A couple of months ago the obituaries of two women were published in major newspapers1. Both were centenarians; Julia Parsons, an American, was 104, and Betty Webb, a British woman, was 101. More newsworthy was the fact that both women were code breakers during World War II, part of top-secret teams working to unscramble messages sent by the German military.
The Germans encoded their communications using a device called the Enigma machine. Originally developed by the Dutch to communicate banking secrets, the Germans bought the patent for Enigma in 1923 to use for intelligence purposes. Enigma encrypted codes offered 150 quintillion (150 followed by 18 zeros) possible solutions, and the Nazis believed their codes were unbreakable.
However, the Polish government had worked to decipher Enigma codes, and gave their findings to the Allies in 1939. In 1941 the Royal Navy captured a German U-boat with an on-board Enigma machine; this was a closely guarded secret because they did not want Germany to know they had the machine.
Julia was recruited in 1942 by the U.S. Naval Communications Annex in Washington to decode German messages. She was told, in no uncertain terms, that she could not speak with anyone, including her husband, about the nature of her work. Betty started at the British Government Code and Cypher School in Bletchley Park with a dire warning: she would be shot if she ever leaked details about her work.
Betty Webb never spoke about her work. She often saw a colleague, known only by her code name Biddy, on a street in Birmingham. They never spoke, only nodded. Then one day in 1975, Biddy shouted across the street: “It’s out. We can talk.” The previous year the British government had declassified the work done at Bletchley Park.
The news came to Julia Parsons in 1997 when she visited the National Cryptologic Museum near Fort Meade, MD. On display were Enigma machines, along with how they worked. Julia asked why, since the devices were top-secret. A tour guide replied they had been declassified in 1974.
We can appreciate the need to keep some professional or private secrets. For instance, I was not at liberty to discuss some of my work for the government, and I did not tell Kathie about a surprise birthday party I planned for her. On the other hand, people often have dark secrets they do not want to reveal, many of which the Bible calls sin (Matthew 15:19). It can be difficult or embarrassing to talk about a divorce, an abortion, an addiction, a lie, etc.
Yet how many times have we acted like Adam and Eve, trying to hide our enigma from God (Genesis 3:6-11)? They thought their sin had been encrypted by avoiding the Lord, but He quickly decoded their act of eating forbidden fruit. God made it known He will judge every secret, whether good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12:14). Jesus declassified all secret sins when He taught us the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:4); we can now talk about it.
In contrast, the secular worldview tries to convince us there are aspects of our faith that should be kept secret and not talked about. Like sharing the good news (Mark 16:15), or that Jesus is the only pathway to Heaven (John 14:6). Those secular codes are already broken, so we can go everywhere and proclaim God’s word. Or sing it in the southern Gospel style of Stuart Hamblen: “It is no secret what God can do, what He has done for others He will do for you.”
Nomads2 