Posted on 11/28/2004 4:42:56 PM PST by Quix
NOTE: If I know anything about the rabid naysayers on FR, at least some of the RELIGIOUS [vs spiritual] types will wail and rant that ANYTHING having to do with numbers and The Bible has to be crossing the line into dealing with Biblically forbidden NUMEROLOGY. This is nonsense. The dictionary definition of “numerology” makes clear that numerology is the study of numbers, as the figures designating the year of one’s birth, “to determine their supposed influence on one’s life, future, etc.” [Quix color, bold emphasis on the definition from:
HERE: http://www.infoplease.com/ipd/A0562554.html
Clearly, the Biblically prohibited issue is INTEREST IN, TRUST IN, FASCINATION IN, FAITH IN A SUPERNATURAL OCCULTIC CONNECTION, PHENOMENA OR DYNAMIC rather than Faith in God.
Please note also, I didn’t go back and insert the italics codes for the rather many italicized words. Sorry. Have other priorities today, too. As usual, the color bolded is my emphasis.
CHAPTER 12 excerpt for fair use discussion from
The Signature of God
By Grant R Jeffery
The Book has many chapters of impressive study and research including photos from Sinai Peninsula re Moses’ led crossing at the EXODUS etc. I encourage people to buy and read the whole book. It’s well worth the time. NOTE: Jeffrey uses Hebrew Letters in the text. I’ve forgotten my Hebrew alphabet and certainly don’t know how to post them. If someone can clue me in (listing the Hebrew alphabet with the letter’s names in English letters—as well as how to post the Hebrew), I’ll see what I can do, later.
The Mathematical Signature of God in the Words of Scripture
The Scriptures reveal God as the great mathematician who knows the smallest detail of His creation, and measures and numbers all things. This character of God is consistent with the revealed phenomenon of staggering complexity involving mathematical patterns within the text of the Scriptures. The Bible declares that God is so concerned with the details of His children's lives that He has numbered the hairs on our head. "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matthew 10:30). The prophet Isaiah speaks of His majesty and His concern for numbering and measuring all things [paragraphing added by Quix]:
"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?" (Isaiah 40:12, NKjv). When you consider the Bible's declaration that God "measured the waters," "measured heaven with a span," and "calculated the dust of the earth in a measure," it does not seem unusual or out of character that this same Almighty God would inspire His writers to record His precise message to mankind in the Scriptures with a mathematical precision within the original text that surpasses our ability to understand fully.
Evidence of Divine Authorship of the Old Testament
Ivan Panin was one of the most remarkable Christians to live in this century. Almost one hundred years ago, this fascinating and famous mathematician left Russia to settle eventually in Canada in the town of Aldershot, Ontario, not far from where I live. Although he was a committed atheist in his early years, he discovered the reality of Jesus Christ later. In 1890, Panin embarked on an exciting journey of scientific exploration of the text of the Bible that would prove that the Bible is truly the inspired Word of God. This century has witnessed a progressive abandonment of the doctrine of verbal inspiration of the Scriptures by many biblical scholars and religious leaders. As the leaders of many mainline churches succumbed to the continuous assaults on fundamental doctrines and the authority of Scripture, many Christian laymen began to lose their confidence that they could absolutely trust that the Bible was truly the inspired Word of God. As Ivan Panin wrote, "In the early centuries Christianity suffered most from its avowed enemies; in the last, from its professed friends."
Panin completed an astonishing study during the ^•'course of fifty years that revealed the most amazing mathematical pattern beneath the surface layer of the text of the Bible. He worked diligently up to eighteen hours a day for half a century to illustrate the divine inspiration and authority of Scripture. As one small example, Panin discovered that the first verse of the Book of Genesis contains an astonishing number of mathematical patterns that illustrate divine inspiration. “ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth (Genesis 1:1).
The phenomenon of these mathematical patterns cannot be understood until we realize that the Bible was composed in alpha-numeric languages—Hebrew and Greek. These ancient languages did not possess Arabic numbers to express numeric data. Therefore, these languages used various letters of their alphabet to express numbers such as " 1,2,3," etc. In addition, a small portion of the Bible was written in Aramaic, which is also alpha-numeric. Each letter in these languages stood for a number. -In other words, each of the letters expressed both a letter and a number. When they wished to express a number, such as 22, they would choose two Hebrew letters—one letter [HEBREW LTR] stood for 20 and the second letter [HEBREW LTR] stood for 2.
The first letter of the Hebrew alphabet stood for 1, the second for 2, the third for 3, etc. When we come to the eleventh letter, it represented 20, the twelfth stood for 30, etc., all the way through to 800. Because each letter had a numeric value, every word can be given a numeric value by adding up the total value of each of the individual letters. In addition, every one of the Hebrew and Greek letters was given a place value as well. To help illustrate this phenomenon let's apply this system to the English language. It would look like this:
An Example Illustrated in the English Language
The Hebrew Language
Note that in the above example using the English alphabet the first ten letters have the same place values and numeric values. However, when we get to the eleventh letter K, the numeric value begins to increase by ten with each additional letter until we reach the value of 100. From that point in the alphabet forward the numeric value of each letter will increase by 100.
Every single word in Hebrew contains a series of letters with individual numeric values. For example, the word B'raisheet, "beginning," is expressed in Genesis 1:1 in Hebrew as [HEBREW LETTERS]. If you add up the total value of the individual letters in B'raisheet the numeric value of the word is 913. Since each word has a numeric value, we can add up the value of each of the words in a biblical verse to determine the numerical value of the sentence.
The Astonishing Pattern of SEVENS in Genesis 1:1
Let us begin by examining the first verse of the Bible to explore Panin's discovery.
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1)
[Genesis 1:1 in Hebrew]
Ivan Panin carefully examined the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:1 and discovered an incredible phenomenon of multiples of 7 that could not be explained by chance. Genesis 1:1 was composed of 7 Hebrew words containing a 28 letters. Throughout the Bible, the number 7 appears repeatedly as a symbol of divine perfection—the 7 days of creation. God rested on the 7th day, the 7 churches, the 7 seals, the 7 trumpets, etc. In total, Panin discovered 30 separate codes involving the number 7 in this first verse of the Bible.
A Listing of the Phenomenal Features of Sevens Found in Genesis 1:
1. The number of Hebrew words.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
2. The number of letters equals 28 (28-4= 7) . . . . . Seven
3. The first three Hebrew words translated
“In the beginning God created” contain
14 letters (14 / 2 = 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Seven
4. The last four Hebrew words "the heavens
and the earth" have 14 letters (14-2=7) . . . . . . . .Seven
5. The fourth and fifth words have 7 letters . . . . . Seven
6. The sixth and seventh words have 7 letters . . . . .Seven
7. The three key words: God, heaven, and earth have 14 letters (14 / 2 = 7). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Seven
8. The number of letters in the four remaining s
words is also 14 (14 / 2 = 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
9. The middle word is the shortest with 2 letters.
However, in combination with the word to the
Right or left it totals 7 letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Seven
10. The numeric value of the first, middle,
(and last letters is 133 (133 / 19 = 7) . . . . . . . .. . . Seven
11. The numeric value of the first and last letters
of all seven words is 1,393 (1,393 - 199 = 7) Seven
When professors on the mathematics faculty at Harvard University were presented with this biblical phenomenon, they naturally attempted to disprove its significance as a proof of divine authorship. However, after valiant efforts these professors were unable to duplicate this incredible mathematical phenomenon. [QX PARAGRAPHING ADDED HERE]
The Harvard scientists used the English language and artificially assigned numeric values to the English alphabet. They had a potential vocabulary of over 400,000 available English words to choose from to construct a sentence about any topic they chose. [QX paragraphing added here]
Compare this to the limitations of word choices in the biblical Hebrew language, which has only forty-five hundred available word choices that the writers of the Old Testament could use. Despite their advanced mathematical abilities and access to computers the mathematicians were unable to come close to incorporating 30 mathematical multiples of 7 as found in the Hebrew words of Genesis 1:1.
If anyone doubts the difficulty of producing a passage following such an intricate pattern of sevens, I challenge you to try it yourself. I have tried, and it is impossible to complete a paragraph on any topic and remain true to the system of interlocking sevens. I doubt that anyone could complete a paragraph of over one hundred and fifty words following such a pattern of sevens, as found in Genesis 1:1 and Matthew, chapter 1, even if they were to devote several years to the effort. [QX added paragraphing, here].
The problem is that with the addition of every I fit single word and sentence the magnitude of the challenge to integrate the new phrase into the existing pattern grows geometrically. Each word and sentence must fit into the pattern existing within me preceding sentences. [Qx added paragraphing here].
In light of this virtual impossibility we need to remember that the writers of the Bible were forty-four mostly common men who wrote their individual texts separated from one another over a period of sixteen centuries. How could these ordinary men contribute to this hidden pattern without consultation when most of them never met their fellow authors? The only logical explanation is that God directed their minds through supernatural INSPIRATION TO WRITE His precise inspired words.
The number "seven" permeates the totality of Scripture because the number speaks of God's divine perfection and perfect order. The actual number 7 appears 287 times in the Old Testament (287 - 41 = 7) while the word seventh occurs 98 times (98 - 14 = 7). The word seven-fold appearst seven times. In addition, the word seventy is used 56 times • (56 / 8 = 7).
Panin discovered literally thousands of such mathematical patterns underlying all of the books of the Old Testament before his death in 1942. I refer the interested reader to Panin's book. The Inspiration of the Scriptures Scientifically Demonstrated,
which discusses these phenomena extensively. Panin and others have examined other Hebrew literature and have attempted to find such mathematical patterns, but they are not found anywhere outside the Bible.
Matthew 1:1-17—Evidence of Divine Authorship of the New Testament
Panin also examined the New Testament to discover whether or not the pattern continued. There were four hundred years of silence between the completion of the Old Testament ft around 396 B.C., and the writing of the New Testament following the resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, when God inspired the New Testament authors, including Matthew, to begin writing the Gospels, He again manifested His signature on the pages of Scripture by creating a marvelously complex pattern of sevens beneath the text of Matthew's Gospel.
The first section in Matthew's account consists of seventeen verses from Matthew 1:1 to 1:17 that describe in•detail one particular subject, the genealogy of Jesus Christ. This seventeen-verse text contains 72 Greek Vocabulary words. A Vocabulary word is a particular word different from any other word that was used in a passage. In other words, a Greek word that appears 6 times in the passage would only be counted as 1 Vocabulary word. Obviously, the number of Vocabulary words will differ from the number of total words appearing in the passage. The same system of numeric and place values for letters exists in the Greek language used in the New Testament as we found in Hebrew of the Old Testament.
A Listing of the Phenomenal Features of Sevens Found in Matthew 1:1-17
1 The total numeric value of the 72 Vocabulary
words is 43,364 (42,364 - 6,052 = 7) . . . . . . . Seven
2 The number of Greek nouns in the passage
IS 56 (56 / 8 = 7)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
3 The Greek article for “the” occurs 56 times
(56 / 8 = 7)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
In the first eleven verses of Matthew 1:1-11 we find these additional features:
4 The number of Greek vocabulary words is 49
(49 / 7 = 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
5 Of these 49 words, 28 words begin with a vowel
(28 / 4 = 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Seven
6 Of these 49 words, 21 begin with a consonant
(21 / 3 = 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
7 The number of letters in these 49 words equals
266 (266 / 38 = 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
8 Of these 49 words, 35 words occur more than
one time (35 / 5 = 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
9 Of these 49 words, 14 words occur only one time
(14 / 2 = 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
10 The number of proper nouns is 35 (35/5=7) . . . . Seven
11 The number of times these proper nouns occur
is 63 (63 / 9 = 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
12 Of the 35 proper nouns, the number of
male names is 28 (28 / 4 = 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
13. Three women, Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth, are named
in this section. The number of Greek letters in
these three names is 7 (14 / 2 = 7) . . . . . . . . . Seven
Only a few of the numerical features that are found in this passage are listed in this analysis by Ivan Panin.
However, these features reveal an underlying profound mathematical design that reveals the signature of the true author of both the New Testament and the Old Testament— God Himself. However, to illustrate that this is not an unusual phenomenon occurring only in this one isolated passage, I will list some additional mathematical features that occur in the balance of Matthew 1:18-25 and describe the birth of Jesus Christ. In this seven-verse section God has placed an astonishing pattern of SEVENS that verify the signature of the original author.
The Pattern of SEVENS in Matthew 1:18-25—The History of Christ's Birth
1. The number of letters in the seven word
passage is 161 (161 -23=7) . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
2. The number of Vocabulary words is 77
. . . . (77-11=7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
3. Six Greek words occur only in this passage
. . . . . and never again in Matthew. These six
. . . . . .Greek words contain precisely 56 letters
. . . . . (56 - 8 = 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
4. The number of distinct proper nouns in
. . . . . the passage is 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
5. The number of Greek letters in these seven
. . . . . .proper nouns is 42 (42 - 6 = 7) . . . . . . . . Seven
6. The number of words spoken by the angel to
. . . . . . Joseph is 28 (28 - 4 = 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
7. The number of Greek forms of words used in
. . . . . . this passage is 161 (161 - 23 = 7) . . . . . . . Seven
8. The number of Greek forms of words in the
. . . . . angel’s speech is 35 (35 / 5 = 7) . . . . . . . . . Seven
9. The number of letters in the angel's 35 forms
. . . . . of words is 168 (168 / 24 = 7) . . . . . . . . . . . Seven
This phenomenal discovery by Panin has been examined by numerous authorities and the figures have been verified. In total, Panin accumulated over forty thousand pages of detailed calculations covering most of the text of the Bible before his death. [Qx added paragraphing here]
These incredible, mathematical patterns are not limited to the number seven. There are numerous other patterns. These amazing patterns appear in the vocabulary, grammatical forms, parts of speech, and particular forms of words. They occur throughout the whole text of the Bible containing 31,173 verses. When you consider the amazing details of this mathematical phenomenon you realize that the change of a single letter or word in the original languages of Hebrew or Greek would destroy the pattern. Now we can understand why Jesus Christ declared that the smallest letter and grammatical mark of the Scriptures were preserved by God's hand: "For verily I say unto you. Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled” Matthew 5:18)
Naturally, the religious skeptics did not abandon their atheism in response to these incredible discoveries by Ivan Panin that revealed a staggering pattern of complexity hidden beneath the text of Scripture. After many skeptics had dismissed his research, Ivan Panin issued a public challenge through one of the major newspapers of the day, the New York Sun, in a letter to the editor on November 20, 1899, offering his detractors an opportunity to prove his research wrong if they could. [Qx added paragraphing here].
Panin issued his public challenge to some of the greatest atheist scholars of the day. "I herewith respectfully invite any or all of the following to prove that my facts are not facts: namely Messrs. Lyman Abbott, Washington Gladden, Herber Newton, Minot J. Savage, Presidents Eliot of Harvard, White of Cornell, and Harper of the University of Chicago, Professor J. Henry Thayer of Harvard, and Dr. Briggs, and any other prominent higher critic so called. They may associate with themselves, if they choose, all the contributors to the ninth edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, who wrote its articles on Biblical subjects, together with a dozen mathematicians of the caliber of Professor Simon Newcomb. [Qx added paragraphing here]
The heavier the calibre of either scholar or mathematician, the more satisfactory to ft me. They will find that my facts are facts. And since they are facts, I am ready to take them to any three prominent lawyers, or, better still, to any judge of the superior or supreme court, and abide by his decision as to whether the conclusion is not necessary that Inspiration alone can account for the facts, if they are facts. All I should ask would be that the judge treat the case as he would any other case that comes before him."
Despite his public challenge in the New York Sun, not one of these prominent men attempted to refute Mr. Panin's undeniable facts or to deal with the unavoidable conclusion that the evidence produced by Panin proved that the Bible was truly inspired by a divine intelligence. The critics could not refute these facts. The only thing they could do was to ignore them. [Qx added paragraphing here]
Were Mr. Panin's research and calculations wrong? If so, where? If they were correct, and if they are, then the evidence exists for all to see that God did truly inspire the words of Scripture. One of Panin's last challenges consisted of this argument. He wrote to his ''detractors: "Lastly, my argument can also be refuted by showing that even though my facts be true, my arithmetic faultless, and my collocation of numerics honest, that men could have written thus without inspiration from above."
However, any honest attempt to create a paragraph on any subject that will contain this astonishing pattern of mathematical features within the surface text will utterly fail. I doubt that even a modern Cray super-computer could produce a passage containing the "wheels within wheels" pattern of sevens as revealed in Genesis 1:1 or Matthew 1:1-25.
To date, no one has succeeded in duplicating the phenomenon produced by the biblical writers in ancient times.
What was Panin’s own view of the Scriptures after a lifetime of diligent study? He wrote the following statement in one of his essays after warning of the limitations of wisdom found in secular philosophy. "Not so, however, with The Book. For it tells of One who spake as men never spake, who was the true bread of life, that which cometh down from the heavens, of which if a man eat he shall never hunger." Ivan Panin's conclusion of the matter was the following challlenge.
"My friend of the world, whoso you are: Either Jesus Christ is mistaken or you are. The answer that neither might be is only evading the issue, not settling it. But the ages have decided that Jesus Christ was not mistaken. It is for you to decide whether you shall continue to be."
QX: AMEN! AMEN! AMEN! AMEN! AMEN! AMEN! AMEN!
PTL!
I'm still meditating on the wings in Revelation 4. It's one of those subjects wherein I have to concentrate on not approaching it mentally - so that any Truth which I am to know can be revealed. And it could be that I am not to see anything further at this time.
Exodus, on the other hand, instantly brings images in the Spirit - most all of which are figures (or "types") pertaining to spiritual Truth - heaven and earth - created ages past, present and future. But whether they are what you have in mind, I cannot say.
Wrong. A wonderful example of a false dichotomy.
The answer that neither might be is only evading the issue, not settling it.
Whoever wrote that sentence clearly doesn't understand simple English. It is not evading anything to suggest that the correct answer lies outside the two possibilities already mentioned.
But the ages have decided that Jesus Christ was not mistaken.
No, they haven't, but one is certainly free to think otherwise.
It is for you to decide whether you shall continue to be."
Yawn. The black crow flies at midnight.
I can try to guess that Grant would say 63 books is how many there are, 36 (12 x 3) in the Old Testament and 27(three cubed) in the New Testament. As for God telling us about it, I’m sure that there are still things undiscovered in the Bible that God did not tell us about.
I had time to read your link, the open letter to Jeffery Grant. I don’t think we are on the same page here. There is a numerical structure in scripture. I don’t make any claim as to the meaning of the structure, but we can develop the meaning of the numbers by the way that they are used
It is true that you can “discover” patterns everywhere if you look hare enough. You can also us statistical analyses to determine the probably if the patterns are random or “by design.”
The same thing is true with all the other information provided by Grant, et al. You either believe it or you don't. Your belief rests entirely on the authority of Grant, since it cannot be demonstrated conclusively from the divine Word.
As I see it there are several questions here; is there a numerical structure? Can it be demonstrated conclusively? If there is, who put is there God or man or chance? What is it for? Is it profitable? Here, lets look at the acrostics. The arguments that I use here are the same as for the numbers. Since it is in scripture, it is automatically profitable, and we can toss out the first question. Scripture does not tell us that the acrostics have meaning at all.
Psalm 119 is a regular acrostic. Every 8 verses begin with the same letter and there are 22 sections of 8 verses each, for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet, in alphabetical order of course.
I’m not real comfortable with using statistics or probability to interpret scripture, neither do I toss out common sense. The odds that this could happen accidentally are near zero. But they are not zero. But this is a “regular” acrostic, what about an irregular acrostic? I’ll be honest here, this is what drew me in. I know that even as difficult as Psalm 119 would be to write as an acrostic, it would be something that men could do.
When we ask the question, would God Write an acrostic we cannot be conclusive on our answer. But when we ask, would God write an acrostic with letters missing, it is a little more thought provoking. Was God unable to make all of the letters fit properly? This could be one reason few people credited God for the acrostics. The absence of one or more letters, occurs three times scripture. If men did this, we have no reason to pursue any meaning in it. But “all scripture is inspired by God.” Read what F. W. Grant said about one such case;
"In the ninth and tenth psalms, we find again an alphabetic structure, but this time with much more irregularity. Here, one alphabet runs through the two psalms, and unites them together. There are certain omissions which I need not dwell upon in the ninth psalm. The tenth begins regularly with the needed "L," But there it stops: from the second to the eleventh verse inclusive there is no trace of alphabet. Six letters are gone, although the six divisions representing them are there. Then with the twelfh verse, "Arise, O Lord," the alphabet begins again, and from this it goes on regularly to the end of the psalm. This tenth psalm has naturally been a cause of trouble to the commentators. They did not know what had become of the missing letters. There was an apparent confusion in it which did not seem as if it could be designed at all. Some have set it down to mere inability in the writer to carry out his plan all through. Some, with more reverence, have imagined an accident to the psalm in its transmission, and Bishop Horsley tried to rearrange the verses so as to get the alphabet in order, as he thought it must have been at first; but it would not yield itself to his management at all. Because the psalm as it stands is perfect, and the apparent disorder is designed. Can we interpret it? In measure, at least, beloved friends, I think we can.
The two psalms are connected in matter as in structure, and the common subject is, The day of the Lord, - God's triumph over the wicked in the last days. The tenth psalm takes up especially one wicked one, who comes into terrible prominence in the prophecies of those days. I need not speak more of him, for my purpose is not at all interpretation now, but I want you to notice that it is just the description of this wicked one which occupies the gap in this alphabetic structure of the psalm. Before it comes to him, there is regularity of structure. After the description of him is ended, there is regularity again. But when he is before the view, the order of the psalm is apparently destroyed. Beneath the surface it is still there: the six divisions answering to the letters are all there, although the letters themselves are absent; there is an apparent interruption of God's ways, - only apparent. Patiently He seems to endure the evil, - "keeping silence," as He Himself expresses it, - until the due time of judgment comes, the harvest-time for which all has been ripening. Then His purposes, never set aside, come into open light. How significantly the structure speaks here, and what order is in this disorder! But it is not only in the Psalms that we find such things as these."
The difficulty of writing an irregular acrostic that could not be tampered with is much more complicated. If some scribe was able to substitute words with the proper letters to complete the alphabet. It would probably be adopted as canon. Most people would assume a mistake had been corrected. Of course Scripture cannot be broken and God did not allow that to happen.
The point I’m trying to make here is that God does not tell us specifically what neat things that he has put into the book. I remember when my children were young, I enjoyed watching them figure things out. I believe that we get that nature from God, for we are created in his image. God smiles when we find the provisions that he has left for us to carry for a time and share with others. Did he tell us he would leave provisions or not? I’ll leave it for you to ponder. Ruth 2:16
Blessings
Seven
Thanks for posting that here, I'm working on HTML, but I'm pressed for time these days. I was blessed by 298 too!
Seven
And thank you for posting that excerpt concerning the irregularity in the Psalms. How fascinating.
I was immediately impressed that the structure is like a figure for the end of Revelation 13 and the beginning of Revelation 14. Here are the verses:
And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty [and] four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads. - Rev 14:1
My two cents … for what it’s worth.
Thahk you A-G. I have memorized much of the scripture, including Hebrews and Revelation and I have not seen that before. "Chapter 14" may have got in the way. It does reinforce my tagline though. Seven
I'm not a naysayer, but I normally stay away from Numerology topics because many people use this topic to try to predict when our Lord will return. They will always be wrong.
I do want to thank you for posting this. My daughter has been witnessing to her cousin for two years and the cousin 'thinks' that she has scientifically proven that there is no God. She keeps coming back and is getting closer, so this might be a good article to give her. Thank you.
Please pray for my family.
You're shocked that I think someone's *opinion* on the "mathematical signature of God" is unimportant compared to everything we are exhorted to do in the New Testament?
P.S. Be careful how you judge as "earnestness".
Correction:
P.S. Be careful how you judge "earnestness".
Thank you for posting, and agreed.
What really bothers me here is that it was evident from the first post that some feel if one does not agree with this "mathematical signature" theory, one is a "naysayer" or "not earnest". Or in other more honest words: "incorrect", "without faith", "sinning", "un-Christian", whatever.
That's very dangerous and truly wrong mentality to take.
Being an Atheist I might not understand, but what the hell is it that makes believers want to provide proof that their faith is true? Doesn't that nullify the whole point of faith?
I don't need it, either. There must be better things to do out there.
It's one thing . . .
--for a trobriand islander to have faith that his ancester has become a shark because tradition teaches him that.
--for a island's people to have faith in the cargo cult belief that whites will again come with airplanes loaded with gooies because they once did.
--in the Resurrection of Jesus The Christ who was born; lived; died and rose again precisely according to (depending on one's count) 30-100 specific predictions made more than 400 years before His birth; who was observed running around loose eating, teaching, socializing by more than 500 witnesses--many of whom were alive when key narratives were written down and distributed within 30-50 years of the events.
Blind, psychotic faith in a sky hook is one thing.
Discerning, informed, studied faith built on a solid foundation of sound, multiple sourced, verified evidence is something else.
It's one thing . . .
--for a trobriand islander to have faith that his ancester has become a shark because tradition teaches him that.
--for a island's people to have faith in the cargo cult belief that whites will again come with airplanes loaded with gooies because they once did.
--in the Resurrection of Jesus The Christ who was born; lived; died and rose again precisely according to (depending on one's count) 30-100 specific predictions made more than 400 years before His birth; who was observed running around loose eating, teaching, socializing by more than 500 witnesses--many of whom were alive when key narratives were written down and distributed within 30-50 years of the events.
Blind, psychotic faith in a sky hook is one thing.
Discerning, informed, studied faith built on a solid foundation of sound, multiple sourced, verified evidence is something else.
It's one thing . . .
--for a trobriand islander to have faith that his ancester has become a shark because tradition teaches him that.
--for a island's people to have faith in the cargo cult belief that whites will again come with airplanes loaded with gooies because they once did.
--in the Resurrection of Jesus The Christ who was born; lived; died and rose again precisely according to (depending on one's count) 30-100 specific predictions made more than 400 years before His birth; who was observed running around loose eating, teaching, socializing by more than 500 witnesses--many of whom were alive when key narratives were written down and distributed within 30-50 years of the events.
Blind, psychotic faith in a sky hook is one thing.
Discerning, informed, studied faith built on a solid foundation of sound, multiple sourced, verified evidence is something else.
I think the naysayers have repeatedly over many threads
made their convictions abundantly clear.
If they wish to come across as exceedingly similar in content, tone, attitude to the RELIGIOUS leaders of certain dusty pathed days,
that's their business.
But I think it's worthwhile to note that.
Such stances don't seem to earn many brownie points with God.
I don't know for certain what an
individual heart
is set toward.
I merely observe the evidence. God only knows.
I don't want to judge hearts.
The evidence certainly seems strongly and repeatedly to indicate a certain sort of hazardous attitude, stance, repeated perspective
which I have found, having had the same attitude and perspective plenty of years
to be very hazardous in my relationship with God.
It would not be loving for me to fail to warn about that.
The Religious leaders of Jesus dusty pathed days were exceedingly earnest--toward the wrong goals.
Happy to pray for your family.
This book chapter has nothing to do with numerology or I would not have posted it. It is right to be avoidant toward numerology.
Thanks for your kind post.
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