in the peace process! After Rabin's death Drosnin finally finds the assassin's name in the Code, etc. Yadda yadda yadda...

Drosnin also spent a bunch of space on the comet hitting Jupiter. That was informative, perhaps the best part in the overall perspective.

Here in Code 2 he spends a bunch of time repeating himself over and over, and telling us how he burdened a bunch of world leaders by telling them in letter form and bothering their higher aides the obvious -- that war could be destructive, regardless of how starts it, that terrorists can get nukes thanks to the Soviet empire's meltdown.

Editing here isn't that great. One paragraph identifies Dr. Rips first as Rips, then at Eli Rips and finally as Dr. Eli Rips. That's known in journalism as the inverted pyramid inverted.

If Drosnin ever gets to start his dig for "the code key buried in Lisan," I'm sure he will find it saying something like "Jesus saves." I got that idea from somewhere in the Bible. I believe it was called prophecy. If only Drosnin was a believer, then ... but he's not. He claims he's a journalist and wants hard facts. LOL!!! Him, all the way to the bank... me, in my living room with his book!

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Summary:

Again, like his first book (see my previous review) this is an area that can produce great fruit, but unfortunately, Drosnin really does the entire study a great disservice with his poor research, explanations and examples.

Drosnin follows up his first book with the same interesting presentation, but baseless science. And, while he continues his attempt to portray himself as an objective reviewer, he is anything but that.

If he came to me with his unquestionably correct information, like he continues to go to others, I would not listen to him either. And, I am a believer in the codes.

My perception of his writing it similar to when I read a newspaper story about an incident that I know a lot about...somehow newspaper writers only get the straight forward facts about 60% correct; with their conclusions generally fully deficient. Well, Drosnin is a good newspaper reporter and does not disappoint those statistics!

True Background:

Rabbi Eliyahu Rips published one of the most arduously peer reviewed statistical analyses of all time. (Rips, et al, "Equidistant Letter Sequences in the Book of Genesis," Statistical Science, The Institute of Mathematical Statistics, August, 1994.)

This publication revealed that the TORAH (the first 5 books of Moses - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) had the property to be analyzed via recent computer technology to reveal significant information that is very highly improbable.

Note: These properties have not really been proven for the rest of the bible, although the other books have some extra-ordinary and unique properties that are well beyond chance.

There is no question of the stats. They exist and have been fully accepted by experts who really could not accept the premise. Unfortunately, (or, fortunately) the premise and statistics are correct, and those experts (including some hefty cryptographers) readily acceded that in wonderment.

In my own quest to test the subject, I purchased the software and found some interesting things. And, found the items demonstrated by Rips and others, proving that they did not just make this up. But, I am not a statistician, so I simply accept the profound conclusions presented by the experts in that journals publication.

Book Review:

When I got the book at the airport, I was again excited. I thought he might have put more effort into this one and thus have made it more plausible. I read most of it on the plane home, and a flight attendant spoke to me about it saying, " I wish he really put some real information in there. I believe in the subject, but I can't accept his work."

If I did not do my other research, I would have concluded that this entire area is very weak and somewhat full of baloney.

And, that is the problem with Drosnin's second book.

Thus while it is interesting and easy to read and understand, he doesn't back anything up. I tried to pursue some of his findings, but could not obtain them. It would have been great if he gave more information so these things could be confirmed beyond his repeated statement that Rabbi Rips declares the finding to be highly unique and improbably.

FYI: To date, I have never found anything written, or presented by Rips to confirm Drosnin's persistent relationship and testing. But that does not mean it did not exist.

Drosnin could have shared some very specific information:

Specifically what software did he use?

Where did he find these specific codes?
What process did he use to find the conjoined hidden codes?
What bible text did he use? Etc.

Also, his index if very weak and unsupportive, and his reference section is hard to follow with the text.

Recommendation:

If you question this subject, but want to find the truth, go someplace else. Read Missler's book on "Cosmic Codes" It has much more explanation, research and basis. You can substantiate his presentations (with just a little effort).

If you have already done you homework on this subject, then get this book because it is interesting.

If you got this book, or are getting it, and want to read it, but wanted to find truth, then, please take Drosnin's work with a grain of salt as you would in reading any New York Times article. He is just a reporter, and by far NOT an expert!

Finally, if you are like Drosnin, don't try to interpret and explain the bible without reading it. That is just plain ignorant and dangerous.

Final Point:

Drosnin presents the final atomic conflict arising out of the failed middle east peace efforts. I really don't think anyone needs a prophecy to see that one coming.

Perhaps idealists may "prefer" to look at it that way, but very few realists view the millenia old hatred as something that can be swept away with economic development, or by swapping land for peace.

For every Muslim (middle eastern) I have spoken to, it is not the location of Israel, it is their existence that is problematic.

Peace treaties are therefore only opportunities for war, not a solution for war.

I am the author of the "Moby Dick" codes mentioned by an earlier reviewer. To see that codes appear anywhere, we can use Drosnin's own book. Go to the extract that appears on this site and locate the words "Lower Manhatten" a few paragraphs down. Starting at the R of "Lower", count forward 32 letters at a time to find the hidden message "R.U. FOOLED?" encoded in the text exactly the same way that Drosnin's hidden messages are encoded in the Bible. Moreover, the chance that this message appears so close to the start of the book is less than 1 in 200,000, so, according to Drosnin's logic, it must be there by design and not by accident.

I bought the very first "Bible Code" book by Michael Drosnin when it came out years ago, because I've always had a hunch that there might be some very interesting mathematical properties concerning the Bible texts. In the first book, Drosnin demonstrated beyond any shadow of doubt that there are some fascinating properties in the Old Testament biblical texts --they seem to have some incredibly detailed information about various past historical events and people, and there seems to be the ability to determine future events as well. This information is encoded in skip sequences through out the biblical texts. While one could scan "Moby Dick" or "War and Peace" and probably find the names of all the presidents of the United States encoded within, you would NOT be able to find their names, the dates of the births, the dates of their deaths, and the names of the cities where they were born, all within the same short section of text. Most likely, you would find information scattered in a random fashion throughout the texts, if you found any correlation's at all. But for some inexplicable reasons, significant dates, information and names all appear encoded in extremely close proximity to each other in the biblical texts.

The reason Drosnin has written a sequel to the first book is to warn of an event that is slated to take place in 2006, which may have dire consequences for the entire planet. According to Drosnin, "Bush," "Arafat," "Sharon," "Barak," "Peace," "End of Days" "World War" "Atomic Holocaust" "In the End of Days" are all encoded and crossed referenced with the same year: 2006. Drosnin believes that the Bible code is attempting to war us of an impending "atomic holocaust" which will take place in 2006, and it will be directly related to the currents troubles and tribulations we are now experiencing in the Middle East.

He believes so strongly in this prediction, that he has gone to great lengths to warn all of the people mentioned in the encoding: Bush, Arafat, Sharon and Barak. However, only Arafat has taken the time to meet personally with Drosnin, to discuss the coming nuclear annihilation, and the fact that the Bible Code also clearly predicts that Arafat will be assassinated by members of Hamas! (You heard it here first, folks.) Of course Arafat already knew this was a very likely scenario, but was happy to have the Bible code confirm his suspicions.

Though Bush, Barak, Sharon and Clinton have not met with Drosnin personally, he has met with people on their staffs, and has briefed them on the prediction in the bible code of an atomic holocaust in 2006. Of particular interest is the reaction of Dan Meridor, an Israeli cabinet member in charge of preparing for non-conventional terrorist attacks: "We already knew this was a probability", said Meridor. "And we already knew these years--2005, 2006--are the probabilities." In other words, the Bible code is only confirming what Israeli intelligence had already determined through normal intelligence analysis. The Bible code doesn't have any information to tell us how to prevent this possible catastrophe, and so the Israelis didn't really find the coded warning all that useful.

And so it goes, lots of interesting encoded warnings about dire events that have already been taken into serious consideration by those involved. So even though the "warnings" are a day late and a dollar short, it at least seems to further validate the code's reliability.

This would be a good book if the validity of the bible codes were the only item on the agenda, but Drosnin; an admitted liberal, atheist Jew; has no problem incorporating his ideology into every single page of the book, which is very unfortunate for those us who are not of his particular faith --or lack thereof.

Yes, all the typical left-wing, atheist talking points have been incorporated into this book. Items mentioned include how Bush stole the election from Gore, (and the bible codes confirms it!), the "seeding" of our planet with DNA by aliens from another world, the greatness of our past president, Bill Clinton, the wonders that were Israeli prime-ministers Rabin and Peres; and how the secret iron obelisk will unravel the secrets of the Bible code once it is found somewhere in Lisan, Jordan, near the shore of the Dead Sea.

Drosnin's unrelenting mixture of his ideological beliefs with the facts of the Bible code and current events makes for very challenging and exasperating reading. He's a very good writer, but the unrelenting liberal viewpoints and atheistic theology get tiring very quickly.

It is with great mystery and wonder that a person like Drosnin can be convinced of the validity of the bible codes, and yet absolutely refuse to believe that there was a God who created them. So the encoded information in the Bible is very believable, but the plain text testifying of a God who inspired these texts is a farce? One cannot help but to begin to think that Drosnin has some secret special agenda in his unrelenting belief that there is no God, since any normal person would be convinced beyond any reasonable doubt long ago, as was his friend; the great mathematician Eliyahu Rips; who first discovered the bible's encoding of detailed information.

Personally, I do hope Drosnin finds the iron obelisk with the key to unraveling the Bible code. And I do pray that the atomic holocaust in 2006 does not take place. Fortunately, the "end of days" predictions are general enough that they can be avoided, or, at least, perhaps wrong conclusions were made given the scant information. Yet I'm anxiously awaiting the proof of this prediction, and I'm afraid it may come to pass.

In my review of Drosin's first nonsensical tome, "The Bible Code," I stated that it was pure science fiction.

Drosnin has proven my point in his follow-up.

He states, glibly and without the slightest hint of embarrassment, that the Bible Code "proves" that both the Code itself and the human DNA code was delivered to the earth billions of years ago by an alien vessel made of steel, and that that vessel still exists in the Jordanian salt plains of the Dead Sea, along with obelisks that hold the key to "decoding" the Bible Code.

This is all "proven" by Drosnin by his own interpretation of the Bible Code.

Self-fulfilling prophesy? Or the rantings of an over-wrought imagination?

In order to prove his theory he quotes *one* scientist, a man who published a paper in the 1970s claiming that our DNA was brought here by aliens. This is enough confirmation for Drosnin, evidently.

Don't look for references or footnotes reinforcing his crackpot ideas - they don't exist. However, he does put in a chapter that purports to be substantiation to his writings, but upon closer examination they are nothing more than out-takes from the body of the book.

How disturbing that people believe this nonsense.

The Bible is God's Word to mankind. It clearly states that God created the universe. So, how is it possible for the Bible "Code" to contradict this by stating that man is the result of some alien "ark"?

Also, Drosnin commits the unpardonable sin of apocalyptic writers: he reveals a date for the "End Times", which, he states, is indicative of the coming of the Messiah. The Bible clearly states that no one knows this date, except the Father. Even Jesus does not know it. So how can Drosnin?

This is the same mistake Hal Lindsay made in the 1970s when he said Jesus would return by 1986.

So, we all have to wait until 2006, when the earth will be destroyed by an atomic halocaust, according to the Code.

I'll meet you all in 2007 for a toast. Pick the place and time....

When I started reading this book, I had anticipated a more in-depth scientific and mathmatical approach to explain just what the Bible Code is. I wanted to see the process that the author used, I wanted him to explain his though process as to why he chose the words he did. I wanted to see what words and phrases he tried to use, but could not find. I wanted to see the statistical formulas, concerning the odds of these phrases occuring together, worked out in front of me. I was disappointed in this regard. I believe that there is something to to bible code, but this book is not "proof." Not yet anyway. There are dire predictions or "warnings" as Drosnin refers to them for the years 2004 (starting in sept./oct 2003), 2006(starting in sept/oct of 2005).

The book is more of a story about a man who has found certain words and phrases in the "Bible Code" that are statistically almost impossible. The important thing to remember is not that he has found lone words scattered throughout the book when the letters are put into any one of a countless number of matricies, but rather the grouping of the words found. For example, when in the Book of Daniel, the phrases "End of Days" and "in the End of Days" are used in the "normal" text of the Bible, the words and phrases, "Bush," "Arafat," "Sharon," etc. all appear. Statistically - seems impossible - BUT LET THE LAY MAN SEE THE MATH!!!!! This book is written for the lay man, and maybe that is why the science is left out.

Now that he has found these words and phrases where they are in the Bible with respect to their location with eachother and the actual message in the text of particular sections of the Bible, he is goes on a mission to convince, Clinton, Bush, Powell, Greenspan, Sharon, Arafat, etc. of the doom we may be about to face. That is what this book is about --- The journey Mr. Drosnin is on.

I believe in the "Bible Code."

"But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase." --- Daniel 12:4 (God's commandment to Daniel about the revelations concerning the "End of Days" he had just recieved).

I'll add, I believe Mr. Drosnin is playing a role in unraveling the "words" which are "concealed," as he uses "increased knowledge" (computers) to understand these revelations givin to Daniel. But Mr. Drosnin is also an Athiest. And so, his interpretations of what the words and phrases he has found in the "Bible Code" mean, will in some instances seem to be in opposition to what the actual text of the Bible says or implies. He should study his bible to fully understand what it is he is interpreting.

With that in mind:
"For false Christs and false prohets will arise and will show great signs and , so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect." Matthew 24:24 (Jesus speaking to his diciples about the "End Times"). I would hate to see someting from God, be used to try to disprove he exists, or that the Bible is from a human time traveler.