Would you believe that there is a hidden message in Genesis that says a photographer would take the life of Lady Di? Would you believe that the Psalms refer to the Hale-Bopp comet? These startling findings and a whole lot more await those who are willing to believe that the Bible contains hidden coded messages that can be decoded by using a method of discovery called ELS.
I've read that Equidistant Letter Sequences (ELS) was made popular when some Israeli mathematicians published a study in a journal back in 1994. As I understand it, they arranged the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) into a continuous string of 304,805 Hebrew letters of the alphabet. These are displayed on a page as one huge block of text without any spacing between the letters.
Then, using a computer program, a search is begun in this block of Hebrew letters that looks for people's names or historical events. These are supposed to have been hidden in the Holy Scriptures when God spoke to Moses. The computer begins a search from the first letter of Genesis, (or from any starting point), skipping from letter to letter by the specified number of letters. For instance the letters in Yitzhak Rabin are found at a distance between them of 4772, (between Deuteronomy 2:33 to Deuteronomy 24:16), which is 4772 letters across. Somehow, using this miracle method of discovery, a researcher found an encrypted warning about the Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin's assassination a year before the prime minister was killed.
Even more amazing is the finding of the Hale-Bopp comet starting in Psalm 96:4 and going to Psalm 98:9. This time, stopping at every 253rd letter, you find Hale-Bopp and then believe it was put there for some reason?
Most bizarre is the supposed reference to the late Diana, princess of Whales. In this case the ELS method of discovery indicates that the code for Lady Di is found at a equidistance word spacing of 299, between Genesis 3:22 to Genesis 5:12. Since the letters in an ELS chart are laid out in a very large block without any spacing in between, the name "Lady Di" is crossed (like a crossword puzzle) by a biblical expression which means "you took my life". Nearby, are letters which in reverse order spell "tzalam" (photographer).
A Fatal Error
Those who practice ELS must accept that God dictated the Bible to Moses, letter by letter in a perfect sequence that still exists today. This means that if even one letter were left out or misplaced in a copy of the original text, the whole ELS theory will fail. In addition, believers in ELS have to make the giant leap of faith and think that God hid messages in the Holy Scriptures just for them to find.
Thoughtful people must wonder why would knowledge be hidden in this mysterious way? Why would the Holy Scriptures, formed by the inspiration of God contain hidden information? Why would someone have to have some special knowledge or wisdom to understand the Scriptures? The Apostle Paul wrote to the young Timothy and instructed him, "Study to shew thyself approved of God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." II Timothy 2:15. Paul did not tell him to "speculate" to show himself approved.
It seems reasonable to me that Bible students should accept the Scriptures for what they say at face value and follow the thoughts of the English philosopher called Ockham's Razor, "Consider the simplest version as the most probable" or as the old preacher said, "When the plain sense makes good sense, seek no other sense." In my opinion, Equidistant Letter Sequences and the associated books about unlocking secret Bible codes are as believable as supermarket tabloids. And, did I hear that the Brooklyn Bridge was up for sale? Did I understand that a person could buy the bridge and then charge a toll fee to make the payments?

Blessings in your study of God's Word!

Marvin Hunt

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