Book Notes
Over the years, with a rare exception or two, the books I have cited in this column are all ones I believe you will find worth reading. This is not true of Michael Drosnin's The Bible Code (New York, 1997). I regard it as morally lower than pornography. Stay away from false evangelicals who gush over it. The author's thesis is that computers have unlocked a code long hidden in the Hebrew text of the Bible and can now predict the future. The only future events he sees predicted thus far in his study is the possible assassination of Netanyahu, and an earthquake in Los Angeles (which geologists have also predicted).
- R. J. Rushdoony
If one believes in this code, one cannot believe that the God of Scripture is who He says He is.
Over the years, with a rare exception or two, the books I have cited in this column are all ones I believe you will find worth reading. This is not true of Michael Drosnin's The Bible Code (New York, 1997). I regard it as morally lower than pornography. Stay away from false evangelicals who gush over it. The author's thesis is that computers have unlocked a code long hidden in the Hebrew text of the Bible and can now predict the future. The only future events he sees predicted thus far in his study is the possible assassination of Netanyahu, and an earthquake in Los Angeles (which geologists have also predicted).
Drosin does not believe in God, and he does not see the predictions in the code as predestined, only likely or possible. Then who makes these predictions? The Bible as the Word of God is set aside for a possible predictor or predictors who play a guessing game. The God of the Bible speaks plainly to all. This Bible code is for computer men!
Now over the centuries, many have de-coded the Bible (also Shakespeare) to say all kinds of remarkable things. One scientist of a century ago saw in the Great Pyramid a series of amazing prophecies fulfilled up to his time, but his pyramid code had nothing to say about World Wars I and II, nor anything else of this century.
If one believes in this code, one cannot believe that the God of Scripture is who He says He is. He is reduced, if real, to an elitist, esoteric, occultist force. Those who believe in Drosnin's thesis are people to avoid because they lack common sense and do not belong in the church community.
A purported key to decoding is beyond my ken, and I am reasonably intelligent. You will either reject this book or take it on faith, and there are better things to believe in. Stay away from those who accept this book as valid.
John Weaver's The Biblical Truth About God's Righteous Vengeance (order from John Weaver, P. O. Box 394, Fitzgerald, GA 31750) is a brief (149pp) and superb study of God's justice as it relates to us, to our salvation, to the doctrine of the kinsman-redeemer, and more. Few have written more powerfully and succinctly on the subject. Sadly, thinking of this caliber is lacking in our major pulpits and our Christian educational institutions. Be sure to read this.
- R. J. Rushdoony
Rev. R.J. Rushdoony (1916–2001), was a leading theologian, church/state expert, and author of numerous works on the application of Biblical law to society. He started the Chalcedon Foundation in 1965. His Institutes of Biblical Law (1973) began the contemporary theonomy movement which posits the validity of Biblical law as God’s standard of obedience for all. He therefore saw God’s law as the basis of the modern Christian response to the cultural decline, one he attributed to the church’s false view of God’s law being opposed to His grace. This broad Christian response he described as “Christian Reconstruction.” He is credited with igniting the modern Christian school and homeschooling movements in the mid to late 20th century. He also traveled extensively lecturing and serving as an expert witness in numerous court cases regarding religious liberty. Many ministry and educational efforts that continue today, took their philosophical and Biblical roots from his lectures and books.