Book of Secrets

1865. A greasy, but innocent-looking man destroys a map coveted by some dirty-faced bad guys, and he gets shot for it. Before he dies, he utters to his young son, "The debt all men pay."

This is the opening scene in the film National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Time leaps to the present day. A recently found page that had been torn from the diary of John Wilkes Booth reveals Thomas Gates (the dying man in the first scene) may have been involved in President Lincoln's assassination. The news shocks renown treasure-seeker Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage). Thomas Gates was his great grandfather.

Ben sets out to clear his ancestor's name. To do this, he believes he must first prove the existence of an ancient Mayan "City of Gold". The theory is that Lincoln's enemies on the Confederate side of the Civil War sought to find this city and use its riches to finance their army. Without the treasure, the Confederate army had no hope of winning the war. Ben believes his great grandfather, also a treasure-seeker, knew the location of the City of Gold.

"The debt all men pay." The answer to Thomas's riddle decoded the first set of clues for Ben. If you haven't seen the film already, I'll give you a hint to the riddle's answer: there's a similar quote in a real book--a book much more important, much more exciting in its revelations than the secret book of the U.S. presidents shown in the movie. The book, which contains all the answers to the secrets of life, is the Holy Bible, and my clue to you is from Romans 6:23:

"The wages of sin is _ _ _ _ _;"

Belief in this Bible truth unlocks the way to real treasure. The illumination of the treasure follows in the very same verse:

" . . . but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Grasp that treasure and marvelous adventures begin.

Holy Bible, photo by L. Trecroce