Apprehension about Biblical Numbers – wonder and fear Numerology?

Virtually everyone I know, including myself at one time, has significant apprehension about investigating the Bible's numbers. The occult's misuse of numbers for thousands of years has people fearing they might be dragged off by evil if they even dare to begin examining the Bible with numbers in mind. At the same time, I think many people suppose the numbers in biblical text have some symbolism, but since they have really never been clearly explained, they are largely dismissed  as unimportant to Bible study. Can you imagine how happy Satan must be that he has good people running from one of the most helpful tools for understanding scripture? He's done a great job over the years of making sure we would not believe the concepts of the Bible's numbers should they ever be uncovered.

I think most people that have looked at a few of my writings about biblical numbers are at first surprised at how believable some of the examples are. The many evidences I present are quite compelling and should make the average person wonder if it is truly possible - how could the middle chapter of the Bible be the shortest and only two verse chapter? (Ps 117); how could John 3, home of John 3:16, just happen to be the 1000th chapter of the Bible?; how could maybe the most intense verse of the Bible on forgiveness of sin just happen to be the 17777th Bible verse? Isaiah 6:7  "… your sin is forgiven…".  Before our taboos take over and we catch ourselves wondering if this could be God's work – everything in us says it couldn't be true. It cannot be argued - everything we know about the Bible's creation declares, from our human perspective, the structure of the Bible and its numbers cannot be perfect. That's what I once thought, but the preponderance of evidence eventually overwhelmed my disbelief. The impossible appears to have happened. It should be no surprise…have you seen this Bible verse…

Jerimiah 32:27 "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?" (the 777th chapter)

My learning process…More than ten years ago now I began to catch glimpses of number patterns in the Bible because that's what my mind does - I'm one of those people that dosen't learn and understand things the same way others do. I have a diagnosed learning disability which includes, among other things, a truly terrible memory.  Like others with learning disabilities, it does not say we are not as smart as others, but rather that we learn differently. I suppose my brain has had to adapt to learn in different ways and those ways seem to allow me to notice patterns in things that others don't typically see. Anyway, for whatever reason, Long ago I began to notice what appeared to be patterns between the Bible's numbers in the text, and the meanings in the text itself. At first I did not believe what I was seeing - I would dismiss example after example until about three years went by and I could not dismiss what I saw any longer. As a course of normal Bible study, they were popping off the page too often to be by chance. It's been more than ten years now, and ever so gradually I've put together pieces of how the numbers fit and how they relate to the text. That's what my website and other writings are about.

So what do I believe about the Bible and it's numbers?

Matt 5:18 "For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

I suppose many of us have wondered about the verse at Matthew 5:18 that declares the perfection of God's Word. A verse that says God's word is perfectly inspired and preserved by him. While most of us believers will agree and declare God's inspiration of his word, we then go on to teach it as if it's not inspired. We are continually trying to sort out what we don't understand through our own human thought, and then try to read things into what the original author must have meant. Our excuse - very often we dismiss this verse by saying the original manuscripts may have been perfect,  but we don't know if our Bible truly reflects the original writings. Others of us simply imagine the concept of inspiration to be a more general than specific revelation of God's thoughts.

Ask yourself…God said he would preserve his word – do we think that the creator of the universe cannot create and preserve one single book he left for us? I think most of us would never think that, but the question is…did he?

I believe God worked through the pens of men to create a perfect Bible and I cannot imagine men were aware of the level of perfection they were involved in recording. I believe, through men, God wrote every book of the Bible; caused the exact books he desired to be selected, ordered and brought together in exactly the manner and time he desired; and every book, chapter, and verse were numbered from the beginning and then God insured they were perfectly added to the printed word when the time was right. For myself – I know without any doubt this is true. How? The numbers reveal a perfect DNA like alignment with the text of scripture that cannot be denied once you observe it. The perfection of numbers mathematically confirms the preciseness of God's Word. Of thousands of examples I've documented, the two most easy to explain and comprehend are verses at Ruth 4:9 and Matthew 24:42.

Ruth 4:9 an amazing intersection of text and numbers…
Ruth 4:9 is a key verse where Boaz declares the people in front of him are "witnesses" that he has paid the price and purchased back Naomi and her possessions, including Ruth - A picture of Jesus redeeming his people with the price of his blood. I believe this very important verse has been supernaturally highlighted with God's numbers so that at the appropriate time, we could observe his perfection for ourselves. To explain this perfection of numbers - this is the 7200th verse of the Bible; the 72nd verse of  Ruth; in the 236th chapter (2x36=72); has a verse reference of 4:9 (4x9=36, x2=72) and most importantly, the theme of the text about "witnessing" is perfectly aligned with the #72 found throughout scripture to be associated with the same theme. How do we associate the number 72 and witnessing? There's too much evidence for this to explain here, but consider these related facts; the 2700th Bible verse (strongly related to #72) speaks of the ark of the testimony which is a witness to God. This verse at Exodus 39:35 simply says "the ark of the testimony and its poles and the mercy seat;" – a direct correspondence of text and number meaning at a precise and somewhat curious cross Bible verse number.  Another strongly 72 related verse is the 7700th verse of the Bible at 1Samuel 18:23. In gematria, the number 77 can be seen as two sevens (27),  or seven twice (72). In this verse Saul's servants testify to David "Behold, the king delights in you, and all his servants love you; now therefore, become the king's son-in-law.' " – another testimony to the sonship of David and alusion to Jesus, being the son of God. Is it beyond the probability of chance all these things line up accidentally.

Matthew 24:42 a second incredible intersection of text and numbers…
The 24,000th verse of the Bible appears supernaturally highlighted so that we might one day see God's perfection in his word and take in the impact of the importance of this specific message – The Lord will return – be truly on the alert for this day. There are an impossible six different levels of intersection with this verse's position in the Bible, the numbers related to this position, and the text that corresponds to the numbers. The six different numerical intersections are; 1) this is the 24,000th verse of the Bible; 2) is found in the 24th chapter; 3) in a chapter about the "DAY" of the Lord's return; 4) a day has 24 hours; 5) this verse is specifically about being on the alert for this DAY and says "Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming"; and 6) this is the 42nd verse of Matthew 24 and #42 is simply the digits for the #24 in reverse order. The laws of probability say the chances of these six different intersections occuring at one single verse location is billions to one. An impossibility in the scientific sense.

These two examples tell us - even though our mind cannot conceive this DNA like perfection of the Bible is even remotely possible (and no one would disagree), these and thousands of other examples of such number alignments declares it is so. We are faced with a difficult question – do we believe what we imagine to be true, or do we believe the numbers and the Matthew 5:18 declaration by God himself that his word is perfect. I believe any scientist that truly studies these facts cannot conclude anything other than perfection.

Why? Even if this perfection does exist, why does it matter to the average person?
There's too many different values to knowing the Bible's Redemption Pattern and Numeric Map to go into here, so I will just mention a couple of the most obvious ones. First, it confirms without any doubt the Bible's Old Testament and New Testament are two inseparable parts of one God authored book. If you are a Jew, this is a shocking statement - The same exact supernatural number patterns that are found in the Torah are also found in the New Testament. As a general believer, if you wonder if the Bible is accurate, you need not wonder any more. Secondly, the numbers in the Bible are as much a part of the text of scripture as the text itself. I believe the numbers are a type of Numeric Map to the text of the Bible. If you understand the numbers, then you can better understand the text because perfectly consistent themes are always associated with the same verifiable numbers. Another way of saying this is - The text associated with numbers help us understand number themes and the number theme associations, once you understand them, provide invaluable guides to interpreting the text.

Do I understand the numbers well?
One last comment…I hope no one thinks I claim to have a good understanding of God's Numbers, any more than I have a good understanding of God's Word. His word has proven over history to be a mystery of mysteries – we will never fully comprehend it. The numbers are the same – we can learn from them and use them, but I would never claim to have an "understanding" of them. I have simply observed the tip of the iceberg of a pattern that will forever reveal more secrets of God, as long as we continue to study it. I should add, although I cannot declare this with certainty, I strongly suspect God has allowed me to see these things so I can tell others. I don't think I'm any more perceptive than the millions of people who have already studied God's word for thousands of years, so I don't think this happens to be a discovery we just now stumbled over. I like to think that God has all along planned when and how these secrets would be revealed, and now is apparently that time.

I hope this all makes sense,
Norm Patriquin – May 2010