A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that in my 1982 LDS "triple combination" scripture index, the entries for various names of Jesus (e.g., Wonderful, Counselor, Eternal, etc.) seem to have possible "encoded messages" found by doing doubles-cancellation on the regular-font letters of each of the entries and then doing a V-type manipulation of the results (i.e., taking the letters before and after the V--or another symmetrical noun or concept spelled in the results--in alternation, moving outward from the "V").
Most people think of a goat as a medieval depiction of the devil, but Jesus is talked about as being a scapegoat who bore our sins. So I did a doubles-cancellation on the entry for "Goat." It gave me BKYUGONAJRTSHV, which did not have anything symmetrical contained within it. But then I noticed that if I pulled out "KY" (often used to denote possible decoding keys), I got "BUG ON A J[A]R TSHV." I decided to look for LDS media with depictions of bugs over jars and use the key TSHV on doubles-cancellations of their accompanying text.
Key TSHV:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M
S R Q P O N
T
U
Z Y X W V
The very first one I tried was the not-in-quotes portion of the title of an official LDS news release about this spring's general church conference, which news release had a painting of Jesus over a large jar. Now, in Slavic languages and languages that incorporate them (e.g., Yiddish), "bug"="god". Even for non-Slavic-language speaking American audiences, the Men in Black movie equated bugs with superhuman, highly-evolved beings. So that painting fit the "bug on a jar" phrase. Doing doubles-cancellation on "Finding...through Jesus Christ this Easter season" gave a result of "FPJCRSN", and applying the TSHV key resulted in "XZQCUITVHM"; that appears to be saying "execute" and two initials that might be HM or MR (I think the latter is correct due to the V, or Roman numeral five, possibly indicating to shift the following letters forward five letters). If the Church President, Russell M. Nelson, who is 100 years old, dies in the next six months, I guess this will be a perfect example of the manufactured (possibly self-fulfilling) prophecies that I think have been being put in (or made reality afterwards) in some church publications.
I have continued to look in church publications and the "bug on a jar" motif seems to be a genuine, repeated sign. The 2008 version of the illustrated New Testament Stories has a picture of Mary holding baby Jesus over a jar on page 18. Doing doubles-cancellation on the regular text under it, I got VGCKULOSEINT; applying the TSHV key to that gave me HSTWCPIROLTVHYRUMVHS, which immediately drew my attention because it spells out Hyrum, best friend and brother of LDS Church founder Joseph Smith. If one takes the V's as indicators of reading in a different direction, this could be read as TL O RIP CWT SH - HYRUM - SH, which read phonetically is "Tell 'O' R.I.P. Cot Shhhh Hyrum Shhhh." That looks like a threat to not talk about cipher-ring-related things on pain of death, which Hyrum might have run afoul of by telling them to Joseph in connection with a cot. Odd, right? Especially since Joseph and Hyrum were later murdered together.
In the last few years, an unusual story has been being circulated that Hyrum Smith attended an elite boarding school and came home and told Joseph all about what he learned there while Joseph was laid up in bed recovering from a serious illness. That isn't a church history story that circulated until recently; I think it might have been manufactured or inflated to fit this supposed "encoded message."
It's too easy to put or find garbled messages in texts with macros. How is a person supposed to know whether such messages are legitimate claims, especially if false stories are later circulated to make the messages look legitimate?
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