Has anyone found secret messages in the bible?

[Nehemiah6]

I already posted the greek word, it's meaning is tested, not tempted. Also, grammar matters.

This has nothing to do with grammar. The Greek word πειράζω (peirazo) can mean either tested or tempted, and both meanings would apply in the temptations of Christ.

Biblical usage:

1. to make a trial of, to attempt
   1. taught by trial, experienced
2. to test, to make trial of one, put him to proof
   1. his mind, sentiments, temper
   2. in particular, to attempt to induce one to commit some (esp. carnal) crime
   3. tempted to sin

 

[TheLearner]

I agree that "tested" aligns better with the sinlessness and deity of Christ, and that the whole ordeal was a demonstration to the devil that Christ is sinless. I agree that God cannot be tempted. I agree with James' explanation of sin....

However, I don't accept it as exhaustive because it doesn't explain Adam's sin. It would require that Adam had sin in his heart before eating the fruit. There is no Scripture supporting that conclusion. God didn't ask Adam if he desired the forbidden fruit, but whether he ate it, and the consequences are declared upon his admission that he ate it.

Further, I struggle to accept that "tested" is the right translation when we consider the words "as we are, yet without sin". If it were directly in regard to any regular human, we would have no trouble interpreting it as "tempted". There seems to be some circular reasoning involved in selecting "tested". We aren't "tested"; we are tempted, so "as we are" strongly indicates significant similarity. Being "tempted" doesn't indicate the degree of likelihood of failure. In Jesus' case, we might quantify it as the smallest possible positive number, but still not 'zero'.

As I (think I) have said previously, this makes perfect sense if Jesus, in His humanity, was actually tempted and actually able to fail the "test". I believe that His "nature" was as that of Adam prior to eating the fruit: innocent of all sin but capable of choosing.

I also don't believe this is a salvific issue, though from some responses I suspect others do.

Matthew 5:28
But *I* say unto you, that every one who looks upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Matthew 5:28

Easy-to-Read Version



28 But I tell you that if a man looks at a woman and wants to sin sexually with her, he has already committed that sin with her in his mind.

 

[TheLearner]

I was reading through Ezekiel 28:13-15. Here, of course, it is speaking of Satan. What do you think of this? Does it apply to Adam? Does it apply to Christ? Is it only for created beings?
Personally, I'm not settled on the issue. Just trying to get more insight.

Ezekiel 28
Easy-to-Read Version
Tyre Thinks It Is Like a God
28 The word of the Lord came to me. He said, 2 “Son of man,[a] say to the ruler of Tyre, ‘This is what the Lord God says:

“‘You are very proud!
And you say, “I am a god!
I sit on the seat of gods
in the middle of the seas.”

“‘But you are a man and not God!
You only think you are a god.
3 You think you are wiser than Daniel
and no secret is hidden from you.
4 Through your wisdom and understanding
you have gotten riches for yourself.
And you put gold and silver
in your treasuries.
5 Through your great wisdom and trade,
you have made your riches grow.
And now you are proud
because of those riches.

6 “‘So this is what the Lord God says:
Tyre, you thought you were like a god.
7 I will bring strangers to fight against you.
They are most terrible among the nations!
They will pull out their swords
and use them against the beautiful things your wisdom brought you.
They will ruin your glory.
8 They will bring you down to the grave.
You will be like a sailor who died at sea.
9 That person will kill you.
Will you still say, “I am a god”?
No, he will have you in his power!
You will see that you are a man, not God!
10 Strangers will treat you like a foreigner[c] and kill you,
because I gave the command!’”
This is what the Lord God said.

11 The word of the Lord came to me. He said, 12 “Son of man, sing this sad song about the king of Tyre. Say to him, ‘This is what the Lord God says:

“‘You were the perfect man—
so full of wisdom and perfectly handsome.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God.
You had every precious stone—
rubies, topaz, and diamonds,
beryls, onyx, and jasper,
sapphires, turquoise, and emeralds.
And each of these stones was set in gold.
You were given this beauty on the day you were created.
God made you strong.
14 You were one of the chosen Cherubs
who spread your wings over my throne.
I put you on the holy mountain of God.
You walked among the jewels that sparkled like fire.
15 You were good and honest when I created you,
but then you became evil.
16 Your business brought you many riches.
But they also put cruelty inside you, and you sinned.
So I treated you like something unclean
and threw you off the mountain of God.
You were one of the chosen Cherubs
who spread your wings over my throne.
But I forced you to leave the jewels
that sparkled like fire.
17 Your beauty made you proud.
Your glory ruined your wisdom.
So I threw you down to the ground,
and now other kings stare at you.
18 You did many wrong things.
You were a very crooked merchant.
In this way you made the holy places unclean.
So I brought fire from inside you.
It burned you!
You burned to ashes on the ground.
Now everyone can see your shame.

19 “‘All the people in other nations
were shocked about what happened to you.
What happened to you will make people very afraid.
You are finished!’”

The Message Against Sidon
20 The word of the Lord came to me. He said, 21 “Son of man, look toward Sidon and speak for me against that place. 22 Say, ‘This is what the Lord God says:

“‘I am against you, Sidon!
Your people will learn to respect me.
I will punish Sidon.
Then people will know that I am the Lord.
Then they will learn that I am holy,
and they will treat me that way.
23 I will send disease and death to Sidon,
and many people inside the city will die.
Soldiers outside the city will kill many people.
Then people will know that I am the Lord!

The Nations Will Stop Laughing at Israel
24 “‘Then the surrounding nations that hate Israel will no longer be like stinging nettles[d] and painful thorns. And they will know that I am the Lord God.’”

25 This is what the Lord God said: “I scattered the people of Israel among other nations, but I will gather the family of Israel together again. Then the nations will know that I am holy, and they will treat me that way. At that time the people of Israel will live in their land—I gave that land to my servant Jacob. 26 They will live safely in the land. They will build houses and plant vineyards. I will punish the nations around them that hated them. Then the people of Israel will live in safety, and they will know that I am the Lord their God.”

Footnotes
Ezekiel 28:2 Son of man This was usually just a way of saying “a person” or “a human being.” Here, it is a way of addressing Ezekiel. Also in verses 12, 21.
Ezekiel 28:3 Daniel A wise man from ancient times. This might be Daniel from the Bible, or the Danel mentioned in the writings from Ras Shamra.
Ezekiel 28:10 foreigner Literally, “uncircumcised.” This means a person who did not share in the agreement God made with Israel. See “circumcise, circumcision” in the Word List.
Ezekiel 28:24 nettles Plants covered with stinging hairs.

 

[Bob-Carabbio]

Recently I came across this video on Youtube where the guy uses software to count number of occurrences of certain words in the bible and the King James version is just FILLED completely with all kinds of secret messages.

I downloaded the software (King James Pure Bible Search) and went to work... so far I found prophet Muhammad's birth and death year

I looked up all occurrences and variations of the words false, prophet and Ishmaelite. I got 633 occurences in 570 verses.

false|falsely|falsehood
prophet|prophet's|prophets|
ishmaelite|ishmael|ishmael's|ishmaelites

Now I'm wondering if it's just a coincidence/confirmation bias.

The guy's Youtube channel has a lot of other videos with countless other encoded formulas that make it just about impossible to dismiss the whole thing as coincidence or conspiracy.

 

[Bible_Highlighter]

My favorite two videos by Brandon are these two.

 

[Magenta]

Adam was perfect

God proclaimed His creation good and very good... not perfect. We are perfected in Christ.

 

[Magenta]

I agree that "tested" aligns better with the sinlessness and deity of Christ, and that the whole ordeal was a demonstration to the devil that Christ is sinless. I agree that God cannot be tempted. I agree with James' explanation of sin....

However, I don't accept it as exhaustive because it doesn't explain Adam's sin. It would require that Adam had sin in his heart before eating the fruit. There is no Scripture supporting that conclusion. God didn't ask Adam if he desired the forbidden fruit, but whether he ate it, and the consequences are declared upon his admission that he ate it.

Further, I struggle to accept that "tested" is the right translation when we consider the words "as we are, yet without sin". If it were directly in regard to any regular human, we would have no trouble interpreting it as "tempted". There seems to be some circular reasoning involved in selecting "tested". We aren't "tested"; we are tempted, so "as we are" strongly indicates significant similarity. Being "tempted" doesn't indicate the degree of likelihood of failure. In Jesus' case, we might quantify it as the smallest possible positive number, but still not 'zero'.

As I (think I) have said previously, this makes perfect sense if Jesus, in His humanity, was actually tempted and actually able to fail the "test". I believe that His "nature" was as that of Adam prior to eating the fruit: innocent of all sin but capable of choosing.

I also don't believe this is a salvific issue, though from some responses I suspect others do.

Thank you for explaining your view, Dino .

About Adam's sin... what few seem to see or mention is that Adam was of the natural world.
Think of all Scripture has to say about the world, and the natural man, especially in relation
to God. God knew head of time what Adam's choice would be. How could it be otherwise
in light of what Scripture has to say about the natural man?

 

[Dino246]

Thank you for explaining your view, Dino .

About Adam's sin... what few seem to see or mention is that Adam was of the natural world.
Think of all Scripture has to say about the world, and the natural man, especially in relation
to God. God knew head of time what Adam's choice would be. How could it be otherwise
in light of what Scripture has to say about the natural man?

Note, however, that every description of the natural state of man describes man after Adam’s sin. It’s a fallacy of anachronism to apply those descriptions to Adam prior to his sin.

 

[John146]

God proclaimed His creation good and very good... not perfect. We are perfected in Christ.

God's creation was not complete? Perfect means complete, whole, not lacking....

 

[Bible_Highlighter]

Note, however, that every description of the natural state of man describes man after Adam’s sin. It’s a fallacy of anachronism to apply those descriptions to Adam prior to his sin.

But temptation vs. sin is a fine line. There are mind sins like lust being the equivalent of adultery in Matthew 5:28-30, and hate of one’s brother being like that of murder in 1 John 3:15. Just where does one separate mind sins from being internally tempted? While I am not denying internal temptation by any means because we see it mentioned in James 1:13, this would be more of a limitation within mankind and not God. Jesus said His body was a temple, and He came down from Heaven, and He is one with the Father. This seriously complicates any ability to be internally tempted to do any kind of evil because that would be an attack upon the deity of Jesus Christ (Whether a person realizes that fact or not). We are to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit according to 2 Corinthians 7:1. Jesus did not need to do this because He is the light of life, and salvation. Galatians 5:24 says that they that are Christ’s have crucified the affections and lusts. The world was condemned by a global flood in part because their thoughts were evil continually. Internal lusts or internal temptation is a path a person starts to go down that is wrong. This is simply not possible for Jesus because He is 100% God on the inside. But folks think Jesus took on a human soul or mind. If so, then why did Jesus speak of His pre-existence? A new human soul and mind in the Incarnation would suggest He is a newly created being or something different than ever before. Scripture does not speak of this and it contradicts His statements of Pre-existence. Jesus said He came down from Heaven. Not possible if He took on a newly created human mind, human soul, fleshy lusts, etcetera. Jesus said He is the “I AM” from Exodus 3 to the Jews in John 8. He said this in relation to how he knew Abraham. Again, this is not possible for Him to make this statement unless you are suggesting that Christ was like the character of FireStorm in DC Comics (Who was two people fused into one).

(Note: Character on the far left is the physical human body outside of costume, and the person on the far right is the spirit of another person, Professor Stein (with glasses) who merged with Ronnie‘s physical body. The middle person is Ronnie in costume as Fire Storm the DC comics super hero).

Christians have told me that Jesus speaks or acts sometimes from His divine side, and at other times, He speaks and or acts from His human side. This would be like FireStorm. If Jesus was anything like FireStorm, then we would need clues and hints in Scripture that He was like this. But this simply is not the case when we read the Bible.

Side Note:

The comic pics above is for demonstrative purposes only. Please do not read DC comics.

 

[Bible_Highlighter]

Note, however, that every description of the natural state of man describes man after Adam’s sin. It’s a fallacy of anachronism to apply those descriptions to Adam prior to his sin.

Consider also:

Matthew 12:35
”A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”

Matthew 12:34
”O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

Jesus tells them to make the tree good so they then can make the fruit good.

Matthew 12:33
”Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.“

Meaning, they need to be converted and have a heart transplant by being born again spiritually with God and or renew their heart by repentance (seeking forgiveness with the Lord).

Meaning, Jesus was already good. He is called the GOOD Shepherd. So it was not possible for Him to bring forth evil fruit because He is a good tree. He is God, and God is good.

 

[Magenta]

Note, however, that every description of the natural state of man describes man after Adam’s sin. It’s a fallacy of anachronism to apply those descriptions to Adam prior to his sin.

And yet Adam did sin. I would say it is an inescapable conclusion to deduce that
it was in his nature to do so. Because if it was not, nor could he, but he did.

 

[Magenta]

God's creation was not complete? Perfect means complete, whole, not lacking....

Don't add to Scripture. Read it for yourself. You want to assume Adam already possessed the perfection attained through Christ? .

 

[Dino246]

And yet Adam did sin. I would say it is an inescapable conclusion to deduce that
it was in his nature to do so. Because if it was not, nor could he, but he did.

I would conclude not that it was ‘necessary’ for him to sin, but that it was possible. I wouldn’t make the conclusion that ’it was in his nature to sin’ because again that depends on an anachronism.

 

[John146]

Don't add to Scripture. Read it for yourself. You want to assume Adam already possessed the perfection attained through Christ? .

Perfection as in, what was Adam lacking when God created him? Did God create Adam incomplete? Not arguing, just trying to understand your point of view.

 

[Magenta]

I would conclude not that it was ‘necessary’ for him to sin, but that it was possible. I wouldn’t make
the conclusion that ’it was in his nature to sin’ because again that depends on an anachronism.

It had to be in his nature to sin or else he could not have sinned.
That is not saying it was necessary for him to do so. He chose to.

 

[Magenta]

Perfection as in, what was Adam lacking when God created him? Did God create
Adam incomplete? Not arguing, just trying to understand your point of view.

Adam was lacking a mate for one thing. My point of view is that God proclaimed creation
good, good, good etc and then after Eve was made the proclamation was very good.
Further I postulate that man was always made to be perfected in Christ and none other.

 

[Bible_Highlighter]

The capacity to sin was within Adam because he had free will to do so, but he was not struggling with a sin nature in being a child of wrath before the fall. Scripture says we are by nature, children of wrath (See Ephesians 2:3). I don’t believe this was the case for Adam prior to his disobedience.

But Adam had to have the capacity and interest in doing the wrong thing otherwise he would not have disobeyed God’s command. Meaning, certain animals in creation are hardwired to do certain things and not to do other things. Granted, Adam was no animal, but the point here is that Adam would not sin if God did not put the capability within him. Yes, Adam could have obeyed, but I think his lack was to show us man’s need for God.

Some say Adam did not want to be separated from Eve and so he disobeyed to be with her. But that is speculation only.

Jesus is like Adam in the sense that he had the same physical flesh and blood body as a descendant of Adam and His Omniscience was suppressed, being limited in knowledge like Adam (Seeing Adam did not have the knowledge of good and evil prior to the Fall). But Jesus did not have the capacity to sin like Adam because He is God. God cannot be tempted with sin (James 1:13). It was also not necessary. Peter says Jesus bore our sins in his body and it did not have to be in some kind of ethereal way.

 

[Bible_Highlighter]

Adam was lacking a mate for one thing. My point of view is that God proclaimed creation
good, good, good etc and then after Eve was made the proclamation was very good.
Further I postulate that man was always made to be perfected in Christ and none other.

Yes. I believe Adam was created in large part to show his need for God. Without God, Adam would not be complete. The creation was very good by itself alone, man (the creation) could never go beyond being “very good” without the Lord. Man needed perfection (the next level) in uniting with God (Christ).

 

[Bible_Highlighter]

Number 6 is the number for man. Everything was created in six days. God’s number is seven. God rested on the seventh day. Mankind is told to labor to enter the rest of God ceasing from their own works prior to their conversion to Christ (See: Hebrews 4:9-11). This conversion is by God’s grace. God’s grace is being saved by believing the gospel message in that Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and risen the third day for our salvation (1 Cor 15:1-4).