When I was a youngster, my twin brother and I delighted in secrets just between the two of us. We especially liked to write notes in secret codes, some of which we made up and some acquired from others. We listened to the old Dick Tracy radio program where they offered detective paraphernalia including secret codes and decoder rings. These coded messages were especially useful if they were intercepted by an alert teacher.
However, these childhood codes were crude compared to the elaborate codes developed during WWI and WWII. These codes were used to communicate with combat unit on land and sea. These messages were sent by wireless telegraphy and later by radio, which anyone with the proper equipment could intercept. In WWI, before the advent of computers, complicated coding machines were invented, and sometimes scramblers were used to render a message unintelligible unless one had a de-scrambler. Coding experts were employed full time intercepting and attempting to decode enemy transmissions. Fortunately in WWI, England was able to crack the German code. so they could anticipate any attack on land, in the air or at sea. Similarly, the US broke the Japanese code, and were able to anticipate the Japanese naval plans. On the other hand, the Japanese were never able to decipher the US code because the US used Navajo Indians talking in their native language. Navajo was Greek to the Japanese. As a result of superior intelligence, the war was shortened.
Thus, coded messages are used in warfare and the ability to decipher these codes is essential to victory. Of course the Bible has been given to us as a guide in our conflict, but much of the Scriptures is written in code, symbols and figurative language, so that one needs a decoder to understand it. Jesus came to earth to aid in the deciphering process, to make the way of salvation plain, but even He is misunderstood, and the message is often garbled by private interpretations of scholars of diverse opinions. What man needed was a logical, clear-cut decoder that would answer some fundamental issues: Where did we come from? Why are we here? What is our destiny? What is death and Is there life after death? Why do we live in an evil world and what is the answer to suffering? Why did Jesus need to come to earth and die? Who is the Devil and where did he come from? Even though men had inspired words and the communications of prophets, these and similar questions have engrossed the minds of scholars and philosophers for ages. Finally, it all became plain when God gave us the Great Controversy message (E.G. White, 1858) which enabled us to understand God's plan for the redemption of earth. This is "the Cosmic Code."
